IN ORDER THAT THE REQUIREMENT OF THE LAW: hina to dikaioma tou nomou: (Gal 5:22-24; Eph 5:26,27; Col 1:22; Heb12:23; 1Jn 3:2; Jude 1:24; Rev 14:5)

Newell writes ...

Now in Romans 8.4 we have three things: first, this righteous state or result; second, the fact that it was not fulfilled by us - we have no more power in ourselves than had the Old Testament saints: but it is fulfilled in us - it is the passive voice: be fulfilled. Third, it is fulfilled in us as we consent to reject the flesh and choose to walk according to the Spirit. In the Spirit lies all the power. With us, the responsibility of choice - a blessed, solemn one! (Romans 8: Expository Notes Verse by Verse) (Bolding added)

In order that (2443) (hina) is a purpose statement (purpose clause) explaining the purpose of the death of Christ,  which is the fulfillment of the righteous requirement of the Law in believers (as summed up in Ro 13:9 "You shall love your neighbor as yourself" - see note on Ro 13:9), who walk after the Spirit

Requirement (1345) (dikaioma from dike = right) is primarily that which is deemed right, so as to have the force of law; hence an ordinance (an authoritative decree or direction, a law set forth by a governmental authority).

MacDonald explains the fulfilling of the requirement of the law noting that...

As we turn over the control of our lives to the Holy Spirit, He empowers us to love God and to love our neighbor, and that, after all, is what the law requires. (MacDonald, W., & Farstad, A. Believer's Bible Commentary: Old and New Testaments. Nashville: Thomas Nelson)

Wayne Barber comments that...

Jesus fulfilled the requirement. The word is dikaioma and has the idea of the acts of righteousness that the Law demands. In other words the character of God that is demanded in us now can be fulfilled in every one of us because the Holy Spirit of God has come to live in our life. On one hand the Law shouts at us "Thou shalt not, Thou shalt not"

And I say "Come on flesh, we've got to do this thing".

And the flesh says "No we can't."

And then you say "Well how am I going to do this Lord?"

And the Lord says "I fulfilled all of that already and I am in you. Now obey Me. In you is the fulfillment of everything I require by the Holy Spirit's power Who will work it out of you."

It is the character of God in us that is now being worked out in and through our lives. It is His righteousness not ours. And practical righteousness is what God demands and is the only thing which God can approve. You never could produce "righteous acts" in your own power (you could justify not yourself by works so why think you can sanctify yourself by your own efforts) but God can and He will if we obey the Holy Spirit's leading (Ro 8:14 Gal 5:16,18,25 ) in our life. The character and righteousness (right actions) of God that God requires is now fulfilled or accomplished in us by the power of His Spirit.

MIGHT BE (passive = external power = grace & Spirit) FULFILLED (satisfied, accomplished) IN US: plerothe (3SAPS) en hemin:

Moule asks rhetorically...

And what was the aim and issue (of sin being condemned in the flesh)? That the righteous demand of the Law might be fulfilled in us, us who walk not flesh-wise, but Spirit-wise; that we, accepted in Christ, and using the Spirit’s power in the daily “walk” of circumstance and experience, might be liberated from the life of self-will, and meet the will of God with simplicity and joy. (Moule, C. G. The Epistle of St Paul to the Romans. Ages)

Might be fulfilled (4137) (pleroo) (Click in depth word study on pleroo) The Law has certain righteous requirements (dikaioma). The Law demands and requires that a person live a righteous life of loving God (perfectly) and loving one’s neighbor (perfectly). How can I fulfill what the law requires? How can I fulfill the law? The Person and Power of the Holy Spirit makes this possible. Note carefully that Paul does not say the requirement is fulfilled "by us", it says "in us"! This is something God does in me by His power and by His Working and by His Spirit!

What God demands, we couldn't do. Therefore, what God demands, He supplies.

To run and walk the law commands
But gives me neither feet nor hands.
A better word, the gospel brings,
Bids me fly and gives me wings.

S Lewis Johnson comments...

The apostle has made it plain in chapter six and in chapter seven that, as Professor Bruce says,

"Christian holiness is not a matter of pains-taking conformity to the individual precepts of an external law-code; it is rather a question of the Holy Spirit's producing His fruit in the life, reproducing those graces which were seen in perfection in the life of Christ."

