Set Free

The best words for an accused person in a court of law to hear must be "not guilty!"  How sweet the sweet sound of it, if they are truly not guilty.  The defendent is set free.  God pronounces the believer in Jesus, "NOT guilty" too.  That is good news.

A man named Paul wrote the book of Romans to the Christians in Rome.  He explained what the Gospel of Jesus is.  'Gospel', means 'good news'.

What was the 'good news'?  Simply put, when a person has repented of their sins, confessed them to God and accepted Jesus as Savior, trusting Him for their salvation, they have been 'set free' by God from the punishment which would have been meted out for their sins.

We all like to be free to do whatever we want.  Some may want to go shopping all day with their friends; go play badminton all day; not have to go to school or work, or have to wash the dishes and so on.

The believer though, has also been set free from guilt.  When we do something wrong like lying, slandering or stealing, for instance, our conscience, will hopefully, make us feel very uncomfortable and tell us, "Hey, that's wrong".  This is the feeling of guilt.  We have free will to be free to do those wrong things but guilt feelings will be the stop signs to let us know we shouldn't be quite so free.

In a court of law the judge will declare a person "Guilty!" and bang his gavel on the table or "Not Guilty!" and still bang it.  Whichever, there is finality - a last word, so to speak.  If the person is found to be guilty, then the judge metes out punishment to compensate for wrongs done, whether the judged person feels guilty or not.

We all sin, so we are all guilty in God's sight.  Therefore, we all need to be punished for our sins.  For those who reject Jesus there is the terrifying end in the fires and darkness of Hell, without Christ.  Tragic but true.

There is someone who took all our punishment though.  It's Jesus.  He took all our punishment when He was on the cross.  He willingly did this even though He was 100% good and had never, ever sinned.  He made it look like HE was guilty instead of us.

Jesus did this because He loved us so, so much.  What should we do in response?

We must say, "Yes," to Jesus.  Accept Him as Savior while there is still time.  

When we do, Jesus forgives us and it's like He bangs His gavel and says,

"NOT GUILTY!"

Read Romans 8:1 NIV.

"Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus."

Look at the word, 'condemnation'.  It's a BIG word that means a person has sinned, is quilty and needs to be punished.  Think of it something like this.

A big dark ominous storm cloud hovers low in the sky.  You see it lurking there for some time and the suspense is killing you as you wait for it to release its deluge.  You see it.  You know it's coming.  You keep looking up at it trying to guess the time and you start 'preparing to combat it' looking for shelter and battening down the hatches as the wind picks up and the drops begin to splash down.

Condemnation is a dark ominous cloud above our heads too.  What can be done about it though?  One girl in Sunday School said you need an umbrella.  

Well, symbolically speaking, she was correct.  Our 'umbrella' is Jesus.  When we accept Him as Savior, condemnation that tries to fall upon us will be stopped by the protection of the 'Umbrella" - Jesus.

Jesus says, "NOT GUILTY" any longer when we accept Him.  We become righteous in God's sight.  There is now "NO condemnation".

Yes, we still do wrong.  We need to confess this to Jesus who will forgive (see 1 John 1:9).  This of course does NOT give liberty to deliberately continue to sin.  

You may ask, "Why?"  It's because God is holy and cannot tolerate sin.  He punishes us, but He also sees us as righteous due to the blood of Jesus Christ which has cleansed us from all sin.

We are often reminded that God hates the sin but not the sinner.  In this we can be glad and rejoice.  His love has made the guilty sinner free through Jesus Christ and His shed blood.

It was God's love that sent Jesus to do so and to die in our place.  He has made us clean if we confess our sins.  God accepts us then because He is fully satisfied with His Son Jesus' sacrifice.

This is also why, when our sins are forgiven, God pronounces, "NOT GUILTY!" over us.  We are now clothed in righteousness.  No matter what we have done, nothing can then separate us from God's love.  God is on our side.  We say,

"God is for us..."

His love, grace, mercy, salvation protect us.

Let us revel in these facts and that, 

"If God be for us, who can be against us" (Romans 8:31)?

                                                     ~ERC  July 2023~

Based on Kawan Grace Resource P4b, Lesson 10 NOT GUILTY and Romans 8:1, 31.

Sing, There is Therefore NO Condemnation, along with Divine Hymns.