Month: December 2012

The Light of the New Year

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Brothers and Sisters,

Another year come and gone.  Harold Camping was wrong (twice), we’re still here.  The Mayans were wrong, we’re still here.  I guess when God in Matthew 24:36 says no one will know the day or hour of Jesus’ second coming, He meant it.  Crazy, huh??  I digress.  If you’re like me, then around this time of year you may look back on the last year.  You may think about the plans you’d made that didn’t come to pass, or the unplanned events that did and everything that came with them.  At the same time you may be looking forward to this next year with anticipation of what it might hold.  As I’m writing this, I’m well aware that some of you are thinking about a relationship with God that has waned over the last year.  You may have wandered from the God who you followed with passion for a time.  Others may be dealing with the loss of family members, divorce, health problems, or a host of issues that have arisen in the last year.  As you look forward to another year, I want you to know that this message is for you.  Many of you reading this I know, and so I do want to share this encouragement with you – God loves you.  If I could I would sit with each of you and  tell of the times God has undone me through my own sin and suffering only to remake me closer to the image of Jesus, drawing me closer to Himself.  God is infinitely holy, infinitely knowledgeable of everything you’ve ever done and ever will do, and He loves you.  It wasn’t your merit, it was God’s mercy that led Jesus to die for you.  You are radiantly pure, holy, clothed in the righteous blood of Christ, the object of God’s infinite affection.  You were adopted as sons and daughters through the Lord Jesus Christ, and he is jealous for his own – he makes no conditions to his love, he just says come.  Psalm 34:8 – “Oh, taste and see that the LORD is good! Blessed is the man who takes refuge in him!”  Intentionally I am packing this message with scripture because as much as I can I just want to get out of the way and let God speak to you, encourage you, and call you back to where your joy and hope is found, in your relationship with your God and Savior, Jesus.

Lamentations 3:19-24 – “Remember my affliction and my wanderings, the wormwood and the gall!  My soul continually remembers it and is bowed down within me.  But this I call to mind, and therefore I have hope:  The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases; his mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.  “The Lord is my portion,” says my soul, “therefore I will hope in him.”  Hosea 6:1-3 – “Come, let us return to the Lord; for he has torn us, that he may heal us; he has struck us down, and he will bind us up.  After two days he will revive us; on the third day he will raise us up, that we may live before him.  Let us know; let us press on to know the Lord; his going out is sure as the dawn; he will come to us as the showers, as the spring rains that water the earth.”  Psalm 73:23-26 – “Nevertheless, I am continually with you; you hold my right hand.  You guide me with your counsel, and afterward you will receive me to glory. Whom have I in heaven but you?  And there is nothing on earth that I desire besides you.  My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.”  Romans 8:18 – “For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us.”Phlippians 3:13-14 – “forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.” 

Mark 2:17 – “when Jesus heard it, he said to them, “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. I came not to call the righteous, but sinners.”  Isaiah 53:3-6 – “Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted.  But he was pierced for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his wounds we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned—every one—to his own way; and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all.”  Romans 5:1-5 – “we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Through him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God.  Not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.”

Hebrews 10:19-23 – “Therefore, brothers, since we have confidence to enter the holy places by the blood of Jesus, by the new and living way that he opened for us through the curtain, that is, through his flesh, and since we have a great priest over the house of God, let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, with our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water.  Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who promised is faithful. And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near.”  1 John 3:2-3 – “Beloved, we are God’s children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared; but we know that when he appears we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is.  And everyone who thus hopes in him purifies himself as he is pure.”  Hebrews 12:1-3 – “since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.”

John 8:12 – “Jesus spoke again to the people, he said, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.”

