God

  The Roman soldiers beat Jesus until the by break of dawn pull out His bread and spit in His face. Think of Christ’s suffering for you and me. Jesus endured five kinds of wounds also suffering a Concussion when they beat him on the head. The Roman soldier’s laceration, when they bared His back, took long leather whips with steel pellets on end and beat Him until He was bleeding from the head.

    Jesus experienced head to toe penetration when they crushed that crown of thorns on His brow perforation when they drove the nails through His hands and feet; and incision, when they put the spear in His side. Those nails through His hands and feet were inspired by you and me and all the peoples of the world. We all had a part in the death of Christ because of our sins. Our sins put Him on the cross, and you participated. You will never understand the Bible; you will never understand the death of Christ on the cross until you know that God is a holy and righteous and pure God. He cannot even look upon evil. In that terrible time of the agony of the Lord Jesus Christ on the cross, a shadow came between God the Father and God the Son. God cannot look upon sin, and at that moment, He was laying your sins and mine on Christ. He who knew no crime was made to be sin for us

 It was God’s great love for each of us that allowed His Son to take that suffering. Although salvation is free; it cost Jesus His life He laid down His life for humanity. The blood of Jesus set men free. It purifies and heals the brokenhearted healing sickness and diseases still in this day and time. 5:21). That means that He had never known sin, never told a lie, never had an evil thought, and never had any greed or lust. But all of the filth and dirt of your life and my life descended on Him.

    Mary Magdalene is the first witness to the resurrection. As she is, described who discovered the tomb was empty. Mary Magdalene was approached by two men in clothes that gleamed like lightning who suddenly appeared next to them. Mary Magdalene firstly along with Mary, the mother of James. Mary Magdalene was advised by a young man dressed in a white robe that Jesus had risen.

    She was given instructions to tell Jesus Apostles and Peter that He was going before them into Galilee.  His appearance to those who had been with Him. In actually they did not believe her. The occurrence of these two different accounts Jesus was appearing to Mary John 20:16 both say that Jesus first post-resurrection appearance to Mary Magdalene, with no mention of others.

Therefore there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.  For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and of death. For what the Law could not do, weak as it was through the flesh, God did: sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and as an offering for sin, He condemned sin in the flesh, 4 so that the requirement of the Law might be fulfilled in us, who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.

I have said many times in years gone by that the only sin we can defeat is a forgiven sin. Let me say it more carefully this morning: the only crime that you can beat in daily life and replace with righteousness is a sin forgiven for Christ's sake. I say it carefully because I know there are natural ways to overcome bad habits that aren't based on Christ at all. But when those changes occur in life without forgiveness from Christ, the result is not God's righteousness, but self-righteousness – which in God's eyes is no righteousness. So I say it again and carefully: the only sin that you can defeat in daily life and replace with justice is a sin forgiven for Christ's sake.

Justification Must Precede and Empower Sanctification

Now here's the point. Forgiveness for our sins through faith in Christ must precede and then empower our battle against crime in our lives. Or to put it another way, God's declaration that we are forgiven and righteous in Christ must precede and enable our transformation into loving, sacrificial, Christ-exalting people. The perfect statement must precede personal conversion. Or to put it one more way: Justification must precede and uphold sanctification. Being right with God must forego doing right for God.

Now for some of you, this may sound like nitpicking. You may say, "I don't live with these things in mind. So they are not really helpful to me. I just don't think or act that way. That sounds like theology. And to me, nothing is more irrelevant to my life than theology." Well, that is probably the way a lot of people feel. But, if you are one of them, consider this for a moment.

Suppose that you are on trial in a courtroom for a capital offense. Your life hangs in the balance. A guilty verdict will mean death, and a not-guilty verdict will mean freedom and life. And suppose the judge says to you: "There are two ways we can deal with this. I can acquit you right now, decisively and irrevocably, and release you so that you can go and live a free and joyful and loving life that shows you really are not a rebellious, crime-loving lawbreaker, though you have been. Or I can postpone the trial and the verdict for several years and assign you a parole officer to watch you all that time, and let you go out and prove yourself to the court by your life, and then have the trial after that, and base the verdict on whether your behavior was satisfactory or not."

Now does the difference between these two options sound like nitpicking? In one case you are free from condemnation and with gladness live a life that shows the wisdom and mercy of your Judge. In the other case, you have the trial always hanging over your head, and the basis of that future verdict will be your own behavior and whether you have measured up. Brothers and sisters, this is not nitpicking. And understanding the difference – call it theology or call it zucchini or call it Biblical truth – is massively important for your life.

If you don't live your life by reflecting on God and what he has done for you and promises to be for you, you need to change. The book of Romans was not written to be rejected by intuitive personalities. It was written to be understood and applied to daily life for the glory of Christ.

So here is the issue in our text: What is the connection between Romans 8:1 and Romans 8:2? In Romans 8:1 we have a precious statement of justification: "Therefore there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus." When we are united to Christ by faith in him, at the very beginning of our Christian life, our condemnation is passed. The verdict is rendered: Not guilty; righteous for Christ's sake. All sins are forgiven. All guilt removed. All punishment averted. Because of Christ. That's verse 1.

But verse 2 is different. In verse 2 we don't see the justification, we see sanctification. Verse 1 is a declaration of no condemnation. Verse 2 is a description of practical transformation. "For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and of death." Let's make three observations about this verse before we face the all-important connection about its relationship to verse 1.

Law of Sin and Death: The Principle and Power Leading to Sin, and If Unchecked, Death

First, what does the "law of sin and death" refer to? "The law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and death."The answer comes from the similar phrase in 7:22-23, "I joyfully concur with the law of God in the inner man, (23) but I see a different law in the members of my body, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin which is in my members." Here in verse 23, we have the phrase "law of sin." I think this is the same as the "law of sin and death" in Romans 8:2, and the reason the words "and death" are added is because "the law of sin" leads to death if we don't take up arms against it and fight in faith and in the power of the Spirit.

So then, what is this "law of sin"? Verse 23 says it is "in my members." In other words, it is a power or an impulse or a principle that is at work in my body to make me at war with myself and to draw me to do evil. It is virtually the same as what Paul calls "indwelling sin" in 7:17 and 20.

Law of the Spirit of Life: The Principle and Power Leading to Life

Second, notice that the victory over this impulse, or principle, or power of sin – this "law of sin and death" – is given by "the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus." "The law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and of death." The measure of victory that we get over sin in our lives is not owing to our own unaided striving. It is due to the work of God's Spirit in us (cf. 6:14, 17, 18, 22).

So I think the word "law" in this phrase ("law of the Spirit of life") has the same meaning as the word "law" in the phrase "law of sin and death." "Law" means power or principle or impulse or authority. Sin works a certain way with power and authority leading to death, and that's called "the law of sin and death." And the Spirit of God works a certain way with power and authority leading to life, and that's called "the law of the Spirit of life."

If You Are "In Christ," The "Spirit of Life" Is Working in You

Third, we have this Spirit working in us because we are "in Christ." In other words, every Christian has the Spirit of life at work in him. "The law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and of death." If you are "in Christ Jesus" you have this Spirit of life working in you. And every Christian is "in Christ Jesus." That's what being a Christian means: being united to Christ by faith in all that God is for us in Jesus.

You can see this underlined in Romans 8:9. "However, you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you. But if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Him." Anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to him. We are not Christians if we do not have the Spirit of Christ working in us.

If United with Christ, You Have Pardon from Sin and Power over Sin

So now we can say two things about being "in Christ" because of the same phrase;, therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus."