No Condemnation
Romans 8:1-3
Holy Spirit- No Condemnation!
Romans 8:1-11, 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. 2 For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and death. 3 For what the law could not do in that it was weak through the flesh, God did by sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, on account of sin: He condemned sin in the flesh, 4 that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit. 5 For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit, the things of the Spirit. 6 For to be carnally minded is death, but to be spiritually minded is life and peace. 7 Because the [c]carnal mind is enmity against God; for it is not subject to the law of God, nor indeed can be. 8 So then, those who are in the flesh cannot please God. 9 But you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you. Now if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he is not His. 10 And if Christ is in you, the body is dead
because of sin, but the Spirit is life because of righteousness. 11 But if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in you.
Romans’ 8th chapter is where the Holy Spirit's ministry comes into clear focus. This chapter moves to an unequalled crescendo on the pages of Scripture, which is familiar to us from verses 28 to 39. But the rest of the chapter is equally rich in its fullness.
No one can be the same after they have internalized and meditated on these truths as they were before. The Father initiated salvation. The Son validated salvation and then demonstrated it. The Spirit activates it. The two great works of the Spirit are, 1. Sanctification.
2. Secure for Glorification. The Spirit of God is conforming you to the image of Christ and is holding you until your final glory.
Chapter 8, about the results of justification. Overview of Chapter 8 Verse 1, Holy Spirit guards us in a no-condemnation status. Verses 2-3, He frees us from sin and death. Verse 4, He enables us to fulfil the Law. Verses 5-11, He changes our nature.
Verses 12-13, He empowers us for victory over sin. Verses 14-17, He confirms our adoption. Verses 18-25, He guarantees our glory. Verses 26-27, He aids our prayers. V 28-39, The result of understanding the work of the Spirit is the incredible Doxology.
Romans chapter 1- 3 are all about condemnation. The wrath of God, which is described Romans 1:18- 3:30. There is very careful unfolding of the wrath of God. The terrifying damnation that's going to fall from God upon sinners.
The wrath of God upon the wicked is as intense as God's love is to His saints. The intensity of that wrath is unfolded in the early part of Romans. At the very outset of the book of Romans, there is a great sense of fear upon the reader as he is exposed to this wrath of God
which will result in eternal damnation, suffering through all of eternity the just judgment of God. Then Paul presents the gospel. Romans’ chapters 3 -7, showed us how Christ provided that no- condemnation status. Chapter 8 identifies it and goes on to demonstrate how the Holy Spirit secures that status.
We are threatened in the early chapters with damnation. We are delivered from damnation from chapters 3 to 7 in the gospel. We are then told at the beginning of chapter 8 that there is no condemnation to those who are in Christ who have been justified by grace through faith.
This chapter 8 begins to unfold how the Holy Spirit secures our eternal redemption. How can we escape the just wrath of God and be delivered from condemnation or damnation? By the ongoing ministry of the Holy Spirit. It is then because of our life in the Spirit that we are secured forever.
This is the greatest chapter in all the Bible on the security of the believer. Security is true because of the ongoing intercessory work of the Holy Spirit on our behalf. The Holy Spirit guards us in a no-condemnation status until we reach glory by doing these things.
V 1, "There is therefore now no condemnation to them who are in Christ Jesus." The great epitome of his expressions of the results of justification. We will never be condemned. We will never experience condemnation for our sin because we are made righteous in Jesus Christ.
A marvellous reality. The only way you can understand how marvellous it is to have no condemnation is to understand what it means to be condemned.
Romans 1:18-3:20, given some of glimpses of condemnation.
The horrors of God's condemning judgment. The wrath of God upon the wicked is just as intense as His love is to the saints.
When you understand that, then you can relish the reality of no condemnation. Paul begins and end this chapter with the same thought. V 34, Who is he who condemns? It is Christ who died, and furthermore is also risen, who is even at the right hand of God, who also makes intercession for us.
The whole chapter flows from the thought of no condemnation in the beginning, to the thought of no condemnation at the end. In between, the apostle Paul wants to convince us that this can really be true. It would be hard for the Jews who had understood that God was a God of wrath against sin.
For them to hear that there is no condemnation and it's all by grace through faith, not of anything you have ever done or could do. That would be a monumental new truth to them. Paul lays down some very strong statements about why it's true. It is true because of the marvellous work of the Holy Spirit.
