NO CONDEMNATION
By Elder Mark Green
“There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit” (Rom. 8.1).
Those who are “in Christ Jesus,” that is, who have been chosen in Him and have been born of His Spirit, are in a condition or standing of legal righteousness or justification before the bar of God’s eternal justice. There is no condemnation for them, for there is no charge that can be brought against them. The reason that no charge can successfully be pressed against them is because “it is Christ that died.”
By his crucifixion and death, Christ has removed from us all stain and guilt of sin. Every claim of God’s justice has been satisfied and the divine verdict has been rendered: “Not guilty.” The basis of our justification is the sacrifice of Christ. Because He died for us, we are clear of all guilt. Because God has justified us, or declared us to be righteous on the basis of Christ’s sacrifice, then there is no charge that can be brought against us. Our legal standing before God is that of being entirely righteous, indeed, having the righteousness of Christ himself.
“What shall we then say to these things? If God be for us, who can be against us?” Paul defies anyone to gainsay the imputed righteousness of Christ. God is for us. He is on our side. He has procured, imparted and declared our righteousness. Who would dare array himself against the children of God if God is for us? Who could produce any argument against the justification of the elect?
Certainly there is much that could be said against us based upon our conduct. We do not always do what we should; our conduct is not always righteous, and if our justification were based upon our conduct, we surely would be condemned. Our case, however, is not based upon our conduct, but upon the righteousness and sacrifice of Christ.
Because Christ died, we cannot be condemned. A perfect righteousness has been put to our account, and the inerrant, omniscient Judge has declared that we are without sin. There is no condemnation that can be put to our case.
Notice that Paul says that this condition is “now.” It does not have to wait upon the actions of the creature. It does not have to wait for our faith or our baptism or our obedience in any wise, for it is not based upon our obedience, but upon Christ’s. Christ has died, but the Arminian cannot say that there is “now” no condemnation to everyone for whom Christ died, for if a man does not accept the supposedly-offered salvation, then he surely will be condemned (according to their notion).
“There is now a very real possibility of condemnation,” the apostle would have written if his ideas on salvation had been the same as theirs; but that is not what he said because that is not what he believed. He said that condemnation already had been put away for all the heirs of promise, all of which will be quickened into spiritual life by the voice of the Son of God sometime in their natural lives.
That is their condition because of the love of God. Because He loved them, He sent His Son to die in their room and stead, and nothing can separate them from that love, as Paul goes to great lengths to establish in the next few verses. From The Primitive Baptist/The Christian Pathway.