If we are called to live by faith, not living under condemnation is imperative. If you are under condemnation, you’ll never be confident in God because you will feel disqualified.
1 John 4:16 – 17; “and we have come to know and have believed the love which God has for us. God is love, and the one who abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him. By this, love is perfected with us, that we may have confidence in the day of judgment because As he is, so also are we in this world.”
1 John 3:19 – 21; “We will know by this that we are of the truth, and will ensure our heart before Him in whatever our heart condemns us; for God is greater than our heart and knows all things. Beloved, if our heart does not condemn us, we have confidence before God.”
Romans 14:22 – 23; “The faith which you have, have as your own conviction before God. Happy is he who does not condemn himself in whatever he approves. But he who doubts is condemned if he eats because his eating is not from faith, and whatever is not from faith is sin.”
God the Father made Jesus sin on our behalf that we might become the righteousness of God in Christ. Because we are in Christ, we are the righteousness of God, and because of the righteousness of God in Christ, there is no condemnation over us. Again, think about that. If you are in Christ, then you are not trusting in your own righteousness, but you are trusting in the fact that because of your union with him, you have become the righteousness of God, and there is, therefore, now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. If you are experiencing condemnation, it is not coming from God, and all the devil can do is accuse you because he is the accuser of the brethren. Therefore, if we come into agreement with the devil’s accusation, then we are actually condemning ourselves. It is impossible to be confident before God if our eyes are always on the weakness of our flesh. The New Testament word for “doubt” is made up of two words, “because of, or through,” and “condemnation.” The foundation of a life that walks in doubt is a condemning heart. If I am trusting in my own self-righteousness, I will never be able to live by faith in God, but if I’m resting in the righteousness of Jesus, then I can live assured of favor. At the heart of living under the law is trusting in our own performance to be perfect enough to impress God to respond favorably on our behalf. Because of our union with Christ, we can keep our eyes on Him, knowing that, based on his righteousness, we can, by faith, lay hold of all the promises of God. As a matter of fact, 1 John 3:20 tells us that we can be confident before God because even in those things that our heart condemns us about, God is greater than our heart and knows all things. What God thinks about you overrules what you think about yourself, and he knows more about you than you will ever know about yourself. He knows everything about us in intimate detail and understands all of our motives fully, and yet, despite that, He never condemns us. What I’m about to say sounds like a contradiction, but in astonished gratefulness, we can, in stunned humility, come boldly before the throne of grace to receive mercy and lay hold of grace in time of need. In humble gratitude, believe boldly because of His righteousness.