Freedom From Condemnation
It Is Well • Sermon • Submitted
0 ratings
· 8 viewsNotes
Transcript
ME: Atonement Imagery/Recap
ME: Atonement Imagery/Recap
The theme of our It Is Well series is the doctrine called the substitutionary atonement.
The Bible uses many images to communicate the concept of atonement.
There is the economic imagery of redemption.
There is the military imagery of victory,
And there is the freedom imagery of liberty.
So, why insist on this idea of substitutionary atonement?
Some scholars argue that the substitutionary atonement is a secondary teaching that has minimal significance in life.
So, you may wonder why we are doing an entire sermon series on this topic.
16 weeks making the same point each week,
That Jesus died on the cross as a substitute for sinners and our sin.
As we have gone through this series,
The Scriptures have revealed that this concept of substitution is central to what God has been doing with fallen humanity.
We saw it in the OT at the start of our study in Exodus 12.
God built up His people as this incredible arrow pointing toward Christ.
They were slaves to Egypt,
Just as we are in bondage to sin.
For both us and God’s people, we need God to rescue us from our slavery.
So, God took action on behalf of His people,
But the people needed a lamb without blemish to be sacrificed as their substitute.
From there, we learned in Leviticus that the Day of Atonement was established to sacrifice an animal,
And banish another animal as a symbolic sin-bearer,
Carrying the people’s sins into the wilderness.
Then in Isaiah, we saw a prophesy about a suffering servant who would bear the sins of many.
This concept of substitution was deeply rooted in God’s people for centuries.
They understood how this displayed the truths of God’s holiness, kindness, mercy, and justice.
Then after all the centuries, the tension between the justice and mercy of God,
Was resolved with the substitutionary death of Jesus Christ for the sins of God’s people.
The cross resonated with the ancient image of substitution God implanted in His people from the beginning.
Jesus’s own teaching explained the substitutionary purpose of His life and death.
He spoke of sacrificial lambs, the bearing of sins, the suffering servant, the high priest, and the temple.
How else are we to understand Jesus’s teachings if not that Jesus was the fulfillment of all the OT substitutionary images?
You see, substitution is not merely a secondary teaching that has minimal significance in life.
Substitution is the central reality of the atonement.
Making it central to our faith and our life.
Last week we sought to answer questions about practical applications of the atonement in our lives.
We worked through Romans 5:8-10 to answer those questions.
This morning we come to the final section in Romans for our It Is Well series,
A section where Paul expands upon the point that we have a new life in Christ.
Paul wrestles with this struggle with sin,
Against the call to live by the Spirit,
And central to this wrestling,
Paul is thinking about the death of Christ in place of our sins.
Our passage this morning is Romans 8:1-4;
After this Sunday, we will be taking a pause from our It Is Well series for a few weeks.
Next week, Lord willing,
We will have our local WOL missionary, Alf Wilkes bringing the Word.
After that,
Pastor Ryan and I plan on doing a short two-week series on Biblical foundation and application of worship.
Then we plan to return Gal. 3:10-13 to finish up the last few weeks of the It Is Well series.
Our outline for this morning will begin with the end where we see People Transformed in vs. 4.
From there, we will look at the three parts that result in people being transformed,
Which are:
Penalty Paid (vs. 1)
Bondage Broken (vs. 2)
Sin Condemned (vs. 3)
Because sin is condemned, our penalty is paid, and our bondage is broken, we live as transformed people.
WE: People Transformed (vs. 4)
WE: People Transformed (vs. 4)
Romans 8:4;
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.
In vs. 4, Paul teaches that people are transformed.
He made it clear in the early chapters of Romans that we need salvation.
Then, he made it clear that salvation is by faith in Christ in chs. 3-5.
Starting in ch. 6, up to our passage this morning,
Paul has made it clear that we are transformed by our new life in Christ.
Our identity in Christ crucifies the old self with Christ,
Meaning sin is not longer our master,
So, we are not slaves to sin but slaves to righteousness.
This transformation is not by obedience to the law but by God’s intervention.
But this transformation does produce obedience to the law.
The law is God’s prescribed regulations for living.
It was given to Moses on Mount Sinai.
These regulations carry a punishment for disobedience.
He has inscribed our conscience with His law.
He has revealed His will to us,
It is perfect, holy, and good.
We are all bound by it,
And we have been unable to obey it.
So, the law alone could never free us from our enslavement to sin.
Our flesh rejects the law,
Because of this,
The law tends to only exacerbate our desire to rebel against God.
This is the struggle happening in our lives.
We are made in God’s image,
Yet we are under the curse of the law.
So, God intervened by sending His Son,
Not to circumvent the law,
Rather to fulfill the law.
Because the requirement of the law,
As Paul highlights,
Is righteousness.
This results with us being in bondage to sin and death.
It is the reason Paul says at the beginning of Rom. 8:3,
That the law, weakened by the flesh, could not transform us, our life, or our status before God.
The law was powerless to do this.
It was impossible for the law because it was weakened.
Picture it like the law had an illness that sapped it’s strength,
Limiting it’s power.
The law is helpless to save us because of our sinful nature.
It is not weakened by our physical bodies,
It is our fallen nature that renders the law powerless.
The law cannot save us,
Because we cannot keep it.
The only result of the law is sin and death,
Not salvation.
This means we can never save ourselves by our actions.
Christianity is not a spiritual checklist.
The Gospel gives us something so much more!
Think about what was the best change you have ever experienced in your life.
Perhaps you remember when you started your favorite job,
Or you moved into a new home,
Or you began a new friendship,
Maybe it was a shift in your diet that resulted in better health.
Whatever the best change you ever experienced was, just think about it for a moment.
Now, my assumption is,
That even with that change,
You still experienced a sense of disappointment related to your expectations.
Do you ever wonder why that is?
You see, Christianity is not some sort of resource that will make our life in this world perfect.
Believing in Christ means we understand that only Jesus transforms us, our lives, and this world.
As believers, we should all share a common understanding of our spiritual helplessness.
There is no greater shared identity than the fact that we are sinners before our holy Creator.
Therefore, the reality is that salvation must come from something greater outside of ourselves,
Because it is not going to come from within us.
So, not only are we unable to save ourselves,
We are not able to save others either,
No matter how much you may love them.
Do you realize that?
You cannot save your parents, your brother, your sister, your husband, your wife, or your children.
You cannot save them, and you cannot save yourself.
Do you realize that?
Do you realize that you have not obeyed yourself into God’s forgiveness?
It does not work that way.
You cannot learn enough,
You cannot work enough,
You cannot love enough.
These are obviously all good things.
But you cannot do any of them enough to be transformed.
We must all understand this,
And agree to this.
That is why our statement of faith explains that salvation is by Divine Sacrifice,
Because we are universally depraved,
Resulting in the necessity of regeneration through the Holy Spirit of God and faith in Jesus Christ.
Our deeds, knowledge, and affections will never transform us.
If you think in any way that you saved yourself or someone else then you will miss the whole point of our passage this morning.
You will miss what Paul is talking about.
So, if we are not transformed by ourselves,
How is it then, that we are transformed?
We are transformed by God’s intervention in our lives,
And what a glorious work this intervention is!
We who believe in Christ are redeemed,
Released from the bondage to the law, sin, and death.
By God’s intervention people are transformed.
We now, as Rom. 7:6 says, serve in the new way of the Spirit.
Paul contrasts this old pattern of life for people in vs. 4,
Against the new transformed life using the terms flesh and Spirit.
He works out the difference between these two lives in terms of attitudes or mindsets.
Life in the flesh is under the influence of the flesh.
Transformed people live in the Spirit,
Meaning we are under the influence of the Spirit that dwells in believers.
God’s people still make mistakes,
Still fail,
And still sin.
We have examples of this all throughout the Bible;
Abraham lied about his wife,
David had an affair with Bathsheba,
Peter attempted to murder Malchus with his sword.
They certainly suffered consequences,
But they did not suffer condemnation.
The same is true for believers today.
When we make mistakes, fail, or sin,
We suffer horizontal consequences,
That is, consequences in this world.
But because believers are in Christ Jesus,
We do not suffer the vertical consequences we deserve,
That is, condemnation.
It is the law that condemns,
But in Christ Jesus,
The believer has a new relationship to the law,
Therefore, we cannot be condemned!
As believers, our new relationship to the law is one of freedom instead of condemnation.
We have this new relationship to the law because we are people who are transformed.
Now we can live in this new way of love.
Because, as Paul says in Rom. 13:10, love is the fulfilling of the law.
This life in the new way of love is living freely in keeping with the Spirit.
Paul made three statements that add up to no condemnation.
These three statements are the outline for the rest of this message.
In vs. 1 and 2,
Paul says in Christ twice because Christ paid the penalty needed for no condemnation.
He explains in vs. 2 that no condemnation means freedom.
So, the bondage from the law of sin and death has been broken.
And thirdly, now that sin has been condemned,
We walk according to the Spirit,
Not according to our human obedience to the law.
GOD: Penalty Paid (vs. 1)
GOD: Penalty Paid (vs. 1)
Let us turn our attention to the fact that the Penalty is Paid in Romans 8:1;
There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.
