Preach this to yourself: I am not condemned

It has been nearly three months since I last posted at this blog, and I plan to resume my blogging with a couple of series -- one on preaching the gospel to ourselves and one on corporate worship. I return to blogging today with a slightly and now twice-revised post from the past.

Reminding ourselves of the gospel -- or preaching the gospel to ourselves, as it has been described in recent years -- is one of the most important exercises we as Christians can participate in. Even though we have been rescued by God, we can fail to understand fully -- or we can even neglect -- the message, the meaning and the manifold benefits of Jesus' life, death and resurrection. Faithfully recognizing the effect of the gospel can make all the difference in how we think and live as Christians.

One of the undeserved benefits of the gospel is described by the apostle Paul: "Therefore there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus" (Rom. 8:1, NASB).

This means God does not condemn those of us who have trusted in Jesus to save us from our sins. It is not that we will be condemned if we don't embrace the gospel of Christ. It is that we have been rescued from the condemnation we already were experiencing. Paul teaches this truth in his letters, and Jesus testifies to it.

In Rom. 5:18, Paul writes: "So then as through one transgression there resulted condemnation to all men, even so through one act of righteousness there resulted justification of life to all men." Our condemnation was the result of the sin of one man, Adam. As his descendants, we are under condemnation.

In Eph. 2:3, Paul says, "[We] were by nature children of wrath, even as the rest." God's wrath was upon us just by virtue of being human beings with a sinful nature.

God the Son explains in John 3:17-18 a reason He came to earth as a man -- and points to the condemnation all humanity lives under. He says, "For God did not send the Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world might be saved through Him. He who believes in Him is not judged; he who does not believe has been judged already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God."

As sinners by nature, we are condemned; we are under wrath; we are judged. That all changes when God saves us by His grace because of the powerful, gospel work of His Son. Forever, we are no longer under condemnation. Nothing can reverse that verdict, and we are never to contemplate that God's attitude toward us is one of condemnation.

This is the kind of benefit we should regularly remind ourselves of and celebrate.

-- Photo by Wang Xi on Unsplash