No More Condemnation: Walk in Freedom

OUTLINE:

• No More Condemnation
• Our Response: Embrace the Completed Payment of Christ on the Cross
• Stop Wallowing in Our Shame and Walk in Freedom

No More Condemnation

The definition of sin is disobedience toward God. This can range from our refusal to forgive others or cheating on our tests or taxes, to ignoring the prompting of the Holy Spirit to put down the gadget and spend time with God or with family, or to stop talking and arguing with our significant other and lean in and listen intentionally with them instead, etc.

Sin incurs costs: separation from God and from others due to our shame.

God’s Solution: Jesus Was Given as Our Sin Offering

God, out of His mercy and love, gave us His Son – Who is God Himself – to die on the cross to pay for our sins through the shedding of Jesus’ blood. The perfect blood tha paid for all our sins once and for all.

Romans 7:25 ~ “Thanks be to God, who delivers me through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, I myself in my mind am a slave to God’s law, but in my sinful nature a slave to the law of sin.”

Romans 8: 1-4 ~ “Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, because through Christ Jesus the law of the spirit has set us free from the law of sin and death. For what the law was powerless to do, because it was weakened by the flesh, God did by sending His son in the likeness of sinful flesh to be a sin offering. And so he condemned sin in the flesh in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fully met in us, who do not live according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.”

Jesus’ death on the cross through the shedding of Hid blood paid for all our sins, completely.

We now have atonement: AT-ONE-MENT with God.

God has set us free from condemnation through Christ Jesus’s death, burial and resurrection – Jesus’ punishment on our behalf has met the “righteous requirements of the law.” 

There is now no condemnation for us because Jesus went on that cursed tree and took our condemnation and all the punishments for our sins.

Romans 3:23-24 ~ “ Who will bring any charge against those whom God has chosen? It is God who justifies. 34 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.”

Our Response: Embrace the Completed Payment of Christ on the Cross

Since Christ has paid for all our sins IN FULL, we need to accept, receive, and apply His full payment into our lives.

“Car Trunk Light Switch” – I don’t read instruction manuals. So I lived with “no light” in my last Prius’ car trunk. I’d keep a flashlight in the trunk so I could see the trunk at night. I did this for seven years until a couple of months before I got rid of it, when I noticed that there was a button on the side of the trunk. And much to my surprise, when I turned it on, there was light in the trunk of my car! 

This is a good illustration that when we don’t fully utilize the gifts from God, we are the ones who miss out on what He has already provided for us. For us to benefit from what Christ has accomplished for us on the cross, we need to “turn on” that light, aka, apply Christ’s full payment for our sins.

Sometimes, we still feel shame and condemnation for what we’ve done or could’ve or should’ve done. But if we’ve truly asked God and others for forgiveness, that shame is not from God.

In a relationship, outside of us cheating on our significant other or acting abusively toward them, shame and guilt have no place.

“Guilt is a mask for anger” – When someone makes us feel guilty through their judgy or accusatory comments or reminds us of our sins and mistakes – we actually feel anger toward them for their mental stance and unforgiveness toward us. 

When we feel guilt because someone is disappointed with us – we’re actually feeling anger/resentment/annoyance toward their expectations of us. 

Godly Sorrow Vs Worldly Sorrow

2 Corinthians 7:10 ~ “Godly sorrow brings repentance that leads to salvation and leaves no regret, but worldly sorrow brings death.”

Condemnation causes us to feel ashamed, and we withdraw from the people we feel ashamed from. 

In marital therapy, I tell the couple that we’re not in a court of law, so outside of a person cheating on their spouse or abusing them, it’s not wise to prove or nail our spouse on their “wrong doings” in order to win the fight. Because the person who was proven to be in the wrong feels ashamed or humiliated and pulls away from the relationship. So when we prove our spouse was in the wrong, we’ve won the argument but lost the intimacy of the relationship.

