Now you will notice that in the King James Version the two words "There is" are in italics. The words, "There is", become unnecessary without a chapter break between chapters 7 and 8, and as you probably know words in italics were added by the translators. This means that there is no word in the Greek to support them, that is why they are in italics to let those who understand know when they were added.

And further I call your attention to the fact that chapter 7 ends with Paul thanking God through Jesus Christ our Lord. "So then with the mind I myself serve the law of God but with the flesh the law sin" (Rom 7:25).

The great dilemma that the Apostle Paul elaborated upon in chapter 7 is the dilemma of every child of God. To wish to do good, to desire it with all your heart, to want to serve God, and at the same time to be sentenced to live in a body of sin is a seemingly impossible problem to solve.

As long, Paul said, that he was in the body of sin, the old man that is the old nature, would be at war with the new man that is the new nature. I know his frustration. I know what it is like to want to do good and at the same moment to have the old nature want to do evil.

There is within every child of God a war being waged, not between the forces of good and the forces of evil as made famous in the Star War movies, but between the Holy Spirit who lives within the believer and the flesh that Galatians tells us, "wars against the spirit" (Gal 5:17).

And so when we read in the 8th chapter of Romans we really should begin not with the words in italics "there is" but with the connecting word "therefore". Now get it, when you understand the war that is going on inside of those of us who know Christ, the conclusion of the matter is, "THEREFORE NOW, NO CONDEMNATION TO THEM WHO ARE IN CHRIST JESUS". Amen, hallelujah, Praise God!

This sentence is a statement of fact. It is a proclamation. It is a declaration. It is the truth that will permit when understood the child of God to live in this world in a Christ honoring way. Many Christians, though they do not realize it, live a life that seeks to honor self.

When Christ becomes everything, I become nothing. If the death of Christ was everything and God said that it was, if His death satisfied every judicial demand of the Law of God both written and unwritten then there is nothing left for the believer to satisfy, hence Paul could say under inspiration " Therefore, now no condemnation!" Don't miss this, "therefore now no condemnation!" When? Now, presently. And why? Because Christ died for me. There is no debt left to pay, there is no sin left to cover. Jesus truly did pay it all.

Now if this marvelous truth is missed or misunderstood the remainder of the 8th chapter, indeed the doctrinal statement of the entire book loses its coherence. "To them who are in Christ Jesus", not to everybody, not to the world, not to everyone that has been baptized, not to everyone living in what we call a Christian nation, but to them who are in Christ Jesus.

That is a pretty exclusive group. The modernist would call that being narrow minded. Liberal thought would criticize such a statement. Who does Paul think that he is, they might ask, saying that only those in Christ live without condemnation. Imagine what would happen if in our churches today there were to be a revival of the message, "that the just shall live by faith", and because of that faith, "therefore now no condemnation".

That would eliminate all bragging, boasting, the many works that are done to magnify men, to make one sinner look better than another sinner. This truth alone, if adopted by a preacher or church would no doubt cause a genuine revival. Because then men would be forced to look not upon one another but upon Christ in whom there is no sin. Luthur and the great preachers of the reformation would no doubt testify to the life changing effect of this truth.

The second half of verse one according to most commentators should not be there. The words, "who walk not after the flesh but after the spirit", were added so they say at a later time and taken from verse four. The 1967 edition of the Scofield Reference Bible has an excellent though brief note on this subject, as does the commentary of such men as F.F. Bruce, John Phillips, and many others.

Now in verse two Paul says that there were two laws that the Spirit freed him from. One was the law of sin, the second was the law of death. In the book of Ezekiel we read that, "the soul that sinneth it shall die" (Ezek 18:20). In the book of James we read that, "sin when it is finished bringeth forth death" (Ja 1:15), and in this same book of Romans we find that, "the wages of sin is death" (Rom 6:23).

There is in the Old Testament as well as the New, a unmistakable connection between sin and death. This should come as no surprise because the first word of warning that God gave to Adam in the garden was concerning this very matter. He said that, "in the day thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die". The eating of the tree was the sin and the sentence was death.

This is the same sentence that was brought about by sin, that Romans 5:12 says, "was so passed upon all men for all have sinned". Spiritual death is the greatest bondage of all. No prison bars, no chains, no shackles, no handcuffs, and yet just as sure as it can be spiritual death is a prison in which every unsaved man lives. Bound by sin, shackled by death without Christ, lost and no religious act can help, no good deed can aid, only Christ whose Spirit is given in response to faith can set the captive free. This is what Jesus meant when he said, "And you shall know the Truth and the Truth shall set you free" (Jn 8:36). Jesus is the Truth and John 14:6 tells us that Jesus said, "I am the way (to Heaven), I am the truth (of the ages), I am the life (everlasting)". Know me is the message of Christ and be free. Amen.

In our judicial system there are levels of courts. Not every judge has the same authority. Not every court has the same power. The decision of one court may be overturned by a higher court. The power of sin and the power of law, and the power of death, and the decision they rendered upon lost humanity can be overturned by the authority of a higher court and a higher law. Christ is that perfect law of liberty. "Whom the Son sets free, he is free indeed."

