Tag: condemnation

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Acts Devotionals

I appeal to Jesus!

Bema Seat

Paul replied, “I am standing at Caesar’s tribunal…I appeal to Caesar!” (Acts 25:10-11)

The word “tribunal” is translated “judgment seat” in other passages in scripture, such as where they refer to God’s judgment seat (Romans 14:10) or Christ’s judgment seat (2 Corinthians 5:10).

And it made me think.

One day, we will all stand before God’s judgment seat as Paul was standing before Caesar’s. And there, Satan would throw all kinds of serious accusations against us.

But unlike the accusations thrown at Paul, Satan’s accusations would be quite legitimate. We have committed all kinds of sins, making us deserving of death.

Yet as God’s children, we can cry out, “I appeal to Jesus!”

And by Jesus’ blood shed on the cross, God will declare us righteous.

That’s an awesome thought.

So whenever Satan, or even our own consciences, are mercilessly hurling accusations at us, let us cry out boldly and with confidence, “I appeal to Jesus!”

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1 John Devotionals

When our hearts condemn us: Our hope as God’s children

Toddling forward with Jesus

Little children, let us not love in word or speech, but in action and in truth.

This is how we will know that we belong to the truth and will reassure our hearts before him whenever our hearts condemn us; for God is greater than our hearts, and he knows all things.” (1 John 3:18–20)

“He knows all things.”

As I read that, I thought about Peter’s words to Jesus in John 21.

“Lord, you know everything; you know that I love you.” (John 21:17)

And Jesus did know, even better than Peter did. He knew that Peter loved him enough that one day he would die for him. (John 21:18-19)

He knew Peter’s weaknesses.

He knew Peter’s sins and failures.

He knew Peter’s future sins as well.

But he also knew that Peter loved him and wanted to be like him.

And that’s what marks a child of God. They want to be like the Lord they love.

As John puts it,

Dear friends, we are God’s children now, and what we will be has not yet been revealed. We know that when he appears, we will be like him because we will see him as he is.

And everyone who has this hope in him purifies himself just as he is pure. (1 John 3:2-3)

No, we’re not perfectly like Jesus now. But as children of God, we long to be.

We can’t wait for the day when we are made perfect. And because we can’t wait, like a small child learning to walk, we take steps now to become more like Jesus, faltering though those steps may be.

We start walking like Jesus does. (1 John 2:6)

We start loving like Jesus does. (1 John 3:16-18)

And when we stumble, and our hearts start condemning us, our Father picks us up and reassures us, saying, “I know you still love me. Keep walking.”

See what great love the Father has given us that we should be called God’s children—and we are! (1 John 3:1)

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1 John Devotionals

When our hearts condemn us

1 John

A lot of us struggle with the truth we find in verse 1.

See what great love the Father has given us that we should be called God’s children—and we are! (1 John 3:1)

Why do we struggle with it? We struggle because we feel we aren’t truly worthy of his love. We see words like,

Everyone who remains in him does not sin;, everyone who sins has not seen him or known him. (6)

and,

Everyone who has been born of God does not sin. (9)

and we say to ourselves, “But I do sin. Does that mean I’m not really a Christian?”

But as I said yesterday, John is not saying that Christians never sin. Rather, they have a changed heart which desires to be like the Savior who loves them.

They long for the day when we will see him face to face. And because of that, they no longer pursue sin, but holiness (2-3).

But in the meantime, there are times we sin. And it is so easy to condemn ourselves. To say we are not worthy of God’s love.

Satan of course will throw those accusations against us. But sometimes our own hearts will too.

And so John says,

 If our hearts condemn us, we know that God is greater than our hearts, and he knows everything. (20, NIV)

God see our failures. But God also sees our hearts.

After Peter denied Jesus three times, his heart condemned him. But Jesus was greater than his heart. He knew that Peter truly loved him. (John 21)

In the same way, when your heart condemns you, rest assured, Jesus knows your heart.

If your conscience is pierced because of your sin, and yet you love Jesus and desire to be like him, he knows. And he extends his grace to you.

