Rescued from Condemnation

Introdcution

On September 5, 1945 World War II came to and end. early in 1944 allied forces pushed the greatly weakened Nazi regime. As they pushed back these forces began to uncover something humanity has never seen before. Death, cruelty, unspeakable crimes against mankind in what we now know as concentration camp…later rightly called death camps.

You can image the terror that came into the lives of these liberating warriors as they discovered German abandoned death camps, yet still occupied by a Jewish population that was starved, tortured, and some just moments from death.

Even though they we no longer under the fear of their German captors, they were still prisoners…trapped by months or years of mistreatment. Some of the prisoners, while liberated, would still die because they were beyond help. These Jewish prisoners would have to be nursed…slowly back to heath as their bodies would not respond well to mass amounts of food or water.

These prisoners needed more that released…they needed rescued. And that is exactly what we need. Released gives the impression that we have been set free…free of guilt, free of blame, free of punishment. But until sin is abolished, like the Nazi Germany, we will never be set free…we can only be rescued.

Romans 8:1-4

A few weeks ago we dove into Chapter 8. This week we are looking at Chapter 7. But when you look at chapter 7, it is obvious that it is building toward chapter 8. So we start in Chapter 8, and then we are going to look backward into chapter 7 and learn about our need to be rescued.

Romans 8:1–4 NASB95

Therefore there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and of death. 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, 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.

Highlights from this verse:

No condemnation for those in Christ Jesus - for those who have a personal relationship with Jesus, for those who are under his Lordship/Kingship - there is no condemnation.

Why: The spirt of Life has set you free from sin…and sin that brings death. The other law, the law that Moses gave to the Hebrews, even though it is good, holy, and righteous…cannot be kept by human efforts…flesh. Impossible.

But Jesus, who came in the flesh, did keep the law perfectly and thus condemned sin through his humanity so that the requirement that God gave through the law could be fulfilled…not through us, but through the Spirit.

Body

I need rescued because sin is alive within me

Sin reveals itself through the commandments.

What is the law…Covenant…Hebrew…Paul is one. Paul testifies that without the law, he would not know sin.

Some of you may have heard of the evangelist Ray Comfort. He works closely to a movie and sitcom start named Kirk Cameron. Together they operate an organization called The Way of the Master. They promote a simple test to help people understand their great need for a Savior. They simple begin to ask simple questions. “Have you ever lied? Have you ever stolen?” And then they point out, “So, by your own admission you would say that you are a lying thief?”

When we look into the mirror of God’s word and look at the very simple commands, sin becomes extremely evident in our lives.

Sin revealed through the commandment

Have you ever thought about the moral code itself written on every heart in every culture? The fact that no matter where you go, you will find that it is wrong to steal. It is wrong to lie. It is wrong to disobey parents. It is wrong to disrespect authority. So just going by the human moral code we know that we are sinners because it wasn’t man who wrote this code, but God.

Matthew, who wrote one of the accounts of Jesus’ life, tells of a man who ask Jesus, “What must I do to enter the Kingdom”. Jesus responds, “You know the commandments, what are they?” He begins to recite most of them, “Do not kill, do not lie, obey your parents”. Then claims that he has kept all of these. Jesus then rebukes him, “you are still missing one thing. Go, sell all your possessions, and then follow me.” This man went away sad because he was wealthy.

When we look into the commandments, they do exactly what they were intended to do, and that was to reveal sin in our lives. We can be perfect in everything, yet fail at one point and we fail entirely.

The commands, like a bullseye, defines the target (NAC - Romans), and just as Paul taught in - “All of sinned and fall short of God’s standard”

Sin

Not only does sin reveal itself through the commandments, but sin produces more sin.

I need rescued because sin dwells within me

V8. Productivity is one sign of heathy. Farm. Livestock. Plants. Animals. Workforce. In this case, sin. Not only does sin reveal itself through the command, but sin seizes the opportunity through the command to produce more sin. Notice what Paul says. He tells us that the sin of coveting is revealed; he knows it’s alive, he know that sin exists now. But not only is it evident, but now it produces even more coveting.

On the beaches where sea turtles lay their eggs, there are people who watch and then put up barriers to protect their nests. Most likely, if you didn’t know what to look for you probably wouldn’t even know a nest was there. But, they put up a sign that says, “Don’t enter the turtle nesting area”. Now without that sign, I would have not interest in going there. But now that they sign says I can’t…I must. Now I haven’t but the temptation is there. Why. Because the command says I can’t.

