No Condemnation!
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Opening Illustration:
The book of Romans answers the question, “How can we, as unrighteous people, stand before a righteous God?”
And it answers that question clearly, week after week, as we have seen that righteousness is extended to the unrighteous through faith in the Gospel.
Each week we emphasize the need to run back to what Christ did for you.
Not just for the initial point of salvation, but every point throughout our justification.
When you wake up, you ought to run to truths of what Christ did for you.
When you walk from your car to your work space each day, you should run to the Gospel.
When your children or your spouse are exhibiting their fleshly tendencies, and you know you should show them their need of God’s grace, but instead you want to show them you, you must run to the point where God extended grace to you.
So we run to Gospel truth at every point in our day. It will remind you of God’s glory and His purpose for your moment.
When you wake up, God has a purpose in that.
At your place of employment, God has a purpose in that.
In the struggles of parenting or marriage, God has a purpose in that too.
And His purposes are bigger than the world that revolves around you!
This is what living in Gospel truth looks like, and the reason we live here is because of what God has accomplished through the Gospel.
Back in Chapters 1-3, we saw our Problem of Unrighteousness Apart from the Gospel.
If you are curious why you need to truth in this person named Jesus, and why we are fanatical abut Him, then you need to read Romans 1-3.
Then in chapters 4-5 we learned of the Provision of Righteousness by the Gospel.
In these chapters we see the emphasis switch from focusing on our unrighteousness to focusing on the grace of God.
It is a beautiful work of God to provide justification, peace, and life!
And now we are in chapters 6-8 where we learn of the Power of Righteousness in the Gospel.
It is here we find the powerful work of God in practical every day living.
Paul, the author of Romans emphasizes that The Old Man is Dead, and You can now Present Yourself to God.
Those who are followers of Jesus are no longer bound to their sinful desires.
The king of sin has been dethroned and we are now to present ourselves to our new King, King Jesus!
And yet, although we know we are no longer bound to live out our sinful nature, there is a battle still going on within our hearts.
Paul honed in on this battle in our study last Sunday as he wrote, the things I want to do - I find myself not doing them, and the things I don’t want to do - I do them.
Paul fully understood that our struggle is real - where he says:
18 For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh) nothing good dwells; for to will is present with me, but how to perform what is good I do not find.
Paul felt the burden of the presence and possibility of sin all around and within him.
And he vocalized that struggle in 7:24
24 O wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death?
He says, “I’m tired of the struggle and want to be delivered, but who can pull that off?!
25 I thank God—through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, with the mind I myself serve the law of God, but with the flesh the law of sin.
He answers that question with, “God’s plan of the Gospel.”
Jesus is the deliverer.
Paul knew that although with his mind wanted to serve the law of God and his flesh would want to serve the law of sin, yet there was still hope.
And this was our weekly focus:
Sin always overpromises and underdelivers. Thankfully for the believer, there is hope between the already of our salvation and the not yet of our glorification.
That hope in the midst of our daily struggle with sin is found in a daily walk with Jesus.
Now, we come to chapter 8, and we see three truths that help further our understanding of practical Christian living.
We already know that our position in Christ, as believers and followers of Jesus, is justified. We have been given the peace of God because we are at peace with God.
We already know that the old king of sin has been dethroned and King Jesus is to be the ruler of our hearts.
We already know that we are going to struggle with the presence and possibility of sin, but have been delivered from the power of sin over us. We no longer have to fulfill our sinful desires.
We know that Jesus is our deliverer.
And Paul begins in 8:1 teaching that those who have come to Christ for forgiveness face:
1. No Condemnation for Sin (v.1)
1 There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit.
Because Jesus is our deliverer, there is no condemnation (legal decision of guilty) for those who are in Christ Jesus.
Where Satan and our flesh tend to condemn with past guilt and present failures, this cannot detour us from dwelling on the truth of what Christ has done for us.
It is in this verse we find the importance to focus in on the promises of God instead of our performance!
Those who are in Christ - are free from Condemnation!
This term “in Christ” is not an easy one to understand and I like how John Phillips illustrates it. He says:
Exploring Romans: An Expository Commentary A. There Is No More Condemnation for Sin (8:1)
Take, for instance, the case of Noah. When the ark was finished and a perfect way of escape from divine wrath provided, the invitation went forth, “Come thou and all thy house into the ark” (Gen. 7:1). Now, the ark was pitched “within and without with pitch” and, interestingly enough, the Hebrew word for “pitch” is the identical word used elsewhere for “atonement.” Between the saved in the ark and the waters of judgment without was the hewn wood and the pitch. Once Noah and his family were safely in the ark, we read that “the LORD shut him in” (Gen. 7:16). Here was complete security. God did not say to Noah, once the ark was finished, “Now, Noah, I want you to take eight spikes and drive them into the outside timbers of the ark. So long as you and your family hang on you will be saved, but if you once let go you will be lost.” No! God shut him in. What it meant for Noah to be “in the ark,” it means for us to be “in Christ.” In Him, God has placed us in a sphere where His wrath can never reach us and we are secure as Christ can make us. There is no more condemnation for sin.
Jesus put it this way in John 5:24
24 “Most assuredly, I say to you, he who hears My word and believes in Him who sent Me has everlasting life, and shall not come into judgment, but has passed from death into life.
Friend, if you have responded to the Gospel in repentance and faith you are free from the condemnation for Sin.
