TEXT: Romans 8:34

SUBJECT: The Passion of Jesus Christ #13: Take Away Our Condemnation

Tonight, with God’s blessing, we’ll move on in our study of John Piper’s little book, The Passion of Jesus Christ. The purpose of the book is to tell us why the Father sent His Son to the cross. That He did it is assumed, and rightly, for the Bible says so.

The crucifixion was not a surprise to God, a disappointment, or a making the best of a bad situation. Speaking of the Messiah, Isaiah 53 says, It pleased the Lord to bruise Him.

It seems wrong that God would be pleased with the torture and death of an innocent Man. If not wrong, at least, disturbing. And so it is until you remember why He felt that way. The Father was pleased by His Son’s death—not because He hated His Son—but because He loves us. And there is no way to save us from our sin and misery but the suffering and death of Christ…in our place.

This is the book’s big idea. Which is broken up in fifty smaller ideas. Thus far, we’ve looked at eleven of them, and so now we come to number 12. In heaven, this may be at the bottom of our list, but on earth, it has to be at the top.

Several times I’ve told you the chapters are very short and leave out a great deal that might be said with profit. This, I think, is especially true of Chapter 12.

What is implied by the words, ‘take away’? If I ‘take away’ something from you, it means you had it—it was yours. You can’t take away a million dollars from me because I don’t have a million dollars. But you can take away $14 out of my wallet because that’s what I’ve got in it (I think).

If our Lord died to ‘take away’ our condemnation, it means we were condemned. To be ‘condemned’ means to be tried and found guilty. This is just what the Bible says about us, about all of us without exception. In a word, All have sinned and come short of the glory of God, or, turning it around, There is none righteous, no not one. I have a book at home that says these verses should not be taken personally, that they refer to races, not individuals. Part of this is true. Romans 3 does refer to races—to Jews and Gentiles. But since everyone in the world is either a Jew or a Gentile, it means we’re all sinful and nobody is righteous.

Every mouth may be stopped and all the world may become guilty before God. For most believers, this is enough. We’re born condemned, and until our condemnation is removed we’re still condemned. This presents a problem to some Christians, and they’ve tried to solve it with reasoning instead of the Bible. The people I have in mind are Calvinists (like myself).

A man once told me something very much like this: ‘Since we are chosen in Christ before the foundation of the world, and since being ‘in Christ’ is the opposite of being condemned, we have never been condemned. We felt we were, but our feelings were wrong. We were always justified and safe in Christ’.

If I told you the man who said this was stupid, I’d be lying to you. In fact, he’s very smart. Maybe too smart for his own good! What’s wrong with his reasoning? Two things:

First of all, his subtle thinking contradicts the plain teaching of the Bible. Was Paul chosen in Christ before the foundation of the world? Yes. Was he specifically called ‘a chosen vessel of Mine’? He was. Whether you and I are truly elect is an open question, but we know for a fact that Paul was. But how did he describe himself before his conversion? Ephesians 2:3 says,

To be ‘a child of wrath’ means to be under the wrath of God, to be condemned, in other words. Paul says he was every bit as condemned as others people are.

John 3:18 puts a finer point on it,

Observe, our Lord says nothing about election (which I very much believe in!). Nothing in here about ‘not believing’ and also ‘not chosen by God’. He simply says those who don’t believe in Him are condemned. They don’t have to be condemned; if they believe they won’t be condemned, but as long as they remain in unbelief, they also remain in condemnation.

This is the first—and most important—thing wrong with my friends reasoning. It disagrees with the Bible.

Secondly, it misreads the Bible. The Bible does not say the Elect are in Christ from the foundation of the world or saved from eternity. It says we are eternally chosen for salvation, not that we have always been saved.

