NO CONDEMNATION IN CHRIST JESUS

"There is therefore now NO CONDEMNATION." 

It is not here a question of our heart condemning us (as in 1 John 3:21), nor of us finding nothing within which is worthy of condemnation; instead, it is the far more blessed fact that God condemns not the one who has trusted in Christ to the saving of his soul. We need to distinguish sharply between subjective and objective truth; between that which is judicial and that which is experimental; otherwise, we shall fail to draw form such Scriptures as the one now before us the comfort and peace they are designed to convey. There is no condemnation to them who are in Christ Jesus. "In Christ" is the believer’s position before God, not his condition in the flesh. "In Adam" I was condemned (Romans 5:12); but "in Christ" is to be forever freed from all condemnation. 

"There is therefore now no condemnation." The qualifying "now" implies there was a time when Christians, before they believed, were under condemnation. This was before they died with Christ, died judicially (Galatians 2:20) to the penalty of God’s righteous law. This "now," then, distinguishes between two states or conditions. By nature we were "under the (sentence of) law," but now believers are "under grace" (Romans 6:14). By nature we were "children of wrath" (Ephesians 2:2), but now we are "accepted in the Beloved" (Ephesians 1:6). Under the first covenant we were "in Adam" (1 Corinthians 15:22), but now we are "in Christ" (Romans 8:1). As believers in Christ we have everlasting life, and because of this we shall not come into condemnation.

Condemnation is a word of tremendous import, and the better we understand it the more shall we appreciate the wondrous grace that has delivered us from its power. In the halls of a human court this is a term which falls with fearful knell upon the ear of the convicted criminal and fills the spectators with sadness and horror. But in the court of Divine Justice it is vested with a meaning and content infinitely more solemn and awe-inspiring. To that Court every member of Adam’s fallen race is cited. "Conceived in sin, shapen in iniquity" each one enters this world under arrest – an indicted criminal, a rebel manacled. How, then, is it possible for such a one to escape the execution of the dread sentence? There was only one way, and that was by the removal from us of that which called forth the sentence, namely sin. Let guilt be removed and there can be "no condemnation."

Has guilt been removed, removed, we mean, from the sinner who believes? Let the Scriptures answer: "As far as the east is from the west so far hath He removed our transgressions from us" (Psalm 103:12). "I, even I, am He that blotteth out thy transgressions" (Isaiah 43:25). "Thou hast cast all my sins behind Thy back" (Isaiah 38:17). "Their sins and iniquities will I remember no more" (Hebrews 10:17).

But how could guilt be removed? Only by it being transferred. Divine holiness could not ignore it; but Divine grace could and did transfer it. The sins of believers were transferred to Christ: "The LORD hath laid on Him the iniquity of us all" (Isaiah 53:6). "For He hath made Him to be sin for us" (II Corinthians 5:21).

"There is therefore no condemnation." The "no" is emphatic. It signifies there is no condemnation whatsoever. No condemnation from the law, or on account of inward corruption, or because Satan can substantiate a charge against me; there is none from any source or for any cause at all. "No condemnation" means that none at all is possible; that none ever will be. There is no condemnation because there is no accusation (see Romans 8:33), and there can be no accusation because there is no imputation of sin (see Romans 4:8).

-theologian Arthur W. Pink (1886 -1952 A.D.)

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