The start of ch. 8 reveals Paul’s concern for his readers is a pastoral one.
He has repeatedly reminded them of both their past sins,
And their ongoing sinfulness.
Now, they must be able to take hold of the truth of their acceptance and security in Christ.
We cannot give God enough praise for His kindness to us!
In order to really appreciate it,
We must remind ourselves that we owe our entire lives to God,
And yet, we spend our lives for ourselves.
We have sinned against God,
Since He is fair and good and just,
He punishes sin,
The punishment is condemnation.
Jesus warned His disciples about the wrath of God,
And the wrath of God awaits all who reject Christ.
That is why vs. 1 is such wonderfully good news!
Now, Paul says,
We can be certain that there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.
When Paul says ‘now’ he is referring to the earth-altering change of Christ’s death on the cross as a substitute for us.
So, now, the charges have been dropped for all who trust in Christ.
Because Jesus was condemned in our place.
All who are in Christ have assurance that Christ has fully paid our penalty,
Therefore, we are no longer haunted by the fear of condemnation.
Paul specifies that the penalty is covered for those who are in Christ Jesus.
This means all who trust in Christ.
Similarly, Paul writes in Gal 2:16;
yet we know that a person is not justified by works of the law but through faith in Jesus Christ, so we also have believed in Christ Jesus, in order to be justified by faith in Christ and not by works of the law, because by works of the law no one will be justified.
To be in Christ entails more than just relief from condemnation,
Being in Christ shares in both the Kingdom and the suffering of Christ.
In Rom. 6:11 Paul said;
So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.
Being in Christ also means we all belong to one another as members of His body.
We glory in Christ together,
We work together for Christ,
We are sanctified and given grace together in Christ.
We live together in Christ.
All of God’s promises,
All of our hope,
All our purposes,
Are seen in Christ.
His Spirit lives in us,
And we live to praise and exalt His name.
This is what it means to be in Christ.
Paul communicates the acceptance and security of believers by saying there is no condemnation for them.
The absence of condemnation communicates both the absence of judgment,
And the sense of punishment that would naturally go with it.
So, if you are in Christ you can be certain that there is therefore now no condemnation for you.
Condemnation is a pronouncement of a sentence,
Or to pass judgment.
It essentially is a legal declaration of guilty in a criminal case.
Included in the declaration is the penalty for the guilty.
The reason there is now no condemnation for believers because we are not under the law according to Rom. 6:14.
For sin will have no dominion over you, since you are not under law but under grace.
Or as Paul says in Rom. 7:6,
“Now we are released from the law,”
So, we can now serve God in the “new way of the Spirit and not in the old way of the written code.”
If you do not trust in Christ,
What this means for you is that you are liable to God’s condemnation for your sins.
At this moment, your sins are beckoning God’s justice to be poured out against your sins.
That may sound extreme to you,
I mean,
How bad must sins be for God to condemn someone for them?
Certainly, your sins cannot be that bad.
Well, the Bible reveals that God is perfect,
He is set apart from the low standards of our sin.
Because He is perfect, He is just, holy, and righteous,
He has never once sinned,
Not even a little bit.
So, anything short of that merits His condemnation.
For all who believe,
The Bible teaches that Jesus is our ransom who justifies us.
In Matthew 25,
He explains how on the last day He will separate all people into two groups,
Sheep and goats.
We like to separate ourselves into other groups;
Marital status, political party, socioeconomic status, and nationality.
But on that last day,
The only division that will matter will be the division between sheep and goats,
The division between those who are condemned and those who there is therefore now no condemnation.
For those who are in Christ,
Rejoice!
Rejoice that you now have no condemnation!
Savor this truth!
Rejoice when you are at work,
Rejoice when you are home!
As you learn to rejoice over this,
It will do more for you than memorizing hundreds of evangelistic presentations.
So, rejoice that you now have no condemnation in Christ.
Praise God for the joy this truth bring to our hearts!
Praise God for this truth!
Praise God that we know that Christ has paid for our penalty!
Praise God that there is therefore now no condemnation!
We can place all our worries before this certainty we have in Christ,
And we can rejoice in Christ knowing He has paid the penalty in our place.
There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ.
YOU: Bondage Broken (vs. 2)
YOU: Bondage Broken (vs. 2)
For our bondage is broken, we see in Romans 8:2,
We are set free!
For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death.
The two laws mentioned in this verse likely refers to God’s law in various forms.
In other words, how God’s law brings life to some but death to others.
Another possibility is Paul is simply comparing these two laws to illustrate principles of life.
Either way, we can understand that the Spirit of life pulls in one direction,
While the sin and death pull against it.
