No Condemnation: The Assurance of Salvation

And I'm investing in you, and I'm building your life. And if I build your life, you think I'm gonna let it just burn down to the ground? The Holy Spirit's been given to us. You see, at just the right time when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly. Listen, you weren't on Zillow. You were not on God didn't find you on Zillow. He found you in the obituaries. We were dead in our trespasses when Christ Jesus died for the ungodly. Our life had already burned up. So when God came in, he bought a condemned structure. Okay? But God demonstrates his own love for us in this that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. [00:53:16] (45 seconds)  #BoughtNotRenovated

And so we as followers, we're just we're building in the same neighborhood as you. But we have an eternal assurance policy that protects us against the likely yet unpredictable catastrophic events of life. Cancer will affect both our families identically till the end. Death does not affect our lives identically. The bible says there are those like we do not grieve as those who have no hope. We grieve, but very differently. Why? Because we have eternal assurance. We never say goodbye to a loved one. We say see you later. We don't move on without them, we move towards them every day because we know where they're at. [01:02:28] (56 seconds)  #EternalAssurance

You have this freedom to not have to worry about perfection, but you don't have the freedom to just go out there and throw caution to the wind because that's gonna cost you. Right? It would be like a person saying, look, I got life insurance. I'm good. And jump out of a plane without a parachute. Like, dude, do you realize that doesn't kick in till you're dead? Like, as soon as you hit the ground, your family benefits, but you sure don't. Right? People do not naturally just go live stupidly because they have insurance. Why? Because there's still consequences attached, and that is true with assurance. [00:48:39] (35 seconds)  #LiveResponsibly

But just because you have homeowners, does that mean you're gonna go home today and set your house on fire? Because there's still consequences for that kind of choice. Right? There's a difference between condemnation and consequences. And God doesn't remove consequences for poor choices, but you'll see today, he has removed amazingly the possibility of present or future condemnation. That's been taken care of and you'll see why that is true today. And so today's big idea is the guaranteed assurance of our salvation should, can, I'll go so far as to say, must produce motivation for living saved. [00:47:57] (41 seconds)  #AssuranceMotivatesLiving

And there's really I love the list, but at the end of the day, it's how Paul wraps the list up because he knows there's some smarty pants out there. He'll be like, well, what about this? And Paul said, or anything else in all creation for all the smarty pants out there. And guess who that must include? A saved person. Because the last time I checked, you're in creation. You're covered. Nothing will separate you from the love of God, the same Christ Jesus. Nothing. Nothing. But get your lexicon out and get a degree in Greek and look it all up and waste that time. I'm gonna tell you what nothing means real quick. Nothing. Nothing. [01:08:07] (40 seconds)  #NothingSeparatesUs

He chose your lives. He chose your wombs. He chose your homes. He chose your marriages to be the place where these children would be raised. And that says something about you, that he would trust you with life's greatest resource, children. And so he's not just gonna charge you with that responsibility without giving you what you need to fulfill it. He doesn't expect to rely on you to do it. He expects you to rely on him to see it through. [00:27:26] (29 seconds)  #ParentsCalledAndEquipped

So part number one of this reality, okay, is that God has a deep investment in your life, and he proved it by sending the spirit into you. God is not gonna let the whole thing burn to the ground, he's in you. He's in a partnership with you now. He's deeply invested in your life. And when he bought us, our house was a complete wreck. He bought us, if you will, at a fire sale. Our lives were completely condemned. You couldn't live in it. It was an unlivable house. It's not as though, you know, God insured a a beautiful human being. They don't exist. [00:51:00] (41 seconds)  #GodInvestedInYou

And if you're in Christ and Christ is in you, there is no way you're gonna be condemned. Now, you can face consequences surely, because God can't be mocked, you will reap what you sow. But condemnation and consequences are two completely different things. So we have been set free from the law of sin and death. Okay? We live under the law of the spirit who gives life. The law of sin and death is basically a person who has watched, if you will, their life burned to the ground. They rebuild a house in one of those fire prone valleys in California, and then they refuse to get insurance. [01:00:43] (43 seconds)  #ConsequencesNotCondemnation

If he saved us when we were a wretch, how much more than will we be saved now that we've been justified? In other words, God knows what he bought when he bought us. He knew what he was getting into. He knew where we were living. He knew what we'd be facing. He knew the possibility of catastrophic choices. Even not so catastrophic, they still need to be paid for. He knew all that. And you and I are no longer subject sure, the fires of this world, you might smell a little bit of embers every now and then. But his wrath, the ultimate fire, you're not subject to that anymore. [00:55:21] (39 seconds)  #SavedAndSecured

See, it isn't just a license to live any way you want. That would not make sense. It's a license to live the way God wants you to knowing that there's always gonna be moments when we don't live the way that God wants us to live, and that we don't go back to square one. What we do is we repent and we confess. And first John one nine says, and God is faithful and just to forgive us of our sins and once again cleanse us of all unrighteousness. He comes right back in and he repairs the smoke damage, the water damage, you know, and he gets all the damage cleaned up and repaints your life and says, alright, let's try not do that again. [01:09:02] (42 seconds)  #RepentAndRestore

