God Condemned Sin in Christ So You Don’t Have to Be (Romans 8:1-4)
Your Judgment Day is Coming
You are going to be judged. So am I. According to Jesus, Paul, Peter, the Old Testament and the New Testament, God will judge each one of us. We are destined to die once, and after that face judgment (Hebrews 9:27). The judge who has been appointed is Jesus Christ (Acts 17:30).
Do you not feel just a little apprehensive about that? Does that make you feel uncomfortable? Isn’t that just a little bit scary?
In job interviews I notice that I have at least a heightened state of alertness, if not nervousness. I feel embarrassed when my shortcomings are exposed. Being assessed is not fun, if you have weaknesses. Maybe you know the same feelings. Maybe you’ve felt that way after a parent teacher interview, or when your report came home. Maybe it was after being called into the principal’s office. Maybe it is having a painful performance appraisal at work. Maybe you’ve been criticized by others – family, friends, nieghbours, church people, news media – and if some of it was unfair, other bits you just needed to cop on the chin because it was fair enough. Being criticized, being judged, is never fun. It’s painful.
'Critic' just means one who judges. And God is the critic of the world and the judge of all humanity. And Jesus Christ is the one who will judge the world with justice.
When I was at the College of Law, we did mock trials. It was all pretend. A solicitor pretended to be a judge or magistrate. Students pretended to be solicitors for non-existent clients. And other students pretended to be witnesses.
I remember one time when I had to pretend to be a witness to a car accident. My character was a middle-aged married woman. You will be glad to know we weren’t required to do dress ups at the College of Law to play our parts. I was certainly glad at the time. No doubt so were the others. But I was given an A4 sheet of paper with my name and what I saw. I was addressed as Mrs ‘So and So’. I gave my evidence in chief. And I was cross-examined for a short time, maybe 10 minutes, about whether I saw steam or smoke arise from the car engine. 'Surely madam, you can tell the difference between steam and smoke, can’t you? Steam comes up from your cup of tea, smoke from your fire.' Well, in the stress of being cross-examined, I had forgotten the difference.
It was all pretend. I had my evidence on a sheet of paper in front of me. It was all scripted. He was saying ‘Mrs Whatever’, not my name. It clearly wasn’t personal. But as I left the pretend witness box, I felt naked, exposed, stupid and guilty. The very setting - a court, with cross examination, and facing a judge who will judge my credibility– brought out all the feelings as if it was real.
Do you not feel a little apprehensive that the real God of all the earth will judge each one of us for our real sins? The end of Ecclesiastes says this:
‘God will bring every deed into judgment, including every hidden thing, whether it is good or evil.’ (Ecclesiastes 12:14 NIV)
Last year I went to a clergy conference. We heard about how one parish minister, with his parish councillor, had been sued for defamation[1]. In the end, the minister and parish councillor won the case and were awarded costs. But he was put in the witness box and had to endure questioning and cross examination for two days before a judge by counsel. And he said something like this to about 200 ministers. ‘I don’t think anyone here knows what it is like to be placed under that sort of scrutiny’. And he was right. Because I reckon a whole room full of 200 clergy were sitting there, studying their shoes in a cold sweat thinking, ‘Boy, I am so glad that wasn’t me’, and ‘Please Lord, let that not be me’.
Well, God is going to judge us. God will judge me, more strictly than you, and God will judge you, less strictly than me. For Paul says:
‘For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that each one may receive what is due him for the things done while in the body, whether good or bad.’ (2 Corinthians 5:10 NIV)
Do you not find the idea of God judging you at least a little scary? I do.
Jesus says this:
‘A time is coming when all who are in their graves will hear [the voice of the Son of Man, Jesus] and come out – those who have done good will rise to live, and those who have done evil will rise to be condemned’. (John 5:27 NIV)
You know, as scary as judgment by human courts is, or should be, sometimes people get away with things. Sometimes courts and judges and barristers, with all the good intentions in the world, miss things. Sometimes they have prejudices and biases they cannot overcome. Sometimes money and power and influence and the ability to pay good lawyers means not all are equal before the courts. And sometimes the law is an ass, and you will not find justice in the Australian Legal System.
You know, none of these things will happen with God. God never misses anything. God sees everything. Even our motives and thoughts and intentions. When God judges each on of us,
‘He will bring to light what is hidden in darkness and will expose the motives of men’s hearts.’ (1 Corinthians 4:5 NIV)
God has caught and captured every act and behaviour and thought and intention and motive and purpose of every second of our lives. It is stored away in the mind of God, in his massive DVD database. God has no need of photoshop or special effects. His camera doesn’t lie.
Imagine if I grabbed my guitar lead, and shoved one end in my ear, and one end in the data projector. And out poured everything I had ever thought, said or done, up on the big screen, for all the world to see. And there is my mum and dad, and my kids, and my friends, in the audience. And there is God and Jesus Christ, my maker and judge. How would I feel? Naked? Exposed? Embarrased? I’d yell, ‘Turn it off!’ And I bet you would too. Because we sense our own guilt. Our consciences condemn us, as they should.
