Folks have struggled since the beginning of humanity to pay the debt of righteousness owed to a perfect and holy Creator.  To extremety, we even find ourselves striving to be good, to do good, to achieve in terms of righteousness.  Entire worldwide movements have been established for this purpose alone…to make oneself acceptable to God.

We could go back further but let’s just start with Judaism.  The Jews, received the ten commandments directly from God and they took it and ran with it.  Rules regarding clothing, prayers, home decorations, even details regarding moment to moment behavior have been charted out like a blue-printed plan of practice so as to maintain a positive position in regards to relationship with God.  You see they codified the law into 63 tractates called the Mishnah and from that the Jews extrapolated over 600 do’s and don’ts in order that they may achieve and maintain righteousness.  Only problem, God never asked that of them.

The same thing has happened in christianity as 1.2B people claim allegiance to the Roman Catholic church which has instituted hundreds of codified laws that they call traditions, sacraments, rites and orthodoxy.  However it is entirely the same as what the Jews have done in that they have prescribed works as the cure for the disease of sin.  They have codified life into hundreds of do’s and don’ts in an attempt to attain eternal acceptance.  The only problem, God never asked that of them.

Even the Muslim, following the teachings of Islam and the Koran, their entire salvation philosophy is that if you do good, if you follow the five pillars perfectly, then your goodness will overshadow your wickedness and you will be granted entrance into paradise. 

You see all men, whether catholic or Jewish or Muslim or whatever, all men perceive that righteousness exists and all men perceive that alone, they are not it…and so this debt remains.  A debt that man cannot pay and yet as we’ve discussed, for centuries man has continually devised ways to make payments…and all are horrid failures!  Why?  Because the answer is not religion!  It never was!  And a life striving to be good enough will be a life that is ever descending deeper into depression.

I need, you need, we need to declare bankruptcy on self.  In the world of financial law you find the origin of this term bankruptcy.  You can declare chapter 7, you can file chapter 13…but in terms of the law of the spirit, what we need to all declare…is chapter 8.  Romans Chapter 8!

Romans Chapter 8 is the true antidote to the depression that haunts all of us…our past, the pressures of our present, the anxieties of our future…because religion screams “do” while the cross of Christ proclaims, “done.”  Paul wrote in the first chapter of Ephesians that once we receive Jesus, once we meet Him, we encounter His love for us, we glimpse the cross and the price paid for our sin to make us well and we are broken to the core over it all…and we call upon Him for salvation, Paul says that we are sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise, who is the guarantee of our inheritance!  Four words that speak of such surety…sealed, promise, guarantee, inheritance!

How is it that one would have the debt satisfied?  How can I have peace with a holy and entirely perfect God?  What does God ask of the Jew, of the Muslim, of the Catholic?  What does God ask of me?  Receive Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior and place your trust in Him.  Declare chapter 8!

Romans Chapter 8 will declare to us first and foremost that condemnation is quenched…there in verse 1, there is no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus.  Later verses 38 and 39 promise there can be no separation from God’s love as you walk into your future.  And verse 28 states that all things are working together for good even in the present.  If you accept this, there’s no room for depression…see that?    

Romans Chapter 8 Verse 1

• I love this!  I dig this!  I want to understand this more!  I want to tell the world…that condemnation thrives everywhere ‘round these parts…in this busted world, in mine and your busted hearts…but there is one place where there is no condemnation!  Where you are set free!  And that place…is a person!  His name is Jesus!
• When they brought that woman to Jesus who was caught in the very act of adultery, He said to her, “woman, where are your accusers?”  In other words, “where are your condemners?”  She looked around and she replied, “There are none.”  “BINGO,” Jesus replied!  “You got it!  Because it’s just you and Me now!”  Go, you’re free!”  And He added, “sin no more,” not because that was her last chance but so that she might not find herself again in such a snare!  He didn’t give that parting remark with a finger in her face but no doubt with a smile on His face as God delights in seeing His people come out from under the weight of condemnation!
• Because it is as Paul proclaims here…there is no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus!  You see we’re in Him, that’s the key.  The Lord said to Noah, “Make yourself an ark of gopherwood; make rooms in the ark, and cover it inside and outside with pitch.”  The word for “pitch” used in that scripture is the same word for “atonement” in Hebrew.  And so think of the ark as a perfect picture of who we are in Christ and when the rain came, when the storm beat down, Genesis Chapter 7 says that God shut them in!
• He didn’t just tell Noah to put 8 pegs on the outside of the ark so that he and his family can hold on for dear life!  No He said, “I’m putting you in man!”  And the same is true for us in Christ.  It’s not a matter of holding on and hoping that we can keep clear of sin and then we’ll be okay…that’s religion!  No!  Our ark is Jesus Christ and we are in Him and therefore there is no condemnation.  Rough seas, raging storm, flooding waters…we’re sealed!  We’re safe and we’re secure!
• Think of it this way.  Think of a krispy kreme warm extra large extra glazed donut!  1,000 calories per made with all kinds of sinful ingredients right?  Yet so delicious!  Now check this out…once you eat it…it’s now hidden and buried inside of you right?  You no longer see it right?  So too, you…you sinful thing…are in Christ…with all your sinful tendencies, calories and fat grams!  And so when the Father looks on you, He doesn’t see you with all your failings and your shortcomings…no He sees you robed in the righteousness of Christ…why?  Because you are IN Him!  He doesn’t see you in your sin, He sees you in His Son!
• Therefore there’s no condemnation.  No matter where you’ve been or how badly you’ve failed, His call to His creation is “go…go free…and sin no more!”  How?  Through the cross man!  The price paid and the promise given…the Holy Spirit who now dwells within you!  He will guide you.  He will teach you…He will show you the pit when you’re in it and then as you walk with Jesus and are taught by the Holy Spirit guess what?  You’ll begin to see the pit BEFORE you fall into it…and then once you begin to see the pit you’ll begin to see just how many there are constantly around you set like traps by the flesh and by the evil one to keep you out of an effective freedom campaign for the Lord!  And in no time you’ll find yourself stepping back, looking at pit after pit after pit in this world and you’ll say, “man…this place is the pits!”  Boom!  Now you’re living for the world to come!
• That is called sanctification!  Yes you will find yourself failing throughout the rest of your life because you will not be perfect until the day you stand in perfection in the very presence of the perfect Father however you won’t keep finding yourself in the SAME pit!  See what I’m saying!?  “Go and sin no more!”  Paul makes mention of the Holy Spirit 19 times throughout Romans Chapter 8 because He is the power, He is the guarantee that we have of a coming inheritance and He is precisely the Person of God that is given and sent to us by God when we declare Chapter 8 spiritual bankruptcy!  When we have the courage to stop trying to hide our sin or white out our sin and face the truth…we can’t, we need help…we need a Savior and we call upon Jesus!  Then condemnation retreats and we are set free!