In verse one the proclamation is made, "Therefore now no condemnation", even though he struggled with the flesh and even though he was imperfect, and even though he failed and at times like you and I did things and said things and thought things that were sinful. The fact of scripture is, "No Condemnation".

In verse three, we are told where the condemnation went. It went from the guilty to the guiltless. It went from the criminal to the innocent. It was taken from you and I and given to Christ. I suppose that almost every Christian is familiar with John 3:16, " For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life".

But in John 3:17 and John 3:18 we find, "For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through him might be saved. He that believeth on him is not condemned; but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God".

You see one of the reasons that there is no condemnation is because I didn't have anything to do with it. He did it. Him, not you, and not me. The Bible says, "Him, being delivered by the determinate council and foreknowledge of God, ye have taken, and by wicked hands have crucified and slain" (Acts 2:23). Not you, Him. You and I could never be an acceptable sacrifice to God. We are too sinful.

But the virgin born, perfect, pure, sinless, Son of God, as a lamb without blemish nor spot, slain from before the very foundation of the world. He was acceptable.

Now some of you may be thinking that I am saying the same thing again in just a little different way. A lot of people wouldn't like that. They become bored with repetition but for the same reason that Israel learned to loathe the light bread (Manna), some folks tire of hearing of an all sufficient Christ and want instead to hear of something that they can do, something they can learn, if that's what you want find yourself another book. That is not the message of the Bible.

That is the distorted message that led away the churches of Galatia and caused them to be so soon removed unto another gospel. In many of our churches the old hymn is sung, "Jesus is all the World to me. My life, my joy, my all. He is my strength from day to day, without him I would fall". Anyone who sings that and then boasts or offers or depends upon what they have done or will do is singing a lie. If I am something, then Jesus can not be all.

It is the same thing that Paul is saying here. The law could not save anyone because no one could keep it and why? The body of sin, the body of flesh that Paul talked about in Romans 7. So what did God do? God knowing this could never be, sent His own Son, notice now not in sinful flesh but in the likeness of sinful flesh. He looked like everyone else, He talked like everyone else, He ate like everyone else, and so forth..., but He was not like anyone else before Him or after Him. And not like you either.

This is especially true of the self-righteous religionist who believes that somehow the death of Christ merely aids them in obtaining salvation and that they provide whatever He leaves out by their good works. They will be damned fools literally. Damned because of their rejection of the all-sufficient Christ. Lost forever hearing no doubt those fateful words, "Depart from me, I never knew you" (Matt 7:21-23).

On the cross there was no sinful flesh, there was the likeness of sinful flesh, and the condemnation that abode upon all men was placed upon Christ through what theologians call an act of imputation. And this the Holy Spirit explains in 2 Corinthians 5:21, "For he hath made him, who knew no sin, to be sin for us, that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him". He became sin and when this happened all of God's vengeance was poured out upon the sin offering of Christ.

What the Bible does say is that the righteousness of the law is to be fulfilled in us. The two are not the same. The law is a set of rules that no man can keep, but the righteousness of the law is the outward expression and manifestation of the Holy Spirit who is within every believer. It is the believer yielding to God. To say that these two amount to the same thing is to evade and ignore the most central theme of the Book of Romans, namely that the sinner is helpless to save himself and that Jesus is the exclusive way to heaven.

As the Apostle Paul says, "If we walk in the Spirit we will not fulfill the lust of the flesh" (Gal 5:16), and here in our text, "who walk not after the flesh but after the Spirit". We need to understand that the believer is to be led by the Spirit instead of being led by the flesh. Then the righteousness of the law is accomplished.

The believer is not perfect, he is not sinless, nor faultless in his daily walk, however when he walks in the Spirit he is doing the will of God and obeying the word of God and this is what was promised by the prophet long ago. "I will put my law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts, and will be their God" (Jer 31:33). Faith in Jesus Christ is not an outward religion but an inward religion, it does not glorify the flesh but makes use of the flesh by the new nature having the power to dominant the flesh and by willing the body to submit to the will and Word of God.

The hope of every believer should be that he can live in such a way that the righteousness of the law would be fulfilled in him and it will be as the person yields himself unto the Lord. This process of learning to yield to the Holy Spirit's leadership and the denying of self is what the Bible doctrine of sanctification is all about.

Now practically what happens is that as you and I live we make decisions based not upon what God thinks or says, but upon how we feel and upon what we want. Now does this mean that if a saved man decides to go against what God wants that he is no longer saved? Remember that precious declaration found in verse one, " Therefore now no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus". Under the law men served because they had to, under grace men serve because they want to. Our motive in serving Christ should be the same motive that Christ had in dying for us, love.

Why do we read His Word, attend the services of His church, sing songs of praise and adoration to Him? Why do we tell His story? Why do we give of our time and treasure? You should know by now that your time and your treasure are in reality His. When He bought you with a price that included everything you had. Obedience truly is better than sacrifice, but the only acceptable motivation for obedience is love. "Though I speak with the tongues of men and angels and have not love I am become as sounding brass or tinkling cymbal" (1 Cor 13:1).