Every morning, his mercies to you are new. Though we are not always faithful, great is his faithfulness! (Lamentations 3:22-23, 2 Timothy 2:13).

Let us rest each day in his grace and his faithfulness to us.

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1 John

But am I really saved?

1 John

“But am I really saved?”

I’ve mentioned before that I really struggled with this question when I was a child.

And to be honest, it’s a hard question to answer. It’s hard because only God truly knows the human heart. And it’s hard because though we’ve looked at all the marks of a Christian in the past three blogs, we can all see our failures. Our failures in righteousness. Our failures in love.

About the only thing we can say with any conviction (I would hope), is “Yes, I truly do believe in Jesus. I have trusted in him for my salvation.”

One word of comfort I can give to you is this: the fact that you can see your faults and are concerned about them makes me think that you are probably saved. It is the people who don’t care and yet claim to be Christians that worry me.

As I’ve mentioned before, true Christians long to be like their Lord. They long to be like him because they love him so much. And so when they fall short, it bothers them.

False Christians have no such desires to be like Jesus, so when they fall short, it doesn’t bother them at all.

It is the false Christians that repeatedly make excuses for their sin and lack of love. It is the true Christians that mourn over these things and repent.

That said, as you look over your time as a Christian, you should be able to see some change. You should see some change in your attitudes toward those around you, namely an increased compassion and love for them.

And you should start seeing a sheer discomfort with sin that you never had before. Sin that never bothered you before, should start bothering you now.

It’s striking to me that John does not even entertain the thought that a Christian would not see these changes.

But there’s one more thing, and it is reflected in some of the newer translations, particularly the new NIV. It translates verses 19-20 this way:

This is how we know that we belong to the truth and how we set our hearts at rest in his presence: If our hearts condemn us, we know that God is greater than our hearts, and he knows everything. 1 John 3:19-20

In other words, if you are really feeling under a load of guilt because you feel you haven’t changed enough, or you constantly feel guilty despite seeing the changes in your life, understand that your feelings aren’t the final judge of whether you’re saved or not. God is. And he knows everything.

He knows if you truly love him or not. He sees the changes he has worked in you. And that’s all that counts.

The encouragement I would give to you if you are laboring under guilt is to simply keep pursuing him.

Seek to become more like him each day. Share the love he’s given you with those around you.

If you fall, confess and repent. Then get up, and keep on going.

Know that he is on your side. He’s not constantly condemning you. If you truly love him, he sees that, and will never give up on you.

And as you come to understand his grace more deeply in your life, that feeling condemnation will fade. And at that point, John says,

Dear friends, if your hearts do not condemn us, we have confidence before God and receive from him anything we ask, because we obey his commands and do what pleases him. (21-22)

In other words, your fears will fade, your confidence in his love for you will increase, and you will see change in your life, leading to an even deeper relationship with  God.

Why? Because your thoughts will start aligning with the Father’s to the point that you start praying things according to his will. And as you do, he will answer, bringing you joy and even more confidence that you are truly his.

But until that day, pursue him, remembering the words of James.

Come near to God, and he will come near to you. (James 4:8)

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Romans

Not one sentence of condemnation

God’s Judgement

One of my favorite films is A Few Good Men.

And one of the most striking scenes to me is the one where sentence is handed down to the defendants.

Just prior to this, a colonel had just incriminated himself as the one who had given an order to two marines who, because of the order, had unintentionally caused another marine’s death.

Now the two marines stood before the judge who read the jury’s verdict concerning their actions.

On the charge of murder, the members find the defendants, “Not guilty.”

On the charge of conspiracy to commit murder, the members find the defendants, “Not guilty.”

At this point everyone is expecting the defendants to be cleared of all charges.

But then the judge said,

On the charge of conduct unbecoming a United States Marine, the members find the defendants, “Guilty as charged.”

And their sentence was handed down.

But unlike these marines, Paul says of us,

Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. (Romans 8:1)

I like how John Gill translates it: “There is not one condemnation” or “There is not one sentence of condemnation” toward us.

