[THERE IS] THEREFORE NOW NO CONDEMNATION: Ouden ara nun katakrima: (Ro 4:7-8; 5:1; 7:17,20; Jn 3:18,19; 5:24;) (5 Hymns with words "no condemnation" at Cyberhymnal)

Romans 8 beautifully begins with "no condemnation," and it marvelously ends with no separation (see note Romans 8:39) for those who are in Christ Jesus. One of the key words of Romans 8 is "Spirit" (especially in the first 27 verses) occurring some 20 times not including numerous pronouns ("Who").

Is eternal security an issue that troubles you dear reader? Then let the word of Christ in Romans 8 richly dwell within you and you will come to appreciate and appropriate that "in Christ Jesus" you are safe and secure now and forever!

If you are reading Romans 8:1 in the KJV (translated from the Greek Textus Receptus) you will note the added phrase

"who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit."

The Nestle-Aland and Westcott and Hort Greek texts do not consider this phrase as legitimate.  It is probable that a copyist inadvertently picked up the phrase from Romans 8:4 which has the identical wording.

Can you see how this additional phrase leads to a slightly different interpretation of "no condemnation"? Paul is not basing his declaration of no condemnation upon our conduct, but upon our position (in Christ). While it is true that those who are in Christ should not and do not consistently walk according to the flesh, this is not a condition for their status of "no condemnation" and for that we are thank our merciful Father for the wisdom and perfection of His plan of salvation.

The Net Bible also adds this note:

"The earliest and best witnesses of the Alexandrian and Western texts have no additional words for v1. Both the external evidence and the internal evidence are completely compelling for the shortest reading. The scribes were obviously motivated to add such qualifications (interpolated from v4), for otherwise Paul’s gospel smelled too much of grace."!

Dr Harry Ironside has an interesting thought on the variation in translations remarking that...

Careful students of the original text discover that the last part of Romans 8:1 in the King James version is an interpolation properly belonging to verse 4 [Romans 8:4 ]. The magnificent statement that opens Romans 8 - "There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus" - requires no qualifying clause. Our justification does not depend on our walk. Freedom from condemnation is given to all who are in Christ, and to be in Him means to be of the new creation. A glance at the Revised version or any critical translation will show that what I am pointing out is sustained by all the editors. It was man's innate aversion to sovereign grace, I am certain, that brought these qualifying words into the text of the King James version. It seemed too much to believe that freedom from condemnation depended solely on being in Christ Jesus and not on our walking after the Spirit. So it was easy to lift the words from verse 4 [Romans 8:4 ] into verse 1 [Romans 8:1 ]. But in verse 4 [Romans 8:4 ] they have their proper place for there Paul was writing of the state of the believer. In verse 1 [Romans 8:1 ] it is the question of standing that is under consideration. (Romans and Galatians (Ironside, Harry: Expository Commentaries)

The Christian’s war with sin does not end until he goes to be with the Lord. Nevertheless, there is still no condemnation-because the penalty for all the failures of this life (and who of us does not have many, yea, even many every day!) has been paid in full at Calvary. The holiest of believers are warned that, although they are no longer slaves to sin’s dominion, they will continually experience conflict with this old nature in this present life. The weakest of believers are promised that, although they still stumble and fall into sin’s power in their flesh, they will experience ultimate victory over sin in the life to come.

Moule offers a poignant introduction Romans 8 which because of its beauty and practicality is quoted at length. He writes...

here we find the secret that is to “stint the strife” which we have just witnessed, and which in our own souls we know so well. Here is the way “how to walk and to please God” 1Thessalonians 4:1), in our justified life. Here is the way how, not to be as it were the victims of “the body,” and the slaves of “the flesh,” but to “do to death the body’s practices” in a continuous exercise of inward power, and to “walk after the Spirit.” Here is the resource on which we may be forever joyfully paying “the debt” of such a walk; giving our redeeming Lord His due, the value of His purchase, even our willing, loving surrender, in the all-sufficient strength of “the Holy Ghost given unto us.”