For example, the law of the Spirit refers to the operative power of the Spirit.
Conversely, the law of sin is the operative power of sin in you.
The result of the law of sin is death.
The law of the Spirit pulls toward God,
While the law of sin pulls toward self.
In Romans 7:23,
Paul demonstrated this tension as he expresses his own internal wrestling between the law of sin that lives in him because of his flesh,
And the law of the Spirit that dwells in him as a result of being in Christ.
Paul says;
but I see in my members another law waging war against the law of my mind and making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members.
The work of the Holy Spirit results in life,
The Holy Spirit illuminates God’s Word to us so we can absorb it and be set free.
That is what Paul is saying happens to believers.
Our bondage is broken by the Spirit.
If you are not a believer, this may sound a little melodramatic.
You may be doubting that we Christians are free,
Thinking that you are way more free than the Christians you know.
That is what sin wants you to believe.
Because you are in bondage to sin,
And as long as you believe that, you will remain in bondage to sin.
We who trust in Christ understand that we too were in bondage to sin.
Every person, even children, our closest friends, and the most generous people we know,
Naturally are in bondage to sin.
This is the common slavery that every person is born into.
This may seem outrageous to you,
Which is not surprising that you may feel that way.
We are so blind to our own sin.
We are able to notice everyone else’s sin so much more naturally than our own.
But that also means that everyone else is able to see your sin so much naturally than they see their own.
And even when we catch a glimpse of our own sin,
We find it so disturbing that we try to look away,
Or bury it deep to where it will be hidden from our sight and everyone else’s.
What happens, is we slowly get acclimated to our own sin,
It becomes less disturbing and more accepted,
More just a part of who you are,
In fact, you might even say it is just the way God made you,
And God certainly does not make mistakes, right?
That acceptance works well.
Until another sinner begins to see those habits or traits as a problem.
In response, all you can see is that other sinner’s habits or traits as a problem.
But this confronting reality will only happen when the two sinners are doing life together.
It allows us to see one another in ways that we never have,
In ways that we need to be seen.
Understanding that we are in bondage to sin.
So, for those who do not trust in Christ,
Do you realize that you are in bondage to sin?
Have you ever seen yourself this way?
The very reason you are alive is to have a relationship with God.
It is why He made you in His image.
You will not find freedom by opposing God,
Which is what our culture mistakenly believes.
True freedom is being drawn to your created purpose,
Which is to know and worship and love God.
Then to love others.
And you are only able to return to your created purpose through Jesus Christ.
That is true freedom we find in the pages of Scripture.
Pastor Mark Dever illustrates the difference of true freedom well;
“Anyone is free to use a piano as a vacuum cleaner, or a vacuum cleaner as a piano. You’re free to do that if you want to talk about freedom in that sense, but the best freedom is understanding that something’s purpose—how to us a piano as a piano and a vacuum cleaner as a vacuum cleaner.”
True freedom is found in your purpose as a human being.
Brothers and sisters,
I pray you can see this truth about those in your life who need to be broken from this bondage.
Pray that God would give you a love for them.
Pray God would give you opportunities to share the truth about their purpose and true freedom with them.
And give God glory for breaking you from that bondage.
Praise Him for illuminating to you what your true purpose as a human being is.
Think about what specific sins kept you in bondage.
Meditate on how Christ has broken that bondage.
Consider, when was the last time you shared that testimony with a brother or sister to encourage them?
When was the last time you told someone else about God’s goodness to you in liberating you from your slavery?
Imagine the joy that was felt by the first generation of slaves that had their bondage broken in our own nation.
The freedom they experienced, knowing they were no longer slaves,
Must have been surreal.
I share this because it illustrates what we who are Christians should experience.
We who believe in Christ were in bondage to sin,
But our bondage has been broken by Jesus!
We are a gathering of former slaves!
Sin and death had us in chains,
And we have been liberated,
Set free, by Christ!
The joy this produces is surreal!
Our bondage is broken!
WE: Sin Condemned (vs. 3)
WE: Sin Condemned (vs. 3)
How have we been set free?
Because sin is condemned, Paul writes in Romans 8:3;
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,
Paul is not criticizing God’s moral law here in vs. 3.
Rather, he is noting how it is our sinfulness that prevents us from saving ourselves by obedience to God’s law.
We cannot miss the emphasis that God has done the saving act here.
God has done what the law could not.
And there are four things that Paul says God did,
First, God condemned sin.
As we talked about last week,
God saved us from the penalty of sin,
He is saving us from the power of sin,
And He will save us from God’s wrath poured out on sin.
So, salvation is a past accomplishment, a present reality, and a future certainty.