Brothers and Sisters in Christ, if Paul’s instruction to Timothy 2 Timothy 1:6 to fan into flame the gift of God, the Holy Spirit of God within us is true for Timothy, it is certainly true for each of us.  We cannot change the past, we can only entrust ourselves to our loving Father and run the race set before us.  2 Corinthians 6:1-2 – “Working together with him, then, we appeal to you not to receive the grace of God in vain. For he says, “In a favorable time I listened to you, and in a day of salvation I have helped you.” Behold, now is the favorable time; behold, now is the day of salvation.”  Let us be humble in seeking out fellowship, community, and discipleship in this race, knowing that as God Himself exists in Triune community we should also exist in community.  Let us be bold to manifest God’s love to the world around us, each of us stewarding the giftings God has given us well.  Let us all be captivated by our God, by His glorious perfections, and his love and mercy in the gospel of Jesus Christ.  Let us strive to have Christ formed in us by the Spirit as we see and savor Him from His Word.  Let us all run this race together, eager to hear the words of Jesus – Matthew 25:23 – “‘Well done, good and faithful servant. You have been faithful over a little; I will set you over much. Enter into the joy of your master.’” 

Jude 1:24-25 – “Now to him who is able to keep you from stumbling and to present you blameless before the presence of his glory with great joy, to the only God, our Savior, through Jesus Christ our Lord, be glory, majesty, dominion, and authority, before all time and now and forever”

Your brother in Christ,
Adam

Reconnecting with the Gospel pt. 44 – Pressing Forward in Christ

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Last time we talked about how only God could have saved us from the condemnation of our sin.  We also talked about the difference between having a mind set on the flesh versus a mind set on the Spirit.  Only those who are in Christ (those whose sins have been forgiven in Christ through faith and been put into a right standing with God) are able to have a mind set on the Spirit.   The condemnation removed, being “in Christ” through faith, and the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of Christ, is all a work of God.  Now this all takes place during the “justification” of a sinner, their being made right with God through faith.  The “sanctification” of a Christian, begins at justification and is the practical outworking of the indwelling Spirit to conform us into the image of Christ.  No one knows Christ better than the Holy Spirit, and the Spirit is actively at work to conform us into Christ’s image.  This is not an outward-in activity, it is an inward-out activity.  In making us into a new creation through the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ, we are given a new heart that has desires for God where none existed before.  The mind set on the Spirit is not so much about the works you do, but about the inclination of your heart and mind to desire God and desire greater fellowship with Him through submission/obedience.  This is where we’re going to enter in today.
Romans 8:9-11 “You, however, are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if in fact the Spirit of God dwells in you. Anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to him.  But if Christ is in you, although the body is dead because of sin, the Spirit is life because of righteousness.  If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit who dwells in you. So then, brothers, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh.  For if you live according to the flesh you will die, but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live.  For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God.  For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the Spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry, “Abba! Father!”  The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God,and if children, then heirs—heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with him.”

