Study 12

Cure for Condemnation

A few studies ago I put you in the shoes of someone who was trying hard to be righteous but who was failing miserably.

You felt wretched about the way you continually failed the Lord and concluded that there was nothing for it but to put up with the sense of condemnation and work harder. 'I can't win,' you were saying. 'There doesn't seem to be any way through.'

In the light of what we have learnt so far, let's go back to that individual. You are, struggling to rid yourself of the guilt and condemnation associated with 'not doing well enough'.

Next day you do better and feel quite pleased with yourself- until you hear that Mrs Jones prays for three hours a day and fasts every Tuesday! Condemnation doesn't diminish, it increases. You can never quite do enough.

What's happening here? You are feeling condemned because you are focusing on your performance. You're saying, 'I'm accepted because of what I do.' In other words, you are trying to overcome condemnation with sanctification, which is impossible.

There is only one answer to condemnation: justification. You cannot be condemned and justified at the same time. If the judge declares you 'Not guilty', there's no condemnation.

You are accepted because of what Christ has already done. It's nothing to do with how you feel or what you do, whether you fell asleep during your prayer time or fasted for a week. Jesus has released you from the law, justified you and given you His righteousness as a gift.

There is no way that you can make yourself either more or less righteous. You are 'in Christ Jesus' and there is no condemnation for you (Rom. 8:1). You thought you couldn't win. The truth is: you can't lose!

Paul questions, 'Who will bring any charge against those whom God has chosen? It is God who justifies. Who is he that condemns?' (Rom. 8:33, 34a). The accuser is the devil. He is active day and night (Rev. 12:10b) and will do all he can to rob you of your security in God. He will constantly bombard you with accusations about your poor performance and attempt to force you into a treadmill of dead works.

'Resist him, standing firm in the faith' (1 Pet. 5:9). You have an advocate with the Father who always lives to intercede for you (Heb. 7:25; 1 John 2:1).

To Meditate On

Jesus was condemned in your place.

'The people of Jerusalem and their rulers did not recognise Jesus, yet in condemning him they fulfilled the words of the prophets that are read every Sabbath' (Acts 13:27).

'I tell you the truth, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life and will not be condemned; he has crossed over from death to life' (John 5:24).

To Consider

WRITE DOWN some of the ways in which you have felt condemned.

WHAT is the difference between condemnation and conviction?

Food For Thought

LOOK UP the words 'justify' and 'justification' in a good dictionary. What do the terms mean?

In a concordance, LOOK UP ten references to your justification in Christ. Write down in a notebook each verse with its reference.

MEDITATE on them and let the truth sink in.

Be Inspired

'… it is in the Lord that men are justified, it is in the Lord their righteousness resides, the Lord Himself is their righteousness.'

John Murray

To Apply

"… the Christian should never feel condemnation; he should never allow himself to feel it. The devil will try to make him feel it; but he must answer the devil. If the devil comes to you and tries to convict you, and to make you feel that you are condemned, stand up to him and say, 'There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus.' Answer him with the Scripture and he will 'flee from you".

Martyn Lloyd-Jones

'Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because he has not believed in the name of God's one and only Son' (John 3:18).