Session 25 – Romans; Romans 8:1a, No Condemnation: Dr. David Fleming, 02/08/26

ROM 025_Romans P25_PODCAST_020826
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[00:00:00] Good morning. Welcome. So glad to hear, and thanks for that prayer, pastor Brent. I know. Uh, mark will appreciate it very much. He sends his greetings, but also regrets, uh, you couldn't be with us today, but, uh, the proceedings. Uh, we're extended beyond the expectation, and so he just wasn't able to get back.

Uh, that's my gain. Thank you very much. Happy to be here. Always love to step up and, uh, and step into this class. Good. Folks here, I'm just looking around the room. Yep, everybody's here. Great. We can get started. Very good. Uh, I'm not gonna show you any grandchildren pictures today just because Gotta break the routine.

Can't get in a rut. However, in six weeks we do have a wedding in the Fleming family. Yeah, you do. I'm not gonna show you any pictures of that either. Uh, and, and, and, and have another wedding in the Fleming future in January. So both girls engaged [00:01:00] two weddings in nine months.

My, uh, bank account number is kidding. We'll be okay now. Good to be back. And, uh, by the way, I, I really should say, uh. I, I listened to Pastor Jarret last Sunday with great anticipation because I know he's been thinking and praying and working and researching and meeting for a couple of years now, and I've had the chance to have a number of conversations with him and to sort of feel out his heart, his sense of call, his direction.

I am jazzed about that vision statement. I think it's balanced. I think it's missional. I think it's congregational. I think it's community. I love it. I just love it. So I'm very Bevin, I'm very, very excited. Uh, we, we love the part about the Magnolia piece. We just wish you'd have done that two years ago.

'cause we lived in Magnolia two years ago for five years. And so, uh, now we move back to the, to the immediate area here. So we might have to [00:02:00] commute up there. 'cause I'm really excited about all that God's doing. And I spend one week with Beverly a month in the UK and across Europe. In fact, I'll be preaching in, uh.

Eng in England and then in, uh, what's that country, Poland for the European Leadership Forum. And listen, uh, God is moving through Europe. I'm telling you every time somebody says you, Europe is dead. No, don't say that about God. God is working in across Europe and especially in the uk. So to see this church turn its heart and attention towards what is the largest mission field now really.

Uh, the largest mission field across Europe and in the uk, uh, is very, very exciting. So we're happy to be a part of that and can't wait to see all that God's gonna do. I just wanted to say a word of affirmation, encouragement. Love that guy. Love the vision. Love you. Love what God's doing here, and very happy to be a part of it.

Uh, for today, I was in a bit of a pickle. Now, how many of you know what a pickle is? A pickle's where you get caught between first and second base. All right. So I, I'm, oh, you thought it was going on a hamburger, different kind of pickle. Now this [00:03:00] pickle is that the lesson for today from Mark was already written.

Uh, so it's ready for you next week. It was ready for you today. Now it's ready for you next week. And so what I didn't want to do, shouldn't do is step on that lesson by trying to continue forward in Roman. So we're gonna have to hit pause on moving ahead. But that's okay. It'll be even better next week.

You know, it'll season a bit more. Uh, but, but at the same time, I felt a little weird about doing a one-off non-related to Romans because you, you have that sort of in the life of the church hit and miss. Then of course it gets cold to cancel everything. You have to stay home and all that stuff. So I thought, well, what could we do if we just look back over the last couple of weeks?

Is there anything there? And you should never ask the question, did Mark leave any meat on the bone? You should never ask that. Because he is as thorough and deep a Bible teacher as you will ever meet. Amen. Amen. So you, you can't say, well, what did he miss? Or, or what did he leave out? Or what did he overlook?

Even though, uh, you only can get so many words into a 60 minute class, uh, he [00:04:00] does a pretty good job of being very thorough and going very deep. But I still said, well, what if there is a word or a phrase that I might just back up to and look again at and maybe get a little closer to on the. Questions that might arise, or concerns that may surface.

And then of course, always, I love to talk about the application of that in everyday life. So go back with me, if you will, again to now. No condemnation. That phrase from eight one chapter eight, Romans, if you have your Bible open to there. And as we begin, I wanna encourage you, we're gonna look back, but I want you to take a listen to if you haven't already, Mark's lesson from January 18.

That's when he addressed in specifics. Romans eight, one through four really did an amazing job and as a lawyer did it like nobody else can. The context for Romans chapter eight, verse one and the particular terminology that's there. So I wanna encourage you to do that. But today, if you'll permit me. To dive a little deeper into this single powerful phrase, and it is [00:05:00] really powerful and it has implications, but there are perhaps some concerns we might wanna think about.

