Let’s suppose that you commit a crime that is a capital offense and you are arrested for that offense. When you go to trial, your life hangs in the balance. If you’re found guilty, as you deserve to be, it means death, but if you’re acquitted, it means life and freedom.
And let’s suppose that as the trial begins, the judge decides to treat you with leniency and he gives you two choices. One option is that, even though you are guilty, he will commute your sentence completely and permanently and release you to go and live life as a free man or woman with no strings attached with the hope that you will no longer live as a rebellious law-breaker out of gratitude for that leniency.
The other option is that the judge will release you, but he will require you to wear an ankle bracelet so that your every move can be tracked and he will also assign a parole officer to monitor everything you do. And at the end of two years, the judge will determine whether or not to carry out your sentence and put you to death based on how well you have proven to the court that you have changed your life over that 2-year period.
Which of those two options would you choose? I have to believe that every single one of us would choose the first option, right?
Well the gospel of Jesus provides us with the ability to essentially make that same choice in the spiritual realm. Through faith in Jesus we have the ability to have our death sentence, one which we deserve, commuted permanently so that we can live freely and righteously out of gratitude for what Jesus has done on our behalf to make that possible.
But unfortunately, it seems like, in spite of what Jesus has made possible, that many, even those who have placed their faith in Jesus, choose the second option – that of trying to achieve that commutation of their sentence on their own by the way that they live their lives. My guess is that all of us have done that at some point in our lives. I certainly know I have. And if you’ve ever attempted to live like that - even for a brief time – you know what a frustrating and unsatisfying kind of life that is.
That’s why all of us need to hear Paul’s message to us this morning. Romans chapter 8 has often been called the greatest chapter in the Bible, and for the next two weeks, we’ll get a taste of why so many have made that claim. Unfortunately, due to the constraints of the calendar and the Advent season that will begin in two weeks, we’re only going to be able to just scratch the surface in this encouraging chapter today and next Sunday. But the good news is that we’ll be able to come back and revisit it again next fall.
So go ahead and turn in your Bibles to Romans 8. I’m only going to attempt to cover the first four verses of the chapter this morning.
There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death. 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, 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.
(Romans 8:1-4 ESV)
Before we look at this passage in detail, let me give you…
An overview of Romans 8:
1. The key idea is “no condemnation”.
This chapter begins with the idea that there is no condemnation for those in Christ Jesus and then Paul closes the chapter beginning in verse 34, with that same idea again when he writes ”Who is to condemn?”
2. Although all three persons of the triune God – Father, Son and Holy Spirit – are involved in the work described in this chapter, the Holy Spirit is emphasized.
The Holy Spirit is mentioned 18 times in this chapter – more than any other chapter in the Bible.
3. Although this chapter is full of exhortation, there is not one command in the chapter.
Paul is primarily giving us statements of truth here, not giving us commands about things we are to do. And here is the primary truth that he is communicating in this entire chapter, and particularly in the first four verses:
Jesus condemned my sin
so my sin won’t condemn me
This passage is so full of important truths that the only way for us to get everything out of it that God has for us is to just work through it meticulously verse by verse and even word by word at certain points. In your bulletin, I’ve given you an outline of the basic structure of the passage that you can use to make your own notes as we proceed through this passage:
There is no condemnation (v. 1) …
• Only for those “in Christ Jesus” (v. 1)
o Those who have been set free from the law of sin and death (v. 2)
? By the work of the Holy Spirit freeing me (v. 2)
? By the work of the Father sending His Son (v. 3)
• In the likeness of sinful flesh (v. 3)
• For sin (v. 3)
? By the work of Jesus’ death and resurrection (v. 3)
o Those who walk according to the Spirit (v. 4)
• So that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us (v. 4)
Now that we have the basic outline, let’s work through it one item at a time:
There is no condemnation (v. 1) …
In English a simple sentence generally follows the pattern:
Subject – verb – object
Example: I (subject) love (verb) Mary (object).
