No Condemnation 120520

Romans 8:1-4, “There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. 2 For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death. 3 For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do. By sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh, 4 in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.”

Romans chapter eight begins with, "There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus." And ends with, "(nothing) will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord." This chapter should be a great source of encouragement for those who live by faith. You need to remember that faith is living like God tells the truth. The old saying, "God said it, I believe it, that settles it" sounds right but it is wrong. If God said it that settles it. If I believe it I can enjoy it. Our belief, or unbelief, neither adds to nor takes away from the validity of what God says. God said, "… no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus". Yet many Christians live out their lives in condemnation of one form or another. What can we do about it?

Jesus intended us to be free from condemnation. Satan intends that we live under a load of condemnation. Jesus said it himself in John 10:10, "The thief comes only to steal kill and destroy. I came that they might have life and have it abundantly."

You see, we are Free from the Law.

The Law is a ministry of condemnation. 2 Corinthians 3:7-9, “Now if the ministry of death, carved in letters on stone, came with such glory that the Israelites could not gaze at Moses’ face because of its glory, which was being brought to an end, will not the ministry of the Spirit have even more glory?" Here Scripture refers to the Old Testament law, even the Ten Commandments, carved by the hand of God, as, "the ministry of death"! Imagine that, when God met with his people, whom he had just set free from slavery in Egypt, he set before them an impossible standard. Some may claim to keep the law but the Scriptures teach that we cannot keep the law. Even for those who do not have the written law there is a moral law recognized by all people. Again, it's not possible to keep it perfectly. However, it is further evidence of the existence of God. All people everywhere recognize that there are certain things wrong and other things that are right. They also recognize that they fail to keep that moral law.

The purpose of the law is to reveal sin. Romans 3:20, "For by works of the law no human being will be justified in his sight, since through the law comes knowledge of sin." Our conscience comes alive when we confront the law. It brings condemnation. Romans chapter five talks to us about how sin entered the world. There was one negative law: No fruit may be from the tree in the middle of the garden. Pretty simple and easy to keep. That law was broken, not by backslidden sinners who were far away from God, but by two people who walked and talked with God everyday. Adam and Eve had the closest possible relationship to God yet Satan came in deceived Eve into breaking the only law they had to break! God had a plan from the very beginning that included giving the law to show man how exceedingly sinful Sin is.

But we are not under law we are under grace. Romans 6:14, "For sin will have no dominion over you, since you are not under law but under grace." If we are in bondage under the law we have no hope. The law reveals our sin and then tells us that the payoff of sin is death. What a great condemnation this heaps on all of us! But praise God, we are free from the law. As the great hymn writer, P. P. Bliss put it:

Free from the law, O happy condition, Jesus hath bled, and there is remission; cursed by the law and bruised by the fall, grace hath redeemed us once for all.


Once for all, O sinner receive it; once for all, O brother, believe it;


cling to the cross, the burden will fall, Christ hath redeemed us once for all.


Now we are free there's no condemnation, Jesus provides a perfect salvation; "Come unto me," O hear his sweet call, come, and he saves us once for all.

Christ hath redeemed us! O, How I love the old hymns because by and large they have excellent theology teaching truth we can hang onto. Not only are we free from the law living under grace but it is once for all. Justification by faith alone changes us into children of God. Our sins are forgiven and Christ's righteousness is given to us. It cannot be earned and it cannot be taken away. Indeed, it is Once for All!

I pray that each of you enjoy the comfort of knowing that you have received Jesus Christ as Lord by faith and his grace rules in your life.

A new law takes precedence.

The law of the Spirit of life. John 5:21, “For as the Father raises the dead and gives them life, so also the Son gives life to whom he will.” Jesus gives life to whom he will! Remember when he stood at the grave of Lazarus? There he gave back physical life as an evidence that he could give spiritual life. When Martha rebuked him for not being there to heal her brother, Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live, and everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die. Do you believe this?” She said to him, “Yes, Lord; I believe that you are the Christ, the Son of God, who is coming into the world.” (John 11:25-27) Jesus, as God in the flesh, could give life where he wished. Not just life on earth but life eternal. He promised his disciples that when he went away he would send the Holy Spirit and, in that Spirit, he would never leave us or forsake us. Many years later John wrote three little letters. In the first letter he said, "That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we looked upon and have touched with our hands, concerning the word of life— the life was made manifest, and we have seen it, and testify to it and proclaim to you the eternal life, which was with the Father and was made manifest to us—" (1 John 1:1-2) in chapter 5 John added, “And this is the testimony, that God gave us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. Whoever has the Son has life; whoever does not have the Son of God does not have life." (1 John 5:11-12)

