No Condemnation

Romans 8:1 There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.

"Them which are in Christ Jesus" are those who have trusted Christ as their Saviour. The bible says that faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God. In other words, someone has shared with you the gospel of Christ.. You have heard it. That hearing is more than just being somewhere and hearing sounds or hearing words. It is the eyes of your understanding opened to the truth of the gospel. It is listening to and paying attention to those words. It is paying attention to the message. Hearing it with the authority and with the power that it has. Paul says that the gospel of Christ is the power of God unto salvation to those who believe it.

The truth of the gospel of Christ is that Christ died for your sins, was buried, and rose again. You could hear it a hundred times, and many have, and yet have never really heard it. It is only with the hearing of faith that something happens. It is only by faith in the facts of the gospel that you get saved. You hear that Christ died for your sins, was buried, and rose again the third day and you trust in those facts. That's the hearing of faith. That's the obedience of faith. You believe on Jesus Christ as your Saviour and trust him to have done the work of your salvation. The wages, the payoff, for sin is death. The gospel, the good news is that Christ died for your sins, he took the payoff that was due you. It was his work that he did for you, instead of you, and in your behalf.

Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but by his work at the cross, we are saved. By grace are ye saved through faith and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God. In other words, salvation is a gift. It is not something that can be earned but something that must be received. Paul said "I delivered unto you first of all that which I also received." Paul received the message that Christ died for his sins. He delivered the message and you have received the same message, that Christ died for your sins, was buried, and rose again the third day.

1 Corinthians 15:3 For I delivered unto you first of all that which I also received, how that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures;

1 Corinthians 15:4 And that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day according to the scriptures:

Now that causes something to happen. The moment you hear that message, and you believe it, and you trust Christ as your Saviour, at that moment you are baptized by the Spirit into the body. The body is the church, the body of Christ. Notice:

Galatians 3:26 For ye are all the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus.

Galatians 3:27 For as many of you as have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ.

To be baptized into Christ is not to be baptized in water or with water. Water baptism does not put anyone into Christ. That is a work of the holy Spirit and only the Spirit does it. You cannot start it, stop it, make it happen or stop it from happening. The baptism by the Spirit is a work that no man can do or do to someone else. It is an identification and the work of the Spirit identifies you, baptizes you INTO Christ. The holy Spirit baptism takes place the very moment you trust in Christ and it seals you in Christ Jesus. It is brought about by words and the only evidence of it is also words.It is not brought about by effort or works of any kind.

Galatians 3:2 This only would I learn of you, Received ye the Spirit by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith?

In other words the baptism by the Spirit into the body of Christ is brought about by the words of the truth of the gospel. You hear those words, that Christ died for your sins, that he was buried and he rose again. Those are the words of the holy Spirit. It is called the gospel of Christ and Paul said that it is the power of God unto salvation...to those who would believe it. The evidence of your salvation is also words, the words of your testimony. The words you speak pertaining to what your faith is in. For instance, look at the Ephesians:

Ephesians 1:13 In whom ye also trusted, after that ye heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation: in whom also after that ye believed, ye were sealed with that holy Spirit of promise,

So they heard the gospel, believed it and trusted Christ. They were sealed in Christ by the Spirit, and later Paul says that he HEARD of their faith. The only way to hear of their faith is that if they spoke words, confessing their faith. You certainly cannot look at someone and tell what he beleives can you?

Ephesians 1:15 Wherefore I also, after I heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus, and love unto all the saints,

So salvation is all about words. The sealing is by those words, and the evidence of salvation is words, just as Paul heard of their faith and then wrote the letter to them. Those Ephesians had heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation. They had trusted in Jesus Christ for salvation. Notice "in whom" you were sealed. In Christ Jesus. And for those who are in Christ Jesus there is no condemnation, not now and not ever. The reason that there is no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus is because all that could bring condemnation against you has been removed, it has been done away with...in Christ Jesus.

From the Apostle Paul we learn that Christ died for sin, he died for sins and he died for sinners. Notice here:

2 Corinthians 5:19 To wit, that God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them; and hath committed unto us the word of reconciliation.

God does not impute our sins to us, because nearly 2000 years ago, at the cross, God imputed, that is to say, he charged our sins to Christ. All of the sins you will ever commit in your entire life were charged to Christ at the cross nearly 2000 years ago. Hence, if all of your sins were charged to Christ, even though they were yet in the future...and some of them still are...then God no longer can or will impute or charge your sins to you. So sins are not an issue. Trusting Christ as your Saviour is the issue.

