Romans 8.1
There are many benefits that have become ours because of Jesus. Many benefits. What I'd like to do this morning is to look at just one of them, the one stated in our text, 'There is now therefore no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.' First, I'm going to explain some of what's involved in this striking statement. But then I'm going to pose a simple question. This question, and its answer, will be the heart of the sermon. It is my hope that how I answer that question will help you to experience more deeply the glorious benefit of the Gospel that our text is all about.
Paul's letter to the church in Rome is his detailed explanation of the Gospel. Our text is a climax to that explanation. To feel something of the force of what Paul is pointing to, you need to understand God's attitude toward sinners. He is out to destroy them. What else would you expect? Sinners are in rebellion against the King of all creation. It only makes sense then. God is out to destroy sinners. If you think that that is a bit too strong then listen to this from the Psalms. 'God is a righteous judge, and a God who feels indignation every day. If a man does not repent, God will whet His sword; He has bent and readied His bow; He has prepared for him His deadly weapons, making His arrows fiery shafts.' This anger of God against sinners shows itself now but only partially. It will show itself fully later. So, Paul writes that sinners 'will suffer the punishment of eternal destruction, away from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his might...' So, you see, God is out to destroy sinners. We dare not forget this. But – and thanks be to God for this! – at the same time He yearns to rescue them. You can hear the longing in God's voice when He says, 'Why will you die? ... I have no pleasure in the death of anyone, ... so turn, and live.' And the same longing is reflected in the familiar, 'For God so loved the world...' God yearns to rescue sinners. And so, in order that He might do that, He did what no one could have expected. He destroyed His Son. How else can we understand the Cross? The destructive rage of God against sin – your sin and my sin – was vented, full force, at Jesus. As a result, for all those who repent and believe, we have the stunning declaration of our text. 'There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.' This is the heart of the Gospel.
It is easy for us to limit what this means and in this way to miss the glory of the Gospel. So, consider this. The removal of God's just condemnation of you does not mean that He has become neutral toward you. He was enraged, now He's open to other possibilities, right? Wrong! There are only two categories for God. If He is not enraged at you then, as an expression of His profound love, He rejoices over you. There is no 'neutral'. Listen: 'The Lord your God is in your midst, a mighty one who will save; he will rejoice over you with gladness; he will quiet you by his love; he will exult over you with loud singing.' There is no 'neutral'.
Do you see what Paul is saying in our text? No condemnation. Imagine what that means. God's just response to your sin – an anger that is so intense that we cannot comprehend it – is gone. Jesus was crushed by that anger instead of you. No condemnation. The hymn gets it so right. 'Bearing shame and scoffing rude, In my place condemned he stood, Sealed my pardon with his blood: Hallelujah! what a Saviour!' You now enjoy the Father's love. He smiles to Himself when He thinks about you. Out of your experience of this amazing love flows a profound sense of joy and peace. Life is bright with the anticipation of what the Father will do next in your life. Jesus has come. He has rescued you by His agonizing death. The Spirit has applied this to you and thus: no condemnation. Only His smile. This is the Gospel.
Now, the question. If this is true – and it most certainly is! - then why is it that so many of you struggle so with feelings of guilt, feelings of being condemned? The default assumption is, 'I must have done something wrong. God must be at least a little upset with me – and probably more than just a little.' And the result of this, all too often, is an emotional nosedive. Life simply falls apart for a while. There are variations on the theme. Some of you think, 'I haven't done anything wrong yet, but I might. So, I had better be very careful about the things that I do and especially about decisions that I make. I don't want the Father to be upset with me.' No wonder then, that you are so afraid to act, that there is this sense that you had better be oh so careful. Controlling as much of life as you can becomes critical. Emotionally, there looms this sense of always needing to look over your shoulder. 'Have I done anything wrong yet? Is God mad at me for something I've done?' And then, there's this variation that won't seem to be related to the promise of the text, but it is. Some of you are afraid of other people. 'What will they think about me and this choice that I've made?What are they going to say?' The fear of man. And so, you are so very careful around people. Do you hear my question? How can such thoughts of guilt and fear before God and then also before others exist side by side with a Gospel that says, 'There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus'?
