{"id":789,"date":"2021-07-22T21:37:33","date_gmt":"2021-07-23T01:37:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sites.williams.edu\/telos\/?p=789"},"modified":"2021-08-08T09:55:45","modified_gmt":"2021-08-08T13:55:45","slug":"no-fear-of-condemnation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sites.williams.edu\/telos\/no-fear-of-condemnation\/","title":{"rendered":"No Fear of Condemnation"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201c<\/span>Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus<\/span><\/i>.\u201d Romans 8:1 (NIV)<\/span><\/p>\n

\"5-greg-1\"<\/p>\n

We are all looking for a verdict. <\/span><\/p>\n

We want to be told that we are good enough and that we matter. In other words, we w<\/span>ant a verdict<\/i> that our life is meaningful. We seek that verdict from many places, whether from our work, our relationships, our reputation. We make these things our judges, we ask them if we are good enough, and we let them determine our worth. We place the \u201ccondemnation gavel\u201d into the hands of something, but the verdict the world gives us is always, eventually, \u201cNot good enough.\u201d And so, we live in fear, knowing that a verdict of condemnation is coming.<\/p>\n

Looking inside for a verdict doesn\u2019t seem to work any better. Too often we take the messages from our screens and the world around us and put the condemnation gavel in our own hands, whether or not we have received an explicit verdict from outside us. A recent issue of <\/span>New York<\/span><\/i> magazine described people today as \u201cfeeling guilty and inadequate at every turn.<\/span>1<\/span> They compare themselves relentlessly to others. They are turned inside out, day after day, by social media.<\/span>\u201d One person says, \u201cI think my primary emotion is guilt. When I am happy, it only takes moments before I feel guilty about it \u2013 I feel desperately unworthy of my happiness, guilty for receiving it out of the pure chaotic luck of the universe.\u201d The author summarizes life today like this: \u201cMerely muddling through, doing your best, seeing friends when you can, trying to enjoy yourself as much as possible, is, according to the reigning dictates of today\u2019s culture, tantamount to failure. You must live your best life and be the best version of yourself, otherwise you\u2019re nothing and no one.\u201d We feel naked and ashamed, and the constant din of our notifications amplifies our insecurities. We are filled with anxiety and doubt and guilt, and we are working harder and harder to convince everybody, including ourselves, that we have it together. This is what condemnation looks like. We don\u2019t need<\/i> condemnation to come from the outside when we already condemned ourselves.<\/p>\n

The Bible says that anything we look to besides God for our verdict is an idol, and idols always let us down, always condemn, and always demand everything from us. We place the condemnation gavel in the hands of our reputation, our career, our looks, our health, our relationships, what our friends think of us, what <\/span>we<\/span><\/i> think of us \u2013 and these idols never fail to hammer in condemnation. The verdict seems to come from within when we internalize what our external idols already tell us. We crave a favorable verdict, but nothing we look to in this world can truly give it. <\/span><\/p>\n

This is why the apostle Paul says in his letter to the Romans that in Christ alone the verdict is \u201cno condemnation.\u201d To summarize what Paul already said, the gospel is this: All have sinned, but God freely justifies through the atoning work of Jesus. Sin means we don\u2019t love God with all our heart and soul and mind and strength, but instead we love created things \u2013 our reputation, comfort, job, health, romance, or family, even our own opinion of ourselves \u2013 more than the Creator. We don\u2019t find our satisfaction in God, but instead we look to idols for our satisfaction. We don\u2019t obey God, but instead we obey our own desires and emotions. <\/span>We don\u2019t love our neighbor as ourselves, but instead we seek our own good, or we serve others inasmuch as it is convenient for <\/b>us<\/i><\/b>, or in <\/b>our<\/i><\/b> interest, or makes <\/b>us<\/i><\/b> look or feel good.<\/b> Every single one of us, religious or not, falls short of God\u2019s glory.<\/span><\/p>\n

But as a gift, God freely justifies, which means \u201cto declare in the right.\u201d Even though we fall short of God\u2019s glory, even though we are sinners, in Christ God counts us as if we aren\u2019t. Think of it this way. Suppose that a student of mine fails an exam and I want to have mercy. I can\u2019t honestly say, \u201cYou did great on the exam!\u201d because they didn\u2019t, but I can say, \u201cI won\u2019t count this exam toward your final grade.\u201d Similarly, in Christ, God doesn\u2019t count our sin against us, but instead He counts Jesus\u2019 faithfulness for us. In doing so, God declares that His promises to rescue and redeem His people, to love and bless His people, and to make them a blessing to the world, all apply to us. This is God\u2019s gift to us; we don\u2019t earn it. We were sinners deserving condemnation, but God forgives us and counts us as holy. <\/span><\/p>\n

\"5-greg-2\"<\/p>\n

Paul says that for the Christian there is <\/span>therefore <\/span><\/i>no condemnation. Paul doesn\u2019t say, \u201cYou are not condemned … for now, but if you screw up again you\u2019ll need more forgiveness.\u201d Paul says there <\/span>is no condemnation<\/span><\/i>. None ever. Jesus bore all of your sin \u2013 all of it, past, present, and future \u2013 so there is no condemnation and there <\/span>will be<\/span><\/i> no condemnation. Paul writes, \u201cGod has done what the law … could not do. By sending his own Son … he condemned sin in the flesh.\u201d God definitively condemned <\/span>sin<\/span><\/i> so He will never condemn you. That\u2019s why at the end of Romans 8 Paul can say, \u201cNothing can separate you from the love of Christ\u201d; that\u2019s why a good summary of the gospel is, \u201cYou are more wicked than you could ever imagine, but in Christ you are more loved than you could ever dare hope.\u201d<\/span>2<\/span> Why would God do that?<\/span><\/p>\n