And even if they didn’t, and we are self deceived, we’ve got the word of Jesus and the bible to put us right.
‘No one is good except God alone’. ‘There is no-one righteous, not even one.’ ‘All have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God’.
The apostle Paul wrote the words that was read out for us today. He knew the ten commandments: Do not murder, do not commit adultery, do not steal, do not bear false witness, do not covet. But as much as he loved God’s law, and saw that it was good, he knew he fell short. The 10th commandment was enough for him. The 10th commandment says, ‘Do not covet’. Do not want what other people have. Do not desire and envy their wife or husband, their children, their house, their job, their car, their pencil case, their Gibson Les Paul Series II Custom with a Marshall Stack amp and row of boss pedals and their ability to use them and the adulation of their crowd. But Paul says:
'But sin, seizing the opportunity afforded by the commandment, produced in me every kind of coveteous desire’ (Romans 7:8)
The law says, ‘Do not covet’. But all of a sudden, I see all these things I want. And even if I try not to covet, but it just makes me think about what you’ve got and how much more I want it.
It is like those signs on the train, ‘Don’t put your feet on the seats’. You didn’t think about putting your feet on the seats, but you saw the sign. And all of a sudden, the laws of gravity ceases to operate on your feet. Only nailing them to the ground will stop them. Or those signs, ‘Do not walk on the grass’. Actually, now that you mention it, it looks so lush and green Why shouldn’t my feet enjoy those luscious blades, you Buffalo Nazis, you grass Gestapo? Paul says:
‘I would not have known what coveting really was if the law had not said, ‘Do not covet.’ But sin, sizing the opportunity afforded by the commandment, produced in me every kind of coveteous desire. For apart from the law, sin is dead’ (Romans 7:8 NIV)
Coveting. I’ve done it. You’ve done it. Paul’s done it. And as James says, ‘the one who keeps the whole law, and stumbles at just one point, is guilty of breaking all of it.’
That is why Paul says ‘What a wretched man I am’. Because he does what he does not want to do – he covets – and what he hates – coveting – he keeps doing. He has the desire to do what is good – to not covet – but he cannot carry it out.
So why is there no condemnation if he keeps coveting? If God judges us for everything we think, say and do, and if he judges teachers like Paul and me even more strictly, how can there be no condemnation?
Romans chapter 8, verse 3 gives us the reason that there is no condemnation for those in Christ Jesus.
Why no condemnation?
Verse 3 of chapter 8:
For what the law was powerless to do in that it was weakened by the sinful nature [literally flesh], God did by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful man [literally, the likeness of the flesh of sin] to be a sin offering. And so he condemned sin in sinful man [literally, the flesh]. (NIV)
Why is there no condemnation for those in Christ Jesus? Because God has already condemned sin in Christ Jesus. God has condemned human sin by sending Jesus Christ. And because God has condemned sin in the flesh by sending Christ who came in the flesh, he no longer will condemn those in Christ Jesus.
So the question is, ‘How has God condemned human sin already, so that we won’t be condemned?’ There are two answers. God did both things by ‘sending’ his Son.
First, God condemned human sin by sending Christ ‘in the likeness of sinful man.’
The ‘word’ likeness is an important one. It both identifies Jesus with us, but then it distinguishes him from us. He is one of us, but in some way different to us. He is just like us, but also set apart from us in some way.
What way is Jesus like us? Jesus came in the flesh. Jesus was fully human. Christ is like us in every way, except sin (Hebrews 2:14, 18; 4:15).
And in what way was Jesus not like us? Jesus knew no sin. Jesus did not sin. He has no sin. Sin was conquered from within humanity. Christ’s strategy in defeating sin was to become everything sin had defeated. And so Jesus Christ condemned sin by being everything sin wasn’t. He was righteous.
Fellow sinners and fellow humans, we have our champion. Jesus Christ. He became one of us. Yet he never sinned. He defeated sin from within human flesh. Jesus fully kept God’s law – all of it, every last bit of it. There is a human being who defeated sin in the flesh. It is Jesus Christ.
We have no righteousness of our own. But Jesus Christ lived the perfect life of righteousness. He obeyed all the precepts of the law. Have no other gods before me. Tick. You shall not make an idol. Tick. You shall not misuse the name of the Lord your God. Tick. You shall not covet. Tick. Our Lord Jesus continued to do everything written in the book of the law (Galatians 3:10). And so he condemned sin in the flesh. Jesus condemned sin in the flesh by not sinning, by fully keeping the law.
So first, God condemned sin in the flesh by sending a champion who did not sin, but who fully kept God’s law. He came ‘in the likeness of the flesh of sin’.
The second way God condemned sin in the flesh was by sending Christ ‘to be a sin offering’. God sent his own Son as a sin offering. Jesus Christ came to be a sacrifice like the farm animals slaughtered for sin in the Old Testament. He who knew sin became sin for us (2 Corinthians 5:21). God condemned sin in the flesh, because Christ bore the condemnation of the penalty of sin in his own flesh. The law demanded that the soul that sins shall die. And Christ became a curse for us, for he was hung on the tree, bearing the penalty for sin (Galatians 3:13). Christ died for sins, once for all, the righteous for the unrighteous, to bring you to God. How could the just God say ‘no condemnation’ of sinners like you and me? Because Christ was condemned in our place.
