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.
Following the Way 