Jeff Schreve - And The Verdict Is...
In Romans chapter 8, we have the court of God's heaven delivering a verdict. And it's a wonderful thing in Romans 8, but actually we see two things taking place in Romans 8, and two different verdicts and everybody in this room, everybody under the sound of my voice, watching on television, watching live stream, listening on the radio. There are two verdicts that every single person will experience, one or the other.
Now, every Christian has experienced, at one time, the first verdict before the second verdict. So we're going to talk about the two verdicts that we see in Romans chapter 8, "There is therefore," verse 1 says, "There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus". No verdict of guilty for those who are in Christ Jesus, "For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and death. For what the Law could not do, weak as it was through the flesh, God did: sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and as an offering for sin, He condemned sin in the flesh".
Question: Do you know, as you sit here today, do you know the divine verdict on your life? Do you know if the divine verdict is guilty or do you know that the divine verdict is not guilty? Well, we wait with anticipation when we're watching one of those shows or when it's in real life, what's the verdict gonna come back, what's the court going to say, guilty or not guilty? Well, two verdicts in the court of life, and you have the law of sin and death speaking up, and you have the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus that speaks up.
So let's look at the first verdict, the law of sin and death. The law of sin and death declares that we are guilty sinners before God. Verse 2 says that we've been set free from the law of sin and of death if we're in Christ Jesus, but if we're not in Christ Jesus, the law of sin and death says you are guilty. Now we just finished a series on the Ten Commandments, ten weeks on the Ten Commandments, and we called that series "Written in Stone". And God gave the Ten Commandments to show us how we're to live, and also to show us how we don't measure up, how we don't stack up. And you're guilty of breaking the Ten Commandments, and I'm guilty of breaking the Ten Commandments.
And the Bible tells us, in Romans chapter 5, verse 12, "Therefore, just as through one man," Adam, "Sin entered into the world, and death through sin, so death spread to all men, because all sinned," every single person has broken God's law, we're born into this world in Adam, and we've broken God's law. Now, the Bible says in Adam all die. 1 Corinthians 15:22, in Adam all die, in Christ all shall be made alive. So in Adam all die, in Adam all are sinners, in Adam's fall, we sinned all, and as sinners, you know, we have that phrase that we repeat, crime doesn't pay. You could say, well, let's broaden it, sin doesn't pay, and that's true and it's not true, because Romans 6:23 says, "For the wages of sin is death". Sin does pay and it pays in death. Death to purity, death to the things that God wants to do in your life, death, in terms of eternal separation from God. The wages of sin is death.
Now, we're all born into this world in Adam. And in Adam all die, David said this in Psalm 51, verse 5, "Behold," and any time you run into the word behold in scripture, it denotes surprise, it denotes wow, and get a load of this, "Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity. And in sin my mother conceived me". David's just saying, I was brought forth in Adam. Adam was made perfect, Eve was made perfect, they sinned, they disobeyed God, and then their children, they passed along to their children what they themselves had experienced, which is death inside, death in their spirit, in that part of them that communed with God and that knew God, and they died. Their eyes were open and they knew that they were naked, God said and the day you eat of it, you will surely die, and they did, but they didn't die in their bodies, they didn't die in their soul, they died in their spirit.
And that's what they passed along to all their descendants. You and I are descendants of Adam, everybody comes from Adam and Eve, and everyone is born in Adam and we're born dead inside toward God, dead in our spirits. And because we are in Adam, and because we're sinners, and because the soul that sins, Ezekiel 18:4, shall die, and the wages of sin is death, we are in serious trouble. We are all born into this world facing righteous judgment. The law of sin and death is going to rap its gavel on so many, guilty before God.
It says in Galatians 3:10, "Cursed is everyone who does not abide by all things written in the book of the law, to perform them". Well, you and I don't abide by all things written in the book of the law, we've sinned, we've broken God's commands. And James 2:10 says this, "For whoever keeps the whole law," if that is possible, if you can keep the whole law, "And yet stumbles in one point, he has become guilty of all". You know, when we talk about the Ten Commandments, it's not so much that they're individual commandments, think of them like a chain of ten links, and the law of God is a chain of ten links, and it fits together. And so if you keep nine of the commandments, but you stumble in one point, maybe bearing false witness against your neighbor, or maybe coveting your neighbor's house, your neighbor's spouse, or whatever belongs to your neighbor.
Well, then you're guilty of all. Think of it like this, if you were hanging off of the Empire State building, hundreds and hundreds of feet in the air and you are hanging and dangling from a chain of ten links, nine of them are made of forged steel and one of them is made of crepe paper. You're in trouble. It doesn't matter how strong the other ones are, the fact that you stumble in one point, boom, you are guilty of all, and you're going to face severe judgment.
