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I was struck to Sunday nights ago when the drama people did a drama for us called Catch
22 for those of you that were not here at that time that was a pro-life drama and it
featured two female office workers in conversation together.
They were both Christians and one of the women in the drama found herself pregnant and was
contemplating an abortion, and her colleague was trying to talk her out of having that abortion.
And in the course of that discussion she related how eight years previously she herself had
gone through an abortion.
And then she came to the line that stands out in my mind and that line reads like this.
Some of you will recall it.
The one thing she said that I was totally unprepared for was the guilt.
The pamphlets didn't mention it.
The counselors never talked about it.
No one warned me of the guilt and shame that I was going to carry with me for the rest
of my life.
We live in a world that doesn't like to talk very much about guilt.
We live in a world where people think they can violate every manner of moral standard
and somehow or another they can just shut off the guilt and pretend it's not there.
Many non-Christians are very good at it.
They just walk it out.
It really doesn't seem to bother them.
But when you come to Jesus Christ and the Spirit of God begins to live within you and you
begin to know more and more fully what it is that God requires of you, then when you violate
the commandments of God there is a guilt that sets in and that shames your heart.
I believe that's why Christians are much more aware of guilt when they see it.
Then when non-Christians are, then when non-Christians are.
I believe that also is one of the reasons why there are so many people who name the name
of God who go through life, lacking confidence and boldness because deep down in their hearts
they have this lingering sense of condemnation.
This lingering sense that somehow or another they're not measuring out.
That somehow or another they ought to be different from what they really are.
But somehow or another these bonds that bind them ought to be broken so they can live
in the liberty of the children of God.
What do you do?
When every time you look at your face in the mirror you're made aware again of your lack
of self-control.
What do you do every time when you face yourself come Monday morning or Sunday morning that
you know that you've blown it in the course of the past week and you look at yourself
and you see qualities in yourself that you know are not pleasing to God but you seem
powerless to change.
What do you do with that sense of condemnation that hangs over the lives of so many of God's
people?
God starts talking about again here in Romans chapter 8 as he continues his argument
of the blessings that we have in the Lord Jesus Christ.
And here is what he says.
There is, he says, therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.
For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set me free from the law of sin and
death.
For God has done what the law weakened by the flesh could not do, sending his own son
in the likeness of sinful flesh and foreseen.
He condemned sin in the flesh in order that the just requirement of the law might be fulfilled
in us who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.
There is, he says, no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.
There is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.
And he gives us two reasons why there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.
Number one, objectively by faith in Jesus we have been justified before the face of God.
Our sins not only are forgiven but we have been declared righteous.
He already started dealing with that, you will recall, way back in Romans chapter 5 when
he says we are justified by faith that we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.
We have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.
For God has done what the law weakened by the flesh could not do, sending his own son
in the likeness of sinful flesh and foreseen.
He condemned sin in the flesh in order that the just requirement of the law might be fulfilled
in us.
What is he saying?
Well what he is saying is that when we come to faith in Christ and we're married now to Jesus
as we've seen before, we are set free from the bondage of the law.
The law you will recall tells us what we ought to be, doesn't help us to live in.
The law makes demands on us but doesn't help us to fulfill those demands.
The law stirs up in us all manner of sin.
It makes us want to do more bad things.
And the law puts us under condemnation because the law has been weakened by the flesh, nothing
wrong with the law.
The demands God makes on you and me under the law are perfectly good demands.
What they lay bare, what lives within me, but then we come to Jesus, we die to the law.
God puts us in a whole brand new dimension, a dimension of grace and in that position
of grace Jesus and the cross died for all our sins, paid the penalty for all our guilt.
And when he arose and sat down at the right hand of God in glory, imparted to us and
imputed to us his sense of righteousness.
And the Bible says of we confessor sins, God is faithful and just to forgive us our sins
and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
It is that which gives us boldness to draw near to the throne of God.
We're not here today to try to lay hold of the blessings of God by virtue of our
own righteousness because then we would have to keep all of the law perfectly.
There isn't a one of us that has done that this past week.
We have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.
But our position is not our own righteousness, our position is the righteousness of Jesus.