And Paul teaches here that God is the One who did it,
The law could not.
Friends, what do you do when you are accused of something you know you did?
What do you do when you are caught red-handed?
The Bible teaches that there is a future where you will stand before God,
Accused, red-handed, guilty.
Being a Christian means you have realized this already,
And you ask God for mercy in Christ.
Have you done that already?
Because Jesus already took the consequences for what we are accused of.
Whether you are married or single,
Poor or wealthy,
Educated or not,
The only hope for us all is that God alone saves.
This past week was pretty rough.
We had a memorial service here for our brother,
Josh Klee, only 20 years old.
Then yesterday, another brother who used to attend here,
Jerry Hilkert’s memorial service was held in Binghamton.
As believers,
We remember that in the roughest of weeks,
We can find joy in Jesus.
The Bible does not tell us that we should expect to find joy in our fallen world,
But it does guarantee that we can find joy in Jesus.
There are many good gifts in this world,
But the good gifts of this world cannot be where we place our hope,
Because they are certain to disappoint.
Not so with Jesus.
He has always been faithful,
He was faithful this past week,
He is faithful right now,
And we will continue to see His faithfulness more and more as we continue on in this world with Him.
The evidence of His faithfulness will continue to increase as the years go by.
Imagine how we will see it even more clearly when we are in heaven.
When we’ve been there 10,000 years bright shining as the sun,
We will have no less days to sing God’s praise,
Then when we first begun.
What a beautiful picture John Newton paints for us.
So, friends, how do you deal with your struggles and your sins apart from Christ?
How will you find this precious partnership of truth and forgiveness,
Of justice and grace,
Of honesty and hope,
Apart from the grace of God in Christ?
It is inexplicable,
God placed Himself on our said,
What a wonderful sentiment!
Praise God He is so kind and merciful to us,
As sin is condemned for us.
We never could have done this on our own.
But God has done what the law could not do.
How did God do this?
Through the incarnation.
Paul says God sent His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh.
He is using words that would intentionally bring his readers minds back to Abraham binding his son, Isaac in Gen. 22:2.
It reveals the tremendous cost of our redemption.
As Rom. 8:32 says,
God did not spare His own Son,
He gave Him up for us all.
Therefore, how will He not also graciously give us all things?
All the OT sacrifices were not sufficient to condemn sin.
So, to condemn sin,
God sent His Son,
Who took on human flesh,
Identifying with us in every way,
Except in one very important way.
He knew no sin.
The usage of the word likeness in vs. 3 communicates a similarity to sinful flesh,
Not an embodiment of it.
It means Jesus was sent in the form or appearance or image of sinful flesh.
This sinful flesh, this is human nature.
This is our nature because of the Fall,
Our sinful flesh corrupt us,
It leaves us under the control of sin.
So, Christ’s humanity was like ours in the sense He was tempted and lived in a fallen world,
With all the frailty and pressures of living as a human in a fallen world.
But despite all His likeness to sinful flesh,
He never sinned,
There was no corruption in Him.
If He had been corrupted then He would not have fulfilled the requirement that a sin offering must be without blemish.
The author of Hebrews explains it well in Heb. 4:15;
For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin.
Jesus was sent in the likeness of sinful flesh and remained without blemish to be our sin offering.
His incarnation and His work as the sin offering is where our freedom comes from.
By taking the likeness of sinful flesh,
Jesus did not cease to be God,
But He took on human nature to become the perfect offering,
By fulfilling the demands of the law with His life,
Then breaking the power of sin over humanity with His death.
Now, our freedom continues with the Holy Spirit operating in us to provide life.
The reality is that sin is not essential to our human nature.
The first created people were created without a sin nature.
And the even more beautiful truth,
Is that if you trust in Christ,
You will be recreated without a sin nature.
You will exist after sin is gone,
It will be a you but without sin!
You will be glorified,
The you that you were made to be!
To accomplish this,
The Son of God left His heavenly throne to be born as a baby,
To lay down His life for us on the cross,
To be raised from the dead,
Then to ascend back to heaven,
Where we await the day for Him to return.
This is our faith as Christians.
If you are not a believer,
This is the best understanding of Jesus,
That He was mysteriously both fully human and fully God.
We reject that Jesus was just a teacher,
Just a prophet, or just a good person.
There is too much evidence against this.
Therefore, He is either a narcissistic egomaniac,
Or He is who He said He is,
The Messiah, the Son of God, our Savior.
God did not provide the solution to our sin problem with a to-do list,
Or a philosophical theory,
Or specific principles to be applied.
This is not how God deals with our sin.
We need so much more than these trite solutions.
Sin is personal and relational in nature.
