WWUTT 152 There Is No Condemnation?

WWUTT Podcast iconWWUTT Podcast

1 view

0 comments

00:01
One verse, that's as far as we're going to get in Romans chapter 8 today. Just one verse. But in that one verse is the gospel.
00:08
The power of salvation for all who repent of their sin and believe on the name of Christ Jesus when we understand the text.
00:25
You're listening to When We Understand The Text, an online Bible ministry committed to teaching sound doctrine and exposing the faulty.
00:32
Now here's our host, Pastor Gabe Hughes. Thank you, Becky. And greetings, everyone. I hope this finds you well, rejoicing in the spirit and in truth.
00:41
As we come back to Romans chapter 8 today, we read through the entire chapter yesterday, all 39 verses.
00:48
And today we're going to read through verse 11. We'll spend the rest of our week on this particular section, probably into next week as well.
00:55
It's just such a rich chapter. I want to spend some time talking about this. Romans chapter 8, starting in verse 1.
01:01
There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.
01:06
For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death.
01:12
For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do. By sending his own
01:18
Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, he condemns 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
01:31
Spirit. For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh.
01:37
But those who live according to the Spirit set their minds on the things of the Spirit.
01:43
For to set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace.
01:49
For the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God, for it does not submit to God's law.
01:55
Indeed, it cannot. Those who are in the flesh cannot please God. You however are not in the flesh, but in the
02:03
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.
02:11
But if Christ is in you, although the body is dead because of sin, the Spirit is life because of righteousness.
02:18
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
02:28
Spirit who dwells in you. There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.
02:40
If you've been highlighting verses in your Bible as we've been going through this study of Romans, that's one to highlight.
02:45
It's one to commit to memory. Such joy and assurance that is in that simple sentence.
02:51
There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.
02:58
No one can condemn you. No one can separate you from the love of Christ. As is talked about at the end of this chapter, you cannot condemn yourself.
03:07
And the best news of all folks, God does not condemn you because we have been justified through Christ Jesus, our
03:14
Lord. In fact, chapter 8, verse 1 is repeating a statement that Paul made in chapter 5, verse 1.
03:22
Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our
03:28
Lord Jesus Christ. This justification, this forgiveness of sins that we've received in Christ.
03:34
We stand before a holy God declared innocent because Christ took our sins upon himself when he died on the cross.
03:41
He absorbed the wrath of God. And all those who have repented of their sins and follow Christ stand before God justified.
03:49
He looks at us and he sees us with the same righteousness that his son has.
03:54
And so therefore, there's no condemnation for those who are in Christ. It's the same statement said in a different way.
04:01
Now when Paul makes that statement in chapter 5, verse 1, he's summarizing an argument that he had been making from chapter 3, verse 21 through chapter 4.
04:10
If you'll remember in chapter 4, he talked about Abraham being justified by faith. He's the example of how all are saved by grace through faith.
04:19
That is how a person was saved in the Old Testament. And it's how a person is saved in the New Testament. On the other side of the cross and on this side of the cross, either side, we are saved by grace through faith.
04:31
And Abraham is shown to be an example there. And so after using Abraham as an example, Paul says, therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our
04:42
Lord Jesus Christ. And he unpacks that theological statement through chapters 5, 6, and 7.
04:48
This is exegesis, folks. What is exegesis? Well, it's doing what we're doing, reading line by line through the scriptures, using scripture to interpret scripture and come to a full understanding of what the
05:02
Spirit of God truly means to communicate to us by this word. We are not imposing our views on the text.
05:09
Rather, we are letting the text impose itself upon us. The contrast to this is what's called eisegesis, and it's when we take our views and impose them on the text rather than letting the text speak to us, rather than trying to come to an understanding of what the
05:24
Spirit of God truly means to say. We think of exegesis as being something that we do, right?
05:30
It's something that we do from the pulpit. We take the words that were written down by the apostles and we expose them.
05:36
It's also called expository preaching for that reason. Well, it's not just we that do that.
05:41
The apostles themselves did this. This was the very way that they wrote. Paul will make a theological statement, and then he will unpack that statement.
05:49
And what we do when we preach through these books line by line is we just unpack those statements all the more, come to an even deeper and fuller knowledge of what the
05:58
Spirit means to say through the prophets and through the apostles.
06:03
Perhaps you're familiar with a statement that Andy Stanley made about a year ago. It was a controversial statement when he said the following, guys that preach verse by verse through books of the
06:14
Bible, that is just cheating. It's cheating because that would be easy. First of all, that isn't how you grow people.
06:22
No one in the scripture modeled that. There's not one example of that lie.
06:28
That is wrong. As a matter of fact, it is exactly the way the Bible was written, making a statement and then unpacking it.
06:35
