The Condemnation of Sin

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

I Am Uncondemned

The opening verses of Romans 8 are critical to us as Christians. Verse 1 tells us the life-altering, paradigm-shattering truth that there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. We are not condemned when we sin because our righteousness is by faith in Christ alone. This is an important

truth because it allows us to believe, live, act and speak boldly as Christians in the face of our constant failure to keep the commandments of God. If as Christians we still lived under the condemnation of God, we could not be considered free people but those who are yet under the dominion of the written law and sin.

Because we often think of Christianity as something that cleans us up, that makes us good people, the idea that God has set us free from condemnation seems completely counter-intuitive.  If God will simply forgive us our sin for Christ’s sake, what possible motivation do we have for change? A God who would accept us without placing conditions on us and requiring us to toe the line simply has no teeth or weapon to force us to change our behavior. We can literally get away with murder and pay no penalty for our actions. 

That kind of thinking comes from this world’s system. We have been conditioned to think that every action deserves an equal reaction. That every transgression should be punished and every obedience rewarded. That is the scheme under the dominion of law that we were all born into and are very comfortable with. Yet, if that were the system that Christ died to perpetuate, he would never have needed to die at all. If we could embrace obedience and resist transgression by our own power then Christ died in vain, faith in Christ means nothing and we are all still condemned. That is life under the law.

My Sin Is Condemned

God is a step ahead of us. By His grace he has forgiven and will continue to forgive our transgressions because He knows that as sinful beings we will refuse relationship with Him if he does not forgive us our sin. We simply will not pursue the light knowing that our profound darkness is going to be exposed and we will be condemned by the light. God’s answer is to free us from condemnation for our darkness while condemning the darkness that resides in us.

This Paul tells us in verse 3: “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…” This is God ‘loving the sinner but hating the sin.’ He is well aware that sin dwells within us but He does not condemn us for that sin but rather condemns the sin itself.

Being released from condemnation for our sin through faith in Christ allows us to come into God’s light. The more time we spend in His light, the more our darkness is exposed and the sin within us is condemned and destroyed. This process can only take place because of what Christ has accomplished on our behalf. Because of Calvary we are not condemned or destroyed ourselves in the presence of the Father.

This is how justification through Christ leads us to sanctification before God. Allowed into God’s holy presence through faith in Christ’s atonement, we are conformed to the image of the son that ‘the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.’ We fulfill that law not by struggle, but by boldly entering in the presence of God moment by moment and allowing our sin to be exposed and dealt with. 

I don’t know about you, but I want God to condemn the sin in my flesh. I know what it is like to loathe God and to avoid Him, shrink back from His holiness and seek to escape His presence. That is what I want the sin in my flesh to experience. I want to be exposed to the light so that the darkness within me flees in terror. That is the gospel truth.

God Bless

Folly as Proof of Faith

For the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.

1 Corinthians 1:18 is a ‘go to’ scripture for me. It seems an odd place to find security and confidence, and yet I find both of these in abundance there. It always reminds me that my salvation is of God and is irrevocable – I didn’t create it and I can’t mess it up.

Having entered into conversation with a young man in the past several days who is a staunch atheist because (in his words) faith cannot be proven by science or objective reasoning, I have once again come back to this scripture as an argument for faith and its origin. If by blind human faith I chose to believe the gospel, I would have to give up the argument by conceding that a belief founded in faith cannot be proven. I would, in all fairness, have to concede that I am a fool.

But in the end faith is proof of itself. As Paul says, the word of the cross (the gospel) is folly to those who are perishing. It is utter foolishness. God, in the person of the Son, was born to earth as a baby, lived among humankind for 33 years, performed many miracles, was put to death by Roman crucifixion at the urging of his own chosen people, was buried for 3 days and then rose to life again, ascending back to heaven. Nothing in that statement seems very far-fetched, right? Unless you are viewing it from a fallen – purely human – perspective, in which case it is completely absurd. It seems obvious that to believe that you would have to be insane or influenced to that belief by something other than your own reasoning.

People outside the church find this line of reasoning somewhat intriguing, while those inside find it insulting. Because we have been taught that belief influenced by something other than our own will and reasoning would make us robots or pawns we take it as insult that someone would label our “choice” as foolishness despite the fact that scripture itself acknowledges that the message that led us to make that “choice” is ‘folly to those who are perishing’. By insisting that we were at least partially responsible for our salvation, we deny the truth of the scripture that the gospel is and can never be other than folly to the unregenerate human mind. As a result we lack confidence in our salvation and confidence in the word of the cross to save others. I think this is why, at least since I’ve been a Christian, there is so little preaching of the gospel and so much thrashing about with personal testimony and ‘seeker friendly’ services. We secretly realize that the gospel is folly and an offense to the world at large and have abandoned it in preference to social justice and apologetics – things which seem to be more palatable to human reason.

If we believe that we are responsible for our salvation in any way – despite the fact that scripture says the Son secured our salvation, the Father draws us to that salvation and the Spirit brings the new birth – then our position is the one that becomes folly. Far from being robots or pawns we are those upon whom God has shown greater mercy not only in sending His son as a substitute for our sins but in drawing us to that truth. If all of that is true then our approach to evangelism is revealed to be folly as well. Any appeal to human reasoning by human reasoning in an attempt to lead another into salvation must be dismissed if salvation does not come about by human reasoning. Any attempt to influence the will of another must also be abandoned if salvation is not an act of human will. (So then it [salvation] depends not on human will or exertion, but on God, who has mercy. Romans 9:16)

The beautiful thing about this is that it takes us out of the equation. We no longer have to defend our faith as if it were our personal choice and reflects our ability to reason properly. This is good because from the standpoint of a lost person it is completely indefensible and unreasonable and they will have no problem telling us so. This keeps us from becoming angry and argumentative with those who disagree with our faith. We were chosen to believe, and so we believe.  We no longer feel the pressure to try and convince someone to believe because we are responsible only to preach the foolishness of the gospel. The believing is up to God. Because this was Paul’s viewpoint, he would say to Timothy:

…the Lord's servant must not be quarrelsome but kind to everyone, able to teach, patiently enduring evil, correcting his opponents with gentleness. God may perhaps grant them repentance leading to a knowledge of the truth, and they may come to their senses and escape from the snare of the devil, after being captured by him to do his will. 2 Timothy 2:24-26

God alone can grant repentance leading to a knowledge of the truth through the foolish message of the cross. That is the gospel truth.

God Bless