We do not just sin against something abstract,
We sin against God.
Every sin is committed against God,
Against His nature, His character, and how He made you to be.
So, dealing with this sin takes much more than our human solutions.
Because sin is personal, God dealt with it personally.
He sent His Son,
Fully God and fully man,
To restore the relationship with God that we have damaged with our sin.
Brothers and sisters, who of your friends needs to hear this great news?
Is your life with them marked by this kind of Christlike, selfless love?
If you know this good news and have not shared it with them,
Then what does it mean when you say you love them?
You can emulate Paul’s humility here by pointing to God sending His Son in the likeness of sinful flesh.
Do you see how loving this is that God would love us by sending His own Son?
The purpose of this was to deal with our sin.
Paul says God did this for sin.
God sent His Son to deal with our Sin.
The NIV translates it that God sent His Son “to be a sin offering.”
To be a sin offering,
This means the Son had to be a sacrifice.
And God’s purpose in sacrificing the Son as a sin offering,
Was done with our sin in mind.
Friends, if you do not trust in Christ,
I pray you are understanding Christianity as we are walking through this passage this morning.
Jesus did not come to teach us “how to live our best life now.”
He came to transform us.
To transform what we are about,
To transform our purpose in life.
Jesus transforms our heart from living for ourselves to living for the God who created us.
This is where we find purpose.
Jesus came to transform your life from being centered on ourselves to being centered on Him and others.
Jesus came to save us from us.
To save us from making our lives into a disaster.
And in the end,
To save us from God’s wrath against our sins.
And this is not because God is an angry old curmudgeon,
It is because our sins hurt us and hurt others.
Sin stirs up division,
It is destructive,
And it dishonors God.
So, Christ paid the penalty for our sin.
His death breaks the power sin holds over us.
Now we wage war against our sin until the struggle is finally and fully over when we are with God.
Brothers and sisters,
We are battling against sin at home, at work, in the car, at the store, on our phones, with our words, in our attitudes, in our minds, with our opinions, in our relationships, and with our actions.
Do not make the mistake that growing as a Christian means that grace abounds so your sins do not matter.
Do not make the equally dangerous mistake that growing as a Christian means that you will grow into a state of perfection where you never sin.
You are battling against your sin in every area of your life.
But you are not battling alone.
Brothers and sisters,
We join together at FBC as members to fight this battle together.
If you are a Christian and not a member with other Christians,
I urge you to do so.
God has established the local church for this purpose.
We covenant together to battle sins together,
To confess them to one another,
To spur one another to love and good works,
To help get rid of bitterness, rage, anger, slander, and every form of malice.
To help put on encouragement, kindness, compassion, and forgiveness,
Just as God in Christ forgave us.
This is what Paul says the church does just in Ephesians 4.
That is what we pursue together here at FBC,
As we wage war against sin together.
And we are guaranteed to rise to victory in the end.
Because sin was condemned by Christ’s death as our substitute.
As Paul says at the end of vs. 3,
God condemned sin in the flesh.
In the context of what Paul is saying here,
It seems that Paul is saying that God condemned sin in the flesh of Jesus Christ.
This is how we most clearly see that God dealt with our sin,
Through Jesus Christ.
Jesus did not come merely as an example or a teacher,
God condemned sin in Christ’s flesh,
He did not bypass sins.
He remained both good and just,
The condemnation of our sins were executed on Christ when He was crucified.
Sin has been condemned.
Friends, this is the basis of our hope.
There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ.
I call on all of you here,
If you are not in Christ,
God has made you to know Him.
You have sinned against Him,
Yet, Christ lived a perfect life,
He died on the cross in your place.
All He calls you to do is repent of your sins,
Let go of your sins,
And take hold of Jesus.
Christ is our substitute.
It does not matter your age, your gender, your ethnicity, your marital status, your political party, or your sexual orientation.
You can call on Christ,
And He is sufficient to restore your relationship with God.
Once we do this,
We are transformed and set apart,
We become different,
We fully give ourselves to God and His purpose in our lives.
So, let us live as people who are filled with the Holy Spirit,
Understanding our sin is condemned.
Does this mean we do not sin?
Absolutely not, we do sins.
But since sin is condemned,
Our penalty is paid,
Our bondage is broken,
And we now live in true freedom as people transformed.
William Arnot says it well;
“The difference between an unconverted and a converted man is not that the one has sins and the other has none; but that the one takes part with his cherished sins against a dreaded God, and the other takes part with a reconciled God against his hated sins.”
Which side will you take part in?
If you have been set free by the Spirit,
Then live in that true freedom by the Spirit,
Live in true freedom as people transformed.
As Paul said at the start,
There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ.
