Romans 8:1
11/6/16
Our text is Romans 8:1 1 “Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus” (NIV).i In 1962 I received the Lord at an old fashion Pentecostal church. Those leading that congregation knew how to invite the Lord’s presence into a service. I am so grateful for all I learned from them. I learned how to enter into worship; and I had many precious experiences with the Lord. However, there was not much grounding in the Word. The theology was that if you sinned you lost your salvation and you need to get re-saved. Most sermons were exposing sin and calling for repentance. The honest ones got saved every week.
If you think that a sin causes you to lose your salvation, you will not have a very stable walk with the Lord. In the second chapter of his epistle James tells us that if you commit one sin, you are guilty of the whole law. If our salvation is based on keeping the law, then even a sin as common as partiality would cause us to lose our salvation. Listen to the apostle’s reasoning in James 2:8-11 “If you really fulfill the royal law according to the Scripture, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself,’ you do well; 9 but if you show partiality, you commit sin, and are convicted by the law as transgressors. 10 For whoever shall keep the whole law, and yet stumble in one point, he is guilty of all. 11 For He who said, ‘Do not commit adultery,’ also said, ‘Do not murder.’ Now if you do not commit adultery, but you do murder, you have become a transgressor of the law.” Because of their lack of biblical understanding most of the people in that congregation fell away. They would struggle and try harder and still fail. They would try again even harder, but it didn’t work. Then the Devil would convince them that they simply couldn’t live the Christian life and just as well give up. Many went into gross sin because they believed that lie.
Fortunately for me, about the time I experienced those things I met people who were grounded in the grace of God and shared that understanding with me. When people don’t have a revelation of the grace of God they are vulnerable to the enemy. I saw the other extreme in another church where they turned the grace of God into lasciviousness. Many of them fell into sin because they abused the grace of God.ii I know from many years of experience that it is important to get a biblical understanding of these things. So my text this morning is this one simple statement from Romans 8:1 “Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus” (NIV).
I have a message for someone who is struggling. In Romans 7 Paul describes the struggle that a Christian goes through when he or she is trying to do the right thing, yet stumbling and failing. The frustrations of that experience led him to cry out in Rom. 7:24 “O wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death?” People who are not trying to do right don’t experience that kind of frustration. They sin and shrug it off with little concern. It is the person who really wants to live godly that can get into that state of mind—the person who tries; and when that doesn’t work, tries harder; and when that doesn’t work tries even harder until there is this point of desperation crying out from deep inside, “What am I going to do about this?” “I can’t seem to live according to my values. Yet I love and fear God too much to just ignore the sin.” Has anyone besides me, ever been there?
It is the result of pursuing the right thing in the wrong way! It is what happens when we, with all good intentions, try to beat a habit in our own strength—try to live for God out of our own willpower. It’s not a question of sincerity. When Paul was experiencing this, he was a sincere as you can get. But he had to learn how to depend upon the Lord for his sanctification.iii He had to learn that his own best efforts were not good enough. He had to discover a way of dealing with the matter that actually works.
That discovery is expressed by Paul in the next verse, Rom. 7:25 “I thank God -- through Jesus Christ our Lord!” Through a reliance on what Jesus has done for me, I can live in victory. The center of my attention and the center of my faith must be in Jesus—not in my own efforts, not in religious ritual, but in the person who is the “author and finisher” of my faith.iv
It begins with a faith in what Jesus has already done for us.
Gal 3:13 “Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law, having become a curse for us (for it is written, ‘Cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree’).” Disobedience to the law of God brings a curse. Disobedience to the moral law of God automatically provokes judgement on the transgressor. “The wages of sin is death” (Rom. 6:23). Because of sin we were under the pending judgement of God; but Jesus took our place by dying on the cross in our behalf (in our place). He poured out His blood for our salvation. 2 Cor. 5:21 “For He [God] made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.” An exchange was made on the cross. Jesus took our sin; and at the same time gave us His righteousness. You don’t want to stand before God with any other righteousness than the righteousness of Jesus Christ. It wasn’t just that Jesus paid the penalty for our sin. That is only one side of the equation. In the same transaction He gave to us His righteousness.
Therefore, we are (as Eph. 1:6 puts it) “accepted in the Beloved.” The Beloved is Jesus. In Christ we are fully accepted, without reservation, by the Father. The basis of that acceptance is the finished work of Christ on the cross.
