Condemnation

This is something that people struggle with on a constant basis, both saved and unsaved. Sadly enough, the Church isn't supposed to live under condemnation in their lives, but the truth is that the Church is in pretty bad shape. The blame can be left to the pulpits possibly, although we all like to blame the devil for such things. It's not the devil's fault either, for he is simply doing the job that God assigned him.

After the Fall of Man in Genesis chapter 3, God assigns the punishments for sin, the serpent's (satan's) was to "eat the dust of the ground all of the days of his life." One might ask, what does that mean? What is man made from but the dust of the ground, (Gen 2:7, 3:19). In all fairness to the devil, he's doing what he is supposed to be doing.

Some may view this to be a cruel act on God's part, for if He were loving, He wouldn't allow the devil to temp, condemn, harm and cause pain to God's creation, right? When God created man, He created him perfectly, to live forever in a sinless state. He also gave man free will to make the choice to eat from what God had provided, or to eat that which would bring forth the knowledge of good and to know sin by experience. Unfortunately we didn't all individually make that fatal decision, Adam made that for us and on our behalf, for in his loins existed all of the human race. "Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned." (Romans 5:12) Then we are also greeted with the good news that though death came by one, so did life come by One, and that is Christ Jesus (verse 17).

What does this have to do with condemnation? Sinful man is already condemned by his sinful activity, (John 3:18). So the first thing one needs to ask, is am I saved? If you have received Christ into your heart and life, you shouldn't be condemned anymore, for by the simple act of receiving Christ as your Lord and Saviour, you have accepted what God sent to fix our mistake. To answer the question about God being cruel, no He is not, rather He is Just. If He were not just, He would have simply left us on our own to live in the sinful state we were in. Sin is digressive, meaning it just gets worse and worse through the passing of time. When Adam died, He lived almost 1000 years, because of how perfect he began as, but sin has taken it's toll. Now the average life expectancy of man is less than 70 years.

If you have received Christ into your heart, and you are still living a life of condemnation it is because you have been falsely accused. Satan's job is to slander, accuse falsely and trick. Who does he trick, God? No, His Children. If we don't know who we are "in Christ," than Satan is able to stand before God and accuse us, finding every fault that we have within our lives.

Often times, we hear voices that tell us how we have failed, how God is mad at us, doesn't love us, has forgotten about us, ect...that is not a voice from our Heavenly Father, it's most definitely the "accuser of the brethren."

How do we overcome it? We need to know who we are "In Christ," than once we have received Christ in our hearts, God sees us as perfect in His sight. Are there things that need to change in our lives, yes, because although we died with Christ when He died on Calvary, we still have tendencies that don't speak of Christ, but rather of the old us. Our job is to continue to "believe on Him" that saved us, and let Him do the cleaning up along the journey to Heaven.