On the other hand, the believer is responsible to have produced in his life "the righteous requirement of the law." In other words, while he is not under the Law as a code, the Christian's life is to be such that the Law of Moses in its moral demands can find no flaw in that life. In other words, holiness is the goal of the incarnation, death, and resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ. Further, that holiness consists in the same righteousness that is fostered by the Law of Moses. And one final thing should be said: That holy life is the product of the Holy Spirit. That is suggested by the passive voice of the verb, "be fulfilled." The meeting of the righteous requirement of the Law is done by Another in us. The apostle by the words, "who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit," refers to the bent of life of the believer. He is the one who walks after the Spirit as the pattern of his life; service of sin does not characterize him (cf Ro 8:14-17).The word, "walk," is the best biblical terra for the believer's responsibility in the Christian life. It should be used rather than the word, "filled," which has a more specialized and limited force. (Romans 8:1-4)

What God demands He supplies, which means that in the midst of your struggle, victory is possible.

Wayne Barber adds that pleroo conveys...

"the idea of filling full, supplying fully, fill up what was otherwise empty. We are "empty" apart from the Spirit of God and unable in our own strength to do anything that God requires. For anything that comes out of me that manifests the holiness of God has to come from the One Who lives in me. All the righteous character of God can now be supplied fully in us because the Holy Spirit lives in us to produce conformity to the image of Christ as we "walk according to the Spirit". Therefore we are forever free from the condemnation of the Law because what the Law requires can now be produced in me because the Holy Spirit lives in me. This is the message of the so-called "Exchanged Life" - you can't - God never said you could - He can and He always said He would. In Christ (regenerated, saved) now we are free from the control (bondage) of the flesh (unless we choose to go back under it). In Adam (unregenerate, unsaved) we were totally under the control of the flesh."

Charles Hodge in his respected commentary explains that one's interpretation of verse 4...

"is determined by the view taken of Romans 8:3. If that verse means that God, by sending His Son, destroyed sin in us, then, of course, this verse must mean, “He destroyed sin in order that we should fulfill the law” — that is, so that we should be holy (sanctification). But if Romans 8:3 refers to the sacrificial death of Christ and to the condemnation of sin in Him as the sinners’ substitute, then this verse must refer to justification and not sanctification (Ed note: Click for discussion of Justified, Sanctified, Glorified). He condemned sin in order that the demands of the law might be satisfied. This is the view of the passage given by the majority of the early Fathers and by almost all evangelical interpreters, including the Reformers. (Ed note: this commentary was written in the early 1800's)" (Hodge, C.  Commentary on the Epistle to the Romans, 1835. The Crossway Classic Commentaries. Wheaton, Ill.: Crossway Books)

But what is the context of this section of Romans (Romans 6:1-8:39)? Does not this section of the letter deal primarily with sanctification or the practical outworking of our salvation? Clearly that is the thrust of these three great chapters 6-8. Notice also that the immediate context speaks of one's "walk" which is either according to the flesh or according to the Spirit. This description is clearly a reference to sanctification, which is counter to the majority view expressed by Hodge in the comment above.

The respected expositor John MacArthur also would disagree with the view expressed by Hodge, writing that...

"Paul obviously is not speaking here of the justifying work of salvation but of its sanctifying work, its being lived out in the believer’s earthly life. Apart from the working of the Holy Spirit through the life of a redeemed person, human efforts at righteousness are as contaminated and useless as filthy garments (Isa. 64:6). But because the Christian has been cleansed of sin and been given God’s own divine nature within him, he now longs for and is able to live a life of holiness." (MacArthur, J: Romans 1-8. Chicago: Moody Press)

John Piper agrees that this section is not a specific reference to justification but refers to sanctification and to a believer's walk in the power and fullness of the Holy Spirit:

"...some take this ("the requirement of the Law might be fulfilled") to mean that Christ fulfilled the law for us when He obeyed it perfectly and died as the perfect sacrifice on our behalf. In Him we are perfect with His perfection and in Him we are pardoned by His blood. Now I believe that is true. And it is foundational for everything. But I don't think that is the point of verse 4. And the reason I don't is that it won't fit the wording of the text. Verse 4 says the aim is "that the requirement of the Law might be fulfilled in us." It does not say that the law is to be fulfilled for us. That is true, I would say, from Romans 5:19. But that's not the point here. And then he focuses specifically on our walking, that is, our living, as the way the fulfillment will happen: "that the requirement of the Law might be fulfilled in us, who walk . . . according to the Spirit." (Romans 8:3-4)

Piper then asks the practical question...

