3 Freedoms God Provides

Please turn to the book of Romans. Romans chapter 8. Romans chapter 8 and beginning in verse 1. I will join you there in a minute.

When we turn to Matthew, we find it is called, The Gospel of Matthew, or in some translations, the Gospel according to Matthew. Mark is called the Gospel of Mark or the Gospel according to Mark. The same is true of Luke and John. They are Holy Spirit directed accounts of the life of Jesus and accounts of the Gospel from differing perspectives.

Look! This is who Jesus was, what He did, and how you can be saved. In case you missed it, God had 4 different writers tell you.

Then you have the book of Acts. It is called “The Acts of the Apostles.” Luke, inspired and directed by the Holy Spirit sent it to his friend Theophilis. it to It is an account of the spread of the Gospel, the spread of the church, and the work of the apostles. Wouldn’t it be great to have a friend who cared enough about you that he would write and send you an account of the work of God in the world so that you too might worship?

Then we come to Romans. It is called “The Letter to the Romans.” It is a letter, written by the apostle Paul, to the churches in Rome.

Let me ask you. When was the last time any of you wrote a letter? E-mails don’t count.

Do you remember letters? They’re not broken up into chapters and verses. Stephen Langton, in the 12th century, added what we use today as the chapter divisions. In 1551, Robert Estienne added verse divisions to his fourth edition of the Greek New Testament.

In other words, when Paul wrote this letter to the Romans, there was no break between chapter 7 and chapter 8. When we last looked at Romans, Paul was discouraged in chapter 7 saying in verse 24, “What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death?”

Sadly, many folks are stuck there, asking, “Why do I do the things I don’t want to do, and not do the things that I want to do? Oh, wretched man that I am.

But He didn’t end there. Tell someone near you, “That’s not the end of the story.”

That’s not the end of the story. Praise the Lord! He continued in his letter by saying in verse 25, “Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord!”. Paul knew where His true strength lay.

Next, in what we call chapter 8, Paul begins in verses 1-17 by stressing 3 great freedoms Christ-followers enjoy. Perhaps for this reason, some refer to chapter 8 of Romans as the greatest chapter in the greatest book. 3 great freedoms Christians enjoy. Freedom from condemnation. Freedom from expectation, and freedom from abandonment. Look there with me please at Romans chapter 8 and verse 1.

- Read Roman’s 8:1-17

I. FREEDOM FROM CONDEMNATION

Now in chapter 8 and verse 1 he says, “Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those in Christ Jesus.”

Isn’t that great news? There is therefore no condemnation for those in Christ Jesus.

So many folks, and so many Christians, go through life fearing, the condemnation of God. We know we don’t measure up. We know we could walk closer to the Lord. We could pray more. We could witness more. We could do more more. We leave things undone, and miss opportunities. And the Devil, the one referred to as “The Accuser of the brethren” in Revelation, or one of his henchmen, comes along side us and whispers in our ears, all the little ways we have disappointed the Lord, or the ways we have let Him down. But Paul says, “therefore, there is now no condemnation for those in Christ Jesus.”

Oh, praise the Lord, I don’t have to walk around like many children do, afraid of hearing their parents tell them how they’ve let them down or how they’ve disappointed them. I don’t have to hear, as many married people do, from their spouses, about what a disappointment they are, or about how they could have done better.

All those centuries the law told people what failures they were. The law showed them how they didn’t measure up to God’s standard. Now, praise the Lord, there is no condemnation for those who are in the Lord.

There is that condition, “for those who are in the Lord.”

That’s the Gospel. That’s the message we are called to share. Because of our sin, we were all condemned. The wages of sin is death. But there on the cross God the Father poured out on His Son all of the condemnation that belonged to us. There is therefore, now, no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.