We look around, and everywhere there’s death and disease and confusion and pain and sickness and sighing and crying and dying. But the resurrection of Jesus Christ turns every hurt into a hallelujah, every tear to a pearl, every midnight to a sunrise. Paul is talking about the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead, and he says: “If the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you” (Romans 8:11), then, ‘The sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us’” (Romans 8:18).
Now there are several words that I want us to think about. And first is the word guilt. The guilt we express. “There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit. For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death” (Romans 8:1-2).
Think of those words: condemnation, flesh, sin, death. That’s a description of the world today. We are condemned, we are living lives according to the flesh, not the Spirit. And we find ourselves under law that the Bible calls here the law of sin and death.
God defeats evil. And how does God defeat evil? Calvary and the resurrection! God turns every hurt to a hallelujah. “For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us” (Romans 8:18). You see, God is not finished yet.
All right, there’s the guilt that we express, but friend, there’s the grace that we experience. Again, look in Romans 8:1-4: “There is now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit. For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death. For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh: That the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.”
What kind of grace do we experience? Well, first, no condemnation for sin. No condemnation for sin to those who are “in Christ Jesus.”
Because we’re in Christ, there’s no more condemnation for sin, and there’s no more control of sin. Notice what he says in Romans 8:2, “For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death.”
We are sinners. Sinners by birth, sinners by nature, sinners by choice, and there’s that downward pull that the Bible calls the law of sin and death. But hallelujah, because of the empty tomb, the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death.
So there’s the guilt that we exhibit, but there is the grace that we experience.
Do you know what they would do in Roman times? When a person would be adjudicated guilty of a crime, they would put that person in prison, and then they would nail on the prison door a list of the crimes he’d committed. And they would put under there the number of days, months, years that he must stay in prison to pay the debt. It was called a certificate of debt, and it was nailed to the prison door.
When that man had paid for his crime against the state, they would take that certificate of debt, and the bailiff would go to the judge and say, “Here is John Doe prisoner. John Doe prisoner has paid in full his crime against the state.” The judge would take that thing called a certificate of debt and he would write across it “Paid in full.” It’s one word in the Greek language: tetelestai, “Paid in full!” He would hand it to the condemned prisoner, and then if anybody ever tried to bring him into double jeopardy, he could show that certificate of debt, written “Paid in full.”
Jesus Christ took my sin and your sin to the cross. The Bible tells us in Colossians 2:14 that Jesus took the handwriting that was against us and nailed it to His cross. Nailed it to His cross! And then in John 19:30, He bowed His head and He died and He said, “Paid in full. It is finished.” That’s exactly the same word, tetelestai. “I have paid that sin debt! It’s paid, it’s paid in full.” He took your certificate of debt and said, “It’s paid—paid in full.” No foe can condemn us. No fear need control us. No fault can separate us. And, Romans 8:18, “I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us.” ©2021 Love Worth Finding Ministries, Inc.
Scripture quotations are taken from The Holy Bible, King James Version.
This message is adapted from “Turning Hurts Into Hallelujahs,” Love Worth Finding sermon 2061, by Adrian Rogers.
Adrian Rogers (1931-2005) was a teacher, author and pastor of Bellevue Baptist Church, in Memphis, Tennessee. His teaching has reached around the world with the simple, timeless truths of Christ.
For more information on Love Worth Finding Ministries with Adrian Rogers, go to lwf.org.
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