“There is therefore now no
condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, who do not walk according to the
flesh, but according to the Spirit. For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ
Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and death.” Rom8:1-2
After
we have come to an understanding of the righteousness of the believer, one of
the most frequent questions that will arise is ‘what about sin? What does God
do when I sin, does He just ignore the sin? This is an important question that
we should deal with using the scriptures.
“There is therefore now no
condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus…” Rom8:1
The
best place to begin is always our place in Christ. We have to understand and
fully accept that the Christian is in Christ. God has placed us in Christ and
responds to us accordingly. He no longer sees us as we were in the past in Adam
(fallen nature) but now sees us in the new nature which is exactly like Jesus.
Thus He treats us in exactly the same way He treats Jesus.
The
word condemnation (katakrima) means an adverse sentence, a damnatory sentence,
an expression of strong disapproval; pronouncing as wrong or morally culpable,
the condition of being strongly disapproved of, a final judgment of guilty in a
criminal case and the punishment that is imposed, denouncement, and
denunciation.
Typically
today we are taught that this is exactly how God responds to us when we sin.
That He strongly disapproves, that He judges us guilty and imposes some form of
punishment by making us sick, poor, gets us in trouble etcetera, or that He
withdraws His love, blessings, anointing and so many other things until we have
paid for our sins (as if we can pay for them). However the scripture says the
opposite. It says that there is no condemnation for us who are in Christ. In
other words; there is no strong disapproval, or guilty verdict or punishment
from God when we sin. There is NO condemnation!
“…who do not walk according to
the flesh, but according to the Spirit. For the law of the Spirit of life in
Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and death.” Rom8:1-2
Note1: There is a popular
counter-argument in some circles that this no condemnation is for those who do
not sin (walking according to the flesh), but live holy (walk according to the
spirit). That those who live holy are the ones who have no condemnation.
However this argument is fallacious and entirely redundant. It ignores the
first and most important condition that this scripture sets which is ‘to those who are in Christ Jesus’. Every
Christian is in Christ Jesus.
Note2: What would be the point of
saying there is no condemnation to people who are not sinning? It is obvious
that there wouldn’t be condemnation to a sinless person! You can’t condemn a
person that hasn’t done anything wrong. That would be un-just, God is a just
God. This is why God does this by mercy and grace; it is because He offers no
condemnation to people that deserve condemnation, people that constantly sin
and fail. If they are able to believe, His mercy is available to them and
offers them no condemnation. This promise is for those who sin.
Note3: This argument is based on
religious pride. There is not a single person on this earth that does not sin.
Everybody sins! Even the big time preachers and evangelists we all respect also
sin. The priests, reverends, bishops, apostles, prophets, pastors and yes the
pope too, everybody sins.
If God
was to offer no condemnation to those who don’t sin, then nobody is able to
receive it. Then we are all under condemnation because we all sin! Do you see
that this is a ridiculous argument? That it leads us back into law? That it
takes us back to before the Cross? If it is true then Jesus wasted His time and
life on the Cross, we are all under condemnation and going to reap the reward
for our sins which is death and hell. But of course it isn’t true, we
who have received Jesus as our savior have no condemnation, we are under mercy
and peace. This is why the gospel is good news.
Note4: Walking in the flesh doesn’t
necessarily mean sinning and walking in the spirit doesn’t necessarily mean
living a holy life. We shall deal with this later in detail.
As long
as you believe in Jesus, there is no condemnation for you regardless of what
you do whether good or bad. If you haven’t come to faith in Jesus, there is
condemnation for you regardless of what you do whether good or bad, you are
condemned already.
“He who believes in Him is not
condemned; but he who does not believe is condemned already, because he has not
believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.” Jn3:18
God is not writing your sins in some book
"Blessed is he whose
transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered. Blessed is the man unto whom
the LORD imputeth not iniquity, and in whose spirit there is no guile.”
Psa32:1-2
There
are so many Christians who believe that God is recording their sins in some
book which He will open on the Day of Judgment and accuse them and punish them.
This concept is openly taught in some religions and fully embraced. However
this is not true, God is not recording the sins of the Christian in His book
and preparing to punish them. He is doing so for the non-believer but not for
the Christian.
“And I saw a great white throne,
and him that sat on it, from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away; and
there was found no place for them. And I
saw the dead, small and great, stand before God; and the books were opened: and
another book was opened, which is the book of life: and the dead were judged
out of those things which were written in the books, according to their
works. And the sea gave up the dead
which were in it; and death and hell delivered up the dead which were in them:
and they were judged every man according to their works. And death and hell
were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death. And whosoever was not
found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire.” Rev20:11-15
Notice
that this judgment is for the dead! The Christians will not be dead at this
time, they shall be with God in heaven while the unbelievers will be in the
sea, death and hades. God will judge them and judge death and hades as well and
throw all in the lake of fire.
Verse
15 says that those not written in the book of life will be thrown into the lake
of fire. These are the unbelievers. The Christian has been written in the book
of life.
“I implore Euodia and I implore
Syntyche to be of the same mind in the Lord. And I urge you also, true
companion, help these women who labored with me in the gospel, with Clement
also, and the rest of my fellow workers, whose names are in the Book of Life.”
Phil4:2-3
“He who overcomes shall be
clothed in white garments, and I will not blot out his name from the Book of
Life; but I will confess his name before My Father and before His angels. He
who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.” Rev3:5-6.
We
shall cover the theme of judgment in more detail during our study on the
eternal judgment.
David
was able to prophetically see into the future a new type of people that God
would cover their sins and not impute their sins upon them. Of course David was
not speaking about himself. We can see that God imputed his sins upon him when
he committed adultery and murder. And yet even for David who was in the Old
Covenant God had mercy on him and didn’t kill him.
“… So David said to Nathan,
"I have sinned against the LORD." And Nathan said to David, "The
LORD also has put away your sin; you shall not die....” 2Sam12:7-15
THE NEW COVENANT; A COVENANT OF MERCY
The
person that David described (whose sins would be covered and the Lord would not
impute their trespasses against them) is the Christian living in the new
covenant. But it is not only David who saw this coming person. Jeremiah the
prophet also saw this new creation. Look at what He says
“Behold, the days are coming,
says the LORD, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and
with the house of Judah not according to the covenant that I made with their
fathers in the day that I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of
Egypt, My covenant which they broke, though I was a husband to them, says the
LORD. But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after
those days, says the LORD: I will put My law in their minds, and write it on
their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people. No more
shall every man teach his neighbor, and every man his brother, saying, 'Know
the LORD,' for they all shall know Me, from the least of them to the greatest
of them, says the LORD. For I will forgive their iniquity, and their sin I will
remember no more.” Jer31:31-34
Jeremiah
prophesied that God would forgive our iniquity and remember our sin no more. Indeed
after the arrival of Jesus, His life, crucifixion, death, resurrection and
glorification we see a fulfillment of these Old Testament prophecies. All these
prophesies are fulfilled in Christ and in the Christian who is in Christ. Is
there proof of this in the New Testament?
“But to him who does not work
but believes on Him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is accounted for
righteousness, just as David also describes the blessedness of the man to whom
God imputes righteousness apart from works: Blessed are those whose lawless
deeds are forgiven, And whose sins are covered; Blessed is the man to whom the
LORD shall not impute sin.” Rom4:5-8
The
word impute is ‘logizomai’ and it means to record, to reckon, to count it as so,
compute, calculate, to take into account, to pass to one’s account, to account,
meditate on, to attribute or credit to.
This is an accounting word that has to do with counting/regarding as so
something that belongs to you or is in your account.
Paul
the apostle says that the person who believes in Jesus and not in his own holy
living has received righteousness imputed unto them instead of sin. Instead God
forgives their sins and lawless deeds and declares them righteous regardless of
what they do. This is because their faith is in Jesus and not in their holy
living.
“For this is the covenant that I
will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the LORD: I will put
My laws in their mind and write them on their hearts; and I will be their God,
and they shall be My people. None of them shall teach his neighbor, and none
his brother, saying, 'Know the LORD,' for all shall know Me, from the least of
them to the greatest of them. For I will be merciful to their unrighteousness,
and their sins and their lawless deeds I will remember no more.” Heb8:10-12
This is God’s mission statement for the New Covenant. This is how He promises to
treat people in the New Covenant. If you have believed in Jesus, this is how
God treats you. He says that He will be merciful to your unrighteousness and
He will not remember your sins and lawless deeds.
How does God react when we sin? He gives us mercy and
forgets our sins and iniquities!
That is what the
bible says. Hallelujah. Stop feeling guilty when you sin; feeling guilty means
that you don’t believe God’s promise. If you sin, just repent. He will forgive
you. No matter what it is that you have done. This is the conclusion of this matter,
GOD OFFERS US MERCY, NOT CONDEMNATION!
God is well able to help us overcome sin. However God is not
able to help a man under condemnation because such a man is not trusting in the
blood of the lamb that took away his sins or in the Word of God that washes him but is instead trusting in the word of
satan, the accuser of the brethren.
Far be it from me to trust in my accuser. Far be it from you to trust in your accuser. Far be it from us to trust in our accuser. There is therefore now no condemnation. May God be true and every man a liar.
Comments
Post a Comment