Gregory Dickow - 4 Truths That Will Free You From Condemnation
What the devil understands that most Christians don’t: The devil understands how dangerous the gift of righteousness is to God’s people and his kingdom. He understands, and he is not at war with your finances. The devil is not at war with your family. The devil is not at war with your health. The devil is not at war with your peace. The devil is not at war with your wisdom or joy. The Bible tells us that the devil is at war with the gift of righteousness. The Bible says the devil is the enemy of all righteousness. Righteousness was something that people tried to obtain under the old covenant. But righteousness is not something that anybody can obtain under either the old covenant or the new covenant. The old covenant revealed our sins. The reason why God gave his commandments was to create a layer of protection in society and culture, and for people to understand the difference between right and wrong. He also knew that man was incapable of fulfilling the Ten Commandments, that every man, every woman, and every child has broken one or all of them at one time or another in their lives-in their minds, in their bodies, in their deeds, in their words. All have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.
So I want you to see that when Jesus came, he came to reveal primarily two things to us through his blood. He came to reveal to us the abundance of his grace and the gift of his righteousness. That’s why it says in Romans chapter 5, verses 1 and 17, that through one man’s transgression, sin entered the world, and through one man’s act of obedience, righteousness entered into the world. It says here, «For by one man’s offense, death reigned.» Much more, those who receive the abundance of grace and the gift of righteousness will do what? What will they do? They will reign in life. He’s not talking about heaven; although we’ll reign there, he’s talking about this life. He’s talking about this earth, this world. By one man’s offense, Adam, death reigned; Adam and Eve caused death to reign through that one man. Much more, see, Jesus doesn’t just equal the playing field; he surpasses and goes above and beyond what man did, what Satan did to man. Jesus outdoes, overshadows, and says, «Much more.» Much more!
So death reigned through one man, and through the abundance of grace and the gift of righteousness, we reign in life through the one Jesus Christ. Amen.
Now, this word righteousness needs to be understood. It is the ability to stand before God without guilt, without shame, and without inferiority. The gift of righteousness is to be put into right standing with God. That’s what righteousness means. It means to stand upright before God. It means to be able to stand in the presence of God and know that you are righteous. Now, you don’t obtain righteousness through your works. You don’t obtain righteousness by how hard you pray or how holy you live. You obtain righteousness by receiving the free gift of it: the abundance of grace and the gift of righteousness. Grace is an abundance, and righteousness is a gift. You don’t just have barely enough grace to get you saved. You have more than enough grace for salvation, for healing, for joy, for peace, for blessing, and for prosperity-increase in your soul, in your health, in your family, in every aspect of life.
God’s version of his sons and daughters and how they’re supposed to live is found in this verse. We’re supposed to live reigning in life, not being defeated, not being reigned over, but reigning. Amen. That’s why every Sunday and every time we gather together is training for reigning. Amen.
Look at Revelation 3:1. Jesus says something very powerful-one of my favorite verses in the Bible: «I am coming soon,» he says. «I am coming soon.» Now, he wasn’t talking about time in this translation. The New King James says, «I am coming quickly.» That’s really a more accurate translation because «soon» refers to time, while «quickly» refers to the manner in which he comes. So, he’s not saying in Revelation 3, «I’m going to come in a very short time from now.» We know that to be true because we’re 2000 years later. But he uses the word quickly, which means when it happens, it will happen so quickly that everybody will take note, and all of time will stop. It will happen gradual, gradual, gradual, gradual, gradual, and then suddenly; he’s coming quickly. He’s going to come suddenly, in such a quick manner that you won’t be saying, «Oh, why is it taking so long?» It will happen in an instant, and we will be changed, and we will step into the last of the last days. He said, «Though I am coming quickly.» Until then, hold fast to what you have and let no one take your crown. Glory to God!
Everybody, say that! «Let no one take your crown!» Say, «I’m not gonna let anyone take my crown! I’m not gonna let myself take it! I’m not gonna let any other human take it! I’m not going to let the devil take it! I’m not going to let a bunch of demons take it! I’m not going to let life circumstances take it! I’m holding fast to what I’ve received, and no one is taking my crown.»
And what is it that he says here? «Hold fast to what you’ve received.» What is he talking about? Well, he’s talking about the gifts that he has given to us and the revelation we have of who we are in Christ. And he says, «Hold fast to what you’ve received.» Well, the Bible says, if you put that together with Romans chapter 5:1-17, he talks about those who received the abundance of grace and the gift of righteousness. So he’s saying, «Hold fast to what you have received.» He said, «Much more, those who receive the abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness will reign in life.»
So we’ve received an abundance of grace, and we’ve received the gift of righteousness. And he tells us, «Don’t let anyone take that from you. Don’t let anyone talk you out of it. Don’t let anyone condemn you as having lost it.» Because the beautiful thing about the gifts of God is that when he gives them, he never takes them back. Romans 11:29 says that the gifts and the callings of God are irrevocable, without repentance. God doesn’t say, «Dang it, I shouldn’t have given that to him! Look at how he screwed it up!» Darn it! We don’t know exactly what God would say; I just said «dang» and «darn.» God may be even more unfiltered. He doesn’t say, «Oh, you know what? She wasted that gift. I’m taking it back and giving it to somebody else.» As if God is such that he’s so broke that if you don’t use the gift of righteousness the way it’s intended, as if he’s only got a little bit of it, and if you’re not using it, he’s going to give it to somebody who will. That is demonic thinking, to think that God is so limited! I thought he said the abundance of grace, woo, and the gift of righteousness!
You see, when God created us, he made us conquerors. He calls us more than conquerors in Romans 8:37. When God first created us, he crowned us with victory. It says in Psalm 8: 4, «What is man that you are mindful of him, and the son of man that you visit him?» Verse 5 says, «For you have made him a little lower than the angels.» Now, I have to challenge this translation, if you don’t mind; you can study it later. But if you go back to the original language of this verse, and even some of the translations, say it differently. It says, «For you have made him a little lower.» The word for angels there is «Elohim,» which is a Hebrew word for God. So God didn’t make us lower than the angels; he made us a little lower than himself! We actually have authority over the angels. The Bible says when we speak the word, the angels will go on our behalf to bring it to pass. Amen!
He has crowned us with glory. He has crowned us with honor. He has made us to have dominion over everything that God created. Verse 6 says, «You have made him to have dominion over all the works of your hands.» Well, even the angels are works of God’s hands. So we see the scripture defines itself; the scripture translates itself here. Wow! «You’ve made him to have dominion over the works of your hands; you have put all things under his feet.» He’s talking about mankind. He’s given us dominion. He’s made us a little lower than him. He’s crowned us with glory, crowned us with honor, given us dominion, and put everything under our feet.
So why are we living like everything’s over our heads? And why aren’t we living like everything’s under our feet? Oh, somebody needs to start talking about how happy their feet are! My feet are so happy; God has put everything under our feet! Hallelujah! I know this world’s religion and the weak versions of Christianity don’t tell you about your dominion, but the Bible does. The Bible says we have dominion over all the power of the enemy. It says in Luke chapter 19, «They said to Jesus, 'We saw Satan fall like lightning when we were praying and casting out demons. We saw all the demons leaving. We got people healed; we cast out devils.'» And Jesus said, «Behold, I give you authority to trample upon serpents and scorpions and over all the power of the enemy, and nothing shall by any means injure you, hurt you, or harm you.» Now, you can choose to believe that or argue against it, but it’s in Luke 10:19! And if he did it for them, he’s done it for us too!
