From time to time there is a miscarriage of justice. An innocent person is convicted of a crime and sent to prison for something he didn’t do. We quite rightly become angry when we hear about cases like this. Such things ought not to happen. They are an affront to our concept of what is right and fitting.
There is also another kind of injustice. Sometimes a guilty person escapes punishment for what he did. This is just as wrong as punishing someone who is innocent. Before we become too upset over someone who escapes punishment, we should give some thought about our own situation. Are we not all sinners before God? Don’t we deserve punishment for breaking His standards? Hasn’t God shown us mercy? As it says in the Psalms, “The LORD is compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, abounding in love. He will not always accuse, nor will he harbor his anger forever; he does not treat us as our sins deserve or repay us according to our iniquities.” (Psalm 103:8-10 NIV)
But this raises a question. How can God treat us with more mercy than we deserve and still be just? How can He allow our sin to go unpunished? The answer is that He cannot. If God is to remain just and righteous, then He must enforce the penalties for sin.
On the other hand, the Bible tells us that God loves us. How can He bear to see the ones He loves die? Only God could find the solution to this dilemma. He sent the sinless Jesus Christ to die in our place. When we are united to Christ’s death in baptism, the penalty of sin is paid in full and we are clothed with Christ. When God looks at us, He sees the sinless Jesus. The Apostle Paul writes, “God presented him as a sacrifice of atonement, through faith in his blood. He did this to demonstrate his justice, because in his forbearance he had left the sins committed beforehand unpunished— he did it to demonstrate his justice at the present time, so as to be just and the one who justifies those who have faith in Jesus.” (Romans 3:25-26 NIV)
Christ’s sacrifice does more than pay the penalty for our wrongdoing. Paul points out that we wouldn’t know what sin is except for God’s Law which defines it. The intent of the Law was to help us avoid sin. In practice, the Law condemned us because we are incapable of keeping it. Unfortunately, the Law is incapable of restoring us. In a sense, when Christ rescued us from sin, He also rescued us from the Law which condemned us.
There is another sense in which Christ rescues us from the Law. In chapter 8, verses 1 through 8 of his inspired letter to the church at Rome, Paul writes, “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. For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus made me free from the law of sin and of death. For what the law couldn’t do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God did, sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh; that the ordinance of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit. For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit, the things of the Spirit. For the mind of the flesh is death, but the mind of the Spirit is life and peace; because the mind of the flesh is hostile towards God; for it is not subject to God’s law, neither indeed can it be. Those who are in the flesh can’t please
God.”
In chapter 7 Paul wrote that sin enslaves. It forces us to do the evil that we do not want to do and prevents us from doing the good we want to do. The Law cannot free us from this slavery. It can only condemn us to death because of it. Christ frees us from this because He gives us life. How did He do it? Christ is able to give us life because He took our place. Though He was totally sinless, He took our sinful nature upon Himself. When He sacrificed Himself on our behalf, it fulfilled the requirement of the Law.
We began this program by talking about miscarriages of justice. If the penalty the law prescribes for a crime is not paid, justice has not been served. However, once the penalty the law demands has been paid, justice has been met and the law is satisfied. The criminal is now free from the law which condemned him. If there is a fine for breaking a particular law, the court does not care whose pocket the money comes from as long as the fine is paid. If I do not have the money needed to pay my fine, a friend can give me the money. This is what Jesus did for us. We could not pay what God’s Law requires. Jesus Christ paid our fine for us. He met the requirements of the Law. By doing so, He freed us from the Law.
However, even though Jesus paid the price for our redemption, we still have a problem. As Paul explained in the previous chapter, God’s Law is spiritual but we are unspiritual. Our flesh is weak. In our natural selves we are still prone to sin even though, in our minds, we delight in God’s Law and want to live by His standards. How can we become freed from this nature which continually draws us toward sin?
The answer to this problem is the Spirit of Christ. When we become followers of Christ, He sends His Spirit to live in us. Christ’s Spirit enables us to do what we can never do on our own. The Spirit not only controls our natural passions and desires, it directs our thoughts and minds to what is spiritual.
In contrast, those who allow their flesh to control them, set their minds on fleshly things. They cannot please God because the fleshly mind is hostile to God. It not only does not want to submit to what pleases God, it cannot.
This has a practical application for us. Do we find ourselves continually doing things which do not please God? Do our natural desires, appetites and thoughts control our lives? Do we find it impossible to be spiritual? If this is the case, then we need to ask ourselves whether the Spirit of Christ really is in us. Are we followers of Christ only in name, or in fact? Have we accepted the sacrifice He made on our behalf?