So we then come to the core of our message this morning in Rom. 8:1 “Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.” I am quoting the NIV because it best represents the original manuscripts. The tag line in the KJV is not in the best manuscripts. The phrase “who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit” is in verse 4; but not in verse 1. So the one qualification in Rom.8:1 is to be “in Christ Jesus.” If you’re not “in Christ” then none of this applies to you. You are under the condemnation of God because all have sinned and come short of the glory of God.v Every human being outside of Christ stands guilty before an infinitely holy God and is already under condemnation.
What does it mean to be “in Christ Jesus”? It means you have submitted yourself to His headship. You have surrendered your life to Him. You have put your faith in Him as your Savior and His work on the cross in your behalf. You are no longer going about to establish your own righteousness; but your confidence before God is completely based on His righteousness and your relationship with Him. By faith you have come into His covenant of grace and you recognize Him as your Lord and Redeemer. Are you “in Christ”? Everything depends upon that. Outside of Christ you are doomed. There is “no other name under heaven by which we must be saved” (Acts 4:12).
When you read this phrase in Scripture, “in Christ,” know that it is the dividing line between the saved and the damned. Let me give you a few examples of its occurrence in the New Testament. 2 Cor. 5:17 “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.” Eph. 1:3 “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ.” Eph. 2:4-6 “But God, who is rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, 5 even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), 6 and raised us up together, and made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus.” Eph. 2:13 “But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ.” 2 Tim 1:9 [speaking of God] “who has saved us and called us with a holy calling, not according to our works, but according to His own purpose and grace which was given to us in Christ Jesus before time began.”
So the bold statement we’re about to read again in Rom. 8:1 is exclusively to a special class of people: all those who are “in Christ Jesus.” The exact Greek phrase “en Christo Ieesou” occurs in the next verse (Rom. 8:2) “For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and death.”
To be “in Christ Jesus” guarantees favor and full acceptance before God. To not be “in Christ Jesus” means a sentence of damnation and the wrath of God.vi Only when we understand and appreciate the significance of that standing in Christ, can we receive the impact of Paul’s statement in Rom. 8:1 “Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.”
In the Greek the word “no” comes first in the sentence and is emphatic. There is absolutely no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. The word translated condemnation is not a feeling. It is a fact. It is an adverse legal sentence. It is a sentence of damnation from God Himself. There is no adverse sentence from God to those who are “in Christ Jesus.” If you belong to the Lord, God will never pronounce an adverse, condemning sentence on you. And this statement is made in the context of Rom. 7 where the Christian is struggling with things. If you think God is only favorable toward you when you perform well, you will be up and down in your walk with Him. Hear His promise in 1 John 1:9 “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” How can it be just for God to forgive us our sins? It is just because the penalty for those sins have already been paid at Calvary. It would, in fact, be unjust for God to require the penalty twice. So, all those who put their faith in Jesus will never be under the condemnation of God.vii
Examine Rom. 8:1 closely for it is the foundation for your walk with God. “Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.” Even with our ups and down, even with our shortcomings and failures, “there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.”
Why is there no condemnation?
(1) Jesus has paid the penalty for me. Through the exchange of the cross He took my sin and gave me His right standing before the Father. We have talked quite a bit about that.
(2) God has accepted me in the Beloved and declared me righteous. Rom. 3:21 “But now the righteousness of God apart from the law is revealed, being witnessed by the Law and the Prophets, 22 even the righteousness of God, through faith in Jesus Christ, to all and on all who believe. For there is no difference; 23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, 24 being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus.” Verse 26 “…that He might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.”
(3) God has made me a new creature in Christ. I have a new nature that is pleasing to God. I have been “born again, not of corruptible seed but incorruptible, through the word of God which lives and abides forever.” (1 Peter 1:23). In my innermost being I delight in the law of God.viii I want to please God and God knows that. There is a transformation taking place in me according to the plan of God. The seed is not in full bloom. But it defines who I am and what I am becoming.
Look at Rom 8:2 “For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and death.” The principle of sin and death once dominated my life. I was powerless to deal with it and, in fact, did not want to deal with it. As a sinner, I did not delight in the law of God at all. I wanted to be my own god and make my own rules. But when I was born again, the life of Christ came in and with it came a love for God and a desire to please Him. Yes, I may still struggle with some things. But praise God I have entered into the fight of faith and by His grace I will win that fight. Why will we win? “For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and death.”
(4) “In Christ” I am no longer an enemy of God. Instead I have been adopted into the family of God and am now a child of God. Rom 5:9-10 “Much more then, having now been justified by His blood, we shall be saved from wrath through Him. 10 For if when we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more, having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His life.”