A lot of people are mourning the deaths of elementary school children by a lone shooter this week.  This was a horrendous evil perpetrated by an individual agianst those who were defenseless.  Everywhere, people ask the question, how could God allow this to happen? How can we make sure this never happens again?  As Christians we have a different worldview than others.  While not wanting to lessen the rage against the manifest evil of last week, part of me wonders why the people who seem so burdened by the deaths of 20 innocent children are not as concerned about the nearly 5 million children who will die this year due to hunger, that’s over 15,000 defenseless children a day.  This isn’t to guilt anyone, but only to expose a greater evil in the world than what can be seen in one incident.  The world can be shocked by evil, but as Christians, we are not shocked because we fight against this evil every day.  You seen when Adam originally sinned against God, sin entered the world and permeated the deepest, furthest reaches of creation.  We can hear about this incident in Connecticut and mourn the evil there, but we cannot be surprised by it because of what has been revealed by God to us in the gospel.  We know the depths of evil that are in our own heart and we know that unless the grace and mercy of God reaches out to someone, their sin will only grow leading to their death and judgment.  The evil that is innate in the heart of man is fundamentally the same as Adam’s sin – pride.  They will not love others out of a love for God (evidence of a mind set on the Spirit), rather they will do what is in their nature to do and use the world to seek to serve themselves (evidence of a mind set on the flesh).  There is no greater selfish act than to deprive someone of life.  For whatever your reason, you are robbing that person of everything they have to serve your desire, no matter how twisted that desire is.
So we can talk about gun control, we can talk about security in schools, we can talk about better mental healthcare, and any other variety of topics, but we know that there is no “solution” to the evil in the world apart from the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ.  As Christians, we have to decide how we are going to engage this world that we live in.  How can we bring light into a dark and dying world?  My encouragement today is not to dissuade you from engaging government to restrain evil, but reckognize that restraining  evil is all a government can do, it cannot eliminate it.  My encouragement to you is to be healers of evil; to war against it through Christ.  How do you start?  You start with yourself.  The great part of Christ’s call to us is that his command to us is not complicated.  Sometimes I worry that Christians can miss this and believe their relationship with God to be a burden – it shouldn’t be.  Jesus has said in in Matthew 11:29-30 – “Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.”  Christianity is not complicated, and it is not meant to be burdensome.
Christianity is about one thing.  Luke 18:18-21 – “And a ruler asked him, “Good Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?”  And Jesus said to him, “Why do you call me good? No one is good except God alone. You know the commandments: ‘Do not commit adultery, Do not murder, Do not steal, Do not bear false witness, Honor your father and mother.’” And he said, “All these I have kept from my youth.”  When Jesus heard this, he said to him, “One thing you still lack. Sell all that you have and distribute to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow me.”   Two quick observations from this text.  Jesus asks him why he calls Him good if God alone is good, as if to ask him if he knows that it is God speaking to him.  Secondly, look at Jesus’ response.  He gives the ruler 3 tasks – sell all he has, distribute it, and come, yet Jesus tells him one thing he lacks, not three.  One.  What he lacked was Jesus.  He did not love Jesus, he loved his money.  He did not want to follow Jesus, he wanted to follow his money.  He did not want to be led by the Spirit of Christ, he wanted to set his mind on fleshly pursuits.  He did not want to put to death his fleshly desires by following Christ.  As Christians, we have the Spirit of God in us, and our task is no different – we must be actively submitting ourselves to the Spirit’s leading; denying our flesh to gain a greater joy in fellowship with God.
All of the commands of Jesus come down to this – love God and make his love known to the world.  You know God and love Him, so you want to make Him known to everyone.  It’s the greatest news in the world – we have a Savior.  This world is screwed up, I’m screwed up, you’re screwed up, but in Christ we have been forgiven and freed from bondage to sin to enjoy God forever.  We can’t be suprised by the evil in the world because we know that apart from Christ, people are in debt to their flesh, to obey its desires.  Their flesh tells them to serve it, and they obey because that is their nature.  Through Christ, we are no longer bound to our sin nature.  We have a new heart and a new nature that finds pleasure in God Himself, a greater pleasure in fellowship with the Living God, Jesus Christ.  How do we push back the darkness in the world?  We push it back by pressing into Christ in our own lives.  We defeat sin and death by bringing to life Christ in our hearts, minds, and bodies through the Holy Spirit.  We are being led by the Spirit of God to pursue God, and in pursuing God we leave behind sin and evil.
Every one of us will have battle wounds from this fight.  Every one of us will still have to kill off the temptation of our flesh and sin by pressing into a greater joy in Jesus Christ.  My exhortation to all of us today is to not grow weary in this fight.  Evil is real in the world, and we are the light of the world God has ordained to push back the darkness.  1 Peter 1:3-9 – “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you, who by God’s power are being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.  In this you rejoice, though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved by various trials, so that the tested genuineness of your faith—more precious than gold that perishes though it is tested by fire—may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ. Though you have not seen him, you love him. Though you do not now see him, you believe in him and rejoice with joy that is inexpressible and filled with glory, obtaining the outcome of your faith, the salvation of your souls.”
My hope is that this is encouraging to you if you are active in this fight.  If you have waned in your affections and passion for God and His kingdom of late, be encouraged by Hosea 6:1-3 – “Come, let us return to the Lord; for he has torn us, that he may heal us; he has struck us down, and he will bind us up.  After two days he will revive us; on the third day he will raise us up, that we may live before him.  Let us know; let us press on to know the Lord; his going out is sure as the dawn; he will come to us as the showers, as the spring rains that water the earth.”  Cultivate a heart that continually cycles between prayer, seeking God in His Word, and taking action in the your own life and the world.  We will not know the impact of our actions until we are with Christ in glory, but I assure you of this, God has far greater plans for you than you can know or imagine. 
Grace and peace,
Adam

Reconnecting with the Gospel pt. 43 – A Greater Creation

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Last time we labored together to see the depth of our condemnation as sinners born of Adam and how great a salvation we have in the Lord Jesus Christ.  Today we’re going to be looking at what God has for us in Romans 8:2-8.  What God through Paul is wanting to unpack for us in this section of scripture is both how God accomplished removing our condemnation and what that means for us who are “in Christ.”

