In Christ Jesus

Now we’re going to read from Romans chapter 7, and we’ll read from verse 14, although our studies are going to begin at the first verse of Romans chapter 8. But this helps us to set some kind of context.

“We know that the law is spiritual; but I am unspiritual, sold as a slave to sin. I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do. And if I do what I do not want to do, I agree that the law is good. As it is, it is no longer I myself who do it, but it is sin living in me. I know that nothing good lives in me, that is,” “in my flesh” it may be in your translation, or “in my sinful nature,” as it is here in the NIV. “For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. For what I do is not the good I want to do; no, the evil I do not want to do―this I keep on doing. Now if I do what I do not want to do, it is no longer I who do it, but it is sin living in me that does it.

“So I find this law at work: When I want to do good, evil is right there with me. For in my inner being I delight in God’s law; but I see another law at work in the members of my body, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within my members. What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death? Thanks be to God―through Jesus Christ our Lord!

“So then, I myself in my mind am a slave to God’s law, but in the sinful nature a slave to the law of sin.

“Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit of life set me free from the law of sin and death. For what the law was powerless to do in that it was weakened by”―and here again is the phrase “the sinful nature” or “the flesh”―“what the law was powerless to do in that it was weakened by the [flesh], God did by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful man to be a sin offering. And so he condemned sin in sinful man, in order that the righteous requirements of the law might be fully met in us, who do not live according to the sinful nature but according to the Spirit.”

Amen.

Well, we’ll leave it there and pray and ask for God’s help:

Now, gracious God, we humbly pray that the Spirit of God will help us to use our minds to think sensibly and properly, that you will take my words and help me to speak clearly and succinctly, and that you will take our hearts, our lives, and conform them to the truth of your Word, that you will make us like Christ. For it’s in his name we pray. Amen.

Some homes have a lot of scriptural quotes on their walls, and that may be your home. It isn’t our home. In fact, I’m not sure that we have anything other than just this one quote, and now we don’t even have that, because it’s here. But I walk past this every day, because it is in the back hallway from the exit from the garage and in through the laundry room and into the kitchen. And I walk past this every time I go through the hall. It’s actually the answer to the first question in the Heidelberg Catechism. And I don’t know how many of you have this in your home, but I commend it to you. It’s very worthwhile. And this is both the question and the answer: “What is your only comfort in life and in death?” Answer:

That I am not my own, but belong—body and soul, in life and in death—to my faithful Savior Jesus Christ. He has fully paid for all my sins with his precious blood, and has set me free from the tyranny of the devil. He also watches over me in such a way that not a hair can fall from my head without the will of my heavenly Father. In fact, all things must work together for my salvation. Because I belong to him, Christ, by his Holy Spirit, assures me of eternal life and makes me wholeheartedly willing and ready from now on to live for him.[1]

So now you know the answer to the first question of the Heidelberg Catechism. In one sense, it is a wonderful explication of the opening phrase of Romans 8:1: “There is [therefore] now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.”

There is no question that Romans chapter 8, which is going to be the focus of our studies for a few weeks now―there is no question that this is one of the high peaks of all of the Bible. It is true that all of the Bible is equally inspired, but it is also true that not all of the Bible is equally inspiring. For example, it would not be just as easy a task for us to embark on a sustained study of 1 Chronicles chapter 3. If you doubt that, you may just want to turn to it for a moment and reinforce the thought. It is equally inspired, but it is not equally inspiring.

This particular chapter was the focus of five studies that I was asked to give at the Keswick Convention during the first week in August. And it took so much out of me and demanded so much of me that, having experimented on those unsuspecting souls there in England, I thought, “Well, I made one attempt at it. Now let me see if I can get it right by slowing the pace down a little and unpacking it for the benefit of our own congregation.” I do this very purposefully, very prayerfully, believing that it is a right and proper approach to be taken in our pause from our studies in Mark’s Gospel.

Because what we’re really going to consider over these next few studies―we did it in five in England; it’ll take longer than that here―we’re going to consider, essentially, life in the Spirit, what it means to be a Christian. The heading in the NIV, if you have one, is “Life Through the Spirit.” But what does it mean to be “in Christ”? What does it mean to live in the fullness of the Spirit? What does it mean to have the dynamic of the power of God in the life of a believer? And how does that relate to the things that we have just read in the second half of chapter 7? How do we put all of this together? How are we to understand it? It is a matter of concern to all who are thoughtful, professing Christians.