Romans Chapter 8 Verse 2

• Paul said the law twice.  Are there two laws?  Nope, just the correct application of the first!  The law given to Moses, as we’ve learned already several times and through several examples that Paul has given in this epistle already, the law was never to make man righteous but rather to educate man as to his unrighteousness and thus to point to the Savior!
• Apply the law in light of the Christ…life and freedom enter.  Apply the law in self righteousness….sin and death prevail.  It’s like a plane sitting on a runway…the law of gravity and physics holds it right there…but churn and burn those powerful engines and the same laws now take that bird to flight!

Romans Chapter 8 Verses 3 – 4

• Paul calls out the weakness of the law and he says it’s the flesh.  Well the law is not flesh is it?  We are…and so the law isn’t the problem…we are!  I’ll give you an example.  We can write, “I’m going to pray an hour a day,” in our journals.  We can post that we’re going to “read our Bibles an hour every night before bed,” but sooner or later, we’ll discover that weakness lies not in our commitment, not in our written statement, but in our flesh…right?
• Nothing weak or wrong or failing in writing out those statements…all the weakness lies in carrying them out…you see?  The law is just like that.  There’s no weakness in it…the weakness is in us because we can’t carry it out.  And so Paul rejoices here because God took care of the matter by sending His own Son, in the flesh…as a man…that the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled not by us, but in us as the Spirit of Christ, God Himself comes in, takes up residence, sets us free, pays the debt, seals us into the ark of Jesus Christ and He gives us life man!
• Not just eternal life although that would be enough but everlasting life right now!  This moment, this instant!  Guiding us spontaneously!  Leading us daily!  Correcting and teaching us constantly!  And freeing us practically!!!!!

Are you free?  It’s an honest question…and to be blantantly honest, it’s a tough question.  Because we think that if we answer honestly then folks will condemn us…look down on us…”no, I’m not free.”  That takes courage.  To say that you do live under condemnation...that you don’t know or understand the joy that you’ve heard is available through a personal relationship with Jesus.  That takes courage.  The interesting fact of Christianity is…that no one who is saved, born again by the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, none of those that are citizens of the coming Kingdom…are cowards.  They are all mighty and courageous because they have humbled themselves and faced the fact that apart from Jesus, they are lost.

Are you free?  Maybe you don’t even know.  Maybe you’re here this morning thinking, I don’t know if I am or not…I think I am…I prayed a prayer…I wear a cross…I say I’m a Christian…but if I’m honest…I don’t feel free.  My life is plagued with strife, contentions, hatred, outbursts, selfishness, envy and just general junk…Are you free?

When will you come into the ark man?  James said the wise man looks into the mirror and remembers what he sees…what do you see?  If you have any strength to do it.  They’re not the problem…it’s not her, it’s not him…it’s sin…and it’s your sin…time to take a look at that debt that keeps climbing…minimum payments don’t cut it when you’re maxed out…the fees keep coming…time to declare chapter 8 bankruptcy man…before one more pit is discovered…you’re even creating pits for those that you love…come out from all that! 

He is not accusing you.  He never was, He never did, He never will.  If the Lord has convicted you of sin it’s not to harm you but to heal you!  Oh how He loves you child.  To the point that while you and I both were absolutely lost to sin, at complete war with Him in our heart of hearts, He gave up His life for yours.  He traded His life for yours…Ever think of that?  How that screams of a love that is beyond affection…beyond reciprocation…just pure, unleashed and unconditional desperate love? 

That love…you need to know…you need to live it out man…this condemnation will fall off you like water on a duck feather…Are you free?  John 3:16 says that if anyone would place their trust in Jesus, they’d be given eternal life…their eyes would be opened to the things of eternity…and 2 Cor 3:16 says that when one truly bows the knee to the Lord of Lords that the veil that has blinded them their entire life…caused them to make poor decisions and fall into all sorts of pits…is taken away…and the next verse, 2 Cor 3:17 says where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom…are you free? 

You can be today…Christian have you been in the flesh?  Maybe in your week…maybe in your marriage…maybe in your singleness…in your (fill in the blank)…time to return to your first love…time to hearken upon the Lord again and call upon the Spirit for a fresh filling man…that’s called repentance…what a gift…nothing else will work…not putting a little extra in the tithe box…doing a little extra Bible study…a little extra praying…a little extra serving…nothing will refresh you until you simply repent and quit walking according to the flesh…but according to the Spirit.

Are you free?  Jesus says come…come and wash, come and eat, come and rest…come back…just come to Me…come now…