Read the transcript from today's video devotional.
Years ago I was working in a church. I was preaching, teaching, leading, doing all the stuff a pastor is supposed to do - I was trying to please God. I just felt like I didn't please Him enough. As a matter of fact, I felt often like I felt condemned. Our Verse of the Day really helps us with guilt and needless condemnation that we often carry.
It's Romans chapter 8, verse 1. "So now there is no condemnation for those who belong to Christ Jesus."
The Gospel of Jesus Christ
Romans is all about the Gospel of Jesus Christ. It's about the righteousness of God. Paul says in Romans chapter 1, verse 16, "For I'm not ashamed of the Gospel of God, for in it is the power of God, the dynamite of God." And then in chapter 3, Paul says, "There's no one righteous, there's not even one." You and I have a huge problem called sin. But then in Romans chapter 3, verse 24, he says, "We've been justified by the grace of Jesus Christ." Then in chapter 7, he talks about this amazing struggle: "The things I want to do, I don't do, and the things I'm doing, I shouldn't be doing." It's a struggle that we all have.
We kind of come limping into Romans chapter 8, in this beautiful chapter. The Puritans used to call it the Great Eight. It comes into our life. Very simply, there's three glorious truths that flow out of this passage today.
Three Glorious Truths
Number one, there is now no condemnation for you, for those who belong to Christ Jesus. If you're born again, if I'm born again, if we love Christ, if we've repented, if we've given our life to Him, there is now—literally in the Greek language, now—no condemnation for you and me. Why? Well, again in Romans chapter 3, verse 24, Romans chapter 5, verse 1, the Bible says, "Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God." How? Jesus Christ died for all of your sins, remembered every one of your sins 2,000 years before you committed them, and made sure that He died for every single one. So you're fully forgiven.
Second, Jesus lived a perfect life, 2,000 years before you ever even existed. He made sure that He lived perfectly because only perfection gets to heaven. All the death, all the life, is attributed to your account. You have what the Bible calls—justification. That's why you are not condemned. There's no condemnation for you, because you are justified.
Third, there will never be any condemnation for you again because of Christ, because He lived this perfect life. He died this horrible death for you and me. You're completely, finally, forever, totally forgiven. All the righteous requirements that you need to get to heaven, Jesus did for you and me. You can never, ever be condemned because His work is applied to you and me.
Never Ending Love
There is never-ending love for you. He starts out Romans chapter 8, verse 1, "There's no condemnation." He ends with, "There is no separation from the love of God. :Romans chapter 8, verse 26, the Bible says, "The Holy Spirit prays for you and me." Romans chapter 8, verse 31 says, "If God is for us, who can be against us?" In Romans chapter 8, verse 34, Jesus intercedes for you and me. Then He launches into the section which basically says, "There's no separation for us from the love of God."
He says in verse 35, "Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword?" Paul says no. In verse 37, "In all these things"—not I was going to remove them from you, but—"in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us," who loves God's people. "For I'm sure"—another version says, "For I'm convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor anything else in all creation, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus."
Tremendous, amazing passage.
How Should This Affect Us?
What do we do with this? How should this affect us? Number one, live from acceptance, not for acceptance. Ephesians chapter 1 says, "You're accepted in the beloved." We don't serve God because we're trying to get God to like us so that He accepts us. We serve God because we're fully forgiven. We're declared righteous. He loves to love us, and we're already accepted. Because of that, we've been given this amazing grace. Shower your wife, shower your kids, shower your friends, shower people with this amazing grace that we have been given.
Finally, number two. Praise Him. Worship Him. This is an amazing God. What a work of the Spirit. What an amazing grace. What an amazing Savior you and I have. All the work He's done for us. His name is Jesus. Let's worship Him.
