No Condemnation in Christ (5 Parts)

June 24, 2007 10:40 am admin Sermon-Series, Chapter 8, Romans, Sermon-Texts

A five part sermon series addressing the theme of No Condemnation in Christ from an exegetical treatment of Romans 8:1-4. These sermons were originally preached in May and June of 2007 at The Resolved Church in San Diego, CA.

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NO CONDEMNATION IN CHRIST SERIES - FIVE PARTS
by Pastor Duane Smets

NO CONDEMNATION - PART I

:: The Resolved Church :: May 20th, 2007

“No Condemnation in Christ (part I)”
Romans 8:1

I. Katakrima: A Sentence and Execution
II. From Outside to Inside Christ Jesus
III. The Loving Discipline of the Father

introduction

Let’s read today’s text from the Holy Word of God and then pray. Romans 8:1-2 “There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.” Let’s pray. Lord God, today the words we are looking at are few…but they are far from feeble triviality or insignificance. These words hold a wealth of wisdom, relief, and joy. May that transfer that happens from thinking about the words of your Bible…to thinking about our lives and how the Bible speaks to our souls, may that transfer happen today. By your Spirit illumine our understanding and instigate our joy. Amen.

Last week we began a journey into what many throughout the history of Christianity have considered to be one of the greatest and most joyful and freeing chapters in the whole Bible. I tried with the best of my ability to give an overview of the entire chapter and where we have been in Romans so far…I probably erred on the side of giving too much information. But if you are new to our church and our study of Romans, hopefully it was a help to you to sort of orient yourself to what we are doing with the Bible here. Today, we are going the opposite direction…we are going to pull back and just focus in on verse 1.

I. Katakrima: A Sentence and Execution

We are going to begin with this word “condemnation” because that is a big word and big words are fun to talk about…for me. J The truth is the bigger the word the more precise of a definition it has. Big words are designed to say a lot by saying very little. The problem is that sometimes their definition alludes us.

So “condemnation.” The New Testament was written in Greek, so the question for us is not so much what the English word condemnation means but what the Greek word means that gets translated as “condemnation.” And the Greek word is “katakrima.” You can see it up there on the screen. Katakrima is the two different Greek words thrown together. Kata here is, against and krima is judge. So what you have is judge against. There is therefore now no judging against those who are in Christ Jesus.

So we have a base definition…but there is more. As a word starts to get used in life and culture it starts to take on a more and more specific meaning in how it is used. Like this one. Katakrima was a word used in the court setting, where a judgment was given and then the execution of the judgment followed right afterward. You get a picture of this with Jesus, where there is a hearing, then a katakrima and immediately the execution of the judgment takes place where he is dragged away to be killed. So katakrima includes both the sentence and the judgment.

I was trying to find a good illustration on the internet for the way we used the word “condemned” like some story of an old building that was deemed totally corrupt because of rat and termite infestation and then was demolished by explosions and bulldozers or something…but all that was coming up on google was these video game, blood and guts and gore stuff and I would click on these sights and skulls and stuff would start coming up on the screen and then this voice says, “we are the condemned.” J

So anyway, so much for that. The point is what is it’s connection or relevance in Romans? Here’s the deal. There may have been a few of you that were around for it but pretty much for the first five chapters of Romans he ends up talking about God and his wrath, hell, judgment, anger, and fury against our sin, unrighteousness, wicked deeds and so on. And it is dark, it is deathly, it is frustrating sad and depressing.

Now, we took those things seriously because we didn’t want to only read or listen to things in the Bible that just sound good, like the love of God. And we learned a general principle that runs through Romans that goes like this…the more we know the depth of our human condition, our sinfulness, the more beautiful and wonderful the gospel of Jesus Christ becomes to us. The principle is the more we know our sin the more joy we find in knowing the savior. Honesty about our condition, humility and godly sorrow is what brings us to repentance in coming to know the greatness and the goodness of the love of Christ (2 Cor 7:10).

That’s the principle. It’s not a popular principle. Here is why. Some say, “It’s wrong to try and scare people into believing in Jesus. You shouldn’t try and manipulate and coerce people into faith. Romans 2:4 says it is the kindness of the Lord that leads people to repentance, so we should just talk about the love of God and that will be enough.” What do you guys think? I mean, yeah, I don’t want to trick anyone into believing in Jesus either or try and force them to do something they don’t want to do. But is there no way to be kind and loving if you talk about the reality of us having sin and needing a savior? Are those really mutually exclusive?

It seems that if we are going to be truly honest with ourselves and others and really not trick, manipulate, and coerce and allow our friends to come to a true faith we have to be forthright about this life and what is going on…isn’t the very nature of kindness and love, what makes them so wonderful, is when they are expressed to you and you don’t expect it or deserve it? So my answer is, yes warn people of the reality of hell and eternity but at the same time extend our hand of fellowship and love and care and the great gospel of Jesus who delivers us from that sentence and execution.

The sentence and the execution. The sentence of condemnation is when God gazes internally into our souls and sees the thoughts and the attitudes of our heart and then he scans across the history of our lives like a movie and we are found guilty, corrupt, wanting…and that is everyone here in this room. We are sentenced as condemned and then execution is what comes at the end of this life, when all chances and opportunities for repentance disappear and we receive full brunt of God’s wrath for eternity.

II. From Outside to Inside Christ Jesus

That is condemnation. But our verse says, “there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.” No Condemnation. Which is the reason why this verse becomes such a freeing and assuring passage to us as Christians. There is a way to escape condemnation and the way belongs to three words, three very important words, “in Christ Jesus.”

What this verse tells us is that there are two different kinds of people, two different states of people are in, those who are “in Christ Jesus” and those who are not “in Christ Jesus.” That phrase, “in Christ Jesus” is so important.

Paul is clearly not a universalist, thinking that all will ultimately be saved somehow whether it is through purgatory or some other means because God is love…no, some are in Christ and some are not. And those who are not in Christ receive just condemnation from God. Thus Paul is also not an annihilationist, because those who are in Christ escape condemnation. Paul affirms for us here that when we die we will not be just biologically cooking animals…no there is a blessing to be had called “no condemnation.”

Charles Spurgeon, the great preacher called these false ideas “the serpent’s gospel” which began at the beginning of human history in the garden of Eden when the serpent said, “Did God really say?” Did God, the God of love, really say he would condemn and punish his creatures? Does God really say that if we live in sin and die there will be judgment? Did God really say that we need to believe the testimony of his son and come into a state of being “in Christ?” The answer, the terrible, truthful answer is “yes.” Out of God’s love he warns us and pleads with us to fly to the safety of Jesus.

If it is true that there is such a thing as condemnation and that there are two kinds of humans, those who are in Christ and those who are not, then how does one go from a state of being outside Christ to inside Christ and how can that be, what does it mean to be “in Christ?”

Let me answer the first question, how do you go from being outside the protection and covering of Christ to inside the safety and security of Christ? John 3:36 is good here, listen, “The one who believes the Son has eternal life but he who does not obey the Son will not see life but the wrath of God abides on him.” So believing in Jesus secures eternity and disobeying and not believing results in the wrath of God abiding…a state of condemnation given where you are awaiting the execution of the sentence. So hear the answer…flee to Christ and embrace him as yours. Come into his covering and be safe.

There is a covering. A moment ago I raised the question, “what does it mean to be ‘in Christ’?” It means that whatever happened to him happened to you. The reason we escape condemnation in Jesus is because he was already condemned for us. 2 Corinthians 5:21 says Jesus, “who knew no sin became sin for us so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.” To be in Christ is to be in his family and to receive all the blessings and benefits that come to those who are his. If you are separated from him and not part of his family then you are outside of his covering and condemnation abides and awaits you.

Are you “in Christ” today? Is he the head of your life, the Lord whom you believe in and follow? If not flee to him. Put your faith in the condemnation of Christ for your sin and do not wait to pay condemnation of your own. Hide in the safety of his arms for a storm is coming, when it is coming we do not know but there is shelter in Christ and there is infinite room.

I fear we do not fear enough…I fear we think the lives we live and the choices we make are insignificant. I’m afraid we fail to see how certain choices lead to other choices and we do not look ahead to see where we are going and where we will end up. I fear for us ending up in a place far away from Jesus where there is no safety and security. Are you unsure of whether you are truly a Christian today? The answer is Jesus, flee to him.

I said last week that Romans chapter 6 and 7 where a sort of digression where Paul had to deal with some things because of where he ended up at the end of chapter five and that in one sense Romans 8 is picking up where chapter 5 left off. Listen to Romans 5:18-19 “As one trespass (Adam in the garden of Eden) led to condemnation for all men, so one act of righteousness (Jesus, the sinless eternal son of God’s death on the cross), leads to justification and life for all men. For as by the one man’s disobedience (Adam) the many were made sinners, so by the one man’s obedience (Jesus) the many will be made righteous.”

The key to going from a state of being outside to inside Christ Jesus is by embracing his work on the cross as being for you, taking care of your sin and its ramifications. What is left is nothing but love and favor from God. For those who are in Christ, when God looks at you, all he sees is Jesus on the cross and his wrathful eye passes by.

III. The Loving Discipline of the Father

But maybe you don’t believe that. Maybe you wonder then why things still don’t go right for you even after you put your faith in Christ? Maybe it seems there is no difference and that the wrath of God and his condemnation is still upon you? What is the deal with that? Is God judging me? When I do something wrong is God spiteful and strike down his finger and cause something bad to happen to me?

Let’s talk about that for a minute because it is true that though the full brunt of God’s eternal wrath and condemnation begins at the point of human death. And it is true that on this side of death it does seem that a lot of bad things happen…divorce, cancer, adultery, financial loss, broken down vehicles, losing a job. And almost immediately the question comes, why God? Does this text tell us anything about that?

I think so. I think it tells us something amazingly profound and wonderful that provides a great assurance and comfort to us. “There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.” This text guarantees us that whatever sufferings we may experience…what we are experiencing if we are in Christ is far different than what we experience if we are not. Something entirely different is going on depending one what state you are in.

What do you mean Duane? I mean this, Hebrews 12:5-6, “Do not regard lightly the discipline of the Lord, nor be weary when reproved by him. For the Lord disciplines the one he loves and chastises every son (or daughter) whom he receives.” I mean is 1 Corinthians 11:32 “When we are judged by the Lord we are disciplined so that we may not be condemned along with the world.”

What these two verses mean along with our Romans verse is that the hard things of life are the loving discipline of the Father for the one who is in Christ, but for the one who is outside of Christ, they are condemnation intended to compel and persuade the ungodly to put their faith in Christ. So what may be an experience of wrath for one person may be an experience of loving discipline for the other.

For example, as human beings contaminated with the physical corruption that comes from sin, we often get sick…we get a cold or the flu or a fever. For the Christian, this experience makes us weak and causes us to long for our redeemed bodies, it causes us to pray and experience the grace of God manifesting his comfort and closeness to us. Through it we learn to rely and trust in Christ. We spend extra time reading the Bible and trusting in its promises. There are all kinds of benefits we experience through being sick when we are in the family of Christ.

