Breaking off Condemnation and Experiencing Freedom Part I
Romans 8
Introduction:
- I have from time to time struggled with depression and self condemnation.
- Ex. As I was trying to get this church off the ground, there were so many times when I felt we would never make it. I had panic attacks.
- Ex. I have called myself “stupid,” “a moron,” “a loser,” and other names.
- Anyone struggled in the same way?
- I don’t know what your specific cross is to bear: depression, hopelessness, confusion, or anger.
- But there is one chapter of the Bible that can meet your darkest hour, your deepest depression, and your deepest confusion.
- When in doubt, punt to Romans 8.
- If you think of the most concise book on doctrine in the whole Bible, you think of Romans, and the most powerful passage in all of Romans is Romans 8.
- The most powerful set of verses in Romans 8 are the first 2 verses.
Let’s look at a quick outline:
- In the first 7 chapters of Romans we vividly see the source of our sins and we observe the source of our righteousness.
- In Romans 1-3 we see, in very stark and realistic ways, just how sinful, rebellious and unrighteous we truly are.
- In Romans 4-5 we read that the only justification for our sin is faith in Christ.
- We read that only through the cross of Christ can we be justified and fully forgiven of our sin.
- We find that life can only be found in and through Jesus Christ.
- In Romans 7 we read that we have this inner battle going on, in which, on the one hand, we really want to do the right thing, but we continually fail.
- From my observation, most Christians are still living in Romans 7 and have never gotten out of Romans 7.
- Romans 7 concludes with a question and answer session.
Romans 7:24
O wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death?
- And one can begin to feel that we are failures as Christians.
- We are not good Christians! We can never do it!
- Have any of you ever felt that way?
But we haven’t heard the closing arguments; all the evidence is not in.
- What are the closing arguments on your life and your walk with God?
- Understand that Satan is the Prosecution
- He is bringing his closing arguments for the prosecution, standing before the Throne of God accusing you and me, and condemning us.
Revelation 12:10
Then I heard a loud voice saying in heaven, “Now salvation, and strength, and the kingdom of our God, and the power of His Christ have come, for the accuser of our brethren, who accused them before our God day and night, has been cast down.”
- He is the Prosecutor, proclaiming that you are guilty, a loser, a nobody, who will never amount to anything!
- But Jesus Christ, is our Defense
Hebrews 7:25
Therefore He is also able to save to the uttermost those who come to God through Him, since He always lives to make intercession for them.
- He is making intercession for us.
- The Judge is God; Psalms calls Him the Righteous Judge
- What is the verdict? Today, you may feel guilty! Satan says you are guilty.
- Our natural response is that we would pronounce ourselves guilty, and Satan encourages that.
Romans 8:1-2
3 Elements to our Defense of Innocence:
- The Testimony of Witnesses
- Physical Evidence
- Past Case Decisions
I. The Testimony of Witnesses
Romans 8:1a
There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus
- “Therefore” means that Paul is showing us that all that we have learned about sin and our condemnation up to now. “Thus,” this is his conclusion, this is his summation.
- At the end of Chapter 7 Paul says that he is a “wretched man.”
- “O wretched man that I am!”
- But at the beginning of chapter 8 he declares “there is no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus.”
- What has happened between 7:24 and 8:1?
- I think Paul was once again reminded of the grace of God.
- No condemnation, not even a little bit of condemnation!
- Condemnation in the Greek means “to pass judgment, to accuse, to know something against someone.”
Rather, Paul came to see that he was righteous before God.
- Not because of his good works, but because of the righteousness of Christ.
- He realized that because of the cross, the righteousness of Christ was imputed to his account.
- Ex. A story told of a little boy who rode his bike to school and he forgot to lock it, and came back and it was gone, obviously stolen. Later he was walking by a used bike shop and saw his bike in the window of the shop. He went into the shop and told the shopkeeper “that bike is my bike.” The shopkeeper told him that if he wanted the bike he would have to buy it back.
- Jesus created us; we were originally His possession. Sin and Satan have stolen our inheritance, but Christ has bought us back at the cross. He has paid the price for a relationship with us.
- Christ bore all of our sins and iniquities on the cross.
But Satan will tell us that we are condemned, so that we will give up and quit.
- Satan will harass you to first believe you don’t need a savior, but when you win that battle, he will then harass you in a new way. You are forgiven of those sins before, but not now.
- But remember that all of your sins were in the future when Christ went to the cross, and all your sins are forgiven!
- Satan says, “you are never going to do it right. Just give up. Quit trying.”
- It is a “Propaganda War” on our minds: “The war is over. You are hopeless. Just give up.”