"How do we fulfill the requirement of the law? And specifically how can any of my "walking" by the Spirit – which is always imperfect in this life – be said to "fulfill God's law which is holy and just and good. Since when does God's holy law and divine standard say, "Pretty good will do"?

Piper then goes on to enumerate what he calls "12 theses" to help us understand what "fulfilling the requirement of the law" looks like in real life...click for his discussion.

William Newell adds that the "requirement of the Law"...

"is fulfilled in us as we consent to reject the flesh and choose to walk according to the Spirit. In the Spirit lies all the power. With us, the responsibility of choice-a blessed, solemn one!" (William Newell. Romans Verse by Verse).

Warren Wiersbe adds that now...

"The believer lives a righteous life, not in the power of the Law, but in the power of the Holy Spirit. The Law does not have the power to produce holiness; it can only reveal and condemn sin. But the indwelling Holy Spirit enables you to walk in obedience to God’s will. The righteousness that God demands in His Law is fulfilled in you through the Spirit’s power. In the Holy Spirit, you have life and liberty (Romans 8:2) and “the pursuit of happiness” (Romans 8:4). The legalist tries to obey God in his own strength and fails to measure up to the righteousness that God demands. The Spirit-led Christian, as he yields to the Lord, experiences the sanctifying work of the Spirit in his life. “For it is God that worketh in you, both to will and to do of His good pleasure” (see note Philippians 2:12-13)" (Wiersbe, W: Bible Exposition Commentary. 1989. Victor)

So dear believer you must understand, believe and live out the truth that now you possess the power to reject those strong desires that come from the old corrupt Sin nature which is still in our mortal bodies. The basis for our new power is the New Covenant in which God has given each of us a new heart as explained in Ezekiel (in context referring primarily to Jews who would be saved by faith in Messiah but also applicable to all believers) where Jehovah declared:

"Moreover, I will give you  a new heart and put a new spirit within you; and I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh and I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes (God's empowerment), and you will be careful to observe My ordinances (our responsibility). (Ezekiel 36:26-27)

As believers we now possess a new heart which energizes a new motivation and desire to please God and to obey Him. Now we can do so because He has placed that desire in our new heart and given us the provision and power of His indwelling Holy Spirit. We have the power to satisfy commandments such as "love God and love your neighbor". We can fulfill these requirements by His power not because we try hard to "keep" the Law. If we try to "fulfill" the requirement of the law by our own human power, we will fail because the power of Sin (our old sin nature, the old Adam) lies in the LAW (cf "The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law" 1 Corinthians 15:56 and as Phillip's paraphrases it "While we were "in the flesh" the Law stimulated our sinful passions" -- see note Romans 7:5).

In summation, to fulfill the requirement of the Law is only possible as we rely on the Holy Spirit Who indwells every believer. The external, written code was unable to accomplish this requirement but, the Spirit is able to do so by writing the law on our hearts (Jeremiah 31:33 " this is the covenant which I will make with the house of Israel after those days," declares the LORD, "I will put My law within them, and on their heart I will write it...") and giving us the power to obey it. Now, walk by the Spirit!

WHO DO NOT WALK ACCORDING TO (controlled by) THE FLESH BUT (continually controlled by) ACCORDING TO THE SPIRIT: me kata sarka peripatousin (PAPMPD) alla kata pneuma:

Walk (4043) (peripateo from peri = around + pateo = tread) (Click for word study of peripateo) means literally to "tread around" but Paul's use here is as a figure of speech which refers to how one lives or passes their life. What is the habit of your life...in the direction of good or of evil (Ge 48:15, Ps 1:1, Isa 2:5, Mic 4:5, Eph 4:17, 1Jn 1:6-7)? That's what Paul is describing here. An unregenerate person cannot keep God’s holy law. It is impossible. Even a regenerate person who wants to keep the Law because of their new heart cannot keep the Law in their own strength.  The key is a Spirit-filled walk, admitting that "I cannot but He can!" If a person is walking according to the Spirit, then God is at work in Him producing a righteous life.

Robert Haldane explains that...

The expression, to “walk,” is frequently employed in Scripture regarding any particular line of conduct, as when it is said, Acts 21:21, “that they ought not to circumcise their children, neither to walk after the customs”; or it denotes the course of life in which we are proceeding as in Ephesians 2:2, “Ye walked according to the course of this world.” In this way, comparing our life to a journey, in the usual style of Scripture, the Apostle comprehends all our actions under the figure of walking. To walk, then, according to the flesh, is to act agreeably to the principles of corrupt nature. To walk according to the Spirit, means to regulate the conduct according to the influence and dictates of the Holy Spirit, who has given us a new nature, serving God in newness of spirit.

