There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death. For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do. By sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh, in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit. For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit set their minds on the things of the Spirit. For to set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace. For the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God, for it does not submit to God’s law; indeed, it cannot. Those who are in the flesh cannot please God.

You, however, are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if in fact the Spirit of God dwells in you. Anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to him. But if Christ is in you, although the body is dead because of sin, the Spirit is life because of righteousness. If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit who dwells in you.

So then, brothers, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh. For if you live according to the flesh you will die, but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live. For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God. For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the Spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry, “Abba! Father!” The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs—heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with him.

For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us. For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God. For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of him who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to corruption and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until now. And not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies. For in this hope we were saved. Now hope that is seen is not hope. For who hopes for what he sees? But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience.

Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness. For we do not know what to pray for as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words. And he who searches hearts knows what is the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God. And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose. For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. And those whom he predestined he also called, and those whom he called he also justified, and those whom he justified he also glorified.

What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things? Who shall bring any charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies. Who is to condemn? Christ Jesus is the one who died — more than that, who was raised — who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword? As it is written,

“For your sake we are being killed all the day long;
     we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered.”

No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord (Romans 8:1–39).

A Word on Bible Memorization

In your three ring binder somewhere, there’s a thing called “My Action Plan.” One of my goals is that you would put at the top of that list, “Memorize Romans 8.” You can do this, you can do this. If you’re 80, you can do this. It’s harder if you’re 80 or 57, but you can do this. If you feel so inclined, write that down and just to give you a little help, I’m going to give you a website to teach you how to do it. Andy Davis has a booklet called How to Memorize Extended Passages of Scripture. It’s that book that changed my memorization. I used to always memorize Scripture ever since I was little, but I’d mainly memorize verses. I never ventured to memorize the book of Romans or a whole chapter like that, but I met Andy and read his book and it helped. It’s basically saying the verse 20 times, closing your eyes, repeating it 20 times and closing your Bible. Come back the next day, say the verse, then do the next verse 20 times, close the Bible, say it 20 times.” It works, and you’ll find that 39 days later your life will be changed.

Now, a nitpicker would say, “That’s not what these sheets are for. These sheets are for an action plan to do what the Bible says to do. The Bible, in Romans 8, doesn’t say to memorize Romans 8.” Well, I’m not so sure about that. The reason I’m not so sure is this: It is a remarkable thing that Romans 8 has no imperatives in it. There are no commands in Romans 8. I think that’s one of the reasons we like it so much and one of the reasons it’s such a life-changing chapter. However, there are some pretty close things to commands in this chapter. For example, Romans 8:13 says, “If you live according to the flesh, you will die, but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live.” Now that’s pretty close to saying, “You better put to death the deeds of the body.” That’s close.

John Owen said one time, “Be killing sin or it will be killing you.” That was written in a little book he wrote. The whole book was on that verse: “Put to death the deeds of the body and you will live.” There is one piece of armor in Ephesians 6:12–18 that’s used for killing. What is it? The sword, which is the word of God. Now just think about that for a moment. I know I’m jumping ahead. I’m not going to do this much. I’m going to work right through the chapter as God helps us. But I want to jump here to argue for memorization. That’s a very roundabout way of doing it, but it’s this. You have got to be killing sin. That would mean tonight, you go back to your room, and you can get online here and get all the pornography you want, right? You must therefore be killing sin tonight. You must be killing sin if you brought your laptop. There are a lot of other sins you’ll be tempted of tonight too, but there’s one.

An Armory of Inspired Words

Now this text says, “Do it by the Spirit.” That’s very perplexing to me. I’m supposed to kill it by the Spirit. Now how do I do something by the Spirit? Well, the clue that I take is since killing is involved here, I’m looking for some killing agent of the Spirit and I found one in Ephesians 6, the sword of the Spirit, the only weapon that’s used for killing is the word of God. I’m going to assume here — and I’ve got other arguments for this — that the way we put to death the deeds of the body is by filling up our minds with the word of God, especially promises, and Romans 8 is full of them, promises and cherishing those promises and banking on those promises and delighting in those promises and resting in those promises and treasuring them more than we treasure the thrill of pornography or whatever your besetting sin might be before you go to bed tonight. If you have to have the Bible in your head, transforming your mind and quickening and awakening affections for God, that beat down affections for sin, you better store it up.