- Ex. “Tokyo Rose,” during WWII, would broadcast to the troops to take away their courage.
- But we have witnesses to the contrary, even 3 witnesses to the contrary.
Deuteronomy 19:15
"One witness shall not rise against a man concerning any iniquity or any sin that he commits; by the mouth of two or three witnesses the matter shall be established.”
- You must talk to yourself from 3 Witnesses: God’s Word, Jesus Christ, and the Holy Spirit
1. God’s Eternal Word
o We must take every thought captive with the Bible.
2 Corinthians 10:3-5
For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war according to the flesh. 4 For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty in God for pulling down strongholds, 5 casting down arguments and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ.
2. Jesus Himself
Romans 8:37-39
Yet in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. 38 For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, 39 nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
o We are more than conquerors, and we can overcome our constant desire to go back to our old lives and our old sins, beating ourselves up over it.
3. The Holy Spirit
1 John 5:4-6
For whatever is born of God overcomes the world. And this is the victory that has overcome the world--our faith. 5 Who is he who overcomes the world, but he who believes that Jesus is the Son of God? 6 This is He who came be water and blood – Jesus Christ; not only by water, but by water and blood. And it is the Spirit who bears witness, because the Spirit is truth.
o This is the proof that you are no longer condemned.
o We must be filled with the Holy Spirit and begin to experience His power in our lives.
Not only are there The Testimony of Witnesses, but…
II. There is also Physical Evidence
Romans 8:1
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.
- As with all good mysteries, there is a dead body, a rotting corpse, the old man of our flesh.
- Our old man is dead. He was guilty, but I’m a new man.
2 Corinthians 5:17
Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.
- Yes, your old life of addictions and lust has been taken away by Christ.
Romans 6:6-9
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. 7 For he who has died has been freed from sin. 8 Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him, 9 knowing that Christ, having been raised from the dead, dies no more. Death no longer has dominion over Him.
- The old man is dead, and you are a new creature walking in newness of life.
- It was the old man that was mastered by drugs, sex, and abuse.
- We are no longer under the law or letter, but we are free in Christ. That old man is dead and gone.
Romans 7:6
But now we have been delivered from the law, having died to what we were held by, so that we should serve in the newness of the Spirit and not in the oldness of the letter.
- A dead corpse cannot be dragged into a trial and put on the stand; he is dead!
- It is resolved. Your old man is dead, no longer to be mastered by the law and sin.
III. Previous Case Decisions
- Ex. “Case decisions” means that when a case has made itself through the appeals process and makes itself all the way to the Supreme Court, whether they would decide to hear it or not, if they say we will hear this case, they look at previous decisions; precedents.
- The highest court in the land is not the Supreme Court, but the Court of Christ.
Romans 8:1-2
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. For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and death.
- The judge has been satisfied because of the work of Christ on the cross.
- You can’t be put on trial twice; that would be Double Jeopardy.
- Christ has gone to the trial for you. He has taken all the sins of your past life, all the unrighteousness of your past, and it has been nailed to the cross.
- Christ died for us, once and for all.
- From that point on, God’s forgiveness and righteousness has been placed in our account.
- We now have a new law: it is the grace and freedom of love.
- It is not because you have to, but because you want to.
- There is no hung jury; it is an acquittal.
- It is not because of your good works and deeds, but because of His good works and righteous deeds.
- Satan has no jurisdiction over your life.
- You are cleansed and declared innocent.
- You are forgiven and innocent for the past, present, and future.
- Don’t let Satan lie to you anymore!
If you are not where you want to be:
- Repent! Turn from listening to the lies of Satan, who has been telling you that you can never change or do any different.
- Repent from going back to the sloth of your old life.
- Your past no longer needs to control you.
- Repent of trying to live the Christian life in your own power.
- Lay everything down at the cross and receive the full pardon of Christ, His total forgiveness.
On the afternoon of May 24, 1738, John Wesley attended St. Paul’s Cathedral in London and he heard the hymn Psalm 130, “Out of the depths I have cried to the Lord, hear my voice.”
That night at a meeting at Aldersgate Street, Wesley heard the reading of Luther’s Preface to Romans and, as he describes it, his “heart was strangely warmed.”
Like Luther, Wesley describes the change that overtook him that night: “I was striving with all my might under the law as well as under grace, but then I was sometimes and often conquered. Now I was always conqueror.”
Romans 8:37
Yet in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us.
We are free to live the adventure of experiencing Christ in our lives!
This sermon was produced at Mountain Springs Church in Colorado Springs, with Senior Pastor Steve Holt. www.mountainsprings.org
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