But for the unbeliever this is not so. Intense sickness may cause one to fear death, especially if it is a terminal disease. The unbeliever may comfort themselves with medication but the fear of eternal sickness and discomfort cannot be dismissed or absolved. An aching body can cause a moral torment to consume one as they contemplate why they are deserving of such ailment. There is no spiritual solace and hope to find since they do not have Christ. Empathy from friends and family are the closest resemblances around but their comfort cannot comfort the soul.

What I mean is that when a believer goes through hard things you can see that hard thing as really counting for something meaningful…there is something to learn and grow in through it. But if you are not in Christ it is just meaningless evil and there is no point to it except misery and depression.

I don’t think that means that every time you get sick it is because God is reacting to a particular sin. Maybe, sometimes. But what Romans 8:1 says, is when we are sick or when hardship comes there is one thing we can be confident in, God is not my enemy, because there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ and I stand upon the claim of the blood of Christ as my soul source of hope and joy. Discipline may be at work but this is not condemnation, for I have an advocate…the Lord Jesus Christ!

conclusion

Let’s conclude today’s sermon. Katakrima…condemnation, it reminds us that we are sinful as humans and that if we are judged alone, by ourselves, the verdict is clear…we are condemned. But Romans is a book about the good news, gospel of Jesus…it says there is a way not to be condemned and that is by being in Christ.

Christ was condemned for us. A second payment is not due and is not accepted if we try. The sentence and its execution was laid down in AD 33 upon the body and soul of Jesus Christ. He suffered for us a physical and eternal death as the infinite son of God and He rose again, sits on a throne awaiting the full number of those he died for to come to him before he returns in all his divine glory.

So here is my plea…make sure you are in Christ. How do you do that? By putting your faith in his work on the cross as sufficient for your sin. By believing in his testimony, that he is who he said he was…the lamb of God that takes away your sin. By making decisions about the way you live your life that are going to reflect that you are truly a person who is “in Christ.”

Where are you today? Does your life reflect somebody who is “in Christ” or does it reflect something else? If you look across the course of the last few weeks or months or years of your life what do you find? Are you living as though you are part of his family, eating and drinking in his house, feasting on his word, striving for the joy of his holiness, valuing what he values, making decisions that put his glory on display to the world?

If you are not…come to Christ today. Find the assurance found in his infinite grace. Come with money you do not have and buy. Come and drink though you have no cup. Receive his condemnation as your own and be forgiven. Be saved from the wrath to come and hide in the shelter of his robes. Fall on your face in repentance and trust him for your all.

Perhaps you have considered yourself as one “in Christ” but the trials and the hardships and the temptations and the pressures of life have consumed you and you have fallen prey to the condemnation that comes from the guilt of squandering your treasure? Know today that Christ stands before you in loving mercy. Respond to his reproof and find the loving arms of the Father who invite you and say come near my child, you are welcome. Fear not for the wrath of Father does not abide on you, repent of your evil deeds find the forgiveness of Christ that reaches as high as the heavens.

Know that the conviction you feel now is the discipline of his love. We’re you not his you may not feel those groanings. Learn from the wisdom of the all-knowing God as he is teaching you the things your soul must be trained and taught in. Waste your life no longer and get about the business of building the kingdom of Christ.

As your Pastor I am committed to helping us pursue Christ. At times my heart weights heavy with your sin and mine. But, oh the freedom and the consolation in these words, “there is therefore now know condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.” What rest, what peace, what joy to know we are his and his forever.

Kids, today’s sermon has been the love that Jesus has for those who are in his family. If you are not in his family you can become part of it if you believe in him as your savior and Lord. And then when you are a part of his family and when things don’t go the way you want them to, Jesus is with you and is teaching you something very important because he loves you.

Let’s pray.

NO CONDEMNATION IN CHRIST - part 2

:: The Resolved Church :: June 3rd, 2007

“No Condemnation in Christ (part II)”
Romans 8:1

I. Fighting Guilt
II. False Gospels
III. Forgiveness in Christ

introduction

Let’s read our text for this morning and pray. “There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.” Father God, you have instructed us in your Word to devote ourselves to the apostle’s teaching. That is what we endeavor to do here in this portion of our service. God, as we work hard to understand what these words mean would you grant that grace which enables your truth to pierce us in our hearts and are then filled with conviction and passion for Your holy name. May the gospel of Jesus Christ be preached today. Amen.

Three weeks ago we began our journey into Romans 8. The first sermon I preached was an overview of the entire chapter and then in the second sermon we pulled back and began working just on verse 1. In that first sermon on Romans 8:1 we really got into the mechanics of the verse…what the word condemnation means, how one goes from being outside Christ to inside Christ, and what that means theologically for how one experiences condemnation and who that applies to. That was the mechanics of this verse.

What I want to do today is get into implications of this verse for us if we truly take this phrase, “there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus” and make it our own. This is one of those key building blocks in the life of a Christian that become a stamp and a seal of your identity. It is one of those phrases that when you think of yourself and what it means to be a follower of Christ, this is what it means. There is no condemnation in Jesus.

I. Fighting Guilt

Last time when we talked about this word, “condemnation” we looked at the legal aspect of it and how it includes both the sentence and the execution of the sentence from a judge toward a guilty party. We talked about the sentence and the execution but we didn’t talk much about guilt.

What is guilt? The feeling of guilt? Because it is one thing for someone to say you are guilty of doing something wrong, but it is a far different thing to feel guilt and remorse…to know deep inside that you have really hurt someone and done something really wrong. To feel guilt…that is a far different thing.

I don’t think we feel that very often. When was the last time you really felt guilty? I don’t think we feel it that often because we don’t like to feel it and so we fight it. We fight it in several ways. One, when we start to feel that inclination of guilt we begin to reassure ourselves that we really shouldn’t feel that way and we start rehearsing either the bad things that someone did to us or how whatever it is we did isn’t really that bad.

Or another way is to just try and distract ourselves. We don’t like the feeling so we will go do something else to try and ignore whatever situation has arisen resulting in us feeling guilt. We try to alleviate the inner tension with activity in other things so that we won’t have to deal with it.

Here is my question, where does guilt come from? Why do we even feel it? If we are merely the products of biological revolution and survival is the chief virtue, why do we feel guilt? Any opportunity to excel and move ahead ought to bring us delight no matter what the expense, right? But it doesn’t. We feel. I believe that is because, our conscience or whatever this non-physical part of who we are that make us feel, our sense of right and wrong…I believe that comes from God. I believe all guilt is a God issue.

We could talk about husbands and wives hurting each other with their words, friends who turn out not to really be friends, parents who have left deep scars in the lives of their kids…hurt and pain and wronging each other is the experience of our human race. But when it comes down to it, it is really all about God isn’t it? We wouldn’t feel or think those things unless there was some source and sustainer of morality would we? That’s why I think guilt is a God issue.

When we hurt each other we know that we have not only done something wrong but we have violated the God of the universe who designed and made humans and speaks this sense of right and wrong into our souls.

So let’s talk about gospel guilt, how this verse applies and relates. Gospel guilt works like this. In the first sermon I preached on this verse I said that phrase, “in Christ” means if you are in Christ then whatever happened to him happened to you. You are united with Jesus and all his life its actions, including his propitiating death, become yours…because you are in him. To the charge of guilty, condemnation, the sentence and the execution and the despairing feeling that follow if you truly come to know the weight of offense that sin is toward God…it is crushing, to that the answer of the charge is yes, guilty. I am guilty, there is no question about it. That is gospel guilt.

But gospel guilt does something unique and different. Gospel guilt freely admits human depravity and corruption but then it grabs a hold of those two words “in Christ” and it point to Jesus. It says, yes I am guilty, but I plead Christ’s blood. Gospel guilt says, Christ died for me! I am guilty but Christ died for my guilt, he suffered the sentence and the execution for me, in my place. I am guilty as charged but I stand in Christ. He is all my hope, all my righteousness, all I have. Are you in Christ today or does the weight of guilt hang over your head?

I see two ways gospel guilt applies. One, is toward the unbeliever. Sometimes guilt is one of the biggest barriers to faith, one of the biggest obstacles toward coming to believe in and follow Jesus. Perhaps that is you. Perhaps you know you are guilty and feel like what you have done is just too bad. It is a too unforgivable. Guilt weights deep in your soul and eats away at you. Here the gospel today, Christ stands before you and offers his blood, “there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.” In AD 33 Jesus, the only human who never sinned died a death to deal with guilt so that all sinners might find hope and peace and relief by embracing his death as their own. Hear today, Christ’s blood is sufficient and he offers it to you. Embrace him while you can. There is no sin that is too great that his blood cannot cover, be relieved of your guilt.

Paul, the author of Romans, the book we are studying was a murderer. He took part in the stoning to death of a man named Stephen and before he came to embrace Jesus had as the ambition of his life to kill anyone who called themselves a Christian. Jesus condemnation is sufficient for murder.

What about sexual sin? That weights heavy on many, I know. Consider the woman at the well, one the first people Jesus ever shared the gospel with. In her life she had seven different husbands and when Jesus met her, she was sleeping with someone she wasn’t married to, this woman was essentially a whore. And Jesus welcomed her with open arms. There is no condemnation for those who are in Christ.

What about substance abuse? Drugs and drunkenness run ramped in our culture and yet there is no end to their fill. They only create dependencies of a constant need for more. Jesus offers living water and offers us to come to him and thirst no more.

But perhaps you say, how does that work, how can it? How can I be in Christ and because of that have the feelings of guilt taken away? I think it works like this. We know our deeds are evil and that they deserve punishment and a punishment we could never fully pay. So when Christ offers himself to us, and we believe he is able, it is almost as if we take all the memories and all the pain and we cast it onto him, on his body on the cross and we see it punished and then we run to Jesus in thanks and adoration and love. That is how the gospel works in me. That is why I love Jesus. Not because of anything I have done, I’m guilty. But I love Jesus for dying for me.

But what about this side of Jesus. After becoming a Christian and falling into sin. Here is how that usually goes. I’ve seen it so many times I know it well. If you claim to be a follower of Christ but something happens and you know you guilty and have blown it…guilt sets in. And because you feel guilty toward the God who has shown you so much love and compassion you run and hide. You quit reading your Bible, you don’t answer or return the calls of people who care about you, you stop going to church or if you go you cut yourself off emotionally to anything of God and His Spirit and guilt eats and eats away until you can’t take it anymore.

I don’t think that is how guilt is supposed to operate for the believer in Jesus. I think God intends this verse to be for us a powerful weapon in fighting guilt with the gospel. Let me offer an alternative method to for guilt on the believing side of Jesus. This is other way I think gospel guilt applies. John Piper calls it “gutsy guilt.” I like that. He says, gutsy guilt is when “the believer admits that he has done wrong and that God is dealing roughly with him. But even in a condition of darkness and discipline, he will not surrender his hold on the truth that God is on his side.”

It seems to me that guilt and accusing thoughts of guilt are one of Satan’s chief devices in his attempt to steer believers away from God. Charles Spurgeon said it well, “The devil says there is condemnation, he accuses us day and night, but he was a liar from the beginning and is the father of lies.” Have you dedicated your life to Christ? Had high moments of passion for his glory? Dreamed dreams of who you might become and what you might do for the sake of the gospel? …But in the moments when sin has got the upper hand in your life you have felt it is all a loss?

