No Condemnation
Notes
Transcript
This morning we are starting a brand new sermon series, we will be diving deeply into one of the most theologically dense chapters of scripture in all of the New Testament, I am guessing if I wanted to I could probably take 3 or 4 months to preach through this text but I gave myself six weeks to do so before we move on. One of the reasons this scripture is so important is because it starts with, “no condemnation,” and ends with no separation. It is a deep drive into what the Gospel does in our lives. We have just come out of this season of Jesus preaching the sermon on the mount and basically telling us the way in which we are to live in this new kingdom to have the lfie he has called us to. The sermon on the mount is probably some of the most well known scripture in the entirety ofthe Bible, but also the hardest for us to live out. So today, we pick up with Paul in Chapter 8 of the book of Romans and here is what he says…
1 Therefore…
Okay, so I know what you are thinking, if you are going to preach one word at a time there is no way we get this done in the 6 weeks you are planning and you are absolutely correct, but this one word requires us to stop because we just jumped in here in this chapter. This therefore means, “because of this,” and while not a conjunction in the literal sense it does show us there was something that preceded this word that needs to be dealt with. So, the question is what was Paul talking about directly before we get to this point?
Well he has spent the first the first seven chapters talking about how we live before this god who is Holy, and he has basically been pointing to the gospel over and over again, telling us God created everything, we broke it, and Jesus fixed it. In the first chapter he tells us the world captures our attention and takes all of our thoughts and minds off of God and his goodness, and we refuse to give him the glory he deserves, and he tells us there is no hope in any of those things we are putting our hope in if it is not Jesus. Of course Paul was speaking to the church in Rome, but he would tell us the same thing today, if we are putting our hope in anything other than Jesus we have no real hope.
He used chapter 2 and 3 to tell us we will all be held accountable before God, going so far in chapter 3 to tell us we have all sinned and fallen short of his glory; none of us can measure up. Then he goes to some deep understanding of the sin in his life in chapter 7.
14 For we know that the Law is spiritual, but I am of flesh, sold into bondage to sin.
15 For what I am doing, I do not understand; for I am not practicing what I would like to do, but I am doing the very thing I hate.
16 But if I do the very thing I do not want to do, I agree with the Law, confessing that the Law is good.
17 So now, no longer am I the one doing it, but sin which dwells in me.
18 For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh; for the willing is present in me, but the doing of the good is not.
19 For the good that I want, I do not do, but I practice the very evil that I do not want.
20 But if I am doing the very thing I do not want, I am no longer the one doing it, but sin which dwells in me.
24 Wretched man that I am! Who will set me free from the body of this death?
25 Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, on the one hand I myself with my mind am serving the law of God, but on the other, with my flesh the law of sin.
In these verses what we see is Paul wrestling with his own sin. He is saying, look I want to do the right thing, but the things I want to do I cannot do, and the things I don’t want to do I do. He asks the hypothetical, who will set me free from this cycle, who will end it for me, how will I get past all of this?
I think we as Christians can find ourselves in this place more than we’d like to admit. We struggle with our sin, we know there are things in our lives we shouldn’t be doing and we have tried to stop, we have promised God time and again we would quit, but we just can’t. It’s not just this sin we struggle with over and over again he would be talking about here, this is easier because for most of us there is something we wish we could do better and struggle with on a regular basis, but this would also be the moments when we say something we shouldn’t have said, or maybe don’t say something when we should have - one way or another, we find ourselves questioning who we are as Christians.
If you are anything like the normal person you have made yourself to believe the moments when you are struggling the least are the moments when you are closest to God, and the moments when you are struggling the most are the moments when you feel like God wants nothing to do with you. Its like this godly report card and the more gold stars God can give you the better. We find our lives in this spiritual up and down with God that is caused by our own actions or lack thereof and we have given ourselves spiritual whiplash from the back and forth.
