“There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death. 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, 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. For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit set their minds on the things of the Spirit. For to set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace…
“But if Christ is in you, although the body is dead because of sin, the Spirit is life because of righteousness. 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.” Romans 8:1-6,10-11
The reality of sin is that it is condemnable, and God not only in love wants to lift that condemnation from His people, but in righteousness and holiness is solely able to bear it and do so. Indeed, He is merciful, faithful, and just. Condemnation deserved by fallible man is condemnation dealt with by the perfect Lamb. In Christ, the only debt we carry is to live out the freedom and love His Spirit imparts. (John 1:29; Romans 8:12-16; 13:8; 1 John 1:9)
The problem with Christians is we live our days condemning ourselves, hauling around a weight we are not intended, and no longer qualified, to carry. We’ve been granted full freedom yet remain enslaved. We chafe and wrestle with the flesh, unable to shake its heaviness and squirming under the weight of its taunting guilt. We have trouble applying what it true, that the Lord Jesus has carried our fetid burden and put it to death and triumphed over its consumption. We claim we cannot forgive ourselves, contorting and refusing the truth of Christ’s finished work. (Romans 6:17-18,22; Galatians 5:1)
What pride, or shame, or self-loathing, or outright avoidance of Jesus’s death and grace causes us to keep on in condemnation? Do we think we must contribute, do more good, clean ourselves in order to be redeemed? If so, we will never escape the condemnation the devil would deceive us into making our home. It takes genuine belief in Christ’s condemnation of all sin’s penalty and power on Calvary to be able to life in the freedom He won for us. Will we turn from self to Him?
What burden of condemnation need I leave at the cross? What faith will I reckon? How will I love and serve anew in the freedom Christ affords?
“No condemnation now I dread;
Jesus, and all in Him is mine!
Alive in Him, my living Head,
And clothed in righteousness divine,
Bold I approach th’eternal throne,
And claim the crown, through Christ my own.” ~Charles Wesley (1738)
Lord, with unending gratitude for the burden You bore for me, may I love freely to Your praise and glory.
As the rain and snow 