My illustration is poor, but I couldn’t think of a better one. In November, 2000, Governor George W. Bush was elected President of the United States. He did not become President, however, into he was sworn in two or three months later. On Christmas Day, 2000, he was no more the President than you and I were! He was chosen to be President, but he wasn’t the President until he took the oath of office. In a somewhat similar way, believers are chosen for salvation before the world was, but we are not saved until we repent of our sins and put our faith in Jesus Christ. If—hypothetically—a Elect person died before he came to faith, he would be as lost as Judas Iscariot. Because he who has the Son has life, he who does not have the Son does not have life, but the wrath of God abides on him (John 3:36).

In other words, he is condemned.

To be condemned means to be guilty before God and subject to just penalties of His Law. Breaking the Law under Moses brought swift and sure punishment. But, Hebrews 10:29 says,

This is what it means to be condemned! It means we’re guilty—not just in our consciences—but before an Infinite Judge who will pass an infinite judgment on us!

This is what ‘Jesus Christ suffered and died to take away’!

Bernard of Clarvaux could only melt in tears of love,

Because he never felt condemned, Simon the Pharisee did not love Christ. But the woman who knew her sin and guilt did love Him! When guilt produces unbelief and fear, it’s an enemy. But when it makes us love Christ and serve Him with thankfulness, it’s the best friend we’ve got!

When I say, we are not condemned, I don’t mean no one is condemned. Many people are condemned. All were condemned and some of them will stay that way, forever. This is not universalism—the belief that everyone either is or will be saved! Some won’t be saved.

But others will be saved. Who are they? The ones who believe in Christ. Piper says,

This is one of the most redundant paragraphs Piper ever wrote—and I glad it is. Faith is not our Savior; we re not saved because we believe! Faith is only an instrument; it saves because it puts us in fellowship with Christ, who is Salvation!

For another bad illustration, think of a deep sea diver. He’s walking on the bottom of the ocean with an air hose attached to his helmet. Without that hose, he’s a dead man. But he’s not breathing the hose; he’s breathing the air that is coming through the hose. Christians are the deep sea divers; Christ is the air; and the hose is faith!

If faith saved, then a believing Muslim or Communist or pagan or football fan would be saved. They often 'out-believe’ Christians and are more committed to their god(s) or causes or teams than we are. But faith in Allah or faith in Communism or faith in the gods or faith in the 49ers doesn’t save because these are not saviors! Christ is the only Savior, and therefore, only faith in Christ saves!

This means, if you believe in Christ you are not condemned. Does your faith have to be strong? It should be, but it doesn’t have to be because your Savior is strong! Little faith, weak faith, inconsistent faith are enough to bring us into fellowship with Christ, and therefore, enough to take away our condemnation.

The Lord did many wonderful things. Think of His teaching, His miracles, His prayers, the example He set, and so on. As dear as these things are to us, they do not take away our condemnation. Had He lived another fifty years and given us a Bible a hundred feet thick, and then gone back to heaven (or even died of old age), we would still be condemned.

It was His death that freed us from condemnation—and nothing else! How come? Piper knows,

Believers cannot fall under the judgment of God because that judgment has already fallen. On our Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ.

The death of Christ does not ‘soften God up’ for us. Think of a hard boss putting impossible demands on his workers. He’s the kind of man who takes no excuses; if you can’t do the job, you’re out! The boss has a son, whom he loves with all his heart. One day the boy runs after a ball in the street and is hit by a car. Later that night, the boy dies, father sitting at his bedside. The next day the boss comes in to work and apologizes to his employees, and from them on, he’s a new man at work, kind, patient, more ready to help than to fire.

The boss’s character needed changing. And the death of his son changed him. But God doesn’t need changing, and the death of His Son did not put things in perspective for Him. What it did was satisfy His justice. Which means He can no more send us to hell than He can send His Son to hell.

There is a Final Judgment, still future to us. But, for believers in Christ, the verdict will be a happy one. We are ‘not guilty’ because, on the cross, Christ became ‘guilty’ for us.

This means we don’t have to worry about what others think of us. This means we don’t have to crave acceptance. This means we don’t have to do what others do so they’ll like us. We all want to be popular and be ‘with it’, but in the end it doesn’t matter, because the only judgment that matters is God’s! And He says,