In verses 1-8: Life in the Spirit.
In verse 1: No condemnation: Those in Christ no longer feel doomed (Jn 5.24).
In verse 2: God's life giving Spirit unleashed in Christ becomes a liberating law, replacing Moses law that sin uses to produce death (7.5, 11).
In verses 3-4: By sending Christ as a sin offering, God met the requirement of the law (Lev 4-5).
Recognizing what the law ... could not do, however, God dealt with human sin (sin in the flesh) with a human sacrifice (in the likeness of sinful flesh).
In verses 5-8: Faith and the Spirit represent opposing outlooks, with different lifestyles and consequences; death versus life and peace (Gal 5.16-26).
In verses 9-11: God, Christ, Spirit.
Paul now uses the plural form of you (8.2).
His main focus may be group rather than individual identity.
In verse 9: Having the Spirit of Christ becomes the distinguishing mark of Christian identity.
In verse 10: If Christ is in you: Christ's pattern of "dying and rising" becomes a part of us (Gal 2.19-20).
Our body may be mortal because of Adam's sin, yet our spirit lives because of God's righteousness shown through Christ (5.18).
In verse 11: God's Spirit living within us links our experience of the risen Christ with our hope of resurrection life.
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