No Verdict Left to Read

There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, who don’t walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit. (Romans 8:1, WEB)

There is a courtroom that runs in the back of a man's mind, and after a fall it goes into session almost immediately. You take the bench, you take the witness stand, and you already know how the sentence reads before anyone speaks. The prosecution needs no time to prepare, because it has been building this case for years, and it can recite every count from memory. Paul cuts that whole proceeding short when he writes that there is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. He does not say the condemnation is reduced or delayed until you prove yourself. He says there is none, and he says it is true now, on this exact morning, while the shame still feels warm.

That word now is the one to sit with. It does not wait for a clean week or a stretch of victories. The verdict was already handed down at the cross, and it landed on Jesus instead of on you, so the case against you has no evidence left that God will admit. Everything the accuser wants to submit has already been answered, paid for, closed. You can keep re-reading a sentence he has already torn up, or you can believe him. The condemnation you feel is real as a feeling, but it is not the truth of where you stand with him. Feelings are honest reporters of your mood and terrible reporters of your legal standing before God, and this is one of those places where you have to let the fact overrule the feeling.

Learning this does not happen in a single morning. You will probably walk back into that courtroom tomorrow out of old habit, take your seat, and start the trial over again. When you notice yourself doing it, remember that the room was closed by someone with more authority than you, and there is nothing left there for you to argue.

Father, I have been sentencing myself in a court you already closed. Help me trust that when you look at me in Christ, there is nothing left to condemn.