It’s not that God looks down the list of our sins, and says, “Not guilty,” “Not guilty,” “Not guilty,”….”Guilty as charged.”

Rather he looks at us, and says “Not guilty…on all charges.”

Why?

Because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit of life set me free from the law of sin and death. (Romans 8:2)

What is the law of sin and death? It’s the simple principal that if you sin, you will die. If you break the commands of God, you will be judged for it.

And because of all of us have sinned, all of us stand condemned.

But the law of the Spirit of life sets us free from the law of sin and death.

What is the law of the Spirit? It’s that through God’s grace, we are made righteous before God. That through his Spirit living in us, we now have a new life.

Paul explains further.

For what the law was powerless to do in that it was weakened by the sinful nature, God did by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful man to be a sin offering.

And so he condemned sin in sinful man, in order that the righteous requirements of the law might be fully met in us, who do not live according to the sinful nature but according to the Spirit. (Romans 8:3-4)

What was the law powerless to do? It was powerless to make us righteous in God’s eyes.

Why? Because all it could do was show us what righteousness is. It did not have the power to make us righteous, because all of us had a nature that rebelled against God.

So what did God do? He sent his Son to deal with our sin.

Jesus led a perfect life, and when he went to the cross, God put all our sins upon him. And he put all of the condemnation we deserved on Jesus.

The law said sin must be punished. And all the sins we committed were punished when Jesus died on the cross. So in that sense, the righteous requirements of the law were met in us.

But it doesn’t stop there. God sent his Spirit into our hearts when we became Christians. And like I said before, through his leading, we actually start to become righteous.

Though our bodies and minds still feel the residual effects our sinful nature left on us before it died, the Holy Spirit helps us fight through them so that we can live the kind of life God originally intended us to live.

And during those times when we feel condemned, and unworthy of God’s love and grace, the Spirit whispers to our souls, “But you are God’s children. You do belong to him now. There is no condemnation.”

How about you? Do you feel like God’s just stringing you along, making you feel like you’re okay just to lay down the hammer at the last minute?

He’s not. If you belong to him, not one charge will be laid against you.

So Paul says,

For you did not receive a spirit that makes you a slave again to fear, but you received the Spirit of sonship.

And by him we cry, “‘Abba,’ Father.” (Romans 8:15)

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Romans

A damned way of thinking

Romans

No, I am not swearing. The things we see in this passage are literally ways of thinking that will lead to people’s damnation.

To be honest, I find it hard to believe that people in that time held these ways of thinking.

Some people were saying, “God is happy when I sin because when I do, it shows how good he is in contrast. So why does God judge me when I’m simply doing what he wants?” (Romans 3:5)

But Paul quickly debunks that idea by saying, “What are you talking about? God doesn’t take pleasure in your sin, even if it does ‘show how good he is.’ If God thought that way, there’s no way he could judge the world.” (Romans 3:6)

On a similar vein, others were saying, “Well, if I do evil, good will result. When I sin, everyone will see just how good God is in contrast to me and they’ll glorify him. So I should just sin more.”

To that, Paul simply says flat out,

Their condemnation is deserved. (Romans 3:8)

I doubt that people still hold these ways of thinking, but there are still other similar arguments people make today. Today we’ll look at one, and tomorrow we’ll look at another.

God is unjust in bringing his wrath on us. (Romans 3:5)

People nowadays use this in a different context than in Paul’s day. They say things like, “How can God punish people who have never heard?”

But as we’ve seen in previous chapters, God has given people enough evidence to believe that he exists, even in lands where the gospel has never reached.

They have the evidence of creation and their own laws and consciences. And yet they reject what they’ve been given.

These people will not be judged based on what they don’t know, but on what they do know. So the judgment they receive will be entirely just.

Other people say, “How can God send people to hell? That’s so unjust, making people suffer forever just for rejecting him.”

I’ll be honest. I don’t like the teaching about hell. I’d rather believe that all people will eventually go to heaven.

The problem is that’s not what the Bible teaches. That’s definitely not what Jesus taught either.

But I’ll make two points on this.

