Full Transcript

Welcome to Share the Word. If you are here to listen to this podcast, then you’re either a follower of Christ or you’re not. What to keep in mind is that by accepting Christ as your Lord and Savior, by repenting of your sins, you have chosen to spend eternity with God. But if you have not, then you’re choosing to spend eternity apart from God. It is your choice. But keep in mind, judgment will come.

The question is, are you under the righteousness of Christ or not? I suggest that you listen very closely to this episode. Romans chapter 8, part 1. Sila. When you hear the term double jeopardy, what does that mean to you? Unless you’re a lawyer, your first thought might be of Alex Trebek telling contestants on the game show he hosted for almost 40 years, It’s time now for Double Jeopardy, where all your answer values will be doubled.

But if you’re an attorney, or maybe a criminal, the term might bring something very different to your mind. Here in America, double jeopardy refers to a provision in our Constitution’s Fifth Amendment, which prohibits the government from prosecuting and punishing anyone twice for the same crime. It reads like this: No person shall be subject for the same offense to be twice put in jeopardy of life or limb. This protection had its roots in ancient English common law, thus the phrase life or limb. Harking back to the days a judge could actually order a thief’s hand cut off. Off with his limb!

The European Commonwealth countries are currently in the process of trying to add a double jeopardy law to their international conventions. Their provision reads, No one shall be liable to be tried or punished again in criminal proceedings under the jurisdiction of the state for an offense for which he have already been finally acquitted. If you’ve already been legally acquitted of a crime, declared innocent in a court, the protection is no one can re-arrest you for the same crime and try you again. Romans 8 is one of the best known chapters in the New Testament and contains some of the greatest promises God has made to believers. At its outset is one such promise which states God’s version of the double jeopardy protection, not for American courts or international courts, but in the court that will ultimately matter, the court of God’s divine justice.

Romans chapter 8, verse 1 says, There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. In the book of Psalms in the Old Testament, which was actually a songbook for worship, a book of poetic verses that the Jews set to music, you will see at the end of some verses the term Selah. It’s an added notation that scholars believe meant something like, Pause and think about that, or Stop and reflect on this. A notation that meant, Don’t just sing on past this. Be silent for a moment and appreciate this. For example, some lines from the 85th Psalm.

This is a poem about God’s promise to restore the children of Israel to their land, even after they had broken their covenant with Him, after their time of dispersion among the nations was over. It’s about God’s faithful love despite their unfaithfulness, and it goes like this. Steadfast love and faithfulness meet; righteousness and peace kiss one another. Faithfulness springs up from the ground, and righteousness looks down from the sky. Lord, you are favorable to your land; you restored the fortunes of your people. You forgave all their iniquities and covered all their sins.

Selah. Let that sink in. Meditate on that for a moment. The New Testament writers didn’t use the notation Selah after things they wrote, but if they had, this verse that I’m going to spend most of our time on today, Romans chapter 8, verse 1, the big idea in it is definitely worth a Selah, or maybe two. It’s that important. When Paul uses the word therefore, he is about to make a statement based on what he has already written.

This big statement at 8:1 is coming as the pinnacle of all that he has recently written about sin and righteousness, the wrath and judgment that’s coming because of them, and about God’s remedy, Jesus’ atonement making justification possible, and grace and faith by which we can personally appropriate the salvation Jesus has made possible. In other words, because of all of that stuff on the theological flashcards you’ve been writing, because of all those ideas, here is a profound truth I’m now dropping on your heads, Paul is saying. There is therefore, on that basis, now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. As we’ve learned, if we received Christ by faith, his punishment on the cross for our sins satisfied our sin debt with God, and Jesus’ righteousness was transferred into our account. So God now sees believers as completely righteous.

We’ve been justified by God, declared righteous by the final judge, fully acquitted of sin. That’s why there is no longer any condemnation for us who have believed into Jesus. Almighty God has already rendered a verdict in our case: innocent. We’ve been legally acquitted of the guilt of our sins, and there’s no double jeopardy in His court. I like that Paul included the adverb now. There is therefore now no condemnation.

This is a promise for right now, not just a promise for down the road sometime or in the far future judgment, but for where we stand right now with God. What exactly is the promise? No condemnation. No condemnation. Paul’s referring to a verdict of guilty that sinners will hear at God’s judgment bar. Remember, we’ve already talked about the great white throne judgment where the dead, small and great, will stand before God one day.

It’s described in Revelation 20. But here we’re promised there’s no chance, not one chance in a thousand, not one chance in a million. There is no chance that someone in Christ will ever hear guilty from the Judge of all the earth on that day because there’s no condemnation for us. By the way, the terminology no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, or elsewhere in Christ, or just in Him, referring to Jesus, is used by the Apostle Paul more than 140 times in his New Testament letters. It’s his most usual way to refer to true believers, that is, those who are united with Christ through personal faith in Him. Once we sincerely come to trust in Jesus as our Savior, turning our lives toward believing and following Him.

