Revd Ian Tarrant
There is no condemnation in Christ

Romans 8:1-17  Psalm 68:1-10; John 1:6-13

Those of us following the Essential 100 Bible passages have this week been reading excerpts from the letters of Saint Paul.  There are times when Paul is painted as a harsh character - but when we read his letters we find him to be tender-hearted and keen to share the compassion and love of God.

1 There is no condemnation for those in Christ Jesus
Chapter 8 of Romans is wonderfully affirming:
- for the broken-hearted
- for the guilty
- for the hopeless
- for those under-attack in any way

After seven chapters reflecting on human nature and God’s mercy, Paul says ‘there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus’.
Do you remember the woman caught in adultery, and brought before Jesus (in John 8)?  Jesus said to those who brought the woman: ‘let him who has no sin cast the first stone.’
The crowd fades away, and Jesus says:
 ‘does no one condemn you?’ 
‘No one Lord’ replies the woman.
‘Neither do I condemn you’

The others did not condemn because they knew that each of them had a record of sin - not necessarily publicly known, but known in their hearts and known to God.

Jesus did not condemn her, because he was God’s remedy for sin.  He had come to be executed in her place - not by stoning but on the cross.  His death would mean that she did not have to die.

Jesus said that he had come‘to give himself as a ransom for many’ (Mark 10:45)  Many books have been written about just how that works, but I won’t go into the different theories now.  The bottom line is that Jesus died so that others would have eternal life.  He died not just for the woman caught in adultery; but also for the people in Rome to whom Paul was writing. 

I remember a joke from the communist era in Russia.  There  were three Russians in bar talking about happiest day in their lives.  One said that it was the day he married,
the second named the day he became a doctor.  The third recalled being woken at 5am by: “Ivanov open the door! Secret Police!”  In fear and trembling he opened the door and the police said “Alexander Ivanov
you are under arrest for treason.” He replied “But I am Sergei Ivanov - Alexander Ivanov is in the flat next door.”  That was the happiest day of my life!

He thought he was sentenced to death - but found he was not.

There was no condemnation for him; there is no condemnation for us - because of what God has done in Jesus.
That lifts our spirits; and reminds us not to condemn others either.
Please turn to your neighbour and say: there is no condemnation in Christ Jesus.

2 The Sprit dwells in those who belong to Christ
It’s easy to think of God being far away beyond the stars, or long ago before the dinosaurs. 
But Paul wants the Romans to realise how closely involved God is with his creation.  Some of you this week will have read the passage from Colossians 1, where Paul suggests that Christ holds the whole of creation together. 
He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation; for in him all things in heaven and on earth were created, things visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or powers—all things have been created through him and for him. He himself is before all things, and in him all things hold together.
That’s not a God who sets the clockwork running and then goes away and leaves it; it’s a God constantly involved in what he has made.

And to the Romans Paul is saying that God is involved in the lives of his people, by his Holy Spirit dwelling in our hearts. 
Paul tells the church in Corinth that the Spirit is at work every time somebody says that Jesus is Lord.  The Spirit gives us strength and wisdom, fruit and gifts.  We pray for the Spirit when somebody is baptised, and we pray for more of the spirit when they are confirmed. 

The Spirit helps us to live the kind of life that God want us to live.  Working with our consciences so that we know the right thing to do, and giving us courage in our hearts to do it.
Say to your neighbour: ‘the Holy Spirit is at work in you’.

3 Father and child
Paul says that the Spirit also makes us children of God.  It was not a new idea in Jewish thought to see God as Father - indeed in our Psalm today we sang of God being father to the fatherless.  But Jesus invited us into something more personal than that.
Jesus told the parable of the prodigal son: how the father welcomed back his wayward wasteful child.  Jesus taught his disciples to pray to God as ‘our father’. 
In his gospel John says that those who believe in Jesus become children of God.

Paul develops that idea when writing to the Romans; he says that the Spirit is a spirit of adoption: adoption is the process by which somebody gains a new parent, a new family.
Paul emphasises our change in status: we used to be slaves of sin, slaves of fear, now we are children of the Father.  A new status and a new relationship.

Say to your neighbour: ‘We are children of God.’

Conclusion
We did not read all the way to the end of the chapter this morning; but Paul concludes with those well-know words: there is nothing in the whole of creation that can separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus.

There is no condemnation for those in Christ Jesus.

The Holy Spirit is at work within us.

We are children of God.