Romans chapter 8 has been the focus of attention by many, many people throughout the years. In the seventeenth century, Thomas Jacomb said of this chapter, “It may be styled the chapter of chapters. From first to last, it is high gospel, and it is all gospel, its matter being entirely evangelical.”[2] “It is high gospel, and it is all gospel, its matter being entirely evangelical.” In other words, it pulsates with the story of the Bible.

It’s always dangerous to be making sweeping generalizations, but in one sense, Romans chapter 8 really clarifies for us the totality of the biblical record, making sure that we who profess to be followers of Jesus may be guarded by this truth and may be able to articulate this truth. And we do so in a context where there is a lot of confusion concerning what this really means.

And this, of course, is not new to the twenty-first century. I think I’ve told you before that when James S. Stewart, the Scottish Presbyterian, addressed the students and faculty of Yale Divinity School fifty-eight years ago, in 1952, he warned them on that occasion―and whether they heeded his warning or not is a matter of conjecture, isn’t it?—he warned them about a “theologically vague and harmlessly accommodating” Christianity which, he said, is “less than useless.”[3] “Theologically vague and harmlessly accommodating.”

We’re not free to design a gospel to accommodate a confused church and a compromised culture. Augustine said, “If you believe what you like in the gospel and reject what you don’t like, it’s not the gospel you believe, but yourself.”[4] And I come across people all the time, they say to me, say, “Well, you know, I like Jesus and what he says in the Gospels, but I really have no time for the apostle Paul. I don’t like him. I don’t like what he has to say.” As if, somehow or another, you can just take your Bible, and take scissors, and just cut out the parts that you don’t like, and finally have a nice little gospel that fits your own predilections and so on. It’s not possible to do―at least not without great harm to ourselves and without despite to what the Scriptures teach.

No, we’re going to give ourselves to this glorious chapter, which begins with no condemnation from the wrath of God and which ends with no separation from the love of God. And I commend it to you. You may even want to attempt to memorize it in the coming weeks. It will do you good. If you think that’s a daunting challenge, remember this: that Luther said that his congregation ought to know the entire book of Romans word for word. The entire book of Romans. So I don’t think Romans 8 would be too much of a challenge for us. In fact, why don’t we take it on? I will do it if you want to try it. We can test each other. You know the first word: “Therefore.” So we’re off to a start. We’re off to a terrific start!

We’re not free to design a gospel to accommodate a confused church and a compromised culture.

“Therefore, there is now no condemnation.” Well, “Therefore…” As our English teacher told us, “When you see a therefore, you should ask what it’s there for.” And he is making this great declaration in light of all that he has already said. The question of whether this “therefore” should be tied immediately to the end of chapter 7, whether it should be tied to that which begins in Romans chapter 3 and so on, is really quite a moot point. I would paraphrase it like this: “Therefore, in light of what I’ve just said and in light of all that I’ve said…” “Therefore, in light of what I’ve just said and in light of all that I’ve said, you need to know this.” What do we need to know? That “there is no condemnation.” That “there is no condemnation.” So he has no sooner, as it were, pushed his boat out from the jetty and he’s out into the deep seas. He’s down, now, immediately into the depths of the grace of God.

And I purposefully read the balance of Romans 7 so that we might be clear in our minds here that there is no contradiction between what he says in Romans 7:24 and what he now writes in 8:1. What does he say in verse 24? “What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death?” What does he say in verse 1? “There is therefore now no condemnation to them [that] are in Christ Jesus.”[5]

Now, you will read in certain places and you will hear certain people teach that what Paul is referencing there is his preconverted condition―that he is only able to say that because only an unconverted person would say, “Oh, what a wretched man that I am!” Really? Have you heard many unconverted people going around explaining to everybody that they’re really a miserable wretch? No! Most people are going around saying, “I’m really quite a good fellow. I mean, there are some bad people; a few of them work in my office, and a number of them live on my street. But not me. I’m really quite an excellent girl, nice chap.” In fact, I had a letter―I’ll read it this evening, if I remember to, at our outdoor service―from a man who said, “I was brought up in a Christian home, I attended a Christian college, I went to seminary, and I was a pastor in a church. But it’s only in the last few months that I have understood the gospel, and I am able to say for the first time, ‘Oh God, you saved a wretch… Me!’”

