Living Without Condemnation

The Summit of Our Salvation

Allen Snapp

Grace Community Church

Sept. 22, 2024

Living Without Condemnation

Turn with me to Rom. 8. We come to an important turning point in the book of Romans. The first seven chapters explain the wonderful truths of the gospel; justification by faith in Christ, union with Christ, and saved not by works but through Christ alone.

Put another way, chapters 1-7 tell us how we receive eternal life through Jesus Christ. Chapters 8-16 will tell us how we live in the newness of life Jesus came to give us. How does faith in the gospel lead to actual change in our lives?

8 There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. Rom. 8:1

Let’s pause here a moment cause this is so vital to our living in the freedom Jesus came to bring us. Vital to our living by the power of the Spirit and in the holiness God calls us to. There is therefore – because of all Jesus has done for us as laid out in the first seven chapters – now -not now as in, there’s no condemnation now but there may be tomorrow, but now as in now going forward for the rest of our lives – whatever now we’re living in – there is no condemnation.

If we think God still has some condemnation left for us, we will live under the heavy burden of guilt, always trying to prove ourselves to God and knowing we never measure up. We will live with a ball and chain around us and worse, we won’t want to draw near to God because we feel like He is always angry and displeased with us.

If we live under the weight of condemnation we won’t experience the freedom God wants us to walk in. Christians need to believe with all our heart that God’s condemnation has been taken away and there’s nothing left but acceptance and welcome for us.

² For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death. 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, ⁴ 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. Rom 8:2-4

Remember in chapter seven Paul cried out wretched man that I am who is going to set me free from the law of sin that makes me do what I hate and not do what I ought to do! The law of God had no power to free me from the law of sin – in fact, it only made things worse. But God did what the law couldn’t do – He sent His Son in the likeness of sinful flesh. Not in sinful flesh – Jesus had no sin – but he came in the likeness of sinful flesh and condemned sin on the cross by dying to sin.

Jesus did what the law could not do! The law was powerless to make us righteous. Jesus makes us righteous by taking our sin upon himself and giving us his righteousness. The law was powerless to deal with our sinful flesh – sinful impulses and desires – but God gave us His Holy Spirit who gives us the power to say no to sin and yes to godliness. But there’s still the war between the desire to honor God and the desire to sin. How do we see actual change take place in our lives? How can we see more of the Spirit’s power and less of sin’s power?

⁵ For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit set their minds on the things of the Spirit. ⁶ For to set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace. ⁷ For the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God, for it does not submit to God's law; indeed, it cannot. ⁸ Those who are in the flesh cannot please God. Rom. 8:5-8

The connection between how we think and how we live is inseparable. What are we setting our minds on? What do we focus on? Where do our thoughts go when our brain is in idle? Whether our lives are directed by the power of the Spirit or by the power of sin – for the believer – has to do with what we set our minds on.

ILL: our shed floor has been slowing rotting away in places to the point there were places where if you were to put your weight on it your foot would probably go through the plywood so on Monday I decided to fix the floor by laying a second layer of plywood down. But when I got in there and started working I saw that a whole section of the old flooring was rotting and it didn’t feel right to put good plywood down over rotten wood. I knew putting the new flooring onto rot would mean the new floor wouldn’t have a secure foundation and the rotten moisture would spread to the new wood over time.

Rotten thoughts make it inevitable that the foundation of our life will start to give way over time. We’ll put our foot through the rot of sexual immorality or jealousy or anger or fear or lying or whatever the rotten thoughts we struggle with may be. It's not enough to lay new thoughts over old thoughts, we need to cut out the rotten old thoughts (mind set on the flesh) and put on the new thoughts (mind set on the Spirit). Paul tells us in chapter 12 to be transformed by the renewing of our minds.

Our minds are renewed by the Holy Spirit as we spend time in God’s word, in prayer, in fellowship with believers, in study and meditation. As we hear and read and meditate on God’s truth and allow the Spirit to, not just make a superficial change in our lives but change our thoughts and our hearts of hearts, we will experience life and peace.

We can’t just lay a surfacy religious veneer over the flesh. Our flesh is hostile to God and can’t please God. Those who are “in the flesh” can’t please God. Without Christ, we were hopeless. As Ephesians says, “without hope and without God.” That was all of us before we came to faith in Christ. That’s every single person on earth apart from Christ. No one comes to the Father except through Jesus. Only by trusting in Jesus as our Savior and believing in his finished work on the cross can a person be saved. There is no other name given in heaven or earth by which man can be saved. Those in the flesh cannot please God, cannot ever earn His acceptance or welcome apart from receiving the gift of salvation through His Son. The unsaved person is “in the flesh”.

But all those who do believe in Jesus are “in the Spirit”.

⁹ You, however, are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if in fact the Spirit of God dwells in you. Anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to him. ¹⁰ But if Christ is in you, although the body is dead because of sin, the Spirit is life because of righteousness. ¹¹ If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit who dwells in you. Rom. 8:9-11

Paul unpacks important theology for us here. If you have the Holy Spirit dwelling in you you are “in the Spirit.” If someone does not have the Holy Spirit in them they are not a Christian and does not belong to Christ. Every Christian has the Holy Spirit. There aren’t some Christians who have the Spirit and some who don’t have the Spirit.

The power of the Spirit can grow stronger or weaker in any given believer. We can set more or less of our thoughts on the Spirit and Paul is encouraging us to enjoy the power and freedom that living in the Spirit brings, but if someone is truly a believer in Jesus and has a relationship with Jesus, they have the Holy Spirit and the same Spirit who raised Jesus from the dead wants to bring that resurrection power to our weak, mortal bodies. And on the day of the resurrection we will be reunited with our bodies but they won’t be weak and sinful anymore but holy and powerful.

Christian, you have more power than you know! It’s not your power, it’s the Spirit’s power but He is inside you! You don’t have to live in defeat. You don’t have to live with your life falling through the floorboards every other step you take. For one person it might be anger. Your anger is rotting the relationships around you. The Spirit of God can deliver you from that anger – set your mind on the things of Christ! For another it might be sexual immorality. How many people have destroyed their marriages, their families, and their reputations because sexual immorality rotted their lives right out from under them. But the Spirit of God can deliver you from the destructive promises of immorality – put down the things that feed impure thoughts and set your mind on Christ.

Whatever it is: fear, jealousy, divisiveness, bitterness – the Spirit of God can set you free! Believe it! And set your mind on Christ and things above. I know it can be a struggle to spend time in the word but if you aren’t your thoughts are going to be governed by the flesh. You say, “I don’t have time to read the Bible. Don’t have time to pray. Don’t have time to go to church. Don’t have time for fellowship.” Yes you do. We all make time for what’s important to us. We all make time for our priorities. And our priorities are directed by what we love. Paul addresses that in the following verses.

¹² So then, brothers, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh. ¹³ For if you live according to the flesh you will die, but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live. ¹⁴ For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sonsof God. ¹⁵ For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the Spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry, “Abba! Father!” ¹⁶ The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, ¹⁷ and if children, then heirs—heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with him. Rom. 8:12-17

We don’t owe our flesh anything and all it will bring us is death. We owe Christ our very life so we should live our lives wanting to please him because we owe him our very lives and we are thankful and we love him. We don’t live in the self-focus of entitlement (God owes me, people owe me, I owe me) but we live in the humble gratitude of owing Jesus our very life.

The law tried to motivate us by fear: obey God or else! But the Spirit whispers: you are His son. You are His daughter. He is Abba, Father, Dad. Abba means. There are only three people on earth who can call me “dad” and when they do even to this day it warms my heart. I came across a letter my daughter Jennifer wrote to me some years ago and this line made me smile but also warmed my heart: you may be known to most as the pastor, but to me your known mostly as my dad.

The Spirit of God says, He may be known as Almighty God to most, but to you He’s mostly known as your Father. Your Abba. Your heavenly Dad. He loves you that much. So we don’t obey out of fear, but out of love. The debt we owe Jesus is a debt of love. We can never repay, and we’re not meant to, but we live seeking to please and obey him because we love him and don’t want to grieve and hurt his heart.

As children of God we are heirs with Christ. All that belongs to Jesus belongs to us. Provided we suffer with him…wait, what? That doesn’t mean we have to suffer to be saved or that we need to go out and find someone to persecute us. What it does mean is that when standing for Jesus means we suffer – whether it be reputationally or economically or physically – we choose to suffer rather than deny him. Confident that no earthly suffering can compare with the glory that waits for us – but I’m getting ahead.

Close with this thought from Tim Keller: 1 John 3:20 says: “Whenever our hearts condemn us … God is greater than our hearts.” If we remember we are adopted children, we “go over the head” of our hearts when we feel unworthy.

If as I’m sharing this it all sounds foreign to you. You come to church, maybe read a bible promise every once in a while but you don’t have a relationship with Jesus or with God as your Father, His arms are open wide. Just come to Him with faith. Just believe in Jesus as your Savior and ask him to come into your life and give you peace with God. Let’s pray.