No Condemnation, 3

1. What The Law Cannot Do, and Why— Rom 8:3

a. The Law Cannot Save— Gal 2:16
(1) The Law Cannot save because of the lost person’s past guilt.
(a) Every thought, word, and deed has been recorded, and if you are lost today, every one of those sins is on your account, and it grows daily.
(b) Even if you were able, from this point forward, to live pleasing to God, your past guilt is against you.
(2) The Law cannot save because we love our sin—we do not want righteousness.
(a) We love our sin, we do not love God’s Law.
(b) We love our sin more than life itself.
(c) We want to do what we want to do.
(d) Now, we don’t want the consequences of our sin, but we don’t want righteousness either. Most people want to have their sin and heaven too.
(3) The Law cannot save because we cannot meet the standards of the Law
(a) Your sin nature, your lost condition, your innate depravity, and your spiritual insensitivity make it impossible for you to meet God’s standards.
(b) Mat 5:20
b. The Law Cannot Make Holy
(1) It amazes me that there are those who can see that the Law cannot save, but who think it can make holy.
(2) Gal 3:3
(3) Heb 10:1-3
c. The Problem is not the Law, but the weakness of Our Flesh
(1) The Law is not inaccurate, it is not wrong, it is inadequate—the Law can only convict—Rom 3:19
(2) If we are lost, our entire being hates God’s Law, hates God’s people, and hates God.
(3) But even if we are saved, our flesh, our human nature, our bodies, all are opposed to righteousness, and we struggle with our humanness. It is only by the power of the Spirit that we can live holy lives before God.

d. What is required
(1) For the lost person, they need a new heart, a new life—they need spiritual resurrection.
(2) For the saved person, they need to be discipled in walking in the Spirit and putting the Body to death, one day at a time.

2. What God Did and How— God did by sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, on account of sin: He condemned sin in the flesh,

a. First, God Did It—“Salvation is of the Lord!” Jonah 2:9
b. He Sent His Son
c. He Sent His Son in the Likeness of sinful flesh.
(1) Jesus is a Man, a real man, His flesh is human flesh—John 1:14, Heb 2:14-18
(2) But Jesus had no human father, He was, and always remained, Holy—Luke 1:35
(3) Jesus was and is, sinless—John 8:46, 2 Cor 5:21, Heb 4:15, 1 Pet 1:19, 2:22, 1 John 3:5
(4) So, being in the Likeness of sinful flesh, he was the perfect sacrifice, without blemish, without spot.

d. Christ Came—on account of sin:
(1) Jesus Came to Earth to Die, and it was our sins that brought Him here—Mat 1:21
(2) Though He healed many, that was not His main mission.
(3) Though He preached and taught, and discipled His men, that was not His main mission.
(4) Though He demonstrated great works of power, that was not His main mission.
(5) He did not come to set an example, He did not come to start a social revolution, He did not come to preach love and toleration, He came to die as a sacrifice for the sins of a lost race, to make the way open for salvation—1 Cor 15:3-4, Gal 4:4-5

e. This is How Much God Hates Sin—He condemned sin in the flesh, God hates sin so much, and God loves sinners so much, that He sent His Son to die to redeem a lost race.
(1) God’s Holiness cannot stand sin: Rom 1:18
(2) God is merciful and loving—Psa 145:8
(3) In The Cross of Christ, these attributes of God do not conflict, they harmonize—Psa 101:1, Psa 85:10
(4) And in the Blood of Christ, we escape the justice of divine wrath. Because He died for us, we can live for Him! Rom 5:9

f. And, in the Cross, we see just how much God hates sin!
(1) Christ Jesus was and is, the apple of God’s eye. He was and is the beloved Son of the perfect Father.
(2) Throughout all eternity, Father and Son were never in the slight least bit of conflict, never had a cross word, never had anything but the perfect Father-Son relationship.
(3) The Father cries: Heb 1:6 " Let all the angels of God worship Him.""
(4) And beginning in the Garden, the night before, The Son takes upon Himself our sins, and the relationship begins to change, as Christ takes the role of the condemned criminal.
(5) Hear His sighs, hear His agony, see the sweat fall dark from His brow with blood, as the perfect Son of God takes upon Himself our guilt and shame.
(6) Imagine the internal conflict as the One who is all lovely takes on Himself the guilt of our ugliness.
(7) Imagine the pain as the One who has never sinned puts our record on His shoulders.
(8) Imagine the horror, as the One who made heaven and earth looks into the dark night of our Soul and sees the pit of Hell.
(9) Imagine the degradation as the One who is worthy of all Glory reaches into the dark, slimy pit of our sin and smears our dirt upon Himself!
(10) Imagine the guilt, as the accumulated sins of a multitude no man can number, most of whom were not even born yet, are put upon the shoulders of the One who never sinned.
(11) See the darkness cover the face of the ground, hear the thunder crash, feel the earth tremble, as the wrath of God the Father is poured out on God the Son. And now you see—How Much God Hates Sin!

3. The Result of Real Redemption—He Died to Make Us Holy—4 (Don’t miss this—the Law’s requirement is righteous.)

a. The first way this is so: In Justification, the Law is fulfilled for us—Rom 3:28
(1) He obeyed perfectly
(2) He died in our place
(3) We Trust in Him
(4) True faith results in legal justification—right with God
(5) This is not something that happens in us, but it is something that is done for us.
b. In sanctification, the Righteousness of God is fulfilled IN us—
(1) The Law is God’s righteous expression of human morality, and His intention is for His people to follow God in this, NOT to see how much they can get away with
(2) This does not happen in us by our wills or by our works, and it does not happen by us rigidly observing a set of laws. This happens by the ministry of the Holy Spirit within us and by the discipleship ministry of the local church.

c. Our Walk
(1) What our Walk is NOT:
(a) We do not walk according to the flesh, unlawfully—we do not walk in unholiness.

(b) We do not walk according to the flesh, Lawfully, that is, we are not freed from the Law to be put back under the Law, rather, the Holy Spirit will guide and lead us in the way we should go.
(2) Our Walk IS—“…according to the Spirit." Gal 5:18-24
(a) The lifestyle of a person walking according to the Spirit is going to show some real spiritual fruit—
(b) If there is no evidence of fruit in your life, you are not a child of God.