No Condemnation. Ever.

Someone recently left a comment on one of my Instagram posts which started with this, “I didn’t come here to condemn you but…” after which came, you guessed it, a bunch of condemnation (based on a faulty assumption, by the way). I responded kindly but firmly, after which he doubled down with, “I literally said I didn’t come here to condemn you.”

I thought immediately of that one Princess Bride quote, “you keep using that word, but I don’t think it means what you think it means.”

And, you know what, maybe we don’t actually know what that word means. The church certainly seems to live unaware of its definition.

According to the English dictionary, to be condemned is to be declared to be reprehensible, wrong or evil, or to be pronounced guilty and sentenced to punishment.

So, to be clear, declaring someone evil, wrong, reprehensible, or guilty, is condemning them. That’s what condemnation is… by definition.

And, look, let’s be honest, we do that as humans. Sometimes, appropriately so. For example, someone sentenced to time in prison for a crime they committed is appropriately being condemned in that moment. That’s a human reality on a human planet with human consequences.

But what about God? What about our spiritual reality?

Romans 8 says that there is now no condemnation for those of us who are in Christ. Why? Well, as the verse goes on to say, because the thing that stood to condemn us (the Law) no longer has any power over us. Why? Because Christ fulfilled every righteous requirement found in it and then came to live in us. Because we are reborn people of the Spirit and not people of the flesh. We are free and not slaves.

So, by definition, according to this scripture, you, child of God, are no longer evil, wrong, reprehensible, or guilty. There is no punishment sentence waiting for you on this side of heaven or the next. To declare yourself or a fellow Christian any of those things would be to disregard Christ’s sacrifice and life in you.

There is now, therefore, NO condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. That’s what it says. No. None. Zero. Zilch.

In the original Greek no still means no.

So, I don’t know about you, but I think I’m going to agree with Jesus on this one.

No condemnation, every spiritual blessing. Period.

Romans 8:1-4; Ephesians 1:3