So I'm gonna do that with us today and take another look at this phrase now, no condemnation. You ready? Say, oh yeah. Okay, good. Thanks. I hope it's not like leftovers unless it's leftover lasagna. 'cause that's amazing, right? Leftover lasagna is the best, right? So not all leftovers are bad. This will be good.

Our roadmap today, we always like to know where we're going, so we're gonna ask the question again, if not by way of review, what is Romans eight one mean? We know what it says. What concerns might we have or might others have that we can be prepared to help with? And finally, we're gonna talk about how to live out, and that's the really important one I wanna get to.

How to live out. No condemnation. Let's start at the first. What does this mean? What does there is? Therefore, now. No condemnation text. Well, we know what it says for [00:06:00] those who are in Christ Jesus. Now, of course, this is focused on the word condemnation. The Greek word is Kama or Kama. Uh, it's basically condemnation.

It's a legal term. Martin did a great job with that back on the 18th. Of putting this in the setting of a courtroom and an accusing attorney and a judge, and the defense, the defendant, that that would be you and me. And the word condemnation simply means that charges have been applied. Verdict is rendered in a sentence, is to be imposed.

You're guilty. Uh, that's what condemnation is. It's the result of guilt by action, rebellion, omission, those sorts of things that we call sin. But if we take a closer look, we'll be reminded that no is a really important phrase here. I mean, what if that two letter word was omitted? There is therefore now condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.

Wouldn't that ruin your day? Yes, there is. Therefore, now [00:07:00] condemnation, but that single word no changes everything. But not only in the sense of the English understanding, no condemnation, if you transferred that over into the Greek language and the Greek text word order and sentence structure matters. So as Mark mentioned, when they take that word udin and move it to the very front of the sentence so that in the Greek, the actual verse doesn't start with, therefore there is now it starts with no.

So when, when your grandchild is doing something that they shouldn't do, you don't start with, dear Honey. I was thinking and perhaps generally speaking, we might agree that touching a hot stove is a bad idea when you wanna get your point across in a hurry. What do you say? No, [00:08:00] I mean, that gets their attention.

And hopefully a response. Now, you can explain it after, but you don't hold the no until the burn. You put the no right up front for the sake of emphasis. Same thing here. So the Greek sentence starts with, no, there is now condemnation. No condemnation, none there. There's no condemnation. That's a beautiful addition to this sentence.

No. In fact, everything hangs on the word no. And the writer of this. Book, the Lord himself wants us to clearly understand the emphasis on the know. No charges are applied. No verdict is rendered. No sentence imposed, at least on us. No condemnation. That's an amazing reality. None nunca. I re-watched the lesson just to be sure.

Mark used about seven different ways of saying no instead of span in, in including Spanish Nanda. There are other words. No, none doesn't [00:09:00] fall to us. It doesn't come to us. It doesn't hit us. No condemnation, none whatsoever. Why and how? How do we explain this? Well, because this verse says, we are in Christ Jesus.

No condemnation. End Christ Jesus. And we are in Christ Jesus by virtue of having been united with him and to him by faith. In other words, we, we come into him. Literally, we are encompassed and surrounded and enveloped, enveloped in him. By faith, we are in Christ. We're not around Christ. We're not near Christ.

We're not close to Christ. We are in Christ. It's a position, it's a relationship. It's a status that we are in Christ. Yeah. Therefore, there is therefore now no condemnation. Why? Because we're in Christ. How do you get in Christ? You confess your sin. Repent. Turn to Jesus. Trust him. By faith, he becomes the Lord of your [00:10:00] life and you are in him.

That transactional decision, that moment in time when you say, I can't do it on my own, I'll never be good enough. Heaven's too high. Perfection is out of reach, but Jesus attained what I can Never. Gather for myself, his righteousness deposited to my account, my sin laid on him, and in that divine interchange, that transaction by faith, I am placed in him.

You are in Christ and Christ is in you. So that wonderful reality of our position in Christ is why there is, therefore, now. Not just in the future, not just out there in eternity. I wanna be sure you understand the, the, the timing of this is now no condemnation. So while we might want to just say, well, this refers to the eternal situation or the eternal position, or the eternal [00:11:00] relationship.

No, no. Now's an important word, right? Remember the grandchild? No. When now. I mean, these are emphatic, declarative words now. No, get that. There's no condemnation win now because we have been united by faith and we are in Christ and crisis in us. How is this possible? Our charges, the verdict, the sentence, all that, that comes with that word, crema.

In the Greek, they've been laid somewhere else on someone else's doorstep, on someone else's back, on someone else's account. They were laid on him. They were laid on him. We hit this three times in three times in this lesson. You know what I mean? By three, three times in this lesson, we're gonna go back to the cross because you, you've gotta have the focus of the cross and of all that Jesus did when he died and accomplished on the cross for you and for me.

