No Condemnation

“So now there is no condemnation for those who belong to Christ Jesus. And because you belong to Him, the power of the life-giving Spirit has freed you from the power of sin that leads to death.” Romans 8:1-2 (NLT) These verses are meaningful to me as a follower of Christ because, when I sin, not only does Jesus forgive me when I ask Him, but I also belong to Him! Although this does not give me permission to keep on deliberately sinning, He has freed me from the power of sin because of His Spirit in me. His Spirit causes me to be convicted of sin and aware of what is wrong and what is right. There was a time I remember, just a few days after I asked Jesus to forgive me of my sins and make me clean, that I became more aware of my choice of words. At school, my combination lock was not reading my numbers—or was I just mixing them up? I was late for class and getting impatient. Next thing I knew, I swore. Wow, I felt and knew that this wasn’t a word I should be using. I wouldn’t have cared before, but I just didn’t feel right in continuing to use this offensive language. In all honesty, there are times that I fail and continue to sin. But immediately I confess it and ask God to forgive me. At times guilt has still hovered over me, and I kept asking God to forgive me. Usually, Satan will try to keep us from trusting that God has the power to forgive our sin. Then I came upon this verse in Romans 8:1, and how liberating it was to read it! “So now there is no condemnation for those who belong to Christ Jesus.” As a child of God, there is no condemnation—I have been forgiven! – Myrna Kopf   Council Fire is a collaboration with Intertribal Life Ministries and Native Evangelical Fellowship of Canada. The Council Fire Daily Devotional Book Set is available on the Intertribal Life Ministries website. Learn more about Council Fire at councilfire365.org