Therefore
Notes
Transcript
Introduction
Introduction
Condemnation is defined as “the action of condemning someone to judgement.”
The Greek word here translated condemnation means “to judge someone as definitely guilty and thus subject to punishment.”
I believe every human being suffers some form of condemnation. Everyone, at one time or another, feels or fears condemnation. We know ourselves too well to think or feel otherwise. We know we are deserving of condemnation.
As we have seen the last several weeks…no one is righteous on their own. We have all sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. We have all fallen short…the NLT puts is so well… Romans 3:23
For everyone has sinned; we all fall short of God’s glorious standard.
All of us have fallen short of God’s glorious standard. His standard is perfection and we are all imperfect. We know this to be true so feelings of guilt and condemnation, at least at times, overwhelms us.
Thank God we have felt such condemnation at least once in our life! How horrid it would be if we lived the whole of our life with no awareness of sin and the condemnation due us because of it!
Thank God for the law and the entire Old Testament! Thank God for the Holy Spirit which awoke us to the realization that there is a God, His standard is perfection and we are not perfect. If it had not been for this spiritual awakening we would still be dead in our sins…dead to the reality of it and the judgement to come!
But that sense of awareness and conviction did come to us and the result was, I hope for each of us today, the realization that we needed salvation. In the midst of that realization we admitted to God our sorry state…admitted we were a sinner. We believed in the salvation of God from our sin through the sacrifice of Jesus Christ on the Cross and then turned from our sin to commit our life to God.
In that moment of salvation we were forgiven the consequences of all our sin AND set free from the power of sin at work in us so that we might obey God. We became a new person.
But…we still live with the memory of our old person…and sometimes, in our worst moments, still think, talk and act like that old person, even if only for a moment. This memory along with our momentary lapses into sin cause us to doubt the efficacy or power of our salvation.
Satan loves such moments because if he can keep us wallowing in them we can lose the joy of our salvation and any usefulness to the Kingdom of Christ while living on earth. This is where many believers find themselves today…ashamed, guilt ridden and feeling condemned for their past…condemned for mistakes in their not so distant past or even the present.
A little boy visiting his grandparents and given his first slingshot. He practiced in the woods, but he could never hit his target. As he came back to Grandma's back yard, he spied her pet duck. On an impulse he took aim and let fly. The stone hit, and the duck fell dead. The boy panicked. Desperately he hid the dead duck in the wood pile, only to look up and see his sister watching. Sally had seen it all, but she said nothing.
After lunch that day, Grandma said, "Sally, let's wash the dishes." But Sally said, "Johnny told me he wanted to help in the kitchen today. Didn't you, Johnny?" And she whispered to him, "Remember the duck!" So Johnny did the dishes.
Later Grandpa asked if the children wanted to go fishing., Grandma said, "I'm sorry, but I need Sally to help make supper." Sally smiled and said, "That's all taken care of. Johnny wants to do it." Again she whispered, "Remember the duck." Johnny stayed while Sally went fishing. After several days of Johnny doing both his chores and Sally's, finally he couldn't stand it. He confessed to Grandma that he'd killed the duck. "I know, Johnny," she said, giving him a hug. "I was standing at the window and saw the whole thing. Because I love you, I forgave you. I wondered how long you would let Sally make a slave of you."
Satan loves to keep God’s people in slavery to their past sins...Paul saw this in the Romans and this is why he wrote these first few verses of chapter 8 to them. He wanted to remind them that the work of Jesus had freed them completely from fear, sin and death.
There is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. The enemy of our soul has no right to condemn us, others have no right to condemn us, we have no right to condemn ourselves, and God chooses to never condemn us.
Complete Freedom
Complete Freedom
The Law of the Spirit — What is the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus? I am certain that many people have asked this question when reading this particular passage of scripture. It is simply this…
Law — Is a governing power. In the Old Testament that governing power was the found in the rules by which God told His people to live. They were His standard of righteousness…right and wrong. Man was meant to keep these rules in order to be righteous. If man broke the rules he was a sinner in need of forgiveness and redemption.
The end result of this arrangement, the Old Covenant, was to completely educate mankind on his inability to live up to these rules.
In the Old Covenant sin and death ruled the life of mankind because man could never keep God’s rules. He was constantly in need of an animal sacrifice to pay the price for his sins…and eventually he himself would die because of his sin. Sin and death ruled in the Old Covenant because of the inability to be made righteous by obedience to the law.
In the New Covenant Jesus took all of our sins for all time…He paid for our sins and and delivered us from the power of sin at work within us. We are now governed by the Holy Spirit, not the law of the Old Testament. Our rightness comes to us in the work of Jesus on the Cross, not obedience to the law.
Jesus has freed us from being ruled by sin and death…sin no longer has power over us and death is no longer the end of any of us…who are in Christ.
We are completely made free from sin, the power of sin, any condemnation for our sin and death.
Remember...
Remember...
God wants you to know this morning that you are set free from all of these by the power of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus. You are free but you have to have the faith to live free…the faith to realize and appropriate what Jesus did for you on the cross.
No one lives the freedom of Christ apart from faith in Christ. The just live their life…their new way of living…by faith in Christ...
Faith in Christ — This isn’t simple belief that Christ existed. This isn’t a life lived in the knowledge of what Christ can do or hope of what He could do.
Real saving faith results in a life lived in light of what Jesus did…affecting our thoughts, decisions, actions and words.
There is no condemnation, there is no hell for me,
The torment and the fire my eyes shall never see;
For me there is no sentence, for me has death no stings,
Because the Lord Who saved me shall shield me with His wings.
No angel, and no Heaven, no throne, nor power, nor might,
No love, no tribulation, nor anger, fear nor fight,
No height, no depth, no creature that has been or can be,
Can drive me from Thy bosom, can sever me from Thee.—Paul Gerhardt
Conclusion
Conclusion
"The inner question of men's hearts for centuries has been, 'What must I do to be saved?' Some think by attainment; God says by atonement. Some declare by character; God says by the Cross. Some maintain by courage; God says by Christ. Some assert by trying; God says by trusting. Christ's answer is crystal clear: 'Ye must be born again.'"
We desperately need revival in the church and spiritual awakening in the world. But we first must have a new vision of our sin, God’s holiness and our salvation in Christ. Too many of us are living with feelings of condemnation, guilt and shame. Too many are living paralyzed by fear that their sin has derailed their usefulness. Too many are walking in the law of sin and death…a law that immerses one in fear, paralysis, depression and death.
A revival comes when we have a new sense of our sin, the forgiveness given us in Christ, a renewed love for Him and the things for which His heart is concerned…when we begin to believe and live by faith in the fullness of what Christ has done for us…and condemnation cannot be a part of this.
Awakening happens when the world is “awakened” from spiritual death to the realization of their sin, condemnation and coming eternal death. When their eyes are opened to the salvation of Christ available to them through the cross. This results in the A,B,C’s.