“What the law could not do in that it was weak through the flesh, God did by sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, on account of sin: he condemned sin in the flesh” (Rom. 8:3).

The Lord Jesus took the same flesh and blood, the same human nature, that we have,-flesh just like our sinful flesh. And because of sin, and by the power of the Spirit of God through the divine mind that was in Him, [He] “condemned sin in the flesh.”

Therein is our deliverance. Therein is our victory. “Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus” (Phil. 2:5). “I will give you a new heart and put a new Spirit within you” (Eze. 36:26).

Do not be discouraged at the sight of the sinfulness of the flesh. It is only in the light of the Spirit of God, and by the discernment of the mind of Christ, that you can see so much sinfulness in your flesh. And the more sinfulness you see in your flesh, the more of the Spirit of God you have.

This is a sure test.

Then, when you see sinfulness abundant in you, thank the Lord that you have so much of the Spirit of God that you can see so much sinfulness. And know of a surety that when sinfulness abounds, grace much more abounds in order that “ as sin reigned in death, even so grace might reign through righteousness to eternal life through Jesus Christ or Lord” (Rom. 5:21).

While knowing the law, we are united in marriage to sin. This sin is in our flesh, since they who are married are one flesh…But sin has in it death; for “the sting of death is sin” (1 Cor. 15:56)…What a terrible condition!

[But] there is no condemnation to them which are in Christ. Why? Because He received the curse of the law, that the blessing might come on us. Nothing can come to us while we are in Him, without first passing through Him; but in Him all curses are turned to blessings, and sin is displaced to righteousness. 

E.J. Waggoner, Waggoner on Romans, pp. 124,126