The expression, walking not according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit, in the verse before us, is generally interpreted as referring exclusively to the practice of good or of wicked works. It is supposed that the Apostle is here guarding his doctrine of gratuitous justification from abuse, by excluding all claim to union with Christ, and to exemption from condemnation, where there is not purity of conduct, under the influence of the Holy Spirit. This is undoubtedly a highly important truth, which is to be constantly affirmed and insisted on. Holiness of life and conversation is an inseparable concomitant of union with Christ; for to whom He is made righteousness He is also made sanctification, and they that are Christ’s have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts. Of this the Apostle never loses sight, not indeed in any point of view as the cause of that union, but as its never–failing consequence and concomitant, as he has abundantly proved in the sixth chapter. There are, however, many different paths in the broad way; that is, many ways of walking after the flesh, all of which lead to destruction. Among these, that of seeking acceptance with God by works of righteousness, either moral or ceremonial, is equally incompatible with union to Christ and freedom from condemnation, as living in the grosser indulgence of wicked works; and this way of going about to establish their own righteousness, by those who profess to have received the Gospel, and who have even a zeal of God, Romans 10:2, is probably that by which the greater number of them are deceived. There is the greatest danger lest the fleshly wisdom, under the notion of a zeal for God and of regard for the interests of virtue, should set men on the painful endeavor of working out their salvation, in part at least, by keeping the law as a covenant, thus attending to its requirements for justification, serving in the oldness of the letter, and not in the newness of spirit. In this ways multitudes who profess to have received the Gospel, are walking after the flesh, seeking to satisfy their conscience, and saying peace when there is no peace. .(Haldane, R. An Exposition of Romans). (Bolding added)

Luke in describing Zacharias and Elizabeth, the parents of John the Baptist, writes that they were

“righteous in the sight of God, walking blamelessly in all the commandments and requirements of the Lord” (Lu 1:6).

Paul counseled the Ephesian believers to

“walk no longer just as the Gentiles also walk, in the futility of their mind”  (see Eph 4:17: A Brand New way of Life) (see also brief discussion of Galatians 5:16)

Because of the truths Paul explains here in Romans 8 (and Ro 6-8) the Ephesian saints had received the supernatural power to live holy lives in the midst of an unholy world.

John declares that,

“if we walk in the light as [God] Himself is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus His Son cleanses us from all sin” (1Jn 1:7).

Ray Stedman commenting on (Col 3:1-17) has some interesting insights on our "walk" writing

"that (see notes on Colossians 3:1-2; 3:3-4) is the true basis for living a Christian life. Scripture calls it "walking with the Lord." I like that figure because a walk, of course, merely consists of two simple steps, repeated over and over again. It is not a complicated thing. In the same way, the Christian life is a matter of taking two steps, one step after another. Then you are beginning to walk. Those two steps follow in this passage. Paul describes them as, "Put off the old man," and "put on the new." Then repeat them. That is all. Keep walking through every day like that. That is how Scripture exhorts us to live." (see his full sermon True Human Potential) (Bolding added)

The words “who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit” are descriptive of the regenerated man, an identifying characteristic. That is true of every child of God. Being indwelt by the Spirit is not a mark of special maturity or spirituality but the mark of every true Christian, without exception.

"According to" is kata whose root meaning is “down,” which suggests domination. A genuine born again believer is one who orders his/her behavior in such a way that it is not (habitually) dominated by the old evil nature (still latent in our physical bodies), but instead are "dominated by" (controlled by) the Holy Spirit (see notes on Eph 5:18). The Amplified paraphrases it as those "who live and move not in the ways of the flesh but in the ways of the Spirit [our lives governed not by the standards and according to the dictates of the flesh, but controlled by the Holy Spirit]."

Flesh (4561) (sarx) (Click word study on sarx) as used in this context does not refer to physical flesh (like "flesh and blood") but to that evil disposition inherited from Adam which is opposed to God and godliness. Walking according to the flesh means behaving as the flesh dictates, so that the sinful nature entirely governs ones life. It means to have one’s life determined and directed by the values of this evil world system in total rebellion against God. This is the only way an unsaved person is able to walk - according to the flesh.