That's why we can say there is, [00:12:00] therefore now because of what he did then. No, none. Zero. No condemnation, no Kama, no verdict, no sentence based on no charges. It's not there. So if we can, let's stay here a little bit longer and unpack some key concepts. So we just call this theology one oh one. We're all theologians.

By the way, if you think about God, you're a theologian. Let's be good ones. Key concepts. First of all, the reality of condemnation that's in there. The only reason you would say there is therefore now no condemnation is because there was condemnation. Make sense? And there is condemnation apart from Christ.

So right. The condition of no condemnation is in Christ. Well, what if I'm not in Christ? Guess what? Yes. Condemnation. When condemnation. Now. So in a sense, we're already living our eternal. [00:13:00] Condition or situation or relationship or position. Now we're, we're already in the here and the now. This is not just a hereafter conversation, it's a, now there is condemnation apart from Christ.

Listen to John chapter three, verse 18. Whoever believes in him is, say it with me. Hold on. Whoever believes in him is not condemn, condemned, not condemned. But whoever does not believe how do, how do we get in Christ, say the word believe, but they don't believe so. They're not in Christ. They're apart from Christ.

Those who do not believe or he who does not believe. Whoever is when what? Condemned, when already already condemned already. This is a now thing. Why? Because he has not believed. Not believed, which means there has been no faith [00:14:00] transaction, no imputation of righteousness, no removal of sin. It's not happened because they haven't activated that transaction by faith.

They have not believed in the name of the only son of God. So there is condemnation. We've gotta remember that we should feel. Empathy and sorrow and deep concern for those who are not in Christ. For your friend, family member, neighbor, coworker, fellow student, not in Christ. It's not just an exercising of personal choice in someone's will.

It's not just a different way of seeing the world. It's not just another belief system. Not in Christ equals condemned already. In the now and the eternal sense of the word Kama, there are charges for all of sin and come short of the glory of God, all there's a verdict. The [00:15:00] wages of sin is death. Eternal separation from God and the physical material and spiritual implications of that death in the here and now,

sentence imposed. That's why John three 16 is such good news. For God so loved the world that he gave us one and only son that whosoever believes in him should not perish. But what if you don't believe in him? Take away the knot. Perish should not perish. There is condemnation apart from Christ. That is if we are standing on our own, expecting somehow that our piddly poultry little good deeds will somehow impress a holy God.

Like, I'm a good enough person. I try hard. I'm nice. Most of the time I'm good, but what else would I tell you? I'll take my chances. Ooh,[00:16:00]

or just as bad, really? What God? Who? God, who are you to say? You, you could go on all day and what you're essentially saying is not in Christ, not believe. Condemnation, condemnation, standing on our own is a bad place to stand because our sins in that spot are still our own sins. They're on us, and so are the consequences.

Come back to that word in a minute. So there is condemnation. The word justification a lovely word, another judicial word, another legal term. It's the declaration of not guilty or innocence. And, and not because we didn't do it or that we weren't guilty. No, no. Guilty is real. We were guilty, [00:17:00] we're sinners for all have sinned.

I know some of us came to Jesus at a very tender young age. And we might have the imagination that because we got safe so young, we never really needed salvation. I'll come back to that. Justification is a legal term, a declaration of innocence, or not guilty. It's a lovely word, substitutionary. Atonements.

How justification is possible. Substitutionary told me, need to know that word. It means Jesus took our place. He took our sin and the eternal consequences of them on himself. Remember the cross? He bore our sins. In fact, let me see if I might have a verse to share with you. Oh yes. Second. First, Peter two.

He himself bore our sins in his body on the cross, on the tree. So that we might die to sin and live for [00:18:00] righteousness by his wounds, you've been healed. So Jesus took our sin. I'm going backwards. Our, I sorry, took our sin upon himself and the consequences of our sin. Isaiah 53, 5. Maybe you heard that ringing there.

But he was pierced for our transgressions. He was crushed for our iniquities upon him. Was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his wounds, we are healed. Anybody remember the EE Evangelism explosion? The two questions, one of my favorite illustrations in that whole presentation is when you take out your Bible or your phone, we all didn't have cell phones when I learned ee and you, you gesture like this when you, when you quote this first you say, and the Lord has laid upon him.

The iniquity of us all, and you just think about it and imagine for a minute, [00:19:00] for a moment, this is my sin. These are the consequences of my sin. These are the ramifications and implications of the consequences of my sin mine in my hand, on my account to my charge. But the Lord has laid on him the iniquity.

