Tuesday, July 3, 2012

Loving grace of God

Romans 8:1 (NLT)

1 There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.

It is God’s will that His people should be comforted. In this verse the apostle reassures us there is no condemnation to those who belong to Christ Jesus, having repented of their sin and shown a desire to follow after the Spirit of God. The commentary of Matthew Henry tells us, “He does not say, "There is no accusation against them,’’ for this there is; but the accusation is thrown out, and the indictment quashed. He does not say, "There is nothing in them that deserves condemnation,’’ for this there is, and they see it, and own it, and mourn over it, and condemn themselves for it; but it shall not be their ruin. He does not say, "There is no cross, no affliction to them or no displeasure in the affliction,’’ for this there may be; but no condemnation. They may be chastened of the Lord, but not condemned with the world. Now this arises from their being in Christ Jesus; by virtue of their union with him through faith they are thus secured. They are in Christ Jesus, as in their city of refuge, and so are protected from the avenger of blood. He is their advocate, and brings them off. There is therefore no condemnation, because they are interested in the satisfaction that Christ by dying made to the law. In Christ, God does not only not condemn them, but is well pleased with them.”



There are those who believed their sin is so horrendous God cannot forgive them. They believe even though Christ gave His life for their freedom from sin that it does not exclude them from God’s punishment. I have heard it and you may have heard it said, “God is punishing me for my sins.”

Satan wants us to believe that lie. If Satan cannot have us then he wants to render us ineffective to serve God by having us believe our sin is unforgivable. I heard a man recently say he once believed sin he had not confessed was so great God brought sickness upon one of his children. Let me clear this up, God does not punish us for our sin when we have placed our faith in the salvation of Jesus Christ.

I want to say one more time, “God does not punish us for our sin when we have placed our faith in salvation of Jesus Christ.” There are consequences resulting as of actions we take. We may commit a sin as a direct result we may suffer a consequence, but it is not God’s doing we suffer the consequence, but a result of the actions we took.

For instance if I steal, I may be arrested and imprisoned as a consequence, but God is not going to punish a member of my family for my actions. If anything my own actions would cause them harm. The sin I committed was forgiven long ago when Christ put sin to death upon the cross. Therefore God does not punish me, my family or anyone close to me. Instead I brought my own consequences, which is not punishment from God.

Hopefully you will see the truth in this message and allow yourself to feel the forgiveness, grace and mercy Christ offers. Hopefully you will no longer believe Satan’s lie, but instead trust in the loving grace of God.

No comments:

Post a Comment