What kind of condemnation is contained in "therefore there is no condemnation?"

We have been pursuing our Doctrinal Rethink for some time now. In the process of engaging it we have begun to question certain beliefs, church structures, and practices of the western church. Too often we have discovered unbiblical doctrines and activities. This causes us concern.

Why do churches do what they do? What is the biblical basis of church leadership structure? Why do certain traditions get entrenched? How did we arrive at our doctrines?

Here's today's verse:

Ro. 8:1-3 Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus...

We regularly hear people reference this verse when they're feeling discouraged or when they're laboring under guilt for failing, or for sin. It's a "remind me" verse that any condemnation they're feeling is wrong, because there is no condemnation.

But is this what Paul is discussing? 
We have to go back all the way to Romans chapter 2 to see where Paul begins his argument:

Ro. 2:12 All who sin apart from the law will also perish apart from the law, and all who sin under the law will be judged by the law.

So Paul's topic is the law and how it functions, and how righteousness through faith supplanted the law:

Ro. 3:20-22, 28 Therefore no-one will be declared righteous in his sight by observing the law; rather, through the law we become conscious of sin. 21 But now a righteousness from God, apart from law, has been made known, to which the Law and the Prophets testify. 22 This righteousness from God comes through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe... 28 For we maintain that a man is justified by faith apart from observing the law.

Ro. 5:1-2 Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, 2 through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand.

Paul is telling us that faith is the avenue to grace, not obeying the law. Grace fulfils the just requirements of the law; grace that comes though faith in Jesus is God's requirement. Jesus created a new and living way (He. 10:19-22) into the Most Holy Place by His death and resurrection. His blood is the sufficient sacrifice to save us and wash us clean of sin:

Ro. 5:8-10 But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. 9 Since we have now been justified by his blood, how much more shall we be saved from God’s wrath through him! 10 For if, when we were God’s enemies, we were reconciled to him through the death of his Son, how much more, having been reconciled, shall we be saved through his life! 

Ro. 5:20-21 The law was added so that the trespass might increase. But where sin increased, grace increased all the more, 21 so that, just as sin reigned in death, so also grace might reign through righteousness to bring eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. 

The consequence of Jesus' death and resurrection is eternal life, and freedom from sin: 

Ro. 6:18 You have been set free from sin and have become slaves to righteousness.

Paul then turns to the natural consequence of death: One is freed from the law. That is, a dead person is not subject to the dictates of law:

Ro. 7:4 So, my brothers, you also died to the law through the body of Christ, that you might belong to another, to him who was raised from the dead, in order that we might bear fruit to God.

Jesus did not die so that we wouldn't have to. Repeat: Jesus did not die so that we wouldn't have to. He died and asks us to die too. The natural man must die for us to be born again. The freedom from law comes from our death to the sinful nature, and the the life we receive come from grace through faith.

That's why Paul writes:

Ro. 7:25 Thanks be to God — through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, I myself in my mind am a slave to God’s law, but in the sinful nature a slave to the law of sin. 

The contrast is stark. The natural man, the fleshly nature, is what brings the law to bear against us. But when we die to the Old Man we are released from the law. We are now found in Christ:

Col. 3:3 For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God.

We have now arrived at the subject passage:

Ro. 8:1 Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, 2 because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit of life set me free from the law of sin and death. 3 For what the law was powerless to do in that it was weakened by the sinful nature, God did by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful man to be a sin offering. And so he condemned sin in sinful man, 4 in order that the righteous requirements of the law might be fully met in us, who do not live according to the sinful nature but according to the Spirit.

People generally do not quote the whole thing, only the part about "no condemnation." But if we kept reading we would find that Paul is not talking about slipping up and feeling condemned. No, he is very specifically writing about the release we now enjoy from the condemnation of the law. There is no condemnation for sin under the law because Jesus has made us alive by His Holy Spirit into new birth, and the death of our sinful nature releases us from the law.

So, Paul is saying is , "Dead men are not subject to the law which brings condemnation. The new man is subject to the law of grace which comes by faith. Your faith has released you from condemnation."

This is the proper way to view this.