Of us all. It's a lovely word, and of course the blessing is forgiveness. Fourth key term, forgiveness. Forgiveness. What does it mean to be forgiven? We, we know that so little forgiven it. It means to let it go, to release it, to remove it. It. So isn't it great that when, when God forgives our sin, he moves it away?

He, he literally lets it go. He's not holding onto it like we tend to hold on to the sin of others or even to our own sin. [00:20:00] You just get a picture of that, that, that God could hold our sins over our head or against us for all of eternity, but he chooses instead to let it go. Now, previous terms important.

Where did he let it go to? Where did he send it? Who took it? Jesus took it. It doesn't just vaporize, it's reassigned and our sin to Christ. And I love this last one, and I want you to really think about this because this really impacts how you read, know condemnation We receive by virtue of his forgiveness, sin removed.

And the righteousness of Christ comes into our bankrupt account. What happens? We receive mercy. That's mercy. What does that mean? We did not get what we deserve to get. Jesus took it. That's a good term. But lemme tell you the other term, the twin term. You must read these together. You gotta hold these both intention.

Grace. What is grace? Well, if Mercy is not getting what we deserve, grace is getting what we don't [00:21:00] deserve and what do we receive in Christ Mercy. And grace. I mean, it'd be one thing if he forgave us and removed our sin, but just sort of left us there with, without anything like, okay, I'm not gonna punish you, but, but grace is a bit different term.

Grace means is not only is he not gonna punish us for our sin, because Jesus took our punishment, now he's gonna bless us, he's going to grace us. He's going to gift us. That's an amazing term. L. Let me try a few illustrations. For example, in the courtroom, you're guilty, you did it, and everybody knows it and there's no doubt about it.

But instead of imposing a sentence, a prison time, or fine, the judge dismisses the charges because someone else has served your sentence, justice served. Keep that in mind. None of this means that God is not a just God [00:22:00] or that. The eternal consequences of sin rebellion against God aren't addressed. They are addressed.

They're addressed in Christ. Christ took. It's the thing about the whole shame of the cross, why so many people stumble at the cross, is because they see it as an implement of shame, and it is in fact shameful because it's our. It's not Jesus's. He died a shameful death, not because he deserved it or he was sinful and his sin brought shame.

It's the sin that was laid on him that made that such a shameful expression of love. It was our shame. It was our guilt. It was our sin. So you're looking at 30 years in prison and suddenly the judge says, well, that'll be it. Case closed and And you're free to go. That's mercy. And, and by the way, we want to bless you and help you get started in your new life, since you aren't gonna spend the rest of it in prison.

We're gonna put a million bucks in your bank account. [00:23:00] That's Grace. Somebody got happy over that. What about the debt illustration? You owe a staggering amount of money to your debt. Who? And it's your debt and there's no doubt about it. You owe it. But instead of throwing you in the debtor's prison, your debtor releases the debt, not because it hasn't been paid, but somebody else stepped in and wrote a check for the full amount and deposited it into your debtor's account on your behalf, and therefore your debt was settled.

You no longer owe it. So you're not going to debtor's prison. You're not gonna make payments for the rest of your life. You're done with that. It's behind you. It's over. Oh, and by the way. So that you don't have to go back to your visa or your MasterCard or your discovery, your American Express or your this and that and whatever.

Here's a million bucks so that you won't ever need to get in debt again. And by the way, there's no [00:24:00] end to the million as much as you need. Okay? You want one close to home, right? Let's think about relationships. That sweet little grandchild that almost touched the stove a few minutes ago broke. Your family heirloom.

You know the one that's been passed down generation to generation to you, and it is your prize possession. Doesn't matter who comes over to your house, you walk 'em by the cabinet and you say, see this? See this? My great, great grand Pappy gave his son, daughter, who gave it to theirs, who gave who? Who gave it to me.

This is worth a ton of money, but more than that. The significance of this V to me, emotionally sentimentally is priceless. Isn't that beautiful? And that sweet little 3-year-old of yours says, it sure is whack. And it breaks into [00:25:00] 17 pieces. You saw 'em do it. The expression on their face confirms they did it.

What do you do? Spank spank. Somebody over here said the word spank.

No. You take 'em out for ice cream. Yes you do. If you're God, not God, she says she's not God. That kid's getting spanking I think

now, so, alright. Do you send the child to his room and punish him via isolation? Do you? Corporal punishment there do. Do you not give the child food and water, do you? What do you do? Do you scold the child? What do you do? Do you just harangue the child? Do you make 'em feel shame and guilt for having shattered the family heirloom that had been protected through five generations?

What do you do? You say, I got this. Don't worry about it. [00:26:00] Would you like to go get some ice cream, mercy and grace? See, we're all giggling because you'd never do that. But listen to me, God did Mercy means we don't get what we do deserve. Grace means we get what we don't deserve. I mean, everything after that faith transaction isn't the end.

