Brad Kinneson, Romans 8,1 4

Romans 8:1-4 and the Glorious Promise of No Condemnation

So Romans 8, verses one through four, says, 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.

If you'll pray with me, please. Father, as we sang just moments ago, we want to behold you and we praise you for revealing yourself to us in your word so that we can behold you. And then minutes ahead, reveal your glory and reveal your will and help us to walk in faithful obedience to it, we pray.

In your son's name we pray, amen. So if you'll consider with me our first main point for this sermon, entitled The Glorious Promise. First main point is the glorious promise. So let's consider first, what is this promise from the text in Romans 8?

The promise from verse one is quite obvious, is that there is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. So the promise, what the promise is is obvious, but understanding what Paul means by it might require a little bit more thought, a little bit more effort.

What exactly is Paul meaning by no condemnation? Depending on the context, no condemnation could mean a couple of different things. It could mean freedom from the penalty of sin and our guilt for sin, or it could mean freedom from the power of sin, kind of the rule of sin in our lives.

So in Romans 8, one through four, what is Paul meaning here by no condemnation? Is he meaning freedom from the penalty of sin or freedom from the power of sin? Wonderfully, if we read the whole New Testament, both of these ideas are true.

Because of what Christ has done, we are freed from the penalty of sin and the guilt that comes with that penalty. When we transgress the law of God. And then also through the indwelling power of his Holy Spirit, we are free from the power of sin, the enslavement of sin over us.

But still, we have to figure out which is Paul meaning in our text here. Let me illustrate these two concepts, these two ideas. Imagine for me with a moment, they're sitting in a courtroom and there's a young man, he's been pulled over by the police for going 115 miles per hour in a 65 mile per hour zone.

He gets justly charged with speeding and reckless driving. And then you can imagine, just picture, the judge steps down and he walks over and he's right next to the young man. He says, it's not very much of a surprise, this is an old illustration.

He says, this young man is my son. I will take all of the guilt, all of the penalty of his actions, of his speeding and his reckless driving on myself. And I will pay the $1 ,000 fine that comes along with it.

And so the father pays the fine and the boy leaves with no points on his record and not a dime had to leave his pocket. Every illustration will break down at some point if we push it too far, but the thrust of the illustration, the idea is that the boy was freed from the penalty of a sin.

He didn't have to have any points against his license and he didn't have to pay any fine for it. That's something of what it means for us to be freed of the penalty and the guilt of sin. In Christ and through his imputed righteousness, our record is clean.

Now imagine with me that you've been diagnosed with a severe type of lung cancer. We could imagine this is a terminal diagnosis of lung cancer. We could say that as far as man is concerned and as far as medicine and doctors are concerned, you're condemned to death.

This disease will have absolute power over you to kill you. And so in that sense, you are condemned to death. This just communicates something, the idea of what it means for us to be condemned in the sense or not condemned in the sense of being freed from the enslaving power of sin.

So question is, which sense of no condemnation is Paul talking about in verse one? If you were to pick up five different commentators or 10 different commentators, they're gonna go back and forth on this, about which sense that Paul is meaning by no condemnation.

And there's no clear consensus. We know from reading the whole New Testament that both are wonderfully true, but we wanna be good students of the Bible and we wanna do justice to the text in front of us.

What is the thrust of the text in front of us? Well, I'm not going to claim with 100 dogmatism, with 100 confidence that my interpretation is correct. There's a reason that commentators are going back and forth about these two senses of no condemnation.

But I do find myself more and more strongly leaning in one direction, and that direction is the sense of no condemnation as freedom from the enslaving power of sin over us, rather than simply freedom from the guilt of sin or the penalty of sin.

So freedom from the penalty of sin would be the idea of justification. We're justified by what Christ has objectively and finally and once for all done for us at the cross. But this freedom from the enslaving power of sin while accomplished at the cross is something that he works out through the ongoing process of sanctification in our life.

And I think that's more the idea that Paul is addressing in Romans 8, one through four. Let me explain my reasons for interpreting no condemnation in that sense. First reason, the context surrounding Romans 8, one lends itself more to the idea of freedom from the enslaving power of sin than to freedom from the penalty of sin.

So in chapters three and four of Romans, Paul is definitively and decisively dealt with our justification by faith alone and Christ alone. And then in chapters five through seven, he lays out a number of the benefits that stem from and proceed forth from that doctrine of justification by faith alone.

And these benefits in Romans five through seven are largely experiential benefits. And then in Romans seven, leading right up to our text, Paul teases out the turmoil that a justified believer and follower of Christ experiences as they wrestle with their remaining sin.

