Hello everyone, thank you so much for joining me on the Hope for Today broadcast. I’m your host Doran Wengerd – Founder of Wengerd Ministries – where we are Delivering Hope to Every Heart.
I’m continuing the series today called “Hope in the Spirit”, which is all about the foundation that our Faith is built on.
The message the Lord gave me for today is called NO CONDEMNATION.
When I think of the perfect union that God created in the Garden of Eden with Adam and Eve, I am full of joy that we are still able to experience Him, even though sin has been here from that time on.
How is it that we can still experience these wonderful blessings of God? I was meditating on this the other day, and my heart was turned to Romans.
Romans 7 to me, seems like the example of how Adam and Eve responded to temptation in the Garden. They did not “accidentally” make a mistake and sin. This was something they had meditated on and allowed their hearts to be turned away from God.
I just talked about this in my message called “Original Sin”
It sounds exactly like the way the Apostle Paul describes his own experience in these verses. Let’s read Romans 7:15-24
Rom 7:15
For what I am doing, I do not understand. For what I will to do, that I do not practice; but what I hate, that I do.
Rom 7:16
If, then, I do what I will not to do, I agree with the law that it is good.
Rom 7:17
But now, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells in me.
Rom 7:18
For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh) nothing good dwells; for to will is present with me, but how to perform what is good I do not find.
Rom 7:19
For the good that I will to do, I do not do; but the evil I will not to do, that I practice.
Rom 7:20
Now if I do what I will not to do, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells in me.
Rom 7:21
I find then a law, that evil is present with me, the one who wills to do good.
Rom 7:22
For I delight in the law of God according to the inward man.
Rom 7:23
But I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members.
Rom 7:24
O wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death?
Now, if this was the end of the story, it would be very depressing. I hope none of you have allowed yourself to think this way and just stop as if we had no HOPE.
If any of you have read this before, you know that the answer is in the very next chapter, but I want to read something else before we go to Romans 8.
Let’s look at how Jesus is described as the perfect answer when we find ourselves being imperfect.
Paul uses the example of a husband and wife to describe how Jesus relates to us.
Look at Ephesians 5:25-31
Eph 5:25
Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself for her,
Eph 5:26
that He might sanctify and cleanse her with the washing of water by the word,
Eph 5:27
that He might present her to Himself a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that she should be holy and without blemish.
Amen!!
Jesus is not just cleansing us with no other purpose in mind. He is preparing us for himself. He wants us to be perfect and without blemish, but He knows we can never get there on our own.
This is all about a relationship as intimate and close as a marriage relationship. In fact…if we’re honest about it, I would say that no one has ever experienced the closeness in their marriage that Jesus wants to have with each one of us.
Why did God do everything He did throughout all of time? It was for this same reason in every connection that we can read about where God approached man. It was to try to somehow form a relationship of unity and oneness instead of just creator and created.
Remember the covenant God made with Abraham. He has been blessing the descendents of Abraham for thousands of years, because of the simple fact that Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness.
Look at James 2:23
Jas 2:23
And the Scripture was fulfilled which says, “Abraham believed God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness.” And he was called the friend of God.
Look at the last part there that James added. He says that Abraham was called the friend of God.
Who was it that gave him this title? I believe in all of Heaven, Abraham was referred to as “The Friend of God”, because God had said, “This is my friend”.
Now……since we’ve established the heart behind it, we can see the purpose for Jesus making us righteous before God. It was not only to keep us from going to Hell. Jesus went to the cross for so much more than just to save us from our sins and to simply give us a good life.
He has been and will continue to work tirelessly to be able to present us to himself as a perfect bride without spot and without wrinkle. Now, I need to remind you that man looks at the outward appearance, but God looks at the heart.
These verses are not to say that God is only interested in people who are perfect outward examples of physical human bodies. When it says “without spot or wrinkle”, I get the idea that it is talking about how you would describe a perfect white sheet or a pressed garment.
What is it that becomes perfect, without spot or wrinkle when we become “Born Again”? Does your body just automatically lose all forms of imperfection? Do you just automatically get perfectly healed, with all signs of aging or scars disappearing?
The answer to these questions is NO. These things do not happen automatically. They do however, begin to take place in our physical bodies as we renew our minds with the Word of God.
Healing begins to progressively happen more and more frequently. I’ve seen scars and warts disappear from people’s physical bodies just by aligning their minds to the Word of God and believing it.
Jesus and the early church demonstrated how we are to be progressively made more and more into the physical examples of what Jesus died on the cross to accomplish, but we are not to be discouraged if that doesn’t happen or takes longer than we thought it would to happen.
Now, let’s go back and read the verses which describe our answer to sin, and problems that continue to exist in our physical bodies. Remember, the Apostle Paul is the one talking in Romans 7.
I had thought previously that he was only talking about acts of sin, and maybe that is indeed the case.
However, I do also think we can apply his same comments to situations we have found ourselves in where healing didn’t manifest for example.
Of course sickness or disease is not a sin in any way, but it is in fact a result of the original SIN of Adam and Eve. Every bit of degradation or negative results can be pointed directly back to the fact that sin was introduced to the world by the first man and woman.
So, if sickness and poverty is a result of SIN being present on the Earth, then Paul’s comments in Romans 7 are very appropriate to apply to most of the situations we face.
I’d like to go back now and read the last part of Romans 7 and go straight into Romans 8 to see the problem and the answer all spelled out together.
Let’s read Romans 7:23-8:6
Rom 7:23
But I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin, which is in my members.
Rom 7:24
O wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death?
Rom 7:25
I thank God—through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, with the mind I myself serve the law of God, but with the flesh the law of sin.
Rom 8:1
There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit.
Rom 8:2
For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and death.
Rom 8:3
For what the law could not do in that it was weak through the flesh, God did by sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, on account of sin: He condemned sin in the flesh,
Rom 8:4
that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.
Rom 8:5
For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit, the things of the Spirit.
Rom 8:6
For to be carnally minded is death, but to be spiritually minded is life and peace.
AMEN!
Now, let’s jump down a few more verses and look at one of my favorite verses in the whole Bible.
Romans 8:11
Rom 8:11
But if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in you.
Do you see here how Jesus went to the cross so He could have the legal right to place His Spirit in us, and in so doing, He is able to give LIFE and healing to our mortal bodies. He is also able to correct and restore ALL that Adam lost when SIN entered into the world.
The most wonderful part about all of this however, is that He knows how we function, and He NEVER condemns us if we find ourselves living in a situation that feels like Romans 7. He is continually pulling for us to come out of it, but it is only to help and never to condemn.
Remember, He is wanting to present us to himself as a glorious bride so we can have deep and intimate relationship with Him, both now and for all of eternity.
In the process of being perfected by Him, we become partakers of His Goodness, and we find ourselves living in more and more healing and prosperity than we ever thought possible before.
I want to challenge each one of you to go to Him and acknowledge the work He is doing in you personally. Don’t look around you at other people to find your approval.
Look in the Word to find your approval. He HAS MADE you perfect in your spirit already, because of the fullness of His Spirit already in you.
Receive that approval today! Allow the light of His smile to bring LIFE to your physical body, to restore your relationships, to abundantly provide for your needs, to make you righteous when there’s nothing you can do to be righteous in yourself.
Then, give yourself time for these things to manifest in your body, your relationships, your finances, and your actions, as you become more and more like the perfect picture He has for you.
God Bless You!!!
