And, first, To believers in Christ, walking thus, there is no condemnation on account of their past sins. God condemneth them not for any of these: they are as tho’ they had never been. They are cast as a stone into the depth of the sea, and he remembreth them no more. God having set forth his Son to be a propitiation for them, thro’ faith in his blood, hath declared unto them his righteousness, for the remission of the sins that are past. He layeth therefore none of these totheir charge; their memorial is perished with them.
2. And there is no condemnation in their own breast; no sense of guilt, or dread of the wrath of God. They have the witness in themselves; they are conscious of their interest in the blood of sprinkling. They have not received again the spirit of bondage unto fear, unto doubt and racking uncertainty; but they have received the Spirit of adoption, crying in their hearts, Abba, Father. Thus being justified by faith, they have the peace of God ruling in their hearts: flowing from a continual sense of his pardoning mercy, and the answer of a good conscience toward God.
3. If it be said, But sometimes a believer in Christ, may lose his sight of the mercy of God; sometimes such darkness may fall upon him, that he no longer sees him that is invisible, no longer feels that witness in himself of his part in the atoning blood; and then he is inwardly condemned, he hath again the sentence of death in himself: I answer, supposing it so to be, supposing him not to see the mercy of God, then he is not a believer; for faith implies light; the light of God shining upon the soul. So far therefore as any one loses this light, he for the time loses his faith. And no doubt a true believer in Christ, may lose the light of faith. And so far as this is lost, he may for a time fall again into condemnation. But this is not thecase of them who now are in Christ Jesus, who now believe in his name. For so long as they believe and walk after the Spirit, neither God condemns them nor their own heart.
5. They are not condemned, Secondly, for any present sins, for now transgressing the commandments of God. For they do not transgress them? They do not walk after the flesh but after the Spirit. This is the continual proof of their love of God, that they keep his commandments: even as St. John bears witness, Whosoever is born of God doth not commit sin. For his seed remaineth in him, and he cannot sin, because he is born of God: he cannot, so long as that seed of God, that loving, holy faith remaineth in him. So long as he keepeth himself herein, that wicked one toucheth him not. Now it is evident, he is not condemned for the sins which he doth not commit at all. They therefore who are thus led by the Spirit, are not under the law, (Gal. v. 18.) Not under the curse or condemnation of it; for it condemns none but those who break it. Thus, that law of God, Thou shalt not steal, condemns none but those who do steal. Thus, Remember the sabbath-day to keep it holy, condemns those only who do not keep it holy. But against the fruits of the Spirit, there is no law; (v. 23.) as the apostle more largely declares, in those memorable words of his former epistle to Timothy. We know, that the law is good, if a man use it lawfully; knowing this,(if while he uses the law of God, in order either to convince or direct, he know and remember this) ὅτι δικαίω νόμος οὐ κεῖται. (Not, that the law is not made for a righteous man; but) that the law does not lie against a righteous man: (it has no force against him, no power to condemn him) but against the lawless and disobedient, against the ungodly and sinners, against the unholy and profane—according to the glorious gospel, of the blessed God. 1 Tim. i. 8, 9, 11.
6. They are not condemned, thirdly, for inward sin, even tho’ it does now remain. That the corruption of nature does still remain, even in those who are the children of God by faith, that they have in them the seeds of pride and vanity, of anger, lust and evil desire, yea, sin of every kind, is too plain to be denied, being matter of daily experience. And on this account it is, that St. Paul speaking to those, whom he had just before witness’d to bein Christ Jesus[25], to have beencalled of God into the fellowship (or participation) of his Son Jesus Christ[26], yet declares, Brethren, I could not speak unto you as unto spiritual, but as unto carnal; even as unto babes in Christ (1 Cor. iii. 1.) Babes in Christ—So we see they were in Christ; they were believers in a low degree. And yet how much of sin remained in them? Of that carnal mind, which is not subject to the law of God?
7. And yet, for all this, they are not condemned. Although they feel the flesh, the evil nature in them, although they are more sensible day by day, that their heart is deceitful and desperately wicked: yet so long as they do not yield thereto, so long as they give no place to the devil, so long as they maintain a continual war, with all sin, with pride, anger, desire, so that the flesh hath no dominion over them, but they still walk after the Spirit: there is no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus. God is well-pleased with their sincere, tho’ imperfect obedience: and they have confidence toward God, knowing they are his, by the Spirit which he hath given them. 1 John iii. 24.
8. Nay, fourthly, altho’ they are continually convinced of sin cleaving to all they do; altho’ they are conscious of not fulfilling the perfect law, either in their thoughts, or words, or works; altho’ they know they do not love the Lord their God, with all their heart, and mind, and soul and strength; altho’ they feel more or less of pride or self-will, stealing in and mixing with their best duties; altho’ even in their more immediate intercourse with God, when they assemble themselves with the great congregation, and when they pour out their souls in secret to him, who seeth all the thoughts and intents of the heart, they are continually ashamed of their wandring thoughts, or of the deadness and dulness of their affections; yet there is no condemnationto them still, either from God or from their own heart. The consideration of these manifold defects only gives them a deeper sense, that they have always need of that blood of sprinkling, which speaks for them in the ears of God, and that Advocate with the Father who ever liveth, to make intercession for them. So far are these from driving them away from him, in whom they have believed, that they rather drive them the closer to him, whom they feel the want of every moment. And at the same time, the deeper sense they have of this want, the more earnest desire do they feel, and the more diligent they are, as they have received the Lord Jesus, so to walk in him.
9. They are not condemned, fifthly, for sins of infirmity, as they are usually called. (Perhaps it were adviseable rather to call them infirmities, that we may not seem to give any countenance to sin, or to extenuate it in any degree, by thus coupling it with infirmity. But if we must retain so ambiguous and dangerous an expression) by sins of infirmity I would mean, such involuntary failings, as the saying a thing we believe true, tho’ in fact it prove to be false; or the hurting our neighbour, without knowing or designing it; perhaps when we design’d to do him good. Tho’ these are deviations from the holy and acceptable and perfect will of God, yet they are not properly sins, nor do they bring any guilt on the conscience of them which are inChrist Jesus. They separate not between God and them, neither intercept the light of his countenance; as being no ways inconsistent with their general character, of walking not after the flesh but after the Spirit.
10. Lastly, There is no condemnation to them for any thing whatever which it is not in their power to help; whether it be of an inward or outward nature, and whether it be doing something, or leaving something undone. For instance: the Lord’s supper is to be administered. But you do not partake thereof. Why do you not; you are confined by sickness. Therefore you cannot help omitting it: and for the same reason, you are not condemned. There is no guilt; because there is no choice. As there is a willing mind, it is accepted, according to that a man hath, not according to that he hath not.
11. A believer indeed may sometimes be grieved, because he cannot do what his soul longs for. He may cry out, when he is detain’d from worshipping God in the great congregation, Like as the hart panteth after the water-brooks, so panteth my soul after thee, O God. My soul is athirst for God, yea even for the living God: when shall I come to appear in the presence of God? He may earnestly desire (only still saying in his heart, not as I will, but as thou wilt) to go again with the multitude and bring them forth into the house of God. But still, if he cannot go, he feels no condemnation, no guilt, nosense of God’s displeasure: but can chearfully yield up those desires, with, O my soul, put thy trust in God: for I will yet give him thanks, who is the help of my countenance and my God.