"Therefore there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and of death." (Romans 8:1-2)
Paul keeps passing up chances to add red tape.
This is actually one of the things I find most blessedly startling about the apostle's way of thinking. Just when I could imagine him pulling back, adding some conditions, or unspooling some fine print to limit the good news of God's grace, he just plows forward without hedging or adding exceptions. And I kind of think that Paul knows exactly what he is doing and relishes it. The sheer audacity of the Gospel's unconditional extravagance brings him joy... as well it should.
Take, for example, these verses many of us heard this past Sunday in worship from the opening of what we call the eighth chapter of Romans. Having just finished Chapter Seven admitting how often he fails to do what he wants and how often sin keeps digging its claws into him even on his best days and with his best intentions, Paul makes a blanket declaration out of nowhere: "Therefore there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus." No asterisks. No expiration date. No tedious legalese in fine print. He just comes out and says, "For all who belong in the found family of Jesus, there is no condemnation." He does not add as a prerequisite, "Only those who have mastered their struggle against sin will avoid judgment." Neither does he say afterward, "Of course, this assumes that those who are in Christ Jesus have all been good little boys and girls." He seems to be saying that even for people who are still living through the struggle with sin and who keep making boneheaded and selfish choices (which, Paul has just said includes him), there is no reason to fear. No zapping looms on the horizon. No lightning bolts of smiting are locked and loaded, ready to be hurled from the sky at us. No nagging anxiety that at any moment the mouth of hell could open up beneath our feet to gobble us up whole because we've been coveting our neighbor's car or skipped church last Sunday. There is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus--God has gone ahead and told us ahead of time that there will be no death sentence, and all is forgiven already.
Over the course of Christian history, taking Paul seriously on this point has been difficult for many Respectable Religious people. It just sounds too easy. It sounds too "cheap" (a free gift always runs that risk, I suppose). It sounds like God is letting everybody off the hook and welcoming in all the undesirables with open arms. And there's a good reason for that--that is precisely what Paul says God is doing. Because we are joined to Christ, who has taken all the world's sin and nailed it to his own cross, it's not there to be held against us anymore. Because we belong to Jesus, there is no one else who gets a vote on whether we are damned or saved. Because God has justified us from God's side as a free gift, we don't have to fear that our mess-ups and mistakes will be weaponized against us if God should wake up grumpy one morning. If Paul the former persecutor who had blood on his hands could be pulled by grace into the community of Christ and wholly forgiven, then we don't have to fear being judged for our most terrible choices, either. Paul was pulled into God's embrace even when he was an enemy of Christ, so clearly there is no one "too far gone" or "beyond the reach of mercy." Not even you or me on our worst day. No condemnation means no condemnation--not now, not ever, not for any of us who have been loved into the family of God through Christ.
And just to clarify here, this isn't just some crazy idea Paul cooked up on his own. Even though Paul the apostle had never been one of the original twelve disciples of Jesus, what Paul says here sure does echo the way Jesus tells stories about God's blanket pardon and limitless grace. It's the stories he tells where impossibly large debts are forgiven completely with a wave of a hand. It's the tale of the long-lost son who has lost the family fortune but is met by his father running out to meet him with an embrace and a welcome. It's the way Jesus healed people without charging, the way he crossed borders to include outsiders, and the way he raised the dead who couldn't even ask for his help. And on top of that it's the way Jesus taught his disciples to love their enemies because it was the same way God loves us--even when we are "wicked and ungrateful" (Luke 6:35-36). In other words, Paul and Jesus both refuse the opportunity to add conditions, fine print, or exceptions, and instead they both put all their chips on grace.
Could we dare to see the world through that same lens? Could we believe that God really has promised there will be no condemnation for us--that our darkest chapters and worst actions do not have to be held against us, and that it is possible to begin again? Could we really be freed from having to live those old scripts based on our guilt and the rotten habits in which we had been stuck? And could we see everyone else we meet as also being a long-lost prodigal wrapped up in loving arms and welcomed home? What would we finally be free to do with our lives if we realized we didn't have to waste our time, worry, or energy on whether there was a divine lightning bolt headed our way at any given moment?
What might happen if we, following the lead of Jesus and Paul before us, put all our chips on grace, too?
Lord Jesus, your good news seems too good to be true. Speak it to us again so that we will believe we really are freed from condemnation as we are, and let that news set us free.
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