There’s a key verse there, isn’t there? Psalm 119:11 says:

I have stored up your word in my heart,
     that I might not sin against you.

Memorize Romans 8, I plead with you. Make it a goal this summer. What a great thing to bring back to your church or your school or something this fall. Then if you review a little bit and your life will never be the same again. The verses in this chapter have brought so many people through so many tragedies, through so many heartaches, and through so many trials and embattled lives. Oh, it would be a sad thing if you didn’t know this chapter really well. If memorizing is just too hard, then just read it every day and make the best of it. But I think you can do it. That’s the action plan that I propose for you as you think about what you’re going to take away from this.

Outline for the Series

Here’s the way we’re going to go at this. I’ve been preaching on Romans now for five years at my church and I just finished chapter 10 almost last month and I preached a whole year on this chapter. I brought with me about 35 sermons on Romans 8, and they’re sitting up in my cabin up there and I’m trying to figure out how to do this in four hours. I’m going to do it differently. I’m not going to preach per se, and that’s why we have a projector up here. This is the English Standard Version. I know the lion’s share of you have brought your NIVs. I find the NIV difficult to work with. I’ve never preached from the NIV and I’m going to pop a lot of bubbles here, but that’s okay. I wish you would all change to the ESV. It’s just newly published about two years ago from Crossway Books because the NIV is more of a paraphrase than I think is helpful. Though it’s billed as a translation, it is very, very much a paraphrase.

I want us all on the same page here. You can open up your NIV and compare, that’s fine, or your NASV, which is even more literal but harder to read. This is a good balance I think. I’m going to start and then just work my way through what I consider to be crucial issues in the text with you and we’ll go as far as we can tonight and then we’ll pick it up tomorrow morning wherever we left off. That’s the plan. I will have to pick and choose. There’s a question and answer tomorrow after the second session and so if you can ask your favorite question from Romans 8 or anything else for that matter because I may not get to it.

Romans in Review

Let’s start with this word right here, “therefore,” because it’s a danger to jump in the middle of a book and pick a chapter out of the flow of a magnificent book like this. I’m going to do a rehearsal of the first chapters to show you what is so crucial in that “therefore.” Because if you don’t know what that therefore is, the glory of no condemnation will not be as glorious and as sure and as firm as if you do know what that therefore is. I know that much that is in that therefore is in this chapter and that will be a good confirmation of what we see. Let me put up on the overhead here some verses from the first chapters of Romans and we’ll kind of do an outline.

Romans 1:16–17 is the thesis statement of the book. It says:

For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith for faith, as it is written, “The righteous shall live by faith.”

Now the reason I say this is the thesis of the book is because of the connection right there between verses 17 and 16. Romans 1:16 says, “The gospel brings people by faith to salvation,” and Romans 1:17 says, “The reason it does” — whenever you see one of those fors it’s going to be very important — “is because the righteousness of God has been revealed from faith for faith, as it is written, ‘The righteous shall live by faith.’” Salvation is undergirded by revelation of righteousness and that’s the thesis of the book. Life and all that salvation involves and rests upon a revelation of God’s righteousness. Now it takes a whole book to unpack in what way our salvation hangs upon a revelation of divine righteousness.

What Paul does from Romans 1:18 to Romans 3:20 is unpack why we need this righteousness. It’s all about our terrible condition as fallen sinners. He comes to the end of that in Romans 3:9–10 and says:

What then? Are we Jews any better off? No, not at all. For we have already charged that all, both Jews and Greeks, are under sin, as it is written: “None is righteous, no, not one . . .