And if you've come to Christ this morning and you're joined to Him by faith, then in Him
we are the righteousness of God, God looks at you and God looks at me in Christ.
He doesn't see any of our sin.
He acknowledges us as the children of God.
I believe of God's people understood that and understood that with all of their hearts.
That would set us free from a lot of that sense of self-condemnation because we could
boldly draw near to God and boldly take up as they should in faith.
And we could boldly say, God loves me not because I've got it all together, not because
I've been so good this week, but because in Christ He is my father and I am His child.
And since I am justified by faith, I have peace with God through the Lord Jesus Christ.
There is Paul says, no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.
So I'm saying objectively by faith in Christ, we have been justified and therefore there
is no condemnation.
But I believe here in Romans chapter 8 Paul goes further.
Because you see for a lot of us, it isn't just a matter of objectively being justified
that gives us a sense of peace within our hearts, there continues to be that lingering sense
of self-condemnation because we have failed the standards that we have set for ourselves.
We know that God may have forgiven us, but we have difficulty forgiving ourselves.
What often happens I think is this, we come to Christ.
We receive His forgiveness and His salvation, we know by faith in our heads that God is
our father and we are His children, we try the best we can to live the Christian life,
but then we discover we fail.
And the harder we try sometimes, the more we fail.
And we go to the Lord and we receive the Lord's forgiveness and we believe that the Lord
forgives us for all of our failures, but still deep down in our hearts there is that
sense of defilement that you know what I'm talking about.
That sense that says, but what is wrong with me, how come I can't get it together?
How come I keep falling into these patterns of sin and so while we know the Lord no longer
condemns us, we feel that we must condemn ourselves and we feel that other people would condemn
us if they really knew what lived within our hearts.
And when Paul here says there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, I believe
he is not only saying that objectively we have been justified by faith in Jesus, but
that subjectively the Holy Spirit will help us live in such a way that we do not feel
that lingering cloud of condemnation because of our failures in our daily living.
For notice what Paul was on to say, the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set
me free from the law of sin and death.
Now listen carefully, God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh could not do, sending
his own son in the likeness of sinful flesh and forced sin, he condemned sin in the flesh.
Now listen, in order that the just requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk
not according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit, in order that the just requirement
of the law might be fulfilled in us, what is he saying?
What he is saying I believe is this, when we come to Christ, our join to him by faith,
not only do we receive the forgiveness of sins, not only does God count the righteousness
of Jesus objectively as my righteousness, he imparts to me the righteousness of Jesus
by the person of the Holy Spirit because in the realm of grace, the Jesus exalted at the
right hand of God the Father, pours out his Spirit upon the church and that is the Spirit
of Jesus, the Spirit of Jesus who faced every temptation that you and I will ever face,
the Spirit of Jesus who overcame death and hell and all of its power, that Spirit living
within my heart now becomes in me in the words of Jesus in John's Gospel and artesian
well a spring of living water, welling up to eternal life, and the power of that new
resurrection life has the ability to overcome the power of sin and death that lives within
my being sold at by God's grace, I not only receive his forgiveness, but my life begins
to change, and Paul describes it here in verse 2 on the basis of two opposing laws in
principles, he says the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set me free from
the law of sin and death, try to capture that, he says the law of the Spirit of life in
Christ Jesus has set me free from the law of sin and death, the best way to try to understand
that I think is to try to think of it as a bird, what enables a bird to fly, what enables
a bird to overcome the downward pull of gravity that keeps the rest of us earth bound, well
a bird has in it what we might call the law of life, it's been made to fly, and if the
bird is healthy and normal all it has to do is flap its wings, and all other things being
equal, it takes off, and the law of life enables it to overcome the law of gravity, that
doesn't mean the law of gravity is no longer there, should the bird become ill or quit
flapping its wings, the law of gravity will reassert itself, and the bird will be pulled
down to the ground and be crushed by the impact, Paul says the law of the Spirit of life in
Christ Jesus has set me free from the law of sin and death.
For God has done with the law weakened by the flesh could not do, sending his own son
of the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh, in order that
the just requirement of the law might be fulfilled at us, who walk not according to the flesh,
who walk according to the Spirit.