2 Corinthians 5:20 Now then we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God did beseech you by us: we pray you in Christ's stead, be ye reconciled to God.

In other words God has reconciled the world unto himself. He has no reason to be angry or vengeful at anyone in the world today because Christ bore the judgment for sin and sins that was due us. God reconciled the world...he didn't save the world. But he brought about the condition whereby anybody, anywhere at anytime can be saved if they will, simply by trusting Christ and what he has already done in his death, his burial and his resurrection.

2 Corinthians 5:21 For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.

 What is sin anyway? Well, Paul says in Romans three that "by the law is the knowledge of sin." Paul and John both agree perfectly on what sin is. Look at John:

1 John 3:4 Whosoever committeth sin transgresseth also the law: for sin is the transgression of the law.

So John says that sin is the transgression of the law. Paul agrees with that and look what he says:

Romans 4:15 Because the law worketh wrath: for where no law is, there is no transgression.

There are two things there. Number one, the law worketh wrath. And the second thing is, where there is no law there is no transgression. If there is no transgression there is no reason for wrath. Paul says in 1 Corinthians that the sting of death is sin and the strength of sin is the law. Now we are talking about being in Christ Jesus as opposed to being in the flesh. Saved people are in Christ Jesus. Lost people are in the flesh. Notice the condition before we were saved:

Romans 7:5 For when we were in the flesh, the motions of sins, which were by the law, did work in our members to bring forth fruit unto death.

The motions of sins, the strength of sin is the law itself, and instead of bringing about salvation it brings about death. It brings about condemnation.

2 Corinthians 3:7 But if the ministration of death, written and engraven in stones, was glorious, so that the children of Israel could not stedfastly behold the face of Moses for the glory of his countenance; which glory was to be done away:

2 Corinthians 3:9 For if the ministration of condemnation be glory, much more doth the ministration of righteousness exceed in glory.

So the law works wrath, the wrath of God against sin. It is the ministration of condemnation and the ministration of death. The law cannot save you. All the law can do is say "This DO and thou shalt live." But to be under the law is to do the whole law, not just parts that we like or parts that we pick and choose. Notice what James says:

James 2:10 For whosoever shall keep the whole law, and yet offend in one point, he is guilty of all.

How many "points" of the law are there? Well, the count is 613 specific points in the law....not just 10 commandments. James says if you fail in one point then you are guilty of all. The point is that no man is justified by the law.

Galatians 3:10 For as many as are of the works of the law are under the curse: for it is written, Cursed is every one that continueth not in all things which are written in the book of the law to do them.

Galatians 3:11 But that no man is justified by the law in the sight of God, it is evident: for, The just shall live by faith.

Galatians 3:12 And the law is not of faith: but, The man that doeth them shall live in them.

So the only way a man could live, under the law, would be to do the whole law, always, constantly, and never fail in one point. But the bible tells me that all have sinned. All come short of the glory of God. There is none righteous, no not one. So to be under the law is to be under a curse. The curse of condemnation and of death. But the good news is:

Galatians 3:13 Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us: for it is written, Cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree:

Christ at the cross took away the curse of the law and the condemnation of the law by being condemned for us and being made a curse for us. So that which could bring condemnation, the condemnation of the law, has been taken away...in Christ Jesus. There is no condemnation from the law to them that are in Christ Jesus.

Romans 10:4 For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to every one that believeth.

So we who are in Christ Jesus are not trying to gain a right standing with God by working the law, by doing the works of the law. We have something different than our own righteousness, which is of the law.

Romans 3:21 But now the righteousness of God without the law is manifested, being witnessed by the law and the prophets;

Romans 3:22 Even the righteousness of God which is by faith of Jesus Christ unto all and upon all them that believe: for there is no difference:

So instead of trying to gain favor with God by our own goodness, by doing the good things of the law, we have the righteousness of God upon ALL THEM THAT BELIEVE without any working at all. Righteousness is a gift and it is unto all but upon believers.

Galatians 2:21 I do not frustrate the grace of God: for if righteousness come by the law, then Christ is dead in vain.

Christ died to redeem us from the curse of the law. So in Christ Jesus there is no condemnation from the law because we are not under the law but under grace.

Romans 6:14 For sin shall not have dominion over you: for ye are not under the law, but under grace.

We are saved by grace. The bible says that Noah found grace...in the eyes of the Lord. In the book of Hebrews those Hebrews are seeking to find grace at the end of the tribulation, but we have been GIVEN grace.