It's the beginning. Hello. It's not just the emptying, it's the filling. It's the moving, the growing, the receiving, the coming to understand the deepening. It's all that comes after that's so rich and wonderful and beautiful and that we'll never get to the bottom of because it's endless the grace of God through our Lord Jesus Christ.

So those key terms are really understandable or helpful to understand the very phrase, no condemnation. Now let's go a bit further because I can sense the rising concerns and I've faced these. I heard [00:27:00] people say things, seen people respond in certain ways, had conversations, or even if you will, somewhat an argument to help people sort of try to get their mind around what it means now.

No condemnation, now they're just potential. But we should stop and think about this first one. Well, pastor, what about cheap grace? What about antinomianism? That means anti law, no law, lawlessness license, or licentious living. In other words, someone gets this idea of salvation by grace through faith, no condemnation.

Oh, so God doesn't actually really care much about sin. If it was that easy, why should I? I'm saved by grace. My sins are forgiven. I've been separated from my sin as far as the east [00:28:00] is from the west. Psalm 1 0 6, I think. So. God has a very la uh, sort of casual attitude towards sin. He just wiped it out. Big deal.

So I can do whatever I want because it's not up to me. It's not about me. It's not in what I do, it's what he did. Therefore, I can do whatever I want that's called license or licentious living. Or antinomianism. It means no law. Chaos. And some people have said to me, religious people, church people, Christian people I suppose, I don't know have said The problem with you Baptist, and you're once saved, always saved is it implies that because you're saved once and saved forever, you can go do whatever you want.

You can live any way you want. You can sin all you want. And you got all this no condemnation. And if anyone is in Christ, he's a new creation. Old things have passed. Behold, all things have come to, doesn't matter what, what you do that, that's what that means, right? Look at me. [00:29:00] No.

Every time I've been asked that question, and I can't tell you many, many, many, many, many times, oh, that just means you can go do whatever you want. What.

Is the word knucklehead too strong? Because I wanna say you knucklehead, you don't have a clue what we're talking about. You don't understand all this means is you don't understand the value of what you have and how you came to have it. Or you wouldn't even be asking this question. What do you mean? I, I mean, Paul reacted similarly, didn't he?

You remember what Paul said? Romans six, we've already been there. What shall we say then in the context of a longer address to this? Are we to continue in sin that Grace May abound? Oh, you saved by grace through faith, huh? That means sin can abound. Paul said, no, knucklehead, no. By no means how can we who died?

Part of that transaction is [00:30:00] coming to the end of ourselves. Part of that transaction is repentance and a turning away from and attorney to Jesus Christ and his lordship. Who died to sin? How can we live in it? How can we continue in it? How can we keep walking in it? No, no. Our attitude towards sin should be the same as God's.

And if you wanna know what that is, take a good look at the cross because that's what sin did. No, God does not have a casual attitude towards sin. And while it is a concern that when we say no condemnation, we don't follow it with whoopee. That's not what it means. It's not even what it implies. It doesn't suggest that, listen.

Furthermore, it doesn't allow for that. It doesn't. Someone else might say, well, you know, this whole saved by grace through faith. Eternal [00:31:00] security, no condemnation. All things are new. His mercies are new every morning. Doesn't matter what I did yesterday. Doesn't matter what I do tomorrow, it's not about me.

That somehow suddenly over time, it starts to bleed into something I think very dangerous, and that is pride, which leads to arrogance, which can then splinter all through distortions into a number of areas. Personal pride and arrogance or a sense of self-righteousness, and it's crazy how it happens. It's sort of slow.

It's a little incipient. It grows, and then over some amount of time, what you end up with is, is people who come in through no effort of their own, save faith, start thinking a lot of themselves because of the exercise of their faith, because God has so favored them. That he has graced them and given them [00:32:00] because they are of the elect, predestined before the foundations of the world.

The sentence sounds something like this over time. Uh, who me? Who

me? Like, who am I? Who me? And then they become convinced of the good news of the gospel and they say, oh, me. Oh me.

And then comes, well, of course me see that? Who? Me? Oh me, of course. Me. And, and that can become the sin of self-righteousness in that someone who received it by grace through faith. That not of themselves. It was the gift of God suddenly starts retracing and adding works to grace. [00:33:00] That's New Testament Biblical problematic, right?

Or it could be, uh, uh, look at me. I'm saved by grace through faith. I I'm full of the Holy Spirit. I, I have heaven an eternal life. And, and, and, and who are you and what's wrong with you? And why don't you? And can become sort of a condescension, or it can just become outright judgmental thinking and living.

