There is Therefore
Through certain experiences in my life, I constantly felt guilty and therefore condemned myself. I felt inferior to others and I felt that there were perfect and able people who could be ministers of God. I was not good enough.
The very word condemnation means you are written off. A condemned building cannot be used other than be bulldozed and removed. Condemned food cannot be eaten and must be thrown away else it will poison whoever eats it.
Romans 8:1 There is therefore no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, who walk not according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit.
Firstly, let’s go and see why therefore is, therefore.
Romans 7:25-26 O wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? 25 I thank God—through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, with the mind I serve the law of God, but with the flesh the law of sin.
Paul says that he is a wretched man needing to be delivered from the body of death. Where did this body of death come from?
Genesis 2 after God had formed man and breathed into his nostrils and man had become a living being. God put man into the Garden of Eden to tend and keep it. God commanded Adam that he could freely eat of every tree of the garden, but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil he must not eat. In the day that he ate of the tree, he would surely die.
Eve, Adams's wife bumps into the serpent and he has a discussion with Eve. We read in Genesis 3 how the serpent sows doubt with the question, “Has God really said that you should not eat of the fruit of every tree in the Garden”? Eve says, “Of the tree of knowledge good and evil we should not eat, for if we eat of it we shall surely die”. He then tells her that they will not die but have knowledge of good and evil and be like God.
Eve then sees that the fruit looks good to eat. She takes the fruit and eats then gives it to Adam who eats.
Immediately their eyes are opened, and they see that they are naked and are ashamed. They sowed fig leaves to cover their nakedness and hide from God. God looks for them and calls Adam. He asks them how they know they are naked; did they eat of the tree? Adam answered, “The woman you gave me, she gave me of the tree, and I ate”. The woman blames the snake.
God then curses the snake, and He curses Eve.
Genesis 3:17-19 Then to Adam He said, “Because you have heeded the voice of your wife, and have eaten from the tree of which I commanded you, saying, ‘You shall not eat of it’:
“Cursed is the ground for your sake;
In toil you shall eat of it
All the days of your life.
18 Both thorns and thistles it shall [a]bring forth for you,
And you shall eat the herb of the field.
19 In the sweat of your face you shall eat bread
Till you return to the ground,
For out of it you were taken;
For dust you are,
And to dust you shall return.”
God pronounces the curse of death on Adam and all mankind that will come from Adams's line.
Romans 5:14-19 Nevertheless death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over those who had not sinned according to the likeness of the transgression of Adam, who is a type of Him who was to come.
Adam did not believe God’s Word and as a result disobeyed, later in Genesis we read of Moses falling into the same trap of unbelief.
After the people of Israel were led by Moses, out of Egypt they grumbled because they had no water. Moses approaches God and God tells him to hit the rock with Aron’s rod and water comes out of the rock. The people grumble again on another occasion that they have no water. This time God tells Moses to speak to the rock but out of frustration Moses hits the rock. God is still gracious, and water comes out of the rock, but God is not pleased with Moses.
Numbers 20:12 Then the Lord spoke to Moses and Aaron, “Because you did not believe Me, to hallow Me in the eyes of the children of Israel, therefore you shall not bring this assembly into the land which I have given them.”
Adam lost life and Moses lost going into the promised land.
Hebrews 3:7 Therefore, as the Holy Spirit says:
“Today, if you will hear His voice,
8 Do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion,
In the day of trial in the wilderness,
9 Where your fathers tested Me, tried Me,
And saw My works forty years.
10 Therefore I was angry with that generation,
And said, ‘They always go astray in their heart,
And they have not known My ways.’
11 So I swore in My wrath,
‘They shall not enter My rest.’ ”
12 Beware, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief in departing from the living God;
Our major problem is that we find it impossible to fully obey God’s voice.
Back to Romans 7:24 O wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? 25 I thank God—through Jesus Christ our Lord!
God knows the dilemma of mankind. He knows the impossibility for us to obey a perfect, Holy law.
God has forever had a plan to free man from sin and death. To have a relationship with the humans He Has created.
John 3:16-18 For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. 17 For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved.
18 “He who believes in Him is not condemned; but he who does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.
Not believing In Jesus Christ keeps me in a position of guilt, feeling that I am unworthy, never good enough to be of any purpose to God. What right do I have to minister to others? My life is a mess because sin gets the better of me.
With my mind, I try my best to obey God’s Law, which is external. Written on stone, but with my flesh, I serve the law of sin and death.
The flesh constantly opposes my mind, the two are constantly at war and many times the flesh wins. The works of the flesh bring condemnation, make me feel inferior, not good enough, unworthy and I will never amount to much. So how do I overcome and get to live in no condemnation? I cannot in my strength.
Romans 8:1 clearly says, "No condemnation for those in Christ Jesus and who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit".
The difference found in those who walk according to the Spirit and those who walk according to the flesh is outlined for us in;
Galatians 5:19-22 Now the works of the flesh are evident, which are: adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lewdness, 20 idolatry, sorcery, hatred, contentions, jealousies, outbursts of wrath, selfish ambitions, dissensions, heresies, 21 envy, murders, drunkenness, revelries, and the like; of which I tell you beforehand, just as I also told you in time past, that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.
22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness,
faithfulness, 23 gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law.
There is no law because it is an internal law in our minds and written on our hearts
Jeremiah 31:33 But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the Lord: I will put My law in their minds, and write it on their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people.
The day you believed in Jesus Christ and His death on the cross, you died to the flesh, and you were resurrected into Jesus Christ.
You have a new mind. It is no longer what you have to do but what you do which comes from the internal you where Christ lives.
1 Corinthians 2:16 For “who has known the mind of the Lord that he may instruct Him?” But we have the mind of Christ.
Romans 8:1 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.