In Greek, however, the words can go in any order and the form of the words, rather than the order in which they are written, determines their function in the sentence. One advantage of that approach is that in Greek the writer can put emphasis on certain words by putting them at the beginning of the sentence. And that is what Paul has done here. In verse 1, he begins the sentence with the word “no”. And it is not just the standard Greek word for “no”. It is a word that means absolutely not. Greek scholar Kenneth Wuest captures the sense of that word when he translates verse 1 like this:
Therefore, now, there is not even one bit of condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus.
So whatever condemnation is – and I’ll get to that in just a moment – Paul wanted to make it clear to his readers – and to us – that it is possible to not experience even a shred of it.
We next come to the word “therefore” and as we’ve said often, when we see that word, we have to ask “what it’s there for”. Since we have so much to cover, let me just share the bottom line. I think given the context, the word therefore points back to the entire first seven chapters of his letter and not just what immediately preceded it at the end of chapter 7.
It would be really easy to skip over the little three letter word “now”, but that might very well be the most important word in this verse for us this morning. I think that this is something that many Christians just don’t understand and even if they understand it intellectually they don’t live like it is true.
For those who are “in Christ Jesus” – we’ll discuss what that means in a moment – we are not just free from condemnation at the end of our life here on earth, it is also a present reality. Far too many Christians fail to understand that and they needlessly live under a cloud of guilt and constantly beat themselves up.
Although there are several related words that are used elsewhere in the New Testament, the specific word translated “condemnation” here is used only two other places in the New Testament – both in Romans chapter 5 where Paul was writing about how the sin of Adam led to condemnation for all men because of their inherited sin nature.
The word itself is a compound word that literally means:
“condemnation” =
“judge down”
It was used to describe the Roman emperor as he sat on his throne and judged prisoners whose cases were brought before him with a “thumbs up” or “thumbs” down. In a legal sense it referred both to the sentence itself and the carrying out of that sentence.
The fact that there is no condemnation for us, certainly does not mean that there is no cause for our condemnation. We are all guilty of sin and deserving of a death sentence. But what it does mean is that our sentence has been permanently commuted because Jesus served that sentence on our behalf.
So if you’re “in Christ Jesus”, it might be helpful to think that not only is God not condemning you at all, He is actually giving you a “thumbs up.” As Paul writes later in the chapter “If God is for us, who can be against us?”
But at the end of verse 1, Paul makes it clear that not every person is free from condemnation like that. That freedom is…
• Only for those “in Christ Jesus” (v. 1)
We’re going to see this even more clearly later in the chapter, but throughout his letter Paul has made it clear that there are only 2 possibilities for every human – each person is either “in the flesh” or “in Jesus”. There is no middle ground.
So what does it mean to be “in Christ Jesus”? One thing is clear from what we have learned so far in Paul’s letter. It is more than just praying a certain prayer or walking down the aisle or raising my hand during an “altar call”. It involves completely surrendering every area of my life to the control of Jesus. That is the only way that I can be united with Jesus in the way that Paul wrote about in chapter 6. And here in chapter 8, Pau reinforces that idea when he writes that those who are “in Christ Jesus” are…
o Those who have been set free from the law of sin and death (v. 2)
Last week, Paul described the “law of sin that dwells in my members”, which is basically the same as the “indwelling sin” that he described throughout the later part of chapter 7. As we talked about for the last several weeks, that does not mean that I won’t have struggles with sin in my life as long as I live in this physical body here on earth. But it does mean that one of the evidences of the fact that I am “in Christ” is that sin won’t control my life.
But that is not something I can achieve through my own efforts. It is only through the work of the triune God – Father, Son and Holy Spirit – that it is possible for me to live like that. In this passage, Paul describes the work of all three persons of the Godhead:
? By the work of the Holy Spirit freeing me (v. 2)
As I already mentioned, this chapter is focused on the work of the Holy Spirit in our lives. The first time He is mentioned, in verse 2, He is called the Spirit of life. In his late night encounter with Nicodemus, Jesus used some language very similar to Paul’s here in Romans 8:
Jesus answered, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.
