It’s Monday Grace!
Maybe it’s because we are so small. Maybe it’s because our lives are so short. For some reason, we find it hard to think of the bigger picture when it comes to the gospel message. We seem to think it revolves around us and our actions.
When most people think about their sins, they have certain ones in mind. Bad habits, stupid decisions, wicked acts. They know what they have done. When they think of being under condemnation, they think of those particular sins.
But that isn’t what it means to be under condemnation. You and I were not under condemnation because of certain things we did before we came to Jesus. Those who are lost today are not under condemnation because of specific things they did. No, there is a state of condemnation.
A large apartment building housing hundreds of people was recently condemned. Inspectors noticed cracks in the foundation. On further examination, they realized that the builders had used the wrong concrete formula. The building wasn’t very old, but there was nothing that could be done to make it safe. All the tenants were moved out with their belongings and the building was destroyed.
That’s what it means to be under condemnation. The whole thing was broken, unsafe, beyond repair. For a building to be condemned means it has to be destroyed. It is already incapable of doing what it is supposed to do: house people safely.
Human life apart from the Savior is so damaged by sin that it is said to be “under condemnation.” There is nothing that can be redeemed. The old must pass away. The new must be given. So, the old man dies with Christ on the cross, and Jesus gives us His new life.
You see, people don’t need salvation because they committed adultery or lied. They need salvation because they are broken beyond repair. No one is good enough to escape this condemnation. Nothing we can do will be enough to make our old lives worth fixing.
“All have sinned,” the Scripture says. Even our righteous acts and motivations are as “filthy rags.” It cannot be enough. The old life cannot be saved.
The builders of the faulty building could spend a lot of money to cover or even try to fix the foundation, but the building would still be unsafe. There is nothing any of us can do to fix our own broken lives. In fact, there is nothing society or tradition or morality can do to fix us. We simply need to be built again from the ground up, born again.
God is not concerned about the specific sins of the sinner. He doesn’t like those sins, but He knows they are symptoms of a larger problem. Like the cracks in the foundation, our obvious sins are evidence of a deeper brokenness, damage that cannot simply be covered or repaired.
To be under condemnation is to be judged systemically broken, faulty beyond repair.
But there is more than hope; there is a promise of life in Jesus!