Sermon Text: Romans 8:1-10
Date: March 30, 2025
Event: The Fourth Sunday in Lent, Year C
Romans 8:1-10 (EHV)
So then, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. 2For in Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit of life set me free from the law of sin and death. 3Indeed, what the law was unable to do, because it was weakened by the flesh, God did, when he sent his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh to deal with sin. God condemned sin in his flesh, 4so that the righteous decree of the law would be fully satisfied in us who are not walking according to the flesh, but according to the spirit.
5To be sure, those who are in harmony with the sinful flesh think about things the way the sinful flesh does, and those in harmony with the spirit think about things the way the spirit does. 6Now, the way the sinful flesh thinks results in death, but the way the spirit thinks results in life and peace. 7For the mind-set of the sinful flesh is hostile to God, since it does not submit to God’s law, and in fact, it cannot. 8Those who are in the sinful flesh cannot please God.
9But you are not in the sinful flesh but in the spirit, if indeed God’s Spirit lives in you. And if someone does not have the Spirit of Christ, that person does not belong to Christ. 10But if Christ is in you, your body is dead because of sin, but your spirit is alive because of righteousness.
What Condemnation?
You might hear a call for public condemnation in many places. Perhaps some public official does something that is deemed inappropriate, and so calls come from the public for others in office to denounce and condemn his actions. Perhaps a CEO’s misconduct will lead to condemnation from his company’s board. Perhaps a grassroots campaign will urge you to call your representatives in Sacramento or Washington to condemn some bill moving through the legislature. We’re familiar with condemnation, and even public condemnation, of misconduct or ideas that seem potentially dangerous, unwise, or misguided.
Condemning something means you’re pronouncing it useless because it’s rotten to the core. A house may be condemned if it is deemed unsafe for people to live in it. Condemnation is a term well-used to speak of God’s reaction to sin. He not only condemns it—speaks against it—but condemns it in the sense of punishing the person who committed the sin. In the way that the public official or CEO might lose their position because of condemned misconduct, so too the sinner is condemned along with his actions. Hell stands as the just condemnation for sin.
However, the parable Jesus told in the Gospel spoke of a different reaction to sin. How did the father in the parable treat both of his sons—the younger one who had wasted his father’s possessions and the older one who self-righteously looked down on his brother? The father treated them both with patience, love, and forgiveness.
Last week we heard the author of Psalm 85 assert so clearly that he knew who God is, what his nature is. He is not the God who remains angry forever or wants to boil people in his wrath. No, God is the one who is merciful and will restore his people. Even in their sin, God is not willing to give them up to what they deserve. Instead, he promised to and then did deal with sin in Jesus.
If you’ve been coming to our Bible class on Sunday mornings as we work our way through the book of Romans, you might remember the flow of thought that Paul has leading into the famous words of chapter 8, a portion of which is our Second Reading this morning. Early in the letter, Paul had condemned all people as guilty of sin. Whether they were Jewish or Gentile, whether they grew up around God’s Word or were completely ignorant of it, everyone is guilty of breaking God’s law and thus guilty of eternal condemnation. But, as Paul winds through chapters 3 and 4, he shows that we are saved by God’s goodness, that his righteousness is given to us not because of the things we’ve done but in spite of the things we’ve done. Faith clings to that forgiveness and receives it so that you and I are saved from hellfire in the same way that Abraham was so many years ago: faith—trust—in what God promised.
Then, Paul moves into our reaction to God’s forgiving love. Would it be right to treat God’s mercy with contempt? Would it be right to think, “Well, if God is going to forgive every sin, I should commit as many sins as possible!”? No! Rather, we want to serve God in thanksgiving for what he’s done. But in the latter part of Chapter 7, Paul takes us deeply into his own heart and mind. He is very vulnerable when he confides to the Romans, “I do not understand what I am doing, because I do not keep doing what I want. Instead, I do what I hate. … The desire to do good is present with me, but I am not able to carry it out. So I fail to do the good I want to do. Instead, the evil I do not want to do, that is what I keep doing” (Romans 7:15, 18-19). This is the plight of every believer—to have the desire to do good to thank God, yet never be able to carry it out to the level that we want and know that we should. Part of Paul’s closing to chapter 7 sums it up well: “What a miserable wretch I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death? I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord!” (Romans 7:24-25a).
You and I are both sinners and saints at the same time. The greatest of contradictions dwells deep, deep within us. It is so fundamental to who we are that we might not even be able to imagine a time without this conflict. Since God first put faith in our hearts, a spiritual battle has been raging inside us between our inherited sinful flesh and the new self that God has created in us.
And that battle is exhausting. Wouldn’t it be great to not have to fight it anymore? Obviously, for some, they don’t. They just follow their own heart, their wills, into whatever tickles their fancy. Maybe that’s helping others, maybe that’s completely self-serving, but it’s all done because that person thinks it’s the right thing for them. That alone is their rule and guide.
