Sermon Tone Analysis
Overall tone of the sermon
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Introduction
Illustration: finding Nemo... fish escape by rolling their bags filled with water into the ocean.
But then they realize the question “now what?!”
Illustration: Couple newly married--”now what?” (I usually have one suggestion for them)
“Therefore” series is going to be asking the question “now what?”
Now that we are believers and followers of Christ, what does that mean?
Unbeliever: answers the question what does it mean to be a Christian, what are the benefits?
For us it should be both a great comfort and challenge to us.
Paul begins this chapter with a profound statement about the reality in which stand if we are “in Christ”
Main Idea: If we are genuinely in Christ; we will experience the full acquittal of judgement, freedom from law and sin, now.
We Experience the Full Acquittal of Guilt
We must not remove “in Christ”—meaning there’s just no condemnation
There is condemnation for everyone outside of Christ
Paul has clearly established up to this point that every human is justly deserving full condemnation from God.
Romans 1:18
Romans 2:5
Romans 3:23
Romans 6:17
Now, in Christ, we no longer have a guilty sentence—no judgement
Legal term—both the verdict and sentence has been overturned
No deserved punishment or sentence any more … it is taken for us
Jesus effectively unloaded the gun of God’s wrath and judgment upon himself.
Now that gun is empty.
Illustration: Abraham Solomon’s Paintings (“Waiting for the Verdict” & “Not Guilty”
We Experience the Full Freedom from Sin and Law
When we come to be “in Christ” (we do this by believing and trusting [faith] — we are now set free from the “law of sin and death” — what does this mean?
Every human being seeks righteousness (rightness)
some of us seek it through sin (living apart from God’s law)
This leads to death because sin causes death.
Some of us seek it through actually trying to actually follow God’s law
But Paul shows that because we have sin within us, the law actually produces even more sin within us.
So Paul says in Romans 7:10-11
So the conclusion is that we are doomed (Romans 7:24)
But there is good news!
In Christ we are set free from the law of sin and death!
What is the law of the Spirit?
Paul Explains in Romans 8:3-4
It says that Jesus Christ obeyed the law perfectly and became your sacrifice.
If you trust in that sacrifice, it will be sufficient.
When you trust in Christ, he is sufficient to free you from the law of sin and death.
(Steve Brown)
We Experience This Reality Now
For those who are in Christ Jesus, now, today, not yesterday, not tomorrow, not next week, not next year, but NOW, there is no condemnation.”
But there’s a struggle isn't there?
We struggle to really believe and hold on to this truth.
This is nothing new.
Illustration: Copyists added a line from verse 4 to verse 1— “who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit”.
Why?
To simply say there’s no condemnation seems too radical … too free!
We struggle with this “now” part … this compete “no condemnation” thing.
We hear the whispers of our sullied consciences and the enemy, “God can’t forgive that … again!” “If only God knew the real you, he would certainly turn away.”
Surely I need to be more spiritual, more disciplined, more gracious, more sinless for God to love me fully.
Then bad things happen… and we think “God must be punishing me for my sin! God is angry and now I’m paying for it!
Diagnostic Question: What is God’s facial expression towards you?
If you are in Christ Jesus all of God's action toward you now is mercy and grace, love and goodness.
It is not mixed.
It is not as though some days he is against you with wrath - and those days are bad days - while other days he is for you with love - and those days are good days.
(Piper)
In Christ Jesus God is always for you.
Always!
This is where Paul is going in Romans 8.
He gets there in verse 31 and says, "What then shall we say to these things?
If God is for us, who is against us!" His point is that in Christ Jesus "no condemnation" means that God is always omnipotently for us and not against us.
Always!
—John Piper
Conclusion
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