DEWITT
TABERNACLE TEACHING SERIES
"He
that Believeth on Him
is
not Condemned"
By
C.W. Wood
April/May
2003
John 3:17-18, “For God
sent not his son into the world to condemn the world but that the world through
him might be saved.” Verse 18, “He
that believeth on HIM IS NOT CONDEMNED, but he that believeth not is condemned
already, because he has not believed in the Name of the only begotten son of
God.”
What a powerful
and wonderful word that is in verse eighteen.
Notice the text; it does not say that on the Day of Judgment we will not
be condemned. It does not say, “He
that believeth SHALL NOT be condemned, but it says, “He that believeth IS NOT condemned!”
He that believeth is not condemned NOW! From the moment we first
believed on the Lord Jesus Christ, we were NO LONGER CONDEMNED! If we should
live 100 years believing in God’s plan of salvation, we would still not be
condemned! God’s word is not limited by time as man counts time, His word is
eternal.
To believe in the Cross and the sacrifice made there, is to be out from
under condemnation in the Eyes of our God. Past
sins, present sins and future sins are gone.
We stand before God as though we were without spot or wrinkle or any such
thing.
QUOTE: INVISIBLE
But you say, “I still sin!” Yes, that’s true, but our sins are not
laid to our charge. Rom. 4: 8,
“Blessed is the man to whom the Lord
will not impute (Charge) Sin.” Our
sins were laid to the charge of Jesus Christ. Does the Bible say they were? “For
He hath made him to be sin for us, who knew No Sin, that we might be the
righteousness of God in Him.” (II Cor. 5: 21) NOW, in the present tense, “He
that believeth on him is not condemned.”
God would never lay our sins on the Lord Jesus, then turn around and
charge them to us also.
In our worldly courts of law a verdict of “Not Guilty” means the
prisoner is at once released and the charge is removed from the records.
This is exactly what the gospel teaches about the court of Heaven! It
says, “He that believeth on him is not
condemned.” The moment we believe on Him, the not
guilty verdict is handed down, and we are free from condemnation.
Of course we understand that, “A pardon is not a pardon unless it be
accepted as a Pardon.” A verdict of “not guilty” is held out to every
Believer.
A Prophet said the Lord Jesus Christ became our Judge, our Attorney, and
our Jury, and asked, “How can we lose the case?” He watches for those who
believe in the plan of the Cross and the shed Blood, and pronounces them, “NOT
GUILTY!”
In Lev.16: 5-10, we read the story of how God commanded the priest
to bring two goats, and one of them was to be a scapegoat.
The high priest laid his hands on the scapegoats head and confessed the
sins of the people. The sins were
then gone from the people and laid on the head of the goat. The goat was turned
loose into the wilderness, to be seen no more. What a glorious type this is of
our sins being laid on the Lord Jesus Christ! Were there then any sins left on
the people?
Do we believe this was the
plan of God for the Old Testament Saints? Do we believe it only typed the New
Testament plan of our sins being laid on the Lord Jesus? Do we believe that
before the foundation of the world, God saw every sin we would ever commit and
laid them all on Jesus Christ? It’s true friends, that is the word of God.
Our sins were all transferred to Christ and then God drew his great sword
of justice and slew that Holy Thing that was born of Mary.
Though He was innocent in His Holy Person, He had agreed to have our sins
laid on His precious head. The Father then punished Him as though He were the
guilty one.
He’s suffered for six, long, terrible hours, one second at a time,
until every sin of all his Elect had been legally paid for. Only then did He cry
out, “It is finished.” He’s suffered until every stain of sin had been
paid for. Now, it is a fact that our
sins could not have been laid on Him, and yet remain on us also. They cannot be
in two places at the same time! Our sins could not have been carried to the
Cross and yet remain on us.
As soon as a man believes on the Lord Jesus Christ he sins are gone from
him forever. They are blotted out
forever. This does not mean we no
longer have to repent; a Born-Again Believer walks daily with a repentant heart.
He cries out for forgiveness when convicted. (Notice, the word here is convicted
not condemned.)
“He that believeth on him is not
condemned.”
What if a man
had owed ten thousand dollars and a representative had come from the business to
collect. But, the man who had owed the bill produced a receipt showing the bill
had been paid. The receipt had been signed by a co-owner of the business, and
was legal in all respects. Then it
would be evident that there had been a mistake made on the books of that
business, or else they had set out purposely to cheat. Is not this exactly what
the enemy tries to do to a Born-Again Christian? He well knows that our sin-debt
has been paid, yet he brings us a bill for them in the form of condemnation.