Noteworthy indeed is the manner of the introduction of this glorious truth. It appears not without preparation and intimation; we have heard already of the Holy Ghost in the Christian’s life, Romans 5:5, 7:6. The heavenly water has been seen and heard in its flow; as in a limestone country the traveller may see and hear, through fissures in the fields, the buried but living floods. But here the truth of the Spirit, like those floods, finding at last their exit at some rough cliff’s base, pours itself into the light, and animates all the scene. In such an order and manner of treatment there is a spiritual and also a practical lesson. We are surely reminded, as to the experiences of the Christian life, that in a certain sense we possess the Holy Ghost, yea, in His fulness, from the first hour of our possession of Christ. We are reminded also that it is at least possible on the other hand that we may need so to realise and to use our covenant possession, after sad experiments in other directions, that life shall be thenceforth a new experience of liberty and holy joy. We are reminded meanwhile that such a “new departure,” when it occurs, is new rather from our side than from the Lord’s. The water was running all the while below the rocks. Insight and faith, given by His grace, have not called it from above, but as it were from within, liberating what was there.

The practical lesson of this is important for the Christian teacher and pastor. On the one hand, let him make very much in his instructions, public and private, of the revelation of the Spirit. Let him leave no room. so far as he can do it, for doubt or oblivion in his friend’s minds about the absolute necessity of the fulness of the presence and power of the Holy One, if life is to be indeed Christian. Let him describe as boldly and fully as the Word describes it what life may be, must be, where that sacred fulness dwells; how assured, how happy within, how serviceable around, how pure, free, and strong, how heavenly, how practical, how humble. Let him urge any who have yet to learn it to learn all this in their own experience, claiming on their knees the mighty gift of God. On the other hand, let him be careful not to overdraw his theory, and to prescribe too rigidly the methods of experience. Not all believers fail in the first hours of their faith to realise, and to use, the fulness of what the Covenant gives them. And where that realisation comes later than our first sight of Christ, as with so many of us it does come, not always are the experience and action the same. To one it is a crisis of memorable consciousness, a private Pentecost. Another wakes up as from sleep to find the unsuspected treasure at his hand — hid from him till then by nothing thicker than shadows. And another is aware that somehow, he knows not how, he has come to use the Presence and Power as a while ago he did not; he has passed a frontier — but he knows not when. In all these cases, meanwhile, the man had, in one great respect, possessed the great gift all along. In covenant, in Christ, it was his. As he stepped by penitent faith into the Lord, he trod on ground which, wonderful to say, was all his own. And beneath it ran, that moment, the River of the water of life. Only, he had to discover, to draw, and to apply.

Again, the relation we have just indicated between our possession of Christ and our possession of the Holy Ghost is a matter of the utmost moment, spiritual and practical, presented prominently in this passage. All along, as we read the passage, we find linked inextricably together the truths of the Spirit and of the Son. “The law of the Spirit of life” is bound up with “Christ Jesus.” The Son of God was sent, to take our flesh, to die as our Sin Offering, that we might “walk according to the Spirit.” “The Spirit of God” is “the Spirit of Christ.” The presence of the Spirit of Christ is such that, where He dwells, “Christ is in you.” Here we read at once a caution, and a truth of the richest positive blessing. We are warned to remember that there is no separable “Gospel of the Spirit.” Not for a moment are we to advance, as it were, from the Lord Jesus Christ to a higher or deeper region, ruled by the Holy Ghost. All the reasons, methods, and issues of the work of the Holy Ghost are eternally and organically connected with the Son of God. We have Him at all because Christ died. We have life because He has joined us to Christ living. Our experimental proof of His fulness is that Christ to us is all. And we are to be on the guard against any exposition of His work and glory which shall for one moment leave out those facts. But not only are we to be on our guard; we are to rejoice in the thought that the mighty, the endless work of the Spirit is all done always upon that sacred Field, Christ Jesus. And every day we are to draw upon the indwelling Giver of Life to do for us His own, His characteristic work; to show us “our King in His beauty,” and to “fill our springs of thought and will with Him.” (Moule, C. G. The Epistle of St Paul to the Romans. Ages)

Earlier Paul had written...

"BLESSED ARE THOSE WHOSE LAWLESS DEEDS HAVE BEEN FORGIVEN, AND WHOSE SINS HAVE BEEN COVERED. "BLESSED IS THE MAN WHOSE SIN THE LORD WILL NOT TAKE INTO ACCOUNT." (see note Romans 4:7-8)

Therefore having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ (see note Romans 5:1)

John quotes Jesus' declaration that...

