“There is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus . . . . For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do.” --Romans 8:1-4
God's law is the standard of righteousness, but cannot produce righteousness. Ironically, it has the opposite effect. The law as a condemning power stirs up sin by pushing people either into despair (“I’m so messed up now there’s no use hoping for anything better, so I’ll just go deeper into sin”) or legalism (“I'm sure I can get a grip if I only try a little harder”). When people realize their lives are not what they ought to be, they also feel a throbbing need for atonement. Sometimes they try to satisfy this need by punishing themselves, and sometimes by blame-shifting and punishing others. Either way, the law only makes sin worse.
The story of Martin Luther illustrates the bondage of guilt and the liberating power of God’s grace. Luther was a religious neurotic, so curved in on himself in a vain attempt to establish his own righteousness that he had no time or energy to enjoy God and love his neighbor. As a monk fasting in his cell, he literally almost killed himself trying to atone for his guilt. Only the truth of justification by faith alone could liberate him to fulfill his God-given destiny, to become truly human.
His Commentary on Galatians reveals the new consciousness that released him from self-absorbed and law-focused religiosity: “When we truly see Christ, we have full and perfect joy in the Lord with peace of mind, and we think: Although I am a sinner by the Law and under condemnation of the Law, still I don’t despair, still I don’t die, because Christ lives, who is both my righteousness and my everlasting life. I am indeed a sinner in this life of mine and in my own righteousness, as a child of Adam, where the Law accuses me, death controls me and eventually would destroy me. But I have another life, another righteousness above this life which is in Christ, the Son of God, who knows no sin or death but is eternal righteousness and life.”
Luther is saying that internally we are sinners condemned by God's law, but that externally we have a complete righteousness before God in the person of Jesus who intercedes for us. This paradoxical truth produced a famous slogan, “simul justus et peccator” (at the same time righteous and sinful), which has been a balm for many a struggling conscience. Since Christ our righteousness is in heaven and we have peace with God through Christ's perfect atonement, we escape the bony clutches of legalism and despair and religious sado-masochism.
Christ’s death and resurrection has set us free from the Law as a condemning power. The new consciousness that comes by faith sets us free from crippling guilt. The power of the old age would cause me to say: “I’ve sinned. Again. For the umpteenth time. I’m trapped in my problem. I hate myself” or “This is all someone else's fault, and I'll make sure they pay the price.” But the power of the new age that I appropriate by faith enables me to say: “There is no condemnation in Christ Jesus. I am righteous because of his sacrifice. I am not defined by my sin but by my relationship with Christ. God accepts me by grace alone and gives me strength to overcome all obstacles. Even in the midst of my struggles and failures, I am set free to love God and others.” Paradoxically, it is only when we abandon our efforts to satisfy God's law that God fulfills his law within us.