Don’t believe it! You have an advocate in Christ. John Calvin said it this way, “The trembling consciences of the godly have an invincible fortress for they know they abide in Christ and are beyond the danger of condemnation.” Let that truth sink into your soul. Learn how to fight guilt like a justified sinner. Leave behind the devils lies and plead Christ’s blood as your all. Receive the humble offer of the Lord and stand again in his strength and leave behind that which has entangled you.

II. False Gospels

Part of learning the secret of how to fight guilt is knowing the obstacles that can deceive us into thinking there is another way. So beware of the false gospels.

Beware of a lying gospel which either tells you there is no such thing as condemnation or it tells you that being in Christ is a sort of fire insurance policy that you bought to protect you in case it turns out that there is condemnation. Those are two huge errors.

Trying to convince yourself that there is no such thing as condemnation is a bankrupt cause. That you cannot rid yourself of the question is evidence in itself not to mention how we as a people are those who cry out for justice when we are wronged. Hell is real and that is an inescapable truth. It is built into the fabric of who we are as humans…eternity is in our heart and we know there is a danger of a condemnation called hell.

And no matter how much we try and chalk that up to religious manipulation, or social convention, some crazy ploy of fiery preachers…our souls still know it is real. I think that is why some people even get so angry at those who believe in hell. Because they don’t like it and don’t want it. Neither do I. And so I stand in Christ taking his condemnation for my own.

The other side of that coin is thinking that being in Christ is something that is solely based in the past, either because of growing up as a Christian, or because you prayed some prayer, or have gone to church…there is a danger in thinking that those things guarantee you of being in Christ and because of that you can live and do whatever you like. No. That is a false gospel and it is a scary one…because Jesus said in the end, when hell is proved so, many will call upon him, saying “Lord, Lord!!” And Jesus will reply, “depart from me I never knew you.”

There is a danger in how you live. The Bible’s perspective is how you live proves whether your faith is real. In 1 John the apostle says, if you claim to be in the light but live in darkness then you are a liar and the truth isn’t really in you…and then goes on to say that those who appear to have been in the faith but then leave it, that they walk away because deep down they never truly believed or they would have continued.

Now, don’t misunderstand me. I’m not saying that there isn’t something permanent to being “in Christ” that is unchangeable and irrevocable. I believe that. But I am pleading with you as a church to, as 2 Peter 1:10 says, to be “diligent to make your calling and election sure” by taking on your identity daily as a person who is “in Christ.” Where you wake up each day with a sense that “I need Jesus today.” We can’t rely on past experiences. They are not enough. Just as we need food and drink every day, we need the salvation of Christ daily. We need the gospel in our lives. We need the name of Jesus in our hearts and on our lips. That is what it means to be “in Christ” where Jesus is our all.

III. Forgiveness in Christ

My last point for this morning is “forgiveness in Christ.” Now, my third point isn’t just because it makes for a nice outline with three “f”s…well maybe, because I’m a nerd and like things that are neat and tidy. I’ve been preaching now for ten years and my preaching has slowly changed. There were a few years when I had to have every sermon alliterated with 3 p’s or 4 s’s or whatever…but I ran into a problem because that takes a lot of time and I would start spending more time on that than I was working with the text. But when it works out it’s nice. J It looks pretty.

But the reason I want to talk about forgiveness in Christ is because I think that there is an intimate connection between the nature of forgiveness and fighting guilt with the condemnation of Christ, there is a connection between condemnation and forgiveness. I think so far we have done a pretty good job in navigating what Scripture is really trying to teach us here and what it is not. What is left is the result of embracing the condemnation of Christ for your guilt and that result is forgiveness.

Forgiveness. It is what the affection of guilt long for but cannot get because it knows it is unjust for its wrongs to go unpunished. Have you ever heard anyone, maybe yourself, use the phrase, “I just can’t forgive myself” or “He or she just can’t forgive themselves for what they have done”? Now, usually the intention of those phrases, the implied answer is that the person should and can really forgive themselves and the way to do that is just to forget what happened, pretend it wasn’t that big of deal and assume everything will just be okay.

The problem is that’s not true! You can’t do that even if you try! The saying that a person “just can’t forgive themselves” is true, they can’t, you can’t, I can’t…no one can. You can’t forgive yourself because what do you have to give in exchange for your guilt? Nothing.

But hear the gospel today, there is forgiveness from Christ. He has something to exchange…His perfection for our imperfection, his salvation for our sin, his righteousness for our wickedness, his death for our life. You see, in Jesus wrongdoing is not just swept under the rug. When I was little my mom used to make me take vitamins and I hated them…the taste still freaks me out. So when she gave them to me I would either try to act like put it in my mouth and but keep the vitamin in my hand or I would put it in my mouth, go in the other room and then spit it out. Then, I would take the vitamins and go in my room and shove them underneath my nightstand. This went on for over a year until one day when my mom was cleaning she moved my nightstand and found this whole pile of pills shoved underneath there. J They never went anywhere. They were all still there. And it is the same with our guilt and our sin…it will not go away until we embrace Christ as our own who takes the pill of eternal punishment in our place and then offers us the hand of forgiveness.

I believe the forgiveness of Christ is the ground for all forgiveness in this life. Whether people know it or not, are a believer or not, I believe the reason why anyone can forgive, why there is such a thing as forgiveness, is because of the love of God in Jesus. All forgiveness flows from the cross of Christ.

Listen to Ephesians 4:32 “Be kind to one another, tender-hearted, forgiving one another, just as God in Christ has forgiven you.” All forgiveness flows from the forgiveness of Christ. We need this. The only reason why I can forgive my wife Amy, or actually more often, her forgiving me…is because of Christ. This is huge. Without forgiveness anger and bitterness swell.

I have been learning this the hard way. About a year ago, there was a couple in this church who lived with us and the man had an affair, denied his faith, became very angry and bitter toward Jesus and his church and said that if I didn’t stop preaching the gospel he was going to kill me and kill my wife and so I better watch my back. I wanted to beat his face in right then and there but I knew I would have no right to stand before you today if I did. But what happened is that over time I have become angry and bitter toward this man and have had many evil and murderous thoughts against him. So I went and saw Ted, the professional Christian counselor who preached last week. It’s hard to forgive someone who is not sorry. But this is a gospel issue because hate and anger and bitterness do not make one happy, it only makes you miserable. I am learning the depth of Christ’s love for me in a way I have never known.

Listen, being a church means being a family. If we really are a church then we are a people who really come to know each other, care for one another and share in life together and work in unison for the sake of the gospel. And if that is happening then you know what will happen? We will hurt each other. It’s a fact. There is no perfect church because church is a group of sinner who are being saved by the gospel of Jesus Christ.

And listen, we are not in competition with each other to see who is a better Christian like we are fighting to get to the top of some hill. No we are struggling up together, giving each other a hand, confronting in love when needed and offering grace and compassion all the time. With gutsy guilt we are continually turning to Christ and then to each other and are “kind and tender hearted” and are “forgiving one another just as God in Christ” forgives us. That is what comes from embracing “no condemnation.”

conclusion

Let’s conclude today’s sermon. We’ve covered a lot. First, let us be a people who fight guilt with the cross of Christ. What’s that mean? It means we take our sin seriously, we don’t try and make light of them and just consider them an accident. No, we shudder at them as a contradiction of who we are in Christ and then we turn to Jesus in repentance. 1 John 1:9 says that “if we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us of our sins and cleanse us of all unrighteousness.” Do you have some sins to confess today? Do that and embrace the condemnation of Christ as your own and walk forward in forgiveness and strength and confidence and hope. And then when the devil brings charges against you, throw up the shield of Romans 8:1 and say no, “there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus” and I stand in his righteousness and not my own.

Second, let us beware of false gospels that arise in our hearts. Do not think for a second that condemnation is not needed or that hell is not real but just a figment of insecure and ignorant Christians. No, our souls demand it and heap up guilt deep within because they know its reality. So if you do not yet consider yourself a Christian then begin following Jesus today and receive all his blessing provided for you.

If you do claim to be a Christian, a follower of Christ, do not believe the false gospel that would tell you that you got Jesus so you are okay. Jesus isn’t interested in being some lifeboat on the side of a cruise ship. No, he is our anchor and our daily safety in the ocean of this world. We need to live for Christ daily. So realize that you need Jesus and his salvation every day. Be in Christ and make your life all about him.

Lastly, be forgiven. Run to the forgiveness of Christ time and time again. There is no end to his supply. He is the eternal son of God and his death on the cross was of infinite worth, large enough to cover every single sin of every single human throughout all time. Become a forgiven person who is forgiving to others. That is what is going to change San Diego and start a gospel city within the city…the loving forgiveness of our church family who knows the ground of forgiveness, Jesus. Do you need forgiveness today? Receive the love and compassion of our Lord.

And for our kids, today’s sermon has been about how you feel all icky inside when you do something wrong and how the only way to make that go away is to pray and ask Jesus to forgive you and take it away. On the cross Jesus died for you and all the things you have done wrong and will do wrong, so always follow and love Jesus.

Let’s pray.

NO CONDEMNATION IN CHRIST - PART III

:: The Resolved Church :: June 10th, 2007

Romans 8:1-4 “1 There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. 2 For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death. 3 For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do. By sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh, 4 in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.”

“No Condemnation in Christ (part III)”
Romans 8:1-4

I. Wordplay & the Power of The Word
II. The Spirit who Gives Life
III. Freedom found in Jesus

introduction

Read text and pray. I have preached two sermons on verse one so far because there is so much that sits behind these first few words, “there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.” They are words which are latent with power and the more we know and understand them the more they become a driving force and paradigm for life and our attainment of joy in it.

Up to this point we have talked about what the word “condemnation” means, how one goes from being outside to inside Christ (that’s justification), how for the one in Christ hard times are not condemnation but the loving discipline of the Father (that’s sanctification)…we’ve talked about guilt and how it can become a barrier between us and God and about how Jesus is really the only answer since it is pretty much impossible for a person to forgive themselves (If you missed any of those sermons I encourage you to download them off itunes).

Today we add a few more verses for part three of our “No Condemnation in Christ” sermon series because now I think we are ready for the next word at the beginning of verse two, the word “for.” The word “for” here tells is not only is everything we have studied so far in verse one true but there is a reason why those things are true.

I. Wordplay and the Power of the Word

My first point is “Wordplay and the Power of the Word.” I say “wordplay” because of the way the word “law” is being used here. In verse he says “the law of the spirit of life” then “the law of sin an death” then “the law” can’t do something in verse 3 and then there is the “righteous requirement of “the law” in verse 4. Four references to law in four short verses. I call this wordplay because he is using the word “law” in at least two different ways here, Paul is up to something, he’s playing with the word “law” to get a point across. So “law”…let’s just take these phrases one by one.

Verse two, “For the law of the spirit of life has set you free from the law of sin and death.” Verse two looks back at verse one and says the reason verse one is true is because there is something at work, the spirit. It appears to me that the use of “law” here in verse two is a meaning of principle and not a codebook. If you study to take the bar and become a lawyer you study a codebook of law. If you study to become an engineer you study principles of law in physics. There is a difference. And remember, Paul is writing to a group of people, where a good portion of that group have grown up with and lived with an understand that their race’s codebook, their law, was the key to life.