"He who believes in Him is not (absolutely not) judged (krino = root of katakrino - see below); he who does not believe has been judged already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. And this is the judgment, that the light is come into the world, and men loved the darkness rather than the light; for their deeds were evil. (Jn 3:18,19)

As noted in the schematic above, clearly Romans 8 is closely connected with chapters six and seven. In Romans 6 believers are shown to be identified with Christ in His representative death to Sin  in the crucifixion of the old man which subsequently gave way to a walk in newness of life (Ro 6:4-6). In Romans 7, believers are shown to be identified with Christ in His representative death to the Law (Ro 7:4-6) . In Romans 8 we encounter the positive side of the two preceding chapters, for now we are introduced to the power Who can meet the two requirements, the Holy Spirit. Without the aid of the Holy Spirit we are slaves to indwelling sin.

As Cranfield explains

"The life promised for the man who is righteous by faith is, in the fourth place, described as a life characterized by the indwelling of the Spirit of God. The key word of this section is which, while it is used only five times in chapters 1 to 7 and eight times in chapters 9 to 16, occurs twenty-one times in chapter 8, that is, much more often than in any other single chapter in the whole New Testament. In the majority of its occurrences in Romans 8, it quite certainly denotes the Holy Spirit, and in two of them it clearly does not. In the remaining instances it is a matter of some controversy whether the reference is, or is not, to the Holy Spirit: in all of them, in our judgment, it is."

And so Johnson declares that Romans 8...

is also the great chapter on the Holy Spirit, Who supplies the dynamic for the new life created in believers by the new birth. Just as faith in Christ's work is indispensable for our justification, so faith in the power of the Spirit is indispensable for our sanctification. Since we have found peace with God by looking to the finished work of the Redeemer on the cross, we are now to find the peace of God by looking to His unfinished work on the throne, of which the Holy Spirit is the sign, seal, and executor. Cf. 2Cor 13:14 (grace from Christ is the channel, love from the Father the source, and the fellowship of the Spirit the means of God's ministry to us)...Romans eight, then, gives us a vivid picture of Who our Deliverer, the Lord Jesus Christ, uses in His deliverance of us from the power of indwelling sin. It is the Spirit of God Whom He uses to subdue the power of the flesh and give liberty for the fulfilling of the will of God in our lives. We turn now to the consideration of the liberty that the Spirit bestows. (Romans 8:1-4)

Godet connects Romans 8 with Romans 6 noting that in chapter 6 Paul...

 latter, the apostle had showed how the object of justifying faith, Christ justified and risen, becomes to the believer, who appropriates it, a principle of death to sin and life to God. But there it was yet nothing more than a state of the will, contained implicitly in the act of faith. That this new will may have the power of realizing itself in the life, there is needed a force from above to communicate to the human will creative efficacy, and overturn the internal and external obstacles which oppose its realization. This force, as the apostle now unfolds, is the Holy Spirit, by Whom Christ crucified and risen reproduces Himself in the believer (see note Philippians 3:10). .(Godet, F L: The Epistle of St Paul to the Romans)

Therefore (686) (ara) is an inferential particle (denoting logical inference) marking transition to what naturally follows from preceding. It can be translated so, then, consequently. Ara intimates that, under these circumstances something is so (no condemnation). Therefore means consequently and thus introduces a logical result or inference from what precedes. See also term of conclusion.

This combination of "ara nun" is used numerous times in Romans (Ro 5:18; 7:3, 25; 8:12; 9:16, 18; 14:12, 19). The two particles together strengthen each other and indicate a conclusion drawn with immediate force from what has just been said. Paul is making a contrast between the life of the man dominated by his human nature and the life of the believer under the control of God’s Spirit.

Now (3568) (nun) is more of a temporal marker (than an indicator of logical consequences) with focus on the moment, at the present time. No condemnation when? Right now and forever! This benefit was effected the moment you accepted Christ as your Savior. The "now"  contrasts the believer's new state with the old, which had passed away. Hallelujah!

S Lewis Johnson adds that

The "now" is probably temporal, but one cannot give it the force of the Arminian lady, who was giving her testimony and cried out, "I thank God I'm saved; I'm saved up to the present date!"  (Romans 8:1-4)

Haldane writes that the word "now"...

distinguishes two conditions of a man, namely, his condition under the law, and his condition under grace,—that is, his natural and his supernatural conditions. For by nature we are children of wrath, but now God has rendered us accepted in the Beloved. Being now in Christ, we are not under the curse of the law, because He has borne it for us In the moment in which we believed in Him, we were redeemed from its curse; we entered into another Covenant, in which there is nothing but grace and pardon. That there is now no condemnation to them that are in Him is according to our Lord’s declaration,

“Verily, verily, I say unto you, he that heareth My word, and believeth on Him that sent Me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation.”

