The eighth chapter of Romans begins with No Condemnation and ends with No Separation. You are not Condemned – you are Called. You are no longer Carnal – you are being continually Conformed to the image of Christ. You are not Jacked up – You are Justified.
Let’s look at the following verses in Romans Chapter 8 in both the New English Translation and The Message Translation to get a deeper understanding of how we can finally learn to walk free from the condemnation of our past.
here is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the life-giving Spirit in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and death. Romans 8: 1-2 (NET).
With the arrival of Jesus, the Messiah, that fateful dilemma is resolved. Those who enter into Christ’s being-here-for-us no longer have to live under a continuous, low-lying black cloud. A new power is in operation. The Spirit of life in Christ, like a strong wind, has magnificently cleared the air, freeing you from a fated lifetime of brutal tyranny at the hands of sin and death. Romans 8: 1-2 (MSG).
What does this mean for us in our daily lives full of struggles? It means that we don’t have to walk around condemning and judging ourselves for everything we have done wrong in the past or what we still may do today as we grow in God.
Christ took care of our mess on the cross. We don’t have to live under the stigma and stain of always feeling guilty, always waiting on God to beat us up over the head over something we did. We don’t have to walk around in fear of punishment all the time. We don’t have to condemn ourselves and inflict our own self-punishment anymore. Christ took care of the punishment we deserve on the cross.
The trick of the adversary is to get us to beat ourselves up, think about how bad we’ve been, wait for the consequences we think we deserve, and worry that because we of what we did that we don’t deserve for God to bless us. We believe that because of a particular sin that happened back in 2001 is why certain negative circumstances exist in our lives today.
We cut off our own blessings and refuse the grace of God because we still want to live in the past. As a man thinketh in his heart so is he, so if we continually think about our sin we are continually conscious of our sin all the time. We magnify the sin instead of God and we remain stuck, powerless Christians going to church without any real change in our lives. We can easily wind up being the kind of Christian that will never rise above his or her sin-consciousness to having a rewarding, righteous, and joyful lifestyle of being a blessing to others and the kingdom of God. This kind of Christian is no threat to the enemy.
Further in the passage we read that:
In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness, for we do not know how we should pray, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with inexpressible groanings. And he who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes on behalf of the saints according to God’s will.
Yes, we are weak in our own strength. We know the thoughts that we think. We know our own personal struggles and issues. But God! As shown above, He helps us in our weakness. He knows what the real deal is with us – the things no one else knows and we sometimes try to hide from ourselves. Yet, in his love and mercy, Christ intercedes for us daily. On top of that He works to ensure that ALL things are continually working together for our good.
And we know that all things work together for good for those who love God, who are called according to his purpose, because those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, that his Son would be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters. And those he predestined, he also called; and those he called, he also justified; and those he justified, he also glorified.
It is not our job to figure out how He is going to do it. It is not our job to attempt to piece together the puzzle of our life. He knows his original intention for our lives before we were even conceived in the womb. He knew what it would take to conform us to the image of Christ once we accepted Him into our hearts. He has predetermined our destinies, called us to be who He created us to be, and justified us in spite of ourselves.
With that said, it is critical for us as believers to stop allowing the Enemy of our souls free reign to capture our thinking at will. Where our thoughts go, our emotions and our mouth follows. Jesus died for us to walk in complete and total freedom without the tyranny of past or even present sins, struggles and issues hanging over our heads and running out of our mouths.
Finally, we read:
No, in all these things we have complete victory through him who loved us! For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor heavenly rulers, nor things that are present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in creation will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.
In the midst of every struggle, we are to know deep within our souls that we are being continually transformed to the image of Christ. Therein lies the reason for the struggle. Without the struggle we would not change. This is where the “all things come together for good” comes in. All of the struggles are working together for our good. While we are struggling he has graced us to overcome the struggle through the power of the Holy Spirit. He wants us to not condemn ourselves and to know we have been called and chosen to do what He has equipped us to do for such a time as this. We can walk out our collective destinies knowing that we are profoundly loved without condemnation and that absolutely nothing can separate us from Him. There is therefore now No Condemnation and No Separation for them who are called, chosen and justified in Christ.
(Image source:http://spiritualinspiration.tumblr.com/post/43716366379/therefore-there-is-now-no-condemnation-for-those)
ladies loving god by Tonika Breeden 