So sin was condemned by God in the flesh. First because Jesus, like us in every way but sin, kept the law and thus condemned sin. Second, because Jesus died as a sin offering, the sacrifice for sin required by the law, and thus condemned sin.
Who benefits?
And who are the beneficiaries of all this? Who benefits? Those in Christ Jesus, verse 1, who are the us in verse 4. Let’s look at verse 4 to see how we in Christ Jesus benefit:
In order that the righteous requirement [NIV has plural, but it should be singular] of the law might be fully met in us, who do not live according to the sinful nature [lit, not walking according to the flesh] but according to the Spirit. (NIV)
Christ condemned sin in the flesh so that the ‘righteous requirement of the law is fully met in us’. Many modern English versions translate the word in verse 4 as ‘righteous requirement’. But older translations render the word here either as ‘righteousness’[2] or ‘justification’[3]. And modern scholars translate the same word as ‘justification’ in Romans 5. So I think the word should be translated ‘justification’ in Romans 8:4. So then verse 4 reads: In order that the justification of the law might be fully met in us…
What does this mean, that the justification of the law might be fully met in us? This is what it means. The law requires two things. The one who does these things will live. The soul that sins will die. Keep the law, and you will live. Break the law, and you must die.
Jesus did both of these things. He kept the law, and thus earned life. And he paid the penalty of lawbreakers, which was death.
And the reason he did this things was… For us. He kept all the law, the 10 commandments, and whatever else God required, thus earning life for us. We haven’t kept the law, but he did. And he gives us that eternal life that he earned by keeping the law to us. And he paid the penalty the law requires by dying. And he did that for us. We must be saved from paying the penalty that the law requires, death. Jesus paid it in our place and for us. And so the justification that the law requires – the keeping of the law and the paying of it’s penalty – is fulfilled in us.
It is fulfilled in us when Christ dwells in our hearts by faith. In other places, Paul says Christ lives ‘in us’ by faith and his Spirit (Romans 8:9-10; Galatians 2:19-21, 4:19; 2 Corinthians 13:5; Ephesians 3:17; Colossians 1:27, 2:6, 3:11). On the last day, each Christian individually takes this fulfillment of the law given to us as a gift to the judgment, because Christ is ‘in us’. When each of us appears at the judgment, we appear in Christ, and Christ and all his benefits are in us. Christ fulfilled the law’s precept and bore the law’s curse. We receive these things as a gift. So there is no condemnation in Christ Jesus, despite our sinfulness.
So what must I do?
You need to trust God. Faith is trusting the God’s promises. We are called to live by faith, not by sight. So, despite all appearances, all our doubts, deadness of heart, our impending death and judgment. Despite all our sins, and everything else that might suggest the contrary, we are called to continue to trust the promise of God that our salvation is sure in Christ. We must believe God that there is no condemnation in Christ Jesus! Turn over with me to Romans chapter 10: Page 1121: Look at the promise of God: Romans chapter 10 verses 9-11:
That if you confess with your mouth ‘Jesus is Lord” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. 10For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you confess and are saved. 11As the Scripture says, “Anyone who trusts in him will never be put to shame.” (NIV)
Do you trust in Christ, not yourself? Do you rest on him and rely on and depend on this promise of God? Have you forsaken all trust in yourself and your own abilities, and thrown yourself on the merciful promise of God? In the beginning, God said, ‘let there be’ and all things came about. At the end, God will say ‘live’, and all the dead bones will live. And now God says, ‘Righteous, despite your sin’. And so it is. So believe the word of God, ‘There is no condemnation for those in Christ Jesus’.
Let’s pray.
[1] http://sydneyanglicans.net/news/stories/church_leaders_cleared_in_court_case; http://news.smh.com.au/breaking-news-national/parishioner-loses-defamation-case-20110308-1blq1.html; http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/breaking-news/man-loses-sex-harassment-defamation-case/story-fn3dxity-1226017580419; http://eternity.biz/news/church_discipline_case_over_-_leaders_cleared/; http://www.smh.com.au/nsw/sexual-harasser-label-pretext-to-expel-me-from-church-parishioner-20100324-quuy.html; http://www.smh.com.au/national/pastors-ban-sparks-unholy-anglican-stoush-20100212-nxm4.html http://news.ninemsn.com.au/mobile/article.aspx?id=1034163&_sp=2045&noid=6303&_s=8e557c55-f2e7-4799-bfa7-0a40d014f407; http://eternity.biz/news/church_discipline_case_over_-_leaders_cleared/1110041711/; http://eternity.biz/news/pastor_wins_court_case/
[2] Eg the Tyndale, Geneva, Bishops’ translations, and the Authorised King James Version, and the interpreter Chrysostom.
[3] Eg the Vulgate, Peshitta, Douay-Rheims.