This verse is introduced with a particle (Greek ara) which indicates that Paul is drawing a conclusion on the basis of what he has previously said. The Revised Standard Version renders this particle as “therefore” and the New English Bible as “the conclusion of the matter is this.” The Good News Translation, the New American Bible, and Phillips indicate this by the use of a section heading rather than by a translation of this particular particle.

In Greek the word for no is the first word of the sentence and is in the emphatic position.

Now (Greek nun) is more a temporal marker than an indicator of logical consequences (see Revised Standard Version, New American Bible, Phillips). 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.

Since in some languages it is impossible to speak of condemnation without specifying who condemns, there is no condemnation may be rendered as “no one can condemn” or even “God does not condemn.”

For those who live in union with Christ Jesus is literally “for those in Christ Jesus” (see 6.3).

Some ancient manuscripts add at the end of this verse the words “who do not walk according to the flesh” (equivalent to Good News Translation who live … not according to human nature in verse 4), while other manuscripts add both this phrase and the phrase who live according to the Spirit. It is recognized by scholars that the addition of one or both of these phrases represents an ancient scribe’s attempt to incorporate into this verse the ideas of verse 4, and so to make explicit what it means to live in union with Christ Jesus. In the UBS Greek text the omission of these phrases is rated as having the highest degree of certainty. However, since many translators continue to follow one or the other of the expanded texts, it may be useful to mention briefly some of the problems associated with such a translation. In some languages one can preserve the concept of walking by an idiomatic expression such as “who do not walk the flesh road but the Holy Spirit road.” Other languages may employ some such translation as “who do not do what the body says but what the Spirit says” or “who do not respond to the old heart but to the Spirit.”

Quoted with permission from Newman, Barclay M. and Nida, Eugene A. A Handbook on Paul’s Letter to the Romans. (UBS Handbook Series). New York: UBS, 1973. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .