Louie Giglio - The Verdict Is In
I could not be more excited about jumping into this collection of talks under the title «Epicenter.» We chose that title because many theologians believe that Romans is the best book in the Bible, the most important book, perhaps the most significant book, or even the most significant letter ever written in literature. A lot of theologians get more specific and say that Romans chapter 8 is the most important or the highlight chapter in the book of Romans. Thus, someone like John Piper might say Romans chapter 8 is the most important chapter in the Bible. That’s a pretty huge statement, but once we unpack and work our way through this text, I think you will understand why many people would say that about Romans 8.
Before we dive in today, and obviously over these next few weeks, it’s all about the word, as it is every Sunday here. We want to get into the word and see what God is speaking to us. We have a huge prayer for this collection: not only will we learn things that are important, but that we will be transformed by them. The idea here is not that we will enter a seminary class and gather some interesting nuggets about Romans 8, but that we will agree with what God is saying, and our lives will be transformed. That’s the prayer we have for you, and that’s the power of this word.
I was reminded — and we’ve said this many times at Passion City — that in ancient times when the scripture was being copied, the Torah, which contains the first books of the Bible, would eventually wear out. A scribe would then copy the manuscript into a new version. When the scribe encountered the name «Yahweh,» he would put his pen down, leave his post, and go to a ritual cleansing bath, similar to a hot tub. He would undress, enter the cleansing bath, come out, dress again, return to his post, get a new pen, and write the name «Yahweh.» If «Yahweh» appeared in the next line of the text, he would put the pen down, leave his post once more, cleanse himself, return, and write «Yahweh» again.
Today, when we hold this scripture, no one has to go to a cleansing bath; no one needs to put the pen down. Most of us, or a lot of us, are going to read it on our phones, but I want us to have that same attitude of heart today — that this is the living, breathing, holy word of God and it has the power to transform your life.
In that spirit today, I want us to come to Romans chapter 8, to open our minds and say, «Dear Lord God Almighty, thank you for the miracle of this word.» We agree with what it says about itself: that it is God-breathed. We hold it with gratitude and expectation today. We are not here to look down on the word; we are here to put our lives under it. So, Holy Spirit, as you stirred it up in the hearts of men and women who wrote it down so that we could hold it today, I pray that you will stir it up again and that you will do exactly what you desire to do. I thank you that we can all have confidence that your word accomplishes the purpose for which it is sent and is going to be sent right now across these rooms, across this city, across the world, and into prisons—who knows where. I thank you that everywhere it goes, it is going to do what you have sent it to do. In Jesus' name, amen.
Romans 8:1 says, «Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.» We mentioned this last week, but feel free to interact with the text. I know I’m reading and you’re listening, and it feels like a class, but it’s the living word of God. For example, if it strikes you that there’s no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, and you know you’re in Christ Jesus, and that thought delights you, then feel free to respond. If not, that’s okay too.
I’ll start again—please don’t clap this time; I hate it when people clap after I talk to them about clapping. Yet, keep that in mind for the future. It says, «Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.» Because through Christ Jesus, the law of the Spirit of life set me free from the law of sin and death. For what the law was powerless to do, weakened by the sinful nature, God did by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful man to be a sin offering. So, he condemned sin in sinful man in order that the righteous requirements of the law might be fully met in us, who do not live according to the sinful nature but according to the Spirit.
Now, the chapter opens with «therefore,» and we know that whenever something starts with «therefore,» you have to ask what it is there for. Therefore, you typically have to rewind and understand what the foundation allowing us to make this big pronouncement of no condemnation for those who are in Christ is. To grasp that, you have to go back to the beginning. To go back to the beginning would take a lot of time, but let’s do it quickly.
The word of God has a few main purposes. The first is to tell us what God’s purposes for life are. If you want to know why you’re on planet Earth and what your life is all about, the word of God tells you that. However, it also tells us there is a problem—not only are there plans and purposes, but secondly, there is a problem, and the problem is man’s sin. The third thing the scripture provides is a clear image of God’s plan to restore man to him. The last big purpose of God’s word is to show us how God is in the process of perfecting all things.
So, God has a plan—a purpose, Paradise with God—but there is a problem called sin. Yet, God has a plan to reconnect sinful man to himself, and ultimately, God’s purpose and plan that we see in scripture is to perfect all things, including you, me, the world, the heavens, and everything else.
Let’s break that down a bit: what is the big purpose? The purpose is Paradise with God. That was the plan: being created by God and for God. You have Adam and Eve in the garden with God—that was the plan and the purpose. But then there was a problem. The problem was sin. Sin is simply my way over God’s way. It’s not just a transaction, like «I did this and I wasn’t supposed to do that» or «I made this choice when I was supposed to make that choice.» That’s not really the heart of sin. At the core, sin isn’t transactional; it’s personal. Adam and Eve didn’t trust God’s intentions. It wasn’t that they did what he asked them not to do; it was that they didn’t trust him.
I want to make sure that’s super clear today. We’re not here to give you a list of things that God says you can do or can’t do; life is about trusting God—that he loves you, he is for you, and he has your best in mind. He wants to give you more, not take away from you. He’s not trying to rob you; he’s trying to bless you. He’s not trying to prevent you; he is trying to accelerate your perfection until the moment you see him face to face. But here we are today, all of us in the wake of Adam and Eve’s sin. However, we’re all adding to it pretty well on our own.
Many of us can identify with the «therefore.» When you rewind from chapter 8 to the end of chapter 7, you find thoughts many of us will relate to. Paul said, «I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do, I do not do, but what I hate, I do.» If I do what I do not want to do, I agree that the law is good. As it is, it is no longer I myself who do it but it is sin living in me. This is true, but it’s also a nice way of pointing the finger somewhere else—"It’s not me; it’s the sin that’s in there that’s doing it.»
«For I know that good itself does not dwell in me, that is, in my sinful nature, for I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out.» You might think, «Why have I not been memorizing this passage? This is my story.» «For I do not do the good I want to do, but the evil I do not want to do—this I keep on doing.» If I do what I do not want to do, it is no longer I who do it but it is sin living in me that does it. In other words, whatever happened in the garden has a domino effect going into all of humanity, and I am in that domino effect. I am now in the line of sin. I am now adding to it through my own choices, and I was born into it as well. There is a powerful law working in me called sin, and it is a problem. Paul understands this, so he says, «Now if I do what I do not want to do, it is no longer I who do it but it is the sin living in me that does it.»
So I find this law at work: although I want to do good, evil is right there with me. «For in my inner being I delight in God’s law, but I see another law at work in me waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within me. What a wretched man I am!» Out of desperation, he cries, «Who will rescue me from this body that is subject to death?» He is teeing us up for the gospel when he says, «Thanks be to God who delivers me through Jesus Christ our Lord!»
So, I myself, in my mind, am a slave to God’s law, but in my sinful nature, I am a slave to the law of sin. So we have purpose with God in Paradise, a problem called man’s sin, but then we see in scripture the plan. What is the plan? The plan is that there would be a divine exchange in our lives that would free us from the penalty of our sin. Paul is saying there are laws working in life. There is the law of the Spirit and the law of the flesh. There is the law of God that our minds can come around, and there is the law of sin that our flesh wants to cling to, which is in us. Ultimately, what he’s saying is what the great church father Bob Dylan said: «You might serve the devil or you might serve the Lord, but you’re going to serve somebody.»
There may be someone in this gathering today who thinks, «Okay, great, so I’ve got sin in my flesh, maybe it started with Adam and Eve—I don’t know—but I do know that I do things I don’t want to do, and I don’t do things I do want to do. But you know what? That’s just life. You make choices, you roll on—what’s the big deal? I’m deciding what I want to do, and yeah, I don’t do the right thing all the time, but what’s the big deal?»
The big deal is you were still created by and for God, and there’s going to be a reckoning at the end of your life. The scripture says all things are from him, through him, and to him. That’s what Romans is telling us in another place. So even if your mindset is, «Hey, I’m not really hurting anyone; I’m just making decisions. They’re not all great decisions, but that’s just me,» the problem is that you are on a collision course with the God who made you. That God isn’t relative; he is holy. When holiness meets sinfulness, it isn’t pretty, and that’s called the wrath of God. It’s not God wanting to be mean to you; it’s God’s holiness meeting your sinfulness. That’s a reality in «therefore.»
If you go way back to Romans 1, and we’re going to get to Romans 8 eventually, but I just need us to understand the «therefore.» Romans 1 says, «The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the ungodliness and wickedness of people who suppress the truth by their wickedness.» What may be known about him is plain to them. In other words, all you have to do is wake up and look around the world, and you’ll see there is a God. You might not know his name or character, but anyone who looks around can see that beauty and order do not come out of chaos and nothing.
For since the creation of the world, God’s invisible qualities, his eternal power and divine nature have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made so that people are without excuse. For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him. Their thinking became futile, and their foolish hearts were darkened. Though they claimed to be wise, they became fools and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images made to look like mortal human beings and birds and animals and reptiles.
Therefore, and here’s where it gets dicey. You might think, «I’m just going to go my own way and make my own decisions. I don’t really need to factor God into my equation.» The problem with that is if you choose to do it your own way, God will let you do it your own way. «Therefore, God gave them over in the sinful desires of their hearts to sexual impurity for the degrading of their bodies with one another. They exchanged the truth of God for a lie and worshiped.»