Now that’s devastating and until we feel the force of that, we will not feel the necessity and the scope and the preciousness of the revelation of righteousness in Jesus Christ. We don’t have any. We do not have righteousness. There is none righteous, no, not one. I don’t care how squeaky clean the Muslim is or the Hindu is or the Buddhist is or the Jew is or the nominal Christian is. It doesn’t matter how squeaky clean their moral lives are, they have no righteousness that will cut it with God, that will pass muster at the judgment. We are without help. Now that’s got to be felt and the weight of it has to be known.

Every Mouth Stopped

My dad is an evangelist, 84 years old. He doesn’t travel much anymore and lives down in Easley, South Carolina. He’s been ministering for 69 years. He told me one time, “Johnny, getting people saved is not hard compared to getting them lost.” You’ve tried to talk to people and they just seem so stone-cold to anything like a taste for spiritual reality. They’re just into snowmobiles or skiing or playing. Life is about play. It’s about the weekend. They can’t comprehend wasting it in church on Sunday morning, or actually delighting in spiritual conversation, or considering Romans 8 the best news in all the world. We all know there are people like that and it’s heartbreaking to try to win them and that’s the way we all once were apart from divine grace.

After he sets up his thesis, he describes our condition. The bridge back to the thesis is right here in Romans 3:21. But let’s read this summary statement in Romans 3:19, which says:

Now we know that whatever the law says it speaks to those who are under the law, so that every mouth may be stopped, and the whole world may be held accountable to God (the reason the Old Testament exists, speaking to Israel first, is so that every mouth on planet earth will be stopped). For by works of the law no human being will be justified in his sight, since through the law comes knowledge of sin.

When a carnal, sinful, unspiritual, natural, rebellious man meets the law, salvation does not happen. Knowledge of sin happens. If salvation is going to come, it’s got to come another way and so now he makes the bridge back to this revelation of righteousness. He says that in the gospel the righteousness of God has been revealed.”

Saving Righteousness Revealed

Now we’re here and he’s finished this huge, devastating damnation of the human race. He says:

But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law (thank God!), although the Law and the Prophets bear witness to it . . .

Oh yes, in just a few verses he’ll use texts from the Abrahamic narratives about how he was justified by faith. The law bears witness to this gospel. But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from law, although the law and the prophets bear witness to it. What righteousness do you mean. Now that’s what we needed help with back here in ROmans 1:17 and now he helps us. He says:

The righteousness of God [has been manifested] through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. For there is no distinction:

There’s everything. The righteousness that I need now has been manifested through faith in Jesus for me, so that I now can have a righteousness that doesn’t come by having a list of commandments in front of me that I must now measure up to in order to be acceptable with God. There’s another righteousness in another route. Another way is coming to me and it comes to me by faith. All those who believe can have this divine righteousness which comes by faith in Jesus Christ. There’s the thesis stated again. If you want to have salvation that is past the judgment and enter into everlasting joy with God, you have to have another righteousness. You have to have an alien righteousness, not your own. It is God’s righteousness, it comes to us through faith in Jesus Christ. He has restated his thesis again and he enters now onto a ground of it in probably, even though it’s not in Romans 8, is the most important paragraph in the Bible.

A Horrific Exchange

Romans 3:23 says:

All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.

I’m going to stop there and just make sure this unbelievably familiar gospel verse for sharing Christ makes you feel the God-centeredness of it because he virtually defines sinning by falling short of the glory of God. The weight is right here. This is what sin is. This is what makes sin so horrible. Now the word for “fall short” might not be the best translation. The word means “to lack,” but in what sense is sin a lacking of the glory of God? I find that probably the best exposition of Romans 3:23 is Romans 1:23, because Romans 1:23 says:

[They] exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things.

The lack of the glory of God is owing to an exchange. God, both in nature and redemptive history, offers you the glory of his name to enjoy, to cherish, to treasure, to make it your highest value. What do we do with it? We take it, look at it, and say, “No.” Then we exchange it for money or power or success or marriage or children or health. That trade dishonors God and it’s what we call “sin.” All sin is a failure to value the glory of God above the competing value promised by sin. That’s what sin is. Sin comes to us and says, “If you do this, you will have more payoff, kickback, and pleasure than if you keep valuing the glory of God above me.”