I believe that that's where lies the answer to that lingering sense of self-condemnation
when we feel that we just cannot get it together.
There's an awful lot of God's people, they're sort of the people that figure they want
to be patted on the back all the time.
They have that inward sense of inadequacy, that inward sense of failure, and when they
relate with other people, they're always reaching out to be told that it's okay, they're
all right, the Lord understands, and that's okay to imagine.
The problem with that is if you've ever encountered that kind of a person, it's a bottomless
gap, no matter how often we tell each other that we are okay outside of Jesus Christ, the
whole just continues to live within my heart.
And you may tell me I am all right, but I know inside I am not because I haven't got
it to pull it together.
I believe the biblical antidote is first to recognize that my righteousness depends on
Jesus and that in Him I am complete, and the biblical antidote number two is to understand
that God gives me His Holy Spirit.
And that as I rest by faith in Jesus in that realm of grace, God is at work in me both to
willing to work according to His pleasure, and He will change me and give me the grace
to flap my wings and begin to fly.
And when you learn how to fly, nobody needs to tell you all the time that you can fly.
Because you have a witness inside that says, "Here is the evidence of God's love within
my life."
He is transforming me and changing me.
Yes, there are many heights that I cannot entertain, and there are many things I cannot
do, but in Christ I have made a beginning, and in Christ I am more than conqueror through
Him who love me.
There is this Paul no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.
I suspect through some of us here this morning we're not that happy with ourselves.
All we play the game, and we probably don't wear on our sleeve the fact that we're not
all that happy with ourselves, we probably cover it up with a multitude of clever comments,
some hard work, and who knows whatever else it is that we dig in to, but we know in our
heart of hearts and those moments of quiet when we are in the presence of God, we're afraid
of God, and we're afraid of ourselves because there is this sense of condemnation.
If that describes you this morning as we join in the celebration of communion, I want
to point you first of all to the blood of Jesus.
If you've come to Jesus and if you've confessed your sins that in Jesus Christ all those sins
are washed away, and all the size and tears of your life is not going to justify you before
God, only the blood of Jesus can cleanse our lives like God's grace of mercy.
If you've done that and there continues to be a lingering sense of condemnation because
you know you want to do better but you cannot, then look to Jesus for the power of His Spirit.
And know that He who began a good work in you will bring it to completion in the day of
Jesus Christ, and the power of His resurrection being greater than the power of sin, death,
and hell, living within your heart, living within your life, can change to the other
laws, those that pour upon His name.
My experience is that a lot of us have no trouble believing it for other people.
A lot of us have a lot of trouble believing that somehow God would love me that much, that
He will do it for me.
Paul says there is no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus.
In this morning, as we reach out to the Lord in the celebration of communion, let us receive
by faith, that which He has to offer, knowing that as we learn to walk after the Spirit,
rather than after the flesh, God's grace will continue to empower us so that we may mount
up as on wings of eagles. We shall run and not be weary.
We shall walk and not faint.
All is now ready. Come to the table of the Lord. Join me in prayer.
We sang it earlier in the service today, Father, amazing love! How can it be that you,
Lord, should die for me? It's so hard for us to comprehend that your love toward us in
Christ is an unconditional love. We're so accustomed, Lord, to having to try to prove
somehow to ourselves and to others that we're worthy of that love, that when we come to
you with our failures and with our sins, we have such a hard time believing that you
will really accept us as we are. We pray that you give us that faith even now.
We pray, Lord, that you take all our failure, all our doubt, all our self-condemnation and
all our guilt and nail it to the cross. Give us to enjoy a rich measure of your Spirit.
Grant that your Spirit will bear witness with our Spirit that we are the children of God
and of children and heirs of God's kingdom, and there is nothing but nothing that can
separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord. And then as we leave this place
a little bit later, help us Lord in our daily living and in our daily walk to know that
if you are for us, nobody can be against us because who shall lay any charge against
the elect of God who is to condemn, it is God who justifies by faith in Christ. Fill us
so God with your grace even now we ask it in Jesus' name. Amen.