You’re thinking, «Whoa, what do you mean they exchanged the truth of God for a lie? Surely, they’re not going to worship.» Oh no, they’re going to worship; we’re all going to worship. You’re going to serve somebody. It might be the devil; it might be the Lord, but you’re going to serve somebody, and you’re going to worship because you were created to worship.
They worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator, who is forever praised. Amen. But then there is a plan. A purpose: Paradise with God. A problem: sin. The plan: God had a divine exchange in mind—the innocent for the guilty—so that the guilty could become innocent in him. Jesus said it this way: «For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son.» They exchanged the truth of God for a lie. God exchanged his Son for sinful man, that whoever believes in him—this is not just mental ascent. We need to understand today that this is not just, «Oh, I believe in God,» or «I believe in Jesus.» That’s not really what belief means here—"shall not perish but have eternal life.»
But check out the next verse—no one ever holds this up at Super Bowls, John 3:17—but maybe we should start adding it in because it’s powerful and it’s what the world needs to hear: «For God did not send his Son into the world to—and here’s our word from Romans 8—to condemn the world but to save the world through him.» Why didn’t Jesus come to condemn the world? He states in the next verse: «For whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because they have not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son.» In other words, wrath is their future. So, Jesus doesn’t need to come and say wrath; he has come to say you already have wrath in your future. «I didn’t come to condemn you but to save you because if you don’t have me, you’re already condemned. Your verdict is already in. But I’ve come that you might have life, and that you might have it to the full.»
Now we come to Romans 8: «Therefore, because God has a purpose for your life, even though you have a problem called sin, he had a plan to reconcile you to himself. He has the power to ultimately perfect you through Christ in the end.» Therefore, «there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.» Because through Christ Jesus, the law of the Spirit of life set me free from the law of sin and death. I am not going to hell; I am not under condemnation for one second of my life on Earth. There is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.
Now, condemnation simply means to be declared unfit for use or service. Imagine rolling through a left-behind part of town and seeing a building that’s all boarded up, with a notice on the front declaring it «condemned.» In other words, this building is unfit for use or service, and most likely its future is to be torn down. For someone today, you’re thinking «We’ve been through a lot of scripture already, and there are a lot of therefores going on. What is the main point here?» Well, for someone today, it is this: the enemy has been speaking to you, telling you that you are unfit for use or service.
«Oh, God doesn’t have any interest in you. You will never be useful to God. You’re never going to play a significant role in God’s story—not you, because of A, B, C, D, E, F, and G. You are unfit for use or service in the kingdom and economy of God, now and forever.» And God is saying to you today, «That’s the enemy’s voice— the voice of a liar. It’s not the voice of someone who exchanged his innocent Son for you. In Christ, you can be fit for use and service. In Christ, God will never come to tear you down. The enemy has the bulldozer cranked up in the street, wanting to scrape you off the foundation, but there’s a „therefore“ in our story. Now there is no condemnation, but it’s specifically for some people.
We see that the gospel is narrow: anyone can come through the door of the Gospel, but it’s a little door. Anyone can enter, but it’s a small door, and I’ll show you why that’s important in a minute. There’s no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus—that’s who is not condemned. Those who are in Christ Jesus. In other words, it doesn’t say, „There’s no condemnation for those who are in the church.“ Nope! It doesn’t say, „There’s no condemnation for those who are in a denomination.“ It doesn’t say, „There’s no condemnation for those who have religion.“
It doesn’t say, „There’s no condemnation for those who prayed a prayer.“ You’re thinking, „Well, we do that at Passion City.“ I know, but it’s important that you recognize that you can’t base your entire eternity and life on saying, „I raised my hand at the end of the gathering and prayed along with the pastor.“ Did you understand that prayer? Did you embrace that prayer? Can you unpack it and are you walking it out? Do you know the implications? The implications of true faith, if that’s what was in that prayer, are that you are now in Christ.
It’s not that you’re in a church or a denomination or merely prayed a prayer, or tried your best—great! A lot of people who tried their best have condemnation awaiting them at the end of their story. „I was a good person.“ Yes, but were you perfect? Were you holy? Were you without fault? „Well, no, but I was a good person.“ I believed in God, but what kind of belief? Mental belief, like believing in George Washington? Or belief of faith, where you put all your hope in him for salvation?
It doesn’t say there’s no condemnation for those who are in church, for those who believed in God, for those who were good people, or who tried their best, or prayed a prayer, or were part of some denomination. It says there’s no condemnation for those who are in Christ. So, obviously, there’s a big question looming: Are you in Christ? It’s about your position more than your performance. Position gets you no condemnation; performance does not. No condemnation isn’t linked to your performance; it’s connected to your position. We’ll see that clearly: performing is about the law, and the law couldn’t do it.