Now you need to see that in order to feel what the redemption is going to look like here because the issue in the universe is, “How can human beings who have come into the world hating the glory of God, not loving the glory of God, trampling the glory of God, preferring almost anything to the glory of God, who have so besmirched God and dishonored God ever be accepted by God, loved by God, cherished by God, and brought into his family? How could that ever happen? That’s what this paragraph answers.

God the Just and Justifier

Not only have we sinned, but he’s jumping right to those who have believed according to Romans 3:21. The paragraph says:

All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith. This was to show God’s righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins. It was to show his righteousness at the present time, so that he might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus (Romans 3:23–26).

Now let’s work with that for a minute because this is the main background for the “therefore” of Romans 8:1, which says, “Therefore there is no condemnation . . .” Why? Because he put Christ forward (sent him) as a propitiation. I’m glad the ESV kept the big, long word that nobody uses. I think that’s good. I think we need to be forced to learn something when we read the Bible. Propitiation is the old word for removing the wrath of God. He’s angry. So much gospel presentation short circuits the problem by saying, “You need to know how much God loves you.” Well, America is wired to assume that, and they’re dead wrong to assume it. He is really angry and he’s going to cast them into everlasting burnings and conscious torment if something gracious from his own heart doesn’t rescue us from his own wrath. That’s what’s in this paragraph.

How did He do that? “It says he put His son forward as a propitiation by his blood — that is, he bled to death — to be received by faith. This was to show God’s righteousness. Now, why did he need to go to the lengths of killing his Son? That is not an overstatement by the way, because it says in Isaiah 53:10, “It was the will of the Lord to bruise him.” Satan didn’t get the upper hand on God. God put his Son forward to die. It was in the plan. In fact, it was an eternal covenant as they talked it over, you might imagine and say, “Son, will you do this?” He said, “I will do it.”

So he put him forward to demonstrate his righteousness. Why? Why did he need to do that? Here’s the reason:

Because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins (Romans 3:25).

He’s still doing that. He did it for you today. Did you say everything exactly the way you wanted to say it in the car up here? I didn’t. I said, “Why’d you miss that turn? It was right there. It was so obvious, exit 55.” We’re not damned tonight, he just keeps passing right over these mouthy husbands and wives. Paul continues:

It was to show his righteousness at the present time, so that he might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus (Romans 3:26).

In other words, he looks unjust and he looks unrighteous by just passing over David’s adultery and the murder of Uriah. I read that text and Nathan is sent to David after he rapes this woman, gets her pregnant, covers it up, and has her husband killed. Nathan is sent to him and tells them the story about the man who had a little lamb and the other man who had lots of sheep and he steals the one from the man that has the little lamb and David gets really mad. He thinks, “We’re going to get that guy, whoever that is.” Nathan, courageous as he is, says, “You’re the man, King.” David, being a Spirit-touched man, repents and he says, “I’m a sinner. I did it.” He wrote Psalm 51.

The next thing out of Nathan’s mouth is, “The Lord has taken away your iniquity” (2 Samuel 12:13). Now I’ll tell you, if I were Uriah’s father, I’d say “No. You can’t do that. No righteous judge can sit on the bench and have a rapist and a murderer in front of him and just say, ‘It’s all right. You go and don’t do that anymore.’ Everybody knows that’s unjust. Everybody knows something has to happen to show God’s righteousness.” That’s what the gospel is first about. Before it’s about us, it’s about God.

The Justice We Weren’t Looking For

I preached a sermon one time and I don’t know why, but somebody emailed me yesterday from Texas saying, “Do you go around saying, ‘Christ died for God and not for us’?” The reason that rumor is out there, wherever that is, is because I preached a sermon entitled, “Did Christ Die for Us or for God?”. The answer to that question is what? Yes, that’s right. The answer to that question is yes. Not yes for God and no for us. Of course he died for us. It’s all over the Bible. But he died for God in the sense that he needs to show God’s righteousness because God had done so much of what appeared to be absolutely unjust. That’s why he had to die.