It is often remarked that the Apostle does not say that there is in them which are in Christ Jesus neither matter of accusation nor cause of condemnation; and yet this is all included in what he does say. In themselves there is much indeed for both, but here they are viewed exclusively in Jesus Christ. Afterwards, in express terms, he denies that they can be either accused or condemned—which they might be, were there any ground for either. All that was commendable in them, which was sin, has been condemned in their Surety, as is shown in verse 3. (Haldane, R. An Exposition of Romans. ca 1839) 

In view of the fact that "therefore" leads us to expect some result that flows logically from the preceding text what specifically is Paul pointing back to by using this term of conclusion? Some say Paul draws a conclusion based on his survey of the entire preceding portion of the letter, but against that thought is his use of the phrase "in Christ" which would not be compatible with the preceding sections that do not describe one in union with Christ (e.g., Romans 1:18-3:20. Most commentators take Paul's introduction of this result, consequence or conclusion ("no condemnation") to be based on what he had just stated in the preceding text...

Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, on the one hand I myself with my mind am serving the law of God, but on the other, with my flesh the law of sin. (see note Ro 7:25)

R H Mounce comments that...

Romans 7:25 teaches that freedom from the power of the lower nature has been provided by God through the atoning work of Jesus Christ. Therefore there is no longer any condemnation at all for those who are “in Christ Jesus,” that is, who have been made one with Him by faith in His redemptive sacrifice. The just penalty incurred by the sins of the human race was paid by the death of Christ. The unfavorable verdict has been removed. Now all those who are in Christ are the beneficiaries of that forgiveness. It follows that if condemnation as an objective reality has been removed, there is no legitimate place for condemnation as a subjective experience. To insist on feeling guilty is but another way of insisting on helping God with our salvation. How deeply imbedded in human nature is the influence of works-righteousness! (Mounce, R. H. Romans: The New American Commentary. Broadman & Holman Publishers)

Wiersbe comments that...

“Romans 3:20 shows the ‘therefore’ of condemnation ("because by the works of the Law no flesh will be justified in His sight; for through the Law comes the knowledge of sin"); but Romans 8:1 gives the ‘therefore’ of no condemnation...The Law condemns; but the believer has a new relationship to the Law, and therefore he cannot be condemned.”

No (3762) (oudeis from oude in turn from ou = not + dé = but + heis = one) literally means "but absolutely not one". This negative thus denies absolutely and objectively the possibility in this case of condemnation by God. Not even one will ever be condemned to hell who is in Christ Jesus.

The literal rendering of Romans 8:1 is...

not even one therefore now adverse judgment and resultant punishment to those in Christ Jesus

Note the emphasis (by placing it first in the Greek sentence) on the negative, "not even one"!

Pritchard comments on this word order noting that...

When the New Testament writers wanted to emphasize a particular word, they would put it at the first part of the sentence. That was their way of saying, "This is important. Notice this. Pay attention to it." In the Greek the first word is not "therefore." The first word is not "there." The first word is not "is." The first word is not "now." The first word in this verse in the Greek is the word "no." The fifth word in our translation is first in the original because Paul wants to emphasize in the strongest possible way that there is no condemnation. That's why he took the word "no" and moved it to the front.

And it's not ou, but oude, which is an even stronger negation in the Greek language. There is therefore, no condemnation. You might translate it this way:

"There is no condemnation—none whatsoever—for the believer in Christ Jesus...

Do you know what that means? We may stumble, we may fall, we may trip, we may make a thousand mistakes, we may sin and we do, we may get off the path, we may go astray, we may have a thousand problems, but for the believer in Jesus Christ, there is, therefore now, no condemnation because God has said it is so. You can struggle, but you're not condemned. You can fall, but you're not condemned. You can trip, but you're not condemned. You can stray off the path, but you are not condemned because God has said He will not condemn those who are in Christ Jesus.

When Jesus saved you, he didn't say he would take away all your problems. No, but he did say this. In your problems, there is no condemnation. In your struggles, there is no condemnation, in your failure, there is no condemnation. In your going astray, there is no condemnation.

What does it mean, then? It means, number one, there is no rejection for the believer. God is not going to reject you just because you struggle. You're not a bad person just because you're having a hard time." (Romans 8) (Bolding added)

Condemnation (2631) (katakrima from katá = against, down + kríno = basic meaning was "to separate" from which the idea of discriminate, distinguish, and then to judge or pronounce sentence against) appears only in Romans, here and in Ro 5:16, 18.