The reason there's no condemnation is because of what the Holy Spirit of God has done and is doing in our behalf.
What is it that the Spirit of God does to confirm to us the reality of no condemnation? The Holy Spirit demonstrates that we are not condemned. The Holy Spirit frees us from sin and death. V 1, we are in a no-condemnation status.
V 2& 3 tell us why. For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and death. 3 For what the law could not do in that it was weak through the flesh, God did by sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, on account of sin: He condemned sin in the flesh, We were sentenced to sin and death until the Holy Spirit set us free.
The Scripture says that all human through history are by nature children of wrath. They are objects of divine wrath. They are targets for God's judgment. All have sinned. All have come short of the glory of God.
All stand under the wrath of God facing eternal judgment in an endless hell of torment. This miserable condition in which all men exist, because all men are sinful, this miserable condition has some fearful results.
- a) Overpowered by Satan
In our condition as depraved under the wrath of God, we are overpowered by sin. We are all, as human beings, before our salvation, literally overpowered by sin. We cannot restrain it. We don't have the ability.
Romans 3:23, "For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God."
It is a defiling disease that cripples the soul of every person, degrading man, disquieting him, stealing his peace, robbing him of joy, and replacing those things with trouble and pain. It plants in every heart a killing principle of corruption that no person can cure. We have a fatal and incurable disease called sin.
- b) Controlled by Satan.
Not only are we overpowered by this disease and powerless to do anything about it. Furthermore, we are controlled by Satan. It would be enough to be overpowered by Satan, but adding insult to injury, we are also controlled by Satan.
John 8:44, You are of your father the devil, and the desires of your father you want to do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own resources, for he is a liar and the father of it.
Ephesians 2:2, in which you once walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit who now works in the sons of disobedience,
They work the world system to infect us in wicked ways. They dominate our thinking. They dominate our understanding. They dominate our will. We do what Satan orchestrates around us in the world that appeals to our lusts, compels us to do.
- c) Subject to misery.
We are consequently subject to misery.
Romans 8:20, For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of Him who subjected it in hope; Life is filled with emptiness, bitterness, sorrow, pain. Job's words, "We are born unto trouble."
There is no peace. There is no real joy. We just go from
- one tragedy to another,
- one disaster to another,
- one unfulfillment to another,
- one empty experience to another,
- one pain to another,
- one sorrow to another.
That's how life is. It is also true that we are then the heirs of God's wrath. This is simply to define man's depraved condition.
- d) Wrath of God
We are overpowered by sin, controlled by Satan, subject to all the miseries of life, and headed directly for the wrath of God.
Hebrews 10:27, but a certain fearful expectation of judgment, and fiery indignation which will devour the adversaries.
Galatians 3:10, For as many as are of the works of the law are under the curse; for it is written, “Cursed is everyone who does not continue in all things which are written in the book of the law, to do them.”
We inherit all the curses of God. All you have to do is violate one law of God, and you get all the curses. The sinner eats and drinks banquet with a sword hanging over his head held by a small thread. There is a curse on the sinner's name.
There is a curse on the sinner's soul. A curse on his possessions, on his place, and every sweet thing will ultimately turn into eternal bitterness.
- e) Wrath is forever.
We are exposed to an eternal hell. This is the second death.
- Judgment without mercy,
- Pain without relief,
- Punishment without compassion.
It is a punishment of sense because there's pain there. It is a punishment of loss because it is out of God's presence. That is where the sinner stands, under the condemnation of a holy God, with nowhere to turn and no resource in himself to change that inevitable judgment and to keep the sword from falling.
It's in the darkness of this picture that our text brings such glorious light. V 2, "The law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and death." The law of sin and death is simply everything I described.
You violated God's law, and you are on the way to eternal death. That is the law that is in action. The operative law in the life of every unregenerate person.
There's another operative law, and that's the one of the Holy Spirit through Christ Jesus which sets us free from the law of sin and of death. The Bible is a very condemning book. From beginning to end, the Bible is filled with threats.
The Bible starts with a threat, "And the day you eat, you will die." It ends with a threat, "Touch anything in this book, and I will add the plagues that are written in it to you." It starts with paradise lost, and it ends with eternal damnation and a warning.