(John 3:5-6 ESV)
The idea in both passages is that the only way we can become a new creation who is “in Christ” rather than “in the flesh” is if the Holy Spirit frees us. The verb “set you free” in verse 2 is both a passive verb – which means that it is not something I do but something that the Holy Spirit does on my behalf – and it is an aorist tense verb, which means that it was a one-time action that took place in the past.
? By the work of the Father sending His Son (v. 3)
Again, the verbs in verse 3 – “sending” and “condemned” – are aorist verbs, indicating that this was a one-time action taken by God the Father in the past. It is God who took the initiative to implement His plan that he had developed before the beginning of the world to provide a way that we could be without condemnation. He did that by sending His Son, Jesus, into this world. And there are two important aspects of Jesus coming to this earth that are absolutely essential if Jesus’ coming is to be sufficient to free us from condemnation:
• In the likeness of sinful flesh (v. 3)
I love the way that the wording of Scripture is so precise. Had Paul not worded this phrase exactly like he did, he would have given rise to false teaching:
If had merely written “in the likeness of flesh” that would have implied that Jesus was not fully man – that he only appeared to be a man. But without Him being 100% man while he was still 100% God, His sacrifice on the cross would not have been an acceptable substitute to pay the penalty for our sin.
But had he left out the word “likeness” and simply written “in sinful flesh”, that would have implied that Jesus committed sin, and that, too would have disqualified His sacrifice on our behalf.
But when he writes “in the likeness of sinful flesh”, he makes it clear that while Jesus was 100% man and like sinful men, subject to the temptations of sin, He never gave into those temptations and became sinful Himself.
• For sin (v. 3)
The second important thing we learn about Jesus; coming to earth is that He came “for sin”. Although He was certainly a good teacher, and a good example and His life showed us what true love is like, none of those were the primary reason that He came to earth. His primary purpose was to be a sin offering for us.
Once again, the words of Jesus to Nicodemus confirm this idea:
For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.
(John 3:17 ESV)
? By the work of Jesus’ death and resurrection (v. 3)
Although Paul doesn’t specifically mention the death and resurrection of Jesus in verse 3, there is little doubt that is what he has in mind when he writes that Jesus “condemned sin in the flesh”. Once again Paul confirms that the only way that I can be free from condemnation is because Jesus was willing to take on flesh and come to this earth and to die on the cross to serve the sentence that I deserve on my behalf.
So far, we’ve seen that those who are “in Christ Jesus” are those who have been set free from the law of sin and death by the work of all three persons of the triune God. But Paul also gives us one more characteristic of those who are “in Christ”. They are…
o Those who walk according to the Spirit (v. 4)
We’re going to explore what this means in much more detail next week. But for now what I want you to notice is the verb “walk”. First of all, the idea of walking is that there ought to be progress. As we walk according to the Spirit, we ought to be making some progress in the process of sanctification. That progress does not earn the right to be free from condemnation, but rather it is the evidence that Jesus has already freed us.
The other thing I want you to notice is that it is a present tense verb, which means that is something we do continually, although certainly not perfectly
So far we’ve focused on who is free from condemnation. But at the end of this passage, Paul also addresses why God does that for us.
• So that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us (v. 4)
Let me just say right up front that there is far from universal agreement about exactly what Paul means here. But given everything that we’ve learned so far in Romans, especially in chapters 6 and 7, I believe the point Paul is making here is that it is the work of God in our lives that makes sanctification possible. As we’ve discussed for the last several weeks, that does not mean that I just sit back and do nothing. I do have to cooperate with God as He accomplishes the work of making me more like Jesus.