But Paul doesn’t stop there. He continues in v. 2 and teaches us that indwelling sin is overcome through the power of the indwelling Spirit, and says, not only is there no condemnation for those in Christ, but there is a reality of:
2. No Control by Sin (v. 2)
2 For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and death.
As we looked at last week, there are two competing principles or laws in the life of a believer.
There is the law of sin, that our flesh is bent toward, and there is a law of the Spirit that our new man is molded by.
ILLustration: New Bird in a nest
Mom pushes bird out
Law of gravity steps in
Hopefully the law of life takes hold - bird survives.
This does not mean that the original law of gravity has ceased to operate, but it does mean that a higher law has come into force.
The fact is, is that we sin by nature because we are victims of the fall and because it is the nature of fallen man to sin. But “in Christ Jesus” a higher law operates, “the law of the Spirit of life”; and this law sets us free from the lesser law of sin and death.
John Phillips, Exploring Romans: An Expository Commentary, The John Phillips Commentary Series (Kregel Publications; WORDsearch Corp., 2009), Ro 8:2.
The reality for the follower of Jesus is that He gives us life! That’s what this verse is pointing to.
Not just eternal life, although that’s part of it.
Jesus has provided us the Spirit of life that comes and abides within us.
Often we don’t spend much time on the Spirit of God - out of fear of the charasmatic movement, but friend if you are in Christ - God is living in you today!
The Holy Spirit lives in you and helps guide and comfort you.
And because the Spirit of God is living in you, this OT promise fulfilled we talked about a couple weeks ago, Paul is here reminding us that we do not have to succomb to the power of sin in our life.
So, There is no condemnation for your sin nature, no control of sin over your daily choices.
And because of this Spirit-filled life, there should be:
3. No Continuance in Sin (vv. 3-4)
3 For what the law could not do in that it was weak through the flesh, God did by sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, on account of sin: He condemned sin in the flesh,
4 that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.
v. 3 - The law was “weak through the flesh.” It was not that God asked too much of man, for He can be satisfied with nothing less than absolute perfection. It was that man in the flesh simply could not and cannot live up to the claims of God’s law.
The law could never get people to fulfill its sacred requirements, but grace has succeeded where law failed.
The law could not produce holy living because it was weak through the flesh. The trouble was not with the law but with fallen human nature. The law spoke to men who were already sinners and who were without strength to obey. But God intervened by sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh. Take careful notice that the Lord Jesus did not come in sinful flesh itself but in “the likeness of” sinful flesh. He did no sin (1 Pet. 2:22), He knew no sin (2 Cor. 5:21), and there was no sin in Him (1 Jn. 3:5). But by coming into the world in human form, He resembled sinful humanity. As a sacrifice for sin, Christ condemned sin in the flesh. He died not only for the sins which we commit (1 Pet. 3:18) but also for our sin nature. In other words, He died for what we are just as much as for what we have done. In so doing, He condemned sin in the flesh. Our sin nature is never said to be forgiven; it is condemned. It is the sins that we have committed that are forgiven.
8:4 Now the righteous requirement of the law is fulfilled in us who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit. 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.
William MacDonald, Believer’s Bible Commentary: Old and New Testaments, ed. Arthur Farstad (Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 1995), 1709.
This is the power of Christ in you.
There is no condemnation for sin, you are not controlled by sin, and you now have the power in you to stop continuing in sin.
And next week we will study further into what this looks like.
Weekly Focus:
Romans 8:1 “There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit.”
Jesus accomplished what you could not, to give you what you don’t deserve.
Lord’s Table
Ask for men to come to the front as we prepare to observe the Lord’s Supper
- On the first Sunday Morning of every month, we observe the Lord’s Supper.
- For Believers
The Bible is explicit that this time is not for everyone. But for those who have trusted in Christ and are in close confessed fellowship with Him.
1 Corinthians 11:26-30 – “For as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death till He comes. Therefore whoever eats this bread or drinks this cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty of the body and blood of the Lord. But let a man examine himself, and so let him eat of the bread and drink of the cup. For he who eats and drinks in an unworthy manner eats and drinks judgment to himself, not discerning the Lord’s body. For this reason many are weak and sick among you, and many sleep.”
- Remember this is a time of: remembrance, reflection, and repentance.
remembrance - the bread is representative of the broken body of Christ, and the juice is of His blood that was shed for you. Take a moment and remember what Jesus did to redeem you.
reflection - reflect on your life. Are you living in confessed obedience to God’s Word? Is there an area of unconfessed sin?
repentance - have a change of mind on those areas that are contrary to Him and confess and forsake them.
men will pass the trays. The trays have two cups in them stacked, the top cup has the juice and the bottom cup has the bread. Please be sure to grab both cups and help your neighbor if they miss the bread cup.
- Once you receive your cups, hold on to them, and we will partake of it at the same time
- Pass out trays to deacons – they pass to congregation
- Pass out trays to deacons – hand to last deacon and have him serve you
- Ask someone to pray thanking God for both the broken body and the shed blood of Jesus
- Read passage
I Corinthians 11:24 – “And when he had given thanks, he brake it, and said, Take, eat: this is my body, which is broken for you: this do in remembrance of me.”
- Read passage
I Corinthians 11:25 – “After the same manner also he took the cup, when he had supped, saying, This cup is the new testament in my blood: this do ye, as oft as ye drink it, in remembrance of me.”