But if law here in verse two is principle, then what does that mean? The principle of the spirit of life and the principle of the spirit of sin and death. Follow my thinking with me for a minute. If verse two begins to give the reason why verse one can be true then what it is doing is looking backward. What I mean is this: the main thrust of verse one is getting right with God. That is what it is to become one who is in Christ and thus not currently receiving condemnation nor its final and unending fulfillment in hell. So verse one is justification, getting just or right with God by putting faith in Jesus.

Now verse two looks back and says the way that such a thing happened for you was that the Spirit of life set you free and that thing which the Spirit does, where he sets people free and gives them life…that is what the Spirit does, it is the Spirit’s nature, it is the principle of who the Spirit is, it is a law of the Spirit that the Spirit gives life.

And that is what we find all over Scripture. In the very beginning of the Bible, in the second verse it says that there was nothing and the Spirit of God was hovering and then God out of that begins to create. A couple chapters later we read that the Spirit of God breathes life into man and he becomes a living being. All through the Bible we find this theme that the Spirit gives life.

And this is what Jesus taught. In the gospel of John chapter three a man, an expert into in the Jewish codebook, the law, comes to Jesus and asks him what a person must do to gain eternal life and Jesus says he must be born of the Spirit. Jesus says everyone is born of water but in order for eternal freedom and joy and life you must be born of the spirit, you must be born again. Have you been born again by the life-giving power of God’s Spirit? If you haven’t you need that. Put your faith in Jesus today and be set free by his Spirit.

This is a principle, a law as Paul calls it here in Romans eight. He is saying the same thing, that there are two principles, two ways of living in life, one is a life born by the Spirit of God and the other is one of sin and death. What about that second principle, the principle of sin and death?

I think this is the same thing Paul was talking about four verses earlier near the end of chapter seven when he said, “I see in my members another law waging war against the law of my mind and making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members.” The principle, that thing, that law at work in my members…in my eyes, in my ears, in what i feel…my eyes dragging me away to pay attention to things that only corrupt me and lead me astray…my ears listening to things that are not true that end up deceiving me and leading me astray…my feelings fooling me into thinking that I need something else besides or in addition to Jesus.

Those are the first two instances of “law.” Then we have two more occurrences in verse three and four, the law that is weakened by the flesh and that law that gets fulfilled in Jesus. Here, I think Paul is calling on his Jewish hearers and those who think that they could ever be good people by doing all the right things. The resounding answer is no! You can’t. You can’t get right with God by doing all the right things because there is something called the flesh, which is human corruption and darkness which does not automatically choose God and instead intentionally shuns, ignores, disregards, and warps who he is. Which is why we need Jesus, a perfect human and a perfect God who both fulfills the law perfectly for us on our behalf and pays the penalty for all those who have broken the law and but put their faith in him.

Okay. So everything I have said so far is textual. That is what we are known or want to be known for at The Resolved Church, that we care about what the text of the Bible says and work hard to understand it. But how about some honest human questions.

Yesterday, I got off with a good friend who now lives far away now but though there is a lot of distance God has enabled me the grace to continue pastoring him through things like cell phones and emails. My friend called me yesterday because he said lately, he’s been having some doubts he wanted to ask me about. He said he felt bad about having them and seemed almost afraid to tell me. The funny thing is that when I someone tells me they are having doubts I kind of get all excited, a smile comes on my face and I can’t wait to start talking about it.

The reason I love doubting is because it is honesty and I really believe that the gospel is true and can answer all the doubts and the fears we have as humans. And if you don’t ever ask those questions and ask them in a way where you are really wanting to find out the answer, not just doubting to get rid of God so you can do what you want and feel better about your sin or your suffering, but if you don’t ever wrestle with those a little bit I can’t see how you can come to a real and mature faith.

So let me do some doubting for us this morning. Think about the reasoning here. Romans 8:2 says that the reason we can know it is true that those who put faith in Jesus escape condemnation is because God’s Spirit sets you free. Really? Sure. How do you know that? Doesn’t it sound ridiculous to say the reason you can know is because of God’s Spirit? What does that even mean? What do you guys think?

Is Paul just talking about some sort of spiritual experience, like you can know it is true just because you feel it? If so, that seems faulty. Just because someone feels something or has some spiritual experience doesn’t make it true in reality does it? I mean people have all kinds of whack experiences all the time. I met this dude on the beach one night and he pointed up in the sky and said the certain star he was pointing at was heaven and he knew this because Jesus appeared to him and told him so. What makes what that guy was saying not true?

Okay. This part of my sermon is called, “Wordplay and the Power of the Word.” I titled it that because I don’t think Paul is a dummy. He hasn’t written eight chapters of material and made huge arguments based on specific words just to chalk it all up to some spiritual experience. Paul believes what he is writing is true and that the power of God in the gospel is at work in his words.

A few weeks ago now, we looked at the whole chapter of Romans 8 and I noted for us that all through it there is this theme of assurance. That a major purpose chapter eight is written is to give assurance to believers that the gospel really is true. And I think Paul is going to the heart of it right here at the very beginning (this is epistemology for any of you philosophy kids out there).

So here is my answer, three parts. One, Jesus is real. Verse three, God sent his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh. Jesus is a real person who came into this world. Two, Jesus died. The end of verse three, in his Son God condemned sin in the flesh. Jesus wan condemned on a cross and died. Three, Jesus rose. look down to verse 11, “the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you.” (repeat)

That verse is key. What kind of Spirit that breathes new life into people and frees them to believe in Jesus? The one that rose Jesus from the dead and that is the empirical fact that the truth of Christianity rests on. In 1 Corinthians 15:14 the Bible says that if Jesus did not rise from the dead the preaching and faith of Christianity is in vain, it is false and not true and done and over with.

Do you get that? The ground of the Christian faith is not your spiritual experience. Yes, there are spiritual experiences we have as Christians, things like joy and peace and love…times and places where God meets us and grants certain feelings but that is not the ground of our faith, that is not when it comes down to it why we believe it is true, because we feel those things. That is the reason why Buddhists or relativists or any other religion believes what they do…but not Christianity. We believe that Jesus is real. That Jesus really died and really rose and that those things are true regardless of whether anyone believes them or not. It is not spiritual experience. That there is evidence and arguments which give ground to real faith and not just vague spiritualism.

This is the power of the word of God…that the Bible reveals truth to us and that once we truly come to believe it things change for us. New affections follow. That there is a Spirit of life who sets people free and raised Jesus from the dead and the Spirit of Christ is the most powerful reality in the universe. And friends that is our greatest need. To come to know and believe in Jesus and be led by his Spirit in every detail of our lives.

II. The Spirit who Gives Life

Let’s talk more about “The Spirit who gives Life.” Because if it is the Spirit who raised Jesus from the dead then our faith is grounded into something real which gives meaning and life and vitality and reality to our spiritual experiences. If that true then it’s not just wishful, fanciful, and fanatic thinking to believe in and worship and follow Jesus.

Paul’s reasoning is sound. It is rooted in deep, carefully considered, well thought through conviction. To say the reason we can know that we are really in Christ and secure from condemnation, to say the reason we can know that is true is because the Spirit of life sets us free is sound if there really is a Holy Spirit and if what that Holy Spirit does is create life and demonstrates to us every time we look at a tree or a sunset and most of all in the resurrection of Christ. That is sound. That is logic you can rely on.

But it does not just end there. The power of God’s Spirit not only opens the gospel up to us but is continually the life giving Spirit in us throughout our Christian life. Verse four concludes by saying “us, (those who are in Christ Jesus), walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.” Notice this statement clearly refers to life after first coming to faith. After coming to faith in Jesus then you walk or live differently. Justification precedes sanctification for those out there who know and love the technical terminology. The Spirit regenerates us, imputes Christ righteousness to us, and then sanctifies us.

So what about this sanctification? If Romans eight is primarily about the life of a believer after becoming a Christian then we are talking about sanctification, that process of being set apart or made holy, more and more like Jesus. What is this walking according to the Spirit? We are going to hear a lot about this walking in the flesh versus the Spirit as we continue on in chapter eight of Romans. But I do want to bring up something I think is relevant to us right now here in this sermon because what we have been focusing on is power of the truth in these words for our life and there is an explicit way that the Spirit grants new life and freedom.

So think with me for a few moments about the Spirit of God and the Word of God, the Bible. Earlier I mentioned Genesis and how the Spirit breathed life into man and he became a living being. Here in Romans we have the Spirit who gives us life and frees us and connects us to Jesus. This is how, 2 Timothy 3:16, listen. “All Scripture is breathed out by God and is profitable for teaching , for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness.” Those four words, “breathed out by God” are actually a translation of one Greek word, theopeneustos, which is very interesting because the first part theo is the word for God and the second part, peneustos, is Spirit or breath or wind, which is why it gets translated breathed out by God, or in some translations “inspired.”

What this verse is saying is that the Bible is the chief means that the Spirit of God is imparted. In verse 1 of Romans 8, we are told that we are pardoned by God by being in Jesus. We don’t receive condemnation for being in him, we are pardoned. In verse 2, we receive power from the Spirit of God. And how do we receive the Spirit of God? Through Bible. Verse 2 is the transition to living the Christian life, walking according to the Spirit versus walking according to the flesh.

So if I need to be set free, I need life, I need Jesus…how do I get that? I feed on the Spirit by receiving the life-giving power that is imparted through the Word of God. What the Bible says is how you know how to walk according to the Spirit because the Bible is the Spirit’s book. I think we can so easily miss that step and just skip right to spiritual experience without realizing that there is a way God intends our spiritual experiences to be formed and interpreted. Through this book.

How does that work? Well, if I am not yet a Christian I consider the claims of the Bible and whether they are really true. And if I am on this side of believing and am pardoned and in constant need of God’s power to fill me and help me to not walk in the way of sin and death then I need the Bible in my life.

Romans 7:6 says we now “serve not under the old written code by in the new life of the Spirit.” This side of being in Christ, trusting in Jesus’ condemnation for our own in our place, we live a new life by his Spirit who lead and guides us by His Spirit who gives us an unshakable source, the power of the Word of God.

Do you need victory over some area of sin in your life? Lust, greed, violence, here is the source. Do you need to consider Jesus and decide whether to become a believer? Read his story in this book. God Spirit delights to strengthen and encourage and correct and empower and grant what we need through our encountering this book.

So what of spiritual experience? Are you saying Duane that it is all bad and that the answer is to just become rigid intellectual who are impervious to feelings? Stoics of some sort? No. No. No. The law of the Spirit of life is real. There is joy to be had. Peace to experience. And those too are great testimonies or evidences of the Spirit of God being at work in your life. What I am saying is that life has many ups and many downs and in those times we have a comforter an advocate who comes alongside and meets us where we are and his chief way of doing that is imparting the words of this book into our souls. I am saying we need to feast upon the Word of God for it is life and bread for our very beings. It might sound trite and cliché and old school but it is simply true. You need to read your Bible every day. It is our food. It is our source. It is the conduit of God’s grace. It is our life.

The Bible tells us there is no condemnation for those in Jesus and the more we know and realize that spiritual reality the more our very person will take shape into the beautiful thing which God has intended for it before the foundation of the world. Affections begin in your mind. So let the truth of God words in. Spend time reading the Bible daily. Spend time thinking about it. Go to it as the source and answer for your every problem. The Bible is the conduit of the Spirit of Christ which we need. That spiritual reality is true and we need to be reminded of the depth and breadth of that time and time again.