There are several possible reasons. Let me mention a few. The first is rebellion. A Christian who is rebelling against the Father will not have any lasting sense of His approval. Any sense of God's smile will be removed. A Christian in this situation is still deeply loved by the Father. It's just that he won't feel it. Now, let me be clear. When I say 'rebel' I don't mean 'sinner'. We are all sinners, but we are not all rebels. By 'rebel' I mean someone who knows about some sin that the Spirit has clearly exposed and who refuses to repent of it. We're past the gentle nudges that the Spirit brings. We're at the point where the Spirit is almost shouting, 'YO! Yes YOU! Repent of THIS sin!' But the rebel still refuses. Such a Christian will not feel God's love. Life will get dark. To those of you who are asking yourself, 'Is he talking about me?', evaluate your situation. Is there some sin that the Spirit has made abundantly plain to you that you are refusing to repent of? I'm not talk about some sin that you are wrestling with. I'm talking about telling God, 'No, I won't repent of this! I just won't.' If that's not your situation, then I'm not talking about you. But if this is you, then you'd better deal with this – and quickly. To refuse to repent is not only foolish, it is also dangerous.
A second possible reason for feelings of guilt and fear might be a heart that just isn't grasping the Gospel well enough. If this is you, then there is more to the Gospel than what you are enjoying. To get at this let me ask a question. What do you expect of each day? You wake up and another day starts. What do you expect? Jesus told us what to expect. 'I came that they may have life and have it abundantly.' Now, those are church words that we need to unpack. To be sure, life as a Christian includes wrestling with sin and dealing with the problems that come from living in a fallen world. But covering all of that is a sense of joy. Not necessarily happiness, but joy. And there's good reason for joy. The Spirit of Jesus is at work. He is at work out there and in you. He is in the process of changing everything, including you, and He won't stop until He makes everything beautiful, including you. The normal Christian life should ordinarily feel 'up' – not emotionally ecstatic but optimistic. That's what we can expect of each day. Don't hear that as a command, something that you need to bring about. That's slipping away from grace and back into a works mentality. This being 'up', being optimistic, is a blessing of the Gospel, a gift of God. The life that Jesus promised, abundant life, is yours. It is yours, and your experience of it is growing. And it's only a matter of time before this life of Jesus completely crushes death and all that goes with it. This is the Gospel that your heart must grasp. And as it does grasp more of this Gospel bit by bit that sense of guilt and fear dissolves. The reason? You are able to see more and more clearly that there is no condemnation. None. Only the Father smiling and the Spirit doing His powerful work of blessing you with more of this life Jesus promised.
This, of course, leads to another question, a practical one. How does the heart grasp more of this Gospel? This is something that the Spirit does. Remember, only the Spirit can change a heart. And also remember that the Spirit uses means, tools, to accomplish His work. So, consider this: your heart cannot grasp what your mind does not know. We're back to the Bible. You need lots of Bible. The Bible is filled with a multitude of ways of describing the Gospel. John 3.16 is the Gospel, but so is some verse in 2 Chronicles. And that verse in 2 Chronicles points to some aspect of the Gospel that John 3.16 doesn't have in view. Just as you need the Gospel according to John 3.16, you also need to Gospel according to that verse in 2 Chronicles. Your heart cannot grasp what your mind does not know. You need lots of Bible.
But the heart grasping the Gospel is not some academic exercise. It's more than just studying a book. Your heart is changed as you speak to the Father about this Gospel that you're learning. So, you encounter the Gospel according to Romans 8.1, and you say, 'Father, I see that I am not condemned – I am so grateful for that – but I still feel as if I am condemned, especially in certain situations. Please help my heart to get this. Change me so that I would believe this bit of the Gospel better.' Lots of Bible alone won't do it. There also needs to be lots of prayer. Lots of Bible and lots of prayer. The Spirit takes these tools and does His amazing work in your soul, His work of changing you. And the result? More life. A deeper experience of joy and peace and eager anticipation of what the Father will do next. All by the Spirit of Jesus.
