10 5 Freedom from All Condemnation
5 Freedom from All Condemnation
5. Freedom from All Condemnation
INTRODUCTION
Theorizing about salvation is good mental exercise, but undoubting faith must rest on the plain-as-day teaching found in the gospel, God’s power to save. (Romans 1:16-17). For, in the gospel of Christ, we are taught most emphatically just where, when, and why we are free from condemnation. To the task of picking these great truths up and holding them before our readers I now set myself.
WHERE?
One brief quotation declares the "where." "There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit." (Romans 8:1). Freedom from condemnation, then, is in Christ, not out of him. And note that it teaches that we are free from all condemnation. A few other quotations will serve to emphasize the thought. 2 Corinthians 1:20 : declares that "how many soever be the promises of God, in him is the yea" and "through him is the Amen." There are no promises out of Christ; they are all in him.Ephesians 1:7 says: ”In whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the niches of his grace." Colossians 1:13-14 declares the same thing. 2 Corinthians 5:17 says: "Therefore if any man be in Christ he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new." 1 John 5:10-11 teaches that those who believe not "the record that God gave of his Son" make God a liar, and then declares, "And this is the record, that God hath given to us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. ” And Revelation 14:13 declares that the blessed dead are those who die in the Lord. And 1 Thessalonians 4:13-14 teaches that God does not want us to be ignorant of the fact that those who sleep in Jesus he will bring with him when he comes again. So where salvation is found is placed beyond a doubt. It is in Christ. Freedom from condemnation is a promise made only to those who come into Jesus and then walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.
WHEN?
Having learned beyond a doubt where freedom from condemnation may be enjoyed, let us now ask: "When do we come into such freedom?’ It is a very important question, and the answer is too plain to be misunderstood. Since freedom from condemnation is in Christ, we obtain it the very moment we go into Christ Jesus. "For as many of you as have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ." (Galatians 3:26-27). And Paul again says: "Know ye not, that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his death? Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life. For if we have been planted together in the likeness of his death, we shall be also in the likeness of his resurrection." You will find this statement in Romans 6:3-5, and you observe that the baptism here that puts us into Christ is declared to be a burial, a resurrection, and a planting. Now, when you come to verses 17 and 18, note that it is called a "form of doctrine” which we obey from the heart; and, when thus obeyed, we are then made free from sin. Here let us read it together: "But God be thanked, that ye were the servants of sin, but ye have obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine which was delivered you. Being then made free from sin, ye became the servants of righteousness." Can there be any doubt now as to when we obtain freedom from condemnation? This blessing is in Christ, and the book says we are baptized into him. This form of doctrine is baptism, for it is obeyed from the heart, not in the heart. Faith is exercised in the heart. So is repentance. But baptism is a burial of the whole being in water, a planting of the whole body in water, hence must be done from the heart and not in the heart. This is why it takes much water to baptize. See John 3:23. This is why the one who does the baptizing and the one baptized go down into the water where the burial in water and resurrection, from the water may be accomplished. Read Acts 8:36-39. Could God make it plainer?
WHY?
It is highly important that we ask: Why is the man in Christ Jesus free from all condemnation? The answer is simple and easily found. The one who, from the heart, obeys that form of doctrine, by penitently being buried with Christ in baptism and being raised into the new life in Christ, the? is freed from all past sins. But this is not all—he is then made free from "the law of sin and death. " "The law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus," into which we come when we are raised from the watery grave, frees us "from the law of sin and death." (Read Romans 8:1-2). This is the reason assigned by the Holy Spirit for the man in Christ Jesus being free from all condemnation.
Just here let us observe that what is known as the "law of works," declared in Romans 8:2 to be "the law of sin and death," was just, holy, spiritual, and good. (Romans 7:12; Romans 7:14). That law is based on God’s holiness and demands sinless perfection. It condemns every sin that it is possible for us to commit in thought, word, act, or imagination. There is nothing bad about a law like this. But the trouble is found in us—we are not able to meet the demands. In the eyes of this law, every accountable being on earth is condemned. For the only way we can be justified by it is to live from the very day we are accountable before God until death without sinning in thought, word, act, or imagination. It is "the law of sin” because it condemns all sin and shows us all to be sinners. It is "the law of death" because the penalty of sin is death and shows that we are all deserving of death. Remember the book declares: "The soul that sinneth, it shall die." (Ezekiel 18:4). There is nothing that meets the demands of "the law of sin and of death" except the death of the sinner.