Now he’s going about justifying people for what? Faith. That’s outrageous. Just think of all the accumulated sins in this room. Some of you aren’t laughing because you remember how horrible they were, how many girls there were. Maybe there are people you absolutely have ripped off in the past. There is so much sin in the born-again community in the past and in the present. He’s saying, “Just, you’re just. I accept you. I love you. I welcome you. I forgive you. I take you to be my own. I count you righteous, not guilty. I acquit you.” Why? The one who has faith in Jesus.

Now that’s got to be accounted for with blood. There are people I suppose in the world today who think salvation’s an easy thing and God’s just nice. If he is nice then he just lets bygones be bygones and sweeps in under the rug of the universe. That’s the way most people think. People have no comprehension of the justice at the heart of the universe, that God is so just, and yet he looks so unjust and not for the reason most Americans think he looks unjust. Most Americans think he looks unjust because they hurt, not because they’re well. That’s the injustice. The fact that we are not in hell is what looks like an injustice for those who know. Why am I alive when I have committed so many capital offenses against the judge of the universe? Why am I alive, not to mention heaven-bound?

This paragraph is the most important paragraph in the Bible as I estimate things because it tells me the foundation of everything. How can God justify the ungodly? Answer: Christ. I’ll just circle these three words. He uses the words “redemption,” “propitiation,” and “justification.” These all overlap. Redemption is a word that implies deliverance at a price, ransom at a price. We were ransomed from guilt and condemnation. Propitiation means he wipes the wrath of God away, which is no condemnation. Justification means he declares us, on the basis of Christ’s work (not ours), that we are just, that we are right in his eyes. I just put two more verses up here to stress the word “faith” because it’s so amazing and it’s what Romans 4–7 develops.

The Gift and the Wage

Romans 3:38 says:

For we hold that one is justified by faith apart from works of the law.

And Romans 4:4 says:

Now to the one who works, his wages are not counted as a gift but as his due.

If you want to relate to God that way, if you want to go the work route instead of the faith route, here’s what will happen. You will get wages and the wages will not be gracious. They won’t be a gift. They’ll be what you deserve. Romans 6:21 says, “The wages of sin is death.” That’s the wages you’ll get. If you want to go the works route instead of the provided route through Christ, you can, but I don’t want you to and you don’t want to. The other route is “to the one who does not work.” Now that’s a very controversial first half of the verse. There are several ways to take it. I take it absolutely because we’re dealing here with justification, not sanctification. I’ll relate those shortly.

Sanctification is the work of the Spirit in my life to bring me into conformity to Christ little by little. Justification is a declaration on the first act of saving faith, which is unrepeatable and absolute and not progressive and never changes. It’s the verdict in a courtroom, not the behavior of the acquitted when he gets out of the room. That’s sanctification. Justification is that the judge says, “On the basis of Christ, I acquit you and declare you to be a fulfiller of my law. You may now go and I will count you as righteous forever.” That’s what happens here to the one who does not work but trusts him who justifies the ungodly. That’s the provocative thing that requires that God be just and the justifier. In order to be both just and the justifier, he must kill his Son in our place. To the person who does not work, his faith is counted for righteousness.

Counted Righteous in Christ

Let me tell you a little illustration for that last phrase because that’s a troubling phrase for some and it is for me. I had to think long and hard over what it means that he “counts my faith as righteousness”? Does that mean my act is my righteousness? So I’m really performing the righteousness that justifies me because I am believing, and my believing is my righteousness. Is that what “count faith as righteousness” means? Because if it does, then I’m really my own justifier, or the one who provides the ground for my justification. Or does it mean that faith is the instrument that lays hold on Christ who is my righteousness. Can these words mean that though? That’s the question.

