Romans 8 What Does Free In Chist Look Like?
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Grace and Law - Sin and Righteousness
Romans 8:1–11 begins with an enormous declaration about the grace of God: There is no condemnation for those in Christ Jesus. After describing how this is possible, thanks to the life and death of Jesus, Paul compares two kinds of life. One is life in the Holy Spirit, for those who are in Christ, the other is a life lived according to the flesh.
1 There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.
Why is Romans 8:1 so significant? Because Paul has just spent the last 7 chapters telling us we are condemned. He has been showing us that the law has a right to condemn us.
The definition of condemnation is:
to give judgment against
passing judgment
an adverse sentence
Condemnation means a sense of judgment or disapproval by God for which there is no available repair.
The definition of the word devil in the Greek is called Accuser of the brothers. That’s one of his weapons of choice.
10 And I heard a loud voice in heaven, saying, “Now the salvation and the power and the kingdom of our God and the authority of his Christ have come, for the accuser of our brothers has been thrown down, who accuses them day and night before our God.
Conviction means I have done something wrong and here is what I can do to make it right. The devil condemns us, he says, “You sinned one too many times. You are disapproved by God. And it is just this sense of judgment.
He loves to burden believers with guilt and condemnation. Some of his favorite strategies are: bringing up the past, reminding you of your failures and making you feel unforgiven and unaccepted by God.
When I first started walking with God I thought I blasphemed the Holy Spirit and that I commited the unforgivable sin.
We feel condemned because Satan uses past guilt and present failures to make us question what Christ has done for us. Our assurance must be focused on Christ, not our performance.
Condemnation produces guilt, shame, and fear in our lives. Guilt is based on self-condemning feelings that you have not lived up to your own expectations or those of someone else or those of God.
SHAME
You experience shame when your guilt moves from knowing you have done something bad to feeling that you are bad.
Shame focuses not on what you’ve done but on being ashamed of who you are.
FEAR
10 And he said, “I heard the sound of you in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked, and I hid myself.”
Here are a few signs that you might be living under condemnation:
Your stuck in the past:
Sins and mistakes from 10, 20, even 30 years ago? Or maybe you keep reliving a negative life experience that left you hurt—over and over and over. Perhaps you’ve even found yourself saying on repeat, “I wish I would’ve…” or “If only I wouldn’t have….”
Recalling these memories can leave you feeling guilty, ashamed and like you’re never quite good enough.
Answer: Phil 3:13
13 Brothers, I do not consider that I have made it my own. But one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead,
How do you do this? Know that Jesus already took the condemnation for your past upon Himself. As a born-again Christian, you have been made free from every sin you’ve ever committed. Jesus bore all your sin, shame and guilt on the cross, so you could live free of condemnation—FOREVER.
2. You Feel unworthy:
Do you ever feel like you have to prove yourself? In today’s world, that’s what you have to do, right? On the job, among friends and even at home, the pressure is on to convince those around you that you deserve the salary, the friendship and even the love they give you. Why? Because you feel unworthy.
Answer:
If you’re feeling unworthy of anyone’s love—be it a family member, friend, co-worker or even God Himself, you have to know and accept the truth: God considered you worthy enough to send Jesus Christ to die for you. That’s how He showed His love for you, and that’s how He showed you that you are worthy. Your life is very important to God.
Meditate on scriptures that talk about God’s love for you.
3. You can’t seem to forgive yourself:
If you find yourself beating yourself up for days, weeks and even years after you make a mistake.
Feelings of rejection, fear of failure, insecurity and depression are all connected to condemnation.
Answer:
To forgive yourself, you must renew your mind to the truth of God’s Word that says you are forgiven and have been made new.
If Jesus can forgive you for past and future sins, who are you to not forgive yourself?
17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.
4. You have a judgmental and critical spirit:
What is a judgmental and critical spirit? It is one that looks for flaws and failings in others and forms a verdict or opinion about them. Criticizing and passing judgment on another person can help make us feel a bit superior in areas in which we feel we have the upper hand. At least I don’t do that! you may think to yourself.
Often, we judge people because we ourselves “feel” judged either by God or by people. When we feel judged, feelings of condemnation abound. However, often, we are only feeling judged by others because of condemning thoughts are replaying in our heads.
Signs of a critical spirit fueled by condemnation include:
Being highly critical of yourself and comparing yourself to others
Needing constant affirmation from people around you
Craving compliments, while feeling threatened if others are complimented.
Answer:
How do you go free from a judgmental and critical spirit?
If you truly believe someone is in error, refuse to criticize him or her, but pray instead! The Scripture says, “Who are you to judge someone else’s servant? To their own master, servants stand or fall. And they will stand, for the Lord is able to make them stand” (Romans 14:4, NIV).
Refuse to gossip or speak negatively about anyone, ever (Ephesians 4:29). Be cautious of what you share about others, knowing that love covers a multitude of sins (1 Peter 4:8), which means it doesn’t highlight or gossip about the failings of others.
Walk in love by choosing to speak life and build others up with your words. Go out of your way to say something nice to or about someone. When you’re living free from condemnation, you’ll find yourself eager to build others up.
2 For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death.
A higher Law. One hundred fifty years ago it would have been thought insane that a jumbo jet, filled with people, could fly. The law of gravity made it impossible for even a feather to remain in the air. Yet, we know that when a certain object moves at a particular speed, it moves out of the law of gravity into a higher law, the law of aerodynamics, even though the law of gravity still remains. The world thinks the Christian is insane to live for Jesus Christ. But we know that, even though there is the law of sin and death, we live in a higher law the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus.
John G Lake was a missionary and one of the founders of the AG. He was in Africa for 5 years and produced 1,250 preachers, started 625 churches, and had over 100,000 converts.
As the team landed on African soil in Jan 1910, a plague was raging over portions of the nation.
In less than a month, one quarter of the entire population had died.
In fact, the plague was so contagious that the government was offering $1000 to any nurse who would care for the sick .
Lake and his assistants went to help, free of charge.
He and one assistant would go into the houses, bring out the dead, and bury them.
But no symptom of the plague ever touched him.
At the height of this horrible plague, a doctor sent for Lake and asked him: “what have you been doing to protect yourself? You must have a secret!”
To this Lake responded:
“Brother it is the law of the Spirit of Life in Christ Jesus. I believe that just as long as I keep my soul in contact with the living God so that His Spirit is flowing into my soul and body, that no germ will ever attach itself to me, for the Spirit of God will kill it”
Lake then invited the doctor to experiment with him.
He asked the doctor to take the foam from the lungs of a dead plague victim and put it under a microscope.
The doctor did so, and found masses of living germs.
Then Lake astounded the people in the room as he told the doctor to spread the deadly foam on his hands and announced that germs would die.
The doctor did so and found that the germs died instantly in Lakes hand.
Those who witnessed the experiment stood in amazement as Lake continued to give glory to God explaining the phenomenon like this:
“You can fill my hand with them and I will keep it under the microscope, and instead of these germs remaining alive, they will die instantly”.