The foundation for our walk with God is understanding these things. There are many exhortation in the Bible for us to live a holy life in accordance with who we are in Christ. But it does not begin with our behavior. It begins with our identity in Christ. It begins with what God has made us to be “in Christ.” Our footing is firm to the extent we understand who we are now in Christ. We are in the family of God. We are sons and daughters of God. Yes, we are work-in-process; but we are no longer trying to gain God’s favor. We have been given that in Christ. His salvation is a free gift. The sanctification process that we’re in now is to “work out that salvation” from the inside of who we are to the outside of what we do.ix
The Devil is the Accuser of the brethren. His favorite trick is to knock you down; then stand over you telling you how worthless you are and how you just as well give up trying to serve God. Well, I’ve got an announcement. The Devil is a liar. You may have some struggles; but the fact that you do struggle is a strong indication that deep inside you love God’s law and want to please Him. When you get knocked down, get up, turn from the sin to God, ask and receive His forgiveness, and keep walking with God (even if you stumble some along the way).
The way to win the struggle is to embrace your new identity in Christ. Your failures don’t define who you are. God has defined who you are “in Christ.” As you grasp the significance of being “in Christ”—as you learn more and more to rely on the Holy Spirit and let His life bear fruit in you—the struggles will be won. The key to transformation is revealed in 2 Cor. 3:17-18 “Now the Lord is the Spirit; and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty. 18 But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as by the Spirit of the Lord.”
Get Rom 8:1 fully established in your heart, “Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus” (NIV). God does not reject you when you fail. He does not pronounce a damning sentence on you when you fail. He does not deal with you as an enemy—but as a child of His. Sometimes He allows the consequences of our misbehavior to get our attention. “Do not be deceived, God is not mocked; for whatever a man sows, that he will also reap” (Gal 6:7). Paul said this to Christians.
Being in the Family does not mean you can do whatever you want to do without any consequences. In fact, we are guaranteed discipline from the Father if we are truly His children. Heb. 12:5-11 “And you have forgotten the exhortation which speaks to you as to sons: ‘My son, do not despise the chastening of the LORD, Nor be discouraged when you are rebuked by Him; 6 For whom the LORD loves He chastens, And scourges every son whom He receives.’ 7 If you endure chastening, God deals with you as with sons; for what son is there whom a father does not chasten? 8 But if you are without chastening, of which all have become partakers, then you are illegitimate and not sons. 9 Furthermore, we have had human fathers who corrected us, and we paid them respect. Shall we not much more readily be in subjection to the Father of spirits and live? 10 For they indeed for a few days chastened us as seemed best to them, but He for our profit, that we may be partakers of His holiness. 11 Now no chastening seems to be joyful for the present, but painful; nevertheless, afterward it yields the peaceable fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it.”
God’s children are never punished for their sin. Jesus bore the punishment already. “Therefore, there is now no condemnation [sentence of damnation] for those who are in Christ Jesus” (NIV). There is for every true child of God chastening, correction, discipline, and training. If your heart is not right, God will correct you for your own good—just like any loving father would do for his children. But He will not turn His back on you and pronounce damnation on you. There is a rare exception described in Heb. 6 and 10 that I don’t have time to deal with. But that does not happen to a struggling child of God; it is outside the normal course of our experience.
Two extremes to avoid:
(1) Apathy toward the sin. Sin will always cost you. It’s always better not to sin than to sin. Nobody pulls one over on God. Sin has its built in consequences and God does chasten His children.
(2) Despondency over the struggle. Do not let a setback define your future. If you fail, come to God with that and receive His help. 1 John 2:1 “My little children, these things I write to you, so that you may not sin. And if anyone sins, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous.” God has the remedy. Don’t allow the enemy to push you into despondency. I feel the primary purpose of this message is to encourage someone to not give up, not lose heart. Continue even if you stumble some along the way.
Invitation
END NOTES:
i All Scripture quotes are from the New King James Version unless indicated otherwise.
ii Jude 4 and Romans 6:15.
iii Although biblical sanctification is much broader than this, I am using the term for the process a Christian experiences during his walk with God that frees him from the practical dominion of sin in his life, transforms his thinking, and matures him in character and intimacy with the Lord.
iv Hebrews 12:2
v Romans 3:23
vi Revelation 20:15
vii Salvation is based upon being in covenant by faith in Christ. A willful renouncing of that covenant can take the person out of the safety of being in Christ (Heb. 10:29). Explaining this is beyond the scope of this message.
viii Romans 7:22.
ixix Phil. 2:12-13