I grappled for an analogy and here’s the one I came up with. I have four sons. My youngest is Barnabas and he’s away at college. He’s at Wheaton and he stayed at Wheaton through the summer to work in a church. But let’s pretend it’s a year ago now and he’s at home and he wants to use the car to go to the ballgame in the evening. He’s off to school in the morning. I say, “Okay, Barnabas, not a problem. I want you to go to the ballgame. I’ll be glad. Just be sure that you make your bed, clean up your room before you go, and that’ll be the condition for using the car and going to the ballgame tonight.”

He says, “Fine,” and he forgets. He gets on the bus or goes with his friends, however he gets to school, and he heads off and doesn’t do it. I laid that down as the condition for using the car and going to the game. He remembers on his way home that he forgot. He walks in the door and I wonder how he’s going to deal with this. He says, “I forgot to clean my room.” I cleaned the room in the meantime. I made the bed, put all the clothes in a pile in the closet (the best I can do), and I cleaned it. I did what I said had to be done. Before he knew that he said, “I’m sorry and I blew it, so I’ll find something else to do tonight. Sorry I didn’t do what you said.” I say, “Okay, Barnabas, for that you can go to the game. For that humility, for that repentance, for that, ‘I’m sorry,’ you can go to the game because the room is clean and the bed is made. I will simply count your confession as a clean room. I’ll count it as a clean room.”

Now when I say that I “count his faith” or his confession as a clean room, I don’t mean the clean room is his faith. His confession is not the clean room. I cleaned the room. Jesus provided the righteousness. God has put forward his righteousness. He says, “Do you want to have this righteousness as yours? Trust me, trust me.” When he says he counts faith as the righteousness, I don’t think he means, “By your moral performance of an act of trust that becomes your righteousness,” because he justifies the ungodly. He declares me righteous when I am an ungodly person. My faith is simply a ceasing, a relaxing. It’s Isaiah 46:10. For that He says, “All right, I will count Christ’s righteousness as yours.”

The Righteousness of Christ

I am assuming something which I don’t want to assume. I’ve just started talking in terms of Christ’s righteousness and you haven’t seen that anywhere in Romans yet, so let me put three more texts up here on this back. We’re still in the background. We’re trying to figure out the “therefore.” You can see the pace we’re going here, we’ll have a challenge in front of us. But if I could say everything in the first verse then we can just zoom right through the rest of it.

All right, now I want to make sure you don’t think I’m just reaching into my Reformed Protestant Reformation theology to pull down the righteousness of Christ as the solution here, as though that’s not in the Bible. I just wrote a book called Counted Righteous in Christ because I’m so concerned right now that the doctrine of the imputation of the righteousness of Christ is being assaulted. It’s being denied, it’s being run away from by many Evangelicals, at least they call themselves Evangelicals. I’m really burdened by that. If you want to see my arguments there, you can get that little book. But here are a few of them.

In Romans 5:19, as he comes to the end of talking about how we died in Adam and will be made alive in Christ and so on, he says:

For as by the one man’s disobedience the many were made sinners, so by the one man’s obedience the many will be made righteous.

The reason that’s so important is because this man is Jesus. We’re not just vaguely talking about the righteousness of God being revealed now; we’re talking about divine righteousness worked out in the obedience of one man and that becomes the occasion for many being counted (or made) righteous. Then you get over to Romans 10:4 and he says:

For Christ is the end (telos) of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes.

Now literally the word order in Greek is that telos is first and I like to translate it, not because it’s necessarily the most literal, but because it brings out what I think is the point. My translation is, “The goal of the law is Christ for righteousness to everyone who believes.” I don’t think the word order changes that. Christ is the end or the goal of the law for righteousness. In what sense is he the end or the goal of the law? It’s for righteousness. For whom? How is he righteousness? It’s to everyone who believes. If you want to have Christ for righteousness, believe him and he’ll count your faith as his righteousness. He cleaned the room. He fulfilled the law of God. We didn’t, we never will in practice until we’re made perfect.

Christ’s Role in Our Justification

Here’s one from outside Romans to confirm this understanding of Christ’s role in our justification:

For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God (2 Corinthians 5:21).

