No Condemnation!

If you were to ask me what my favourite book in the Bible is, I’d say Romans. Then, if you were to ask me what my favourite chapter in that book is, I’d say chapter 8. In this one chapter, there is such a wealth of theological truth, that you could spend your whole life just studying this one chapter. Indeed, in reading this chapter, it’s not very hard to simply become preoccupied with verse 1. Verse 1 of chapter 8 of Romans holds so much hope: “There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus” (v. 1).

As you know, Paul has been talking a lot about the Law—about the way in which the Law makes us slaves to sin and death. It makes us slaves to sin and death, because when we try to follow God’s Law in our own strength, we are doomed to failure. You and I can never be good enough, never be whole enough, never be humble enough to fulfil everything that God calls us to be. And if we think we have a hope, we’re kidding ourselves. And if we think we might actually do it, we’re stark raving mad!

But I guess most of us are a bit mad, at least just a bit. I am. I made a commitment to Jesus when I was 8. I was certain I was going to be good after that; but of course I wasn’t; so I felt guilty and the more I tried to be good, the more I failed, the more I felt guilty. So, at the same camp, the following year, I made another commitment. And this time I just knew I was going to be good; but of course I wasn’t; and I felt guilty and the more I tried to be good, the more I failed and the more I felt guilty. And so on… I’m not sure when the message sank in; but eventually it did. It wasn’t that trying to be good was wrong. It was just that I’d missed the point completely: “There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus” (v. 1).

It’s not that trying to follow God’s Law is wrong; it’s just that trying to do it ourselves is futile; and, as it turns out, completely unnecessary. “There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus” (v. 1).

God’s gift is that we are not required to prove ourselves, not required to justify ourselves, not required to get it all right, because we can’t. No, God’s gift is that in Christ, through Christ and because of Christ, we are never, ever pronounced guilty in the first place. In Jesus, God sets us free—not free to do anything; but free to rest in God’s love and God’s grace and to trust God to work in us and through us, despite us. And in that handing of everything over to God, that submission to God, we just may discover that God’s Law of justice, mercy and grace has been fulfilled in us because it was fulfilled in Jesus.

Jesus fulfilled God’s Law and that meant death on a cross. Because any way you look at it, fulfilling God’s Law or rather trying to fulfil God’s Law means death to self—death to our sense of wholeness and wellbeing because we are consumed by getting things right; death because God’s Law has never and can never be embraced fully by humans on their own; and death because we don’t like it when someone seems to be coming close to making it on their own and we like to make sure that they know that and know that they can’t. But we don’t have to be neurotic, and we don’t have to be guilty, and we don’t have to be jealous, and we don’t have to fulfil God’s Law on our own because… “There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus” (v. 1).

What a gift—to be set free of guilt, and sin and death—to really fulfil God’s Law because we have been incorporated into the resurrection life of Christ through the power of God’s Spirit. Charles Wesley was just one hymn writer who got pretty excited about that one powerfully brief message at the beginning of chapter 8 of the letter to the Romans:

No condemnation now I dread:
Jesus, and all in him, is mine!
Alive in him, my living Head,
and clothed in righteousness divine…
(Charles Wesley 1707–88 alt.)

Accepting God’s gracious, loving embrace of us as the very human creatures which we are is, I think, what the parable of the sower is on about, too. We can hear the message that we are called to love God and love others; but if we do not comprehend that loving God means accepting that God loves us, God’s Word has not taken very deep roots in our hearts. We are hearing the good news only as seed spread on rocky ground—very superficially.

We can hear the message that we are loved by God, but when we keep getting caught up in the competitive, individualistic and consumerist priorities of the very human culture in which we are immersed, we have not really understood the good news that God really does love us, and that that means we are really released from the unhealthy systems in which we find ourselves. We are like seed choked by the thorns.

No, we are called to drink deeply, breathe fully, and understand completely, to let the roots of the good news that God loves us grow deep—nothing else matters; and when we open our hands and our hearts to accept that love, we may just find that loving God and loving others is much, much easy than we ever thought it could be. “There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus” (v. 1).

[T]here is … no condemnation when we enter the sphere of Christ's influence and power ([When we are] "in Christ"). Why? Not just because there is forgiveness; nor just because we have someone else to reinforce the authority of the Law in telling us how to be good—[in fact] not at all the latter! Paul explains immediately what achieves the difference: "For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has liberated you from the law of sin and death" (8:2). (Bill Loader)

In Christ, God doesn’t just provide a marvellous example of idyllic servanthood; nor does God only provide a substitute sacrifice for the sin which binds us. No, in Christ, God says, more powerfully than words… in God becoming human, in incarnation, God communicates that God utterly loves us.

God takes “the initiative to bring about liberation” (Loader). God enters right into the middle of the human predicament in order to restore the broken relationship between humanity and God; in order to disempower the effect of sin in our lives; in order to set us free.

And that freedom—if we choose to accept it—will bear fruit:

…by opening ourselves to God's Spirit which brings transforming love we are transformed to become loving people. When that process starts happening we more than fulfil what the Law intended. Its goals are achieved [not through slavish observance], but on the basis of a loving relationship. Love … reproduce[s] love. Human experience tells us that this really does work. While there is a role for behaviour modification and rules, nothing changes a person so much as the experience of being loved. (Loader)

That is what Paul is on about. And that is what sets the agenda for Christian life. If we truly believe that God loves us, we cannot help but love others, even our enemies.

When we operate out of sin and fear, we reproduce sin and fear. When we operate out of love and hope, we reproduce love and hope. In both cases this is more than living by ideals. (Loader)

It is about a choice of systems: one that highlights sin and failure; and another that embraces love and gives life. Love and life are our hope. Love and life are our calling. Love and life are our inheritance in Christ.

Paul holds out the hope of us all one day being free “from the negative aspects … [that are] instilled into our human condition”, our slavery to sin and death. For Paul, that hope “means a resurrection body”, a new embodiment, a new incarnation of God’s love and God’s grace.

Until then we need to face the reality that we carry about with us both systems and can easily lose focus and surrender ourselves again to the sin syndrome. The ruts and routines don't magically disappear! (Loader)

Our fear and guilty and jealousy and neuroticism have deeper roots for us as humans than the victory of God’s love over all that would bind us to sin and death. For Paul, there is:

no liberation in people with plagued consciences. Paul's gospel lifts people beyond such self preoccupation so that they are now free to "get on with the job" of living. Death does not reign. Life does. There is now no condemnation. There is the Spirit of life. As we allow ourselves to enter this powerful new way of being set free, we ourselves have some chance of also embodying such good news and being good news for others. (Loader)

“There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free …” (vv. 1-2). Or as Jesus says in other places, “Go now and sin no more.”