Before we leave “there is . . . now no condemnation,” we must note the emphasis on “for those who are in Christ Jesus” (Rom. 8:1). The reason we are still under inner condemnation is that we stop this side of “in Christ Jesus.” We get as far as “in a belief,” “in a church,” “in His service,” “in the ministry”—but not in Christ Jesus. We hope to get to in Christ Jesus someday. This verse says there is now —it is in the here and now. But we have lived so long in nonexpectancy of deliverance from condemnation that we have taken for granted that this is all there is. A black guitarist in Atlanta sang rather pathetically, “Been down so long that ‘down’ don’t bother me.” Defeat is our climate.
I listened to someone quote, “If any man be in Christ he is a new creation,” and I thought he said, “a new cremation.” Well, this is not so bad. There must be a cremation of the old idea of the acceptance of condemnation as the normal Christian attitude. Out of the ashes of the cremation of that old idea will come a new creation. “When the burnt offering began, the song of the Lord began also” (2 Chron. 29:27). Joy will come out of the death of that idea and attitude. Someone has described Christian joy as the flag raised over the castle when the king is in residence. The heart will sing, and sing only when Christ the King is in residence.
What about those who have no king in residence—man himself is king. How do they put back the song into the songless heart? They are driven to a strange and desperate attempt—an attempt to get rid of condemnation by saying there is nothing about which to be condemned. There is no sin; sin is an outworn conception; and hence there is no condemnation. You are saved by denial.
THE PRAYER
O Christ, my Redeemer, they try to pull the rug out from under Thee as Savior by denying that there is anything to be saved from. I can hear Thee say again, “Father forgive them; for they know not what they do.” They really don’t know. Amen.
AFFIRMATION FOR THE DAY
The King is in residence— my flag is up and I sing within the castle of my heart.
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One Response
Amen! Upon my days of the intentional sin of drugs and such (symptoms of deeper trauma and struggles), denial by justification was my reasoning mantra. I needed Christ in me then, not sometime tomorrow. I knocked and He answered.
Jesus is a now Savior.
Staying 💪’n Christ