The Word of God is filled with threats. It's filled with condemnation. It's filled with judgment against those who disobey God's law, who do not love His Son, and do not know Him. That's the reality of man's fallen condition. Not everybody's as bad as they could be. They are just too bad to save themselves.
Romans 3:8, And why not say, “Let us do evil that good may come”?—as we are slanderously reported and as some affirm that we say. Their [c]condemnation is just.
John 3:19, And this is the condemnation, that the light has come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. So here is the picture of all men justly condemned by sin, unable to keep God's law, rejecting His Son the Lord Jesus Christ, and standing on the brink of eternal hell.
This terrible condition that the gospel is introduced, and, as a result of the gospel, there is no condemnation. For the Holy Spirit sets us free from the operative principles of sin and death. No condemnation.
What a glorious reality? It is not that Jesus will fix your marriage. Jesus will help you enjoy life more. Jesus will deliver you from your problems. Jesus will save you from hell. This is the most wonderful message of the Christian faith.
This is the good news. The believer in Christ has been fully forgiven.
Hebrews 10:14, For by one offering He has perfected forever those who are being sanctified. Those who believe are forever perfected. V 2, "The Spirit of life in Christ Jesus." Life is in Christ Jesus. V 1, "Those who are in Christ Jesus."
When your life is joined to Christ by faith, when you accept Him as your Saviour, there is a union. You are joined to Him, You die in His death, and You rise in His life. That's being in Christ. For those who are in Christ, sin is paid for. There will never be condemnation.
What a tremendous truth! Our sin is set aside. Like the woman taken in adultery in John 8:11, "Neither do I condemn you." Jesus said that he who believes in Him would not come into condemnation.
John 5:24, “Most assuredly, I say to you, he who hears My word and believes in Him who sent Me has everlasting life, and shall not come into judgment, but has passed from death into life.
The believer can sin, yes, but just can't be condemned. Yes, we sin, but we will never be condemned. This is the first great ministry of the Holy Spirit. It is by His power, operative in our salvation, that we are set free from the law of sin and death. This is a glorious reality.
How does it happen?
How can it be? V 2, For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and death. There will never be, in the life of any believer, any condemnation for sin, in a final sense. There will be chastening, as the Lord, in this life, chastens you to make you more holy practically. But there will never be any future life condemnation, never.
Why? Because you have been united with Jesus Christ, who paid the penalty for your sin.
The great New Testament doctrine of substitution. We are free from condemnation because Christ became our substitute. V 3, For what the law could not do in that it was weak through the flesh, God did by sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, on account of sin: He condemned sin in the flesh, This is one of those great verses in Scripture that ranks in the top ten.
What the law couldn't do?
Romans 3:20, Therefore by the deeds of the law no flesh will be justified in His sight, for by the law is the knowledge of sin.
The moral law could not do anything but condemn you.
Why? Because you could only break it and you couldn't keep it. The law was not standard by which men could become holy. The law was the standard by which they could become aware they weren't holy.
God gave His law so that we would see what His standard was and measure our lives against it and realize we didn't make it. The law cannot justify. It cannot save. You can't be good enough.
Why? Because it is weak.
Why? Through the flesh. There was nothing wrong with the moral law of God, nothing wrong with it at all. It is holy, just, and good. The law of God is perfect. ✓ holy. ✓ right. ✓ true. ✓ good. The problem is not with the law.
The problem is with us. We can't keep it. The law can't help.
There is no provision in the moral law of God to assist us. ➢ The law is powerless. ➢ The law doesn't have any energizing capability. ➢ The law is not a person. ➢ The law is outside us. It is God's perfectly holy standard.
It is merciless. The law knows no forgiveness. The law knows no mercy. It exercises no grace, and it provides no help. Because of our flesh, we cannot keep God's law. It's way beyond us and we fall short of it. All it's going to do is show you your sin.
- It is powerless to save.
- It doesn't help us.
- It just damns us.
Christ was able to perfectly fulfil the law. He fulfilled all righteousness. Thus, Jesus needed no saviour because He kept the law perfectly. He lived a perfectly righteous life. Why did Christ have to live all those years on earth?
Why couldn't He have just come and died and dealt with our sin?