III. Freedom found in Jesus

My last point for this morning, “Freedom Found in Jesus.” In the middle of verse two, it says that the Spirit “set you free in Christ Jesus.” What we get here is answer to the specific way that the Spirit works. We already know the Spirit puts us in Christ and saves us from condemnation. We already know that the Spirit imparts God to us in our life of pursuing Christ with the means of the Bible. What is left then is the result, what is left over after those things are have happened and are happening in us…we are set free from the law of sin and death.

Notice something here. The law of sin and death is not the consequence here. It is not condemnation just the operating thing that leads one to condemnation. It is the principle at work in us where we as James said “know the good we ought not to do…which gives birth to sin…and sin when it is full grown gives birth to death.” So we could say that the law of sin and death is power at work in humans that through Spirit’s work that old dominating power is broken. It no longer reigns. It no longer wins every time because there’s a new kid in town, the Spirit of life.

And that is freedom. This verse assumes that before Jesus we were bound and after Jesus when the Spirit of life is at work we experience freedom. What is freedom? It seems everyone everywhere is longing for freedom. Nations want political and military freedom. Individuals want financial freedom, sexual freedom, religious freedom, and on and on. But no one ever seems to ask the question what for? What is the end goal? Why? Can any of those freedoms really make any difference in what our souls really long for?

What about freedom from constantly corrupting our lives and going down paths that always destroy us? I think that is the kind of freedom this verse is talking about and knowing Jesus is the answer to freedom. Next week we’ll conclude this series on “No Condemnation in Christ Jesus” by looking at the person of Jesus because there are four different references in these verses to what kind of Jesus we are talking about.

But I want to end of this note. Perhaps it may sound sort of confusing to you. Some of you are new Christians and some of you are considering becoming Christians and some of you are just Christians who don’t know very much because you have never had good teaching. That’s okay. That’s one of the reasons I’m glad you’re here. But some of this is confusing. There’s a Jesus but there is also a Spirit too. What is the deal with that? And what is the difference between when you truly become a believer and what comes after that? And how does the Bible really work and make a difference? Those questions are not all easy and they are all hugely important.

I realize this sermon is like a big fat steak with potatoes and bread hefeweisen…it is just a lot of carbs. J That is okay. I realize there is no way we can get everything. So here is a simple summary. The main point is that we all need Jesus and we always need Jesus. And we need his Spirit because that is how we get to Jesus and how we get the Spirit is through the Bible. And when those things happen we experience a profound and wonderful freedom. We become who God made us to be and start doing what he made us to do.

conclusion

So here is my conclusion. First, have you been born again? That is where it all starts. John 16:8 says the Spirit first comes and draws us by convicting us of our sin and unrighteousness, showing us our need for Jesus. As we come to know and understand who Jesus is through the Bible we become convinced he is real and is really able to meet our greatest need and we are born again by putting our faith in him and become a follower of Jesus Christ. If that has yet to happen to you. Put your faith in Christ. Allow yourself to be drawn by God’s spirit. Open up your heart and embrace Christ with all that you have. He is able and willing to free you and save you.

Second, for those who claim to be followers of Christ. Know you have a real and solid faith because it is wrought, brought about by the Spirit of God. The Spirit of God is real and has demonstrated it to be so in powerful ways. So take hold of the life of God in you and pursue Christ with all your might, that is what you are made for.

Third, it will take great determination to follow Christ with all your might. So grab hold of God’s Word and let’s its freeing power do its work in you. Make a resolution to feast upon the gospel in this book daily. We do not know what each day will bring. What will happen in our week. We need this book. We need something inside us so that when crisis hits there is a well of God’s Spirit stored up in us from his word.

Lastly, for the kids. Today’s sermon has been about Jesus. Every sermon is about Jesus because that is what makes it a sermon. Today we learned that Jesus has a Spirit and that his Spirit is the one who made all the animals, all the trees, all the water, the sun, the moon everything and on top of it all it is the Spirit who rose Jesus from the dead. And that same Spirit is the one inside of you who enables you to hear about Jesus and love him and that is awesome. That is how you know you are really a Christian. So read your Bible as much as you can, even if it is just looking at the pictures and thinking about them because when you do that awakens the Spirit inside you and enables you to love Jesus even more.

Let’s pray.

NO CONDEMNATION IN CHRIST - PART IV

:: The Resolved Church :: June 17th, 2007

Romans 8:1-4 “1 There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. 2 For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death. 3 For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do. By sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh, 4 in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.”

“No Condemnation in Christ (part IV)”
Romans 8:1-4

I. Jesus is the Sent Messiah
II. Jesus is the Son of God
III. Jesus is the Likeness of Man

introduction

Read text and pray. Holy Father in heaven, today our greatest need is to see Jesus with the eyes of understanding and the heart of adoration. That can only happen if your Holy Spirit comes and opens us up to see that and to be affected by it. There are so many ideas of Jesus running around today but what we need is the Jesus we read of in your book. Impart Jesus Christ to us today my God. May my words as your preacher be gasoline on the wood of your truth, come and light the fire today. Glorify your Son. Show us a glimmer of light out of the infinite array of his wonder. In his majestic name, Amen.

Jesus. Who is Jesus? Currently, some think his bones are in a box along with those of his children made with Mary Magdalene, the whore he had compassion on in the gospels. Some think he was the wise sage, the great pacifist, like Gandhi or a bodhisattva like Siddhartha Gautama, the Buddha. Others claim him as their cause, leading the charge of war on culture, nations, and all who reject truth. Then there are those who think Jesus is like Bob Marley and likes to get high and it’s spiritual man, so it’s good. For others Jesus is merely a good luck charm and you can buy him at Urban Outfitters and stick him on your dash, say a prayer when you need something, and praise him when you pocket cash. Then for many, Jesus is merely a word to curse when you are mad and things do not go your way. Who is Jesus? Who is the Jesus of the gospel? Who is Jesus really?

No matter how you cut it, every person in this room, in this city, in most all places across the world…everyone believes something about Jesus and what you believe is based upon someone’s words about him. Whether it is conversations, or TV, or books…you listen to or read something about Jesus and then decide to accept a view. What I want to plead with you for today is for you to hear about who Jesus is from what God says about him. If there is a God and that God is knowable in any kind of tangible sense he would have to make the choice to make himself known to us. The Bible claims to be God’s book, written by the breath or the Spirit of God through human authors, where God makes himself known to us and it is the only book that under analysis can stand up to such a claim.

Maybe you are not ready to accept that everything in this book is true. Fine. That’s okay. Weigh it out and study it. But at least hear what the text we have been studying in Romans says about who Jesus is. Hear it out. This is our fourth sermon studying all that is entailed in the claim of 8:1 that there is “no condemnation for those who are in Christ.” And we have talked about a lot of things so far: condemnation, conversion, wrath, discipline, guilt, forgiveness, the Holy Spirit, new life, freedom, faith and every thing we have talked about has been about Jesus.

You might have notice but a few months ago I made a decision to make sure I said the name of Jesus a lot. Because everything is about Jesus. That little phrase on the banner up on the wall, “gospel centered.” That is what that is about, Jesus, His gospel, the good news about Jesus. It is very easy for us to just slip into “spirituality” and talk of vague notions about God. But to talk about Jesus bring the gospel to the forefront. There is very little wiggle room when it comes to Jesus.

Now, Paul in the book of Romans has already said a ton about Jesus. Jesus is not some new subject he is bringing up. But it is remarkable how four key things of who Jesus is show up in the these first four verses of Romans chapter eight. And since the whole thrust of the possibility of there being no condemnation is dependant on being “in Christ” then it matters a lot who this Christ is. So I want to devote a two whole sermons to who Jesus is in Romans 8:1-4, this week seeing that he is the sent messiah, the son of God, the likeness of man.

I. Jesus is the Sent Messiah

We begin with Jesus as the sent messiah. Verse 3 says, God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh could not do, by sending his own son. The law, doing things right, living a perfect life, being a moral person…all these things were insufficient and unable to make a person right with God. The law, because of sin, which occurs in all humans, makes us all weak and unable to get right with God through the law. So God sent his Son.

That Jesus was sent by God is extremely significant to the identity of who Jesus is. One of the most famous passages in the Bible, John 3:16 announces this, “For God so loved the world that he sent or gave his one and only son so that whoever believed in him would not perish but have everlasting life.” Or consider, 1 John 4:9 which says, “By this the love of God was manifested in us, that God has sent His only unique Son into the world so that we might live through Him.” The word “sent,” the idea of God sending his Son is a reference to the promise made by God that one day he would send a savior into the world.

After the last book of the Old Testament, Malachi was given there were 400 years when there was there was no prophet until John the Baptist and Jesus showed up on the scene. Sometimes that time frame is called the 400 years of silence. So listen to one of the last verses of the Old Testament before the 400 years of silence that happens until Jesus comes. Malachi 3:1, “Behold, I am going to send My messenger, and he will clear the way before Me. And the Lord, whom you seek, will suddenly come to His temple; and the messenger of the covenant, in whom you delight, behold, He is coming,” says the LORD of hosts.” So you see identifying Jesus as one who was sent is a huge claim.

Now there is something else. When we refer to Jesus as Jesus Christ, we are referring to him as one who was sent because the word Christ is not a last name, it’s a title. Christ means messiah and a Christ or messiah is an anointed one, a deliverer, or savior. Christ is an acknowledgment that Jesus is the one sent by God to be the savior. Jesus is the anointed savior sent by God. That is what we are saying when we say Jesus Christ.

So let’s talk a little bit about ancient and modern day messiahs. During the first century when this was written you got two main groups of people reading these words, Jews and Greco-Romans. Now for the Jews, they had lived in their land for that 400 years under the rulership of another empire. They had fond memories of being a strong, rich, and powerful nation but it was all taken away in 597 BC the Babylonians came and crushed the last Jewish outpost in Judah. Now 400 years is a long time. How many of you can even think back to how things were 100 years ago. But the Jews had strong, rich, family traditions and told many stories and read their Bibles and they put their hope in the promised messiah to be sent by God.

During those 400 years there were brief periods of independence brought about by hopeful messiahs and proclaimers of salvation for Israel. One revolt, led by a want to be Messiah, Simeon bar Kochba, even lasted long enough for them to make some coins which testify of their intense longing for salvation. They took Roman coins and stamped over the original Roman stampings the phrase “salvation of Zion” and “the first year of the salvation of Israel.” But it did not take Rome long to send more troops and crush the rebellion. So what you have is the Jews longing for a Messiah, a savior, a deliverer who will come and somehow lead some massive revolt against their captors and bring Israel to a place of glory once again.

How about the other group, the Greco-Romans? The ones who ruled over Israel for hundreds of years. It’s interesting. They called their emperor, the Ceaser, sometimes they called him Christ. The Roman emperor was seen as the divine leader, sent by the gods to be the savior of the world through conquering it with his military might. The world was seen as defective and in need of the Roman way of life, which was better and more right in their eyes.

So that some stuff about ancient messiahs. What about modern day ones? What is the perception of messiah in our culture? What is it or who is it that people in our day and time look to for hope, for salvation? Presidents? Thinking that somehow they can bring the needed peace or prosperity that we long for?