The problem with this way of thinking is we see God as judge but not as loving father, so we only see one side of him, and to be honest this may be the part of people most people like to leave out, the judge, because the mercy and grace side of him is much more palatable. For a long time, when I would work with my Father in Law he would tell me he had messed up too much in his life to go to God, he had just done too much wrong for God to love him, and so many people find themselves in similar situations. You may have met people who think if they were to come into the church it would crumble in on top of them. Its because they understand how Holy and righteous God is but they have missed out on what God has done for them.
This is why this first word of Romans 8 is so important because he is about to make this shift from the first 7 chapters where Paul has done some deep dives and has told us there is no one who is righteous in 3:11, all of have sinned and come short of the glory of God in 3:23, how we are dead to sin but alive to God in 6:9-11, and also in chapter 7 he has has basically made his case for how the law was good and we are not, and now he says this,
1 Therefore there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.
So for some of you, you may see this as some type of contradiction. What a minute Paul, you just said the law condemns us, you just said we have all sinned, how is it you can now say there is no condemnation in Christ? How can both of those things e possible? its quite simple, Paul is setting the stage quite well, the first 7 chapters of letter are like this prequel to the book where he is showing us the actual state we are in without Jesus, and verse 8 is the setup for what Jesus has done and what he continues to do in our lives.
This should be of great use to us, because much like the people we talked about earlier who are afraid to come into the building because they think they have sinned too much, we can find ourselves in this place often, because this too is what the enemy likes to do to us. He likes to bring up our past failures, what we have done, what we did say, and tell us our identity is in those things and that is who we are. It is in those moments when we are to look at the enemy and say, oh no, I have a savior who died and paid the penalty for all of those sins, and God now looks upon Jesus who died for me, and that is why there is now no condemnation, because Jesus paid for it.
Here is the part I want you to understand when we read this verse, Paul told us there is NOW no condemnation in Christ, sure Jesus pays for our sins and our redemption to be able to live an eternity with God, but what Paul wants us to understand is we don’t have to wait for that moment for the burden to be lifted from us - he says we can have that freedom from condemnation NOW. Some of you need to hear that, if you have given your life to him, and you find yourself “in Christ” you can have that freedom from all the attacks of the enemy right now. It doesn’t have to wait until the day of judgment.
Maybe that causes you to ask the question, “Okay, so you are telling me I have can freedom in Christ now, so what does he mean by those who are in Christ Jesus?”
Theologian Cecil Shermans said this, “At its most basic level, the phrase designates those who have come to know God through Jesus Christ, with Christ bringing God’s character into focus. It also conveys a dimension of personal commitment—being “in Christ” means standing in a posture of dedication, surrender, and complete allegiance to him.”
Or, we can look straight to the Biblical text Ephesians 1:13
13 In Him, you also, after listening to the message of truth, the gospel of your salvation—having also believed, you were sealed in Him with the Holy Spirit of promise,
In Him. You were sealed in him after hearing the message of the Gospel and believing in the truth of it, the Holy Spirit sealed you in Him.
Alright, lets move on to verse 2. Romans 8:2
2 For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and of death.
See the law condemns us, and Jesus sets us free, because he came and he fulfilled the law. Remember, Paul has spent 7 chapters telling us how Holy the law is, but the law was never able to make us Holy, but Jesus fulfilled the law and it did exactly what God wanted it to do, it offered us freedom. It was meant to help us live the life God intended for us to live - not to show us how sinful we are.
We have probably been in Bible studies where you have heard people say, “We are no longer under the law, we are New Testament Christians, The Law is finished, this is the new testament world of grace.” Well, that isn’t exactly right. We are not under the curse of the law, in a sense that the law is what helps us make ourselves right with God, and if we just get it all right we will have acceptance with God. But we are still under the jurisdiction of the law, meaning this is the direction we are supposed to live in order to live a Holy life. There is no condemnation if we do not, but we should live according to the law to cheerfully go in the direction God called us to live, because we desire to live a life he has called us to live.
