WARNING - Work in Progress

WARNING - Work in Progress
WARNING - Work in Progress

Saturday, June 10, 2017

You’ve Been Redeemed! – 6/11/2017



WARNING PREACHY…

Romans 8:1-11
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. For the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God, for it does not submit to God's law; indeed, it cannot. Those who are in the flesh cannot please God.
You, however, are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if in fact the Spirit of God dwells in you. Anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to him. 10 But if Christ is in you, although the body is dead because of sin, the Spirit is life because of righteousness. 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.

These words were written by the Apostle Paul to the church in Rome.  In just 11 verses he tackles a bunch of Christian concepts.

1.      Condemnation
2.      The Law
3.      Flesh and Spirit
4.      The Incarnation of Jesus
5.      The Incarnation of Men
6.      Righteousness
7.      Life and Death
8.      The Resurrection from the Dead
9.      The Holy Spirit

There is a lot here and can easily leave us befuddled if we don’t address the passage in its parts.  So over the next weeks I want to take some time to address these parts together.

CONDEMNATION…

Romans 8:1-2
1There 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.

The idea of condemnation is from Genesis 3 when Adam and Eve sinned against God.  From the very moment men chose to go their own way they were spiritually separated from God and became spiritually dead.  Without repairing the severed relationship with God, men would physically die and be automatically condemned to spiritual death in Hell.  It’s not pretty but that’s the reality.

In the Old Testament, God gave the Israelites the Law (i.e. The 10 Commandments) to follow in order to honor God.  In this way, they lived but the problem was that the Law was not able to repair man’s severed relationship with Him, so the Messiah was sent to do what was necessary to makes the repair.  The Spirit of the Messiah (Jesus Christ) did the work on the cross through His death, burial, and resurrection which destroyed sin and death, thus eliminating what separates us and this redeemed us from our slavery to sin and death.

Therefore, all who trust and hope in Christ are not condemned to the automatic spiritual death when they physically die because the Spirit of Christ has set them free from it.  The physical Law (10 Commandments) held us in bondage to sin and death but the law of Spiritual life has set us free and repaired our spiritual connection with God once again.

This hope and life is the reality of our Christian lives.  Often, people will get baptized, confirmed, and dedicated then go to church for the rest of their lives in order to go to heaven when they die.  But the real message here is that the Spirit of Life (Jesus Christ) has set us free from our slavery to sin and death.  This is why there is NOW NO CONDEMNATION; because we have been redeemed!

The caveat here is but this, the only ones who need not worry about condemnation are those who are in Christ Jesus:  meaning those who have faith in His death, burial, and resurrection as the redeeming factor for their lives.  For those who do not have this belief in Jesus continue where they were, and are still condemned.

Jude 1:5
Though you already know all this, I want to remind you that the Lord at one time delivered his people out of Egypt, but later destroyed those who did not believe.

So there are two groups here, those who believe that Christ redeemed us and those who do not.  For those who do not, then their fates are the same as that of Adam, but for those who do, they are in Christ and therefore have no condemnation to be concerned with.  For those of us who have faith in Christ, we do not fear death because we know that God sees the shed blood of Jesus covering over our sin.  We need not fear judgement for we will be passed over as the Angel of Death passed over the homes of the Israelites when it saw the blood of the lamb on their door jams.

Do you have the faith in Christ and know that there is no condemnation or do you still worry about meeting Him face to face on Judgment Day?  If you are concerned, I suggest you need to meet with the Jesus who is because in Him, there is now no condemnation.


No comments:

Post a Comment