Romans 8:2-8 – “For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death. 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, 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. For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit set their minds on the things of the Spirit. For to set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace. For the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God, for it does not submit to God’s law; indeed, it cannot.  Those who are in the flesh cannot please God.  You, however, are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if in fact the Spirit of God dwells in you. Anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to him.  But if Christ is in you, although the body is dead because of sin, the Spirit is life because of righteousness.  If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit who dwells in you.“

“The law” was given in the Old Testament and inlcuded the over 600 rules and regulations by which God ordained man should live.  The law was good, showing us the righteousness of God and what we needed to fulfill in order to be in a right relationship with God.  The problem of the law, we saw back in Romans 5, began with the sin of Adam.  As a result of Adam’s sin, everyone born through him inherited his sin.  Therefore, everyone of us that have been born “of the flesh” through Adam had an insurmountable weakness.  We could see the righteousness of God from the law, but our flesh would not submit to it – it was our nature to run from it.  That is why Jesus came in “the likeness of flesh”.  In order to be our sinless savior Jesus was not born through the line of Adam, not born of the flesh; He was born of the Spirit of God through a virgin.  Therefore, Jesus did not inherit man’s sin nature, and lived a perfectly righteous life under the law.  Jesus was not “weakened by the flesh” like each of us have been.  By living a perfectly righteous life under the law, Jesus did what all of us were incapable and unwilling of doing. 

Christ’s holiness was not limited to the law – He was perfectly, infinitely Holy.  Therefore, God demonstrated His love and mercy by taking all of the sin of believers past, present, and future and placing it on Christ.  The condemnation that man had by being born in the flesh became the condemnation of Christ who bore our sin.  2 Corinthians 5:21 – “For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.”  Galatians 3:13 – “Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us—for it is written, “Cursed is everyone who is hanged on a tree”  When Christ died, we were with Him, because our sin was with Him.  When He died for sin, we died to sin.  Our physical death is a testimony to the wages that our sinful flesh requires, but in Christ we have a great hope.  Just as Christ was raised to life, we too will be raised by the Holy Spirit.  Just as Christ was led by the Spirit, we too are led by the Spirit of God.  As the Spirit empowered Christ to do the will of the Father, so too will the Spirit move in us to guide our steps according to the will of God.  We therefore no longer walk according to the flesh, according to it’s guidance, but we are guided by the Spirit of God.

