“Who is he that condemns? It is Christ who died, and furthermore is also risen. Who is even at the right hand of God, who also makes intercession for us.” – Romans 8:34

 

“Who is he that condemns?”  A beautiful picture of this is the woman caught in adultery. Surrounded by her accusers  before Jesus, she must feel overwhelmed by judgment and condemnation. Then with a simple question, she and Jesus are all alone. Now the question in her mind must be, “Will this man also accuse and condemn me?”  She  knows she is guilty  according to the law, but this man does not condemn her! He sends her with a mandate, “Go and sin no more.”

When all the accusers have left  and we are all alone with Christ, who is it that condemns? Jesus has every right, but He settled that question when He took upon Himself the sin of the whole world. He defeated sin, rose from the grave, and is sitting at the right hand of God. Yes, if anyone has the right to condemn us Jesus does. What does He do, though? In the climax of the moment when our judgment should be death? He forgives.

Now who is left to condemn?  The accusers, who have sin themselves, cannot cast the stone. Jesus, who has every right, forgives us. Shouldn’t we be rejoicing, embracing this forgiveness and walking in it? Though this is true, sadly there is one more condemner with a voice sometimes louder than all the rest, ourselves.

We are forgiven, but doubt, shame, and pity, put upon by ourselves do not allow us to walk in the truth of that forgiveness.  We let self rise up and completely overwhelm our soul. We become weighted down and become completely occupied with ourselves. Andrew Murray puts it this way:

“It is the sinner dwelling in the full light of God’s holy redeeming love in the experience of that full indwelling of divine love, which comes through Christ and the Holy Spirit-who cannot be anything but humble. Not to be occupied with your sin, but to be occupied with God, brings deliverance from self.”

When Jesus gives the mandate to the woman caught in adultery to, “sin no more.” He then addresses the crowd saying, “I am the light of the world. He who follows me shall not walk in darkness, but have the light of life.”

How do we become completely free from the last condemner, ourselves? Go and be “occupied” with God.

 

~Abby Swanson

    This entry was posted on Saturday, January 28th, 2012 at 10:01 am and is filed under Memorization Challenge. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.