Rabbi’s Reflections – Sunday, July 7 2024
Shavuah Tov,
The False Guide of Condemnation
By Jerry Miller
“Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Messiah Yeshua” (Romans 8:1).
“If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness” (1 John 1:9).
The above passages from Scripture are among the simplest, but most powerful truths we find in God’s Word. They speak of the glorious reality of the freedom God intends for those who put their trust in Yeshua—a freedom from guilt and condemnation, as we receive by faith the perfect righteousness of Yeshua.
I see God’s gift of righteousness as the beginning point of His work of grace in our lives. As we receive His forgiveness and cleansing, that becomes a foundation for God to continue to work in our lives in different ways in which we need His grace. Forgiveness becomes the doorway into relationship with God, enabling us to enter into our calling and destiny. It is also the doorway into the walk of holiness to which we aspire. For this reason, I believe much of the devil’s focus in our life is aimed at drawing us into unbelief regarding our forgiveness. If we do not believe we are forgiven, we will not move forward in our faith life. The main tool the devil uses to keep us from embracing God’s forgiveness is condemnation.
When we stumble or sin, we are to confess that sin to God and ask Him to forgive us. When we do so, God’s promise is that He will forgive us and cleanse us of guilt. But the truth of God’s promise does not stop the devil from tempting us to believe his lies. The enemy wants us to believe we are not truly forgiven. I would define condemnation as a nagging sense of guilt and uncleanness, leaving us feeling that God must be displeased with us, even though we have confessed our sin with a sincere heart. We believe the lie that, in spite of God being forgiving, we still stand guilty for how we have fallen short of His righteousness.
So here is the question we must consider. If God Himself, through Yeshua, has declared us to be forgiven and made righteous, why do we still find ourselves feeling condemnation? There are many reasons, but I believe it is often rooted in our personal sense of justice. We sin or fall short in some way, and our basic sense of justice tells us that we should be punished. It’s really too good to be true to think that the punishment we deserve has been totally taken by Yeshua. So we end up taking on the punishment we feel we deserve, as we get down on ourselves. Condemnation becomes our way of punishing ourselves for how we are disappointed in ourselves and how we believe we have disappointed God. Condemnation seeks to convince us that there is no calling for us, and that God could never want relationship with us or use us for His glory. Why? Because we have let God down and failed Him too many times. If we buy into this kind of thinking, we are basically concluding that sin has a more powerful impact on our lives than grace.
So, here is what we must see. As we evaluate our lives, the enemy wants us to use condemnation as a starting point for how we see ourselves, or a lens through which we see ourselves. Why? Because through the lens of condemnation, everything we see about ourselves becomes distorted. We will feel unwelcome in God’s presence. We will feel like our lives are defined by our failures, and that becomes the basis for how we see our lives.
Ultimately, condemnation is what I would call a counterfeit influence that keeps us from fully seeing and experiencing the power of the cross, where Yeshua laid down His life for us. It’s not that condemnation is based on inaccuracies, as we really have fallen short of God’s righteous ways. That’s why condemnation can be believable to us. Of course, the deception of condemnation is that our sin becomes the final word in defining us. It ignores the redemptive and restorative power of the cross, and God’s intent is that His redemption be the final word in defining us.
When we walk in condemnation, we ultimately strip the cross of its power to save, and we end up reducing our salvation to a mere theory—a lofty idea that lacks real power. We would never say that, because we do affirm the idea of the power of salvation, but we can deny its power in us through what we ultimately choose to believe. If I stand guilty before God, in spite of my trusting in Yeshua for my salvation, then essentially I am stripping the cross of its power to change me. Remember, the cross of Yeshua does not simply picture a noble act that inspires us to righteous living. The cross is the power of God unto salvation (Romans 1:17). It empowers us for a victorious life, but condemnation deceives us and robs us of salvation’s victory.
Yeshua gave His life on the cross, providing a new starting point for you and me. Obviously, we were guilty, but when we put our trust in the shed blood of our sinless Messiah, our guilt was taken away. Yeshua has freed us by giving His life for us, a huge price that was paid on our behalf. But it’s a huge price with huge results, because as we submit our lives to the Lord and receive His life in return, our guilt is taken away. There is no condemnation, and thus, condemnation becomes a false guide, steering us away from the Lord Himself.
So if condemnation is a false guide, what is to be our true guide? I’m glad you asked that question. In my next reflection in a couple weeks, we will begin to consider the answer. In the meantime, remind yourself daily that, in Yeshua, God the righteous Judge, has declared you to be “not guilty,” and thus, there is no place for condemnation in your life!
Daily Bread, reading plan by Lars Enarson (https://www.thewatchman.org/)
1 Tamuz Sunday 7-Jul-24
Rosh Chodesh Tamuz (Day 2)
Numbers 19:1-17 Jeremiah 46-47 Daniel 9 Luke 2:22-52 2 Corinthians 11