Do You Know Me?
“There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus” Romans 8:1
Condemnation – The greatest fear that any human being can have is not to be loved. We can deal with adversity, poverty, trials, even torture. But human beings wilt without love. They shrivel up and die from within. What stands in the way of this absolute essential for life? It is the fear that if you really knew who I am you would not love me. If you knew all my dark secrets and shameful past. If you knew the scope of my self-righteousness and prejudice. If you knew what I know about how far I am from the call of my Lord. Then something terrible would happen to me. You would recoil in horror and push me away. You would say, “How can I love someone like you?”
The fear of condemnation hangs over each of us. Not because we want it to. We want to be free of the torment of secret rejection. But we know ourselves so well. We know each and every time we have failed to hold up His banner. Each time we have slipped off the path of obedience. And if you knew what I know, you would be ashamed of me just like I am ashamed of me.
Romans chapter 7 is a very difficult chapter for any serious believer. It comes to climax with that awful cry, “Who will set me free from the body of this death?” No power on earth can undo my shame. Without a cosmic intervention, I am frozen in failure, ridiculed by rejection.
But Paul shouts victory. “There is no condemnation.” The Greek is katakrima. Literally, there is no convicting decision against me. There is no judgment leveled against my life. All that I tried to achieve by forcing myself to obey, even after I was rescued from the consequences of sin, is entirely useless as proof of my worthiness. God does not measure me by my best hopeful standard. I could not justify myself by my own efforts and I cannot sanctify myself by my own efforts.
What would it mean to you to know that God sets aside the judgment accumulated by all of those dark secrets and shameful thoughts and deeds? How would you feel to know that even your worst failings, right now, do not change His love for you? Are you free enough to give Him your sins as a token of thanksgiving? Are you able to let Him love the “you” that nobody knows?