This is what Paul proclaims in Galatians 2:20 – “I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.” 
So that is how God accomplished removing out condemnation.  He accomplished it through the Lord Jesus Christ, by placing our unrighteousness on His infinitely righteous Son.  The implications for us who trust in what God has done for us in Christ, is eternal life and reconciliation to God.  Though our sin and flesh was condemned with Christ, we have life through God, the Holy Spirit.  God also tells us what that looks like to live by the Spirit and how to discern living by the Spirit of God from living according to the flesh (the Spirit Filled Christian vs. the natural man).  God tells us that “setting our mind” on the Spirit is evidence of the Spirit of God at work in us.  Setting your mind on the flesh is no large thing, it is the natural state of anyone apart from Christ.  Setting the mind on the Spirit though, requires us to be a new creation; a massive work of God to change the inclination of our heart and mind away from pursuing joy in the world and towards a fullness of joy in knowing and being known by God.
What does it maen to set the mind on the Spirit vs. setting the mind on the flesh?  Now some of you would expect me to compare a good work, like lets say feeding the homeless against something clearly sinful like adultery.  If I did that, it would be of no help to us, because the same person could do both of those things and have a mind set on the flesh in both.  So I want instead to use an example that Paul uses in scripture – preaching the gospel.  There is a way to preach the gospel that flows from a mind set on the Spirit and there is a way to preach the gospel from a mind set on the flesh.
Paul says in Phlippians 1:15-18 – “Some indeed preach Christ from envy and rivalry, but others from good will.  The latter do it out of love, knowing that I am put here for the defense of the gospel.  The former proclaim Christ out of selfish ambition, not sincerely but thinking to afflict me in my imprisonment.  What then? Only that in every way, whether in pretense or in truth, Christ is proclaimed, and in that I rejoice.”
So Paul says that one group did a good work of preaching the gospel (something few Christians earnestly do) yet they did it out of a heart that was envious of Paul, perhaps the fame he had as a minister of God’s word.  Their mind was set on the flesh.  Another group preached the gospel out of love.  To encourage Paul who was imprisoned to know that the message of God was continuing to grow outside the walls of his imprisonment, his heart’s desire.  Their mind was set on the Spirit of God, to desire to seek after and do the will of God. 
Even as Christians we can find ourselves setting our mind the flesh even in doing “good things”.  As a teacher of God’s word, there is a great temptation to become prideful or to desire others to think highly of you.  How I combat my flesh in that, is to continue to remind myself that the Kingdom of God is far greater than one person, and to make much of how God is using other people.  In that way, my mind ceases to consider myself in what I’m doing, but only what God is desiring to accomplish.  The rebuke of the Lord is helpful in this too – God has a way of humbling you if you start to set your mind on your flesh. 
So my encouragement to all of us is to consider the work of God in Jesus to remove our condemnation and rejoice.  God has done this, and it is finished.  In reponse, my encouragement for all of us who known and love our savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, is to consider how we can actively be setting our mind on the Spirit each day, in prayer asking God to move in us and through us.  God who gave us His son, and sealed us with the Holy Spirit, Christ in us, will meet us in that desire each day.  By God’s grace, Christ will be formed in us – He will increase and we will decrease, for His glory and our joy. 
2 Corinthians 5:16-17 – “ From now on, therefore, we regard no one according to the flesh. Even though we once regarded Christ according to the flesh, we regard him thus no longer.  Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.”  We who were dead have life in Christ, the Spirit of God in us, and we will never be the same.
Grace and Peace,
Adam

Reconnecting with the Gospel pt. 42 – The Victory of Christ and the War Within

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Friends,

Sorry for the gap in teaching…much has been going on, but I’m excited to continue on with God’s revelation to us.  We’ve been working through Romans, and we’ve arrived at what many consider to be the greatest chapter in all of the Bible (if there can be said to be such a thing).  I probably should have more fear in trying to exposit the Truth of God for us from this chapter, but surprisingly what’s coming right now is not fear, but joy.  So I’m trusting God in that.  My burden today is for your peace and joy; that the clarity of God’s redemptive plan and the clarity of the glory of God would create a wellspring of joy in your heart that will carry you for the next 10, 20, 40, 70 years; however long God has for you in this life.  I have gone back and forth on how to approach Romans 8, whether to bite off big chunks at a time and give you an overall understanding of the message of God, or whether to go small and deep.  I started one way, and now have decided to go small and deep.  So after initially planning on covering Romans 8:1-11, instead I’m just going to cover Romans 8:1.  Sorry.  If you know me, this shouldn’t come as a big surprise, but it’ll be good, because God and His promises to us are infinitely good.

Romans 8:1 – “There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.”I want to you feel the weight of this, not because they are my words, but because they are the words of God to you, yesterday, today, tomorrow, and in eternity:  There is no condemnation for those who are you in Christ Jesus.  There is NO condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.  There is no greater foundation for joy than knowing the just wrath of God for our sin has been removed, put on Christ, and there is no condemnation for us if we are in Him.  With so great a Truth before us, we have to ask the question, what is the condemnation we have been freed from?  What does it mean to be “in Christ Jesus”?  How can we be sure that we are in Christ Jesus? 