First, God is simply giving people what they want. And what people who reject God want is to be as far away from God as possible. They want to live their own way. They want to do their own thing.

But what they eventually find out is that God is the source of love, joy, life, and everything that is good. And so separation from God is separation from everything that is good.

What is that kind of existence? Hell.

Second, God sent his Son to suffer and die for our sins so that people wouldn’t have to go to hell. Jesus did all the hard work.

All we have to do is put our faith in him and his work on the cross.

To say, “Father, I know I’ve messed up my life by going my own way. Forgive me. I believe that Jesus died on the cross for me and rose again. I’m putting my trust in you from now on.

Now please work in me to change me and make me more like yourself each day.”

And when we make that choice, we find life. It’s not that hard. The only hard thing about it is not wanting to let go of our way.

I love how C.S. Lewis put it. In the end, people either turn to God and say, “Your will be done,” or they turn away from him and he tells them, “Your will be done.”

Whose will is being done in your life?

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Romans

The problem of sin

Adam, Eve, and the serpent in Eden

As Christians, we often talk about salvation. But what are we being saved from? What have we done that is so bad that we require salvation?

We find the answer in this passage, one of the darkest in all of scripture, because it describes just how desperate our condition is.

Paul starts by saying,

The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of men who suppress the truth by their wickedness. (Romans 1:18)

The wrath of God.

If you really think about those words, they’re pretty scary. We all love to talk about the love of God. No one ever likes to talk about his wrath. Why is his wrath being poured out?

Two reasons: godlessness and wickedness, both of which are described in much further detail as we go along.

What is godlessness? Essentially, it’s a turning of our backs on God.

Paul tells us in this passage that God has revealed himself to everyone. Not just to the Jews. Not to just a select few. But to everyone.

How? Through his creation. All of creation screams out that there is an intelligent creator.

Even those who reject that idea, in honest moments admit, “You know, just by looking at everything, you’d almost think there was an intelligent designer behind all this.”

They then of course do everything to bury that idea behind their arguments and theories.

And that’s what Paul talks about here. Through his creation, we see God’s power and his divine nature.

Just by looking at his creation, we see just how big he must be. We see his mind. We see his creativity. We see his goodness. We see his beauty. God makes all of these things plain through his creation.

But what do people do? They suppress the truth of all this by their wickedness.

If you look closely at the motives of most if not all of those who would argue against the existence of God, at its root, it comes down to the fact that they don’t want to believe that they are accountable to him.

They know that if God truly exists, they can’t just live as they desire but are responsible to him.

By turning their backs on God, though, what happens?

Their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened.

Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools. (Romans 1:21-22)

We can see this in literal idol worshipers. They make things with their own hands. They are the “creator.” And yet they bow down and worship what they themselves created.

But people set up other idols as well. Their own intelligence. Their own wisdom. Their own money. Their own lusts.

By trusting these things, they become blind. They become blind to what’s truly good and right. And they become blind to how these things they are worshiping are destroying them.

But worse than all of this, because they turned their backs on God, he has turned his back on them.

God says, “You don’t want to follow my will? Fine. Your will be done.”

What’s the result of our will? We see the ugly results from verses 24-31. Not only our godlessness. But our wickedness. All the things that we do that hurt others and ourselves.

I don’t need to go into them all. All you have to do is look at the world around you, and you’ll see what happens when people turn their backs on God.

Verse 32 also very much describes the world today.

Although they know God’s righteous decree that those who do such things deserve death, they not only continue to do these very things but also approve of those who practice them. (Romans 1:32)

People know in their hearts they deserve to be punished for what they’re doing. But not only do they continue doing them, they cheer on those who practice them.

I don’t think I even have to comment on what that means. In America, we see the media constantly doing this.

They celebrate when those who do what is evil in God’s sight are open about it. They celebrate when laws are passed that are contrary to the Word of God.

And because of that, we are condemned.

That is the problem of sin. And that’s why we all need salvation.

How about you? Do you recognize the world’s need for salvation? More importantly, do you recognize your need for salvation?