There is another possible reason why someone might lack a clear sense of 'no condemnation'. I'm just going to touch on this. Jesus prayed these words to the Father. 'I glorified you on earth, having accomplished the work that you gave me to do.' It's such a good feeling to be able to say that. 'I accomplished the work you gave me to do.' But when you can't say that, especially when there are a bunch of tasks that you aren't accomplishing, then there's this cloud that hovers, a cloud that feels like guilt and fear, and that cloud stifles your sense of God's smile. Instead of blue sky and bright sun, life is gray. The only reason that Jesus was able to accomplish all that He did was first, that He knew what the Father had called Him to do and then He said, 'No', to everything else. My guess is that some of you need to work on both of those things, knowing what God has called you to do and saying, 'No' to all the rest. Progress here will do a lot to get rid of that cloud. Now, having said all of that let me remind you that even when you get this very wrong, even when you are accomplishing nothing, it's still true that, 'There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.' The Father still smiles at you. There's more here but it will have to wait for another sermon.
One last question. Why is all of this important? The answer is simple. Your understanding of the Gospel according to Romans 8.1 affects your understanding of the Father. It affects your enjoyment of the Father. It affects your enjoyment of life. And these things affect everything else: your relationships, your worship, your witness. If the Father is someone that you need to tiptoe around because you're afraid that He might get upset by something that you do – well, what kind of religion is that? The word, 'Father' won't arouse feelings of warmth and love and a sense of security. No, this god is always on the verge of a frown, if not worse. But if there is no condemnation, if the Father approves of you and rejoices over you, if, whenever He thinks of you, a big smile breaks out on His face, then that changes everything. 'But', you say, 'how can He do that? I am such a sinner!' First, rest assured that He knows that – better than you do. But then, Jesus dealt with all of that – didn't He? And that, of course, is the question your heart has to answer. Has Jesus dealt with all of that? If He has not, then we have some very serious problems confronting us. I, however, am convinced that Jesus has indeed dealt with all of that. And because He has, you are God's child. You are precious to Him. You give Him great joy. Yes, I know, you are a sinner – and what a sinner you are. But, 'There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.' Right?
There are many benefits that have become ours because of Jesus. Many benefits. What I'd like to do this morning is to look at just one of them, the one stated in our text, 'There is now therefore no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.' First, I'm going to explain some of what's involved in this striking statement. But then I'm going to pose a simple question. This question, and its answer, will be the heart of the sermon. It is my hope that how I answer that question will help you to experience more deeply the glorious benefit of the Gospel that our text is all about.
Paul's letter to the church in Rome is his detailed explanation of the Gospel. Our text is a climax to that explanation. To feel something of the force of what Paul is pointing to, you need to understand God's attitude toward sinners. He is out to destroy them. What else would you expect? Sinners are in rebellion against the King of all creation. It only makes sense then. God is out to destroy sinners. If you think that that is a bit too strong then listen to this from the Psalms. 'God is a righteous judge, and a God who feels indignation every day. If a man does not repent, God will whet His sword; He has bent and readied His bow; He has prepared for him His deadly weapons, making His arrows fiery shafts.' This anger of God against sinners shows itself now but only partially. It will show itself fully later. So, Paul writes that sinners 'will suffer the punishment of eternal destruction, away from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his might...' So, you see, God is out to destroy sinners. We dare not forget this. But – and thanks be to God for this! – at the same time He yearns to rescue them. You can hear the longing in God's voice when He says, 'Why will you die? ... I have no pleasure in the death of anyone, ... so turn, and live.' And the same longing is reflected in the familiar, 'For God so loved the world...' God yearns to rescue sinners. And so, in order that He might do that, He did what no one could have expected. He destroyed His Son. How else can we understand the Cross? The destructive rage of God against sin – your sin and my sin – was vented, full force, at Jesus. As a result, for all those who repent and believe, we have the stunning declaration of our text. 'There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.' This is the heart of the Gospel.