V10. Look back at verse 10. It says that apart from the law, sin lies dead. It’s there. It’s present. But it’s not alive. But once the commandment came, sin come alive…life Frankenstien’s monster, sin comes alive.

But, because sin comes alive, it means we die. Once sin is revealed in our lives, reproduces itself, then only result is death. says, “The wages of sin is death”. It’s what we deserve. In fact, death is what this world has faced once sin entered into the world. We see death everywhere we turn. Either through sickness, through violence, through natural disasters, everything that God did not intent for us, we not face because death is what we deserve for our sinful nature. We need rescued!

But there is one more thing about the presence of sin in our lives. Sin deceives.

There is a movement that has caught some energy and it led by many men and women who are teaching that we can and should live by the Law of Moses just like the Hebrew children did…the nation of Israel.

This movement, which has many different branches led by the ideas and teachings of men, not by the Spirit, teaches that the commandments, those that can, should still be kept today. Not only the 10 commandments that we are familiar with, but the entire code given by God to the Hebrews as a Covenant. Even thought that covenant was broken nearly immediately, they still believe it should and can be kept today. Somehow, they can can circumvent the truth that there is a New Covenant, not make between God and us, but for us…a new way of living in God’s Kingdom.

Anytime, we try to prove or produce our own righteousness, we are greatly deceived. Just like V11 says, “the commandment deceived me and killed me”.

Just like the man who asked Jesus, “what must I do to enter your Kingdom” new the moral code and could quote it, and depended upon it, walked away sad, walked away maybe living in sin and death because it deceived him.

God never intended us to live by some moral code of regulations. This is simply another form of religion. What God desires is faithfulness to him. Just like Paul taught earlier in Romans, “Abraham believed and it was credited to him as righteousness.” This is not based upon keeping a commandment, but believing in God’s promises.

Now some, just like Paul anticipated, is asking, “So the law is no good…the law is sin? No, the law is holy and the commandment is also holy and righteous and good”. It is not the command that causes our sin problems, but it magnifies, it and ignites the sin that is already there.

This, is why we need rescued. Sin is alive in us and evident because it reveals itself, it reproduces itself, and it deceives us.

Sin deceives

I need rescued because sin dwells within me - Two Ways

You are under the ownership of sin

Paul reviews and rewords some of the things he just said to make sure we understand.

First, he is not trying to disregard the law or the commandments…he says again that they are good as intended. But they also do what they were intended to do, and that is to show us our sinful nature.

He then distinguishes the spiritual law from our sinful nature. He defines it in two ways.

First, he says we are of flesh. This does not mean the flesh that covers our bodies, but it is simple another way of saying our broken, disappointing level of behavior…or we are merely human. (BDAG)

The human nature, sinful nature of man will always find it’s way out. Through words, actions, thoughts, attitudes…for some it doesn’t take much to remind us that sin can easily be brought out of our hearts. So, how can anyone, who is of flesh…of a sinful nature…keep the spiritual law. No one. And when we attempt to, we once again are deceived sin to think that we can.

Second, not only is it impossible by or fleshy nature able to keep the standard set by the law, but we are under the ownership of sin…like a slave that is sold to a new owner, we are enslaved by the sin master.

If we are enslaved by the sIn Master then we are under his influence.

We have all heard the phrase, “The devil made me do it”. Well, that is not an accurate statement. When we sin, it’s not because the devil made us, it because we are under the influence of sin.

You have surely heard of some of the new drugs that have hit some cities hard…drugs like PCP that give people superhuman like strength. It is nearly impossible to subdue them, control them, thus help them until it wears off. It is not their desire to do what they do, but it the the fact that they are under the influence of a drug that forces them to do the things that they would not normally due.

What does the sin master do. It forces us to do the very thing we do not want to do. You can hear Paul’s own struggle with the sin in this passage. He states V15 - that he does not do what he wants, but instead what he hates. He is under the influence of the sin master.

You are under the influence of sin

Nothing good within me…my flesh

Conclusion

Conclusion

Three reasons why you need to respond to the rescuing force in Jesus.

First: V24 - We need rescued...”wretched man am I”

V24 - We need rescued...”wretched man am I”

Second: You cannot do it on your own. While you hope to do well, while you believe that you can do right, your humanity…your broken humanity will always get in the way.

Third: Without Jesus you are condemned. There is no way, now how that you can keep God’s standard. Therefore we must submit ourselves to the work of Jesus who met the requirement, who condemned sin, who lived the perfect life and then paid for the penalty we deserve…death.

Therefore, there is no condemnation for those in Christ Jesus