We have reached the halfway mark of this great letter. It’s time for a little revision. That’s what the apostle does here in this section before us. The word Therefore with which the chapter begins, indicates that the apostle is summing up or expressing a conclusion. He steps back and sur­veys the whole Christian landscape that he has covered thus far and draws up this clear gospel summary. We’re not going to learn anything new here; it’s a case of recapping, repeat­ing and restating in order to reaffirm. Remember the theme of Romans: ‘I am not ashamed of the Gospel, it is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes... for in the Gospel righteousness from God is revealed’ (1:16-17). That’s the mes­sage that we need and it’s the mes­sage the apostle has been expound­ing. It’s the message we need to hear every Lord’s Day. It’s the message we need to hear every day. We need to preach the gospel to ourselves every day, that we might be reminded of its promises. The chapter begins with:-

1. A Glorious Declaration (v. 1)⤒🔗

‘There is therefore now no con­demnation to those who are in Christ Jesus.’ That’s music to our ears. It’s what I need to hear. It’s what you need to hear. Take time for that statement to sink in. Read it again. It’s almost too good to be true. The fact is, there are a lot of people and things that could condemn me. There are many people (including my own family) who could point the finger of accusation and condemn me! They know I’m not perfect. And I know that they are not perfect either. Mark Ashton (Vicar of the Round Church in Cambridge — whom I had the privilege of hearing) wrote before His death in 2010 while he was suffer­ing from cancer; “In dying, I want to say to those I have loved and to those who have loved me: Don’t magnify me — remember the reality: I was someone who sometimes got cross, and irritated you, and let you down, and disappointed you, and hurt you. So please don’t remember an imagi­nary relationship with me ... I loved you — but I could have loved you bet­ter — just as you loved me, but you could have loved me better.” That’s the testimony of an honest man! If we are honest with ourselves we would have to say the same — would we not?

Even more seriously — I’m not only condemned by myself and others, but the law of God condemns me. My life is indefensible when measured against His righteous standards.

That’s the point that Paul is making in Romans 7:7-13. The law reveals my sin — but cannot remedy it. It diagnoses my sin — but can’t deliver me from it. It even stirs up my sin — but it can’t save me. It proves to me that I’m not the kind of person I would like to be or should be. If perchance having travelled with me over the ‘Roman Road’ you still see yourself as a relatively good, moral, conscientious, church­going person, ask God to open the eyes of your understanding that you might see the real de­pravity of your heart. Think, for example, about the following list of sins and give yourself a score. How many of these things are you guilty of? Be ready for a surprise — or even a shock.

Pride, selfishness, judgmentalism, lust, anxiety, greed; unthankfulness, unforgiveness, prayerlessness, cov­etousness; lack of self control, insis­tence on having control; impatience, irritability, frustration, anger, resent­ment, jealousy, gossip, discontent­ment, bitterness, impure thoughts; failure to love God, failure to love your neighbour, disregarding God, failure to trust God.

How did you score? The fact is, we have broken every law in the book. We have not loved God, nor have we loved our neighbour as our­selves. We ought to conclude as did Peter, ‘Depart from me, for I am a sinful man.’ We are condemned. We are guilty. We deserve to be banished from the presence of God forever. Instead we read, ‘There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus.’ How can we explain this amazing turnaround?

2. A Gracious Explanation (see vs 2-4a)←⤒🔗

The answer is in the Gospel that God has revealed. The gospel explains the reason for this great declaration. The gospel explains the reason for this great turn around in fortune. The gospel explains how the guilty can be declared right­eous. Read again Romans 1; vs 16-17; 3; vs 21-22; 5:1; 6:11, and our text, 8:1.

It’s not something we have done. Nor is it something the law was able to do — ‘it was powerless’. It’s rather something that God has done. Hallelujah! God is the origi­nator and architect of our salvation. It was His plan, His project, and His achievement. It is something that He did: He sent His Son. ‘He did not spare His Son.’ He sent Him in real flesh that was not sinful flesh. In Him, He condemned sin in sinful man. The Cross of Christ is where God poured out His judgement upon human sin. That is why there is no condemnation for anyone who is in Christ Jesus. The condemnation has already taken place on the cross. The punishment of sin has been dealt once and for all. God will not punish our sin twice. That’s why there is now no condem­nation for those who are in Christ.

Not only did Jesus provide a per­fect sacrifice as payment for the wages of our sins; He provided perfect obedience and fulfilled the righteous requirement of the law — that the righteous requirement of the law might be met IN us! This means (I believe), that this righteous­ness of Christ belongs to us and is applied to us by virtue of our union with Christ. It is fulfilled in us, just as if we had done it all ourselves. All the righteousness of Christ is made over to the believer — so that I am righteous with all the righteousness that God requires. This was the dis­covery that Martin Luther made in 1515 when he wrestled with the meaning of the phrase in Romans 1:17, ‘the righteousness of God was revealed in the gospel.’ He writes, ‘I grasped the truth that the righteous­ness of God is that righteousness whereby, through grace and sheer mercy, he justifies us by faith. There­upon I felt myself to be reborn and to have gone through open doors into paradise. Before ‘the righteousness of God’ had filled me with hate, now it became to me inexpressibly sweet in greater love.’ Jehovah Tsidkenu — The Lord (is) our Righteousness.