This is a deliberate attempt to try and cheat the Believer out of his
justification.
But, thanks be to God, the Word of Promise remained steadfast, “He that believeth on Him is not condemned.”
A word of warning at this point, we do not say that we will not FEEL
the fiery darts of condemnation. The
Lord allows them to be fired at us, but we are told not to believe the feeling
of condemnation when it comes.
I John 3: 19-21, “And
hereby we know that we are of the truth, and shall assure our hearts before Him.
For if our heart condemns us (And, it often will when the enemy
comes), God is greater than our hearts,
and knoweth all things.” Saying
God is greater than the feeling of condemnation that the Devil brings, and that
we must ignore it, for He that believeth
on him is not condemned.”
Though we still
commit sin, our debt was paid before we were ever born and our receipt was
signed in blood by the Lord Jesus Christ. He
reached into his spear-torn side; got some blood and wrote, “Pardoned” by
our name in his book. The scripture
says God has cast are sins into the depths of the sea. (Micah 7: 19) If they are
in the depths of the sea, they can’t be here on us too. Isa. 38:17, “For
thou hast cast all my sin behind Thy back.” Jerm. 31: 34, “I will forgive
their iniquity, and I will remember their sins no more.”
If God says He
will not remember our sin, that means they are gone for eternity. Ps.103:17,
“But the mercy of the Lord is from
everlasting to everlasting upon them that fear him and his righteousness unto
children’s children.” Again He says, “As
far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our transgressions from
us.” (Ps. 103: 12) So we see that when we believe in the plan, and the
Blood of the Cross, we are no more sinners in the eyes of the Lord.
We are accepted as if we ourselves had kept all the Law.
We are still sinners within ourselves, but we are washed in the Blood of
God. The promise of righteousness is
not just for a period of time, it is for eternity.
There is not one single sin in God’s book against those that “Believe
on Him.” Eternal, or everlasting redemption, has been obtained for us. Heb.
9:12, “Neither by the blood of
goats and calves, but by His own blood he entered in ONCE into the
Do we suppose that this holy state of being out from under condemnation
is for those who are able to keep the law constantly? Or, perhaps it is only for
those who are able to do so to a very high degree?
Not so at all, in fact, just the opposite is true. The
provision of the Blood was made because God knew that no man But Christ could
ever keep His Holy Law, and so He declared, “If
righteousness come by (keeping) the law, then Christ is dead in vain.” (Eph.
2: 21) Righteousness comes by faith only!
We are still sinners within ourselves, but we are washed in the Blood of
God! Only the Lord knows how long
are days will be, but our justification will last unto our last day, and then on
into Eternity. If we could live as
long as Methuselah, it would still be written in the Word, “He that believeth upon him is not condemned.” Our Prophet said,
“We will come up the same way we went down.” One meaning of this is that all
who died without condemnation will come up without condemnation, and all who
died under condemnation will come up still under condemnation.
Only those who died without condemnation will appear in the Resurrection
we are now waiting for. Those who died under condemnation will not come up until
the Second Resurrection, and will have to appeal their case to the White Throne
Judgment. We cannot be half condemned and half accepted. There are no white-
blackbirds, no drunk-sober men, and there are no half-saved sinners!
When we believe on him we are totally righteous. God’s Word is either
true or false. Not only does God say our sins are gone, they are gone!
How can the Judge, who came down Himself and paid such a terrible debt,
ever look upon us as unforgiven? How can God not save those whom He has justified?
(Rom.
When we ask for more faith, I wonder if we realize we are asking for more
tests of the same. If we have been given an abundance of faith, we will need
every ounce of it before the Lord is finished with us.
We will not have an ounce of it to spare.
God does not give us faith so it can lay up and rust.
But, when our faith is exercised by hard trials, that does not mean we
are under condemnation. We
will have many hard trials, but the Word remains constant, “He
that believeth upon Him is not condemned.”
We will be
buffeted daily but we are not under the curse of the Law.
We mean by this, that we are not cursed when we fail in the Law. We are
delivered from the curse of not being able to keep all the Law.