He needed to live a perfect, righteous life that could be imputed to us. He didn't need a saviour because He never broke the law. V 3, For what the law could not do in that it was weak through the flesh, God did by sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, on account of sin: He condemned sin in the flesh, What couldn't the law do?
It couldn't save, couldn't make us righteous. So, God did that.
How did He do it? God did it by sending Christ to take our place. The glorious reality of the gospel. What we couldn't do because of our weak flesh, God did. He saved us. The law couldn't do it. We couldn't do it. God did it, and He did it by sending His Son in the likeness of sinful flesh.
God sent Jesus as a Man. He wasn't sinful.
He was without sin. But He sent Him as a man and made Him a substitutionary offering for sin, and, thus, condemned sin in the flesh of Jesus Christ. He put our sins on Jesus Christ and poured out all His wrath. In the body, in the human nature, in the flesh of Christ, God unloaded His fury against sin. It was on Jesus Christ the sentence of execution for sin was placed. That is the marvel of the gospel.
Romans 6:3-4, Or do you not know that as many of us as were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death? 4 Therefore we were buried with Him through baptism into death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life.
When you are united to Christ you are united in His death. You are buried with Him, and you are raised with Him.
Romans 6:6, knowing this, that our old man was crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves of sin.
- You were there when He died,
- You were there when He was buried,
- You were there when He rose again.
Because He was paying for all your sins, and that's the truest part about you. Christ took on Himself our nature in order to compensate the guilt of that nature. He became man in order that He might die in man's place. He came in our likeness.
Sin was paid for, and that's why, legally, there is now no condemnation. Can't be paid for again. Can't be double jeopardy. Christ paid the penalty. This is the glorious initial work of the Holy Spirit. It is the Spirit, then, by means of the new birth, regeneration, who becomes the operative force in our lives, that frees us from the operating principle of sin and death under which we were formerly sentenced.
2 Corinthians 5:21, For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him. Christ's life without a sacrifice couldn't save. He had to die.
But a sacrifice without a perfect life couldn't save, either, for He would have needed a saviour Himself. He had to be holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners, a lamb without spot and blemish to take our place. The heart and soul of the gospel.
By that gospel of substitutionary death, Jesus Christ, God in human flesh, coming into the world, living a righteous life, dying a perfect death, bearing our sin as the spotless lamb of God, taking the full wrath of God. It is by that glorious gospel that the Spirit of God frees us from the consequence of our sin.
The gospel energized by the Holy Spirit.
John 3:3, Jesus answered and said to him, “Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.”
1 Peter 1:22, Since you have purified your souls in obeying the truth through the Spirit in sincere love of the brethren, love one another fervently with a pure heart,
It is the Spirit who gives life. The Holy Spirit then was the agent of our salvation. The Holy Spirit is the deliverer who moves in our lives to convict us of sin, to draw us to Christ.
He always points to Christ. ✓ It is the Spirit who regenerates us. ✓ It is the Spirit who smashes down the bars of iniquity and the locks of transgression, breaks them open. ✓ It is the Spirit who produces repentance and then produces contrition and brokenness, and then produces faith.
✓ It is the Spirit who then frees us from the mastery and the condemnation of sin. This is life in the Spirit. God's law hasn't changed. Without holiness, you can't see the Lord. No man can come into His presence unless he is holy.
By the fact that the holiness of Christ was imputed to us. That is why He had to live a holy, sinless life, so that that perfect life could be imputed to our account. As our imperfect life was put to His account and brought about His death.
His perfect life is put to our account and brings about our life.
What is the requirement of the law? Perfection.
The requirement of the law is obeying all this, or you will die. Violate one part of this law, and you have broken it all, and you will perish. That's what the law requires. How in the world, then, could we ever fulfil the requirement of the law?
The Holy Spirit fulfils the requirement of the law in us by granting us the righteousness of Jesus Christ, enabling us then no longer to walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit.
- Nobody will ever enter God's kingdom unless all his sins have been completely paid for.
- Nobody will ever enter God's kingdom unless his righteousness is equal to that of God's.
If it were left to us, nobody would enter God's kingdom. So, God, in Christ, pays the penalty for our sin. Through Christ, grants us His righteousness so that He may fellowship with us.