How about just in life? It is interesting that a key component of a successful movie or often what makes a movie a movie is to have some sort of hero, some sort of Christ figure in it. Some central character who ends up saving the day or doing something significant in his own life or the lives of those around him. Amy and I just rented and watched the movie “Apocalytpto.” Actually, Amy closed her eyes through most of it. J But the hero of the story is a native who ends up calling himself “Jaguar Paw” who ends up escaping from this tribe of warriors who had taken him captive for the purpose of sacrificing him to the gods. And so he escapes in order to go back to his destroyed village and save his wife and children and take them to a new place to start a new life.

We love heroes don’t we? Whether it’s Johnny Depp as a pirate, Will Farrell as a figure skater, or Tony Soprano the mob boss…we love heroes. We love and long for heroes just as the ancient Jews and Greco-Romans did. I believe that is because we were made to love heroes…made to love one particular hero, Jesus Christ. We are beings made for worship, for the worship of Jesus, the Christ, our savior. And all other stories about heroes and saviors and those who redeem and deliver people…we love all those stories we love because they reflect the great salvation of Jesus Christ who was sent by God.

Jesus was sent by God, but he was sent not to be just a political and military savior. He is that as well and will show himself to be so one day, but Jesus was first sent for something greater, the salvation of our souls. That must come first. It is what the Jews and the Greco-Romans missed in their messianic expectations and hopes. They missed that life isn’t so much first and foremost about food and clothes and one’s physical well being…but it is about our spiritual well-being and whether we are right with God. For one cannot even experience things like peace and prosperity if the soul is at unrest.

Jesus was sent by God to truly save us that our restless heart might find rest in him…sent to deal with our condemnation. That must come first, a coming of Jesus, sent to deal with our sin and provide a way of salvation before that one great day when Jesus will come again. The next time sent by God to unveil all his divine glory and might and judge and to make all the nations nothing and world will have its great end and all will fall before Jesus either in worship or in defeat.

II. Jesus is the Son of God

Let’s move on this morning to our second point, “Jesus is the Son of God.” Verse 3 again, ” God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do. By sending his own Son…” Law was deficient, it cannot and was not intended to save us…God had to demonstrate that to us so we would know our great need for his son. What does it mean that Jesus is the Son of God? What does the Bible mean when it calls Jesus the Son of God?

Does it mean that God is a man like us and that he procreated and gave birth to a son? No. John 4:24 says God is a Spirit. God has no arms or legs or feet or hands or head. Sometimes we might try and use the analogy of our bodies to describe the character of God but God is far greater than any more physical body…no such thing could ever contain him.

Does it mean that Jesus is just a created human being like you and I and that we are all sons of God? No. I quoted John 3:16 earlier that “God gave his one and only son.” The old King James Version says “only begotten.” The Greek word behind that phrase “one and only son” or “only begotten son” is monogenes, it means “only unique.” That means that Jesus was a Son of God in a different way than anyone else is a son of God. Yes, we are all sons of God because ultimately everything traces back to God, but that is not how Jesus is the Son of God.

Does it mean then that Jesus is a little God? That there is a big God and then there is his son, a littler version of God? No. Colossians 2:9 says that in Jesus “all the fullness of deity dwells in bodily form.” And a few verses before that Colossians says Jesus is “the image of the invisible God…by him all things were created both in the heavens and on earth, visible and invisible…all things have been created through him and for him (Colossians 1:15-16).” Hebrews 1 recognizes Jesus as the eternal son of God and says Jesus is “the radiance of (God’s glory) and the exact representation of his nature and upholds all things by the word of his power (Heb 1:3).”

These verses teach that Jesus is truly God and was there before the foundation of the world and spoke into existence the starts in the sky and put the moon in place and created all that are eyes have ever seen. That’s Jesus the Son of God. Jesus being called the son of God is marking him as deity. So then this Scripture in Romans, this Jesus, the one sent by God, is telling us that Jesus was God himself, fully God.

And this is what Jesus demonstrated in his life. These kind of attributes. That he was God, all-knowing, all-powerful, all-good. Jesus meets a woman at a well for the first time and he is able to tell her all the intimate details of her life…all-knowing. Jesus is asleep on a boat and a storm comes up and Jesus wakes up and puts his face in the wind and speaks and commands the wind and the rain and the waves to stop and they obey…all-powerful. Jesus time and time again extends his hand of compassion to the unloved, lepers, the blind, the deaf and dumb, prostitutes, drunks, thieves…all-good. Jesus as the son of God means this, Jesus is God.

Do you think of Jesus as God? Because I think we have a great tendency to want to pull Jesus down to our level and to only see him merely as human or at best some glorified human, some great human like Gandhi or some humanitarian or one of the great saints…but no, Jesus is God himself.

This is the only kind of Jesus that could make it so there is no condemnation. One whose life is eternal, has an eternal infinite value to it because he is God and thus the worth of his life given on the cross is able to pay the eternal debt of condemnation that is owed to God’s justice for the offense of sin by humans. Do you see why God sent his son? Why it is important that Jesus is fully God? Our condemnation is too great. It is so great that the only option is for us to either pay the condemnation ourselves by suffering eternally or to have the eternal son of God suffer in our place. Do you see your need for God’s son?

III. Jesus is the Likeness of Man

Our last point for this morning, “Jesus is the Likeness of Man.” The last part of verse three, “By sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh.” I get the phrase likeness of man because I think when verse three says flesh, it is a reference to the physical bodies of humans and in particular Jesus’ body. I see that phrase “condemned sin in the flesh” as a reference to the cross where Jesus offered up his body and blood. Thus, I see the phrase “likeness of sinful flesh” as a reference to Jesus being fully man, where Jesus took on a post-fall human body that felt hunger and pain because of the corruption of sin.

I think Philippians 2:5-8 will help us here. Philippians 2 is another book that Paul, the author of Romans wrote. In Philippians 2:5-8 he says this, ” Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.” Did you hear that word “likeness” in there? “Being born in the likeness of men.”

It is the same word as in Romans 8. So what does “likeness” mean? The word itself doesn’t really help us much because the Greek word behind “likeness” means just that “likeness.” It is a reference to the similarity between two things, they are alike each other. The Philippians passage is helpful. It says Jesus was in the “form of God” in verse 6. That’s what we already talked about, that Jesus is fully God. Then in verse 8 he clarifies what he means by “likeness” saying Jesus was in the “form of man.” Jesus was fully man.

Jesus had real skin and real bones. After his resurrection he offers his body for inspection to Thomas, one of his disciples, who then feels his hands and touches his side. Many times Jesus and the disciples went fishing and then they would eat food and Jesus would teach. Jesus got tired and fell asleep. Jesus felt sad and cried when his friend Lazarus died. Jesus felt things. He was human.

Hebrews 4:15 says Jesus is not “unable to sympathize with our weakness.” That is amazing. Jesus knows what it is like to be you. He is in your likeness. There is not an emotion or feeling you have had that Jesus doesn’t know and understand. If you feel alone and like no one knows who you are or what you are going through…there is one, Jesus. He knows. He is fully man.

And it is important that God sent Jesus as fully man because if he wasn’t then there is no way we could be in him. Verse 1 of Romans 8, “There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.” We can’t be in Jesus if he is not like us. The reason Christ’s condemnation of the cross can deal with and provide something for humans is because Jesus was fully human. It had to be human transaction. For Jesus to take humans place on the cross he must be a human and be one without any sin of his own that he was suffering for. That is important.

If you think about Jesus. He lived 33 years…never sinning once his entire life long. Being fully human and feeling what we feel and not giving in to hatred and resentment and bitterness and corruption and manipulation and scheming and lying and hurting other people. Listen to 1 Peter 2:22-24, “(Jesus) committed no sin, neither was deceit found in his mouth. When he was reviled, he did not revile in return; when he suffered, he did not threaten, but continued entrusting himself to him who judges justly. He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. By his wounds you have been healed.”

Jesus. Fully man. Like us. And for us. That is who God sent. On our own we suffer condemnation. But with Jesus our savior we escape and receive his condemnation for us in our place. Jesus takes on our sin as if it were his own, pays the penalty, and then offers us the benefit.

Do you think of Jesus as man? Because while sometimes we have a tendency to pull Jesus down to our level and not think of him as God, at the same time I think we have a tendency to forget that Jesus was really human and we fail to think of all that he went through. Next week we’ll talk about the passive and active righteousness of Christ and his resurrection…but for now think of how Jesus, as man, in a sense began to bear our sin not just on the cross but right from the start from when he was born in the womb of human woman.

Jesus’ whole life, sent by God, devoted to us. To be a God-man. How is he fully God and fully man at the same time? How is Jesus the eternal God-man who was there in the beginning and yet he was born in our space and time? I don’t know the answers to those questions. There is mystery in the Christian faith for sure. Mystery is not bad as long as we let mystery be where the Bible places mystery. What’s bad is us calling the things we don’t like or want to accept mystery. But biblical mystery is good. We know that Jesus is God, we know that Jesus is man, we know that both of those truths are necessary for us to escape condemnation. And the things we don’t know ought to cause awe and wonder inside us for the greatness of the God we serve who sent Jesus.

conclusion

Let’s conclude this sermon. What kind of Jesus you believe in matters a lot. Nearly every weird and destructive cult and deviation from the orthodox Christian faith that has stood for 2,000 years has deviated by beginning to have a different view of Jesus. If Jesus is just something to make you feel good, you don’t have the real Jesus. If Jesus is just a good luck charm, you don’t have the real Jesus. If Jesus is your excuse for either political and military might or complete passivism, you don’t have the real Jesus. If Jesus is just another teacher and good guy among many then you don’t have the real Jesus. The real Jesus is the one who was sent by God to deal with our deepest need as humans, our sin and our need for salvation by being a God-man on a cross.

And oh how hard it is for us to own up to that. We don’t like to be told we are wrong. It is so much easier to point away the blame to thing people have done wrong to us. When everything falls apart and goes wrong then sometimes we are willing to listen. But then sometimes it seems those changes made in the heat of emotion just do not last.

Listen this morning, Jesus matters. Everything is about him and he is our only hope. Turn your eyes upon Jesus. Look upon him. Embrace him as your own. Take him for all he is worth, there is an infinite supply. Look no other place, trust in no other thing, have Jesus as your all. Believe that his blood is enough for you. Believe God cares about you and sent you Jesus knowing full well who you are and what you have done and he loves and accepts you anyway.

Jesus is fully God. As God he is fully able to handle all of our junk. He is strong and mighty and will not be weighed down give into frustration and retaliation. He lovingly and willingly takes our confessed sin and deals with it by punishing it in himself. And then he offers warmth and reception into his kingdom. So confess you sins to him today. Repent of the things you know are wrong in your heart and receive the work of Jesus on the cross.

Jesus is fully man. As man he is fully able to sympathize with us. Jesus knows. He knows how you feel. He weeps with you and cares with an infinite compassion. Jesus knows your thoughts. Jesus knows what you have gone through. Jesus knows. He was a man himself and as God he sees into our thoughts and emotions. Jesus knows what it is like. And he takes our place. He can take it for you. Do you feel burdened today? Be freed and give it to Jesus. Life has a way of bearing down on us. The questions. The hardships. The challenges. Sometimes they can seem too great. But they are never too big for Jesus.