It is easy for us to limit what this means and in this way to miss the glory of the Gospel. So, consider this. The removal of God's just condemnation of you does not mean that He has become neutral toward you. He was enraged, now He's open to other possibilities, right? Wrong! There are only two categories for God. If He is not enraged at you then, as an expression of His profound love, He rejoices over you. There is no 'neutral'. Listen: 'The Lord your God is in your midst, a mighty one who will save; he will rejoice over you with gladness; he will quiet you by his love; he will exult over you with loud singing.' There is no 'neutral'.
Do you see what Paul is saying in our text? No condemnation. Imagine what that means. God's just response to your sin – an anger that is so intense that we cannot comprehend it – is gone. Jesus was crushed by that anger instead of you. No condemnation. The hymn gets it so right. 'Bearing shame and scoffing rude, In my place condemned he stood, Sealed my pardon with his blood: Hallelujah! what a Saviour!' You now enjoy the Father's love. He smiles to Himself when He thinks about you. Out of your experience of this amazing love flows a profound sense of joy and peace. Life is bright with the anticipation of what the Father will do next in your life. Jesus has come. He has rescued you by His agonizing death. The Spirit has applied this to you and thus: no condemnation. Only His smile. This is the Gospel.
Now, the question. If this is true – and it most certainly is! - then why is it that so many of you struggle so with feelings of guilt, feelings of being condemned? The default assumption is, 'I must have done something wrong. God must be at least a little upset with me – and probably more than just a little.' And the result of this, all too often, is an emotional nosedive. Life simply falls apart for a while. There are variations on the theme. Some of you think, 'I haven't done anything wrong yet, but I might. So, I had better be very careful about the things that I do and especially about decisions that I make. I don't want the Father to be upset with me.' No wonder then, that you are so afraid to act, that there is this sense that you had better be oh so careful. Controlling as much of life as you can becomes critical. Emotionally, there looms this sense of always needing to look over your shoulder. 'Have I done anything wrong yet? Is God mad at me for something I've done?' And then, there's this variation that won't seem to be related to the promise of the text, but it is. Some of you are afraid of other people. 'What will they think about me and this choice that I've made?What are they going to say?' The fear of man. And so, you are so very careful around people. Do you hear my question? How can such thoughts of guilt and fear before God and then also before others exist side by side with a Gospel that says, 'There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus'?
There are several possible reasons. Let me mention a few. The first is rebellion. A Christian who is rebelling against the Father will not have any lasting sense of His approval. Any sense of God's smile will be removed. A Christian in this situation is still deeply loved by the Father. It's just that he won't feel it. Now, let me be clear. When I say 'rebel' I don't mean 'sinner'. We are all sinners, but we are not all rebels. By 'rebel' I mean someone who knows about some sin that the Spirit has clearly exposed and who refuses to repent of it. We're past the gentle nudges that the Spirit brings. We're at the point where the Spirit is almost shouting, 'YO! Yes YOU! Repent of THIS sin!' But the rebel still refuses. Such a Christian will not feel God's love. Life will get dark. To those of you who are asking yourself, 'Is he talking about me?', evaluate your situation. Is there some sin that the Spirit has made abundantly plain to you that you are refusing to repent of? I'm not talk about some sin that you are wrestling with. I'm talking about telling God, 'No, I won't repent of this! I just won't.' If that's not your situation, then I'm not talking about you. But if this is you, then you'd better deal with this – and quickly. To refuse to repent is not only foolish, it is also dangerous.
A second possible reason for feelings of guilt and fear might be a heart that just isn't grasping the Gospel well enough. If this is you, then there is more to the Gospel than what you are enjoying. To get at this let me ask a question. What do you expect of each day? You wake up and another day starts. What do you expect? Jesus told us what to expect. 'I came that they may have life and have it abundantly.' Now, those are church words that we need to unpack. To be sure, life as a Christian includes wrestling with sin and dealing with the problems that come from living in a fallen world. But covering all of that is a sense of joy. Not necessarily happiness, but joy. And there's good reason for joy. The Spirit of Jesus is at work. He is at work out there and in you. He is in the process of changing everything, including you, and He won't stop until He makes everything beautiful, including you. The normal Christian life should ordinarily feel 'up' – not emotionally ecstatic but optimistic. That's what we can expect of each day. Don't hear that as a command, something that you need to bring about. That's slipping away from grace and back into a works mentality. This being 'up', being optimistic, is a blessing of the Gospel, a gift of God. The life that Jesus promised, abundant life, is yours. It is yours, and your experience of it is growing. And it's only a matter of time before this life of Jesus completely crushes death and all that goes with it. This is the Gospel that your heart must grasp. And as it does grasp more of this Gospel bit by bit that sense of guilt and fear dissolves. The reason? You are able to see more and more clearly that there is no condemnation. None. Only the Father smiling and the Spirit doing His powerful work of blessing you with more of this life Jesus promised.