God sees us now as a part of the body of Christ, His universal church, we say, His eternal family. We are now in Christ. So for Paul to say there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, that’s a promise to every person who’s ever made the crucial decision to receive and follow Jesus. Because God accepted Jesus’ payment for your sins, you’re justified. You’re declared innocent by God. You’re acquitted of any and all offenses against Him and against His laws.

And there’s no court or power in the universe that can change that. To do so would be to overturn God’s clear promise here of no condemnation. So realize when Paul repeats this terminology so many times, in Christ Jesus, and other New Testament writers do as well, I think over 175 times, it means that people are either in or out when it comes to this. Like my mom used to say all summer long when I was a kid, Get in or get out. She hated us running in and out, hearing the back screen door slamming. In or out, in or out, she’d holler as we scampered through the house.

There’s no such thing as being in between with Jesus either. We’re either in Him or we’re not in Him. As John put it in his first epistle, He who has the Son has life, and he who does not have the Son of God does not have life. Do you remember the early in our series when we described Jesus’ discussion with a prominent Jewish teacher, Nicodemus? It was chapter 3, so episode 3. The lesson where I keyed in on the most famous verse in the Bible, John 3:16.

God loved the world so much that He gave His only Son that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life. Well, the very next verse continues, For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through Him. Whoever believes in Him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God. We’re either in or out. That is, right now not condemned or right now under condemnation. The promise there is the same as Paul has been writing in Romans.

If we will believe in Jesus, put our trust in Him to save us, for those who have done that, we’re in, and there’s no condemnation ahead of us. I said at the outset, I want to focus in today sharply on this great promise and its ramifications, so let’s do that for a couple minutes. Keep in mind that this great promise about no condemnation for those who are in Christ comes on the heels of two chapters where we’ve been discussing our battle with sin, the old man versus the new man, as Paul put it, the part of us that’s been regenerated and is connected to God versus the part of us that’s still subject to sin, fleshly. Regardless of the terminology, I hope you get this important truth.

There is going to be an ongoing war inside believers as long as we’re in these bodies, a conflict between our new higher nature connected to God because of Christ and our old sinful nature we inherited from Adam. And that battle largely plays out in our minds. Several times from the end of chapter 7 and now into chapter 8, Paul uses the word mind, as in chapter 8, verse 5, where he says, 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. Our minds is where this battle rages, and our thoughts matter. We rarely do what we’ve not been thinking about doing beforehand.

Wrong thoughts are what lead to wrong actions. As someone succinctly has put it, we are what we think. This is why Paul wrote elsewhere about this internal battle. Though we walk in the flesh, we are not waging war according to the flesh, for the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh but have divine power to destroy strongholds. We destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God. We take every thought captive to obey Christ.

The battle in our minds is an ongoing challenge. We not only have to battle against the strongholds of sin which existed in our lives before we became Christians, but we also have to continue to deal with the lies continually told us by our culture, much of which is opposed to God, the world, as James called it, if you remember, and possibly even against demonic forces, Paul says, that come against us. As believers, we have to recognize the lies, the wrong ideas that challenge God’s Word and God’s ways, and take our thoughts captive to believe and obey what God says is true and right. Although God promises to believers, There is no condemnation for you, I’m sure inside your mind, as in mine, you still hear messages of condemnation from time to time. Something or someone whispering messages to you like, You’re not good enough for God. You screw up so often.

You can’t possibly be saved and do the things and think the things you think. Remember when you did such and such? How could anyone ever be forgiven of that? When you have such thoughts, what do you do with them? Remember, Jesus told us the devil is the father of lies. Satan is the master accuser.

Realize if you believe such lies, you’ve believed that what Jesus did on the cross was not enough for you. You’ve believed that God’s amazing grace really isn’t enough to cover your sins. So don’t entertain such lies. If you have put your faith in Jesus as your Savior, you are in Christ, and there is now no condemnation for you. No condemnation. Say that: No condemnation for me.

We must learn to combat the doubts and lies and accusations with God’s promises, God’s truths. Learn Romans 8, verse 1. Add it to your arsenal of memorized verses. In our battle with the world and our sinful flesh and the devil, God’s Word is our best weapon. Memorize some of it. Use God’s promises.

Swing them like the sword of the Spirit, as Paul says elsewhere. Resist the devil and he will flee from you, as James urged his readers. The reason I think you likely have these thoughts is because, as I said, I know I have these thoughts. Remember when you did that? That can’t be forgiven. God will never accept you.

But too many Christians carry around that kind of guilt and shame over things in their past that we shouldn’t and we needn’t, because there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. Can’t say that enough times. God has wiped our slate clean. He doesn’t remember our sins against us. We’ve got to take His Word for that and rebuke the liar and the accusations that enter our minds with the truth of God’s promises. By the way, speaking of condemnation, we should never, we should never dredge up things from people’s past to hurt them, to win an argument, or to just put them down.

But sometimes it comes at us from other people. Don’t you hate when somebody does that to you? Never do that to someone. That’s not our place. We are not anyone’s final judge. And if someone does this to you as a way of trying to shame you or control you, let them know, I’m sorry you still remember those things, or that that is how you still think of me, because God has forgiven me for that, and I hope you will too.