When we speak of being without condemnation, we are actually giving the
definition of true Bible faith. I John 3: 20-21, “For if our heart condemns us, God is greater than our heart, and
knoweth all things.” (Our heart will condemn us, God will allow the enemy
to fire his darts of condemnation at us, but He says He is greater than any
feeling of condemnation that can come to us. His word is still true no matter
what our emotions are telling us.
Verse 21, “Beloved, if
our heart condemn us not, THEN HAVE WE CONFIDENCE TOWARD GOD.” This is one
of God’s definitions of faith. It is to be standing before Him, trusting in
the verdict that He, Himself, has handed down to us from the high courts of
Heaven, “He that believeth on Him is
not condemned.” If we are not condemned, it is because He has given us the
faith to believe we are not guilty in His eyes!
We always see ourselves as being guilty, and we fall on our knees and
repent, and this is what we should do. But,
in the midst of our guilt, God’s plan for our justification never falters or
fails.
Our Christian faith can get very low at times, but the Lord never looks
at us except as He sees us “In
Christ.” Rom. 8: 1, “There
is therefore now no Condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, Who walk not
after the flesh, but after the Spirit.” (Believing the Word)
If we are not condemned, it is because we have been declared not guilty,
and if we are not guilty in God’s eyes, we are no longer in line for
punishment. Punishment follows judgment and is for the unrepentant and lost
sinner. Judgment is the end of grace
for those who hardened their hearts and will not come to our lovely Lord.
To receive punishment is to feel the wrath of God, and this can be
terrible indeed. But, for the
Christian who is Born-Again, and believes on Him, he is therefore not guilty, he
is to understand the difference between judgment and chastening.
Chastening is given in love, with the thought of correcting the Family of
God.
Pharaoh, after many warnings and having an abundance of grace offered
him, yet hardened his heart, and was destroyed in the
We cannot make the Word lie. If our sins are forgiven and done away with,
and if God has cast them into the sea, and if He remember them against us no
more because He laid them on Jesus and punished him, then He would deny His own
words should He punish us also. Thank
God He will always correct His Own, with much love, but punishment is reserved
for the hard, unrepentant hearts. The
chastening rod is as much a gift of
Grace as the Blood of the Cross that saves us from condemnation.
What kind of people should we be who have the revelation that we are not
condemned? Should we be grumblers
and complainers? Should we be
cast down with long faces? Should we be without joy, robbed of it by Satan? He
can make us feel that we are being mistreated. A favorite trick of Satan is to
cause Christians to see God’s chastening as punishment for sins that were long
ago paid for. If he can
convince us that our Father is angry with us, then we fall back under
condemnation.
What if a man over in the Arkansas Sate Prison at Tucker, who had been
sitting in his cell on death row, were to suddenly have his cell door swung open
the day before his execution, and the guard handed him a pardon signed by the
governor? Let’s suppose he knew he
was guilty of the crime as charged, but the governor, believing he was a changed
man, was giving him another chance. Would
the man sit in his cell with a long face lamenting some things he had lost by
being imprisoned, or would he jump from his cell with a heart full of joy and go
his way?
And, is this not exactly what has happened in the lives of God’s Bride?
We were sitting in the prison house of condemnation, condemned over the
charges that we knew in our hearts we were guilty of. Then God sent His
Messenger who taught the word in such a way as to show us that, “He
that believeth on him is not condemned.” the door of the prison has swung
open, why do we sit there as though we are still guilty?
Why do we refuse to look upon the Brass Serpent that was raised on a
pole? Can we see that the serpent on
the pole was a type of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ?
The serpent represented sin, and when God laid our sins upon Christ, He
became sin for our sake. So, the
serpent on the pole represented our Christ, who was raised up on the cross,
showing that He was being judged for our sin.
In Numbers Chapter 21: 5-9, the people of
Friends, there is not one of us who has not been bitten by sin, but with
repentant hearts we look to our Christ on the Cross, and all who look in such a
manner shall live! In what way shall we live?
Is it that only the soul shall live, or is the whole man included in
God’s promise of life? We ask again, how shall God punish those whose sin He
has already borne? How shall He not hear our prayers of repentance and save our
physical bodies, just as He did the Israelites so long ago?
Certainly there comes God’s time for each of His Chosen Ones to depart
this life. When this time came for
Aaron, he climbed
When the time came for Moses to depart, he climbed
May God grant us the revelation that, “He
that believeth on Him is not condemned” and then show us every privilege
that this blessing entitles us to. We
ask it in Jesus name, Amen!