Romans 8:1

So these past few weeks, I've been going through the book of Romans studying it. It's a wonderful book that requires many reads to fully understand everything that is written in there. In Romans 8:1 Paul says, "There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus". This is such a wonderful verse because it promises such a wonderful thing. There is no condemnation for those in Jesus! In verses 3-4, Paul says "... He condemned sin in the flesh in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us..." The Law was death to everybody who tried to keep it because nobody was righteous enough for the Law. But because Adam sinned, this sin was passed down to all of his descendants, the entire human race. We needed a mediator to come in between us and God. This is where Jesus steps in. He became human in order that he may fulfill the works of the Law. Upon his death, Jesus paid the price for the sins of all who would choose to believe in him. This means that for those who believe in the redeeming work of Christ, all sins have already been paid. Past, present and future. Everything. We are saved by grace, not by works. Jesus became our propitiation and paid for all our sins. As a result, the Christian no longer needs to fear the wrath of God because Jesus took that wrath upon himself at the cross. Does this mean that we are now free to sin as we please? No. Due to the fact that we are in the Spirit, we will no longer want to sin. When grace comes upon us, we are open to a new life. One that aims to please God in everything that we do. However, we are all human and there will be times when we will stumble in our walk. It is at these times that this verse becomes active in our lives. As humans, we prove our love to each other by what we do for each other. When we encounter God, we come with this view of love. However, God loves us unconditionally and when we had nothing to offer, He still chose to love us. When we sin, we become afraid that God will no longer love us because we didn't do what He wanted us to. But there is no condemnation for those in Christ. Bad and good things do not happen to us because we sin or we don't sin. That's a view of God's love that is based upon our works. God has taken all our sin into account and it has already been paid for. As a result, we no longer need to enter God's presence with fear. God wants us to go to Him so that we may be reconciled to Him. God doesn't want us to be like Adam who tried to hide when he first sinned. God wants us to come freely into His presence with the knowledge that our sins have been paid for and all we have to do is ask for forgiveness and receive His grace.