Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit · Sermon No. 1223
“Who is he that condemns? It is Christ that died, yes rather, that is risen again, who is even at the right hand of God, who also makes intercession for us.” Romans 8:34.
THE most dreadful alarm that can disturb a reasonable man is the fear of being condemned by the Judge of All. To be condemned of God, how dreadful! To be condemned of Him at the Last Great Day, how terrible! Well might Belshaz-zar’s loins be loosed when the handwriting on the wall condemned him as weighed in the balances and found wanting! And well may the conscience of the convicted one be comparable to a little Hell when, at its lesser judgement seat, the Law pronounces sentence upon him on account of his past life.
I know of no greater distress than that caused by the suspicion of condemnation in the Believer’s mind. We are not afraid of tribulation, but we dread condemnation. We are not ashamed when wrongly condemned of men, but the bare idea of being condemned of God makes us, like Moses, “exceeding fear and quake.” The bare possibility of being found guilty at the great judgement seat of God is so alarming to us that we cannot rest until we see it removed. When Paul offered a loving and grateful prayer for Oneisphorus he could ask no more for him than, “the Lord grant that he may find mercy in that day.”
Yet though condemnation is the most fatal of all ills, the Apostle Paul, in the holy ardor of his faith dares ask, “Who is he that condemns?” He challenges earth and Hell and Heaven! In the justifiable venturesomeness of his confidence in the blood and righteousness of Jesus Christ, he looks up to the excellent Glory and to the Throne of the thrice holy God, and even in His Presence, before whom the heavens are not pure, and who charged His angels with folly, he dares to say, “Who is he that condemns?”
By what method was Paul, who had a tender and awakened conscience, so completely delivered from all fear of condemnation? It certainly was not by any of the enormity of sin. Among all the writers who have ever spoken of the evil of sin, none have inveighed against it more heartily, or mourned it more sincerely from their very soul, than the Apostle Paul. He declares it to be exceedingly sinful. You never find him suggesting apologies or extenuations. He neither mitigates sin nor its consequences. He is very plain when he speaks of the wages of sin and of what will follow as the consequences of iniquity.
He sought not that false peace which comes from regarding transgression as a trifle. In fact, he was a great destroyer of such refuges of lies. Rest assured, dear Hearer, that you will never attain to a well-grounded freedom from the fear of condemnation by trying to make your sins appear little. That is not the way—it is far better to feel the weight of sin till it oppresses your soul than to be rid of the burden by presumption and hardness of heart. Your sins are damnable and must condemn you unless they are purged away by the great Sin-Offering!
Neither did the Apostle quiet his fears by confidence in anything that he had himself felt or done. Read the passage through and you will find no allusion to himself. If he is sure that none can condemn him, it is not because he has prayed, nor because he has repented, nor because he has been the Apostle of the Gentiles, nor because he has suffered many stripes and endured much for Christ’s sake. He gives no hint of having derived peace from any of these things—but in the humble spirit of a true believer in Jesus he builds his hope of safety upon the work of his Savior!
His reasons for rejoicing in noncondemnation all lie in the death, resurrection, power and the plea of his blessed Substitute! He looks right out of himself, for there he could see a thousand reasons for condemnation, to Jesus through whom condemnation is rendered impossible. And then, in exulting confidence he lifts up the challenge, “Who shall lay anything to the charge of God’s elect?” He dares to demand of men and angels and devils, yes, of the great Judge, Himself, “Who is he that condemns?”
Now, since it is not an uncommon thing for Christians in a weakly state of mind, exercised with doubts and harassed with cares, to feel the cold shadow of condemnation chilling their spirits, I would speak to such, hoping that the good Spirit may comfort their hearts. Dear child of God, you must not live under fear of condemnation, for “there is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus,” and God would not have you fear that which can never come to you. If you are not a Christian, delay not till you have escaped from condemnation by laying hold on Christ Jesus.
But if you have, indeed, believed in the Lord Jesus, you are not under condemnation and you never can be—either in this life or in that which is to come! Let me help you by refreshing your memory with those precious Truths of God, concerning Christ, which show that Believers are clear before the Lord. May the Holy Spirit apply them to your souls and give you rest.