It is just crazy how slow, but how sometimes obvious that change from who? Me? Oh, me. Well, of course, me. I was saveable. I was chewable, I was predestination, whatever that means. So I wanna be careful because that's not what no condemnation means. It does not. In fact, really a proper understanding of grace and all that that implies with regard to [00:34:00] our salvation should crush human pride, self-righteousness, and arrogance.

Lemme say that again. When you get your mind and your heart around the reality of grace, it does not puff you up. It brings you down. Humility is the right response. Gratitude is the right response. Serving from a place of love and admiration and respect and appreciation is the right response. If, if our salvation causes us pride and arrogance and self-righteousness, we've missed something along the way, we need a better understanding of what grace is.

It's a concern Paul said in Galatians six 14, far be it for me, who Paul wrote two thirds of the New Testament. It's planted churches all over Asia, minor far be it for me to boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by which the world has been crucified to me and I to the [00:35:00] world. So if I'm gonna boast, it's gonna be in Jesus.

So Ephesians 2, 8, 9 is so important that you read all of it together and add 10 just for good measure. For by grace, we've been saved through faith that not of yourselves, get over yourself. It is the gift from God. Say, thank you. Not of works. You didn't do this. He did. It not of works. Why? So that no one can boast

Really important. It's, it's a valid concern. We should think about it and maybe with these two before we move on, we think of this in terms of sort of between the ditches. We wanna be careful not to make too little of our sin or too much of ourselves. Lemme say it again. Not to make too little of our sin or too much of ourselves.

Instead, the antidote we wanna make little of ourselves. Humble yourself. Humble yourself. Don't ask God to humble you, humble [00:36:00] yourself. Make little of ourselves and make much of our savior, because that's what Paul's saying. All the glory goes to God. All the praise goes to Jesus.

Let's get a little closer to home.

If I understand what no condemnation means, and I think I do, or at least I'm growing in my understanding, getting my heart and mind around it, I'm gonna try to figure out how to live it. But I got a question for you. Why do I still struggle?

Why do I still. I feel like I'm pulling on some days and being pulled on other days. Don't raise your hand, but can anybody relate like, like I'm saved by grace through faith. My sin has been taken away and replaced by the [00:37:00] righteousness of God in Christ Jesus. I have heaven and eternal life as God's promise and guarantee.

I have the Holy Spirit of God that seals that relationship. I have promises. I have blessings. I have scripture. I have so much, and yet every day I just feel like sometimes I'm pulling and sometimes I'm being pulled. Well, I would say, cheer up. You're in good company. That would be our story. The struggle is real.

And does it mean you're not? In a state of no condemned, no longer condemned, not condemned, no, it doesn't change that fact. The fact that we still struggle doesn't negate the no no condemnation. In fact, Paul said in Romans seven, we've already been there for, I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing.

Sound familiar. I am not justifying it or excusing it or affirming it [00:38:00] to be sure. I'm just saying, I'm acknowledging it, if you will, that in spite of the fact no condemnation applies to us sometimes it's still a bit of a struggle. Paul struggled with it. Paul, Paul, mark will take us in the coming weeks into the spirit flesh dynamic, so I'm gonna save that for him.

It'll help us. But I wanna introduce you before we move on to the last concern. And that is, this is the idea of the already and the not yet is attention. We have to sort of keep in balance. No condemnation is an already, but the full application and all the implications of that are still being worked out there.

There's the sense in which. I have won in Christ. I'm victorious. I am an overcomer. All things are new. There is therefore now no condemnation. And yet today I've got to work that out. I've got to fight for that. I've still got to win these battles of these skirmishes. The war is [00:39:00] won. That's the already, but today I, I have a battle to fight.

Now here's the good news. You're not fighting this battle for victory. You're fighting this battle from victory. It changes the dynamic of the struggle. We we're not fighting to win. We have won. We are working out the victory. We are appropriating the aspects of that victory in our everyday life in the struggle.

So if you feel like, well, because I still struggle. There must still be condemnation. No, now no condemnation. None, none. Well, what about this then? What about consequences? Are they real? If we're in Christ, does now no condemnation mean now? No consequences

now. Sorry. There are still consequences aren't there? [00:40:00] And just being real, right? Just keeping it real. There are.

Now the eternal consequences of our sin have been paid. And that eternal sense, the the not yet is, is fulfilled in that sense. All right? But there are still consequences. Today, for example, there are still natural consequences, uh, otherwise when you came to Christ got saved, your sin was removed and his righteousness was imposed, you would have stopped dying that day physically.

You'd still be living already eternal you because the natural consequences of sin is death. How many of you stopped dying when you got saved? Well, I don't know about you, but I was nine when I, I got saved.