And that's a grace that the Spirit of God does for us through the prophets and the apostles. A statement like there is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.
06:45
That statement stands fine on its own. But then we have a continued instruction, a continue unfolding of the mind of God in the verses that follow.
06:55
For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death.
07:01
That's just continuing to show us how there's no condemnation for those who are in Christ. And notice that chapter eight ends the same way that it begins.
07:10
There is nothing in all creation that will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus, our
07:18
Lord. That's verse 39. So between those two statements, there's no condemnation for those who are in Christ and nothing in all creation will separate us from the love of Christ in between those.
07:30
Those two bookends is all of the volumes of everything that we need to know into what goes into understanding that truth.
07:38
That's just what the Spirit does for us, has revealed to us the mind of God in this way through his scriptures and through this text.
07:45
It is not cheating to go verse by verse through the Bible. That's how we learn the
07:52
Bible. And it's not easy. As a matter of fact, what's easy is to make up your own topics, your own sermons, and then just grab
08:00
Bible verses to fit that. That simple. That's easy because it's more appealing to your flesh than it is worshipful of the
08:08
Spirit of God. I know that sounds harsh, but it should because Andy Stanley statement is is simply contrary to scripture.
08:16
It is opposed to the way that the Bible itself was written. Be wary of anyone that tells you that we shouldn't be learning the
08:25
Bible verse by verse this way or going through entire books of the Bible at a time. A regular part of a church's diet should be exposition or exegetical teaching.
08:36
Topical sermons are fine. You can go through topics sometimes. And if your church has ever done a seminar, you know, whether that was related to marriage or parenting or end times or anything like that, those things are topical.
08:46
There will still be exegesis there, but together as the body of Christ, what we should be regularly committed to is a study of the scriptures this way, opening up the text, going line by line and verse by verse through the
09:02
Bible. It is the best way that we have to understand what God truly means to say to us.
09:08
It is submitting to the authority of scripture. We submit to the full authority of scripture.
09:14
It is a very scary thing if any pastor would ever say that there are sections of the
09:19
Bible that we shouldn't be covering in the pulpit. Oh, it's all supposed to be covered from the pulpit from Genesis one to Revelation 22 and everything in between.
09:29
There should be nothing in this book that would be considered taboo to be declaring from the pulpit.
09:35
This is where the word of God is supposed to be spoken to the people of God. So let us be fully submissive and committed to this word as we have it.
09:44
Let us not add to it. Let us not take anything away. Let us not go beyond what is written.
09:49
As Paul said to the Corinthians, let us be in full submission to the spirit of God and what has been revealed in the word of God.
09:57
And by this word, if I could bring this back to the verse we've been studying by this word, we know there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.
10:07
It's not that no one is condemned. Those who are in Christ are not condemned.
10:13
How do we know who is in Christ and who is not by fully understanding the word of God? You know,
10:19
John 3, 16, don't miss the verses that come after that. For God so loved the world that he gave his only son that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.
10:32
For God did not send his son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him, whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already because he is not believed in the name of the only son of God.
10:51
It's an interesting thing that verse 17 says God did not send his son into the world to condemn the world, and yet verse 18 says, but whoever does not believe is condemned already.
11:02
If God did not send Christ to condemn the world, then how are they condemned if they don't believe because they condemn themselves?
11:09
We stand before God condemned in our sin, in our blasphemy, the evil things that we do, the rebellion that we have committed against God, breaking his perfect and righteous law, declaring our own glory instead of his.
11:24
But while what we deserve for that was death, the wrath of God poured out upon us,
11:30
Jesus showed his love for us and that while we were yet sinners, he died for us.
11:35
By his stripes we are healed. Where he died there on that cross, he took our sins upon himself and he absorbed the wrath of God, imparting upon us his righteousness so that all who have repented of their sins and believed in Jesus Christ as Lord stand before God justified.
11:55
We are not condemned. The world does not condemn us. You do not condemn yourself and God, best news of all, does not condemn you because what he sees upon you is the righteousness of Christ.
12:10
By faith we have been justified and we have peace with God. Good news folks.
12:17
Take it to the bank. God, we thank you so much for the riches of assurance that we have in Christ Jesus, a treasure that is stored up in a place where moth and rust cannot destroy, where thieves cannot break in and steal, where robbers can't take from us.
12:34
Nothing in this world can separate us from it. Nothing in this world can even replace it or compare to the treasure that we have in Christ.
12:43
Help this to be stored up in heaven with you because we know that where our treasure is, our heart will be also and we want our minds and our thoughts to be completely submitted to the things of God.
12:54
Keep us accountable according to your word and we pray these things in Jesus name,
13:00
Amen. You can find a complete list of videos, books, devotionals, and other resources online at www .tt