The Heidelberg Catechism (which I like to quote) asks in Q. 60: ‘How are you made right with God?’ An­swer: ‘By faith in Jesus Christ ... God grants and credits to me the perfect satisfaction, righteousness and holiness of Christ, as if I had never sinned nor been a sinner, as if I had been perfectly obedient as Christ was obedient for me ... All I need to do is to accept this gift of God with a believing heart.’

What does it mean when it says that God justifies? It means that God in Christ forgives all our sins; that He completely cancels all the guilt that stands against us. He completely eradicates and erases all that stands as debt against us. But there’s more. It means that I can be as righteous as Christ — even as righteous as God Himself — when I believe in Christ Je­sus. That’s what it means to be justi­fied by faith. That’s why there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ.

Think of it this way. You employ a man to clean your roof. He will hose off all the grime, the soot, dirt, the moss and the pollution which has set­tled over the years. He might fill a few cracks and replace a few tiles. Then he will spray it so that it looks like new — at least for a little while. What have you got? An old roof spruced up to look like new. What God does for us in Christ is, however, more than a spruce up. He gives us a new roof. A new covering. So that if you were riding in ‘a chopper’ over­head and looking down you would say, ‘That’s a new house.’ That’s how God sees us in Christ.

This means that I know now what God’s verdict is upon me. I don’t have to wait until the last day. I will appear before His judgement seat — as we all will. But I don’t have to worry about being condemned and going to hell. He will never say to me, ‘Depart from Me.’ There is now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus.

Are you as sure of your salvation as this? If you are IN Christ Jesus you can be and should be.

Jerry Bridges wrote a little book, The Bookends of the Christian Life. In it he says, ‘When we become united to Christ by faith, God places a set of bookends on the bookshelf of our lives. One bookend is the righteous­ness of Christ; the other is the power of the Holy Spirit. Though they are both provided by God it is our respon­sibility to lean our books on them to support, stabilise and secure all our books.’ Staying dependent on the first bookend (the righteousness of Christ) is a continual process. Every day we need to remind ourselves of the basis of our salvation. It’s not my works, nor my faith, nor my feel­ings nor my fervour. But it is HIS work upon which I rest. ‘On Christ the solid rock I stand.’

3. A Couple of Applications←⤒🔗

First: This doctrine is designed to bring us assurance and a sense of confidence. One writer states, ‘I believe that a real, tenacious and clear grasp of this mighty truth will provide a stable foundation for a sense of peace with God and for joy and contentment in the citadel of our own souls’. You are familiar with the Toyota ad: ‘Oh, what a feeling!’ Owning a new Toyota apparently makes you want to jump for joy! I would suggest, however, that knowing Christ and being assured of justification by faith in Christ is better than owning a new Toyota! I can waken up in the morning with the knowledge that there is not a cloud between me and the Lord — that’s a wonderful reassuring truth. I suspect that not every Toyota owner feels like jump­ing for joy every day. Perhaps oc­casionally even a Toyota might break down and the usually happy owner might feel like kicking the old car. As Christians, we don’t always feel like jumping for joy. There are days when we don’t have ‘the feel­ing’. There are days when we feel spiritually flat, cold and numb. However, when we grasp the mean­ing of this essential doctrine of justi­fication, it gives us real buoyancy during times of spiritual despon­dency. It gives us great peace and contentment even in the dull days of winter. Remember this: if you are a Christian you are as righteous before God on the bad days as you are on the good days, be­cause your salvation depends not on you but on Christ — the Rock — who never changes. When the minister or celebrant pronounces the couple husband and wife it is a legal declaration. The couple may not yet feel like a hus­band and wife. But it is a fact. The Lord declares there is now no con­demnation to those who are in Christ. That’s a fact!

Second: This doctrine (as John Piper reminds us) is the basis of forgiving other fellow Christians (and non Christians) when they sin against us. How come? We believe that Romans 8:1 is true for every be­liever — not just me — but for you too. We believe that all the wrongs that have been done against us by Chris­tians were avenged in the death of Jesus. All the sins of all God’s people were laid on Him. (Isa. 53:6; 1 Cor. 15:3; etc.). The suffering of Christ was the recompense of God on every hurt I have ever received from a fel­low Christian. Christianity is not mak­ing light of sin. On the contrary, it takes the sins against us so seriously that in order to make them right God gave His own Son; to suffer more than we could ever make anyone suf­fer for what they have done to us. “What this means is that we have no need or right to harbour bitterness or resentment toward believers (or even unbelievers!) who have injured us. ‘Vengeance is mine! I will repay,’ says the Lord. If we believe that, we will not presume to take vengeance into our own hands. Rather we will glorify the all sufficiency of the cross and the terrible justice of hell by living in the assurance that God, and not we, will set all wrongs right. Ours is to love. God’s is to settle accounts justly. Trusting Him brings us free­dom from bitterness and forgive­ness from our hearts.” (Piper: Fu­ture Grace, page 267)

How did this revision of Romans go for you? Perhaps there are still some things that we need to get to grips with and do?