Let’s start with the condemnation.  What is man’s condemnation before God?  What I want you to see is that our condemnation is not something that came upon us at a certain point in time, like maybe the first time we knowingly sinned.  God doesn’t speak about man’s condemnation that way.  To understand man’s condemnation, we only need look back to Romans 5 to get a description.  In Adam (not me – the other Adam), as his descendant, you were born a sinner in bondage to sin.  Now I realize most of you think about yourself as a sinner because maybe you’ve lied, or you’ve been angry, or you’ve performed some kind of action deemed unrighteous by God.  Roman’s 5 doesn’t describe our sin problem that way, Romans 3 doesn’t talk about our sin problem that way.  We are not sinners because we sin, we are sinners in our innermost being – therefore we sin.  Sin was not merely something you did, you were a sinner from birth; you are by nature a sinner in your flesh (“flesh” being who you are apart from the saving work of Jesus Christ).  Psalm 51:6 – “I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me.”  Ephesians 2:3 – “we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind.”  In Psalm 51 says that
Your condemnation by God is deep; it reaches back into time from the beginning of sin in Adam and carries forward to cover your entire being.  I know people mean well, but I cringe every time I hear someone way, God hates the sin, but loves the sinner.  You won’t find any Bible passage to support that saying.  You cannot separate who you are apart from God from what you do.  What you do simply gives evidence to who you are, and who you are in your flesh apart from Christ is sinful beyond what you can imagine – an infinitely offensive offront to a infinitely holy and righteous God.  Perhaps people take lightly their salvation because they take so lightly their sin.  The infinite wrath of God abides on sinners.  
If you want to know what it means to be in Christ Jesus, you only need to remember the picture we were given in Romans 5.  Romans 5:15-16 – “the free gift is not like the trespass. For if many died through one man’s trespass, much more have the grace of God and the free gift by the grace of that one man Jesus Christ abounded for many.  And the free gift is not like the result of that one man’s sin. For the judgment following one trespass brought condemnation, but the free gift following many trespasses brought justification.”
If you hope in Christ alone for salvation and your life bears evidence of that hope in how you live, you have great assurance that you are in Christ Jesus, and there is no condemnation for you.  Your heart’s inclination towards God to trust Him, love Him, and follow Him is evidence that you are in Christ Jesus.  I can say that with authority because Romans 8 says it, and 1 John 5 says it.  Apart from God, you would never have any love for Jesus.  You might have a selfish desire to escape his wrath, but you would never love Jesus for who He is.  The fact that you love God for who He is and desire to grow closer to Him is evidence of the Holy Spirit in you, because that is what your loving Heavenly Father wants for you too.  So, if those affections for Christ are present for you, you are in Christ Jesus, and no matter where you are struggling with sin, no matter what sins you have committed in your past, no matter what sin you may struggle with in the future, there is no condemnation for you.  This isn’t to make little of the grace of God, to suggest that your war against sin is not important, but you have to understand grace first, and scripture wants you to have peace that if you are trusting in Christ, the battle against sin has been won and you are free.  Christ is victorious, and His victory has been counted as our victory.  So wherever you are, I would encourage you take a moment and rest in the weight of that – in light of everything that you have going on in your life right now to remember that our greatest need; that the wrath of God be removed from us for our sin and that we be reconciled with God – that need has been met fully in Jesus Christ for all time.  We are his, He is ours, and nothing can separate us from His love. 
This is gospel.  The foundation of all Christianity and the Christian life is the finished work of the Lord Jesus Christ.  For us sinners, we will always be tempted by our flesh and Satan to deny God’s grace towards us in Jesus Christ because of our sin, which is why we must pressh this precious truth into our hearts.  Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures.  He was buried, and he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures.  If you are hungry, He is bread.  If you are thirsty, He is drink.  All who are weary and in need of rest, run to your Savior and find peace to the uttermost.  No conditions, no barriers, no waiting to “clean yourself up” or you will never come.  Just come.  Rest in Him, and know that in Christ, the God of all Creation, there is no condemnation for you.  He loves you, and His love will never end.  I hope this finds you well, and know you’re loved and prayed for.