Now, what do people do because of the law of sin and death, this is where people get so twisted and so deceived. They think that, well, I just need to keep the law, and I'm just gonna press into the law, and I'm just gonna try harder, and I'm gonna grit my teeth, the law of God cannot save you, it can only condemn you. It's the law of sin and death. For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from what? From the law of sin and death. But if you are in Adam, you are under the law of sin and death and that can't save you. It doesn't have the ability to save you. It says in verse 3, "For what the Law could not do, weak as it was through the flesh, God did: sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh".
So the law just, all it does is condemn you. The law is, as you've heard me say before, the law is like a thermometer. A thermometer doesn't help you get better if you're sick, just shows you how sick you are. I mean, you'd have to be really ignorant if you were sitting here saying, well, man, I got a terrible raging fever, I'm just gonna, I'm gonna keep that thermometer under my tongue longer, maybe that's gonna make me better. That's not the purpose of the thermometer. It doesn't help you, it just shows you how sick you are. You know, when you turn the light on in a dirty room, the light doesn't clean the dirt, it just shows you how dirty it is. It shows you, hey pal, you need to get a broom, you need to get a mop, you need to clean this up because the light isn't going to do it.
The law of God is just a light, it's just a thermometer, it's just a measuring stick, a yard stick to show you this is the standard and all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. All have sinned and fall short of the standard, we've all missed the mark. And so you say, well, what's the purpose of God's law? It says in Galatians 3:4, that the purpose of the law, "The Law has become our tutor to lead us to Christ, that we may be justified by faith". The law of God was given to lead us to Christ. The law of God was given to convict us, to show us, man, I'm a sinner. I'm on a highway to hell, the wages of sin is death, the soul that sins shall die.
Here is God's law. I can't keep God's law, wretched man that I am, who will set me free from the body of this death? What am I going to do? Lord, I'm in trouble. And God said, that's exactly why I gave the law, to show you that in Adam all die, but in Christ, all shall be made alive. So the law of sin and death, in the courtroom of God, it condemns every, single mother's child. Everybody is condemned under the law of sin and death. And that's why God sent his Son, "For God so loved the world that he sent his only begotten Son, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in him should not perish but have everlasting life". Look at verse 3, "For what the Law could not do, weak as it was through the flesh," that doesn't mean the law was weak, that means in and through us, it's weak because no one can keep the law.
"What the Law could not do, weak as it was through the flesh, God did: sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and as an offering for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh". So verdict number one is guilty. The law of sin and death declares that we are all guilty sinners, but verdict number two, the law of the Spirit of life declares that we are not guilty. The law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus says not guilty. Now, Christ, this is so cool. Christ condemned sin when he died on the cross, the Lord Jesus Christ, the law condemns sinners. But God sent his Son to condemn sin and Jesus came to die on the cross for your sins and mine and to condemn sin. And that is wonderful. Sin is the source of our problem. Sins, plural, are the symptoms.
The law can't deal with the symptoms, the law, all it can do is say, hey, you're a sinner, you're condemned. But the Savior can come. God sent his Son, and he, when he died on the cross, condemned sin, he dealt with the source of our problem. And Jesus paid the sin debt for all time when he died upon the cross. You remember as he said, as he was dying, the second to the last thing that he said, "It is finished, it is finished". That's the Greek word tetelestai, which means "paid in full," that's a marketplace word, paid in full. What did you pay in full, Jesus? I paid the sin debt in full, all the sins of all the world, from Adam until the last person is ever going to be created. He paid for all that, well, that's why we sing Jesus paid it all, all to him I owe.
Sin had left a crimson stain. He washed it white as snow. And so he paid for my sin, he paid for your sin. And when he died on the cross, he condemned sin, he paid sin debt, the sin debt for all time. And he paid for every single person, so that every single person could be saved. As a matter of fact, 1 John chapter 2, verse 1, says this, "My little children, if anyone sins, I'm writing to you that you may not sin. But if anyone sins, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous and He Himself is the propitiation, the satisfaction; for our sins; and not for ours only, but also for those of the whole world".
Listen, the verdict of guilty or not guilty, that happens in this life. What then, as Pilate said, what then shall I do with Jesus who is called the Christ? What you do with Jesus determines whether you're going to be under the law of sin and death or whether you're going to be set free by the law of the Spirit of life in Christ, Jesus, it determines whether God raps his gavel and says guilty, or not guilty. It determines whether you stay in Adam, because that's how you gonna come into this world, in Adam, and in Adam all die, but in Christ shall all be made alive.
Now, if you put your faith and trust in Jesus, here's what happens. Not only are you not guilty, but you are free from all condemnation. That's how the letter starts, or that's how the chapter starts out. And so there is therefore now no condemnation, there's not one charge that sticks for those who are in Christ Jesus. There's not one little drop of condemnation. There's not one divine drop of divine judgment on a child of God. Well, how can that be? Because God put all your sin upon Jesus and he put all the wrath upon Jesus and you and I can go free because there is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. So big, big question, are you in Christ Jesus?
