Romans 8:1-2 (NLT)
“1 So now there is no condemnation for those who belong to Christ Jesus. 2 And because you belong to him, the power of the life-giving Spirit has freed you from the power of sin that leads to death.”
Condemned is a word that most of us are familiar with. We might see it stamped in big bold letters on a yellow ribbon that’s wrapped around a building. The property has been closed by local authorities typically because it’s deemed unsafe. It’s unfit for human habitation or traffic, which means that it is no longer useful for the purpose for which it was intended. If we condemn ourselves, it is called self-condemnation. Essentially it means that we have relegated ourselves to a place of not being useful or fit for the purpose for which we were created. Romans 8:1 tells us that there will be none of this for all those that belong to Jesus Christ, our powerful Lord and Savior. When we accept him into our lives and trust in God’s Word, we can no longer be condemned.
Romans 10:9-10(NLT) says, “9 If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. 10 For it is by believing in your heart that you are made right with God, and it is by confessing with your mouth that you are saved.” This passage is telling us that when we confess with our mouths that Jesus Christ is Lord, and we believe with our hearts that God raised him from the dead, we are born again! We become God’s children, and He sends the Holy Spirit to come and live inside us. Although we can’t explain it, it’s a miraculous transformation, and we experience it in a very real way. Within a moment, we are transferred from death to eternal life by the power of God’s love, and we are never the same.
Condemning ourselves makes light of what we have received because we’re condemning what God has given us through the sacrifice of Jesus Christ. The Holy Spirit is not an abstract essence or mist. He is a person, more of a person than we are. The Holy Spirit is God’s Spirit, and when we accept Jesus Christ as our personal Lord and Savior, God places His Spirit inside our body temples. 1Corinthians 6:19-20(NLT) says, “19 Don’t you realize that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit, who lives in you and was given to you by God? You do not belong to yourself, 20 for God bought you with a high price. So you must honor God with your body.” The Holy Spirit is God’s gift to us, and we desperately need his power, knowledge, and fruit to live a successful Christian life.
Jesus Christ teaches us in John 16:13 that the Spirit will guide us into all truth, and he will tell us what he hears from Christ; he will tell us about the future. The Spirit sees and knows everything there is to know about us. He knows where God is taking us, and without his help, we cannot navigate the rocky terrain of this dark world. We must also be fully aware that the Holy Spirit is perfect, and he never makes a mistake. He was working in Christ as he fulfilled his mission of reconciling us back to God, and he is also working in the lives of every born-again believer. Philippians 2:13(NLT) tells us, “For God is working in you, giving you the desire and the power to do what pleases him.”
Without the Spirit, we are condemned, but with the Spirit, we have life. We are worthy because God has placed His Spirit within us. Romans 8:3-5(NIV) tells us, “3 For what the law was powerless to do because it was weakened by the flesh, God did by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh to be a sin offering. And so he condemned sin in the flesh, 4 in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fully met in us, who do not live according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.” God completed for us in Christ what the law or no other could do. Through our Great Redeemer, our Heavenly Father has supplied everything we need to live powerfully in the Spirit and be free of self-condemnation and sin. We must not sink to the level of believing a lie about the victory Christ won for us. Instead, we must celebrate it every moment by thanking God for the finished work of Christ and being committed to live in his victory each day. ■
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“Don’t Sink into Self-Condemnation”, written for Springfield Fellowship © 2024. All rights reserved. All praise and honor to God through Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior.