From Guilt To Glory
Sub Topic: Conviction Is Not Condemnation
Romans 8: 1 There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh but after the Spirit.
The Christian life that we live is a struggle, a daily struggle, a life-long struggle. Even though we make our best effort, we still struggle. If we were to make an assessment of our growth and progress, our spiritual maturity as to pinpoint, measure, or chart our position or status; I think it’s safe to say we fall somewhere between guilt and glory. Ideally closer to glory than guilt, but Romans 3: 23 says for all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. The glory of God is what he has purposed you to be and what he has purposed for you to have. Blessings for your faith and obedience; abundant life – which is joy, peace, and love. But we fall short, almost, but not quite, 99 1/2 won’t do, got to have 100. We fall down; Donnie McClurken sang the song. “We fall down, but we get back up again. A saint is just a sinner who falls down, and gets up”. Proverbs 24:16 says for a just man falleth seven times and riseth up again: but the wicked shall fall into mischief. Now that doesn’t mean that it’s okay to fall seven times or everyone has seven times to sin and fall before you have to get it right or do right. If you fall there’s still hope. Somebody is calculating, right now, and keeping score, saying I’ve only fallen twice, I’ve got 5 more times, and trying to decide on 5 more people you want to fall with. Seven is God’s perfect number or number of completion and perfection. The point is to reach perfection, to become complete and whole. Learn how to walk and stop falling. Walk in the Spirit so that you fulfill not the lust of the flesh.
Guilt is our starting point, our origin; where we began. Guilt is the by-product of sin. Sin is our inheritance from Adam. Psalms 51:5
David said, Behold, I was shapen in iniquity and in sin did my mother conceive me. So then our struggle is to move from guilt to glory. Romans 8:18 For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us (to us).
Let’s look into our text: There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit. This is the gospel, this is good news. This is an emphatic statement, and acclamation of affirmation. In other words Paul is getting his shout on. Paul is rejoicing because he received a revelation of the efficacy (power) of divine grace. He has been illuminated, enlightened, brought out of darkness into the marvelous light.
We have to back up to Chapter 7 (Romans) for the setting of this text. Paul is in darkness and intense struggle. The first two verses of Chapter 8 when linked to the closing verse of Chapter 7, and read as one sentence, will help explain the struggle and darkness in Rom. 7 (Read). Paul is in a very intense struggle because as a believer, he is trying to keep the law. Anybody who gets involved in a discipline of the spirit and dedication of the heart to obey God, but is trying to do it through his own efforts, willpower, and determination, will have the same problem. The problem is really legalism. Trying to live by the law (Ten Commandments). There are thousands and millions of Christians who are struggling like this today because of the power of the law in their lives. Paul tells us about the struggle (read: Romans 7: 14-20) “the things that I would not do, that I do; and the things that I would do, I do not do”. We have all felt this way and can identify with his struggle. We’re going to make it do, what it do.
First, it is evident that there is a struggle in the Christian life. There is a struggle between what Paul calls “the sinful nature” and the spirit. In other words “the flesh” as the word is used in the scriptures, it not only means the body, but it means the sin that finds its seat or place in the body. You see, it is by the body that we are linked with our father Adam. Genetically, all that we have in our bodies is traceable back through the stream of human history to Adam. God made a body for Adam that is like ours with two eyes, two ears, a nose, etc. And we have these characteristics because Adam had them. But we also have inherited from Adam this principle of sin that is in us (one man’s sin).
