NO CONDEMNATION.
*"There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit."* (Rom 8:1)
In these words, the inspired apostle gives us the key to the great and precious truths contained in this chapter. As the Holy Spirit guides us, we intend to explore how he unfolds these truths. The verse contains the main proposition, which Paul, having stated it clearly, proceeds to confirm and illustrate with his characteristic intellectual vigor, clear reasoning, and gentle spirit, all expressed in the most eloquent language. He had been describing, with deep feeling and power, the painful and constant conflict between the opposing forces within the regenerate heart. As his use of the first person makes clear, he illustrated this conflict by referring to his own personal experience as a Christian. Some have questioned whether Paul was describing a state before or after conversion. We believe this question shouldn't allow a moment's doubt. From the fourteenth verse to the end of the chapter, he explains the operation of a law that only operates in the soul of the renewed person, and whose hidden and mysterious workings have matched the experience of the saints throughout all ages. But if this argument still leaves anyone uncertain, the opening of the present chapter should be conclusive enough to settle the question. Having portrayed with a master's skill (using himself as the model) the spiritual struggles of God's children, he then proceeds, in the passage we're considering, to apply the divine consolation and support appropriate to such a distressing and humiliating condition. He lifts them from the region of conflict and cloud and places them on a height that towers above the gloom and strife of the battlefield, around whose serene, sunlit summit the first light of eternal glory gathers. "There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus." The shift from the despairing tone of the seventh chapter to the triumphant language of the eighth may seem somewhat startling and abrupt, yet it is perfectly easy, logical, and natural. The verse before us is a conclusion fairly drawn from the whole preceding discussion. In fact, it is the grand conclusion toward which the apostle had been aiming throughout the entire argument. It is as clear as the sun, then, that if the saints of God experience the conflict with sin and death, over whose bondage they mourn, they also equally possess deliverance from the curse and the condemnation, in whose victory they rejoice. Let us now turn to explaining this sublime and solemn theme, humbly relying on the divine teaching of the Spirit, who is pledged and committed to guide us into all truth.
'Condemnation' carries enormous weight, and we need to understand what it really means so we can grasp the incredible grace that has freed us from its power. When the word rings out in a human courtroom, it strikes the convicted criminal like a death knell and sends waves of sympathy and horror through everyone watching. But in God's court of justice, the word carries infinitely greater meaning and solemnity. Every person is summoned to that court. Everyone must stand before that bar. "Conceived in sin, and shapen in iniquity," we enter the world already under arrest: indicted criminals, rebels in chains, sentenced to death. We're born under the terrible sentence originally pronounced against sin: "In the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die," or "Thou shalt die the death." We enter life already condemned in the present, which is just a preview of future condemnation. There's no way out that we can find on our own. We go to bed and wake up, we head to work and pursue our pleasures, all as guilty, sentenced, condemned people. "Cursed is every one that continueth not in all things which are written in the book of the law, to do them": this terrible sentence is branded on our foreheads. And if death's summons catches us in the middle of our dreams, our plans, and our parties, the adversary will hand us over to the judge, the judge to the officer, and the officer will consign us to all the agonies and terrors of the "second" and "eternal death." "He that believeth not, is condemned already." My dear reader, without genuine conversion this is your present condition, and it will be your future fate.
But believers in Christ are delivered from this woe. The death sentence that once hung over them, just as it did over everyone else, has been lifted. The curse is removed, the indictment is dismissed, and "there is, therefore, now no condemnation." To understand this better, let's consider what this condition does *not* mean. It doesn't mean deliverance from the presence of sin within us, or exemption from God's discipline, or the absence of self-accusation. It certainly doesn't mean there's nothing in the believer that deserves death. All these things exist even where no condemnation exists. The battle against indwelling evil continues, the loving discipline of a Father is still experienced, the self-condemnation is still felt, and daily in the holiest life there are still things happening that, if God were to strictly mark our sins, would deserve and receive eternal punishment. Yet the declaration stands untouched and unchallenged: "No condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus." This is the blessed condition we will now describe more fully.