So the natural consequences of living in a fallen world, a sin, tainted, broken, distorted world are still in play. There are natural [00:41:00] consequences there. There are universal consequences. There are practical consequences. You decide this afternoon to rob your local convenience store. Be sure to smile at the camera, give them your best pose.

Go home. Sit on your couch, and wait for the law to show up to. No, don't arrest me. I am saved. There is, therefore now no condemnation because I'm in Christ Jesus. Yeah, buddy. Put your hands behind your back. Otherwise, every person in prison. Let's be honest, every person in prison who has committed a crime has been judged, found guilty and sentenced, and is serving their sentence, who comes to Christ should be immediately set free and released.

How? How often does that happen? Why? Because there are still natural consequences. There is a cause and effect in in play here. So yes, there are consequences even that aren't legal, [00:42:00] that won't require handcuffs, but they're handcuffs of other kind like broken relationships, consequence of bad decisions, or a loss of intimacy because we've lost trust.

Compromised trust, or we've lost privileges. Maybe we've lost our freedom. We lose our health as a consequence of poor decisions. So there are consequences 100%, but I want us to note a, another kind of consequence today that might be more to what you should expect in this conversation about no condemnation, and that is to take us to Hebrews and to read in the scripture about what we would call relational consequences or disciplinary consequences.

Remember Hebrews 12, my son, do not regard lightly the discipline, the correction of the Lord nor be weary when reproved by him. [00:43:00] So those are disciplinary consequences that, that the Lord actually will allow or impose consequences on us for a purpose, for a reason. Yeah. Not just because it's built into the fabric of the universe, but because he intends to perfect us in Christ Jesus and we'll use even bad decisions, poor consequences, to shape our character and to build us more and more into the image of Christ.

By the way, God's goal for you and me is not to comfort us, but to conform us. You with me? Lemme say that again. Not to comfort us, but to conform us to his image, which is Christ. For the Lord, disciplines the one he loves. Oh, so this helps us with the no condemnation idea, is that yes, God will discipline us.

He will correct us. He will reprove us, but not in a condemning [00:44:00] way, in a correcting way. God is a loving father who disciplines his child. That's why I don't recommend that. If your grandchild breaks the family heirloom, you take 'em out for ice cream. Ms. Carol might be a little closer to the reality on that one because they need the correction and the discipline to shape their character so that they learn you should respect other people's property.

You should understand value. You should understand rules and authority, and you should understand there are consequences when you break those. That's a natural fabric of social. Living is, we have to understand there are consequences for our actions. And so God teaches us through discipline that there are in fact changes that need to be made.

He's a loving father. He will discipline us, but his discipline of us is an expression of, and evidence of his love for us. I mean, pity the fella who [00:45:00] can go do whatever he wants and God lets him do it. What does that sound like? Yeah, that's what you do for somebody else's kid. You sit in your house and talking about how bad your neighbor's kid is, but you don't go discipline your neighbor's kids, not your kids, not your right.

In fact, you get in a lot of trouble if you do. You cross a line. But if you're the parent of your kid, you discipline that child as an expression of your love. You are evidencing your love for them by correcting dangerous or destructive behavior. So consequences don't cause us to think about negating no condemnation.

They help us understand the place of discipline toward those who are no longer condemned, right? Because we can be corrected, but we will never be condemned. I love that means God will never give up on you. God will never throw you away.[00:46:00]

I said this to my son when he was nine years old. He's sitting right there in the middle of teenagers. He shouldn't have been right there in the middle of teenagers, but he was a preacher's kid. Problematic.

I was preaching on the family. Ooh, sorry about that. He was preaching to a family and, uh, I didn't plan, it wasn't in my notes, just felt like it was the right. Right time and right thing to say. I said, Jonathan, lemme tell you something. In fact, lemme make you a promise. In front of this whole church, there are 1800 people in the room.

I said, you're nine. But one day you'll be 19. And when you are, you'll be able to make grown up decisions. But I wanna promise you something. As your father, if you make bad decisions, look over your shoulder, didn't I? Beverly, his wide eyed frozen stare every teenager in that whole center section, he's like.

And I said, and it doesn't matter where you go buddy. I just want you to know you can go from here to 10 buck two. You can go to California. You can go anywhere you [00:47:00] want to go. Look in your rear rear view mirror. I'm coming after you

when he was 19 in college. Freedom. Still the preacher's kid. So the preacher got a little information that maybe the preacher's kid was living a little large. I went down there on a Thursday afternoon as I recall, and I said, Hey, you got a few minutes. He said, sure. We went and sat on a park bench outside of his dormitory and I said, I've come for one of two reasons.