Righteousness is the key word in Paul’s epistles. Five hundred fifty-five times «righteous» or «righteousness» is used in the King James Bible. It means the ability to stand in the Father’s presence without a sense of fear, condemnation, inferiority, or shame. In Isaiah 54:13, it says, «And your children shall be taught of the Lord, and great shall be their peace.» «In righteousness, they shall be established.» Verse 14 says, «In righteousness, they shall be established, and you will be far from oppression. In righteousness, you will be established, and you will be far from oppression, for you shall not fear, and you will be far from terror, for it will not come near you.» These are the benefits. These are the gifts. These are the side effects of being established in righteousness. You’re going to have peace and tranquility.
How do we get established? We have to understand where we got righteousness from. It’s a gift. 2 Corinthians 5:21, I want to read it to you again: «He made Him who knew no sin.» Jesus, it says of Jesus, «Now he who knew no sin was made to be sin for us on the cross, that we might become the righteousness of God.» So Jesus becomes what we deserve so that we can receive what he deserved. He made him who knew no sin. The Father made Jesus to be sin for us. He never sinned, but he became sin for us. Our righteousness is not measured by the deeds we do, just as Jesus becoming sin is not measured by the things he did. It’s what he became on the cross. Sin is not something he did; sin is what he became. Righteousness is not based on what we do; righteousness is what we become when we accept what Jesus became for us, and we become the righteousness of God in him.
It’s the greatest blessing of the new creation. The greatest blessing of being born again, besides knowing that we’re going to heaven, is to be established in righteousness-to have a righteousness consciousness. Most people have a sin consciousness; they’re always in bondage to what they’ve done wrong. Sin consciousness destroys people’s initiative. It hinders people’s faith. It stops people from praying. It robs us of enjoying the Father’s presence. The Father takes no pleasure. Beloved, our heavenly Father takes no pleasure in his children shrinking in fear. Our Father takes no pleasure in us acting inferior as cowards when we’ve been made the righteousness of God. And the Bible says the righteous are as bold as lions. Righteousness fixes it all. The ultimate goal of the Father was to make men righteous as his sons and daughters. If there’s any lingering small thinking in your life, dismiss it. We’re building God’s house with God’s plan. We’re called to be humble but powerful, to impact this world.
And how was this gift of righteousness manifested? It says in Romans chapter 10, verses 9 and 10, «If we confess with our mouth Jesus as Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you shall be saved.» And look at verse 10. We skip that so often: «For with the heart, man believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth, confession is made unto salvation.» He’s not talking about confessing our sins; he’s talking about confessing Jesus as Lord. Confessing your sins is a different thing altogether. This has nothing to do with your salvation. Your sins have nothing to do with your salvation. Your confession of sin has no weight when you say Jesus is Lord. When you believe God raised him from the dead, you experience righteousness. And when you confess Jesus as Lord, you experience salvation. Amen!
So why don’t believers reign in life? I’ll give you three reasons:
Why is it that believers don’t reign in life? If we’ve been made the righteousness of God and have the abundance of grace, why aren’t we reigning in life?
Three reasons:
Number one: ignorance. Hosea 4:6 says, «My people,» God says, «my people are destroyed because of a lack of knowledge.» That’s what ignorance is. And sometimes it’s because we haven’t heard or we’ve deliberately ignored what we have heard. Right? «My people are destroyed because of ignorance or a lack of knowledge.» Satan is doing everything he can to keep the reality of this truth from you. 2 Corinthians 4:4 says, «For the god of this world, little g, has blinded the minds of the unbelieving so that they do not see the glory of the gospel, the light of the glory of the gospel of Jesus Christ.» It’s because Satan is blinding us from the gift of righteousness, or he’s made us mistake the gift of righteousness for self-righteousness.
Self-righteousness is when you say, «I did it. I did it. It’s me. It’s about me. It’s what I’ve done, my performance.» That’s self- righteousness. «I’ve prayed. I’ve fasted. I’ve given.» The Pharisee said that. The other dude said, «Have mercy on me, for I’m a sinner.» That guy went down righteous. That guy went down justified. Jesus said number one: «Why aren’t we reigning in life? Ignorance.»