And it would seem reasonable at a certain point where God would say, I'm done assuring that. I'm not gonna sit here and watch you burn down the house over and over and over again. I'm just not gonna do that. I've got enough for maybe one incident, maybe two, but I'm backing out. But the truth of the matter is that's not at all how it works. Like, there's no amount of catastrophic possibilities, believe it or not, in the life of a follower of Jesus Christ, where you are out from under God's assurance policy. [00:46:48] (36 seconds)  #AssuranceNeverWithdrawn

Like, that's a lot of money. Yeah, I know it's a lot of money, but it's a high likelihood that house is gonna be knocked down one day. And so it's just insane what's going on out there because there's there's really no, if you think about it, assurance that there isn't something catastrophic that's going to happen, and more and more and more, there's less insurance that's able to cover it. Alright? Now when you think about the ongoing reality of sin, it's not going anywhere. It's in in our individual lives, we are going to continue to sin. And there's even the possibility that you're you light a match that starts a wildfire and it burns your whole life down. [00:46:00] (48 seconds)  #SinIsOngoing

And the only way to rectify the possibility of that outcome is number one, you could be perfect. That ain't happening, and if you're not perfect, you gotta pay and you can't do that. When Christ came, that's why his sinlessness is so important. He fulfilled one phase of the law by being perfect. Check that box. He did it. But then he also fulfilled the law by offering the perfect payment. Check that box. So the law was never abolished, it was just fulfilled. That's it. And I'm not under it anymore because I'm under the the law of the spirit who gives life. [01:04:01] (38 seconds)  #ChristFulfilledTheLaw

He built out remember Matthew chapter seven, Jesus said there's two ways to build a house and the differentiation is what foundation it's on. The storms come, the one on the rock. Listen, the storms beat it just like it beat the other one that's built on the sand. But the one on the sand collapsed, one on the rock stood. Is it because we who build on the rock don't face storms? Well, that's stupid. Of course, we do. It's just that we outlast them. You build on the sand without foundation, you pretty much get what you deserve. Right. [01:01:56] (32 seconds)  #BuildOnTheRock

And this series has been a systematic look at the reality of not only the moment of salvation, but the ongoing effect of having been saved. It's a systematic theological look at what's called soteriology and that is the reality of salvation. While the moment of being saved is obviously the most epic, if you will, catalyst, it unleashes a life that should be lived differently now that you're saved. There's so much to salvation now. It's never less than being saved, but the Bible talks about the reality that there's so much that happens before you enter into heaven and the next life, if you will, that happens right here, right now. [00:37:48] (44 seconds)  #SoteriologyExplained

And we're like, okay. So the big question then that Paul knew had to be answered is, so what is the role of sin in a redeemed life? What happens? Do we lose our salvation or are we set free to go live licentiously? What is the like, how do we figure that out? And that's what we're gonna look at today. And the answer to that is actually a term that's called security or the the assurance of the believer. [00:42:28] (29 seconds)  #RoleOfSinExplained

There is still condemnation for those that aren't in Christ Jesus. In fact, you're already condemned. Your structure is unlivable. Life cannot happen in you. It can't. It's been burnt to the ground by sin. And Jesus said, you stand condemned already because you don't believe God. Like, don't have you're not in Christ. You don't have to worry about what the final verdict's gonna be. It's already been rendered. You're condemned. Nothing can live in you. There's no life in you. There's no assurance policy. You've burnt the thing to the ground and that's the way it's gonna stay. [00:59:29] (40 seconds)  #UnbelieversCondemned

We don't leave loved ones behind that they're in Christ, they just got there before we did. The motivation to push through the grief is because every day you walk forward, you're one day closer to seeing your loved one because you know where your loved one is. That's all the power of assurance. Okay? So for what the law was powerless to do because it was weakened by flesh, God did by sending his own son in a likeness of sinful flesh to be a sin offering. Why am I no longer subject to condemnation? Because I'm no longer under the law of sin and death. Here's what that law was. If you sin, you die. Okay? [01:03:23] (37 seconds)  #HopeInAssurance

Those of us that are in Christ Jesus, we're not any better than you. We've just been purchased by his blood. And when God purchased us with his blood through our faith believing that Christ absorbed the full and final wrath of God, God sent a spirit to live in us. And in that moment, a new creation was was born, and God's been building our lives ever since. Surely, there's gonna be construction errors, construction delays, we run out of material, all those other things. But at the end of the day, what God builds, God sustains. [01:00:09] (33 seconds)  #PurchasedAndBuiltByGod

So each of us have to have decisions we've got to make about who we are, where we live when God found us, where we were when God bought us, make some seriously good decisions about and possibly, God's like, no, I'm gonna rebuild your life right there in the midst of wildfire zone, Because that's where you have the greatest amount of influence that people say, you're gonna like, we're gonna build your life right where it burnt down. You're like, I don't want you to build my so I'm not asking you, I bought you. And I'm investing in you, and I'm building your life. [00:52:51] (28 seconds)  #RebuiltWhereYouWere