Romans 8:1
There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit.
Welcome back to Delving into the Scriptures!
Today we are going to delve into what must be one of the most quoted verses in the Bible – and with good reason!
Again I am amazed at the totality of this statement – there is no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus! No condemnation! At all! We have discussed this multiple times before (see post here if you are interested - the Record is Clean), but let’s cover the basics.
What does ‘no condemnation’ mean? Exactly that – There will be nothing. No condemnation at all. Think about when you finally leave this body and meet God in heaven. Imagine a conversation like this:
‘Remember when you stole that thing? Or when you cheated here? Or when you slandered here, causing a whole ministry to fail? But don’t worry, you are forgiven all of this through Jesus!’
Isn’t forgiveness amazing? Even at the level of what you just read. But that is still nothing on what God has planned for us, for we have NO condemnation. Nothing. Whilst in the statement above we are forgiven, we are sill taken back to our old sins – in a way, at least verbally condemned for them.
Psalm 103:12 says ‘As far as the east is from the west, So far has He removed our transgressions from us.’
Our sins are gone – they are not remembered, stored, written down or ever brought up again. If you are ‘in Christ Jesus’ (the qualifier from this verse), you are to God as one who has never sinned, because He has taken that upon Himself for our forgiveness!
I don’t know about you, but I still think that is pretty amazing.
And following on from all our work in Romans 6 and 7 (see post ‘Certainly Not!‘), this is then not a free ‘licence to sin’. Because we have the covering over us now that we haven’t sinned (that there is now no condemnation), doesn’t mean we can do what we want free of consequence! Read the next part of the verse – who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit.
We will go into this more in the next few posts, but that means, those that are focused on God and the things of God – not the things of the flesh!
So what can we take away from this verse? One of the keys here is that God doesn’t remember our sins – so we shouldn’t dwell on them either! Yes, we need to learn from our mistakes, we need to make things right with other people (Stolen from someone? Make it right. Slandered someone? Make it right. ), we may even still face ‘earthly consequences’ (Murdered someone? God may forgive you, but the legal system will not…) – but we are not to dwell on them!
Don’t sit around, sitting in a depression that you cannot get out of your sins! You are right – in your own power, there is nothing you can do to become sinless – so worrying is not going to help! But God has provided a way – a total and complete way, that you can be free from your sin in Christ Jesus, when you accept His sacrifice and focus on the things of God. Just as we read in our last post (Be Encouraged), everyone is still stuck in their sins whilst in this life.
There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit.
Lord God, thank you again for your work on the cross. Teach us to live for You – to walk according to the Spirit. Give us an understanding of just how awesome and amazing it is to have no condemnation in our lives! In Jesus Name. Amen.
[...] back to Delving into the Scriptures! I hope you enjoyed our last post on ‘No Condemnation‘ – today we follow on with the law of Spirit and [...]
great post as usual!
great post as usual!