Number two: We fail to reign in life because of condemnation. And condemnation is reigning in our lives. Condemnation is ruling over our lives. And I’ll tell you why that’s so important that we recognize this: A condemned heart is an unhappy heart. Romans 14:22 says, «Happy is the man that does not condemn himself in what he approves.» A condemned heart is an unhappy heart. A condemned heart is a defeated heart. Romans 5:17 tells us we’ll be defeated if we don’t have this abundance of grace and gift of righteousness. A condemned heart is a prayerless heart; you won’t pray when you feel condemned. A condemned heart is a stingy heart; you won’t be generous when you’re condemned. A condemned heart is a guilty heart that gets trapped by sin, which then feeds guilt, which then feeds more sin, which then feeds more guilt, which then feeds more sin. But a condemned heart stays in that pattern. But when you understand you’ve been made the righteousness of God, you become like that woman that Jesus said, «I do not condemn you. Now go and sin no more.» He started out with releasing her from condemnation, then a path of getting on the right track. It doesn’t work the other way around: «Get on the right path and I won’t condemn you.» No, he says, «I don’t condemn you.» Even though you’re caught in it, «I don’t condemn you.» Now there’s a path for you, but you have to understand you’re not condemned. Condemnation makes you doubt yourself. Condemnation keeps you down when you’ve fallen. Proverbs 24:16 says, «A righteous man falls seven times, but he gets up.» Amen!
So it would be fair to say, since I gave you all these verses about what a condemned heart does, it would also be fair to say that an uncondemned heart, one that is aware of the gift of righteousness, is a happy heart, a conquering heart, a prayerful heart, a generous heart, and a liberated heart.
Understanding the gift of righteousness causes you to operate in these powerful truths, which are the opposite of what a condemned heart does to you.
Now, how do we free ourselves from condemnation? I’ll close with this: I' ll give you four simple things to free you from condemnation.
Number one: knowing who you are in Christ. Number one, how do you break out of condemnation? Knowing who you are in Christ: «He made him who knew no sin to be sin for us that we would be made the righteousness of God in Christ.» You’ve got to know who you are in Christ! That will free you from condemnation.
Number two: realize God’s not finished with you yet. I love Philippians 1:6; it says, «He is faithful who began a good work in you; he will finish it. He will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ.» He began this good work, and he will complete this good work, so just know that!
How do you free yourself from condemnation? Knowing who you are in Christ. How do you free yourself from condemnation? Realizing he’s not finished with you yet.
How do you free yourself from condemnation? Discovering his mercy is new every morning! You felt condemned yesterday; his mercy is new today. You might feel like a failure today; his mercy is new tomorrow. Lamentations 3:22 says, «For the mercy of God is new every morning; his faithfulness never comes to an end.»
And the fourth way to be free from condemnation is to realize God does not condemn you. When others do, God doesn’t. When the devil does, God doesn’t. When you condemn yourself, God doesn’t. If you will take these precious truths, you will live a life of freedom from condemnation.
And an uncondemned heart will be a happy heart. An uncondemned heart will be a getting up heart. An uncondemned heart will be a prayerful heart. An uncondemned heart will be a victorious heart. An uncondemned heart will be a healing heart. The Bible says, «And we will arise; the sun of righteousness will arise with healing in his wings.» Malachi chapter 4 says, «You have every right!»
Think about it like this: These are your rights as a child of God. You have the right to get back up when you’ve fallen. You have the right to pray a righteous man-a righteous man, the effectual fervent prayers of a righteous man-not a person who does everything right but a person who has right standing with God.
How do we get that? It’s the gift of righteousness. When you free yourself, God’s already freed you. So you free yourself from this condemnation! You’ll start praying bold prayers. You’ll start taking bold steps. You’ll start giving bold gifts. You’ll start asking for bold things because the righteous are as bold as lions.