God gives the declaration \u201cno condemnation\u201d so that we can live beautiful, holy lives. Only in the gospel of Jesus Christ does the declaration of \u201caccepted\u201d come before any acceptable performance; only in the Gospel does the verdict come before it is earned. You won\u2019t find this order anywhere else. In school, if you do well enough on an exam, you get the grade. In traditional religion, if you are moral or observant enough, you get salvation or acceptance. Today, many people reject traditional religion and instead get their identity from being a good person. If you are a good enough person, eventually you get the verdict. If you work enough for justice, you get the verdict. If you express yourself or liberate yourself or accept yourself or find yourself \u2013 you get the verdict. As a result, every day is a trial with us in the court working for a verdict.<\/span><\/p>\n

But in Jesus, Christians get the verdict \u201cno condemnation,\u201d and <\/span>then<\/span><\/i> the verdict leads to a changed performance. When Jesus rescued the woman caught in adultery, Jesus turned to her and said, \u201cHas no one condemned you?\u201d and she said, \u201cNo one, Lord.\u201d And Jesus said, \u201cNeither do I condemn you; go, and from now on sin no more.\u201d Jesus did not condemn her, and only then did he tell her to sin no more.<\/span>3<\/span> Reversing the order loses the gospel. Traditional religion says, \u201cStop sinning and I won\u2019t condemn you,\u201d and that\u2019s crushing. Modern society says, \u201cThere is no sin so there is nothing to condemn,\u201d yet our hearts still condemn us because we know that isn\u2019t right. But Jesus says, \u201cBecause I don\u2019t condemn you, stop sinning.\u201d When you have already been forgiven and set free, then love and gratitude become the motivation for obedience.<\/span> If we must perform in order to avoid condemnation, then we obey out of fear of punishment, or to avoid feelings of guilt, or out of pride \u2013 because in pride we believe, \u201cWe are not the kind of people who get condemned.\u201d <\/b>But those who by grace have received \u201cno condemnation\u201d are set free to live beautiful, holy lives out of sheer, grateful love for what Christ has done. <\/span><\/p>\n

Nonetheless, our lives are never paragons of beauty and holiness. I lose my temper with my kids, my parents, my spouse. We all struggle in some way. We gossip, we judge others who don\u2019t have it together, we are insensitive, we dismiss people we disagree with. We lust, we covet, we envy. Anxiety, doubt, and temptation rule us. Our lives are not beautiful. Our failures produce panic as we fear what that means \u2013 might we not be forgiven? Deep insecurity and doubt arise \u2013 might we be condemned?<\/span><\/p>\n

Paul\u2019s original readers had those same doubts and Paul knew it. Fear creeps in when we forget that in Jesus we are not condemned. That\u2019s why Paul chronicles his own failings and struggles in Romans 7 and then declares, \u201cThere is no condemnation.\u201d Paul reminds us that the only one who could ultimately condemn you is Jesus, and he died for you, and he lives for you, and he will not condemn you. The God who created the world \u2013 the God of infinite holiness and power, the God whose voice shakes the heavens and causes the earth to quake \u2013 looks upon you and graciously welcomes you into his arms. If you have put your faith in Jesus but still feel condemned, then you are still placing the condemnation gavel somewhere, perhaps in your own goodness, your reputation, or how much you are doing for God. <\/span><\/p>\n

When we work for our verdict, we think we can be loved only if we aren\u2019t deeply known because being known makes us feel naked and ashamed. But for those who desperately want to be honest and loved, God knows the depths of your heart \u2013 all your brokenness and failings \u2013 and He loves you more than you could ever hope. For those who constantly feel naked and ashamed, Jesus was shamefully stripped naked on the cross for you to buy your freedom. Jesus took on our guilt and shame and received the condemnation we deserve, so that we can receive the life and righteousness that is his. If you wait for the world\u2019s verdict, you will be in constant fear of condemnation, because the condemnation is guaranteed. But if you receive God\u2019s verdict as your own, there is no more fear.<\/span><\/p>\n

Our lives do not magically become beautiful when we start to follow Jesus. Life in this broken world is a painful struggle. We continue to do things we are rightly ashamed of. We continue to hurt others and have others hurt us. The world\u2019s condemnation still screams past all our filters. This fractured world is full of guilt and shame and loneliness and anxiety, and we feel that. For Christians, those difficulties do not end, but the condemnation does.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"5-greg-3\"<\/span><\/p>\n

1<\/span> https:\/\/www.thecut.com\/2016\/07\/ask-polly-advice-lessons.html<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n

2<\/span> Tim Keller has said that in many places. Indeed, this entire article is heavily influenced by his teaching on this passage.<\/span><\/p>\n

3<\/span> See John 8:1-11 for the full story<\/span><\/p>\n

Originally published in The Williams Telos Issue 14, FEAR <\/em><\/p>\n

Written by Prof. Greg Phelan <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cTherefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.\u201d Romans 8:1 (NIV) We are all looking for a verdict.  We want to be told that we are good enough and that we matter. In other words, we want a verdict that our life is meaningful. We seek that verdict from many places, … Continue reading “No Fear of Condemnation”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1508,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[49347],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-789","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-issues"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.williams.edu\/telos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/789","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.williams.edu\/telos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.williams.edu\/telos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.williams.edu\/telos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1508"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.williams.edu\/telos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=789"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/sites.williams.edu\/telos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/789\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":821,"href":"https:\/\/sites.williams.edu\/telos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/789\/revisions\/821"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.williams.edu\/telos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=789"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.williams.edu\/telos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=789"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.williams.edu\/telos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=789"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}