A well-known speaker started off his seminar by holding up a $50 bill.

In the room of 200, he asked,

"Who would like this bill?" Hands started going up. He said, "I am going to give this to one of you but first, let me do this."

He proceeded to crumple the bill up. He then asked, "Who still wants it?" Still the hands were up in the air.

"Well," he replied, "What if I do this?" And he dropped it on the ground and started to grind it into the floor with his shoe.

He picked it up, now all crumpled and dirty. "Now who still wants it?" Still the hands went into the air. "My friends, you have all learned a very valuable lesson. No matter what I did to the money, you still wanted it because it did not decrease in value. It was still worth $50. Many times in our lives, we are dropped, crumpled and ground into the dirt by the decisions we make and the circumstances that come our way. We feel as though we are worthless. But no matter what has happened or what will happen, you will never lose your value in God's eyes. To Him, dirty or clean, crumpled or finely creased, you are still priceless to Him."

Psalm 17:8 states that God will keep us, "as the apple of His eye."

THOUGHT:

The worth of our lives comes not in what we do or who we are but by WHOSE WE ARE!

NO CONDEMNATION and THE ASSURANCE of SALVATION

Romans 8: 1... "There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus."

The basis for no condemnation boils down to this. Is the whole of our salvation accomplishedby the finished work of Jesus? Or is there something else that man can do to make himselfmore qualified, holy, or otherwise more acceptable in the sight of God?

Can man establish his righteousness more securely by his works? Or, is the righteousness ofChrist our all and only means of acceptance before a Holy God?

The message of free and sovereign grace is an offense to men's pride because they refuse to admit that they are totally incapable of doing anything good (Rom. 3:10-12). Men, refusing to find their satisfaction in the righteousness of Christ, go about to establish their own righteousness (Rom. 10:3).

Though they often succeed in impressing other men, most especially themselves, God is worse than not impressed. He is infinitely offended by their attempt to rob Christ of His glory.

It's against this backdrop of the finished work of Christ that we look to the apostle Paul as he shows us the age old struggle man has had in believing what God has freely given in Christ.

Do Christians lose their new life because of sin? Let's listen to the apostle Paul.

Romans 7 is a cry of frustration from Paul who wants to do the right thing but can't. He finally cries out "O wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death?"

Then he says, "I thank God through Jesus our Lord" and that parallels what he says in 1 Corinthians 15 when he writes, "thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ," talking of what is going to happen in the last day when he is raised up and given a glorious resurrection body.

Make no mistake here. Paul in Romans 7 is speaking of himself. Here is a man who has not only seen the risen Christ, he was personally selected by Him to be His apostle to the Gentiles. Yet, Paul knows that in his flesh, he still does the very things he wills not to do. And the things he wants to do, he does them not.

Yet has Paul lost his salvation? Is Paul condemned because of his sin? Well, let's see what he says about this.

Let's look at Romans 8:1 from the perspective of there being no condemnation: "There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus."

The word condemnation is probably one of the most fearsome words in the English language. It's a fearsome word because it brings us into the courtroom, into the presence of the judge.

And so when Paul says, "There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus," he means that condemnation has been negated. He means that we don't have to come before the judge in his capacity as one who condemns. When God looks at us, He sees us as in His Son.

For ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God (Colossians 3:3 ).

What does condemnation mean? The awful reality of condemnation, of retribution, of Hell, is conveyed in Scripture through a variety of terrifying words. It's described as darkness and fire. It's a destruction which falls on that part of the human race which has not believed the gospel. Condemnation is the opposite of justification. It's because I am in Christ, not having a righteousness of my own, that God looks upon me and He says: You may go free.

Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that believeth on me hath everlasting life (John 6:47).

According to this verse, what kind of life does Jesus say is ours when we believe in Him? The word everlasting means "without beginning and without end." So if we receive everlasting life, and if the words of our Lord have any meaning, can this life ever end?

But we're saying that the opposite of justification is condemnation, there's nobody to stand up for you. There's nobody whose righteousness is counted as your own. You have to bear in your own person all of your sins and all of your evil doing.

What a horrible thing it must be to be unvindicated on the Day of Judgment. Condemnation is the opposite of love. It's the opposite of things like love, acceptance, assurance. Don't we need to be loved? Don't we need to be assured of that love? Don't we need to be accepted? People are looking for love, they're looking for acceptance, they're looking for assurance and they go to all kinds of sources to find it.

But to be condemned is to go an eternity with no love, no acceptance, and no assurance. What a horrible thing.

Condemnation is the opposite of hope and joy. Someone said that hope is to the soul what breath is to the body. And that's true. Condemnation is an existence of no hope. Imagine an existence of no hope!

Every day you wake up with hope, hope of something better than you have perhaps. But in that day, when condemnation becomes a reality, there is no hope and there's no happiness of any kind. There's no joy, no excitement, it's the opposite of hope.

And then finally condemnation is abandonment. There are several times in Romans 1:18 where Paul says that God gave them up. He gave them up to do what they want to do. He gave them up to the gratification of their desires.

These are terrible words, "God gave them up." But these words seem to be unappreciated by those about whom they are spoken, precisely because those outside of Christ are doing what they want.

But now there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. Paul asks the question in Romans 8:33, "Who shall bring a charge against God's elect? It is God who justifies. Who is to condemn? It is Christ Jesus who died, and furthermore is also risen, who is even at the right hand of God, who also makes intercession for us. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ?"

Paul often asked questions with only one possible answer. This is such a question. "Who shall separate us from the love of Christ?" The answer, of course, is "nobody."