See that's what it says in verse 1 and 2, "There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. For the Law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus". Because you're born in Adam, you have to be born again to get into Christ Jesus, to be in Christ Jesus. Remember Nicodemus, John chapter 3, Jesus said, you know he, "Rabbi, we know that you are a prophet sent from God, for no one can do the things you do, unless God is with him". And Jesus said to him right off the bat, "Truly, truly, I say to you, unless the man is born again, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. He cannot see the kingdom of God. You must be born again". Who's he saying that to? Nicodemus, the ruler of the Jews, the most moral man in Israel. And he says to that guy, you need to be born again, why? Because you're born in Adam, and in Adam you're going to die and the law of sin and death is going to say guilty.
You have to be born again to receive Christ, so that you can be alive, made alive in Christ. So that all your sins can be put from a judicial perspective, from an accounting perspective, can be applied to your account. Okay, so he has accepted my Son, now all his sins are on Jesus, they are all paid for. So your sins are gonna either be pardoned in Christ or they're gonna be punished in hell, but they're gonna be paid for, every single one of them. And Jesus will pay for them or you can pay for them. Everyone in Adam is going to pay for his or her sins in hell for all eternity. People say, well, why does that have to last for all eternity? Can't over time, you pay that back, you know, even if you could only pay back a dollar a day and you owed $100 million, eventually in eternity, you'd come to the $100 million mark.
Well, why can you never get out of hell? Because what are people doing in hell? There's weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth, and they are angry at God and they're cursing God, and it's horrible and awful in hell. And the meter just keeps running in hell. God doesn't want anybody to go to hell. He doesn't want anybody to die in Adam. He wants everyone to come to his Son so that they can be in Christ. Romans 6:23, "For the wages of sin is death," as we said, sin pays in death. "But the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord".
How do I get in Christ Jesus our Lord? Ephesians 1, "In Him, you also, after listening to the message of truth, the gospel of your salvation, having also believed, you were sealed in Him with the Holy Spirit of promise, who is given us a pledge of our inheritance, with a view to the redemption of God's own possession to the praise of His glory". You hear the gospel, you hear, hey, I'm a sinner, I'm an Adam and in Adam all die. I'm in trouble. I have broken God's law and I'm going to receive a righteous judgment from God. God doesn't judge on the curve. He doesn't grade on the curve. You shall be holy for your Father in heaven is holy. Well, you shall be perfect, as Jesus said, for your Father in heaven is perfect.
Well, who's perfect? No one, there's none righteous, not even one, not even you, not even me. So we're in trouble. In him, you also after listening to the message of truth that says you're a sinner and you're lost and you're on the highway to hell, but Jesus came, he died on the cross for your sins, and if you'll put your faith and trust in him and him alone for your salvation, he will save you. "In him, you also, after listening to the message of truth, the gospel of your salvation, having also believed," you repent and believe you were sealed in him with the Holy Spirit of promise. Death is in Adam, life is in Jesus. And you go from death to life when you put your faith and trust in him.
"Truly, truly, I say to you," John 5:24, "He hears who my Word and believes him who sent me, has everlasting life, and does not come into judgment but is passed out of death into life," and you are in Christ Jesus. And there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. Do you ever feel condemned in your Christian life? Do you ever blow it in your Christian life and blow it big time, and just think I'm just so condemned and the Lord has no doubt just discarded me because I've done this sin over and over and over and over again. I've messed up so bad, I've hurt my family, I've hurt so many people. Truly, I am a castaway. Well, the Lord says, no, that's not true. That's not true. If the Spirit is in your heart, he's in there forever. And although you may have blown it big time, that's not on your account, because Jesus paid for all the sin and all the wrath went on him, and his righteousness came upon you.
And so just because you feel condemned, know that that doesn't come from the Lord, that comes from the devil. He's an accuser of the brethren, he's a liar and the father of lies. Remember this: truth is not what you think, it's not what you feel. Truth is what God says. And God says there is not a speck of condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, for the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set me free from the law of sin and of death. Everyone in Christ is free from all condemnation and everyone in Christ is free to live godly by the Holy Spirit, free to live a godly life. Hey, where does the law come in? Where does all this stuff where we're supposed to live an honorable life and a pleasing life to the Lord, where does that come in? It comes in in how you live, as I said last week. Good works are not the root of salvation, they're the fruit of salvation. They show to everyone that you've been changed. They show to everybody that you're not in Adam anymore, you're in Christ, that there has been a transformation in your life.
2 Corinthians 5:17, "If any man be in Christ, he's a new creation. The old things have passed away, behold, new things have come". And so, it says in verse 4, "In order that the requirement of the Law might be fulfilled in us, who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit". So the Lord sets us free from all condemnation and he sets us free to walk with him in the light, in the power of the Holy Spirit. And you know what's so wonderful about Romans chapter 8, we're gonna get into all the wonders of Romans 8, but it starts no condemnation in verse 1, and it ends with no separation in verse 39. There's nothing that can separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus, our Lord. You are secure in him and you can never ever lose that.