No Condemnation

I'm glad I don't race bikes. 128 riders started in the Tour of California on Sunday, and over the course of eight days of racing there will be only a dozen or so winners, one for each stage, the King of the Mountains, the sprinters points winner, the best young rider, and the GC overall winner. Most riders will go home tired and empty handed, many sore from road rash, and if this race is typical one or two with a broken collar bone. A few may even feel the condemnation of teammates if they didn't have the "legs" to do their job on any given day. Just yesterday 30 riders hit the pavement in the rain on the descent from the two big climbs. Ouch! Overall, for the majority of racers, not a very positive experience.

Life itself can be a not very positive experience. All too often we go through life feeling painfully inadequate. The challenges we face sometimes feel like hills that are too steep to climb. We feel the sting of criticism and condemnation from those around who don't think our performance is what it should be. The challenge of persevering through the tough stuff of life can be draining, like we were trying to ride 100 miles in a day at 25-30 miles per hour in the heat or the rain. Too often we're so disappointed in our own efforts that if someone else isn't criticizing us we're beating up on ourselves. Have you ever been there? I have, and it wasn't necessarily while I was on my bike.

Into such a place comes a wonderful word of grace from Paul in Romans 8:1: "Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus." Let me share a few other translations or paraphrases of those words to help them sink in. "So now, those who are in Christ Jesus are not judged guilty." (NCV) "With the arrival of Jesus, the Messiah, that fateful dilemma is resolved. Those who enter into Christ's being-here-for-us no longer have to live under a continuous, low-lying black cloud." (MSG) "So those who are believers in Christ Jesus can no longer be condemned." (GWT) "If you belong to Christ Jesus, you won't be punished." (CEV) "So now there is no condemnation for those who belong to Christ Jesus." (NLT)

Paul speaks these gracious, life-giving words immediately after he has spoken about his own, frequently unsuccessful struggle against sin, in chapter seven. "I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do." (Romans 7:15) We've all been there. And then Paul shares with us the grace of God in Jesus Christ. "There is now no condemnation." And don't pass over that little three letter word "now." It's three letters in Greek too, but it is tremendously important. Even now, even in the midst of failure and disgrace, even in the midst of mistakes and sins, THERE IS NOW NO CONDEMNATION.

I'm not going to try to complicate something simple by rambling on. Just let that promise dwell in your mind and heart for a few minutes and soak it in. No condemnation. Period. Amen.