The believer's freedom is exactly what it claims to be: complete exemption from *condemnation*. Through his relationship with Christ, he is delivered from everything that weighty and solemn word implies. Sin does not condemn him, the law does not condemn him, the curse does not condemn him, hell does not condemn him, God does not condemn him. He stands outside the reach of these powers, under whose combined and terrible weight all others collapse. A brief and straightforward argument should be enough to establish this truth. The *pardon* of sin necessarily cancels its power to condemn. When no sin can be legally charged, no condemnation can be justly pronounced. Now, through Christ's sacrifice, all the sins of the Church are completely removed. He, the sinless Lamb of God, took them up and carried them away into a land of oblivion, where even the Divine mind cannot recall them. "How powerful are true words!" Listen to those which declare this amazing fact: "I, even I, am He that blots out your transgressions for my own sake, and will not remember your sins." "You have cast all my sins behind your back." "Having forgiven you all trespasses." "Their sins and iniquities will I remember no more." The *cancellation of the law's sentence* must equally destroy its power to condemn. Christ's obedience and death satisfied that law's demands, both in its commands and its punishments. A single declaration from God's Word floods this truth with light: "Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us." The law's sentence thus fell on the Substitute, who was "made under the law, that he might redeem them that were under the law," so there can be no condemnation from it for those who have taken shelter in Him. Therefore, it's clear that both sin and the law are utterly powerless to condemn a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ. We have suggested that the perfection of Christ's satisfaction provides the meritorious and securing cause of our freedom from condemnation. This truth cannot be repeated too often or kept too prominently in view. No legal obedience, no personal merit or worthiness of the sinner whatsoever, factors into his release from condemnation. This exalted position can only be reached by a solution that harmonizes with God's attributes, and thus upholds, in undimmed brilliance, the majesty and honor of the Divine government. God will pardon sin and justify the sinner, but it must be through a process supremely glorifying to Himself. How, then, could a creature's satisfaction, the most perfect that man or the most flawless that angels could offer, secure this result? Impossible. But the case, strange and difficult though it is, is met, fully and adequately met, by Jesus's satisfaction. The Son of God became the Son of man. He presents Himself to the Father in the role of the church's substitute. The Father, seeing in Him the Divinity that supplies the merit and the humanity that yields the obedience and endures the suffering, accepts the Savior and acquits the sinner. Hence the believer's freedom from condemnation. "There is, therefore, *now* no condemnation." It is the existence of a *present* condition. It is the enjoyment of a present immunity. "He is now free from condemnation, not as if the verdict of acquittal were still pending, but as if the sentence had already been passed; not as if he had to look, perhaps doubtfully and uncertainly, forward to some future day when a verdict of exoneration will be pronounced on him, but as if he stood exonerated before God even now, and even now might rejoice in the forgiveness of all his trespasses." It is the simple belief of this fact that brings instant peace to the heart. A present release from condemnation must produce a present joy. Open the iron-bound door of the condemned cell, and by the dim light that struggles through its bars read the sovereign's free pardon to the felon, stretched, pale and wasted, on his pallet of straw; and the radiance you have kindled in that gloomy dungeon, and the transport you have created in that felon's heart, will be a *present realization*. You have given him back a *present life*; you have touched a thousand chords in his heart, which awaken a *present harmony*; and where, just before, sullen, grim despair reigned in that heart, now reigns the sunlit joyfulness of a *present hope*. Christian! there is *now* no condemnation for you. Let yours, then, be a *present* and a full joy. "Christ has made atonement, and with it God is satisfied; and if so, you may well be satisfied, delighting yourselves greatly in the abundance of peace, and going forth even now in the light and liberty of your *present freedom*."