He says, for I do not do the good that I want, but the evil that I will not to do is what I keep on doing. Wretched man that I am, who will deliver me from this body of death? You can just sense and hear the experiential nature of Paul's wrestling with his remaining sin in this text.

Well, that's the context leading up to our text here in Romans eight, one through four. What about the context immediately following our text? Again, we'll see here in the context immediately following Romans eight, one through four, the language is that of experience again.

We are to walk and live and think according to the spirit, verses four through seven. By the spirit, we are to put to death the deeds of the body, verse 13. The spirit liberates us from the experiential dynamics of fear and slavery by helping us to see that we have been adopted into the family of God, verses 14 through 17 teach us.

And then verses 18 to 25 talk about our experience of hope in the midst of suffering. It is the spirit who helps us in our weakness when we do not know what to pray for as we ought, verse 26 says. So you see the experiential dynamics that Paul is teasing out here.

He's not laying out abstract theology for us. He's not just tossing around ideas, even though those ideas may have bearing on our lives. No, theology is never meant to be abstract and Paul is not doing abstract theology right here.

Theology is always meant to transform our experience in life. And Paul wants us to know that because of Christ, we are no longer condemned to live helplessly under the enslaving power of sin, which leads to death.

So that's my first reason is the context lends itself more to the sense of no condemnation in terms of freedom from the enslaving power of sin. Second reason for concluding that comes from verse two. If you look at verse two.

For the law of the spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death. What law is Paul referring to here? The law of the spirit of Christ has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death.

What law is that? Is it the Mosaic law? Typically, if the law is just referred to with no modifying words around it, no descriptors, more often than not, New Testament writers are referring to the Mosaic law.

But in this case, we have some descriptors, some modifiers for the word law. And for these reasons, I think it will become obvious in verse two that Paul cannot be referring to the Mosaic law when he talks about the law of the spirit of life setting us free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death.

First of all, there's two laws and the Mosaic law would only be one law. So we at least have to have a category for Paul talking about at least one more law here. I think he's talking about two different types of laws, neither of which are the Mosaic law.

For the law of the spirit of Christ has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death. I think that this word law, the way Paul is using it in this context, carries more the sense of principle or governing power.

Verse two could be translated or paraphrased for the governing power of the spirit who gives life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the governing power of sin, which leads to death. So that would mean, this understanding of the law in verse two would mean that no condemnation in verse one is best understood as freedom from the enslaving power of sin.

Because in verse two, the spirit has set us free from that same enslaving power of sin, which leads to death. So that's second reason. A third reason for concluding that no condemnation is referring to freedom from the enslaving power of sin, rather than from the penalty of sin comes from verse three.

Verse three says, 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. Now here in verse three, I believe Paul is talking about the Mosaic law.

He's using no other descriptors to lead us in any other direction than to think that this is the Mosaic law. So what is it that the Mosaic law couldn't do? God has done what the law weakened by the flesh could not do.

There's no condemnation for us. What could the law not do? The Mosaic law was perfectly capable of condemning sin as sin and pronouncing a sentence of judgment or a penalty against that sin. And the Mosaic law is fantastic at doing that.

It calls out liars and adulterers and murderers for who and what they are. People who cross the line, people who transgress God's good design for how this world is supposed to be and how we're supposed to relate to one another.

The law is very good at condemning in the sense of pronouncing guilt and issuing a penalty. So what then did God do that the law could not do? Well, the law had no ability, no ability whatsoever to actually free us from the enslaving power of sin over us.

It could expose our sinfulness, but not defeat its power over us. It could clue us into the fact that, hey, there's something, there's a sickness in my heart. There's unhealthy dynamics in the way I speak to other people.

There's selfishness, there's pride. There's always working my angle to get my way and my benefit. Well, the law could kind of clue us into that, but it couldn't actually fix the problem. So I'm an emergency room nurse.

That's like running a blood test and I see that there's a sickness, like this person's got an infection, but just running the blood test doesn't do anything to fix the problem. Shooting an X-ray doesn't do anything to fix that broken bone.

Well, the law in a similar way exposes our problem, but it cannot fix our problem in and of itself. And so what the law could not do, I think what Paul's talking about, that the law couldn't do in this text, the law could expose our problem, but it could not fix our problem.

It could not actually definitively, decisively defeat its power over us. And what God did that the law could not do was to decisively defeat the power of sin over us through the redemptive work of his son.

This is a glorious promise. Because of Christ, brothers and sisters, because of Christ, you have been set free from the dominating power of sin. It no longer has dominion over you. It's no longer your slave master.

