Confidence - Not Condemnation

“There is therefore now no CONDEMNATION for those who are in Christ Jesus ...“
Romans 8:1

As I have progressed along my road of spiritual understanding, there have been many questions answered for me about my relationship with God.

Early in my life, I came to see that Christ died for my sins to wipe away my past guilt and to give me a possible future in heaven. This was a good start and I worked hard within a Catholic environment to try to do what would keep God happy with me. In other words, I tried to earn my salvation. Sometimes I did a pretty fair job of it, but most of the time I fell flat on my face. And I developed a FEAR of failure. I loved God as I understood Him, but I seemed unable on a consistent basis to do the things that would please Him or to avoid the things that would displease Him.

I wanted to go to heaven. But I lived in continuing doubt that I would ever make it there. As I understood the situation in the church, every time I committed a “mortal” sin, I lost heaven. And in order to regain my heavenly future, I had to repent, confess my sin, and do penance for it.

And the Catholic catechism listed many “mortal” sins which I found awfully easy to do. Not only that, but there were many “good” things which a Christian was expected to do that I was not inclined to do.

Sins of commission! Sins of omission! How could anyone ever be good enough for heaven? What I had was CONDEMNATION - GUILT! Heaven was possible but, knowing me, it didn’t seem very probable! Now, mind you, I was not an ax-murderer or a rapist or a drug addict or a robber. I just was often not very Christ-like as I saw His human example. I was always fearful that I would die between my sin and my repentance. And as often as I slipped up, this left an awesome amount of potentially ruinous time to die.

Heaven was out there, but it just didn’t seem like I was likely to make it. I had faith in God. I had faith in Jesus Christ. I had faith in the whole spirit realm. BUT I JUST DID NOT HAVE FAITH IN MYSELF! Oh, I had faith in my ability to make a life for myself in the material world. I was a good student, a good learner. I had much materially going for me. But I knew there was more to life than that, and I questioned whether I was Christ-like enough to reach heaven.

I guess that this question of where am I going to end up after this life is common to every person on the planet. Some without much of a spiritual leaning can put the question aside and not be bugged by it -whatever will be will be. But for a person like myself who believes in God and wants to please Him, this doubt, this condemnation, this guilt was hard to live with.

I lived close to fifty years of my life like this until it was revealed to me that all of this was driving me to a greater realization of my relationship with and my need for God.
Then a series of Bible verses began to come together for me into a new found realization of what salvation and “heaven” really consists of.

First, the opening verse quoted above - no condemnation when you are in Christ.
Then, II Corinth. 5:17 - if any man is in Christ, he is a new creation.
Then, Galatians 2:20 - … Christ lives in me ...“
Then, Coloss. 1:27 - ... the mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.”
Then, John 14:20 - you shall know that I am in my Father, and you in me and I in you.”
Then, Hebrews 13:5 - I will never leave you or forsake you.”

By these and other verses, I came to see that “salvation” is a one-time thing that comes when you call out for a Savior and accept Jesus Christ as Lord of your life. You are instantly “saved”, made a new person, a new “species” containing the Trinity within you - having the divine nature of the Father - having a living union with Christ in your spirit - and having the Holy Spirit within your soul, your mind, to teach and to guide you in the things of the spirit.

And so I came to see that salvation is not a conditional situation given by God. Salvation is actually the FACT OF YOUR NEW BIRTH WITH CHRIST LIVING IN YOU. Salvation IS THE PERSON OF JESUS CHRIST. When you are made a “new creation”, you are SAVED - and it is permanent - eternal -you have eternal life in union with Christ.

Christ died accepting the punishment, the condemnation, for your sins. That is why there is, therefore, now no condemnation for those in union with Christ, new creatures, “partakers of the divine nature”. You are joined with Christ. He will never leave you. You will live eternally with Christ. You are saved and will never be condemned.

The Bible speaks of having the “peace” of Christ. I believe that the greatest part of this peace is knowing that you are eternally saved and eternally a member of God’s Family; you are God’s child. There can be no greater peace than this and until you resolve this question of “Am I going to make it to heaven or not?”, there can be no real peace. Guilt or frustration over what you do or what you don’t do will always prevail.

Now I know what many will say. “You mean that it doesn’t matter how bad you act after conversion? You can commit any sin you want and you will still go to heaven? Why, that can’t be! That is a license to sin!”

Well it is true that by the new birth, you will ALWAYS be a child of God and will NEVER suffer eternal punishment. But, as a “child”, you will receive “correction”. We need to talk about the difference between punishment and correction.

