“For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh:”
For what the law was powerless to do because it was weakened by the flesh, God did by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh to be a sin offering. — The νόμος (nomos, "law") is ἀσθενής (asthenēs, "weak") not inherently but ὑπὸ τῆς σαρκός (hypo tēs sarkos, "by reason of the flesh"—human incapacity). God's remedy was eschatological: sending his own Son, in ὁμοιώματι σαρκὸς ἁμαρτίας (homoiōmati sarkos hamartias, "likeness of sinful flesh"), as a περὶ ἁμαρτίας (peri hamartias, "sin offering"). Jesus took on flesh like ours (though sinless) to bear the judgment sin deserved.
Church Fathers on Romans 8:3
“For what the Law could not do,” he says, “in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh.” Again, he seems indeed to be disparaging the Law. But if any one attends strictly, he even highly praises it, by showing that it harmonizes with Christ, and gives preference to the same things. For he does not speak of the badness of the Law, but of “what it could not do;” and so again, “in that…
Nicene & Post-Nicene / Ante-Nicene Fathers translations · public domain
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