There is therefore now no condemnation for those who
are in Christ Jesus. Romans 8:1
This is a familiar
enough text of Scripture. We've used it for our 'Declaration of Pardon'. Still,
it's good to take a moment to look at it a bit more carefully.
Let's start with a
key word: condemnation. What does it mean to condemn someone? At least in this
context, it is about damning someone. Now, that's one thing if one of us
condemns another of us. But it is a very different matter if God is the one
doing the condemn, doing the damning. If God condemns someone that's not a
matter of coming calmly to some judicial conclusion. When God condemns, He does
that as someone who is quite enraged.
All of us deserve to experience that enraged damning. The glory of the Gospel is that for all who are in Christ Jesus, there is none of that. However, for the rest, it will be an eternity of that enraged damning: hell.