The Joy Of The Spirit-Filled Life Series

INTRODUCTION

Some people like the 23rd Psalm or the third chapter of John or Hebrews 11 – you may have your own personal favorite chapter, but without a doubt, Romans 8 is my favorite chapter in the Bible. I’ve been looking forward to getting to this point. When I was in college, I memorized Romans 8 in the King James Version, and a lot of what I believe about salvation and about the spirit-filled life comes from this chapter.

Sometimes people wonder what heaven is going to be like. I heard a funny joke the other day about the three blind mice who went to heaven. When they got to heaven, the three blind mice were no longer blind, and so St. Peter said, “I want you to see heaven, so I’m going to give each of you some roller skates!” So the three blind mice took off across heaven to examine it on their roller skates. About a week later, Garfield the cat died and went to heaven and after Garfield the cat had been in heaven for about a week, St. Peter said, “How do you like heaven?” Garfield said, “It is wonderful! But the thing I like the best up here in heaven are those meals on wheels!”

I don’t know about cats and mice in heaven, but sometimes Christians spend all of their earthly lives saying, “Oh, I just can’t wait to get to heaven!” But you see, the truth about the Good News of Jesus Christ is, you can get a lot of heaven into your life right now while you’re still alive! You don’t have to go through a cemetery to have the life of heaven in you right now. Like that good old Gospel song says, “Heaven came down and Glory filled my soul.” But if you don’t ever understand what the spirit-filled life is all about, you’ll pretty much live in spiritual defeat and misery and you won't enjoy much heaven.

Now Romans 8 is all about how to live in the fullness of the Holy Spirit. A man by the name of Speener said in Romans 8 we see the brightest truth in the word of God. He said, “If you think of the Bible as a ring and if you think of Romans as being the biggest diamond set in that ring, Romans 8 would have to be the pinnacle and the point of that diamond.” You start out with no condemnation in Romans 8–you end up with no separation–and in between you have all things working together for good for them that love the Lord. So I want to talk to you about how as spirit-filled Christians we can make four wonderful affirmations. Keep your Bible open because as we make each four of these statements we will read the four verses.

I. NOT CONDEMNED FOR MY SIN!

First of all, as spirit-filled Christians, you and I can say, “I am not condemned for my sin.” Look at Romans 8:1. “Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.” Now, when I memorized this verse in the King James Version, there are some extra words there. Without a doubt, those words are not found in the oldest and most reliable Greek manuscripts of the New Testament. Actually, those words are better found down in chapter 4, where we read in the end of chapter 4, “…who do not live according to the sinful nature but according to the spirit.” All verse one says is simply, “There is, therefore, now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.” Period. What do the words “no condemnation” mean? The phrase no condemnation actually comes from two Greek particles, kato (which means down) and Krino (which means to judge). Literally, the word condemnation, or kato krino, means to judge down. Have you ever seen those movies where the Roman Emperor is sitting on a throne and prisoners are brought before him and he decides whether they are voted down (judged down) or up. You are guilty or you are innocent. That’s the meaning of that word and the Bible says for those of us who are “in Christ,” there’s absolutely no down judging–no condemnation.

Let me tell you that doesn’t mean there won’t be judgment for Christians. Don’t misunderstand this. There are two future judgments. The judgment seat of Christ–for Christians only–that is not to determine whether you are lost or saved, that’s the judgment that Jesus will give every believer as to our faithfulness. That’s when rewards will be passed out. That’s when we’ll receive the crowns that we’ll cast at His feet. There is no condemnation, but there is judgment for Christians. But there is another future judgment talked about in Revelation 20. This is the great White Throne Judgment, which is the judgment of condemnation and only lost people will be there. And so, Romans 8:1 doesn’t say there won’t be any judgment for Christians. What it says is there is no ‘condemnation,’ no kato krino (judging down). Because it says we are “in Christ.”