Instead of condemnation,
We have freedom.
As Paul also says in Gal. 5:1;
For freedom Christ has set us free; stand firm therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery.
This freedom is not like our Americanized understanding of freedom,
It is far greater.
It is Christian liberty.
So, it is more than a social, political, or economic freedom as we tend to think of freedom,
It is to be liberated from the law of sin and death.
It is salvation from the power of sin.
We are set free from having to obey God’s law to save ourselves.
This means, because we are justified by grace through faith in Christ,
We are no longer under the law but under grace.
Paul taught this in Rom. 6:14-15 and Gal. 3:23-25;
For sin will have no dominion over you, since you are not under law but under grace. What then? Are we to sin because we are not under law but under grace? By no means!
Now before faith came, we were held captive under the law, imprisoned until the coming faith would be revealed. So then, the law was our guardian until Christ came, in order that we might be justified by faith. But now that faith has come, we are no longer under a guardian,
This means our standing with God is certain because we are both accepted and adopted into God’s family,
On the basis of Christ’s righteousness, not our own.
So, we can rest assured that this adoption does not depend on what we do,
It is never at risk when we fail.
This allows us to live, not under the pressure of being perfect,
But under the freedom of forgiveness.
Despite the fact that we are fallen,
We are still tempted to act as if we can earn the right to have a relationship with God through our discipline, obedience, and religiousness.
As Paul says in Rom. 10:3,
We go about in our own strength seeking to establish our own righteousness.
This is a hopeless endeavor.
Paul repeatedly warns us throughout the NT that no human performance will ever measure up.
We will always have wrong desires in our heart,
Regardless of how correct our outward actions may be.
Pastor Zack Eswine gives a great metaphor for our desires, he says;
“Make no mistake. Desire is a firework. Handled wisely it fills the night sky with light, color, beauty, and delight. Handle desire poorly, and it can burn your neighborhood down (James 4:1-2)…There is beauty and arson in desire.”
We must be on guard when it comes to our desires,
Because more often than not,
Our desires become tainted without us even realizing it,
And the result is that both we and others suffer for it.
The Bible describes our hearts as deceitfully wicked,
Because we can even use serving God as a means to, like the Devil himself,
Become like God.
So, I encourage all of us,
To take a long, hard look in the mirror at our tainted desires.
Make sure our desires are what God intends them to be,
Because whatever our desires are is what we will go all out for.
So, we want to be going all out for what God wants us to go all out for.
You see, the reality is we can receive accolades for doing ministry for Jesus,
Yet at the same time we know very little about following Jesus in our personal lives.
We can demonstrate love to people when we are here at church,
But when we are called upon to sacrificially give of ourselves, we are no longer up to the task.
So, what are the things that matter for our desires?
First, love for God.
Do not miss how much time this desire takes.
This love for God is not a momentary sprint,
It is a lifelong march.
The problem is we furiously try to love God like it is something to mark off our checklist,
So, we can move onto the next thing on our checklist.
The second matter for our desire is like the first,
It is to love others.
And guess what?
This too takes time.
Hurrying this process will not accomplish this desire.
Just like learning how to master an instrument,
Or becoming a proficient athlete,
Or developing an expertise at a trade or craft,
Does not develop quickly,
Love for God and neighbor does not develop quickly either.
Yet we act as if we can become perfect at these desires overnight.
We may be able to quote the Bible all day long,
But do we have the stamina to wait on God when life is not the way we want it to be?
It is a great thing to learn how to persevere and wait upon God,
But it is almost as if we have an emotional inability to wait on God.
We stain our God-given joys when we fail to wait upon the Lord.
Then we confuse ourselves about what true joy is.
Imagine being able to love God and others through the tribulations of life.
We all have little patience for this type of care because we want to move on from them as quickly as possible.
Even worse,
When we see ourselves as larger or more important than we are,
The struggles of people begin to feel like an interruption from our more important goals.
I unravel as I consider this truth.
We all must humble ourselves before Christ,
Who welcomes us with grace,
A grace we so desperately need,
Because our impatience does not give us the infrastructure we need to love our enemies as we are called to do.
Our impatience is a terrible influence to our desire.
When it comes to comprehending, thinking through, then following through on our desires,
Impatience offers false promises that are never delivered.
So, the desire is not really the problem,
The problem comes from our impatience that reshapes good desires into selfish desires.
Dear friends, desire great things!
But always submit that desire to what Jesus defines as great,
Not your definition or the world’s definition of great.
Let us learn from the failures of some of Jesus’ closest followers.
James and John saw their desire for ministry with Jesus subtly transform to a selfish longing for their own greatness.