Jesus was sent by God for us. God was not obligated to send Jesus but he sent him. God made us and designed us to be intimately connected to Jesus. Jesus is the savior, the messiah, the Christ. He is the hero. The one and only one worthy of our praise and sufficient to receive it. As a church, let us be clear about the Jesus we serve and share. Jesus is the God-man sent by God into this world for us. And so we follow our Lord and go into the world, on a mission to share the message of who Jesus is and what he has done for humans.

Kids, today’s message has been about how God sent you Jesus and how Jesus is really human, he was a boy just your age at one time. And Jesus wasn’t just a human but was also God, the one who made everything. And because Jesus is both God and human then he can really love you and save you and be what you need him to be. So love Jesus and trust him and follow him with all your heart and mind and strength. Okay?

Let’s pray.

NO CONDEMNATION IN CHRIST - PART V

:: The Resolved Church :: June 24th, 2007

Romans 8:1-4, 11 “1 There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. 2 For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death. 3 For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do. By sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh, 4 in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit…11 If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit who dwells in you.”

“No Condemnation in Christ (part V)”
Romans 8:1-4, 11

I. Jesus is Justification - passive righteousness
II. Jesus is Transformation - active righteousness
III. Jesus is Risen King - fulfilled righteousness

introduction

Good morning. Let’s read our text from the Word of God this morning and pray. God, your Word towers above us. Draw us up from the dust and from the muck and the mire and enable us to be captured by person of Jesus who breathes through these words. Mere reminders, mere speculations, mere facts, mere spirituality is not enough…we need. We are here because we need. We have nothing to offer and so we beg. Give, give to us freely without charge. We come not to ask for a loan or to borrow anything. We come to beg and say give. Give to us for we have nothing to offer. Give us Christ. May we know him and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of his suffering and may we be ignited in a love and a passion and a dedication to his gospel and his glory in this city. Great Father in heaven condescend to us today as we plead with you by wrestling with your words. Holy Spirit of God, this is your book. May you be pleased with how we handle it today. Amen.

This is our fifth and final sermon in the part of our Romans 8 study called the “No Condemnation in Christ” series. Five sermons now, driven by the power and the weight of these amazing words, “There is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.” Powerful, powerful words. They go deep. Deep into things like guilt, forgiveness, freedom, and faith. Deep into the person and work of Jesus.

In the first three sermons we had been working with all the different issues these words bring up in these first four verses of chapter 8. And then last week, we took a turn and began to just start talking about who Jesus is because it is all dependent upon being “in Christ.” All the benefits of the gospel, freedom from guilt, being able to receive and reciprocate forgiveness, to have assurance and faith and to get through hard times in life and be okay…is all dependant upon being “in Christ.” So who Christ is matter a lot.

But that is not so easy, because who is Christ, who is Jesus really? Sometimes it seems as though everyone has got their own Jesus and he is really just whoever you want him to be. I spend most my time during the week hiding out in a garage full of spiders that I converted into an office and so sometimes I feel kind of like some weirdo that is hiding out in a cave and I feel pretty detached from the world. So one of the things I like to do is look up things that I am preaching on by doing google searches to try and get an idea of what the rest of the world thinks about it. So in this case, Jesus.

Two interesting things this time around. First, when you just type in Jesus on google right now the third site from the top is called “Jesus Dress Up!” And when you go to the site there is a naked Jesus on a cross and then all over the rest of the webpage are all these different clothes and accessories you can drag with your mouse and then drop on top of Jesus. I’m sure it is probably blasphemous or something but I have to admit I couldn’t help but smile as I put headphones and a walkman on Jesus. J Then I began to think about it and what a vivid example it is of what we do with Jesus. We think we can Jesus can just be whoever we want to be and whoever he really is doesn’t matter a whole lot to us.

That was the first interesting thing I found. The other interesting thing was on Google news, where there was a UTUBE clip from an NBC news reporter who said this, “Bloggers are now calling Apple’s new iPhone, the ‘Jesus Phone’ and it may be the most anticipated consumer product in the history of time.” And it’s creator, Steve Jobs, the founder and president of Apple is being called iGod. So my sermon today is about how if you want to be a Christian then you better go buy the iphone because otherwise there is no hope for you. J

My real concern, is a deeply spiritual one, because I think it matter a lot who Jesus is. Who each of us individually believes Jesus really is. If he is the focus and center of our life or not. And if he is, then what that means to us. So last week we looked at three things from our passage of Scripture, one that Jesus was sent by God, two that Jesus is God, and three that Jesus is also at the same time man, and we talked about how each of those things are extremely significant for us. Today we’ll look at how Jesus is our justification, our transformation, and is the risen king.

I. Jesus is Justification - passive righteousness

Let’s begin with the first point, “Jesus is Justification - passive righteousness.” First, let me explain that statement then I’ll show you where I get it from the text. I’d use another word if I could, because I know that for some of you any words that have more than four letters, it just kind of goes right by. We had film & theology night Friday night at our house and watched “Stranger than Fiction” on the big projector screen outside and then had a discussion about it afterwards. Only two girls were there and my wife said that is because girls don’t like things with the word “theology” in it. J So, I’m sorry girls, if there was a better word I’d use it, but there isn’t, so just give me a chance.

Justification. Paul, the human author of Romans, doesn’t use the word here in these verses but he has used it a bunch earlier in the book to explain the core of what the gospel of Jesus Christ is and then he has been referring to it ever since. When we talk about justification we are talking about getting just or right with God. The gospel of Jesus says that all humans are messed up and that the reason we are messed up is because we all have a problem with God and our problem is that we can’t get just or right with him on our own no matter how hard we try.

The Bible’s perspective is that the human person is not just skin and bones and biological functions and neurons and synapses firing and fluids moving around…but that we each have a soul, the seat of who we really are. That there is a part of us who is really a person, that we have a personality, and that our thoughts and emotions and wills are not merely just mechanical motions that respond to their environment. That we are real beings and that we have a soul and that the core part of who we are is who we are in relation to God and that we can’t get away from that even though we try to ignore it and cover it up a lot of the time.

So that’s justification. But there is this other part I put up there, the sub-point, “passive righteousness.” Let me explain that. That’s another technical theological phrase, but I think I can help it make sense to you because not all technical stuff makes things more complicated, some make it easier.

So passive righteousness. This is a reference to Jesus on the cross and it’s connection to our justification, getting right with God. To help it make sense to us, let me back up and just kind of set up the whole deal of Jesus and the cross. The Bible’s view, the Christian gospel worldview, is one that looks across at the whole scope and history of time and says it is all one story, like a movie or a book that has a beginning, middle climax, and end…all of human history, and earth and everything is one big, real, story.

And then it looks at Jesus, at the time when God sent Jesus into the world (that was last week), as the peak or the pinnacle of the story. And then it takes the specific point in Jesus life when he dies on the cross and looks at that and says that moment is the highest climax of the story. It says that Jesus dying on the cross is the most significant thing that has ever happened. Greater and more important than that had ever happened before or will ever happen after it. Greater than creation itself and greater than all the things to come. Meaning, and history, and everything meets its highest mark in Jesus on the cross.

So passive is a reference to Jesus on the cross and the mystery of how when Jesus died on the cross something was happening, there was a transaction occurring between God the Father and God the Son, in order to do something for humans who trust and follow Jesus. Passive is saying, we, each of us individually had nothing to do with that, but there is a way that we can become connected to it.

Passive says that each of us individually have no righteousness of our own. We are messed up. We are not perfect. Our rightness is a big mix of screw-ups and uncertainty. Passive says we do nothing, but Jesus did something for us and our standing or our rightness before God. If you imagine courts in heaven…you know a big, high, dark wood bench sitting on clouds and all of humanity and every human throughout all time is being charged in the court of for their guilt, Jesus approaches the bench and offers his perfection as the only human truly perfect, free of any of his own guilt, and offers his death, worth a value of eternity since he is God, he offers it to the judge and God the Father accepts it. That is passive righteousness, Jesus offering himself and his death on the cross to God as a payment for our sins.

So passive righteousness, says we standing on our own, alone, apart from Jesus, we are guilty, but it we trust and follow Jesus and receive his sacrifice on the cross as our own then our standing, our eternal destiny, the mark that lies upon us in the courtroom of heaven…is not guilty, free, and totally right and just before God. So passive righteousness really deals with the eternal state of who we are and by eternal I don’t just mean future…what happens when we die. That is included but it is more than that…it is the spiritual state or relationship that we have with God based on whether or not we have embrace Christ.

This is who Jesus is. Jesus was sent by God, Jesus was God himself, Jesus was fully man, and the reason he was sent and came as a God-man was to die on a cross so that he could provide righteousness or justification for men and women. So when we talk about who Jesus is. This is it. If it is not that Jesus it is a different Jesus. Jesus is the Jesus of justification.

Let me show you in the text. Look at verse 3, “For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do. By sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh.” Where it says, “what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do” is a reference to the grand story. The law, in the arc of time, in showing the way that God has revealed himself both through a sense of right and wrong and a religious text to explain it…no one could follow it perfect and get themselves right with God.

Then, this key phrase, “and for sin, he (God) condemned sin in the flesh.” Who’s flesh, verse 3 tells us, “(God’s) Son in the likeness of sinful flesh.” God’s Son is Jesus. So how did God condemn sin in flesh in Jesus? Listen to Paul in another book he wrote called Ephesians, “For he (Jesus) himself is our peace, who has…broken down in his flesh the dividing wall of hostility by abolishing the law…so making peace and might reconcile us…to God…through the cross, thereby killing the hostility (Eph 2:14-16).” So it’s the cross, with Jesus hanging on it and dying and in that making a transaction with God in the courtroom of heaven.

Do you guys see that in there? The hard thing about going through a book and taking the words seriously, is when you focus in on something it is easy to lose the big picture. So I’ve tried to give you the big picture today and then show you how it comes to a point in this text. This is the deal. Jesus identity, who Jesus is, is a sent God-man who died on a cross. And what makes Jesus’ death on the cross significant is saying that when Jesus was dying on the cross he wasn’t just dying on the cross but there was something happening. Passively, he was acquiring righteousness for us!

So, how do you take that in? I think this is how you do it…you begin with yourself. In an honest analysis of yourself you have to come to the conclusion that you are not really that good especially not good enough for God. Then you turn to Jesus, and then you adopt his death on the cross as your identity. Who I am as Duane Smets becomes one who, when it comes to God in heaven, stands in the righteousness of Jesus on the cross alone.

My identity becomes one “in Christ.” So Jesus does not become my 401K, instead he becomes who I am. All my spirituality, all my person, all of who I am as a real human in relation to God becomes Jesus. I am passive, no action or activity on my part, but through Jesus cross, I become a beneficiary. And peace, and rightness with God and all the love and grace and freedom that flow from that become mine.

II. Jesus is Transformation - active righteousness

Let’s talk about how “Jesus is Transformation - active righteousness.” If how Jesus is our justification, our passive righteousness, is unclear to you maybe it may become clearer as we talk about transformation and how he is our active righteousness.

Verse 4 says that there is an effect of Jesus being one’s justification or passive righteousness. It says that for those who truly embrace Christ, those who are truly in Him and claim him as their identity then there is a purpose…listen to verse 4, “(God did this) in order that that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.”