You no longer have to obey it. So those are three reasons that I lean in the direction of taking no condemnation in verse one and the sense of freedom from the enslaving power of sin. I think it best fits the context.

I think it best fits the ideas that are communicated in verse two and three. Let's consider now what is the foundation of this promise, though? So we have the promise itself. There's no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.

We're freed from the enslaving power of sin. Where is this coming from? And what I'm really trying to ask here is what is the therefore in first one actually referring to? So again, if you look at the commentators, there's gonna be some difference of opinion on this, so I won't be dogmatic either.

Some commentators think Paul is referring maybe back to everything that he's talked about in all of Romans to this point, that Romans 8 .1 is just kind of building on top of everything that he said to this point.

I think that's possible. They would say especially he's building on justification by faith alone that he discussed in Romans chapters three and four. However, I believe that the therefore more naturally connects to what comes immediately before it, particularly in verse 25.

So if you look at the end of Romans 7, verse 24 and 25, Paul concludes his struggle with remaining sin by saying, wretched man that I am. Ever felt that way? Just dealing with the sin that's still within us, the remaining aspects of sin, the remaining vestiges that are waging war against us.

Ever feel like that? Wretched man that I am. Still fighting with these things. I'm still speaking unkind words to my wife or my husband. I'm still just by default more concerned about myself and my interests than the interests of others.

Paul here's feeling that intense struggle with indwelling sin, wretched man that I am. Who will deliver me from this body of death? Verse 25 says, thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord. So the foundation of our promise here in Romans 8, 1, where Paul's drawing from, he's drawing it directly from what comes before.

Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord. Why is there no condemnation for us? Why have we been set free from the enslaving power of sin over us? Not to say that sin has, not that it doesn't have any influence at all over us anymore.

Why have we been set free from its enslaving power? Paul says, because of Christ. Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord. And he's gonna explain a little bit more about that, about what Christ has done in verses two and three.

So because of Jesus, Romans 8, 1 is true. We are not condemned to the enslaving power of sin any longer. Sin is no longer your master if you were in Christ. Next question that this text would naturally draw out.

Okay, there's a promise and there's a wonderful promise. Been in bondage to sin. And I've felt the, just the intense struggle with it, the painful dynamics of it. And there's this freedom that's offered, this liberation, there's no condemnation to live under the enslaving mastery of sin anymore.

Well, to whom is this promise given? Well, the text says to those who are in Christ Jesus. This means those who have been united to Christ by faith. Union with Christ is the most, one of the most wonderful dynamics of how God has worked out our salvation.

Romans 6, verses five to six says, for if we have been united to him in a death like his, we will certainly be united to him in a resurrection like his. We know that our former, our old self was crucified with him in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing, so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin.

So because I am united to Christ, the idea here is because I am united to Christ, because you are united to Christ by faith, it's as if we died with him on the cross. The penalty for our sins was paid in his crucifixion, in his atoning work there.

And we are free from it. We're free from the penalty. We're also free from the power. We are not condemned to live in slavery to sin any longer. And the logic of Paul in Romans 6 is because of what Christ has done to justify us on the cross, and also to decisively defeat sin, therefore, he said, so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin.

God is not just working for your justification, brothers and sisters. As much as we love that doctrine, as much as we love the glorious truth that a perfectly holy and righteous God could accept us into his presence because of the substitutionary work and sacrifice of his son on our behalf, and the imputation or the giving, the crediting of his righteousness, his perfection to our account, as much as we love that doctrine, as wonderfully true as it is, that's not all God's doing for you.

He's doing more than that. He's actually liberating you from the enslaving power of sin so that you can walk in obedience, in faith-filled and joy-filled obedience to his commandments, which reflect his character.

We are no longer enslaved to sin. This promise is for those who are in Christ. Is everyone in Christ, though? Well, of course not. We can look at the world and figure that out. We can look at the Bible and figure that out.

We can look at the world and figure that out. How many different religions are there? People striving, working, concocting systems of thought, systems of behavior, to try to justify themselves, to try to medicate their guilt, try to medicate the knowledge of the living God, which Romans 1 teaches us they have, which makes them aware of God's divine attributes, his divine nature.

The whole world's trying to medicate themselves with religions, sometimes with actual medications. People all over the world are worshiping other so-called gods or even worshiping themselves by making their happiness or their success the meaning of their existence.

The world teaches us that not everyone is in Christ. We see that. The Bible also teaches us that not everyone is in Christ, and the only way to be united to Christ is through faith in him. Faith is belief in God coupled with whole soul dependence on God.