If you are struggling with the issue of assurance, let me ask you a question. Aren't you included in Paul's question? Can you separate yourself from His love? According to Paul, of course not

Then Paul goes on to name various things that might try to separate us from His love: tribulation, distress, persecution, famine, nakedness, peril or sword. Then he finally answers: "No. In all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us."

I think that all of these things are Satan's attempt to condemn the people of God. Remember how he is referred to as the one who accuses the brethren night and day in heaven? Satan uses our reactions to the things listed above as a basis of accusation But on that day God is going to say to Satan: "Shut up, because they're mine. They've been accepted for my Son's sake. It's in Him that they have become the very righteousness of God. It is in Him that they are accounted as just, and for that reason they go free, for that reason they inherit the kingdom of God."

So the accuser can bring up many things with which to condemn us, but because we're in Christ Jesus none of it counts for anything. That means that we can look forward to judgement with confidence. It means that we can look forward to the day of death with confidence. With confidence we can face it because we know that all of our sins have been laid upon One who bore them on the cross and who was raised from the dead to give us life. No matter what the accuser says, there is no condemnation.

But there is also no condemnation even when I try to condemn myself.

You know, assurance is a problem for some Christians. It shouldn't be. In the New Testament assurance is simply a fact, we are in Christ and Christ is in us. Yet some Christians have problems with assurance.

"No Condemnation"

This is where Romans 7 comes in...

Paul, especially in verse 24-25, is describing a struggle. He is saying, on the one hand, I want to do what is right. He says: "I will to do what is right." The very fact that Paul can "will to do what is right" indicates that he has been made a part of the new covenant.

We see in Jeremiah where the law is going to be written on the heart. All who are in Christ aregoing to know the Lord, from the least to the greatest.

The fact that the law is written on our hearts indicates that we want to comply with it, with its standards and demands, and it is our privilege to do so. Paul says, I delight in the Law of God.

In Psalm 119 there are a dozen references where David said that he loved or delighted in the law of the Lord. But look at the end of Psalm 119 where David spoke of himself as a sheep who had wandered away.

Even so, David came back. That's Paul in Romans 7. That's us in Romans 7. Paul came back. And you, beloved, if you have strayed, will come back. God won't lose one of His own. If you are born again, you can't be unborn

. So how does this sentence in Romans 8:1, "There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus," hook up with Romans 7? Because although Paul, in his own spirit, WANTS to do what is right, he says "I can't do it." He says, "Wretched person that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death?" There is this struggle going on.

But then, strangely enough, he says there is therefore no condemnation to those who are in Christ. That "therefore" in Romans 8:1 has a direct connection with what he has talked about in chapter 7.

It is those who experience this struggle who can be assured that there is no condemnation because the fact that they are always getting up after they fall down indicates that they are alive. It is the struggle which is the sign of life. This is why we see people who are perfectly happy in their sinful lifestyles. They don't have any struggle going on. Dead men don't struggle.

What Paul is telling us is that we are flesh and spirit at the same time. We live in two worlds at the same time, in our experiences. So this is why he says there is therefore no condemnation.

Maybe you've had a bad week, maybe you had a bad two weeks, and you wonder: Is there any hope for me? The answer is: Yes. There is hope for you, because you're the one Paul is talking about. No Condemnation and Assurance of Salvation

(Conclusion)

Now we come to the point where we simply have to cease being controlled by our emotions and take a grip upon the revealed Word of God. Are we all creatures of emotion? Speaking for myself, the account what God has said about me. And He has written that there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. And so, inspite of what the circumstance may be saying, I choose to believe Him.

Now, if this "no condemnation" has come to pass in the experience of God's people, how has it come to pass? Has it come to pass because we are better than other people? No, it's not by becoming a better person, it's not by helping elderly people across the street and thinking that for some reason you're going to receive a reward in heaven for it. It's by the fact that we're in Christ Jesus. There is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. Simply speaking, this means being involved in a personal relationship with Him.

This relationship is a reality that those who are outside of Christ can't begin to grasp. The Word of God and the Spirit of God exist, there is not and there cannot be faith. But if we have faith, thank God He has given it to us as a precious gift. And so it is in Christ Jesus that I become the righteousness of God and therefore there is no condemnation for me.

But then the question is, "How do I get in Christ?" If this is necessary for us to be no longer condemned, then how do I do it? What did He have that we need? Righteousness and life. What do we have that He took? All our sins were nailed to Him on the cross. He exchanged His righteousness for our sins. The power contained in this Good News is the means by which God gifts us with thefaith to believe. So by faith the believer's soul is delivered from sins, and clothed with the eternal righteousness of Christ.

Faith, it is by faith, that's how I get in Christ. Why is it by faith? What is there about faith? The answer is that faith establishes the relationship of trust that existed in the Garden of Eden before the fall of Adam. Then Adam broke faith and all of that came to an end, but it's all restored in Christ.

How do I get in Christ? It's by faith, and I wear for the rest of my days the wedding ring of faith. I belong to my faithful Saviour who with his precious blood has fully satisfied the justice that God demands, for all my sins.

Has Christ Jesus fully paid for all your sins? Romans 8:1 is a great verse, it's a great passage. Let's absorb that there is no condemnation. None! There is no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus. Amen.

Thank God for saving us.... thank you Father that when you do something, it is forever.... thank you for your Word and for the faith to believe it.... finally, thank you Lord that we are not condemned and shall never be, because Christ Jesus paid the debt we owed... in His name and for His sake, thank you... amen.