From God comes…
From God comes no condemnation. Condemnation means to find someone guilty and make sure punishment is received. No condemnation means a person has been absolved of all guilt, therefore free from receiving punishment.
Did you know that there is no condemnation for those who belong to Christ? (Romans 8:1) This is good news indeed! God’s plan all along was that His Son would not come to condemn the world, but to save the world. (John 3:16)
The concept of no condemnation is hard to understand when we know we are all guilty. We have all sinned and fallen short. (Romans 3:23) And the result of sin is death. (Romans 6:23) However, Jesus paid our penalty by His death. The charges against us were nailed to the cross and no longer held against us. (Colossians 2:14-15) Once we give our lives to Christ, we belong to Him—and because we belong to Him, the Holy Spirit frees us from the power of sin that leads to death. (Romans 8:1-2)
Living without condemnation is not as easy as it seems. Although God does not condemn us, many times we condemn ourselves. We do not feel worthy of all the blessings God gives us: forgiveness, salvation, mercy, refuge, peace, comfort, joy, and so on. Indeed, we are not and never will be worthy of God’s blessings but as His children, He bestows them on us anyway. (1 John 3:1-3) So we must be willing to receive with a grateful heart, giving thanks.
Satan likes to plague our minds with destructive thoughts from our past. His goal is to make us feel condemned. To fight this temptation, we need to continually praise God for sending His Son to die for our sins. We can’t afford to let Satan taint our understanding of what Christ has done for us. Satan holds our past against us, but God does not.
God does not condemn us, nor should we condemn others. (Matthew 7:1-2) Those who are judgmental or critical of others may feel that God hasn’t fully forgiven them. We must believe in God’s forgiveness and guard against passing our insecurities on to others. (1 John 1:9)
Not living under condemnation does not mean we will live a sin free life. We are human. We will struggle and have problems. We will make mistakes. At times, we will stumble, trip, and fall. However, God will not condemn us when we do. When Jesus encountered the adulterous woman at the well, He did not condemn her but said, “Go and sin no more (Romans 8:10).” A life without condemnation strives to do better.
Praise God that Christ’s death delivers us from condemnation and that His resurrected life delivers us into victory! (John 5:24)
*****
“Whatever is good and perfect is a gift coming down to us from God…”
~James 1:17 (NLT)