This law is the Spirit of Jesus. 1 Corinthians 15:45, "Thus it is written, 'The first man Adam became a living being'; the last Adam became a life-giving spirit." Adam is the federal head of the human race and as such sold us into Sin. Jesus, by virtue of his death, burial and resurrection, became the federal head of a new people. A people who were once dead in trespasses and sins and who are now made alive by God's grace through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ! The law of the spirit of life is none other than Jesus Christ himself. The overcame the law of sin and death. We find in the book of Hebrews 2:14-15, "Since therefore the children share in flesh and blood, he himself likewise partook of the same things, that through death he might destroy the one who has the power of death, that is, the devil, and deliver all those who through fear of death were subject to lifelong slavery." When a person comes to faith in Jesus Christ that person is no longer in bondage. The law of the Spirit of life takes precedence over the law of sin and death. The believer is justified by grace as a gift of God. I know, some of these theological terms seem difficult, but justification is not too hard to understand. Wayne Grudem in his Systematic Theology gives this definition, "Justification is an instantaneous legal act of God in which he (1) thinks of our sins as forgiven and Christ’s righteousness as belonging to us, and (2) declares us to be righteous in his sight." We know that in our flesh there is no good thing. God does not declare us righteous on the basis of our goodness he declares us righteous on the basis Jesus' goodness.

Being justified we have his Spirit. In Galatians 4:6, Paul wrote "And because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, 'Abba! Father!' " There are those who teach that receiving the Holy Spirit is a second work of grace. We need to remember that God is one. He doesn't come in pieces. We don't receive the Father then later receive the Son and then, if you're really good, you receive the Holy Spirit. In 1 Corinthians 12:13, we find these words, "For in one Spirit we were all baptized into one body—Jews or Greeks, slaves or free—and all were made to drink of one Spirit." The body we are baptized into is the body of Christ, the Church. The Spirit that baptizes us and of which we are made to drink is the Holy Spirit. If you are born again it was the work of the Spirit not of your own will.

We need to remember, this is God's work not ours.


We cannot save ourselves. Many people seem to believe that somehow their goodness can make them right with God. Paul wrote the following words to Titus, speaking of God, “he saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit, whom he poured out on us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior," (Titus 3:5-6) We have nothing that we can do to save ourselves. People either don't know, or seem to forget, that we were born spiritually dead as sons and daughters of Adam and Eve. A dead person can do nothing to help themselves. That's equally true of the spiritual as the physical. Any person, sensitive to the call of God, is drawn by God into life so that he or she can accept Jesus Christ as Lord and be born again.

God sent his son for sin. John the apostle wrote, "In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him." 1 John 4:9 The only hope of life and escaping condemnation is found in Jesus Christ. As John the Baptist was baptizing repentant people in the Jordan River he saw Jesus and said, "Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world", John 1:29. Takes away the sin of the world. Not just pays for our sins but takes them away from us. Sin is a natural part of mankind and through the flesh, or our old habits, continues to cause us to struggle — even to feel condemned. But remember, "There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus". The truth is God was in Christ reconciling the world unto himself. This reconciliation brings all believers into the body Christ.

God condemned Sin to set us free. 2 Corinthians 5:21 tells us, "For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God." What an amazing truth is found in this passage. "For our sake" should fill us with grateful admiration for the living God who found us in our sin, condemned our sin, made the Lord Jesus to be sin for us so that we could become the righteousness of God in HIM! Our greatest need involves the problem of sin. So, God took our sin, not just our sins, but the sin nature itself and placed it on our sacrifice, the Lord Jesus himself. In doing that he justified us. You cannot be justified without being placed in Christ. And the moment we are placed in Christ sanctification has already begun in us! We are wholly justified but we are just beginning sanctification. As Peter put it in 1 Peter 2:24, "He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness". God has arranged things so that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. Living to righteousness is a process that will continue as long as we live on this earth. At our death, or Christ's return, our sanctification will flow into glorification. Sanctification is a process that makes us more and more free from sin and more and more like Christ in our life on earth. It is not a progress towards "sainthood" since we are made Saints at salvation. Repeatedly throughout the New Testament believers are called Saints. In Romans 1:7 Paul refers to his recipients as those who are "called to be saints". In 1 Corinthians 1:2 he adds that he is writing "to those who are sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be saints…". In 2 Corinthians chapter 1 he refers to "all the Saints who are in the whole of (Greece)". Etc. etc.… Saints are not perfect and we have plenty of evidence in our own lives. Since we are Saints and we still have the old habits of the flesh our imperfections stand out. But nonetheless according to the Bible — and that's all we can base our lives on — all Christians are Saints and as such are in Christ Jesus. For those who are in Christ Jesus there is no condemnation! I pray that that is the condition of every person reading this.

The whole message of Romans could be summed up in chapter 1 verse sixteen that says, "For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes,…". The law came in alongside the flesh to bring condemnation to all people. The law was never intended to "cure" sin but simply to reveal sinfulness of sin. But Praise God! We are not under law but under grace. Jesus has come into the life of every believer in the power of the spirit and justified us by grace through faith. We were born dead in sin and unable to save ourselves. So God sent his son, Jesus Christ, for sin so that he could condemn sin in the flesh and set us free. I hope you have received him as Lord and Savior so you can enjoy the benefits of abundant life.

All Scripture quotes are fromThe Holy Bible : English standard version. 2001, Wheaton: Standard Bible Society.