We Are Not Condemned!

The glorious truth of Romans 8:1:

Some of you might relate: the older I get, the more I tend to look back on my long life and despair to some extent. I often reflect on all the things I did or said or thought that I am now ashamed of – not only in my non-Christian days, but as a believer. I cringe when memories of past wrongs and sins flood my mind.

Sometimes I feel so unholy and so far from God. Sometimes I feel condemned. Just the other night I was musing on these matters, and of course immediately a passage of Scripture popped into my mind. The Holy Spirit brought me back to the wondrous news of Romans 8:1. Let me offer it in context:

Paul in Romans 1-6 shows how we are all under the condemnation of sin and God’s just judgment. He makes a careful case to show that we all – whether Jew or Gentile – are in a lost and hopeless condition. As he says in Romans 3:9-12:

For we have already charged that all, both Jews and Greeks, are under sin, as it is written:

“None is righteous, no, not one;
    no one understands;
    no one seeks for God.
All have turned aside; together they have become worthless;
    no one does good,
    not even one.”

And then we get to Romans 7 which can be a somewhat gloomy chapter. There are differing ways it can be interpreted. Questions can arise here: Is Paul speaking autobiographically here? If so, is he speaking about himself before or after his conversion? Leaving aside those hermeneutical and exegetical issues, the closing verses of that chapter can be a bit discouraging.

Verse 24 for example says this: “Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death?” However, the next and final verse of that chapter gives us a big ray of hope: “Thanks be to God, who delivers me through Jesus Christ our Lord!”

And then we get to Romans 8, one of the most amazing chapters in all of Scripture. It begins with these amazing words: “There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.” Wow – NO condemnation! How can this be? How do I go from a sinful rebel at enmity with God to a redeemed child of God who is free of all condemnation?

That is all due to the finished work of Christ at the cross. And all we do is accept what he has done for us with open hands and a grateful heart. As the third verse of the 1776 hymn Rock of Ages by Augustus Toplady puts it:

Nothing in my hand I bring,
simply to the cross I cling;
naked, come to thee for dress;
helpless, look to thee for grace;
foul, I to the fountain fly;
wash me, Savior, or I die.

There can be no greater news than this. As someone had just posted on the social media, the words of Corrie ten Boom ring out here: “There is no pit so deep, where God is not deeper still.” No matter how much we might despair and look at ourselves as abject failures, those who put their full trust and faith in what Christ has done for us can know this blessed assurance of his divine favour with no condemnation.

I just pulled a few (of many) commentaries on Romans off my shelves, and several quotes can be offered here. I found it interesting that in his expository commentary R. C. Sproul also referenced that great hymn. He said this:

This is one of the most beautiful texts in Scripture for the assurance of salvation. The threat of condemnation is removed forever from you, if it is so that you are in Christ Jesus. Is it thinkable that after what God did to his Son on the cross that he will visit more wrath upon his Son. he drank the cup of the condemnation of the Father for His sheep forever. There is no condemnation left anymore for his Son, and if you are in the Son, you are in the cleft of the rock. You are in the shelter of the Rock of Ages. We are covered and hidden, safe now and forever more.

And as Colin Kruse comments:

What the apostle emphasises here in 8:1 is that this condemnation now no longer applies to those who are in Christ. To be ‘in Christ’ means to belong to Christ and to live in the realm where his power and lordship are experienced. Here, as 8:2-4 explains, being in Christ means being recipients of the redeeming and transforming grace of God made available to humanity through the saving work of his Son Jesus Christ. What it means in practice for believers that there is no condemnation is spelled out in 8:28-39: God has adjudicated in our favor and no charge against us can stand; no one can condemn us.

Finally, Michael Bird looks at some practical aspects of this passage and how it can help us when we doubt, worry, and question our own Christian life:

But what if I or someone I know struggles with assurance? It is true that there are some people out there with a sham faith who probably should struggle with assurance. In those instances a little bit of self-examination and asking themselves if they are truly living in the faith is a genuinely good idea (see 2 Cor 13:5). Such persons need to stop sitting on the fence and take faith and its consequences seriously. Nevertheless„ there are plenty of people who really should feel the comfort of their heavenly Father’s joy in them because they have entrusted themselves to the one who died and rose for them.

 

In those instances where people with genuine faith wrestle with spiritual insecurity about their standing before God, I usually take the following approach. First, I ask them, “Do you have any love for God? However imperfect or incomplete, is there any love for God in you?” Normally they answer “yes, some love I guess.” Next, I tell them that loving God is something that God himself enables us to do. It does not come from depraved humanity, but derives from the love that God dispenses and decants into our heart from heaven. This is precisely what Paul says: “God’s love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us” (Rom 5:5). Similar is 1 John 4:7: “Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God.” So my love for God is proof that God loves me! Obviously there are other issues we could broach, like our obligation to love others, how doubt and repentance fit into the normal Christian life, and so forth. Suffice to say for now, we should remember that our affection for God is the affective work of the Holy Spirit, who draws us to love God and to love others in the name of Jesus Christ.

And it needs to be remembered that what Romans 8:1 is discussing is the one-off and perfect work of justification. That is just the start however, and the rest of the Christian life is based on that initial work of God. Sanctification is what we work on with the Spirit’s help for the rest of our lives.

Afterword

I just took a look at my site to see if I have penned similar pieces on Romans 8:1. Sure enough, a few years ago I had written one. But I see that it is sufficiently different to warrant having both pieces up here. One can never say too much about this wonderful passage and this wonderful truth. See that earlier piece here: https://billmuehlenberg.com/2024/05/18/no-more-condemnation/  

My conclusion to that article is worth offering here:

All this is good news indeed for the wounded soul. Yes, we still sin, we still default back to self far too often. But in Christ we now have no condemnation. We may never fully grasp the import of this marvellous truth in this life. And it likely will take all of eternity in the next life to really get our heads and hearts around it.

 

Thanks be to God.

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