Now, it is hard to define this principle of sin. In the same way, it describes the access that the devil has to our humanity. In Genesis 4:7 it says “sin lieth at the door”. Satan crouches at the door of our mind, heart, and spirit, waiting to enter as soon as we open the door. It is the means by which Satan is able to implant in our minds the “fiery darts of the wicked one”, as Paul calls them in Ephesians 6:16. This refers to those obscene and lustful thoughts, and selfish attitudes and hostile, bitter feelings that we have toward others thoughts that come suddenly, unbidden into our minds when we least expect them. They come from this root of sin that is in our bodies. In Galatians 5: 17, For the flesh lusteth against the spirit – and the spirit against the flesh – and these are contrary – the one to the other: so that you cannot do the things that ye would. This is what Paul is describing in Romans 7. In verse 25 he says I myself in my mind am a slave to God’s law – I want to do good. I believe in it. I delight in God’s law in my inner being. I am changed; I agree that the law is good. But I find I can’t do it.
In his mind he is awakened to the value and the righteousness of God’s law, and this has come about by means of the Spirit. How else can you ever come to the place of agreeing that God is good and holy, his word is right and the law is good; except it be by the Spirit of God in you? Paul had issues and scenarios, just as we do. We have issues, scenarios, circumstances, situations, and consequences. Paul’s issues were legalism and guilt. Though he had been converted from Judaism to Christianity he found himself trying to live by the law. Some Christians are tempted toward legalism-focusing on the law. Trying to live by the law causes problems amongst the brothers and sisters in Christ. It causes one to think more highly of himself than he ought. It causes one to be judgmental of others and question if they’re saved. Are you struggling in your Christianity? Matthew 7:5 Thou hypocrite, first cast out the beam out of thine own eye; and then shalt thy see clearly to cast out the mote out of thy brother’s eye. You talk about and run down the homosexual (SGL) but you’re an adulterer. You ostracize the bisexual (DLB), but you’re a lesbian you criticize the smoker but you’re an alcoholic- you condemn the thief but you’re a liar you’re repulsed by the gossiper, the busy body, or the one that sows discord amongst the brethren but you covet thou neighbor’s wife. Are we Christians? Yes. Are we struggling? Yes.
The struggle is the Holy Spirit within our human spirit agreeing with God’s law. But set against that – is this sin that is in the flesh -that takes hold of us – and makes us a slave to the law of sin; even though we don’t want to be. The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak. There’s no good thing in the flesh. Some Christians resent the fact that there is a struggle at all. We have gotten a false idea of Christianity, we think Christianity means that God takes the struggle away and removes the temptation – so that we never have to struggle again. Unfortunately, this is not true; many people have been hurt, and have become angry with God.
Paul is trying to help us see that the only way this struggle will cease is for us to see who we really are in Christ. We need a new self-image. We need to be who God has purposed us to be, and say no to the flesh. We need to mortify the deeds of the flesh. Say yes to the Spirit and discover a whole new walk of life. Here’s the good news, it’s very important for us to know that even though we’re struggling; the struggle is without condemnation. We are not condemned. Why? because we are in Christ Jesus. We are justified by faith in Christ. God will never condemn those who are in Christ. Now, what does “no condemnation” mean? :
#1. It means there is no rejection by God. God does not turn us aside; He does not kick us out of his family. If we are born into the family of God by faith in Jesus Christ, the Holy Spirit has come to dwell within us, and he will never leave us. God will never cut us out of his family or treat us as anything less than sons and daughters. The doctrine of “eternal security” is true, if we are truly saved, if we are in Christ.
#2. The second thing “no condemnation” means is that God is not angry with you when this struggle comes into your life. You want to be good, or you want to stop doing bad, but when the moment of temptation comes you find yourself overpowered and weak, and you give in. Then you hate yourself. You get frustrated feeling as Paul described, “what’s the matter with me? Why can’t I do this thing?, Why can’t I act like I want to?” And though you may condemn yourself, God does not. He is not angry with you because, He knows that you are a child in his family, learning to walk or learning to be. Are you a human doing? or a human being?
# 3. The third thing “no condemnation” means is that there is no punishment. He isn’t angry and He isn’t going to punish us. We may punish ourselves, we may be frustrated, we may cry out, “O wretched man that I am“. But, God doesn’t say that – He doesn’t punish us. On the other hand when we deliberately decide to sin and like it – then He will punish us.
