Many thanks to Ernie for writing this week’s devotional.
I’d like us to consider one verse today. It’s a verse I’m sure you all know. It comes from Romans chapter 8 verse 1, and it says: “Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.” For those who are in Christ Jesus, not today, not tomorrow, not next week, not next year, but NOW, there is no condemnation. This is going to be the best news you’ve ever heard. But it is not always easy to believe.
Often we make the mistake of thinking that the gospel is simply what we believe in order to be saved. We hear it, we believe it, and we are born again. Although we wouldn’t say it this way, we often act like that gospel has no further relevance to us. It gets us ‘in the door,’ so to speak, but it’s not part of our daily life. Sometimes we need to preach the gospel to ourselves every day because we can often forget it every day.
And the question that often comes up about Romans 8 verse 1 Is: how can we feel there is no condemnation when we are often told that God tests us? And sometimes we can feel that we have failed His tests and live with a feeling that we are a constant disappointment to God. I think we’ve all felt that way at one time or another. Well here is my answer:
Firstly, I am continually being tested. This is certainly true. Secondly, I always feel that I have failed his tests. You may feel that way too, but it is not true. You have passed many of them. Probably more than you think. But it’s natural to think we’ve failed in exams. If we get 7 As and 1 D we focus more on the D- and not on the A’ s. We are not the best judges of our own spiritual progress. Thirdly, I’m a constant disappointment to God. This is not true. It can’t be if Romans 8 verse 1 is correct. What you probably mean is that you are a disappointment to yourself because you haven’t lived up to your own high standards and your life isn’t what you thought it would be at this point.
How do we put all this together? First, we have to accept that what God says about us is true. If he says No condemnation then we are truly not condemned. That means nothing can ever separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus. Not even our own foolish and repeated mistakes. God’s tests are not meant to destroy us but to reveal our weakness so that we will learn to trust him more. In God’s eyes, failure is the back door to success. Life is a mixture of failure and success, because we are not the best judges of where we stand spiritually. On our good days, we’re not as hot as we think we are, and on our bad days, we’re not as yucky as we think we are. We should give up trying to rate ourselves and try to be faithful every day.
Life is always a mixture of success and failure. We get a little success to give us hope, and a little failure (Or sometimes a lot) to teach us humility and to develop our trust in God.
I recommend that you write out Romans 8:1, place it where you can see it, and repeat it every day. It’s the foundation of all spiritual progress. It’s easy to believe it for someone else, but harder to believe it for ourselves. So we need the constant reminder that in Christ we are eternally and always not condemned by God.
With that as background, let’s consider what this verse really means. There are two tremendous truths here.
What do we discover when we move from the last part of Romans 7 to the first part of Romans 8? I would suggest in these verses we discover great truths about our Christian experience.
Firstly, there is a struggle in the Christian life. That struggle is summarized in Romans chapter 7. Paul says: “In my mind I want to please God. But there is something in me that make’s me want to do the opposite.” Over and over again he says: “That which I would do, I do not do. That which I hate, I do.”
I’m sure we can all understand that. In the morning we get up and say: “Lord, this is your day and I’m going to do your will today.” So we set our goal to achieve a certain number of things that we know will be pleasing to God. Then as we go through the day, we don’t do number one, and we halfway do number two, we skip number three, we get most of number four, and we don’t do number five at all. Then we say: “Lord, with your help, I’m not going to lose my temper,” but by 9:00am we’ve lost our temper so we say: “Lord, help me with my critical spirit.” At 10:30am. We say: “Lord, help me not to gossip.” By the time we get to 1:30pm we’ve blown that one. The very thing we said we were going to do, we didn’t do. The thing we said we’d never do, we did. Some of us have lived that experience this week.
I want to make a couple of points here based on Romans 7. Firstly, Romans 7 is Paul’s autobiography of his experience as a Christian believer. I don’t agree with those who see Romans 7 as the testimony of a defeated or subnormal Christian or as a person under conviction. I believe that Romans 7 is simply one part of the normal Christian experience. However, likewise I do not believe that Romans 7 is the total story of the Christian life. However, I do not feel that we should throw it out and say it has no bearing on us today.
Let’s be honest. You can be a great Christian as the Apostle Paul was, and you can at the same time struggle a great deal in your walk with the lord. Paul is just being honest. He’s saying that even though he was an apostle, he felt a struggle between his desire to please God and the pull of his flesh. Romans 7 describes a struggle which is part of your walk with the lord, but praise God it is not the whole story, but just one part of the story. That’s why when Paul says in verse 24: “O wretched man that I am,” I understand him. He’s not just talking about himself. He’s talking about me and he’s talking about you.
We struggle in many different ways. For instance, we struggle between what we know God wants us to do and what we would rather do if God would just leave us alone. That’s just part of what it means to live in a sin-cursed world. Anyone who tells you that struggle does not belong in the Christian life actually has a non-Biblical view of what it means to live that Christian life. I think that if Paul struggled, we will struggle too. If Paul felt he was being pulled this way and that, the same thing will happen to us.
There is a time to struggle. Sometimes people come to Jesus and then they get upset because things don’t go well for them. They get stressed because they have relational, financial, emotional, or marital difficulties, and problems in different areas in their lives. Sometimes they become discouraged. They get angry with God and wonder what’s wrong with them. Often there’s nothing deeply wrong with you if you’re going through a period of struggle. It’s just “part and parcel” of what it means to live on this earth.