We're either gonna go up to your room right now and unpack everything and put it in my truck and we're going home, or you're gonna straighten up a few things. And I reminded him of that conversation between 1800 people when he was nine. I'll never give up on you. I will fight for you even if I have to fight you.

For you.[00:48:00]

You say, oh, that's innovative, that's creative. No, it's mimicking, imitation. 'cause that's what God says to you and me. I'll never give up on you. I'll never quit. My love will never fail. Oh my goodness. If we had time to go through Romans where you've already been or where you're going in Romans eight, what a blessing.

God will never abandon you. That's what now no condemnation means. You'll never face it. You might have to face his loving correction and the discipline, which is consequential, but it'll be for your good. It'll be because he loves you. And you probably have wondered at times, is the prodigal stu son really the story of a prodigal son or a loving father?

That's a fair question. I think it's just as much about a loving, waiting, watching, reconciling father. And by the way, don't miss the part on the end, the little bit about the [00:49:00] older brother, who is the pharisee in the family. Don't be that guy.

What concerns, hopefully a a bit addressed. When we hear the word now, no condemnation. So how do we live our points for home living it out, if you will. First, I wanna just say what I hope you'd expect me to say, dear friend, please receive this and rejoice in this now and forever. If you're still feeling a sense of impending doom, if you feel a sense of guilt that's not been released, shame that's not been addressed.

If you're still stuck in yesterday's mistakes, if you're still hung up in your past and it just won't let you go now, right now, no condemnation, would you breathe that in and just say, thank you, Jesus. I am not, nor will I ever be [00:50:00] condemned.

You have to receive that by faith, and it is a gift of grace from God. And that's the beauty of it. Say thank you and live out. This idea that God is not against you. He is eternally for you. He is on your side. Read this week, the rest of Romans eight. Number two, receive it and rejoice in it. Live it to the full and stay out of the muck and the mire of sin.

I mean, don't feel so good. You can go do whatever you want with a whoopee on the end of it. No, that's not what it's about. That's a misunderstanding and a misapplication of everything that Grace is. The good news is you don't have to, you get to [00:51:00] the motivation shifts because now you're a child. And you're blessed and you're enriched, and you have a wonderful future and a new identity, and a new nature, and a new character.

Everything is new. Why would you go back into what you were set for? From stay out of the muck in the mire and sin comes knocking and say, no way. No thank you. Not interested. There was a tweet this week. I'm not gonna say who it was, an NFL football player, not playing in the game today. Definitely not a Texan.

And something was laid against him by way of a charge, and his response was classic. He said, nah, nah, not today. Satan. I like that. I, I'm not making a, an evaluation of anything except I like the expression. Nah, nah, not today. Satan. That's not sticking to me 'cause I am not condemned. You can look [00:52:00] back if you want to.

Romans six, 12 to 15 just talks about how do we. Go back into sin when we've been set free. It's just contrary to our nature. It's not who we are

and, and I know that the common phrase, I can't help it. Well, that's always been true. That's always been true. Now you got help with it because you have the Lord Jesus Christ living in you. So adopt a, a want to and a get to attitude, and I can do all things through Christ who gives me strength. And finally.

Live out your position in Christ, walk out your new nature, give full privileges, rights, and roles to the Jesus who lives in you by virtue that you are in Christ and Christ is in. You

thought about this, that the goal of the Christian life is to be [00:53:00] like Christ. Christian, it's inherent in the term, in the label. I am a Christian, therefore I am a little Jesus. Now, the challenge is, is in natural human terms, I'm a long way from living like Jesus lived because I still have to wear this body of flesh and it pulls me down and back in the struggle.

So think about it this way. If the goal of the Christian life is to live like Christ, we are naturally doomed to fail. Only Christ can be Christ. Therefore, the goal of the Christian life isn't me imitating Christ, but allowing Christ to be Christ in me. In you. That's the key. The key is not moralism. The key is not legalism.

The key is not a list of do's and don'ts and [00:54:00] boxes to check. The key to the Christian life is more of him and less of me. It's to allowing him to live his life and to be who he is in and through me. How do you think forgiveness is possible toward others? How do you think love the unlovely is possible toward others?

I can't do it. Ah, I better get outta the way and let Jesus do. And as the old funny expression goes, is when sin comes knocking on your door, let Jesus answer it.

Let Jesus be Jesus in you now. Therefore, there is no condemnation in Christ That changes everything and I hope it changes something for you today. Will you bow with me? Lord Jesus, I wish I could get my head around this and my heart around this even more. I want to, and [00:55:00] I'm willing to help me to. Would you agree with that prayer?

Just say, me too, Lord.

So, Lord, help me live as one who is no longer and never will be condemned. But living in the fullness of your Holy Spirit and letting you live to the fullest, in and through me,

help me Lord. In Jesus' name, amen.