The result of this was dissension among all of Christ’s followers.
Think about that.
James and John were deeply loved by Jesus,
They had been called to personal ministry alongside Jesus,
They were fruitful and central to Jesus’s earthly ministry.
Jesus welcomed them to share their desire with them,
And despite all that was true about them,
Their desire was still not good, right, or helpful.
It does not matter what position a person may hold in a church,
This desire for greatness shown by James and John,
Is the same desire for greatness shown by anyone and everyone in our world.
Just because we attach Jesus’s name to it,
Does not suddenly change the fact that they were reflecting a worldly desire.
You see, we people desire greatness so that we can lord it over others.
Jesus’s lesson to the disciples in response to James and John,
Was that it should not be that way among us.
If we desire greatness,
Then we must surrender our lives to being a servant.
James and John were serving alongside Jesus as some of His most prized pupils,
And their desire was for more greatness for themselves.
Several verses later, Jesus similarly asks a blind man what he desires.
The first thing the blind man asks Jesus for is mercy.
So, after being a Christian for a number of years,
Do we still feel the need to desire mercy from Jesus?
Reflecting back to when you first asked Jesus for mercy,
Pastor Eswine offers a powerful reflection;
“It was this ravishing provision of Jesus that roused your affection to serve him in the first place with your life…No wonder, when Peter declared that he would excel and outdo all his ministry colleagues, the rooster’s crow wasn’t long in coming. To restore Peter…Jesus took Peter all the way back to first things, first loves. ‘Peter, do you love me? Then feed my sheep.’”
As we think about desires we must understand that we are limited creatures.
The Christian life is a journey with Jesus of recovering our humanity,
And through the Holy Spirit, helping our neighbors to do the same.
The general absence of this recovery of our humanity is spiritually killing us.
No amount of greatness will ever allow us to escape our humanity.
But being human does not damage this desire for greatness,
In fact, our humanity informs what is greatness,
It sets the boundaries for greatness.
And our desires, no matter how grand or noble they may be,
Will not deliver us from our human limits.
God has purposed us to love Him and love our neighbors wherever He has placed us for His glory.
When we pray to go beyond those limits,
We replicate the desire of the first man and first woman that cascaded the world into sin and death.
If we look at where God has placed us and we tell God, “But I want to do something great for you!”
Is this not completely missing what God is saying a great thing is?
One of the great privileges of following Jesus,
Is growing in our ability to see people as Jesus sees us.
If we were to do less great things by our standard of greatness,
And prioritized people,
Our families and our neighbors,
We would be advancing FBC in ways that fit God’s definition of greatness.
How often do we demonstrated the ability to show Christlike love, grace, or humility to others in our daily relationships?
Or do we deal with one another in ways that wound and tire us?
Pastor Eswine rightly notes;
“It is easy to do a great thing for God so long as greatness does not require interior humility, practical love for the people right in front of us, or submission to the presence of Jesus in the place we already are.”
If I can demonstrate this using an example,
There is more greatness in one person who struggles with a particular sin having victory over that sin,
Than there is in thirty people struggling with the same sin coming to a program here at the church,
Just to return home from the church unchanged.
But the problem we struggle with is that 30 attendees always sounds better than a single person.
This is a poisoned desire for human greatness.
Do not overlook being human as you aspire for greatness.
Our passage this morning talks about the law,
And how the law exposes and condemns the sin that permeates our lives.
The law is meant to make us aware of the reality of our sin and its consequences.
Paul explains this in 1 Cor. 15:56 and Gal. 3:10;
The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law.
For all who rely on works of the law are under a curse; for it is written, “Cursed be everyone who does not abide by all things written in the Book of the Law, and do them.”
Paul is getting at how futile it is to treat the law as if we could save ourselves by seeking our own righteousness by it.
This futile effort is the bondage of the law that Christ sets us free from.
Believers have been supernaturally regenerated,
We have been made alive through our union with Christ in His death and resurrection.
It is a transformation of the desire of our heart.
We now, serve God in righteousness.
Paul explains in Romans 6:18, 22;
and, having been set free from sin, have become slaves of righteousness.
But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God, the fruit you get leads to sanctification and its end, eternal life.
You see, the reach of sin includes continuous acts of disobedience,
As well as a continual disregard for God’s law,
A disregard of our moral conscience,
Resulting in resentment or disdain toward God’s law.
But now that we have a changed heart,
We are motivated by gratitude for God’s gift of grace,
We are energized by the Holy Spirit.
We are no longer under the old written code,
We are in the new life of the Spirit.
So, because sin is condemned, our penalty is paid, and our bondage is broken,
We therefore live in true freedom as transformed people.
Pray.