8^th April

“So now there is no condemnation for those who belong to Christ Jesus. And because you belong to Him, the power of the life-giving Spirit has freed you from the power of sin that leads to death.”

Romans 8:1-2 

We are free. Free to live without condemnation. Free to fall down (although we strive to live holy lives before our holy God), but free to approach the mercy seat of God with no shame, fear or guilt!

Jesus again in His encounter with Nicodemus in John chapter 3, tells him in verse 17 that He didn’t come to condemn the world but that through His sacrificial love, we will be saved. The writer of Romans echoes these words in today’s verse. There is no condemnation at all. If we can say with surety that we belong to Christ Jesus, if we have accepted His love, repented of our sins, acknowledge Him at King of our lives… then there is good news…YOU ARE NOT CONDEMNED.

Yes we will sin, yes we fall short of God’s holy standards but we are freed from the power of sin by Jesus’ resurrection power. We no longer live a life that leads to death but live a free life that leads to a fully alive LIFE.

This doesn’t give us a free licence to do whatever we want and never face the consequence of our bad choices, but rather when we feel like we cant pray, go to church, fellowship with our brothers and sisters in Christ because of sin, we can identify that as a lie from the devil and know that Jesus welcomes us into His loving arms no matter what we have done. It was while we were still sinners that He died for us. The only thing that changed is that God doesn’t look at our sin but looks at what Jesus did on the cross. He paid our price so we wouldn’t have to. THAT IS LOVE AND GRACE!!