"To them which are in Christ Jesus." We're touching on a vital and profound truth here. Even though many passages can help explain this reality, we doubt we can adequately convey the imposing magnitude and glory of this condition to anyone who hasn't *experienced* the truth itself. Being in Christ can truly be felt, but it's not easily described. The first perspective we'll present illustrates the mystical *in-being* of the church in Christ when He stood as its substitute. Just as all the nations of the world were federally and mystically in Adam when he fell, so the "holy nation," the Church of God, was federally and mystically in the Second Adam, "the Lord from heaven," when in God's counsel He presented Himself as its Surety, and when in the fullness of time He appeared, fully prepared for the sacrifice, to fulfill the commitment. Approach that cross, and what do you see? Do you see a guilty person suffering, a criminal worthy of death? No: you see the sinless Son of God bearing the sin, and consequently the condemnation, of His people. And in that wondrous spectacle, you see all those who are in Christ Jesus brought to the bar of Infinite Justice, tried, sentenced, and condemned in the person of their surety. In Christ they were chosen. To Christ they were betrothed. With Christ they were united. By Christ they are saved. And, sitting with Christ on His throne, they will reign with Him forever and ever.
But there's also the open, manifest reality of being in Christ, which we must emphasize especially as we try to describe this blessed state. "Preserved in Christ Jesus," the sinner is eventually "called in Christ Jesus." "If any man be in Christ Jesus, he is a new creature." An external and nominal profession of the gospel may exist, and exist too in connection with great knowledge, fervent zeal, costly sacrifice, and high moral standards, apart from this internal change. Our Lord describes such a character in these words: "Every branch in me that beareth not fruit he taketh away." Such a person is in Christ by outward profession only. But a state of non-condemnation implies being in Christ in a far higher sense. It includes the great truth of Christ being in us: "I in them." "We are in him that is true, even in his Son Jesus Christ." Thus it's a mutual indwelling: Christ in us, and we in Christ. Here is our security. The believer is in Christ as Jacob was in the garment of the elder brother when Isaac kissed him, and he "smelled the smell of the raiment, and blessed him, and said, See, the smell of my son is as the smell of a field which the Lord hath blessed." He is in Christ as the poor homicide was within the city of refuge when pursued by the avenger of blood, who could not overtake and kill him. He is in Christ as Noah was enclosed within the ark, with the heavens darkening above him and the waters heaving beneath him, yet with not a drop of the flood penetrating his vessel, nor a blast of the storm disturbing the serenity of his spirit. How expressive these scriptural symbols are of the perfect security of a believer in Christ! He is clothed with the garment of the Elder Brother, the righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ, "which is unto all, and upon all them that believe." The Father's hands rest on that garment; in that robe the person of the believer is accepted; it is to God "as the smell of a field which the Lord hath blessed": the blessing of the heavenly birthright is his, and for him there is no condemnation. Pursued by the avenger of blood (the threats of a condemning law), he has reached the city of refuge, the Lord Jesus Christ. Fearful and trembling, yet believing and hoping, he has crossed the sacred threshold, and in an instant he is safe, and for him there is no condemnation. Fleeing from the gathering storm ("the wrath which is to come"), he has taken advantage of the open door of the sacred ark (the crucified Savior), has entered, with God shutting him in, and for him there is no condemnation. Yes, Christ Jesus is our sanctuary, beneath whose shadow we are safe. Christ Jesus is our strong tower, within whose walls no avenger can threaten. Christ Jesus is our hiding place from the wind, and shelter from the tempest; and not one drop of "the wrath to come" can fall on the soul that is in Him. How completely accepted, and how perfectly secure, is the sinner who is in Christ Jesus! He feels he is saved on the basis of a law whose honor is vindicated; through the clemency of a righteous Sovereign whose holiness is secured; and through the mercy of a gracious God, the glory of whose moral government is eternally and gloriously displayed.
Now His head is lifted high above His enemies on every side, for there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. Reader, are you in Christ Jesus? Is this your condition? We repeat the solemn declaration: "If any man be in Christ, he is a *new creature*; old things have passed away; behold, all things are become new." Are you that *new creature*? Test yourself, examine yourself, and find out for certain. Because if you haven't been born again by the Spirit, you can be absolutely sure that you still live under the curse and sentence of the law.
And while condemnation, written in dark and gloomy letters, marks the forehead of every unbelieving sinner outside of Christ, Christ has said of all who have fled from themselves to Him, "He that heareth my word, and believeth on Him that sent me, hath everlasting life, and *shall not come into condemnation*, but is passed from death unto life."
"Who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit." Here we find the defining characteristic of everyone who has secured, through faith in the Lord Jesus, their complete release from the sentence of death. The passage under consideration clearly lays out both the cause and the consequence of the believer's release. We've established that being in Christ is the foundation for not being under condemnation. It follows, then, that walking after the Spirit is a fruit (a consequence) of our freedom from condemnation. While justification and sanctification are separate and distinct conditions, they are related truths that coexist in the experience of all who are born again. The way Paul derives holiness from acceptance here, or rather, the sequence he follows, deserves the reader's closest attention. Failing to observe this sequence has kept countless sincere seekers of Christ in the cold, dreary region of confusion and doubt. These people might have fully received into their souls that "kingdom which is righteousness, and peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit" if they hadn't overlooked this order or, worse, reversed it. Their great mistake has been trying to shape their course after the Spirit, not after the flesh, before establishing that they are in Christ and therefore free from condemnation. Put more plainly, they place sanctification ahead of justification. They substitute the effect for the cause. They look to the Spirit rather than to Christ. How painfully distressing the struggle of such a person becomes! Sincere and earnest in his desire to love God, but with his back turned toward the cross and his face toward the "mount that burns with fire," he can see everything in God to awaken his fear but nothing to inspire his love. He longs to obey God, but lacking the compelling motive for obedience, he fails in every attempt. He sighs for rest, but his constant effort to recover the ground perpetually sliding from beneath his feet pushes that rest further and further beyond his reach. He desperately wants to be holy, but seeking his holiness through doing rather than through believing, he never attains it.
But let me explain what these words mean.
"To walk after the flesh" means to regulate your life and conduct according to our fallen and corrupt nature. The "flesh," which represents our corrupt desires and tendencies, is the only guide for those who haven't been born again. They are in the flesh, they are of the flesh, and they live according to the flesh. "The works of the flesh are obvious," and these they do. But the opposite of this characterizes all true believers. They "walk after the Spirit." Though they share with the unregenerate a fleshly nature in which nothing good dwells, they also possess a new and divine nature that the unregenerate do not have. Renewed by the Spirit, inhabited by the Spirit, sanctified by the Spirit, led by the Spirit, they aim to regulate their lives according to His divine direction, influence, and teaching. The bent of their minds is *holiness*: this they long for, pray and work toward, as the one great purpose of their existence. The fact that they are opposed by the flesh, and by it are often defeated, wounded, and knocked down, cannot destroy the divine principle in their souls any more than a false attraction can destroy the magnetic power of a compass needle. That there should ever be occasional unevenness and irregularity in the walk of any of the Lord's people is a matter of the deepest humiliation; yet even in the stumblings and falls of a righteous person, it cannot truthfully be said that he "walks after the flesh," seeing that he rises again, restored by the grace of Christ. His desires and longings for the Spirit are, perhaps, all the deeper and stronger because of that fall. An unregenerate person falls, and where he falls he lies. "A just man falls seven times, and rises up again" (Prov 24:16), and "walks," perhaps more carefully than ever, "after the Spirit." "It is the direction of that sovereign faculty, the will, which explains the difference. If this is enlisted on the side of the flesh, as it is with every unconverted person, then he sins willfully. If this is enlisted on the side of the Spirit, as it is with every person who has truly turned to the Lord Jesus Christ, then he may sin accidentally; and in some moment of sleep or surprise he may be overtaken. Before the will, as it were, has time to rally and recover, some outpost may have been captured, and even some advantage gained, to the extent of a most humiliating defeat. But deep is the grief that is thereby awakened, and vigorous is the resistance that is thereby summoned into the future warfare. Heavy is that mourning of sackcloth and ashes with which the soul of the penitent offender is afflicted. Though he has stumbled in the way of temptation, he utterly refuses to walk in it, thus giving testimony to the way in which the leading tendencies of his spirit have most painfully and offensively been thwarted by the momentary power and assault of his great adversary. The whole drift of his choosing, deliberating, and purposing faculties is indeed on the side of God and on the side of holiness." What a high and privileged walk, then, is the believer's! While the slaves of the flesh are groveling in their darkness and chains, he is walking after the Spirit, soaring and rejoicing in holy light and liberty.