It's never just mental acknowledgement of the facts, but it's never less than that. You have to actually believe these things are true about God. Jesus came in the flesh. Jesus lived a perfect life. Jesus died and rose again from the dead.

Those are all propositional statements, propositional claims. We have to wrestle with them, and if we believe, we have to assent to their truth. Faith is never less than that, but it's always more than that.

It's whole soul dependence on God. It's trusting, entrusting ourselves to him such that we would be willing to sell everything and purchase him as that pearl of great price hidden in the field. We would follow him no matter the cost.

Are you in Christ? I hope so. I hope that's true for each and every one of you. If you are in Christ, this promise is for you. You have been set free from the enslaving power of sin. You no longer have to submit to it.

If not, then my friend, there's no promise for you in this text, this promise of no condemnation, this promise of freedom, of liberation from the enslaving power of sin that we all experience is not for you because you are not in Christ.

In and of yourself, you will never overcome sin in your own power. You need Christ. And the good news is that he offers himself to you still. Behold, I stand at the door and knock. Whoever would open up the door, I will come in and dine with you.

All you who are weary and heavy laden, come to me and I will give you rest, he says. You may feel the guilt and the anguish of your sin and wonder, who will deliver me from this body of death? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ, your Lord, if you would believe in him and follow him today.

One last thought before I move onto our second main point of the day. So this is our last thought under the first main point, a glorious promise. I want to ask an honest question to my brothers and sisters in this room who are true followers of Christ.

Do you ever still feel condemned in your sin? If you're being honest with yourself and with us, do you ever still feel condemned in your sin? There are at least two ways we often still feel condemned by God, even though we may truly believe in him and truly be following him.

These two ways that we often still feel condemned are when we sin, like Paul in Romans 7, just the anguish, the suffering, the heartache over his ongoing struggle with sin. We still feel condemned when we sin and then also when we suffer.

You may say, I've spoken that selfish and thoughtless and insensitive word to my wife or to my kid for the 100th time. How could God forgive me? I've behaved in this way, I've thought in this way, I've done this thing.

Whatever the besetting sin may be for you, no one knows our own sin struggles more than we do. That's why Paul can say, I'm the chief of sinners. He knows his heart better than anyone. You know your heart better than anyone.

And you say, I've done this thing or thought this thing for the 100th time. How could God forgive me? Those are real experiences for true believers and they sound a lot like Paul in Romans 7. For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing.

Wretched man that I am, who will deliver me from this body of death? It's important for us to remember that though we are in Christ, for those of us who are in Christ, and though it is decisively true that at the cross he has defeated the power of sin as our enslaving master, our slave master, it's defeated, we do not have to submit to it any longer.

We have the freedom now not to sin. Whereas before we were bound in our sins, in prison in them, compelled by them. It's important for us to remember that even though sin is not our slave master, that it just obviously still exerts influence in our life.

And that explains so many of the dynamics of our struggles internally, individually, and relationally with one another. Sin exerts its influence on us still, even though we have been objectively freed of having it as our slave master.

What about when we suffer? Doesn't that often feel like condemnation of God on our lives? You or someone you love may deal with chronic pain issues, or you may have gotten a dreaded diagnosis, some condition, maybe cancer, some serious disease, or in the moments before your actual death, you may be gasping for breath, struggling to actually expand your lungs and draw in enough oxygen to breathe.

And as you don't get enough oxygen in, you don't get enough to your brain, and you start to become just more and more out of it, more and more loopy. In those moments you think, are you judging me, God?

It still feels like I'm being judged right now, like I'm under your condemnation right now. Are you my loving father, or am I under your condemnation right now? When sin entered the world, it brought with it many excruciating pains and trials into our lives.

We live in the already, but not yet. Christ at the cross has definitively secured our justification for a holy God, and he has definitively defeated Satan and sin as our slave masters. Those things are already true, once and for all at the cross, but we haven't come into the consummation of them yet, the full experience of them yet.

Christ has already died for us, justified us, and ascended to secure our eternal joy forever in the presence of the Father. But right now, we're going to deal with the remaining effects of sin, both our sins and the sins of the world, and original sin on our lives.

And it's in our moments of suffering, and it's in the moments of wrestling with our sins, brothers and sisters. You must let the objective truth of no condemnation in Christ Jesus outweigh the subjective feelings of fear and guilt.

So that was our first point, the glorious promise of no condemnation in Christ. We've been set free, wonderfully, from the enslaving power of sin. Now consider much more briefly with me our second point, the promise made reality.

The promise made reality. At this point, someone could say, what an incredible promise. That sounds good, but how could it be? How can that be true? How does that work? No condemnation? Freedom from the enslaving power of sin?

