The
Final Victory Over Sin
Romans chapter eight gives a resounding triumphant song that
comes forth from the anguishing question, “Wretched man that I am! Who will set me
free from the body of this death?” Paul shouts “No condemnation”!
“There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus”
(Romans 8:1).
The opposite of condemnation is justification. There is now not even
one bit of condemnation for the person who is “in Christ Jesus.” There is
“no condemnation” now, and there never will be condemnation for those who are
“in Christ.”
The apostle boldly declares with a powerful statement the
believer’s perfect eternal security in Jesus Christ. The chapter
begins with “no
condemnation,” and ends with “no separation,” and in between is “no
defeat.” Nothing, and no one “will be able to separate us from the love of God
that is in Christ Jesus our Lord” (v. 39).
The Christian life is a victorious life, but the apostle Paul does
not see it as life without conflict. Even the born again believer has to
reckon with the "flesh."
The apostle Paul is ruthlessly honest with the
tension and reality of sin dwelling in the believer so long as he is
living this present life.
The victory is in Jesus Christ. He has delivered us from the
condemnation of the law because Jesus fulfilled the law. The penalty for sin has been paid
in full. He has also given us spiritual birth. We have been born spiritually. We now live
the new life in Christ through the power of the indwelling presence of the Holy Spirit.
“If we are led by the Spirit” we are the “sons of God” (8:14). If we
are not living by the Spirit we are not Christians.
The greatest evidence that we are true believers is that we are
living under the control of the Holy Spirit.
God’s Word gives us the promise of the assurance of final
victory over the power and presence of sin in the Christian’s life. The inevitable
triumph will come through God’s grace. Because God has saved us from sin’s
penalty, and is saving us from sin’s power, He will give us the final victory over
sin’s presence when Christ returns.
What Paul says in Romans seven leads right on into Romans eight. Both
chapters are pictures of the mature Christian as he fights the spiritual warfare. No
Christian is completely sinless. We are still sinners. The born again believer still has
to reckon with the flesh. However, we rest assured of our victory in Christ. We will
receive perfect deliverance from sin’s presence when He presents us complete in Him
to the Father. It is a future deliverance when He gives us our glorified resurrected
bodies (1 Cor. 15:50-58).
God will rescue me through Jesus Christ! Until the day of
final deliverance let’s fight the good fight. The outcome of this spiritual warfare
is certain. Christ has and will triumph and we, too, will with Him.
Our knowledge of the final outcome of this fight gives us the courage
to continue. “But in all these things we overwhelmingly conquer through Him who loved
us” (Romans 8:37, NASB 1995). “For whatever is born of God overcomes the world;
and this is the victory that has overcome the world—our faith” (1 John 5:4, NASB
1995).
There is now no condemnation for those who have been joined in a
vital union to Jesus Christ by God the Father through the person and work of the Holy
Spirit.
Selah!
Message by Wil Pounds (c) 2006
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