Free From Condemnation

As I write this article, I’m sitting in a room filled with bright colors and cheerful pictures. The sun is beaming through a large window. I can see the sky, and it’s blue and beautiful. And yet not one of these things can change my sorrowful heart. Condemnation has set in, and there isn’t anything that will help me cast my cares in the right place besides the Word of God and His Spirit.

So I open my Bible on my lap and turn to those familiar verses in Romans 8:1, “There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.” It doesn’t matter if you’ve been a Christian for one day or one hundred years, we all must be reminded that we have complete peace with God because of His Son Jesus. There is no condemnation. There is no sentence of wrongdoing. But haven’t we done so much to be condemned for? Yes. But Jesus paid it all. God did what the law could not do. Read Romans 8:3–4.

God is holy and just and rightly requires holiness and perfection from us. Sin cannot be in His presence; He won’t tolerate it. He is righteous and pure. We are the opposite. Yes, as His image-bearers we have the capacity to reflect some of the beauty of God. But as Paul also explained, “For there is no distinction: for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Rom. 3:23). We fall short. In our sinful nature, we are powerless to change ourselves. We are in need of saving from the wrath of God.

So God gave His Son.

Paul again writes, “And [we] are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, who God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith” (Rom. 3:24). God gave His Son as the full and complete payment for our sin. Both our sin and the resulting condemnation have been wiped away.

When we think of a payment, we often imagine some sort of deposit—like giving money to a bank. That is not how justification plays out in the life of a new Christian. We don’t give anything—Jesus gives all. We don’t pay anything—Jesus pays it all. And then He continues to give and plead on our behalf throughout our entire walk of faith. All of this is a free gift of His grace (Eph. 2:8).

So if you are sitting there weary of your sin, repent and rest in Christ knowing that it has been covered. Your sin has been forgiven not in part but the whole—every bit of that filthy sin has been covered and paid for by the blood of the Lamb. No more crushing condemnation for you and me.

If God doesn’t condemn us, why do we condemn ourselves? Remember the truth and sufficiency of Christ’s work on the cross. Receive and thank God for Jesus.