The subject offers us much important practical instruction.
What a reason for *rejoicing* this gives you who are God's saints! You may see within and around you (in your soul, in your family, and in your circumstances) much that saddens, wounds, and discourages you; but look at the truth which more than counterbalances it all: your freedom from condemnation. What if you are poor? You are not *condemned*! What if you are afflicted? You are not *condemned*! What if you are tempted? You are not *condemned*! What if you are attacked and judged by others? You are still not forsaken and condemned by God; and shouldn't you, then, rejoice? Go to the condemned cell and assure the criminal awaiting his execution that you bring from his sovereign a pardon. Even though he emerges from his imprisonment and his chains to battle with poverty, with sorrow and contempt, will he grumble and complain that in the redemption of his forfeited life, there is no clause that exempts him from the troubles to which that life is linked? No! Life to him is so sweet and precious a thing that though you return it shackled with want and clouded with shame, you have still conferred on him a gift which creates sunshine all within and around him. And why shouldn't we "rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory," for whom, "through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus," there is now no condemnation? Christ has "redeemed our life from destruction." Although it is "through much tribulation we are to enter the kingdom," shouldn't we quicken our pace to that kingdom, rejoicing as we go, that "there is now no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus"? "These things have I spoken to you, that my joy might remain in you, and that your joy might be full." Be earnest and diligent in making sure to yourself your discharge from the sentence and penalty of the law. Pursue the great fact in the Lord's own court by fervent prayer and simple faith. Your Surety has cancelled your debt and purchased your exemption from death. Take advantage of the comfort and the encouragement of the blessing. You may be certain, yes, *quite* certain, of its truth. No process is easier. It is simply to look away from yourself to Christ, and to believe with all your heart that He came into the world to save sinners, and assurance is yours. The order is this: "We *believe*, and are *sure*." Oh, don't leave this matter to a bare possibility. Make sure of your union with Christ, and you may be sure of no condemnation from Christ.
Since sin is the great condemning force, let's aim to *condemn sin* if we want to join those who face no condemnation. It's absolutely true: either we must condemn sin, or we will be condemned for it. The honor of God's government requires that a condemnatory sentence be passed, either on the sin itself or on the sinner. And should we hesitate? Is there really any doubt about which we should prefer?
Which is better: that sin should die, or that we should die? Does the question even deserve a moment's thought? Surely not, unless we're so in love with sin that we calmly and deliberately choose death over life, hell over heaven. "The wages of sin is death." Sin that remains unrepented, unforgiven, and unpardoned is the certain prelude to eternal death. Everlasting destruction follows in its murky wake. There's a present hell in sin, which is why the holy avoid it, and there's a future hell in sin, which is why everyone should dread it. If we want to be among "the pure in heart who will see God," if we want to lift up our faces with joy before the Judge on that last great day, if we want to be freed from the final and terrible sentence of condemnation, then let us be holy, "denying all ungodliness and worldly lusts, and living righteously, soberly, and godly in this present world." Let us condemn sin so that sin cannot condemn us. And let's draw both the motive that compels us and the power that helps us from that cross where Jesus "condemned sin in the flesh."
