Question Four, February 25, 2007

"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 tht it was weakened by the sinful nature, God did by sending His own Son," Romans 8:1-3.

What does it mean to you that there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ?

This was a very difficult concept for me to wrap my brain around. I kept reading "condemnation" as "guilt" or "consequences", and getting tangle theology that choked the life out of me spiritually.

What Paul is saying is that we are no longer condemned. There is no longer a death sentence hanging over our heads. We are free for the first time in our lives.

What we do after that is up to us.

The best way I can think to explain what I mean is through an illustration. For the first 21 years of my life I was a Ward. I thought like one, lived like one, identified myself as one, and all of life was wrapped up in being a Ward.

But then, I met my husband. I fell in love. And soon, I went through a ceremony that made me a Peterson. From that point on, my past as a Ward struggled with my present as a Peterson. The old ways of doing things and making decisions clashed with the new ways of functioning as a Peterson.

Since I loved being a Peterson, eventually I grew more like a Peterson and less like a Ward. I will always have some Ward-like tendencies, but I'm more Peterson today than ever before. Not because of my name change, but because of my willingness to become more like a Peterson.

We pass from condemnation, from death, into life instantly at the point of salvation. But do we continue to walk the path of life, or do we go back to our old ways of thinking, doing, and living?

Those ways bring with them the feelings of condemnation, EVEN THOUGH WE ARE NO LONGER UNDER IT. We have to not only believe we are free, but live like it as well.

It does a prisoner no good to know he is free, his death sentence has been overturned, if he continues to sit in his unlocked cell, going through his unnecessary prison routine, and wearing the same prison garments.

No, he must throw off his old identity, taking on his new one and walking, talking and living as a free man, no longer under penalty for his crime.

I had to stop living like I was a Ward and change my ways to being a Peterson for my marriage to work. And it took time. It was a process...it was a forward process. I became a Peterson when I said "I do." We become set free when we say "I believe."

So living under guilt, circumstances of past decisions, and old ways of doing things is to deny the power of being set free. And that is what our flesh person wants us to do. It is a struggle...a day to day mindset we must put on.

The good news is that one day, after constant practice...one day, it will feel as natural as breathing.

So, what does it mean to YOU to be under condemnation no longer?

Be blessed, and be yourself in Christ...set free to serve and to bless others!

Deena