Ephesians 4:7 But unto every one of us is given grace according to the measure of the gift of Christ.

So the condemnation of the law is not an issue where we as believers are concerned. Sins are no longer an issue.
We know and trust that Christ died for our sins. That's the message Paul received, that Paul delivered and that we received., how that Christ died for our sins, according to the scriptures.

Romans 4:25 Who was delivered for our offences, and was raised again for our justification.

When Jesus Christ went to the cross he went bearing our sins, all of them. Our sins were upon him. He suffered for our sins. He shed his blood for our sins. Without the shedding of blood there is no remission. Not just any blood. Not the blood of bulls and goats. According to Hebrews the blood of bulls and goats could never take away sins. The only thing that can take away your sins is the shed blood of Jesus Christ. He shed his blood for you. He purchased you with a price, the price of God's own blood, the blood of the sinless, virgin born son of God.

So Christ suffered, he bled, and he died and he was buried. His body was placed into Joseph's tomb but he went down into the lower parts of the earth. He went down into hell...and when he came up our sins were left there. Taken away. Gone forever. Any and all sins of a lifetime, your lifetime, Christ took them to Hell and they are gone. Never to be brought up again. Those sins of my flesh would have condemned me to hell and condemned you to hell. But Jesus Christ our Saviour bore our sins and he bore them away. They are gone. The law is taken out of the way and our sins are taken out of the way.

But three days and three nights after Christ died on the cross, he arose from the dead. And when he rose he was raised FOR our justification. And we have now been forgiven.

Colossians 2:13 And you, being dead in your sins and the uncircumcision of your flesh, hath he quickened together with him, having forgiven you all trespasses;

All trespasses is all. That's everything. Every thing in your entire life that you have done or ever will do that could have ever brought condemnation upon you has been taken away and taken away forever. The proof is in the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Think about it. In the verses we have looked at we see that Christ on the cross was bearing all of our sins. Unless they are all gone and forever done away then there would be no possible way for God to forgive you or even raise Christ from the dead with your sins still upon him. The resurrection of Jesus Christ is the living proof of our justification. So not only was the death of Christ important to our salvation....his resurrection is too.

1 Corinthians 15:14 And if Christ be not risen, then is our preaching vain, and your faith is also vain.

1 Corinthians 15:17 And if Christ be not raised, your faith is vain; ye are yet in your sins.

1 Corinthians 15:20 But now is Christ risen from the dead, and become the firstfruits of them that slept.

Our verse in Colossians says that we were quickened together with him...God..having forgiven us ALL trespasses. So the power of God unto salvation is in what Jesus Christ did in his death, burial and resurrection. He died for our sins, he took all of our sins away, and he was raised for our justification. We are justified freely by his grace:

Romans 3:24 Being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus:

So the law is taken out of the way and our sins are gone and we are justified in God's sight. But there is something else about being in Christ Jesus.

Romans 5:9 Much more then, being now justified by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath through him.

We are already saved from any and all condemnation from our sins but we shall also be saved from the wrath to come. There is a time coming in the future when God will unleash his wrath and his judgment on an unbelieving world.

2 Thessalonians 1:8 In flaming fire taking vengeance on them that know not God, and that obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ:

Those that obey not the gospel are those who will not believe it. Their sins are not the issue and their sins are not what causes the wrath to fall on them....it is their unbelief. But we have obeyed the gospel. We have believed it. We have trusted Jesus Christ as our Saviour. We are not appointed to wrath and before the wrath comes the rapture will come and the church, which is the body of Christ will be delivered from this present evil world....according to the will of God and our Father.

So Christ died for our sins. He died for sinners:

Romans 5:8 But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.

So Christ died not only to pay the penalty for our sins he died for US who commit those sins.

Romans 5:10 For if, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by his life.

So we are already saved from the penalty of sin and we shall be saved from the wrath to come.But that's not all, God in Christ even did away with the condemnation that came about and that we all came by naturally....the very nature of sin.

Romans 5:12 Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned:

That is a reference to sin as a nature, the very nature of sin. We all came by it naturally. We got it from our great, great, great ancestor....Adam. Genesis tells us that God created man in his own image. But Adam lost something when he ate of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil and something entered into him that caused the fall of the whole human race...sin as a nature. The very nature of sin. When Adam had children they were born in HIS image...the image of a fallen man. It is not true that we were all created, we were all born and we were born with the nature of Adam, the nature of sin. But Christ died for sinners and he died for sins. He also took care of sin...as a nature by giving us a new position in Christ Jesus.

