Finding The Cross

This morning when I woke up, the Lord laid this scripture on my heart. I'm always amazed at this scripture, because it reminds me of a time in my life when I was so deep under condemnation that I truly didn't realize how much law I was under. I wasn't aware of how free Christ has made me, simply because of His sacrifice on the Cross.

We had a special friend of ours come visit us yesterday, and he too, has been under a deep condemnation. The I saw mirrored in his tears yesterday, what I have felt many times in my walk with the Lord...so it is no surprise to me that the Lord reminded me of this scripture and what He spoke to my heart the day I began to break free from the enemy's condemnation.

"There is therefore now NO CONDEMNATION to them which are in Christ Jesus." Most people don't realize that this is actually the entire verse. The period ends the sentence, right after the words "Christ Jesus." Those that might be well versed would be shaking their heads and saying to themselves, "No, she forgot the last part which says 'who walk not after the flesh, but after the spirit'." My reply to that is this: that last part is what is called "an interpellated verse," which means that when the Apostle Paul wrote this, he did not originally include the "who walk not after the flesh, but after the spirit" part of this verse. Often times, when the King James was being translated, the writers would feel that the verse as it was written didn't appear to read clearly, smoothly, or maybe it didn't quite make sense to them, so they would add to the original verse, in attempt to make it read "better." My problem with them interpellating this verse is that it makes the first part of the scripture read as though there are conditions to what God has said here, and the truth is, there are no conditions to His original message to us. So what God has said is that "There is therefore now NO CONDEMNATION to them which are in Christ Jesus." Period.

The reason I stress that point so strongly is because it prefaces the next point I want to make. "No Condemnation." Most people read over this simple one lined scripture as though to move onto the next, possibly more important piece of text...when the truth is, if we don't get this part, we can't begin to understand the rest of what He's going to say to us in this chapter.

"No Condmenation"....that word "condemnation" in the greek means: "to give judgment against or to judge worthy of punishment, receiving a damnatory sentence."

Now, I ask you this...How, if a debt has been paid in full, can someone send you a bill for that which has already been paid? How can we, as people receive condemnation, if Christ paid for this already at the Cross?

Let me back up a little. Ok, let's turn to Romans 3:10-18, Paul tells us that no one is righteous but God, he also states what we (as sinful humans) are, we are an open grave...we are an empty vessel prepared to contain filth of the worst kind...death. James says that the wages of sin is death.

What most of us don't realize is that when we were born, no matter how good, clean, and fresh we smelled...we're born dying. From the moment we take our first breath, the ground is already pulling at our feet. The grave beckons us, and daily our bodies strive to escape that death. The prophet Jeremiah states that our righteousness is as filthy menstrual rags, worthy of nothing but throwing away in disgust. So...if we can recognize that we are all of that without Christ....if we are capable of no good on our own without His Divine assistance (of which we are NOT able to be "good" without Him), then HE MUST BE all that we AREN'T. Jesus Christ is the opposite of what WE are. He is the Author of Life, the Giver of all things good, the Creator and He is PERFECT.

The cross was merely a trading post. A place where a Holy, Righteous, Just God came and met us, sinful humanity that couldn't approach God in our current state because we were too unworthy. Such Perfection as He is, would have only destroyed humanity instantly upon being in His Presence....but what happened, was a Loving God decided to make a way where there seemed to be no way. Before Christ went to the Cross, we were all in eternal jail, destined for certain death and torment for the duration of time. The key to the jail, (as far as we knew) had been thrown away and our fate had been sealed. But Christ (the Key) came and unlocked the door, freeing us from sin and making a Way for us to come back to God again. All we had to do in order that the door be unlocked, is put our faith in what Christ did for us. Christ took our place.

Since James says that the wages of sin is death, Christ did what only a Loving God could do...He said he'd be our whipping boy, He'd be the One to take our punishment instead, so that we wouldn't have to suffer.

I keep speaking about the Cross, not to bore the reader, but to explain the depths of this transaction that has occurred on our behalf. So...back to the scripture, how can we NOT be condemned, even though it is absolutely what we have earned and deserve? Because Christ, who was perfect and knew no sin, became sin for us, so that we could live free from it. Therefore, if HE paid the price, and took the condmenation on our behalf, then we (if we have placed our faith in what He did for us), then we are IN CHRIST.

If we are IN CHRIST, then when God looks at us, He doesn't see us, He sees Christ...not us, because we are HIDDEN IN HIM....so when the enemy comes at us, and he reminds us of all that we aren't (and he's right, we're not all that Christ is, we aren't perfect), when the devil pounds us and reminds us of all of our wrong doing, we able to boldly approach the Throne room of Grace because we know that we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ...the One who paid our debts.

Now, we can stand sure in Christ, knowing that even though we strive to be perfect....we desire to be more like Him...we can know that there's no condmenation to us, because our faith is in Him...and He's taken care of all of the things that we can't. We can lay those heavy things at His feet, knowing He is in control and that this too shall pass...