This, of course, leads to another question, a practical one. How does the heart grasp more of this Gospel? This is something that the Spirit does. Remember, only the Spirit can change a heart. And also remember that the Spirit uses means, tools, to accomplish His work. So, consider this: your heart cannot grasp what your mind does not know. We're back to the Bible. You need lots of Bible. The Bible is filled with a multitude of ways of describing the Gospel. John 3.16 is the Gospel, but so is some verse in 2 Chronicles. And that verse in 2 Chronicles points to some aspect of the Gospel that John 3.16 doesn't have in view. Just as you need the Gospel according to John 3.16, you also need to Gospel according to that verse in 2 Chronicles. Your heart cannot grasp what your mind does not know. You need lots of Bible.
But the heart grasping the Gospel is not some academic exercise. It's more than just studying a book. Your heart is changed as you speak to the Father about this Gospel that you're learning. So, you encounter the Gospel according to Romans 8.1, and you say, 'Father, I see that I am not condemned – I am so grateful for that – but I still feel as if I am condemned, especially in certain situations. Please help my heart to get this. Change me so that I would believe this bit of the Gospel better.' Lots of Bible alone won't do it. There also needs to be lots of prayer. Lots of Bible and lots of prayer. The Spirit takes these tools and does His amazing work in your soul, His work of changing you. And the result? More life. A deeper experience of joy and peace and eager anticipation of what the Father will do next. All by the Spirit of Jesus.
There is another possible reason why someone might lack a clear sense of 'no condemnation'. I'm just going to touch on this. Jesus prayed these words to the Father. 'I glorified you on earth, having accomplished the work that you gave me to do.' It's such a good feeling to be able to say that. 'I accomplished the work you gave me to do.' But when you can't say that, especially when there are a bunch of tasks that you aren't accomplishing, then there's this cloud that hovers, a cloud that feels like guilt and fear, and that cloud stifles your sense of God's smile. Instead of blue sky and bright sun, life is gray. The only reason that Jesus was able to accomplish all that He did was first, that He knew what the Father had called Him to do and then He said, 'No', to everything else. My guess is that some of you need to work on both of those things, knowing what God has called you to do and saying, 'No' to all the rest. Progress here will do a lot to get rid of that cloud. Now, having said all of that let me remind you that even when you get this very wrong, even when you are accomplishing nothing, it's still true that, 'There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.' The Father still smiles at you. There's more here but it will have to wait for another sermon.
One last question. Why is all of this important? The answer is simple. Your understanding of the Gospel according to Romans 8.1 affects your understanding of the Father. It affects your enjoyment of the Father. It affects your enjoyment of life. And these things affect everything else: your relationships, your worship, your witness. If the Father is someone that you need to tiptoe around because you're afraid that He might get upset by something that you do – well, what kind of religion is that? The word, 'Father' won't arouse feelings of warmth and love and a sense of security. No, this god is always on the verge of a frown, if not worse. But if there is no condemnation, if the Father approves of you and rejoices over you, if, whenever He thinks of you, a big smile breaks out on His face, then that changes everything. 'But', you say, 'how can He do that? I am such a sinner!' First, rest assured that He knows that – better than you do. But then, Jesus dealt with all of that – didn't He? And that, of course, is the question your heart has to answer. Has Jesus dealt with all of that? If He has not, then we have some very serious problems confronting us. I, however, am convinced that Jesus has indeed dealt with all of that. And because He has, you are God's child. You are precious to Him. You give Him great joy. Yes, I know, you are a sinner – and what a sinner you are. But, 'There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.' Right?
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