NO CONDEMNATION! What a blessed word for guilty sinners to hear! Surely, these two words should bring joy to every believing heart. If you are God's child, you may be suffering many hardships, you may have many sorrows that lay heavily upon your heart. But here is a word of grace for you today that will lift you above your worldly cares and cheer your heart - "There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus!" Are you in Christ? Are you united to Christ by a living faith? Do you rest your soul upon the merits of Christ's righteousness and shed blood? If truly you are in Christ the promise is yours. For you there is NO CONDEMNATION! O what joy, what bliss floods my soul as I think of it!
Come, my soul, meditate on this. God declares that you are entirely free from condemnation. Believing in the Lord Jesus Christ, you are actually and effectually cleared from all guilt. Your prison doors are opened. You no longer wear the chains of a slave. You are delivered now from the bondage of the law. Free! Free! Free! Thank God, I am free at last! Free from the law! Free from sin! Free from death! Free from judgment! The Savior's blood has procured your full discharge. Now you have a right to approach your Father's throne. There are no flames of vengeance to frighten you now. There is no fiery sword of judgment to threaten you now. Justice cannot strike the innocent. Once you were unable to see the Father's face; but now you see it clearly. Once you could not speak to him; but now you come before his throne and speak to him in prayer with the boldness of a son. Once the fear of hell was upon you; but now you no longer fear the dreadful pit. How can there be any punishment for the guiltless? He who believes is not condemned, and cannot be punished. And more, all of those privileges you might have enjoyed, if you had never sinned, are now yours, because you are justified. All the blessings which you would have had if you had kept the law, and many more, are now yours, because Christ has kept the law in your place. All the love and acceptance that perfect obedience could have obtained from God, belong to you, because Christ was perfectly obedient in your behalf. God has imputed the merits of his own Son to your account, that you might be exceedingly rich through him, who for your sake became exceedingly poor. Oh! what grace the Lord has bestowed upon his people in Christ! What a great debt of love and gratitude believing souls owe to the Son of God!
A debtor to mercy alone,
Of covenant mercy I sing;
Nor fear with Thy righteousness on,
My person and offering to bring:
The terrors of law and of God,
With me can have nothing to do;
My Savior's obedience and blood
Hide all my transgressions from view.
NO CONDEMNATION! What trial shall be too severe, what burden too heavy, what affliction too great, what sorrow too painful for my soul or yours? If we are believers, we are in Christ. And in Christ there is NO CONDEMNATION! Let these words of grace comfort your soul and cheer your heart today - "There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus."
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