It is not God’s desire that the fear of His punishment would be what motivates us to walk by the Spirit and become more mature in our faith, but rather it is the confidence that we are free from His condemnation that frees us up to live like that.
We’ve learned this morning that…
Jesus condemned my sin
so my sin won’t condemn me
But how should knowing that impact my everyday life?
In a moment, I’m going to share some fantastic things that are true for those who are “in Christ Jesus” as a result of placing their faith in Him alone and surrendering control of their lives to Him. And it is certainly my desire that these things would be true for all of you who are here this morning. But out of my love for you I need to be completely honest and let you know that if you haven’t yet made that kind of commitment in your life, then you are still under condemnation and you won’t be able to experience this kind of freedom in your life. Let me quote the words of Jesus to Nicodemus one last time:
Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God.
(John 3:18 ESV)
But because that kind of decision is more than merely praying a certain prayer or raising your hand or walking down an aisle, we don’t want you to make it lightly, so in a few minutes I’m going to share with you how we can help you understand exactly what is involved and help you take the next steps toward that kind of commitment.
But for the rest of you who have already made that commitment, I want to close by encouraging you with three important truths.
If I am “in Christ Jesus” I can know for sure:
1. My past sins are not fatal
There are some of you who are still living in the past, wondering whether in fact God has really forgiven your sins, maybe because you think they are just too great for Him to forgive. Or maybe you’re worried that you didn’t “pray the prayer” with just the right words or that somewhere along the line you didn’t do something quite right to earn that forgiveness.
I am here to assure you this morning that God – Father, Son and Holy Spirit – has done everything that needs to be done to make it possible for your sins to be forgiven so that you are no longer under condemnation. And as long as you have genuinely, from your heart, committed your life to Jesus and put Him in charge of your life, you can be assured that the words we read this morning are 100% true:
There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.
2. My current struggles are not God’s punishment
Christians so often fall into the trap that Job and his so called “friends” and even the disciples fell into. We see struggles and suffering in our own lives or in the lives of others and we immediately assume that God is punishing us or someone else for our sin.
While it is true that God often takes His children through difficult circumstances for the purpose of discipline, like Hebrews 12 describes, that is a whole lot different than being subject to God’s condemnation. God disciplines His children because He loves them, but Jesus has already paid in full the penalty for my sin, so I don’t need to fear his judgment and wrath if I am truly “in Christ”.
So while I should evaluate my life when trials come to see if it might be God’s discipline, the fact is that most of the time I experience difficulties in this life just because I live in a world that is contaminated by sin. But in neither case is God punishing me because He has promised:
There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.
3. My future status is not in doubt
Finally, I can live my life confidently, knowing that one day when my life here on earth ends, I do not need to fear the punishment of God. Since I am free from condemnation not based on anything I have done, but rather based on what God has already done for me, then there is nothing I can do that is going to cause God to go back on the promise we have looked at this morning:
There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.
How do you want to live your life? Do you want to constantly be striving to live a life that is pleasing to God because you think that is the only way to escape His condemnation? Or do you want to trust that God has already done everything that needs to be done to make it possible for you to say:
There is therefore now no condemnation for me because I am in Christ Jesus.
[Prayer]
ACTION
If there is anything we can do this morning to help you take the next step in your walk with Jesus, please let us know:
• You can talk to me or to one of our Elders after our gathering this morning. [Ask Elders to stand]
• You can fill out the information on the Connection Card on your bulletin and give it to one of us or to one of our greeters and someone will be in touch with you this week.
• You can contact us on our website or message us on Facebook.
Discussion Questions:
1. Should a believer feel guilty about his or her sin? How could guilt be helpful? How could it be harmful?
2. What are some ways that we can live under condemnation, even as believers? What practical steps can we take to avoid doing those things?
3. How can I tell the difference between God’s discipline and trials that come into my life just because I live in a world that is contaminated by sin? How does that determination affect my response?
