p. 172 | NO CONDEMNATION

Publishing Committee · Battle Creek, Mich. · Apr 16, 1861

NO CONDEMNATION.

THERE is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh but after the Spirit. Rom. viii, 1. There are some passages of Scripture which are wonderfully suggestive in their character. They serve as gateways leading us into vast fields of reflection and contemplation; or as keys to unlock the storehouse of wisdom and mercy as revealed in the plan and purposes of God. Such is the text before us. It brings with it a cluster of questions which cannot be passed by unnoticed. It bids us ask for a definition of this condemnation from which we are freed through Christ. It takes us back to a contemplation of that time when condemnation had never entered. It bids us look for the cause which first brought its dark shadow over the heart of man; and it bids us inquire how it is that being in Christ lifts us out of its horrible pit and miry clay. It embraces, in short, the main points involved in the atonement of Christ and the plan of salvation.

Condemnation! Sad word! Word which expresses the alienation of man from his Creator. Word that embraces in its fiery folds the whole progeny of man; for all have become guilty before God. Word that spans the whole way from the first slight departure from purity and right to the lowest depths of irretrievable ruin and death. And this has been the household word of a fallen race for nearly six thousand years. With this all have become familiar. This has rested like an incubus upon all hearts. It has followed its victims blighting their fairest flowers, and instilling its poison into their sweetest cups of pleasure. And can we have freedom from this ubiquitous specter? Can we be delivered from its relentless grasp? Yes; for there is now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus.

Once man had no need of the release here promised by the Saviour; for he was already at peace with God, and knew not the bitterness of condemnation and guilt. Every command of God had been obeyed. Justice had no claims to urge against him. Rebellion had not disturbed his union with his Maker. All was joy, peace, harmony, satisfaction, and love. Well may the children of Adam as they find themselves in the bonds of condemnation, goaded by conscience and stung by remorse, look back with unutterable longings to the shining heights and peaceful bowers of that paradise from which, by transgression, our first parents fell. Well may they covet its golden glories and anxiously inquire if a re-instatement is possible, and by what means it can be accomplished. The text before us answers the question by setting us on the track that leads us through to paradise restored. As condemnation has resulted from the fall through the introduction of sin, the removal of this condemnation must of course, be the first step toward a restoration; and this removal is a glorious pledge of a full accomplishment of the work; for God would no more leave men in this state forever who are freed from condemnation and morally fitted for a higher sphere, than he would have suffered them to fall at first had no condemnation been incurred through a committal of sin. This glorious work is not therefore altogether a future good. We are not required, in regard to it, to walk altogether by faith; in some particulars we walk by sight, or, at least, by knowledge wrought out in our own hearts. A part of the work is accomplished for us in this state. The moral restoration takes place here and now. The condemnation is lifted, the guilt removed, and we are fitted for that physical transformation for which we look, not far in the future, when this vile body shall be fashioned like unto Christ's most glorious body, and still further when the earth shall be renewed as the everlasting habitation of the saints. And of this the work of the Spirit in our hearts here, is the removal of our condemnation and guilt, is the earnest and the pledge.

No condemnation! Blessed thought! not only as an earnest of our future blessedness, but as a means of our present joy. Paul introduces it after narrating the experience by which we get into Christ. The sixth and seventh of Romans contain an account of the awakened sinner's struggle with sin and the steps by which he effects his escape. The eighth opens with a declaration of the glorious liberty into which we are then ushered. Christ has died, the just for the unjust. The Sinless has died for the sinner. The penalty is paid. The sinner has now but to put faith in the sacrifice, and show by certain outward steps his faith in the death and resurrection of Christ; show that he has died, that he has been slain by the law, and that he flies for safety to the atoning blood of the Saviour; and then, O wonderful result! the sin and condemnation departs; the guilt is canceled; the righteousness of Christ is transferred to us; and we are accepted in the beloved. Hence exclaims the apostle, There is now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus. The soul is placed in the same relation to God as though sin had never entered into the world. It is as free from condemnation as was Adam's when in the beautiful garden he walked and talked with God. So much of paradise is already restored. Then let the accuser of the brethren arise; let him thunder in our ears the claims of law; let him hold up the justice of God; let him endeavor to excite our fears, and throw over our soul the gloom of remorse and despair; our answer is, The claims of the law have been paid; the justice of God is satisfied; and there is now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus.

This is the position which we believe it is the privilege of God's people to enjoy; and hence not only their privilege but their duty. They need not be always living in the seventh of Romans; they need not be continually struggling with a half-forsaken carnal nature, a half-crucified man of sin; but they may press on into the experience of the eighth chapter where is brought to view the liberty wherewith Christ proposes to make his people free; where they can have the abiding witness of the Spirit of adoption, and know that they are Christ's, and therefore heirs according to the promise.