God’s not holding that over my head. I wish you wouldn’t either. Don’t listen to people who want to dredge up things from your past. Past sins are gone. Forgive yourself. Let them go because God has.

Live in the grace of God now. See God as He sees you, forgiven and free of past failures. This part is important, though. What I’m saying applies only to believers, to Christians, remember, in or out. For those who are not believers, who are not in Christ, who are out, God’s Word says you’re still under condemnation. And if you don’t repent of sin and come to the Savior He sent, you will stay under condemnation.

Unbelievers also have thoughts going on in their heads that come from the lies. Condemnation thoughts. They’re told lies too, just different sets of lies. Like, like what? Well, how about, There’s not really any condemnation ahead. There’s no judgment at the end of the road.

Don’t worry about such old-fashioned ideas. Live your life on your own terms. Unbelievers have a God-given conscience, as we’ve learned in chapter one, tells them differently than that, but they hear these whispered lies. It’s not really murder; it’s your freedom of choice. It’s not really immoral; it’s just enjoying each other and satisfying your needs. It’s not really drunkenness; it’s partying.

It’s not really perversion; it’s just an alternate lifestyle. It’s not really cheating or stealing; it’s just what you need to do to get by these days. Yeah, these are some of the kinds of lies the messed up culture and our own sin nature and the enemy of our souls tells unbelievers every day to keep them under condemnation. If you’re listening to this podcast today and you are still there, I pray that you will wake up to the fact you’re being lied to. Don’t keep listening to the lies that are keeping you on the broad road that leads to destruction, as Jesus described it. If you have not made the decision yet to put your faith in Jesus and turn your life toward following Him, that’s the place of safety.

That’s the road to reconciliation with God and to life. You have the choice to get in or to foolishly stay out. I hope you will make the choice to get in with God by accepting His grace and forgiveness, which He offers you in Christ Jesus. Don’t listen to the lies in your mind that tell you you don’t need that. You do need that. Or maybe the voice in your mind that says, God will never accept you and save you after all that you have done.

But He will accept and save you no matter what you have done. Don’t listen to the lies. Believe God’s promises. No condemnation. You know, what I’ve been trying to describe today is not just true in a dispassionate legal sense, as with a judge, a court, and a acquittal, and so on. Toward the end of Romans chapter 8, Paul states in powerful, emotional, and personal terms how God chooses to relate to believers.

Listen to this part beginning at verse 31. What then shall we say to all these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare His own Son but gave Him up for us, how will He not also with Him graciously give us all things? Who shall bring any charge against God’s chosen ones when it is God who justifies them? Who is there then to condemn them?

Christ Jesus is at the right hand of God interceding for them. Who shall separate us then from the love of Christ? For I’m sure that neither death nor life nor angels nor rulers nor things present nor things to come nor powers nor height nor depth nor anything else in all creation will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord. Wow, that goes way past no condemnation, doesn’t it? As great as that truth is to grab hold of, once we are in God’s family by faith in Christ, we are loved. With such a powerful love, nothing in the world or anything in any other world, Paul says, could ever break it.

Can you even wrap your mind around that? I have four kids. They’re grown now, so I can tell you, they’ve not only made me often feel warm and fuzzy as a dad or proud of their accomplishments, they have also sometimes disappointed me, occasionally hurt me, a few times embarrassed me, even angered me, one of them in particular. Yet I still love each of them deeply. I sometimes wonder why and how I can. The only reason I can think of is that it’s something innate to being a parent.

That’s some kind of aspect of God’s image that still shines through even in us fallen creatures. I love my kids without conditions, without limits, because they are my kids. They were born into my family. Nothing could or will ever change that love, which makes me wonder at this even more. If I, a flawed and fallen creature, can love like that, imagine the intensity, the steadfastness, the loyalty of God’s perfect love. It’s not explainable, but this is why God says to each of us who have been born into His family by faith in Christ, I am for you now and I always will be.

I’ll never listen to any charges against you. You’re forever right with me. I am going to give you all of the things I have promised you. There’s nothing and no one in all creation that could separate you from my love. Man, that is reassuring, isn’t it? To be loved that way by God Himself.

I’m sure there are some who are listening to me today who really need to hear and to own these huge truths. I’m one of them, honestly. I need reminded of this. I’m so glad Romans 8 is here to tell me there’s no condemnation hanging over me because I am in Christ, and there is no possibility of separating me from God’s perfect love. And if you are in Christ, the same amazing promises are true for you as well. Selah.

Thanks, Paul. That was amazing. To be loved that deeply and unconditionally, the way God loves us is is beyond my capability to know that there is nothing I can do to make God love me any more, and there is nothing I can do to make God love me any less. Think about that. No condemnation. God has never broken a promise.

So the question is, hearing all you have heard, if you have not accepted Christ, what are you waiting for? From all of us at Share the Word, our blessings and prayers go out to all of you.