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Luke Luke 11

The problem with legalism

Luke

From blasting the Pharisees, Jesus turned to the teachers of the law. Why?

Jesus told them,

And you experts in the law, woe to you, because you load people down with burdens they can hardly carry, and you yourselves will not lift one finger to help them. (Luke 11:46)

In this one verse, we see the problem with legalism.

First, it loads people with guilt without any remedy in sight.

The experts of the law actually made things more difficult than they had to by adding rule upon rule to the law of God.

When, for example, the law said that you shouldn’t do work on the Sabbath, these experts made countless rules on what “work” actually meant.

For example, women couldn’t wear jewelry on the Sabbath if they went out because it was possible they might take it off for some reason and carry it around with them. And of course, “carrying a burden” was prohibited on the Sabbath.

You also had to be careful how far you walked. If you walked too far (just over half a mile), you were breaking the Sabbath.

There were literally hundreds of such rules on top of the laws that God had given. And if you broke any of them, you were considered a “law-breaker.”

People today may not have the hundreds of additional rules that these teachers of the law did, but how often do we see people put restrictions on others, not because the Bible says it, but because they personally feel it’s wrong.

“Don’t drink” (as opposed to, “Don’t get drunk”).

“Don’t watch movies.”

“Don’t dance.”

All of this leads to the second problem, a judgmental attitude. The idea that “You are not a good Christian because you don’t keep these rules.”

Along with that comes a prideful attitude because, “I keep the rules.”

But often times, while they “keep the rules,” they forget what the Pharisees did: mercy, justice, and love. They think they’re righteous, but in God’s eyes, they are as much a stench as the Pharisees and teachers of the law were.

But perhaps the worst problem with legalism is that all it does is tell you what is right or wrong.

It doesn’t have the power to help you do what is right or wrong. It only judges you when you fall. The result is people who feel the hopelessness of trying to keep all these rules.

The people in Jesus’ time were totally weighed down by these rules of the teachers of the law, and yet, if they asked the teachers of the law what to do when they failed, all they would be told is, “Do better.”

Which is, of course, no help at all.

Even if you get rid of all the additional rules, and stick only to the law Moses gave the people, it still doesn’t have the power to save you. In the end, you end up like the apostle Paul, saying,

What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death? (Romans 7:24)

But unlike the people of Jesus’ time, Paul had hope. He said,

Thanks be to God–through Jesus Christ our Lord!

Legalism can’t save you. The Law can’t save you. But Jesus, through his death on the cross, can. He took the punishment for our sin, and so Paul could say,

Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. (Romans 8:1)

So let us cast aside legalism and the feelings of pride and condemnation it leads to.

Rather, let us turn to Christ and his cross. And through it, not only will our sins be forgiven, but we will find the power to live the way God intended.

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Job

Waiting to punish?

Job

As I look at the complaint of Job here, I see a way of thinking that many people have.  Job said,

You gave me life and showed me kindness, and in your providence watched over my spirit.

But this is what you concealed in your heart, and I know that this was in your mind:  If I sinned, you would be watching me and would not let my offense go unpunished.  (Job 10:12-14)

Job also complained,

Are your days like those of a mortal or your years like those of a strong man, that you must search out my faults and probe after my sin (5-6)?

So many people, like Job, think of God as someone who is just waiting for us to mess up so that he can blast us.  Sure he will bless us when we do good, but if we do one bad thing, BAM!

But the interesting thing is that God wasn’t like that toward Job at all.  In chapters 1 and 2, we see it was Satan who was accusing Job.  God was the one who was actually defending him.

Even today, God defends us against those who would accuse us.  We saw this in part yesterday, but it bears repeating.  Paul tells us in Romans,

Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus…

Who will bring any charge against those whom God has chosen? It is God who justifies.

Who then is the one who condemns?  No one.  Christ Jesus who died—more than that, who was raised to life—is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us.  (Romans 8:1, 33-34)

So let us cast aside forever the idea that God is watching over us, just waiting for us to make a mistake so that he can blast us.

He’s the one defending us.  And there is no condemnation at all for those who belong to him.