This week I've been meditating on Jesus' powerful work on the cross where he defeated sin, death and Satan (1 Corinthians 15:55-57; Colossians 2:14-15). Through the propitiatory sacrifice of his blood on our behalf and his powerful resurrection from the dead, he freed us from the debt of our sins (1 John 2:2). The punishment of the just wrath of God that we deserved has been placed on him (Isaiah 53:5-6, 2 Corinthians 5:21), and, as the apostle Paul writes, we are set free from all condemnation: "Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus" (Romans 8:1). And again he addresses this in Romans 8:33-34:
"Who will bring any charge against those whom God has chosen? It is God who justifies. Who then is the one who condemns? No one. Christ Jesus who died—more than that, who was raised to life—is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us."
Amazingly, God not only frees us from this death sentence and the condemnation that accompanies it, but he declares us "holy and blameless" in his sight in Christ (Colossians 1:22), guaranteeing that nothing can separate us from his love:
"Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? As it is written: “For your sake we face death all day long; we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered. No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord" (Romans 8:35:39).
I've included a link to a Gospel Coalition article that beautifully explains Christ's finished work on the cross and our union with him. In the article, Humphrey (2019) uses the analogy of a condemned building to illustrate our lives in Adam before Christ -- bound in sin and rebellion against God and condemned to eternal death. He then shows from Scripture that we can never remove this condemnation through our own efforts of personal renovation, but instead we must spiritually die and be raised up with Christ through his gift of salvation: "Their house must come down. But the generous offer of Jesus to deliver sinners is offered to the condemned. Only as this court-satisfying condemnation notice has been carried out, can there be hope. As Jesus said, "Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life. He does not come into judgment, but has passed from death to life (John 5:24)" (Humphrey, 2019).
https://ca.thegospelcoalition.org/columns/cowboyology/removing-condemnation-notice/
