TUESDAY March 5th
Romans 8:1
‘There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are Christ Jesus’ the NIV also has ‘who do not live according to the sinful nature, but according to the Spirit.’
It can be too easy for me to get carried away when preparing the devotions, for the more I explore, the more I want to include, and this first verse is one such verse. It immediately opens up to us the wonderful subject of what salvation has done for us, in a nutshell, condemnation is gone, we who were once guilty as sinners now stand before God as justified, he declares to us ‘Not guilty’.
Paul had received such incredible revelation concerning the doctrine of salvation. We could say, as we consider what he had been as a blasphemer and hater of the gospel message, that he of all people would be excited to celebrate the fact that all condemnation had gone and he had been welcomed, admitted through grace into the family of God.
But this is also our testimony, yes! yours and mine as we have come by faith to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, it doesn’t matter who we were and what we had done, prior to our new birth, in Christ we have been forgiven, and God has made the declaration over us ‘Not guilty’, therefore, today rejoice that you are no longer under condemnation and you too have been included, welcomed into the family of God. This is a subject which Paul will bring us to as we go through this chapter, but for now, from verse 15, ‘. . . you have received the Spirit of adoption as sons, by who we cry, “Abba! Father!”’
Justification is a major part of the redemption story, for Scripture is very clear that we are all deserving of death and of eternal punishment for our sin.
Our sin which is transgression before the holy God had also separated us from God. There was a great unassailable gulf between us, we could do absolutely nothing to bridge the gulf, but one did and his name is Jesus. He became a man, lived as a man, and he died as a man so that though his death and resurrection the gulf could be spanned. He took our sin—yes, all your sin, all my sin, in fact the sin of the whole world and died as a substitute for us, taking the punishment and the wrath of God toward that sin, so that God could be satisfied, and the justifier of all who would come to him by faith through the Lord Jesus Christ.
This is the only means of salvation and therefore the only means through which God can look at any man or woman and declare ‘Not guilty’.
Until the ‘Not guilty’ verdict has been declared upon us, we are still under condemnation, many think that they are okay as they stand before God, but the means for which they assume to be okay are not valid, they depend on their own works, self-righteousness, maybe even by adhering to rules and regulations, but the verdict is only made by coming through the way that God has made available, the Lord Jesus Christ.
‘Therefore’ if you are in Christ, that is you have been born again by the Spirit of God, you are no longer under condemnation, it is in the grace of God that you stand.