Here it would be well if space would allow it—but it will not—to quote the many Scriptures that declare that man, at his very best, sins in some way. 1 Kings 8:46 says: "For there is no man that sinneth not." David asks the timely question, in Psalms 19:12 : "Who can understand his errors?" You answer this, if you think you are living without, in some way, violating the "law of works. " Solomon says: "For there is not a just man upon the earth, that doeth good, and sinneth not." (Ecclesiastes 7:20). James says. "For in many things we all stumble." (James 3:2). John says: "If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.... If we say that we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us." (1 John 1:8-10). Romans 3:19-20 : declares that, before the law of works, every month is stopped and all of us shown to be guilty before God. Paul says in Galatians 3:10; that those who are seeking justification in the eyes of the law are under the curse because that law says "cursed is every one that continueth not in all things... written in the book of the law to do them."
Then how does this freedom from all condemnation come? How easily seen! Paul tells us that "when the fulness of the time was come, God sent forth his Son, made of a woman, made under the law, to redeem them that were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons." (Galatians 4:4-5) Christ was born under the law that demanded sinless perfection, and after he reached the age of accountability, he lived the life that law demanded—a life of sinless perfection. Paul declares, in Romans 10; Romans 4 : "For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to every one that believeth." Here he is talking about the baptized believer; for we are all the sons of God by faith in Christ Jesus, if we have been baptized into him, but most certainly we are not, if we refuse to be baptized into him. Read again Galatians 3:26-27. Note in Romans 10:5 Moses declared that the only way to be justified by the law was to live the life it required. You are justified by the law by living a life of sinlessness. Jesus came and did this for us. He became the end of that law for all of us who are baptized into him. Note the words of Paul, in Php 3:8-9, where he says he "suffered the loss of all things and do count them but refuse, that I may win Christ, and be found in him, not having mine own righteousness, which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith." When you go to the judgment, there will be two books opened. First, there will be the law of works. ” that demands sinless perfection and says we are damned if we do not attain it. Will you expect to pass if this is the only law by which you are to be judged? But there will be "the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus" which teaches us that our Lord lived the life the law of sin and death demanded and he took it out of the way when he died on the cross for all of us who will come into Christ and take him as our righteousness, sanctification, wisdom, and redemption. (l Cor. 1:30, 31). The baptized believer will not be judged by the law of sin and death, for he is not under it. But all who die out of Christ have nothing else to be judged by. Now do you see why it is that the "blessed" dead die in the Lord. Now you can see why those of us in Christ are complete. Have you read it? "Andye are complete in him. " (Colossians 2:10). If you are out of Christ, the only way to be complete is to live a life of sinless perfection. None of us can do this, hence all out of Christ are condemned. Do you get it? Come into Jesus by penitently being baptized into him. Then be faithful until death, and our Lord will present you perfect to the Father because of his perfection and not because of our perfection. Study Colossians 1:27-28.
"Now the God of peace, who brought again from the dead the great shepherd of the sheep with the blood of an eternal covenant, even our Lord Jesus, make you perfect in every good thing to do his will, working in us that which is well-pleasing in his sight, through Jesus Christ; to whom be the glory for ever and ever. Amen." (Hebrews 13:20-21).
WHAT WE SHOULD DO TODAY Do something today to bring gladness To someone whose pleasures are few. Do something to drive away sadness Or cause someone’s dream to come true.
Find time for neighborly greeting And time to enjoy an old friend—
Remember, the years are so fleeting That life’s final day soon will end. Do something today that tomorrow Will prove to be truly worth while;
Help someone to overcome sorrow And greet the new mom with a smile; For only through kindness, and giving Of service and friendship and cheer, Can we learn the glory of living And find heaven’s happiness here.