No Longer Condemned: Living Sin Free, Guilt Free and Carefree

By Mark Garver

No Longer Condemned

Living Sin Free, Guilt Free and Carefree

 

The only thing worse than being trapped in a life of sin is being free from sin but not knowing it. Don’t let past sins weigh you down and beat you up until you feel ashamed and unworthy. Condemnation is paralyzing, and it opens the door

• Language: English
• Publisher: Mountz Media and Publishing
• Release date: Jan 23, 2019
• ISBN: 9780986264238

Book preview

INTRODUCTION

I began pastoring in 1993, and I can say without hesitation that sin and condemnation are the biggest and most pervasive problems affecting the body of Christ today. In fact, sociologists teach that the universal need for all mankind is to be free of guilt, and the desire to be free of condemnation has produced all the religions in the world today.

Obviously, man’s attempt to pay or atone for his sin and get rid of guilt is no small thing. It’s man’s number one need – above housing, love and money. That right there should convince us all just how powerful condemnation and guilt are. They affect mankind to the core.

Yet, why try to solve a problem that’s already been solved?

Jesus Christ has paid the price for the sins of the world. He not only atoned for our sins, but He became our atonement. He wiped out our sins and washed them away with His own blood and said anyone who believes in Him can walk free. Then Jesus went one step further in our emancipation and said in Romans 8:1, There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit.

God Himself says you can live free of sin.

God Himself says you can live free of condemnation.

God’s Word will set you free if you take hold of the message on the pages that follow.

Guaranteed.

~Pastor Mark Garver

Chapter 1

CONDEMNATION – NO WAY, NO HOW

Therefore there is now no condemnation [no guilty verdict, no punishment] for those who are in Christ Jesus [who believe in Him as personal Lord and Savior].

Romans 8:1

The Amplified Bible

When you think of a condemned house, what sort of mental picture do you get? Do you picture a place with boards hanging loose, bricks missing, doors crooked, windows shattered, holes in the walls and wild animals running through? That’s what I see. I imagine a place so rundown an order came down from someone in power saying, CONDEMNED: No longer fit for human habitation. Most people would move out of a house that was rundown, broken-down and fallen-down long before a condemnation order was nailed up because a condemned place is unworthy of human habitation.

Unfortunately, there are way too many born-again Christians who feel just as condemned, bruised and battered as the condemned house we described. These are blood-bought, redeemed believers on their way to heaven, but living their lives on earth weighed down and beat up with condemnation. Condemnation affects so many in the body of Christ that this message of freedom has become an important message for today. The Spirit of God wants to help these people. If you’re troubled with condemnation, He wants to help you.

Jesus Christ already paid the ultimate price to set you free from sin, and He doesn’t want guilt and condemnation trying to put back on you what He erased.

Sin and condemnation are deadly.

Condemned people don’t feel fit to go to church. They don’t feel fit to serve God or walk out His plans for their lives. They don’t feel that God loves them or hears their prayers. They feel totally unworthy to live in the kingdom of God.

Jesus Christ already paid the ultimate price to set you free from sin, and He doesn’t want guilt and condemnation trying to put back on you what He erased.

The truth is, Jesus is the only perfect person without sin—past, present or future. Romans 3:23 says we have all sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. That’s the whole point. Sin was and is a universal problem. As much as we try to be perfect and do right, we still mess up. All of us.

Sin proves only one thing. We need a Savior.

Jesus set us free from sins. He erased them, blotted them out and said He would remember them no more. So, if you’re still dealing with sin and condemnation, then you have not received what God has for you because God Himself said there is now therefore no condemnation.

But that cannot be true! someone might say. It’s just natural to have trouble getting over it. Feeling condemned is a good thing. It’s just part of the human experience.

That’s a lie. That’s not what the Bible says. You can get free from condemnation.

If the Word of God says there is now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, then that is the high level that you and I can walk in. You can walk free of sin and condemnation, which is God’s will and plan for you. Keep reading all the way to the end of this book, and you’ll learn how to make sure condemnation is a thing of the past.

Actually, you cannot afford to live with condemnation in your life. It will affect your confidence toward God. It will affect your confidence toward people. It will affect your faith walk. It will affect your prayer life. It will affect your love walk. It will ruin your life.

Again, Romans 8:1 says, There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit. That means zero, zilch, absolutely none. This scripture tells me it’s wrong to put up with condemnation and it’s wrong to allow it.

Yet, for something the Bible says we shouldn’t have, there’s an awful lot of it in the Church. All of us at one time or another have dealt with condemnation. At one time or another, we’ve all felt guilty. At one time or another, we’ve all felt like we don’t measure up, but living in that place is a mistake.

Shockingly enough, it’s hard to say whether condemnation is more prevalent among those raised in church or those not raised in church. As a pastor, I’ve counseled a lot of adults troubled with condemnation because of the way they were raised in church.

When you got in trouble as a child, if you heard from parents, pastor or Sunday school teachers, You better straighten up or God’s gonna get you that’s a problem. Their motive was to keep you on the straight and narrow, but what they really did was fill you with fear and condemnation. Children should never be corrected that way. God isn’t going to get anybody. Sin carries penalties and consequences so sin may get you, but God won’t. God is good, and God is on your side.

Even though God is on our side, most people don’t seem to know it. As I looked back at more than 20 years of sermons, I realized that I had never before preached on the topic of condemnation. This surprised me because as I look around the body of Christ today I see so many people affected by sin and guilt. Condemnation weighs heavily on so many people crying out for relief.

Yet, in their effort to get relief, many people look in the wrong direction for answers. There’s no question that I believe in the grace of God. Thank God for it. It’s by grace through faith that we are saved (Ephesians 2:8). Yet, sometimes people take the good, right and true message of grace to an extreme. The Bible says the truth of grace will teach you not to sin. Too often lately I’ve heard people say, There’s no longer a need to confess your sin. It’s all taken care of. Don’t worry about it.

I understand some of these folks are well-meaning ministers trying to help masses of people overcome by condemnation. I also recognize the Holy Ghost is trying to inject the truth of grace into the Church because so many people are tired of living with guilt and pain. They’re crying out, Somebody please show me how to get relief! So, clearly, I understand grace teaching comes out of necessity. People want a way out. They