No More Condemnation
Dr. John K. Mathew
In 1997 Timothy Mcveigh was convicted of bombing the Federal Building in Oklahoma City, killing 168 people. During the trial one of McVeigh's old army friends testified in court and made a revealing observation about human nature. According to Jo Thomson in the New York Times, the friend said, " I had known Tim for quite a while. If you don't consider what happened in Oklahoma, Tim is a good person".
Most of us have a similar outlook on ourselves as we consider the prospect of standing before the Judge of all the earth someday. No, we likely have not been found guilty of murder, but we can downplay our sins and judge ourselves by what we have done right. We think, if this or that isn't taken into account,
I am a good person. The fact is as the Scripture says, "all have sinned and come short of the glory of God" (Rom.3:23).
In the same book Apostle, Paul explains the influence of sin upon men. It reads: 'We know that the law is spiritual, but I am carnal, sold under sin. For what
I am doing, I don't understand, for I do not practice what I will to do, but I do the very thing I hate. But if I practice what I do not will to do, I agree with the law that it is good. So it is no longer I that do it, but sin that dwells in me... O wretched man that I am! who will deliver me from the body of this death?" (7:15,16, 24).
In the words of David "I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin, my mother conceived me" (Psa. 51:5). What does that mean? Sin is in the DNA of man. As a result of Adam's fall sin is transferred to all human beings. It is not a comfortable statement for today's time, but it is true and the Scripture says with no ambiguity that the wages of sin is death (Rom. 6:23).
But there is good news. If sin is transferred to man through the first Adam there is remission of sin through the last Adam, as it is written, "The first Adam was made a living soul. The last Adam was made a life-giving spirit. However, that which is spiritual is not first, but the natural, and then the spiritual. The first man was of the earth, made of dust; the second man was Lord from heaven. As was the man of dust, so are those who are of the dust; and as is the man of heaven, so are those who are of heaven. As we have borne the image of the man of dust, we shall also bear the image of the man of heaven" ( 1 Cor. 15:45-49). What a glorious hope? How does it work? Through the marvelous grace of our Lord Jesus Christ! "there is, therefore, now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, who walk not according to the flesh, but according to the spirit' (Rom. 8:1).
