No Longer Condemned

Title: No Longer Condemned

Scripture: Romans 8:6, “To set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace.”

Our history of slavery and segregation sometimes explodes. Some may remember the riots in South Central Los Angeles in January 1993. People were burning buildings and looting stores. During all of the confusion an unsuspecting truck driver, named Reginald Denny, made a wrong turn and ended up in an area of some of the worst rioting. After smashing a window with a brick, some of the hoodlums pulled Denny from his truck. Millions of people were watching as a news helicopter hovered overhead. Two men then beat him with a broken bottle and kicked him in the face until he lost consciousness, permanently damaging him. Somehow, he lived through the ordeal. When the case came to court, the men who had beaten him were hardened, belligerent, and showed no sign of remorse. Once again, the media was filming live as they panned the courtroom. Reginald Denny still had a swollen and distorted face from that merciless beating. The nation watched as Denny got out of his seat, against the protest of his attorneys, and walked over to the mothers of his assailants and hugged them and told them as he told them he forgave their sons. They returned his hugs, and one of the mothers said that she loved him. Whether or not his actions had any effect on his attackers we do not know.

Before you think that I am overly romantic, let me remind you that is exactly what God has done for you. God calls it grace. The two men in the courtroom did not deserve forgiveness; they did not ask for it, and they had done nothing to deserve it, but Denny offered without condition. In the same way, the world mutilated Jesus. The beatings and abuses the night before and the torture of the cross disfigured him. The world was expressing hatred of him at the same time he offered forgiveness and reconciliation. Before we ever known him as God, he had walked toward us to embrace us and give us his compassion.

Romans 5:8 tells us, “God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners Christ died for us.” Colossians 1:21-22 gives more detail, “Once you were alienated from God and were enemies in your minds because of your evil behavior. But now he has reconciled you by Christ’s body through death to present you holy in his sight, without blemish and free from accusation.” This is grace.

God loves you and forgives you when you deserve neither love nor forgiveness. You do not deserve it, nor will you ever deserve it. Grace means that “Thy sins are forgiven the.” God not only forgives, he wipes the slate clean.

Romans 8:1-2, “Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit who gives life has set you free from the law of sin and death.” Grace means that forgiveness and reconciliation with God have come. God does not base forgiveness and reconciliation on what you have done, but on who God is. Grace is God’s reward at Christ’s expense.

The first point I want you to understand is that Grace is the defining element of the Christian faith. Several years ago, world-renowned scholars held a comparative religious symposium in Britain. They began the debate with this question, is there anything in Christianity that other world religions do not teach? Life after death was first up. Christianity teaches that Christ appeared after His death. Other religions spoke of gods appearing in human form and accounts of people returning after dead though they usually spoke of it in terms of reincarnation. C.S. Lewis wandered into the room as the debate was in full heat. He asked what the debate question was. They told Doctor Lewis that they were trying to discover if Christianity taught anything that other religions did not teach. Lewis replied, “That is easy. It’s grace.”

There was a discussion about Doctor Lewis’s remark. Still, the scholars agreed that the idea that God’s love comes to us freely, without any strings attached and asking nothing in return, went against what other religions taught.

Next, on the agenda was the Buddhist’s eight-fold path. Here an individual’s performance is the measure of personal success. Likewise, the Hindu doctrine of karma where a person’s destiny is determined by his or her accomplishing certain things in each phase of spiritual growth measures is performance determined. Muslims have a code of law that they must follow precisely to enter paradise. All of these are ways that a person must work to earn approval. Christianity alone makes God’s love and acceptance something offered to undeserving human beings without cost or condition. Indeed, you cannot earn grace; it comes as a gift.