Satan loves to condemn us (Revelation 12:10b-11a: “…For the accuser of our brothers and sisters, who accuses them before our God day and night, has been hurled down. They triumphed over him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony…) 

When we do feel guilt, the way we can distinguish between the Holy Spirit’s conviction (which is like a “check in our conscience) – Godly sorrow,” vs condemnation from Satan – “worldly sorrow,” is its effect on us. 

“Conviction from the Holy Spirit brings us to repentance.” We make a 180 degree turn from what we were doing.

“Which leads to salvation.” We are reconciled with God – like how Adam and Eve were able to have relationship with God again after God forgave them and gave them clothing from an animal’s skin.

“And leaves no regret.” We do not feel shame or condemnation.

“But worldly sorrow leads to death.” Condemnation causes us to feel shame and humiliation, which leads us to withdrawal, thus the breakage (death) of the relationship.

Galatians 5:1 ~“It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery.”

Hebrews 4:15, 16 ~ “15 For we do not have a high priest who is unable to empathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are—yet he did not sin. 16 Let us then approach God’s throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.”

Know that Jesus is our high priest who is able to empathize with our weaknesses, as He was tempted on every way, just as we are. But He did not sin. Jesus does not condemn us. He empathizes with our weaknesses and welcomes us into His holy embrace.

God wants us to approach His throne of grace, with confidence and to receive mercy and grace to help us in our times of need!

Stop Wallowing in Our Shame and Walk in Freedom

When we’ve sinned, we are to: 1) Confess our sin; 2) Ask God for forgiveness of our sin; 3) Repent from the sin by making a 180-degree turn; 4) Receive/Accept God’s forgiveness; 5) Forgive ourselves; 6) Move on to the next moment with a new clean slate.

Isaiah 43:25 ~ “I, even I, am he who blots out your transgressions, for my own sake, and remembers your sins no more.”

Isaiah 44: 22 ~ “I have swept away your offenses like a cloud, your sins like the morning mist. Return to me, for I have redeemed you.”

1 John 1:9 ~ “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.”

Jesus tells us to forgive others: If we don’t forgive others, God would also not forgive us. The very important and first “others” is us. 

Matthew :14-15 ~ “ For if you forgive other people when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. 15 But if you do not forgive others their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins.”

If we don’t forgive ourselves after God has already forgiven us, we are putting ourselves in a higher position than God, as we are saying that God has made a mistake in forgiving us, because we are unforgiveable - when forgiveness originates from God, is of God and dictated by Him for us to do likewise. 

It is healthy to get in touch with our negative emotions and feel them - without wallowing or getting stuck in them.

Use the “Timer” method: Give ourselves an allotment of number of minutes each day we allow ourselves to feel our negative feelings. We start the timer as soon as we realize we’re feeling a negative emotion; We PAUSE the timer when the emotion passes; We continue with the routine until all our allotment for the day is used up for the day; We put aside these negative emotions, telling ourselves that we will have new allotment of time to indulge in them tomorrow.

We walk in freedom knowing that we are a new creation:

1 Corinthians 5:17 ~ “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here!”

Lamentations 3:22-23 ~ “Because of the Lord’s great love we are not consumed,for his compassions never fail. 23 They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.”

We are enslaved by whatever captures our attention and passion. 

Romans 6:16 ~ “Don’t you know that when you offer yourselves to someone as obedient slaves, you are slaves of the one you obey—whether you are slaves to sin, which leads to death, or to obedience, which leads to righteousness?”

We can choose to become slaves to righteousness.

Romans 6:18 ~ “You have been set free from sin and have become slaves to righteousness.”

The spiritual principle to tackle with sin and strongholds of sin are: 1) Confess our sin; 2) Repent from our sin; 3) Renounce our sin; 4) Reject the sin; 5) Replace our sin with what’s holy: Whatever is the opposite.

To replace the sin of:

Addiction to gadgets: Pick up a book; Take up a creative activity instead.

Lying to cover our mistakes: Confess and be honest with our mistakes.

Gossiping: Only say things that will build the others up.