The Romans chapter 8 and verse
1 starts out, there is therefore. And that's a pretty big therefore. You say, well, it's no bigger
than the other therefore. Well, when you understand what
it's there for, then you understand how big it is. Because what Paul
is going to do here is he's about to draw some conclusions from
everything that he has stated up to this point. And the conclusions
are glorious. Basically, there are two. I mean,
you can divide it up in different ways, but they all basically
come under two headings. And the first one is stated there
in Romans 8.1, there is therefore now no condemnation. That's a conclusion. There's
no condemnation. The title of this lesson, No
Condemnation in Christ. That's what it's about. And the
second conclusion he'll come to is found over in verse 35
of Romans 8, and that is no separation. And the conclusions go like this,
that in Christ, nothing can condemn us, and in Christ, nothing can
separate us from the love of God. from salvation. So no condemnation and no separation. And this applies to all people
whom God has brought by his sovereign grace to believe in the Lord
Jesus Christ and to repent of their dead works. He says in
verse one, there is therefore now no condemnation to them which
are in Christ Jesus. He says, who walk not after the
flesh, but after the Spirit. And we'll see in the next lessons,
well, this one and the next, that to walk after the Spirit
is to walk by faith in Christ. That's what it is. It's to follow
Him, it's to cling to Him as our whole salvation, as our whole
reason for being. And that's to walk after the
spirit, rather, is to walk in Christ, to walk by faith in Christ. To walk after the flesh here
refers to an unbeliever, an unregenerate person, one who has not been
born again by the spirit. So when we draw these conclusions,
there's no condemnation and there's no separation, who does that
apply to? That doesn't apply to everybody
without exception. There are people who are going
to be condemned, who are condemned. They're condemned already, John
chapter three says. They're under the sentence of
condemnation. Those who believe not, the wrath of God abides
on them. Who's that talking about? It's
talking about those who go through this life in unbelief and die
in unbelief. That's what it's talking about,
John 3, 36. And there are people who are not objects of the love
of God. They're under the wrath of God.
God hateth all workers of iniquity. So what is our hope? Well, is
there a way that I, who am a sinner, can stand before God and not
be judged as a worker of iniquity? And the answer is yes, in Christ,
based on his blood and righteousness, his righteousness imputed. When Paul says, there is therefore
now, the now there is this. He's saying this is a present
reality. There is therefore now, right
now. This is not something we as believers are shooting for.
This is not something that we as believers have as a goal. This is a present reality in
our lives right now as sinners saved by grace. This is what
I call in a message on TV, the near righteousness of God. His
righteousness has been brought near. In other words, religion
tells you to reach for it, try to gain it by your works, by
your efforts, by your dedication, by your prayers. But the gospel
says it's already here. It's already here in Christ.
He's already accomplished all of it. He's met all the conditions,
and we're recipients of the blessings of His merits, His worth, His
work. And so that's the difference.
So there's therefore now no condemnation. Well, this therefore is basically,
it's based upon three basic tenets of true Christianity. And that's
what Paul was saying. Based upon these things, these
facts, these glorious realities, there is therefore now no condemnation.
And let me give you those three. I've got them listed in your
lesson. Number one, and this one is the foundation and the
basis of all of salvation. It's the foundation and basis
of all Christian living. In these three things, Paul is
showing us how we, in God's word, are to look at ourselves by faith
in Christ. And here's number one, every
believer's legal standing before God in Christ. And that refers
to our justification. What is it to be justified before
God? It's to be forgiven of all our
sins. Based on what? Based on the blood
of Jesus Christ. It's the blood of Christ that
washes away, cleanses us from all sin. It's not based upon
our works. It's not based upon our going
to church. It's not based upon our tears
of repentance. It's not based upon our church
membership. It's not even based upon our
faith. It's based upon His faith, Christ's faithfulness to do what
He came to do, having our sins imputed to Him, for which He
died under the death of the cross, cursed under the wrath of God
for our sins. He was bruised for our iniquity.
The chastisement of our peace was laid upon him. That is the
most fundamental, basic tenet of the gospel of Christianity,
how God justifies the ungodly. That's the revelation of the
righteousness of God in the gospel. In other words, I cannot be condemned,
I cannot be separated from God because God does not charge me
with my sins. Over in Romans 8, 33, he says,
who shall lay anything to the charge of God's elect? It's God
that justify. I cannot be condemned, I cannot
be separated because in God's sight, I'm righteous in Christ
based upon his righteousness imputed to me. And that righteousness
cannot be taken away from me because God gave it to me. It's
a free gift of God's grace, and he doesn't go back on his promises.
He's faithful. You see, I am the Lord, I change
not, therefore you sons of Jacob are not... You see, all that
language refers to this basic tenet of Christianity. This is the ground of salvation.
So I cannot be condemned, I cannot be separated because I'm righteous
in God's sight, not based upon my doing or my suffering or my
dedication, based upon what Christ accomplished alone as my surety,
my substitute, my redeemer. And that righteousness cannot
be taken away. That righteousness cannot be
contaminated because it's the righteousness of God. The righteousness
of the God man, Jesus Christ. That righteousness cannot be
diminished and it cannot be enhanced by anything I do. My faith, my
repentance, my obedience does not add to the righteousness
by which I stand before God. Now aren't you glad? And that's the first thing, that's
our legal standing. Now Paul stated that because
he said in Romans 6-7, every believer is freed from sin. That
means justified. Sin cannot be charged to me.
It was charged to Christ. He paid the debt. He satisfied
justice. He brought in everlasting righteousness.
He said in Romans 6-11 that every believer is dead indeed unto
sin. Now how am I dead indeed unto
sin? I'm a sinner, you're a sinner. Sin cannot condemn me. Sin cannot
be charged to me. That's the way I'm to look at
myself, and it's not by feeling, it's not by emotion, it's not
by looking in the mirror, it's not by feeling good, it's by
believing God's word. This is what God says of everyone
who clings to Christ. He says we're not under the dominion
of sin. Now how can I say I'm not under
the dominion of sin when sin contaminates everything I think,
say, and do? It cannot condemn me. It cannot
hold me captive as far as being condemned. I'm justified, that's
what he's saying. And so that's the first thing.
Therefore, because of this, there's therefore now no condemnation.
Now the second tenet, And the third tenet has to do with our
state in this world. See, the first one, the foundation,
and I'll tell you what, you know, that foundation, you know, people,
they'll deny it, they'll ignore it, they'll confuse it, but it's
clear as a bell in God's word. Who shall lay anything to the
charge of God's elect? It's God that justifies. It's
Christ that, who can condemn us? It's Christ that died. The next two tenets have to do
with our current state in this world. And the second one is
this, every true believer has been spiritually born again by
the Holy Spirit and brought to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ.
We've been given spiritual life. And that spiritual life is the
fruit and the result of what Christ accomplished in his obedience
unto death for us. Because we are justified in him,
we shall be born again by the Spirit under the preaching of
the gospel, and so all true believers have been made free from sin,
Romans 6, 18, and what that means is we've been liberated from
the deceit and the darkness and the ignorance that Satan held
us in bondage in unbelief. We've been brought to faith in
Christ. We believe in Christ. What is your hope? What is your
peace, your comfort? It's looking unto Jesus, the
author and finisher of our faith. And we're no longer totally,
we don't know everything, but we know enough. We know what
God teaches us. That's what the scripture says
when it says in John 6, 44, that no man can come to me except
the Father which has sent me draw him. And this, you remember
what he says that how he draws us by bringing us under the gospel. And by the power of the Spirit,
he reveals Christ. He reveals who God is. He reveals
our sinfulness. He reveals who Christ is. And
he brings us by the Spirit to believe in Christ. He gives us
the gift of faith. He gives us the gift of repentance. And so he delivers us from the
bondage of Satan's deception and brings us to faith in Christ
by the light of the gospel. You remember in 2 Corinthians
4, 3 where it says, if our gospel be hid, it's hid to them that
are lost in whom the God of this world hath blinded the minds
of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel
of God should shine unto them. And you know how Satan, you think
about that verse, go read that sometime, 2 Corinthians 4.3 and
on down. Do you know how Satan, his main
tool of deception to keep sinners from seeing the glory of God
in Christ? He keeps them looking to themselves. Because the next
verse, I think it's verse five there. What did Paul say when
he said, all right, in whom the God of this world hath blinded
the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious
gospel should shine unto them. Remember, and then verse five,
you know what he says? He says, for we preach not ourselves. We don't preach ourselves. We
don't look to ourselves. That's how Satan keeps people
deceived. Look to yourself, look within. Y'all been under preachers
like Ed Habage. Look within and find a reason
to say no condemnation. Bible doesn't say that. The Bible
says look to Christ and find no reason for condemnation. You
see the difference? Now that's not a big difference
to most people. Look within. Well Paul showed
us in Romans 7, 14 through 24 what we're gonna find when we
look within. Oh wretched man that I am. So we look to Christ,
but that's the second. We've been brought to faith in
Christ, but now here's the third tenet. As to our state on earth,
all true believers are still plagued with the remaining power,
influence, and contamination of the flesh that keeps us from
attaining by our works and within ourselves the perfection of righteousness
that is only found in Christ. And that's where we come to the
old wretched man that I am. Now, what does that do for us? Does that keep us, as old Bunyan
said, in the slew of despond? I've heard preachers tell stories.
I can remember, too, that when I first come to hear the gospel,
this one preacher talked about how he was in such despair for
his sin that he thought about killing himself. And I thought,
good night, man. Who are you looking to for salvation? You see, remember what I said
last week, I won't repeat the bumper sticker, don't worry.
Everybody got up in the air about, no, I'm just teasing. But this, verse 24 of chapter
seven, this old wretched man is a blessed place to be. Now,
old wretched man is not always, not for everybody, a blessed
place to be. The old wretched man that leads
this guy, who'd say, I wanna kill myself, that's not a blessing.
This is a blessing, O wretched man that I am, who shall deliver
me from the body of this death? And here's where the tenet goes
to. Here's where that third glorious reality goes to. That's what
keeps us from looking to ourselves and keeps us looking to Christ.
Verse 25, I thank God through Jesus Christ my Lord. Somebody
asked the question, why does God leave us in this wretched
state? Well, I'll tell you why. So that
we understand at all times that he gets all the glory in salvation
and we get none. I'm gonna talk about in the message
this morning out of Hebrews 3 how when you look at the history
of Israel under the old covenant, it's a glorious history. Well,
how is it a glorious history? All the glory goes to God. None
of it to Israel. Because when you consider Israel,
it's a pretty sad thing. And that's why he leaves us in
this glorious state of the wretched man, so that we'll know at all
times God gets the glory, so that we'll know at all times
that we're saved, we're preserved, and we'll be brought to glory
by his grace and his power through Christ. And it's to show us at
all times that we have no righteousness within us, it's all in Christ. And that's where God, that's
God's way of glorifying himself in our salvation. So therefore,
there is now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus.
And what is it to be in Christ? It's to be united to him. And
how are we united to him? Well, the Bible tells us in several
ways. There's that legal union. In
our justification, God chose a people before the foundation
of the world and gave us to Christ. We belong to Him. And Christ
willingly took upon Himself the whole responsibility of saving
us. and keeping us and bringing us
to glory. All that the Father giveth me
shall come to me. Him that cometh to me I will
in no wise cast out. This is the will of him that
sent me that of all which he hath given me I should lose nothing
but raise it up again at the last day. It's all on him, it's
all conditioned on him. Not on us, if it were on us it'd
be a failure. So there's that legal union.
There's that legal union that shines forth in redemption. He
died not for himself, but for our sins imputed to him. He redeemed
us from our sins. That one who is holy, harmless,
undefiled, separate from sinners, perfect, pure within himself,
died guilty and cursed under the law of God, under the wrath
of God, based on our sins imputed to him. And we in turn have his
righteousness imputed to us. That's a legal union. And then
there's a spiritual union, when God the Holy Spirit brings us
to put on Christ, as Galatians 3 says. What does that mean,
put him on? That means to believe in him.
It means to rest in him. That means to look to him. It
means to cling to him. It means to realize that he is
my only worthiness, my only merit, my only righteousness before
God. And repent of anything of me. Repent of my dead works. Repent
of my idolatry. That's a legal, that's a spiritual
union with Christ. Well, how do we know that we're
in Christ? We walk not after the flesh. We don't walk in unbelief.
We still have to fight unbelief. We still have doubts and fears
and murmurings and complaining. That's all unbelief, isn't it?
We have to fight it. We're in a warfare. As my old
pastor used to say, the believer's not in unbelief, but unbelief
is still in the believer. But we walk by faith, we walk
by his word. And look at verse two, he says,
for the law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus. Now what
is the law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus? It's the gospel.
That's what it is. Because where are you gonna find
life? Where are you gonna find a law that demands life for us. Because the law can only condemn
us based on our works. That's all it can do. You say,
but I'm a pretty good person. The law can still only condemn
you based on your works because the law doesn't look at you the
way you look at yourself. So where am I gonna find a law
that demands life? Only in the gospel, only in Christ.
Sin demands death. Righteousness demands life. Where
am I gonna find the righteousness, the perfection of righteousness
within the law? Where am I gonna find it? In
Christ by the grace of God. Grace reigns through righteousness
unto eternal life by Jesus Christ our Lord. So the law, the spirit
of life in Christ Jesus, the gospel, hath made me free from
the law of sin and death. The law cannot condemn me. The
law cannot charge me with sin. The law cannot kill me, the letter
killeth, but the spirit makes alive. I'm in Christ. So he says in verse three, for
what the law could not do, now what is it the law cannot do?
It cannot, listen, the law can show you perfection, but it cannot
make you perfect. The law can expose your sinfulness,
my sinfulness. But the law cannot cure the sin
problem, cannot wash away the sins, cannot ignore the sins.
The law can show me what it takes for me to be righteous, but it
cannot make me righteous. The law can show me that I deserve
death, but it cannot remove the sentence of death. For what the
law could not do, well, what's the answer? God sending his own
son. in the likeness of sinful flesh.
God sent forth his son, made of a woman. That's the humanity
of Christ, God-man. Made under the law. That means
the law's condemnation was upon him because of our sin imputed
to him. To redeem them that were under
the law, to pay the price, to be a propitiation. God sending
his own son in the likeness of sinful flesh. Christ had a human
body, but he had no sin. He had a human body just like
we have a human body. He had the infirmities of the
flesh. He got hungry, he got tired,
all of those things. He sorrowed, but he had no sin. He had no sin within him, he
had no sinful thoughts, he had no sinful motives, no sinful
desires, no sinful goals. He was a perfect, pure human
being. He was like Adam before the garden
in that sense, but even better because he's God in human flesh,
without sin. And it says, and for sin, now
some translations say as a sacrifice for sin. Well, that's what it's
talking about. Because of sin. Because of sin imputed to him,
he condemned sin. I love this language. He was
condemned under the law for our sins imputed to him, but by his
death as a sacrifice for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh. By the giving of himself. that
death that's only to be attributed to his humanity, yet was an act
of his entire person, which is a mind-boggling thought, he condemned
sin. Now Daniel says it this way in
Daniel 9, 24, he finished the transgression and made an end
of sin. He finished it. He fulfilled
it. Everything that the law requires
of his people whom he represented was fulfilled in him. And therefore
verse four, now what was the purpose of all that? That the
righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us who walk not
after the flesh but after the spirit. Now what does it mean
the righteousness of the law fulfilled in us? Well there are
some who say, well see there, that means righteousness is not
only imputed to us, it's imparted to us. That's not what he's saying.
Righteousness cannot be imparted. Righteousness is not a moral
quality of character. Righteousness is the godly standard,
the law standard by which all moral qualities of character
are to be measured. Give you an example. When God
brings us to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, we can honestly
say that we love Christ. But how would you measure our
love on the scale of the law? Is it perfect love? Do you, at
this point in time, do you love Christ righteously, perfectly,
with no contamination or taint of sin, no thoughtless? We can't
say that. And there's no part of us that
can say that either. You say, Christ's love is perfect
love. My love still falls short, but
I do love him. How do I know I love him? I love
his word. That's why I want you to read those passages in Psalm
119. Do you love his word or do you
ignore his word? Do you twist his word? Do you
deny his word or do you love his word? Thy word is a lamp
unto my feet. In his word we have a biblical
portrait of Christ. That's what this is. You say
you love him, do you love his word? You see what I'm saying?
But our love is not yet perfect. So when he says the righteousness
of the law fulfilled in us, what is he talking about? Well, he's
talking about the righteousness of the law fulfilled, not inside
of us, but for us in a human body, Christ, just like Peter
said over in 1 Peter 2, that in his body, he bore our sins
in his body on the tree. In other words, in a human body,
For His people, sinful human beings, Christ fulfilled the
law for us. He satisfied the law. He brought
in righteousness for us. Now, some say, well, He's talking
about faith. Now, think about this. When the
Holy Spirit brings us to believe in Christ, we can say that we
look to Him for righteousness. There's no righteousness within
us. And then he says in verse four, who walk not after the
flesh, but after the spirit. Now, again, walking after the
flesh refers to an unregenerate unbeliever walking in that state
of unbelief. Walking after the spirit refers
to one who's been born again by the spirit, believing in,
looking to, following Christ for all salvation. Believing
in him for all righteousness for Christ is the end of the
law for righteousness to everyone that believe All right