You and I know that feeling all too well. Even though we recognize the dangers in this line of thinking, we can be so quick to capitulate to our sinful natures, to give into temptations to sin against God, not because it’s the right thing to do, but because it’s the easier thing to do, or the more pleasure-filled thing to do, or the more popular thing to do, or the thing that seems best in line with my self-proclaimed-righteous anger, or whatever other shoddy justification I might spew out for my sin. In those moments, we show our talent for living as Paul describes, “Those who are in harmony with the sinful flesh think about things the way the sinful flesh does.”
But this dabbling with or fully embracing sin only leads to one destination: condemnation. Even if we did everything right from here on out, it would be far too little, far too late. God’s expectations aren’t that we have, on balance, more good than bad; his expectation is perfection. And once we’ve broken his law even once, we’ve ruined the law’s ability ever to produce good things eternally. Eternal good is what the law was unable to do, because it was weakened by the flesh. Do you want to earn God’s favor through a life well lived? Sorry, that’s impossible.
But maybe “sorry” is the wrong word. Because, in many ways, it’s good to know that we can’t do that. If we could, where would our confidence be? How would we know that we had done enough? Could we peer into God’s ledger to compare the amount of black to the amount of red on our account to see where we stand? No, it would be a distress that would only lead to hopelessness.
Why did Paul end chapter 7 of Romans saying, “I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord”? Because Jesus is the solution to this. And Paul lays this out clear as day for the wrestling sinner-saint. You are not what you want to be, you are not what you should be, but Jesus was and is all that and more for you.
I want you to take a moment to see just how many gospel statements there are in the first four verses of our Second Reading. You could probably divide it up a few different ways, but six jump out to me: 1) “There is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.” 2) “The Spirit of life set me free from the law of sin and death.” 3) “What the law was unable to do… God did.” 4) “He sent his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh to deal with sin.” 5) “God condemned sin in his flesh.” 6) “The righteous decree of the law [is] fully satisfied in us.”
What does Jesus’ sacrifice mean for you? It means being set free from that sinful nature. When God condemned sin in Jesus’ flesh, he suffered as if he was the sole sinner ever to live. The death of Jesus is not just a nice picture or a reminder of self-sacrificing love or something to emulate. No, the death of Jesus is nothing short of the condemnation of condemnation itself. Hell has no claim on us because Jesus satisfied that claim in his flesh for us.
But that does not mean that sin is absent from our lives while we’re here—far from it. We continue to be the saint—the holy one cleansed by God—who is also a sinner who continues to sin. Despite knowing Jesus’ forgiving love, we will still rebel against him and seek our own path contrary to his will. Our sinful flesh still lingers, despite being conquered at the cross, and with its last gasps, tries to bring us down with it. The sinful flesh’s entire perspective is one of hostility and hatred toward God, and it’s still rattling around inside of us.
But to be in harmony with the spirit, that is, in harmony with the faith in Jesus God has created in us, leads to a totally different perspective. The one in harmony with the spirit knows that she is forgiven in the blood of Jesus shed for her. Paul is speaking to you and me when he says, “But you are not in the sinful flesh but in the spirit, if indeed God’s Spirit lives in you.” The Holy Spirit does, indeed, live in you. He dwells within you by faith, always clinging to Jesus as Savior, as the only and perfect solution to the condemnation we deserve.
Your conscience, though, will yell and scream about your failures. You will feel guilt and sorrow over your sin. And, to a point, this is good and healthy. These are tools to ward off slipping into complete harmony with the sinful flesh. But they are only helpful to a point, and the point where they stop being useful is Jesus. Because the guilty conscience is terrified of the condemnation that is coming because of your sin—you can feel it in the pit of your stomach. But you, dear Christian, can speak peace to your conscience. Your reply can (and should) be, “Condemnation? What condemnation? There is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. I am in Jesus, and Jesus is in me. I am washed clean of every stain.”
If Christ is in you, your body is dead because of sin, but your spirit is alive because of righteousness. You and I will face death—physical death—as a consequence of our sins. But never eternal death, never condemnation, because Jesus did that for us. Your spirit, your faith, is alive and well by the working of the Holy Spirit. Your spiritual self will be with God forever, even being reunited with your body raised anew, glorified on the Last Day.
All these shape our perspective in life. God has freed you from sin and its condemnation, allowing you to glorify him. On Wednesday evening, we saw some ways to do this—respecting God’s representatives in our lives, honoring other people’s physical well-being, and treating God’s design for marriage and sex with appropriate reverence. This is just a sample of what we will do. We, who are in harmony with the spirit and have God’s Spirit in us, will live lives of gratitude toward him. This includes how we respect his Word, prioritize his will, and treat our neighbors—our fellow human beings.
My brothers and sisters, your sins are forgiven. Yes, even that one. No condemnation is waiting for you because Jesus was condemned in your place—and came out the other side completely victorious. You will not meet a stern judge when this life ends, but rather your loving Father who will wrap you up in his arms and tell you, “Oh, my child, once dead, but now alive; once lost, but now found! It’s so good to have you home!” There is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus! Amen.