The confusion of the two concepts of punishment and correction probably comes from our experiences with well-meaning but fallible human parents, who often disciplined us in love, but also sometimes punished us in frustration and anger. We then project those characteristics upon God, and assume that He acts the same way. However, nothing could be farther from the truth.
PUNISHMENT is a penalty imposed on an offender for a crime or wrongdoing. It has retribution in view (paying someone back what he deserves) rather than correction.

Punishment is looking backward to the offense, is impersonal and automatic, and its goal is the administration of justice. The simplest example of punishment in action is the policeman who pulls you over and gives you a ticket for speeding. You may not intend to speed. You may be just preoccupied and inattentive to the speed limit. You may always try to be a law-abiding citizen. You can explain all this to the police officer and he can be very sympathetic and understanding - as he writes out that ticket.

You see, the law officer isn’t interested in why you were speeding; he doesn’t care whether or not you did it on purpose; nor is he interested in hearing about all the other days that you did abide by the law. All he knows is that you broke the law, and here is your penalty. You will also notice that he did nothing to compliment the 50 other drivers he saw that were within the speed limit. He just sat there unresponsive, until there was a violation, then he got into action. That’s punishment.

CORRECTION or discipline, on the other hand, is totally different. CORRECTION is training that develops self-control, character and ability. It is looking forward to a beneficial result, is very personal, and individually applied. Punishment and correction sometimes “feel” the same to the one on the receiving end! But the sharp difference can be seen in both the attitude and the goal of the one doing it. After conversion and the new birth, God never deals with His children on the basis of punishment. All of the punishment of God for our sins was fully received by our Savior Jesus Christ on the cross. Now that we are children in the family of God, He deals with us only on the basis of correction.

The Bible states in no uncertain terms that Jesus Christ took on Himself all the punishment for the sins of all men when He died on the cross. In a very legal way, He stepped up after we were sentenced to die for our sins and agreed to die for us. All we had to do to go free was to accept the radical concept that someone could and would step forward to do this. We had to call on Christ for deliverance. This is what “conversion” is. This is what being “born again” is. This is what becoming a “new creature” IN CHRIST is!

But we do not lose our freedom of choice when Christ takes over our lives. Such freedom is basic to being a person. We will, at times, be externally influenced by Satan and the world to ignore the Christ life within us and try to go it by our own strength. We invariably fail, and sin. But Christ guides us back under His direction, we repent, and our sin is once again totally forgotton.
But one important fact about sin remains. And this fact alone should be enough to keep us from using our secure salvation as an excuse to sin. This fact is: SIN HAS PHYSICAL EFFECTS – SHORT-TERMED OR LASTING - BUILT IN TO THE SIN ITSELF! When we sin, bad things happen. They may not be immediately observable, or they may be instantly seen. BUT SIN HURTS! Examples:

Sexual union with a partner other than your spouse in this day of AIDS can be fatal or at least disease producing. You don’t lose Christ when you sin sexually but you may gain a lifetime of pain.

Stealing and cheating, not to mention murder, can bring conviction at law and prison sentences. Christ does not leave yo when you steal, but He may have to keep you company in jail.
One lie must usually be covered by another lie causing mental frustration and physical rejection by friends when discovered.

Coveting every good thing that you see others have can keep you broke. Credit card debt, nowadays, is often a physical penalty for sin.

In general, every sin has short term or long term mental stress attached to it. And mental stress HURTS! It might not show on the surface for many people, but hidden sleepless nights, bodily stress and even disease can come from emotional stress.

So even though we are saved and have a future eternity to live with God in heaven, WE ARE STILL HUMAN AND HAVE TO LIVE WITHIN HUMAN PHYSICAL CONSTRAINTS! The physical effects of sin alone should be enough to make us avoid sin.

But there is even a more compelling reason why we not only should but CAN avoid sin as a child of God. The US Army says it so well: “BE all that you can BE!”

As I said, at the new birth we enter a union with the Trinity of God. God IS love. And that Love is within us, available to us. We are weak towards sin (acting independently from God), but by trusting in and depending on Jesus Christ to guide our every thought, word and deed, we are more than conquerors.

Sin loses its appeal when looked at through the spiritual eyes of Jesus.

So when you have made Jesus the Lord of your life, you are a new person, a Christ-person. Get rid of that sense of CONDEMNATION and develop a strong sense of CONFIDENCE in your salvation, in Who you are, in the PEACE of Christ.

THIS SENSE OF SECURE SALVATION CAN BE THE STEPPING STONE TO THAT “ABUNDANT LIFE” THAT JESUS SPOKE ABOUT!

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