The idea literally is of judgment coming down on someone. Paul says God’s judgment is not going to come down upon you, not now, not ever!  From the valley of despair and defeat of living under the Law in Romans 7, the apostle now climbs the heights with the triumphant shout, "No condemnation" because of the believer's justification by faith. Those in Christ are not condemned, because Christ was condemned in their stead. There is no punishment for them, because Christ bore their punishment.

It is notable that no condemnation is essentially the opposite of justification.

The word "condemnation" may also be translated "judgment." There is no judgment for those who are in Christ because sin has already been judged in the substitutionary atonement of Jesus.

Katakrima means to judge someone as definitely guilty and thus subject to punishment, which accounts for the literal translation of "adverse judgment and resultant punishment". It is a legal technical term for the result of judging, including both the sentence and the execution or the sentence followed by a suggested punishment (The suffix -ma makes it the result of judgment). Katakrima is always an adverse verdict. Stated another way, katakrima (condemnation) relates to the sentencing for a crime, but its primary focus is not so much on the verdict as on the penalty that the verdict demands.

F. F. Bruce paraphrases "there is no condemnation" as follows...

There is no reason why those who are in Christ Jesus should go on doing penal servitude as though they had never been pardoned and liberated from the prison house of sin. (Bruce, F F, The Epistle of Paul to the Romans: Tyndale Press, 1966)

NIDNTT notes that...

The noun katakrima, is first found in the 1st cent. B.C. with the meaning punishment, damnation. Its meaning in the Corpus Papyrorum Raineri (ed. 1895) is noteworthy: legal liability in respect of a piece of land...Divine condemnation, issuing, as the word implies, in damnation, is expressed by katakrima. (Brown, Colin, Editor. New International Dictionary of NT Theology. 1986. Zondervan)

S Lewis Johnson adds that

The "now" is probably temporal, but one cannot give it the force of the Arminian lady, who was giving her testimony and cried out, "I thank God I'm saved; I'm saved up to the present date!" The word, "condemnation," is not to be confused with the word judgment. It is the stronger word and refers to final judgment, that of eternal judgment. There is no condemnation for believers, although they still face the necessity of appearing before the judgment seat of Christ (cf. 2 Cor. 5:10). They are freed from condemnation, the condemnation of the Law of God, because their penalty has been paid by a substitute, the Lord Jesus Christ. They are also freed from bondage to sin by the Holy Spirit, a product of the payment of the penalty by Christ. (Romans 8:1-4)

As Paul has already declared, the penalty, or condemnation, for sin is death (see exposition of Romans 6:23) but here Paul announces the marvelous good news that for Christians there will be no condemnation, neither sentencing nor punishment for the sins that believers have committed or will ever commit. No sin a believer can commit - past, present, or future - can be held against him, since the penalty was paid by Christ and righteousness was imputed to the believer. And no sin will ever reverse this divine legal decision.

Reach my blest Savior first,
Take Him from God’s esteem;
Prove Jesus bears one spot of sin,
Then tell me I’m unclean.
—W. N. Tomkins

MacDonald notes that...

there is no need for the kind of self-condemnation which Paul described in chapter 7. We may pass through a Romans 7 experience, unable to fulfill the law’s requirements by our own effort, but we don’t have to stay there. (MacDonald, W., and Farstad, A. Believer's Bible Commentary: Old and New Testaments. Nashville: Thomas Nelson)

A T Robertson writing on "no condemnation" notes that...

As sinners we deserved condemnation in our unregenerate state in spite of the struggle. But God offers pardon “to those in Christ Jesus”. This is Paul’s Gospel. The fire has burned on and around the Cross of Christ. There and there alone is safety. Those in Christ Jesus can lead the consecrated, the crucified, the baptized life. (Greek Word Studies)

Hendriksen also feels that "no condemnation"

means freedom not only from sin’s guilt but also from its enslaving power. To be sure, a distinction must be drawn between justification and sanctification. But this distinction must never become a separation. Calvin has made this clear by stating, “As Christ cannot be divided, so also these two blessings which we receive together in him are also inseparable” (Institutes III, xi, 6). In line with this twofold reference of the words “no condemnation” is the phrase “in Christ Jesus.” What Paul is saying is that for those who not only forensically are in Christ Jesus—the guilt of their sins having been removed by his death—but also spiritually—the sanctifying influences of his Spirit dominating their lives, there is now (= consequently) no condemnation. For them there is justification and therefore salvation full and free...Justification and sanctification always go together. (