This is what we read in verse 3: „For what the law was powerless to do, weakened by the sinful nature, God did by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful man to be a sin offering.“ In other words, obeying the law couldn’t resolve the problem; the law merely reminds us that we have a problem. In fact, the law is good, but it also has a counteracting influence called sinful flesh. The law couldn’t do it, but I love how this verse concludes: „For what the law was powerless to do, God did.“ Can you say „God did“? We don’t do a lot of this at Passion, but can you tell your neighbor „God did“? God did what the law could not.
I was powerless to do it, but God did. You were powerless to do it, but God did. This is the gospel: God did, not I did. We’ve discussed this so many times, but if you want to simply explain what we’re celebrating today to someone, it’s this: the law was powerless to do, and a lot of people present their whole message of reaching God in terms of what you do—you have to do this, do that, do this a certain number of times, do it a certain way, in a specific place. It’s all about what you do, and that’s why many people, thinking they’re good, say, „I feel okay because I’m a pretty good person.“
I’m telling you, you can’t do anything to enter the presence of a perfect God. So forget the „any“ in anything and get on board with the „any,“ not the „Annie.“ You hear my voice? The „any,“ not the „Annie.“ You’re looking for the „any,“ not the „Annie.“ What else can I add? What else can I do? Is there anything else to make things right with God? You’re not looking for the „Annie,“ you’re looking for the „any.“
Let me show you what the „any“ is. This is the contrast of religion and grace. What the law was powerless to do, God did. How? He did it by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful man to be a sin offering. And he condemned—notice that the condemnation didn’t disappear; it just got redirected to Christ. God didn’t say, „You know what? Everyone should have another shot at being good; let’s just start over.“ No, he’s the just God.
He said there has to be a payment for the problem of man’s sin; I need a man to bear the sin of man. So he condemned sin in sinful man to fulfill the requirements of the law in us. That means if someone asks me, „Were you ever holy?“ I’d say, „No, I wasn’t!“ but now, in Christ, I am. „Were you ever deserving of a place with a righteous God?“ „No, I was not!“ but now, in Christ, I am. The righteous requirements of the law might be fully met in us who do not live according to the sinful nature but according to the Spirit.
That’s what it says later in chapter 8, and I have to wrap this up. It says, „What shall we say in response to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us?“ We all love this part of Romans 8. But this is in context with what we’ve just discussed. In other words, if God has taken the condemnation that was coming my way and redirected it onto Christ, then who could come against me with anything? If he’s for me, who could be against me? This isn’t just a conflict resolution scripture. It’s an eternal position scripture.
If God is for me, who can be against me? 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, along with him, graciously give us all things?“
If he has already given you Jesus, trust me, he’s not going to hold back in giving you every good thing he has. „Who will bring any charge against those whom God has chosen? It is God who justifies. Who then is the one who condemns? No one. Christ Jesus who died—more than that, who was raised to life—is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us.“
So, who can condemn? The answer is, no one. Why? Because God has justified! And that takes us back to Romans 3: „For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.“ One of the most famous verses in the Bible—unfortunately, it’s not a verse; it’s a part of a verse. Yes, it has a number, but it also has a comma at the end.
I would hear people growing up when I finally clued into some of this. Someone would say, „Well, you know the Bible says we’ve all sinned and come short of the glory of God,“ comma. Please, with the comma! If this were a period and that were our story, go write some worship songs about that! But hallelujah for that comma! What a beautiful conjunction! „And all are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus.“
We just read that it is God who justifies. Here’s the crazy thing: your label in Christ is not „not condemned.“ You’re not walking around saying, „Not condemned; don’t come against me; don’t even think about it.“ No, my label in Christ is justified. Justified! The way I learned it was „just as if I’d never sinned.“ Justified! I’m walking around saying, „I’m justified!“ Yes, I was guilty, but I’m justified. The verdict is in! Not guilty!
You stand behind that table with your attorney—your brother or your sister-in-law—and you say, „But it’s not because my lawyer gave a good presentation; it’s not because ultimately I didn’t do it; it’s because another man walked into the courtroom and took my sentence.“ Justified! So the question today is: are you in Christ?
If you’re not in Christ, please receive the grace of God in Christ today. Confess your sin to God. Admit it. Turn from it in repentance and run to God, who is waiting to embrace you, lavish his grace and love upon you, and say, „I forgive you. I wipe your slate clean. I’ll put my Spirit in you so you can live by a new law, the law of the Spirit of Christ who is in you.“
Are you in Christ? Because if you’re not in Christ, you have nothing to stand between you and the wrath of God. But if you are in Christ, Christ already bore it. The cross was about physical death—that was necessary—yes, he had to die, but what happened on the cross was spiritual when the wrath of God was poured out on an innocent Son, and he said, „My God, why have you forsaken me?“
Because of her, but because of your obedience, I’ll never have to forsake her. I’ll never have to forsake him. I will never forsake him.