Two things, one is that phrase, “the law might be fulfilled in us” and the other is this word “walk.” The law, is works, Jesus called them fruit, we couldn’t do enough good works and so Jesus does the supreme work for us on the cross and then what happens, then law gets fulfilled…suddenly we become able to do meaningful things in our life. I say that because of the word “walk.” Some translations jump to interpretation and have the word “live” because that is the idea that the word is getting at.

The problem is that then you miss the analogy that life is like a journey you are walking through and how you walk, that is how you live, matters. I believe what verse 4 is getting at is transformed behavior that comes as the result of being connected to Jesus, the result of being in Christ. I say that because the word “walk” has to do with real life and because Romans 8 is going to go on talk for 13 more verses about how we live, now, today, in this life, in light of being connected to Jesus and the way it talks about that is walking according to the Spirit versus according to the flesh.

Okay, so I called my second point “Jesus is transformation: active righteousness.” What the phrase active righteousness is saying is that what happens in that transaction in heaven between God and Jesus and what happens when we as individuals get connected to that…is that it has a deep effect in us in how we live. It says that Jesus righteousness not only provides a basis for God to deal with our guilt passively but also to deal with the guts of our daily life, actively, here and now. Our person begins to change, to transform.

Being connected to Jesus becomes a life source. Jesus explains this divinely enabled transformation as being like a tree branch connected to a vine. Before Jesus died he was hanging out with his followers and he washed their feet and was telling them he was going to go and die but not to be afraid but believe in him because it is the only way and only hope and then he breaks into this story, he says this,
“I am the true vine and my Father is the vinedresser…Abide in me and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me. I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing. If anyone does not abide in me he is thrown away like a branch and withers; and the branches are gathered, thrown in the fire and burned…By this my Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit and so prove to be my disciples. As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Abide in my love. If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept the Father’s commandments and abide in his love. These things I have spoken to you, that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full (John 15:1,4-6,8-11).”
Now there is a lot in there…but here is the main theme, abiding in Jesus changes and empowers you. This is the gospel, it is Jesus on the cross and it affecting you now and for eternity.

Jesus is saying that he is practical. Believing in Jesus not just some high and good philosophy, thought it is sound philosophy, believing in Jesus is not just some good moral code, though it is perfect morality. Believing in Jesus is something that is real that really happens in the courtroom of heaven and it really changes you deep in the inside and it begins to show itself in how you live.

This is what it is saying…the gospel changes you, it really changes you. I am telling you, I am a different person since I started believing in Jesus and I’m not talking just talking about how I quit doing drugs and getting drunk and all that stuff, I mean I am a different person deep down in who I am. What I think and feel about things, how I react to things, the things I care about and pursue…I am different. The gospel is changing me.

That is what happens when you are “in Christ” change. If Jesus becomes your identity then in life, he becomes everything. And life has a lot of ups and downs and I think God designs it that ways so that we will grow and become transformed, because that is how Jesus active righteousness gets played out and applied in our lives. I’ll tell you a secret, my week sucked. For three days I was bleeding profusely out of my mouth filling up cups of blood because of dental procedure I had done on Tuesday went wrong and on top of it all, God just seemed really distant and detached all week and my times with God in the morning reading the Bible and praying were just dead and dry.

But let me share with you how the gospel changes me, all I want is Jesus. My reaction to life, is a desire for Jesus. For three days in a row I’ve told Amy in the morning, I just have no passion. But my response no longer is just to chuck and say forget it. I am different. When things go wrong or rather when they don’t go the way I want them to, like when birds are scraping around in the ceiling and chirping when I’m trying to preach…I am learning how to trust Jesus and grow up in Him. When my wife is 5 months pregnant and I don’t know how to be a good husband, I am learning how the gospel shows me how I can’t be a good husband but with Jesus I can be everything my wife needs me to be.

How is the gospel changing you? Seriously, I mean it. Are you changing? Just stop right now in your head and think for a second about who you are becoming as a person. (pause) What are you learning or growing in? How are you finding a greater and deeper connection and dependency on Jesus? If you don’t find anything there, maybe you need to the cross for the first time or go back to the cross and get connected with Jesus, if you’ve been there before. Sometimes we have to do that and do that and do that again and again. In 1 Corinthians 2:2 Paul said, “I resolved to nothing…except Christ and him crucified.”

III. Jesus is Risen King - fulfilled righteousness

Well, we have one more point for this morning, one more thing about Jesus that is essential for us if we are to have a real understanding of who the real Jesus is and that is “Jesus is Risen King - fulfilled righteousness.”

We’ve talked a lot this morning about the cross and how that effects both our standing before God and who we are and are becoming in this life if we are “in Christ.” But if Jesus just died and that is it, end of story, then it is incomplete…we don’t have the full Jesus and the Jesus we would just have a dead Jesus and no guarantee that God accepted Jesus’ payment on the cross and there could then be no real hope for change or new life.

Let’s read verse 11 of Romans 8. Now I know we are skipping six verses, don’t worry, we’ll study them, not this morning…but we need verse 11 to complete our picture of who this Jesus is we’re talking about. Verse 11 says, “If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit who dwells in you.” This is similar to what Paul said in 1 Corinthians 15 when he said, “If Christ has not been raised then our preaching is useless and your faith is in vain…(for) if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile and you are still in your sins (1 Cor 15:14,17).”

Here is the logic of it. We began talking about how none of us can get right with God on our own because we are messed up with sin. Sin leads to death and no one wants death whether it is eternal death or even just the experience of spiritual and emotional death in this life that comes from being separated from God.

The logic goes like this, if our problem is we are not good enough but Jesus is good enough and if our problem is death and eternity but Jesus is life and eternal then Jesus is the answer, his payment on the cross should be sufficient for God to pay the penalty we owe in our place. If so then God will grant us life and give us assurance that such an offer is real by granting Jesus new life. If Jesus stays dead, then it is as if something went wrong and it didn’t work. Jesus rising from the dead is the guarantee that it is true and real. That a real transaction in heaven did take place and that there is and can be new life for individual who believe in Jesus. That’s the logic of Jesus resurrection.

Now, I know for our western minds who have never seen or experienced a true miracle this just sounds ludicrous…a person rising from the dead. Now, there is a lot of evidence you can look into about the resurrection of Jesus…but I’ll just put this one thing out there. If there is a God, then wouldn’t it be possible for him to do such a thing? And if Jesus was really God, and if what happened on the cross is really what the Bible says happened, then isn’t Jesus rising from the dead exactly what we would expect such a God to do? And if Jesus really rose from the dead and if Jesus really is the pinnacle of all of history wouldn’t we expect that to be a very special and spectacular event?

I got in a conversation with a new friend this week who isn’t a Christian and the main hang up he had was not so much that there is a God but all the supposed miracles in the Bible. So I chose not to get all into whether everything the Bible said happened or not but just chose to talk about Jesus and his resurrection. And I said this to him, I said, “If Jesus really rose, wouldn’t that have been the most amazing thing to happen in all of history? And if Jesus was really as good as he sounds in the gospels then would that make you want to follow him and give you hope?” My new friend answered, “Yeah, I guess so.”

Here is the practicality of it. If the resurrection makes sense logically, that’s one thing but is there anything practical to it? I think so. And I think it comes to us in two ways. One, making your life all about some dead guy just doesn’t make sense. We were talking about heroes and how we seem to be made as humans to love and adore them. We don’t want a dead hero. We want one who wins and overcomes and is powerful and mighty and strong. We don’t want some weak pathetic beat up panzy. We want a victorious and righteous king. Someone who is worthy of our following.

In the very beginning of Romans Paul starts off talking about Jesus and right away mentions his mighty resurrection, listen, he says Jesus “was declared to be the Son of God in power according the Spirit of holiness by his resurrection from the dead, Jesus Christ our Lord.” A risen Jesus gives us true hope.

That is the second way I think it comes to us…in the way where we think about the future. Since Jesus rose it gives us a real and grounded belief that there can really be hope for us. That new life can be possible in this life and the life to come. That we can rise up out of the darkness and despair that sometimes blankets us. That in the middle of disease and death and pain and hurt and tragedy that there is one who conquered it all, Jesus, our Lord and Savior and he paved the way for us. He has made a way for new life here and now and in the life to come. There becomes hope for today and hope for eternity. Jesus, our risen King!

And this becomes our love and our longing. As we embrace Christ as our righteousness both in heaven above and here in life below and as we find much strength and hope and encouragement in the resurrection of our Lord something happens. We fall deeper and deeper in love with Christ. It truly becomes as Saint Peter says it, “Though you have not seen him, you love him. Though you do not see him, you believe in him and rejoice with joy that is inexpressible and filled with glory, obtaining the outcome of your faith, the salvation of your souls.”

And then we just long for Jesus more and more and anxiously await the consummation of all things when he will return in all his full array of divine splendor. There is a song written by this worship band that must have been born out of the 90’s buttrock movement…but the words are great and resonate with something deep inside me. The song is called the “Glory of the Lamb.” Listen to some of its words:
“A day is coming, coming soon, when we shall see your face. And how our hearts are yearning for that outpouring of grace. When you take all the galaxies and roll them up like a scroll, when you make heaven and earth anew and eternity unfolds. Then the glory of the Lamb will be all that we have longed to see and we’ll praise your splendor, majesty and might. There will be no darkness, be no night, we won’t need the sun or moon to shine for the glory of Lamb will be our light.”

I long to see Jesus. I’m not just saying it. I really believe this stuff. Maybe you think I’m crazy. Fine. But I’m telling you I’m not. I’m not someone who gets all hyped on religious experience…I’m a philosophy kid. But I not only think the gospel is good philosophy but I believe this stuff with all my heart. I know it is real. I’m telling you I know Jesus. And there is nothing that you or anyone else could say or anything that could happen in my life to convince me otherwise. (pause) Do you believe it?

conclusion

Let’s conclude. There is a simplicity and a complexity to the gospel. The simplicity part is that we all have a deep need and that need is Jesus and he is sufficient to meet our need. The complexity part comes to understanding the layers and layers to the greatness of Christ and all that he has done for us…it is inexhaustible.

In conclusion, let me just probe and challenge us. Do you see yourself, when you think of who you are, do you see yourself and someone “in Christ?” When you think of the cross of Jesus do you think of it personally, him dying for you in your place and offering it to God? Do you think of yourself standing behind him in his blood as your hope for God and heaven?

Do you really believe the gospel? Is it transforming you? How do you find yourself growing and changing? Or do you only think of coming to the gospel as something that occurred in the past? Are you believing and following the gospel? Constant dying and rising, confessing sin and receiving forgiveness and pursuing and striving for Christ with all your might?

Do you know the risen savior? The one who conquered death, hell, and the grave? Do you love and long for and shrink in awe of him? Do you find hope and encouragement in the victorious resurrection of Christ?

My pleading today for you is that you would put your faith in Christ with all that you have. If you have never determined in your heart that he is it and given your strength away to follow him…do it. Resolve in your heart to hear the voice of Christ and cast away all your own strivings as worthless and receive his work on the cross as your all. Make who you are not so much about what makes you different, the interests and talents that God has given you, but make it your goal to demonstrate your identity as one who is “in Christ.”

The second thing I beg of you is not to just sit on that. Not to just assume you are “in Christ” and make no effort to live in a way that reflects him and his righteousness. Make hard decisions against things you know a