Now look. For our sake, God made Christ to be sin. Now what does that mean? He was not a sinner. I hope we all agree with that. We’ll see that in Romans 8:3. He came in the likeness of sinful flesh. Why does he stick in that word likeness? Because he wasn’t in sinful flesh. He was in flesh, but he wasn’t sinful. He had no sin, and that’s said plainly in Hebrews 4:15 and in Romans 8:3. But He was made to be sin. Whose? Ours. Ours was reckoned to be his even though he knew no sin. The parallel corresponds, “So that in him, we might become the righteousness of God.” Whose? Just like our sin was imputed to him, his righteousness or God’s righteousness is imputed to us. The fact that it is in him is what makes the righteousness of Christ appropriate to talk about.

When you trust Christ, you are grafted into him. You are united to him, which means then that his righteousness becomes yours and your sin becomes his. He went to the cross with that and paid the debt in full, and he now imputes to you his perfect righteousness. That’s the ground behind the “therefore” of Romans 8:1.

The Security of the Saints

Now I think we’re ready to make some progress here. Romans 8:1 says:

There is therefore now no condemnation.

Oh, sweet words! And Wesley gets it just right, right?

No condemnation now I dread Jesus and all in him is mine

Maybe we can do that in one of these sessions. That’s the first statement. Here’s a question now: How long does this last? There is no condemnation now, but might there be some day? This is a big theological issue. It divides the waters of two big traditions about whether you can be in Christ and enjoy his righteousness with no condemnation, and then plunk, you fall out. This is big and Romans 8 is all about perseverance and eternal security. It’s all about security. Those whom he justified he glorified, and there are no dropouts. If you are justified, you will be glorified. This is here forever.

If you are now without condemnation, you will always be without condemnation. It’s the final verdict. Justification is the end-time judgment brought forward into the cross, and then we are united to Christ crucified so that our verdict, which will be heard at the last day, has already been delivered. The unique thing about Christianity over Judaism is that the Messiah has come, he has borne the penalty, he has provided the righteousness, and so I can be both and imputed and righteous now, already. This word “now” is so, so precious.

I remember preaching on this a couple of years ago and just had the sense that there were some people who were thinking that not a big deal hung on this word “now.” Here’s the distinction that I drew. I said, “You’re in a courtroom and you have two choices. You’re guilty and the judge can do two things. He can say, ‘Today, I declare you not guilty. I have my reasons for this. It’s not an injustice. And I free you to go live a life of love for me, treasuring all that I have done for you and all that I promise your free life will be for you, and you can have that now. Or here’s your other option. We’ll suspend the verdict for five years and I’ll give you a parole officer, and we’ll just write down everything you do. Then we’ll come back in five years and we’ll decide then whether the verdict is guilty or not.’ Well, which would you prefer?”

I say that this is not nitpicking, this is massive. If I could be told with credibility by the author of the universe, “Today, you’re not guilty in my sight and you never will be,” or if he gives me five or 85 years to try it out to see if I can measure up and he says, “Then we’ll do the verdict later on that,” I’d say, “No, thank you. Just go ahead and say it. I’m ready. I’ll receive that.” I think that is now and that is our now and always, which means he’s always for you.

More Than the Acquittal of a Judge

Let’s make it positive. No condemnation is sweet if you’re a condemned, guilty sinner. That’s sweet. But sweeter than that is it means, “I’m for you and not against you.” It’s one thing to have your sentence of punishment taken away. If the judge says, “Now, I’m a judge. I can do anything I want here and so you’re not guilty,” and then he just gets up and thumbs his nose at you and walks out of the courtroom? He says, “Jerk. I’m just showing off my grace here.” That would not be real satisfying. You’d like it because to walk out is better than to be executed. But it’s not what you wanted. You thought you saw in his face a father, you thought you saw somebody who’d care for you, maybe even walk with you out of this courtroom, which is in fact exactly what no condemnation signifies.

I don’t make that up either. You get it from later in the chapter here. Paul says:

What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things? Who shall bring any charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies (Romans 8:31–33).

This “for us” here is really, really precious.

