There’s No Condemnation In Christ Jesus

Satan uses condemnation to keep you afraid. He reminds you of the past – your mistakes, sins and mishaps. He accuses you of being foolish, spiritually immature, sinful and stupid. He wants to shame you into inaction, to lock you into yourself, afraid to act.

There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit

– Romans 8:1

As Satan is the father of lies, you can flip everything he’s saying to you. When he says, “I can’t believe you did that, you wicked sinner,” you can flip the lie into the truth. “I thank God I am forgiven and God has no memory of it.” When he says, “You made a fool out of yourself when you proposed and experienced rejection,” you can flip the lie to truth. “Thank God I had the inner strength to open my heart and take the risk, and thank Jesus that God saved me from a terrible marriage. It wasn’t that person who refused, it was God protecting me.”

Satan wants a lengthy conversation. We must not indulge him. In the wilderness of temptation Jesus Christ responded quickly and sharply with the Word of God. Jesus returned to Scripture and you can do this, and then apply principles from the Bible to your situation.

In Christ the past is behind. St. Paul decided to forget the things behind and press on into his calling. He didn’t let Satan lock him into shame for persecuting Christians before he was saved. He looked ahead and left the shame behind.

Forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead

– Philippians 3:13

Jesus took your rags and gave you His eternal riches. He took your shame and gave you a position in Christ. He took your sins and nailed them to the cross. When Jesus rose from the dead, you rose with Him into a new life – that’s what baptism symbolises.

Buried with Him in baptism, in which you also were raised with Him through faith in the working of God, who raised Him from the dead

– Colossians 2:12

Satan the accuser of the brethren pretends to be a good angel. He makes you think you are under conviction of the Holy Spirit for sin; in fact, it’s condemnation. Anything that keeps you down, low and broken forever is from evil. God convicts of sin and offers you confession, repentance and hope. The past is clean with God. You can travel to the far west or to the end of the east and never find your confessed sin. God has cleansed it forever.

By Paul Backholer. Find out about Paul’s books here.