No, in actual fact, it’s only when we know Romans 8:1 that we really are able to understand Romans 7:24. It’s not so much that we get from Romans 7 into Romans 8 as it is that we get from Romans 8 and reverse back into Romans 7. “There is therefore now no condemnation to them [that] are in Christ Jesus.” How amazing is that, given what a wretched man I am, given what I know about myself, given what God knows about me and what I know about me, given that the good I want to do I don’t do, and the bad I don’t want to do I end up doing? What possibility is there for me? What hope is there for me after coming out of this? You see what Paul is doing? “Therefore,” he says, “what you need to know is, in light of all of that, there is no condemnation.”

Now, we all wrestle with this paradox. We all wrestle with it. Because we’re aware of the accusations of our conscience, we’re aware of the insinuations of the Evil One, and we recognize the paradox that is contained in this. And again, you can backtrack through it and read it for yourself. And some have said, “Well, that’s because the law itself is a problem, and really what Paul is saying is we’ve got to get rid of the law, and if we get rid of the law of God, then we can live in the Spirit of God” and so on. That is such a facile way to approach the Bible, and I’ll show that as our studies continue. Verse 12 of chapter 7 makes it clear that the law is not the problem. Look at what he says: “The law is holy, and the commandment is holy, righteous and good.”

So, if the law is not the problem, what is the problem? The answer is, sin is the problem. And in verse 11, he tells us that “sin seduces me”: “Seizing the opportunity afforded by the commandment, [sin] deceived me.” Sin always deceives us! Sin is the great deception. It deceives us into thinking that that which it seduces us to will satisfy us. That’s the first lie that it tells: “This will answer all your longings. This will fulfill all your dreams. This will satisfy you.” That’s what it says. We get to the end of that, and we find that it doesn’t satisfy. It also is deceitful in that it tells us that, “And even if you go down this road, you’ll be able to justify the fact of what you’re doing.” And we get down the road, and we realize that we can’t justify what we’re doing. And we get further down the road, and it tells us, “And you’ll be able to escape the consequences of what you do.” And we get down at the end of the road, and we run slam into the consequences of what we do. No, the problem is not the law of God. The problem is sin—and sin that is dealt with in Jesus. And therefore, having been dealt with in Jesus, “there is now no condemnation.”

Sin is the great deception. It deceives us into thinking that that which it seduces us to will satisfy us.

I was greatly helped, as I wrestled with this as a younger man, when I read Jim Packer on this. And it’s an analogy I’ve alluded to before, but I want to quote it for you exactly. And that is when Packer describes the balance or the paradox between what the law tells us about ourselves—and we read that in Romans chapter 7, that I am weak, that I am failing, and that I am guilty―and what the gospel affirms concerning us―namely, that I am loved, that I am safe, and I am secure. I think we mentioned this on the Sunday before I left. Weak, failing, guilty; loved, safe, secure. How can both things be true? Says Packer,

Think of the Christian’s personal life as a house with different aspects. Romans 7 depicts the cold, shadowed side that faces away from the sun, Romans 8 shows us the warm side where the sunshine is seen and felt. [So] we only get out of Romans 7 into Romans 8 in the sense that, after letting the law speak to us about ourselves, we listen afresh to the gospel.[6]

See? So the law says to us, “You know what? You are weak, you’re failing, and you’re guilty.” And we don’t say, “Oh no I’m not!” We say, “Yes, I am!” And the gospel says to us, “You are loved, safe, and secure.”

Well, how does this work? How can this “no condemnation” be a reality? And when is it a reality? Is this something that we aspire to, we eventually reach? No, you will notice the time frame: “There is therefore now,” three-letter word, important in Scrabble: “now.” N-O-W. He’s not referring to a future possibility; he’s not referring to a past reality, although it is based on a past reality; but he is referring to a present certainty. It can’t be other than this, as we’re going to see in our studies.

And you may be helped by turning back one page in your Bible to one of the other great “therefores” of Romans: “Therefore,” in 5:1. You could say that there are three great “therefores” in the book of Romans: there is Romans 5:1, there is Romans 8:1, and there is Romans 12:1. But look at 5:1: “Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand.” We stand in grace. We stand in grace! Otherwise, what do we stand in? If we don’t stand in grace, we stand in condemnation. If we are not justified, if we are not declared righteous on the strength of Christ, we are condemned. There’s no safe territory between this. We’re not born into some moral middle ground whereby we choose either to live in condemnation or we choose to live in justification. But what the Bible says is that we find ourselves in the condemned cell from the get-go―that “as in Adam all die”;[7] that Adam has brought down the human race in the solidarity of our being caught up, as it were, in him. And therefore, that’s where we are.

So the reality of condemnation is not in question. But the present experience of the believer is because of what has happened in Jesus. And if you want to rehearse this at home, you can just go through and notice the tenses, and it’s so very, very clear.

If we don’t stand in grace, we stand in condemnation.

You know that my favorite character, increasingly, in the New Testament is the thief on the cross―the one who says, “Lord, will you remember me?” or “[Lord], remember me when you come into your kingdom.”[8] In other words, “You know, somewhere along the line, when you get it all fixed and finished, will you take care of me?” And the response of Jesus is so wonderful, isn’t it? He says, “I’ll do better than that. Today…” “Today”!

The reality of what has happened in the life of the sinner who turns in repentance and faith to Jesus is a present reality―that when we’re born again to a living hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, the hope is a secured certainty that we have not yet entered into. [k4]It’s not a possibility, like “We hope it doesn’t rain before seven o’clock.” It may or it may not. But it is a sure and certain hope. Why? Because of this divine transaction. Because of what Paul is saying here.

And that’s why Augustus Toplady, in his wonderful hymn “A Debtor to Mercy Alone,” reminds us that the glorified spirits who are already in heaven may be happier than us, but they aren’t any more secure than us. They’re no more secure, because their position is our position, now. “There is therefore now no condemnation.” For whom? Notice: “for those who are in Christ Jesus.” “For those who are in Christ Jesus.”

This is Paul’s favorite expression. He uses it 160 times in his letters―either this or a variation of it: “in Christ,” “in the Beloved,” and so on. Sometimes he turns it round and speaks in terms of “Christ in us” or “us in Christ.” Classically, we think of it―those of us who know our Bibles―in terms of 2 Corinthians 5:17: “Therefore, if [any man] is in Christ”―“in Christ”―“he is a new creation; the old has gone, [and] the new has come!”

That’s why when he writes his letters, he writes to the church of God “in Christ” and “in Ephesus,”[9] to the believers “in Corinth” and “in Christ.”[10] And that is exactly what it is for us this morning. As we’ve said so many times before, we are in Christ, but we are also in Cleveland. One day, for us to be in Christ, we will be gone from Cleveland—and I don’t mean moving to Florida or wherever it is you’re planning to go. But we will be gathered into the presence of Jesus, where we will be free from the possibilities of sin. But today, living in Cleveland, I am constantly bombarded by the ravages of sin. The law, which is pure and perfect and holy, challenges me to break it. The law in its perfection shows me that I’m out of line. The law continues to condemn me.

And if I don’t understand what it is to be in Christ, then what I will seek to do every time I am condemned by the law is try and beat it at its own game. So I’m losing three–nil, but I’ve still got the second half to try and get it fixed before the final whistle blows. If that’s the way you’re approaching your professed Christian life, I’m sorry, sister, brother, you don’t understand grace! But when you do understand this, what a transformation! Because when the Evil One comes with all of his accusations, when our conscience accuses us, when we realize ourselves to be weak and failing and useless, we don’t say, “Well, at least I’ve got the second half to try and fix it.” We say, “Isn’t it an amazing wonder that a messed-up creature like me, because of Christ, faces no condemnation from his wrath and no separation from his love?”

You know, when I tell this to Catholic people—and I don’t want to be unkind to any Catholic people in saying this—but most of my Catholic friends say, “That can’t possibly be the case!” They said, “If I’m going to believe that, then I’ll just go and do what I want to do!” And I say, “No, don’t say that! Let’s just continue our studies in Romans 8 a little further, and it’ll work itself out for you.” The gospel, you see, is dangerous, isn’t it? Because when you really understand the gospel―you understand the doctrine of justification―you find yourself saying, “Well, this is too good to be true! I mean, what is this?” That’s how you should feel! But remember, it is “those who are in Christ Jesus.”