When we deliberately give ourselves back into sin once we have been set free from it, then as a loving father and disciplinarian God will correct us and punish us and even scourge us. He does this out of love. That’s willful sin. Paul is talking about when we want to do good, and when we’re trying to do good. But we are weak and in a moment of temptation – we fail, and we fail again and again. But there is no condemnation to those that are in Christ Jesus. Even when we are being punished as disobedient sons, we still are not condemned because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit of life sets us free from the law of sin and death (Romans 8:2).
Paul brings out 3 reasons why there is no condemnation.
#1. In Chapter 7: 18 “I know that nothing good lives in me, that is in my sinful nature, for I have the desire to do what is good.” In verse 22 he says, for in my inner being I delight in God’s law. His heart is right. He really wants to do right, therefore there is no condemnation.
# 2. Paul explains that sin has deceived us and overpowered us. It is too much for us, we can’t handle it. God doesn’t condemn us for that; he knows that it’s more than we can handle.
# 3. God has already made provision for our failure in Christ and our very struggle is driving us to Christ. The provision for victory is in Christ.
Romans 7: 25 and 8: 1&2
7:25 I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord. So then with the mind I myself serve the law of God; but with the flesh the law of sin.
8:1 There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit,
8:2 For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death.
My concern is I believe that many of us think that conviction is condemnation. We don’t want to be corrected; we don’t want to be wrong. It’s hard to come to realize that you’re wrong, even harder to accept that you may have been wrong all your life. We don’t want to confess. Unconfessed sin is unrepented sin. Conviction is the work of the Holy Spirit in our Christian struggle. The five-fold working ministry of the Holy Spirit is conviction, regeneration, indwelling, baptism, and sealing.
Conviction brings us to a point of Godly sorrow, which leadeth to repentance. We don’t want to repent. To repent is to admit that we’re wrong. To admit that we’re wrong is condemnation to us. II Peter 3:9b says that God is not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. Our Christian struggle is not a salvation struggle because we are in Christ. Salvation is our position in Christ. Our struggle is sanctification.
Sanctification is our condition in Christ. The sanctification process brings us to a point of spiritual maturity, and holiness. I’ve got to close this. II Corinth. 5:17, If any man be in Christ he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold all things are become new. If you’re in Christ you have a new life. New Purpose, Walk, Talk, Mind, Heart. Being in Christ will change a Murderer into a Saint, Prostitute into a Deaconess, Pimp into a Preacher, Thief into Trustee, Alcoholic into a Deacon, Drug Addict into an Usher, Liar into a Teacher, Whoremonger into a Choir boy, Homeless person into a Pew Member.
In Christ you have a new home over in Glory. How did we become to be in Christ? (I’m glad you asked). God sent His son in the likeness of sinful flesh, in the form of man. He was without sin – so he could become sin. He took your sin – and my sin – and the sins of the world – and bore them in his body – on the cross in order to condemn sin. Our old man, our sin nature was nailed to the cross with Jesus. Romans 6: 4 Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in the newness of life. He was our propitiation – our substitute. He stood in our stead. He died our death for us. He paid the ransom, the sin debt, for our redemption. God pardoned us and dropped the charges because Jesus paid it all. He shed his precious, sinless, divine blood for the atonement of our sins. Atonement means to cover. He made the ultimate sacrifice to cover us with his blood, his righteousness. He imputed his righteousness toward us. In other words he made room to include us in his righteousness. This is how we entered in Jesus. Our acquittal is in Jesus. Because of the blood, we are cleansed, purified, delivered, sanctified, and set free. Jesus paid it all.
I want to take you on a road trip; The Roman road to salvation.
Romans 5:8But God commended his love
Roman 10:9That if thou shall confess
Romans 10:10For with the heart man believeth
Romans 10:13For who ever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. AMEN…AMEN..AMEN.