We must remember two things, first the law when it was given was not given to the Israelites and they were the only ones expected to live according to the law, God expected everyone to live a holy life, he just gave the Israelites the method in which they could live that holy life. Secondly, the ten commandments were given to the Israelites AFTER they were freed from Egpytian captivity. After they were freed God showed them the way in which they could live a life to fully enjoy the freedom which they had been given. I love the old saying, Redemption precedes the requirements, that is God delivers and then he directs.
3 For what the Law could not do, weak as it was through the flesh, God did: sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and as an offering for sin, He condemned sin in the flesh,
4 so that the requirement of the Law might be fulfilled in us, who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.
So, here Paul clearly lays out the differences, he says In Christ we are living in the spirit, it not just that we have been redeemed in Christ, but the spirit comes to live in us that enables us to live the life God has called us to live. Its a huge dynamic shift, first seven chapters, the human nature is hopeless, it will fail us, we have no hope in this world, but with Jesus we now have hope.
So Paul has laid out there are these two different kinds of people that are ruled by two different ways of thinking that lead us to completely different lifestyles, and ultimately lead to two different destinies.
And here is what you need to understand, this is a beautiful way for Paul to lay out the gospel to us, Jesus came so what was required to make us righteous, which you could just easily say right with God, was the perfect sacrifice was paid by Him in his death on the cross.
You see, we live in a time where it is okay for us to be seeking. Some of you here this morning may be seeking and in the culture we are living in all of that seeking is celebrated. We are encouraged to seek our true identity, to find our own truths, to seek a higher power, whatever that may be, but what is not celebrated is the finding. We live in a time when young people are being fed lies. First and foremost, they are told there is no personal God. Secondly, they are told there is no universal morality, we can all think something is right or wrong based on what we see as truth. All of that times to the last lie our young people are being told, there is no absolute truth. Young people may say something like, “Well, you may think that, but this is my truth.”
The problem is, the gospel doesn’t allow for this. The gospel takes this and turns it on its head because the Gospel allows for only one truth, and only one way for us to be made right with God, and that’s through Jesus.
I want all of us to understand the gospel clearly and what it states, so I want to present it to you in another way this morning. And you can remember it by just four words. God. Sin. Jesus. Response.
God - God loves us and created us to know him, love him, and above all live in relationship with Him.
Sin - Sin entered the world through Adam and because of this, you and I are bent toward sin, and our sin has separated us from him and there is nothing you or I can do on our own to be right with Him.
Jesus - God loved us so much that Jesus came, lived the life we couldn't l live, died for our sins, and rose from the dead.
Response -Jesus offers forgiveness and new life to anyone who turns from sin and trusts in Him.
It is up to us to respond rightly to the gospel. Jesus sent the Holy Spirit to allow us and aide us to live the life he has called us to live. He has given us the means to be able to live a life to reconcile our sin.
Friends, what I want you to know is Paul tells us we don’t have to wait for that type of life, if you consider yourself a Christian, you need to know even as you sit here, there is no condemnation in your life if you find yourself living IN CHRIST. No matter what the enemy is telling you, recalling you mistakes, shouting them at you, invading your thoughts, you don’t have to hold those above your head and hang in guilt from them. Jesus has freed you from the guilt of that, if only you would give it to Him. There are probably some of you sitting here this morning who feel the guilt of that even while I am speaking - the enemy is working double-time to make you think this surely doesn’t involve you, you are so guilty and God could never truly love you. It just isn’t true.
Or maybe you are here this morning and you consider yourself a seeker and you are trying to decide what you are going to do, someone has invited you to church, or you remember your grandparents or parents taking you, and you have some concept of Jesus but havent made a final decision. Maybe the situation in your life has just gotten so bad you thought you’d give it a chance and so you showed up to see if he would speak to you. What I think Jesus would have you know is He loves you, he knows all the stuff you have going on in your life, and while I can’t promise you he will take away all the pain and misery if you follow Him, what I can tell you is he will be with you in the middle of it even if he doesnt take it away and he will hold your hand the entire way, and without Him, we have no hope.
Allow this morning to be the morning you turn your life to him.