2 Corinthians 5:17 Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.

That doesn't mean that you got rid of your old nature or got zapped into sinless perfection. But it means that in your position in Christ Jesus that God has already judged you and your sins. You have been found guilty and Christ died in your behalf...instead of you.

When you trust Christ as your Saviour the holy Spirit baptism takes place and it is a baptism into Christ. But look at what it also does:

Romans 6:3 Know ye not, that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his death?

We were identified in the death of Christ. In other words God sees Christ's death as your death and he puts the death of Christ to your account...he imputes it to you...and counts it as your death.

Romans 6:4 Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life.

Once again, let's don't try to put water in that passage, it won't work. Water does not baptize anyone INTO Jesus Christ, only the holy Spirit can do that.

Walking in newness of life is walking as the new man, walking as that new creature in Christ. The new creature is the man God sees, even though when we look at other people or they look at us there is the same old person that was always there. So being a new creature in Christ is a position. It is judicial and it is spiritual. God no longer sees you the way we might see each other. He sees us as complete in Christ, nothing lacking. That's true the moment you trust Christ as your Saviour and it never changes. Experiences might change but our position in Christ never does, not for now or for all eternity. That was settled by the cross of Jesus Christ. The old things that have passed away are our old religious attitudes and the things of the law and all the things that would have brought condemnation against us. They simply don't exist any more, in God's eyes.

Notice he says that "like as" Christ was raised up from the dead...even so we should walk in newness of life. To do that what we have to do is "reckon," that is to count it to be so. It means to count all these things to be true of us. That's the way God sees it and counts it. We should do the same:

Romans 6:11 Likewise reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord.

That's what Paul means in Galatians:

Galatians 2:20 I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.

Notice whose faith we live by. Not ours but his. We live by the faith OF the son of God. If it were your faith or my faith then it might fail but his doesn't. Christ abides faithful even when or if ours fails and he is our Saviour and it was his faith that justified us.

 So believing the gospel and trusting Jesus Christ as our Saviour, we have all been baptized into HIS body. That's what it means to be in Christ Jesus. It is a position God gives us the moment we trust Christ. We didn't get a new nature. We still have that old, carnal, sinful nature and we will have it and will have trouble with it until it is finally dissolved...either in death or in the Rapture. But the good news is that there is no condemnation. No charge can even be brought against us:

Romans 8:31 What shall we then say to these things? If God be for us, who can be against us?

Romans 8:32 He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things?

Romans 8:33 Who shall lay any thing to the charge of God's elect? It is God that justifieth.

We who trust in Christ alone for salvation are justified, saved and sealed and nothing can change that.

Romans 8:37 Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us.

Romans 8:38 For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come,

Romans 8:39 Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

The reasons that Paul could write Romans 8:1 and say that there is now NO condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus is that God fixed it so that any and every thing that could have brought condemnation for a believer was totally taken out of the way. The law, our sins and even the very nature of sin. We were given a new identity IN Christ.

Now all that we have said here is only true of them that are in Christ Jesus. In Christ Jesus there is no condemnation. But only saved people are in Christ Jesus. Unsaved people are not. Unsaved people are in the flesh and they walk after the flesh and there is condemnation for them. A lost person is condemned already. Unsaved people could be very religious people. They try to get their flesh to perform and to do good enough to be acceptable to God by their own merits. We are not saved by our merits but by Christ's merits. There is nothing you can add to that. He did all the work of our salvation. It's our job to just rest in it, secure in the knowledge that once we have trusted Christ nothing will ever change as far as our salvation is concerned. It is done. It is finished.

Saved people are in Christ Jesus. Are you? Has there ever been a point in time in your life when as a lost sinner, knowing that you were lost, and not knowing how things would turn out for you...if you were to die, or if suddenly all the saved people were caught up and caught out of this world, that as a lost sinner you trusted Christ as your Saviour?

You can be saved and be all and have all that we have been discussing. You can do it in a moment. You can know for sure that eternity is secure for you and you can be sure that no matter what... that in eternity you will ever be with the Lord. And it is not necessary that you do anything in order to have that assurance. Only believe. Only trust Jesus Christ as your Saviour.

If you haven't done it, why not make the commitment now? Just acknowledge, just believe that Christ died for your sins, that he was buried and that he was raised again for your justification? Salvation is as simple as that. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved.