No Condemnation

No Condemnation.  No Condemnation.  Not a bit.  Not a smidgen. 
Not 99.9% Condemnation-Free.  No Condemnation.  None.  Zero.  Zip. 
In Christ.

That’s good news worth sharing.

How many of us have an inner negative voice reminding us of our failures, stripping us of our courage and reinforcing what we can’t do and why we can’t do it?  That voice tells lies –always suggesting maybe Jesus would reserve just a little condemnation for any of us.  Lies!  That voice is perpetually self-limiting, always pointing an accusatory finger, always reminding us of bondage to our limitations and slavery to the memory of our imperfections.

Even the Apostle Paul had his moments, needing to Biblically correct that voice.

“I would not have known what sin was had it not been for the law. For I would not have known what coveting really was if the law had not said, “You shall not covet.”  But sin, seizing the opportunity afforded by the commandment, produced in me every kind of coveting. For apart from the law, sin was dead. Once I was alive apart from the law; but when the commandment came, sin sprang to life and I died. I found that the very commandment that was intended to bring life actually brought death.  For sin, seizing the opportunity afforded by the commandment, deceived me, and through the commandment put me to death.  (Romans 7:7-11)

Sin has deep roots dating all the way back to Eden and the first man and the first sin.  The consequences have been with us ever since.  It cries that we deserve condemnation.  “For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. (Romans 6:23)

There you go, good news!  Which is why Paul continues in a rather confusing (but totally transparent and relatable) stream of consciousness as he presses on to his need (our need) of rescue.

“I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do.  And if I do what I do not want to do, I agree that the law is good. As it is, it is no longer I myself who do it, but it is sin living in me.  For I know that good itself does not dwell in me, that is, in my sinful nature. For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out.  For I do not do the good I want to do, but the evil I do not want to do– this I keep on doing. Now if I do what I do not want to do, it is no longer I who do it, but it is sin living in me that does it.  So I find this law at work: Although I want to do good, evil is right there with me. For in my inner being I delight in God’s law; but I see another law at work in me, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within me. What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body that is subject to death?”  Romans 7:15-24

Jesus is the answer.  Paul knows it.  Good news indeed!

“Thanks be to God, who delivers me through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, I myself in my mind am a slave to God’s law, but in my sinful nature a slave to the law of sin. Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit who gives life has set you free from the law of sin and death. For what the law was powerless to do because it was weakened by the flesh, God did by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh to be a sin offering. And so he condemned sin in the flesh, in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fully met in us, who do not live according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.” (Romans 7:25-8:4).

This good news of no condemnation is beyond encouraging. 
Do you know it? Do you own it for your life and apply it?

Thank You Father for delivering me through Jesus Christ my Lord. I praise You that there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.  I praise You that the law of the Spirit who gives me life has set me free. I thank You that whoever Jesus sets free is free indeed. I praise You Lord that You hold no condemnation in reserve for those who love You.  I thank You and praise You, Lord Jesus. Amen.