Calvin, again, reminds us in Luke 4 of the Institutes—and with this I finish—that all that Christ has done for us is of no value to us so long as we remain outside of Christ.[11] All that God has done for us is of no value to us so long as we remain outside of Christ.

When he writes to the Ephesians concerning them being in Christ, he starts way back in eternity with the doctrine of God’s eternal electing love―way back in the realms of eternity, where, when we’ve spent all our best energies, we’d still just lie looking up at the ceiling saying, “I don’t think I get this.” As so he says, “But let me just bring it down to present-tense reality”; he says, “And you also were included in Christ”―“you were included in Christ”―“when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation.”[12] “You were included in Christ.”

We are by nature excluded from Christ. The Ephesians heard this amazing story that Paul came to proclaim. He who had been so convinced of his own righteousness, he who was a Pharisee of the Pharisees, he who was trying to work his own way to heaven eventually had been arrested by Jesus, and his life had been turned upside down. And now he couldn’t get over this, and he came proclaiming this amazing news. He got a hammering from the Jews, and he got ridiculed by the gentiles, but he never gave up, because it was too important.

Have you been included in Christ? Do you know who you are?

Every so often we read a sad story, don’t we, or we hear it covered on the news, of somebody who wanders into a police station, and they’re clueless as to their identity—or into the emergency room of a hospital. And when the people seek to interview them, say, “Who are you?” they say, “Well, I don’t know.” “And where did you come from?” They said, “I don’t know that either.” “And where do you live?” He said, “I don’t know.” It’s tremendously sad. But equally sad is the form of spiritual dementia which suggests an equally clear absence of understanding of who I am.

And what you need to know, Parkside member, is who you are. You need to know who you are. Because it is your identity which forms the dynamic of your activity. And if we don’t understand our identity, then every call for action will appear simply to be another form of externalism[k5]―another attempt to try and fix it, another attempt to try and improve my score, another attempt in the second set of the tennis match to get back into favorable territory. But when I understand that in the Lord Jesus Christ there is no condemnation—now! now!—wow, what a change. What a change!

Do you know who you are?

Let’s pray:

O God, look upon us in your grace, we pray, so that the things that we consider in the Bible may open our eyes to the reality of the wonder of all that you are to us in Christ. And grant that all that Christ has done for us we may enter into by grace, through faith, in repentance, and in childlike trust. “Nothing in our hands we bring, simply to your cross we cling; naked, come to you for dress, and the weary come to you for rest.”[13] And in all of our suggested and self-imposed righteousness, we come to the fountain aware of the dirtiness of things, and we pray that you will wash us and cleanse us.

And grant, Lord, that this message of grace may so fill our minds and our hearts that we might be that kind of community so that those who come battered and broken and aware of the fact of their helplessness may not be met with calls to self-justification but with the news of the justification provided in Jesus, so that there is then to those who are in him no condemnation from his wrath and no separation from his love.

And may the love of the Lord Jesus draw us to himself. May the joy of the Lord Jesus fill our lives. May the peace of the Lord Jesus guard and keep our minds when they are so often unsettled by the events of life. And may grace and mercy and peace from God the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit rest upon and remain with each one, now and forevermore. Amen.

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[1] The Heidelberg Catechism, Q. 1. Paraphrased.

[2] Thomas Jacomb, Several Sermons Preach’d on the Whole Eighth Chapter of the Epistle to the Romans (London, 1672), 1:3. Paraphrased.

[3] James S. Stewart, A Faith to Proclaim (London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1953), 16.

[4] Augustine, Contra Faustum 17.3. Paraphrased.

[5] Romans 8:1 (KJV).

[6] J. I. Packer, Keep in Step with the Spirit (Leicester: Inter-Varsity, 1984), 129.

[7] 1 Corinthians 15:22 (NIV 1984).

[8] Luke 23:42 (NIV 1984).

[9] Ephesians 1:1 (NIV 1984).

[10] 1 Corinthians 1:2 (NIV 1984).

[11] John Calvin, Institutes of the Christian Religion 3.1.1.

[12] Ephesians 1:13 (NIV 1984).

[13] Augustus Toplady, “Rock of Ages” (1776). Lyrics lightly altered.