On the other hand the regenerate person can and should walk according to the Spirit which means to live in submission to and dominated by the Holy Spirit's leadership and enablement. The saved person’s life in totality cannot be said to be dominated by the flesh. As saved men and women, unfortunately we occasionally "fall into" sin but we will not persist in sin as the habit of our lives or as our lifestyle (1John 3). If the latter situation is the case, the person hasn't lost their salvation. The truth is that they were never genuinely born again and given a new heart with an inherent disposition toward holiness, however imperfect that might be manifest in one's life. But when the regenerate man chooses (bad choice) to walk in submission to the flesh, he is not walking rightly and he grieves the Spirit which makes him miserable (Ephesians 4:30). A sinning saint is a sad sight!

By the Spirit’s conviction, by confession and if needed by chastening (1Cor 11:31-32) he is brought back to the path of obedience. The believer at any given time may manifest any of the works of the flesh (Galatians 5:19-21) but his life will not be dominated by the works of the flesh because "they which do (present tense--‘keep on doing’; those who persist in these things) shall not inherit the kingdom of God" (Galatians 5:21 and compare 1Cor 6:9-11 and Ephesians 5:5 ). (Romans 8)

Ryrie commenting on Romans 8:4-8 writes that...

The contrast here is between an unregenerate life dominated by the flesh (= sinful nature within) and one controlled by the Holy Spirit. (The Ryrie Study Bible: New American Standard Translation: 1995. Moody Publishers) (Bolding added)

A T Robertson says that Paul is contrasting

"the two laws of life" and that the phrase "according to the Spirit" he interprets as "most likely the Holy Spirit or else the renewed spirit of man."

Dr Harry Ironside writes that...

The law demanded righteousness from a man whose nature was utterly corrupt and perverted, and which could only produce corrupt fruit. The Holy Spirit has produced a new nature in the man in Christ, and linked with this new life are new affections and desires. The new man gladly responds to the will of the Lord as revealed in His Word. Thus the righteousness of the law is actually produced in the one who walks not after the flesh, not in the power of the old nature. The practical good required by the law is produced in the person who lives in obedience to the Spirit, Who has come to take possession of us for Christ. (Ironside, Harry. Romans and Galatians. Kregel. 2006)

This is sanctification or righteousness manifest (Click here for relationship of Relationship of Justified, Sanctified, Glorified). That is our new behavior. As we yield control of our lives to the Holy Spirit, He empowers us to love God and to love our neighbor, which is what the law requires. Just try to forgive someone who has hurt you in your own strength...we can't he never said we could, but he can and in (Ro 8) God always says He would. It is the "exchanged life".

Nothing is dearer to God’s heart than the moral and spiritual excellence of those He has created in His own image and nothing should be dearer to them. Paul did not want the Romans to have only imputed (reckoned to their account) righteousness (which describes a believer's new, eternal position in Christ) but practical righteousness as well. And that is what they want. It is practical righteousness about which Paul speaks here. It is God’s great desire that believers live out the perfect righteousness that He reckons to them when they are saved-that they live like His children and no longer like the children of the world and of Satan. Positional righteousness is to be reflected in practical righteousness. Christ does not want a bride who is only positionally righteous but one who is actually righteous, just as He Himself is righteous. And through His indwelling Spirit, He gives believers that desire.

The purpose of the gospel is not to make men happy but to make them holy. As the Beatitudes make clear, genuine happiness comes to those who belong to Christ and are obedient to His will. But true happiness comes only from holiness. God promises happiness, but He demands holiness, without which “no one will see the Lord” (Heb 12:14).

In his book entitled God’s Righteous Kingdom, Walter J. Chantry writes,

"When preachers speak as if God’s chief desire is for men to be happy, then multitudes with problems flock to Jesus. Those who have ill-health, marital troubles, financial frustration, and loneliness look to our Lord for the desires of their hearts. Each conceives of joy as being found in health, peace, prosperity or companionship. But in search of illusive happiness they are not savingly joined to Jesus Christ. Unless men will be holy, God is determined that they shall be forever miserable and damned."

Some people think that walking according to the Spirit looks something like this --

"That means you have to forget about making money and having fun and fulfilling yourself. All you do is go around memorizing Scripture and thinking about God all day long. Whenever anyone asks you to do something, you're too busy thinking about God and too involved in spiritual things to get your hands dirty. So you become a religious recluse. You go around reciting Scripture verses and telling people what is wrong with their lives -- and that is being spiritual!"

That description is really nothing but another form of being run by the flesh -- it's a religious form of it, but it is actually the same thing.