EXEMPTION FROM CONDEMNATION!
"There
is, therefore, now no condemnation to them who are in Christ Jesus"-ROMANS
8:1 [KJV]
THE
FREEDOM OF THE BELIEVER is just what it is declared to be - ENTIRE
EXEMPTION FROM CONDEMNATION. From all which that word of significant
and solemn import implies, he is, by his relation to Christ,
delivered. Sin does not condemn him, the law does not condemn him,
the curse does not condemn him, hell does not condemn him, God does
not condemn him. He is under no power from these, beneath whose
accumulated and tremendous woe all others wither.
A
brief and simple argument will, perhaps, be sufficient to establish
this fact. The pardon of sin necessarily includes the negation of its
condemnatory power. There being no sin legally alleged, there can be
no condemnation justly pronounced. Now, by the sacrifice of Christ
all the sins of the Church are entirely put away. He, the sinless
Lamb of God, took them up and bore them away into a land of oblivion,
where even the Divine mind fails to recall them. "How
forcible are right words" (JOB
6:25).
Listen
to those which declare this wondrous fact. "I, even I, am
He that blotteth out your transgressions for My
own sake, and will not remember thy sins" (ISAIAH
43:25). "Thou hast cast all my sins behind Thy
back" (ISAIAH
38:17). "Having forgiven you all trespasses"
(COLOSSIANS
2:13). "Their sins and iniquities will I remember
no more" (HEBREWS
10:17). The revoking of the sentence of the law must equally
annihilate its condemnatory force.
The
obedience and death of Christ met the claims of that law, both in its
preceptive and punitive character. A single declaration of God’s
Word throws a flood of light upon this truth - "Christ has
redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us"
(GALATIANS
3:13).
–Gospel
report by preacher Octavius Winslow (1808 – 1878 A.D.)
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