Sermon Central
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No Condemnation To Those Who Are In Christ
Contributed by Roger Hasselquist on Jan 30, 2022 (message contributor)
Summary: The point here is that there is a debt that we owe because of our sin, and no matter how hard we try, we can't pay it. For us the amount is not zero. It is more than we can imagine. How can we escape condemnation? The answer is found in our text, Romans chapter eight.
Alba 1-30-2022
NO CONDEMNATION TO THOSE WHO ARE IN CHRIST
In March 1992, a man living near Boston, Massachusetts received a bill for his unused credit card. The bill stated that he owed $0.00. He ignored it and threw it away.
In April he received another bill and threw that one away, too. In May the credit card company sent him a very nasty note. It said they were going to cancel his card if he didn't send them $0.00.
He called and talked to them. They said it was a computer error and told him they'd take care of it. The following month he decided to try out the credit card figuring that if there were purchases on his account it would put an end to his ridiculous predicament.
However, in the first store he tried to use his credit card he found that his card had been canceled. He called the credit card company. They apologized for the computer error once again and said that they would take care of it.
The next day he got a bill for $0.00 stating that payment was now overdue. Assuming that the latest bill was yet another mistake, he ignored it, believing the company would sort the problem out.
The next month he got a bill for $0.00 stating that he had 10 days to pay his account or the company would have to take steps to recover the debt. Finally giving in, he mailed them a check for $0.00.
The company processed his account. They returned a statement stating that he now owed the credit card company nothing at all.
A week later, the man's bank called him asking him what he was doing writing a check for $0.00. After a lengthy explanation, the bank replied that the $0.00 check had caused their check processing software to fail.
The bank could not now process ANY checks from ANY of their customers that day because the check for $0.00 was causing the computer to crash.
The following month the man received a letter from the credit card company claiming that his check had bounced and that he now owed them $0.00. Unless he sent a check they would be taking steps to recover the debt.
The man was going to buy his wife a computer for her birthday. Instead, he bought her a typewriter.
The point here is that there is a debt that we owe because of our sin. And no matter how hard we try, we can't pay it. For us the amount is not zero. It is more than we can imagine.
Romans 6:23 says, "The wages of sin is death". Condemned to death because of our sin! How can we escape that condemnation? The answer is found in our text, Romans chapter eight.
Turn to Romans 8:11.
1 There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit. 2 For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and death.
3 For what the law could not do in that it was weak through the flesh, God did by sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, on account of sin: He condemned sin in the flesh, 4 that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.
5 For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit, the things of the Spirit.
6 For to be carnally minded is death, but to be spiritually minded is life and peace. 7 Because the carnal mind is enmity against God; for it is not subject to the law of God, nor indeed can be. 8 So then, those who are in the flesh cannot please God.
9 But you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you. Now if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he is not His. 10 And if Christ is in you, the body is dead because of sin, but the Spirit is life because of righteousness.
11 But if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in you.
How wonderful it is to hear those words, There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus. No Condemnation! But there are some conditions. First there is...
1. The Requirement
The word “condemnation” is a theological word that occurs nowhere else but in Romans. Condemnation means we stand guilty and under God’s judgment for violating God’s law.