Union with Christ

Now come the words, “In Christ.” This is really, really important. The “no condemnation” is valid only for those who are in Christ Jesus. In other words, God is not a universalist. This is really important in our day. There is a division of the house of humanity here. Those who are in Christ Jesus have no condemnation. Everybody is not in Christ Jesus. How do we know that? Let’s flip over to Romans 9:1–3. It maybe would help to hear his heart just to read the first three verses:

I am speaking the truth in Christ — I am not lying; my conscience bears me witness in the Holy Spirit — that I have great sorrow and unceasing anguish in my heart. For I could wish that I myself were accursed and cut off from Christ for the sake of my brothers, my kinsmen according to the flesh.

That’s the opposite of being in Christ. Do you see that? That’s a reality. Paul is weeping over that reality and we should. In other words, they’re cursed because they’re cut off from Christ. You can be in Christ or you can be cut off from Christ and be accursed. It’s really important to see that he is not a universalist. That is, he doesn’t believe everybody is saved or will be saved. We must be in Christ Jesus. The implications there, in our pluralistic, relativistic, multicultural day of tolerance are huge.

Since 9/11, I’ve been so burdened by the wimpish response of so many church leaders to the centrality of Jesus in the world of religions. So many people are just talking about God and we’re all believing in the same God — Islam, Buddhism, Hinduism, Judaism, and Christianity. Christ is so dishonored and so offended by that kind of talk because he came into the world to answer a universal problem. The whole world is held accountable. Buddhists are held accountable. Muslims are held accountable. Hindus are held accountable. Pagan Americans are held accountable. Jews are held accountable. He gave a solution for them all. There’s one solution for the universal problem of alienation from God and his wrath against humanity. It is the Son of God coming into the world to die and to bear the sins of all who will believe in him.

How do you get in Christ? That’s a very, very important question. You may see it’s really obvious, but I don’t know of any text in the New Testament that says, “You get in Christ by this . . .” I wish it were crisp and clear that we are in Christ by faith. Now I think that’s true, but to show it you have to do an indirect kind of thing. Let me do that with you.

Here’s the way I argue that the way you become in Christ so that all his righteousness is yours and all your sin is his and the forgiveness is there through him is first in 2 Corinthians 5:21, which we saw a minute ago. We have righteousness in Christ. It says:

For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

In him, I have the righteousness of God. Righteousness comes by being in union with, in relationship to Christ. Same thing can be said about forgiveness. Ephesians 1:7 says that it is “redemption in Christ Jesus, the forgiveness of sins.” So our redemption is in Christ Jesus and our righteousness is in Christ Jesus. Forgiveness is the negative way of describing our salvation, and justification or righteousness is a positive way, and both of those are in Christ Jesus.

Faith as the Instrument of Union with Christ

Now, the premise I add is that justification is clearly by faith according to Romans 3:28, which says:

For we hold that one is justified by faith apart from works of the law.

Now I hear that being in Christ is how I’m justified, how I’m forgiven, and I’m told I’m justified by faith. I draw the inference then, if I’m justified by faith and I’m justified by being in Christ, then my faith must be the instrument by which God grafts me into Christ. That’s my argument because it’s not stated explicitly in the New Testament that by faith you are in Christ Jesus. You have to infer it by going that route or some other.

Now here’s one last thing to leave you with. The clearest statement in the New Testament about how we are in Christ is 1 Corinthians 1:30 and the literal translation says:

Because of him (from God) you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, righteousness and sanctification and redemption . . .

I want to say that God grafts people into Christ Jesus. This is God’s work to unite me to Christ and the instrument that he uses is his gift of faith and repentance. Now, that makes me a Calvinist. I don’t care about the word and I don’t want to divide the house unnecessarily, but necessarily. I don’t care about big C or little c. I want to be biblical. What we’re going to see tomorrow morning when we get down to Romans 8:8–9 it says:

Those who are in the flesh cannot please God. You, however, are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if in fact the Spirit of God dwells in you.

How did that come about, if you were hostile in mind to God and suddenly are trusting him with all your heart? That’s a sweet gift and I hope we cherish it with all of our hearts.