The Torah Network

3 yrs

I AM FREE FROM CONDEMNATION – PART 1

Pastor Lee Strobel shared an account of something that happened to him that I would like to share with you: He wrote: [We were doing a baptism service. We told people before they came up to the platform to be baptized to take a piece of paper, write down a few of the sins they have committed and fold the paper. When they came up to the platform, there was a large wooden cross on the stage. We told them to take that piece of paper, take a pin and pin it to the cross, because the Bible says our sins are nailed to the cross with Yeshua Moshiach and fully paid for by His death. Then turn and come to the pastor to be baptized.] I want to read you a letter a woman wrote who was baptized in one of those services. She wrote: [I remember my fear. In fact, it was the most fear I remember in my life. I wrote as tiny as I could on that piece of paper the word abortion. I was so scared someone would open the paper and read it and find out it was me. I wanted to get up and walk out of the auditorium during the service, the guilt and fear were that strong. When my turn came, I walked toward the cross and I pinned the paper there. I was directed to a pastor to be baptized. He looked me straight in the eyes and I thought for sure that he was going to read this terrible secret I kept from everybody for so long. But instead, I felt like YHVH was telling me, I Love you. It's okay. You've been forgiven. I felt so much Love for me, a terrible sinner. It is the first time I ever really felt forgiveness and unconditional Love. It was unbelievable and indescribable.] Let me ask you a question: Do you have inside of you a secret sin that you would not even want to write down on a piece of paper out of fear somebody might open it up and find out? Let me tell you something about the Yeshua I know: Not only does He want to adopt you as His child; He wants to lift the weight of guilt off your shoulders. When we come to Moshiach and accept Him as our Saviour, He promises us not only forgiveness of sin, but a freedom from future condemnation. There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Moshiach Yeshua, who walk not after the flesh, but after Ruach. For the Law of the Spirit of life in Moshiach Yeshua hath made me free from the Law of sin and death. -- Romans 8:1-2. That is quite a promise, is it not? If I belong to Moshiach Yeshua I will never be condemned; there is no reason to fear the judgment, because I have already been declared innocent through the sacrifice of Yeshua. Let us look at three freedoms that are ours if we are Moshiach Followers:

1 -- Free from Sin’s Power:
When you stand beside a passenger aircraft, a Boeing 747 on the runway, its massive weight and size makes it seem incapable of breaking the holds of gravity. But when the power of its engines combines with the laws of aerodynamics, the plane is able to lift itself to 35,000 feet and travel at 600/700 miles per hour. Gravity is still pulling on the plane, but as long as it obeys the laws of aerodynamics, it can break free from the bonds of earth. Think of the power of sin on your life like the pull of gravity on the jet. It is trying to drag you down, trying to get you to follow the opposite of YHVH’s will for your life and it would appear that it controls you. But through the power of Ruach HaKodesh we can pull away from the sin that has dominated our lives and soar through life in freedom. For the Law of the Spirit of life in Moshiach Yeshua hath made me free from the Law of sin and death. -- Romans 8:1-2. What has HaRuach done for us? He has equipped us to pull away from sin. I do not need to be under its control any longer. I have everything that I need within me as a child of YHVH to not give in when temptation comes. I have the ability to withstand the onslaught of the enemy because residing in me is HaRuach of YHVH Himself who gives me the power to be emancipated from the sin that once held me in bondage. It is a fact that we all sin and it is a fact that we will sin after we become believers; but the sin we commit is not committed because we do not have control over it. The sin is committed because for a fleeting moment or perhaps for a longer period of time, we have chosen not to exercise our control over it. Have you ever set a goal of going an entire day without sin? I doubt that many of us have because we have bought into the lie that living a sinful lifestyle is to be expected, even of believers. But YHVH did not give us the power to overcome sin for nothing; He expects us to live a life of holiness committed to the standards that He has laid down for our benefit. So, we do not have any excuse when we do give into the sins we are tempted to commit. On the other hand, we have the ultimate power over sin because even when we do not allow YHVH to overpower the sin in our lives and we give into it, He still forgives us for committing the sin. We are free from sin’s power both in the sense that we can control it and when we do not control it we are still forgiven for it. The danger here lies in thinking that since YHVH has promised us forgiveness that it does not make any difference if we sin or not. That is hardly the case, YHVH expects us to live by His standards, He equips us to live by His standards and He is displeased when we do not live by His standards. But like any good Father, even when we fall short of the standards He has set, He shows us the way to get back on track again and He makes us whole. We are free from sin’s power.

2 -- Free from Sin’s Penalty:
Suppose a man committed murder and he was caught red handed. He admitted to the crime and decided that he had no choice but to plead guilty. The day for his trial came and he entered his plea. The judge heard the man’s confession, saw all of the evidence and knew with out a doubt that the man that stood before him had committed the crime. The judge ruled that the man had committed the crime and the penalty for that crime was death and the penalty would have to be paid. Yet instead of punishing the man who committed the crime, the judge volunteered to take the death penalty in his place and set the man free. By virtue of the judge’s personal sacrifice the man who committed the crime was not condemned to suffer the consequences. Something very similar to that has happened to each of us. We have each and every one of us sinned against YHVH; there can be no doubt that we are guilty. Romans 6:23a tells us that: For the wages of sin is death… But YHVH, the great Judge of all, stepped up to the plate and let His Son take the punishment for us; we deserved the penalty of death and the penalty was paid, but not by us. for all have sinned, and come short of the glory of YHVH; being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Moshiach Yeshua -- Romans 3:23-24. But YHVH Commended His love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Moshiach died for us. Much more then, being now justified by His blood, we shall be saved from wrath through Him. -- Romans 5:8-9. We are saved from sin’s penalty because Yeshua paid the price. The Word says that we are saved from YHVH’s judgment, we have nothing to fear. There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Moshiach Yeshua, who walk not after the flesh, but after HaRuach. Romans 8:1. That is a fantastic promise! We have been freed from the penalty of sin by the sacrifice of Yeshua Moshiach. When the Day of Judgment comes, you can rest assured that if you are a Moshiach Follower you will not come under condemnation. If YHVH’s Promises are true and I believe that they are, then I can face that final day with the complete assurance that I will be ushered into the presence of YHVH. In the movies and TV, a common theme involves a person whose life has been saved by another person trying to somehow payback that person by doing anything they can to help them out. Our lives have been saved by YHVH and there is no way we can pay Him back for that, the price is beyond anything we will ever have to offer. But what we can do is change the way we live to please Him. When I know that YHVH has literally saved my life, that I am free from condemnation forever, it let me walk through life in confidence of the future; it let me live in obedience to YHVH out of gratitude instead of out of fear; it fills my heart with love for a YHVH who loves me so much and it allows me to pray to YHVH with an intimacy unknown to me before. The question is: How Do I Live In That Way?

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