Well, let's look at the structure of the passage. Let's look at the structure of Romans eight, one through four, to answer this question. So in verse one, we have the promise, no condemnation. And then verses two and three, each start with a for clause, that word for, which goes on to give reasons for the promise made in verse one.

And then verse four begins with an in order that clause, which is going to explain the intended result of what God has done in verses two and three. So if you can visualize the outline of the text here, verse one, the promise, verse two is a reason supporting that promise, verse three is another reason supporting that promise, and then verse four is the result, the intended result of all of this.

So to answer that question, how is it possible? It's a wonderful promise, how can it be so? How is it possible that there's no condemnation for us? Our first sub-point in answering that question is not by the law, brothers and sisters.

Verse three says, for God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do. This is essentially the same point that I made earlier in arguing that we should interpret no condemnation as freedom from the enslaving power of sin rather than the penalty of sin.

The law was very good at exposing sin and issuing a penalty for it, but it was powerless at the end of the day to actually defeat sin's reign, its enslaving reign over our lives. So let me step away from our text and run off on a quick tangent for a minute.

So how's it possible that there's no condemnation for us? Not by the law, the text says, not by human effort to keep the commandments of God. What does the law do for us then? And this is a little bit of a tangent because Paul's not asking and answering this question.

What does the law do for us? Well, first, the law informs us about sin. Romans 3 .20 says, for by works of the law, no human being will be justified in his sight since through the law comes the knowledge of sin.

Second thing the law does, the law actually brings judgment against sin. Romans 4 .15, for the law brings wrath. Third thing that the law does, the law exposes our sin. This is something more than just informing about our sin, it actually exposes it, it draws it out.

Romans 7 .7 -8, what then shall we say? That the law is sin? By no means, yet if it had not been for the law, I would not have known sin. For I would not have known what it is to covet if the law had said, you shall not covet.

But sin, seizing an opportunity through the commandment, through the law, produced in me all kinds of covetousness. The law exposes it, draws out our sinfulness. Fourth thing the law does, this is not an exhaustive list, we could say more.

Fourth thing, the law imprisons everything under sin. Galatians 3 .21 -22, is the law then contrary to the promises of God? Certainly not, for if a law had been given that could give life, then righteousness would indeed be by the law.

But the scripture imprisoned everything under sin so that the promise by faith in Jesus Christ might be given to those who believe. So, back from the rabbit trail, just a little excursus on the law. Back to our question under our second main heading, how is it possible that you and I can actually be free from the enslaving power of sin and that we can live free from the enslaving power of sin?

First answer is not by the law, second answer we find in verse two. Verse two, for the law of the spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death. Remember that, verse two could be paraphrased, for the governing power of the spirit who gives life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the governing power of sin which leads to death.

The idea here in verse two is the doctrine of regeneration. How can you and I be set free from the enslaving power of sin? Only through the regenerating power of the Holy Spirit, only through God himself dwelling in you can you ever be enabled to have victory over sin in your life.

This is not just a New Testament concept. This is exactly what God foretold in Ezekiel 36, verses 26 and 27, where he says, I will give you a new heart and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh.

And I will put my spirit within you and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules. So in the anticipation of the new covenant, in Ezekiel, God reveals he's gonna give us a new heart.

He's going to place his own spirit within us. And what is he gonna do? I'm gonna cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules. So brothers and sisters, how can you be free from the enslaving power of sin?

Paul's first answer he's going to is through the regenerating power, through the indwelling power of the Holy Spirit. How committed is God to your holiness, brother and sister? How much does he care about your holiness?

He has dwelled in you. He has condescended, he has humbled himself to actually come and to make you his living temple, that he would take up residence in you. And through his indwelling power, give you the ability to overcome sin.

You are no longer its slave. Lean on him, brother and sister. Do not lean on yourself in the fight against sin. You'll wear yourself out if you lean on yourself. So back to our question here, how is it possible that you and I can live free from the enslaving power of sin?

How could it be possible? Not by the law, but by the regenerating power of the Holy Spirit. And then look at verse three. Another answer Paul gives to this is by the initiation of the Father. What Paul is showing us in this text is that the entire trinity of God is committed to freeing you from the enslaving power of sin.

He says, for God has done, the Father. 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. Do you see the initiative here?

Do you see God the Father lovingly initiating this work of liberating us from our sin? If your view of God is that the Father is all wrath and the Son is all love and the Son's entire mission, entire purpose is just to appease the wrath of the Father, then you have a skewed, you have an imbalanced view of God.