“Who then will condemn us? No one—for Christ Jesus died for us and was raised to life for us, and he is sitting in the place of honor at God’s right hand, pleading for us.” –Romans 8:34, NLT

When you accepted Jesus as Savior and Lord of your life, your sins were not only covered by His sinless blood, they were removed from you as far as the east is from the west.[1] Not only that, you also became a citizen of Heaven and marked as one of His own by the Holy Spirit.[2] And even more than that, today’s verse says Jesus intercedes for us at the throne of God! His presence at the Father’s side serves as a steadfast symbol of His sacrificial work on the cross and an eternal reminder to all who behold His nail-scarred hands that His followers’ freedom from sin and death has been won, once and for all.

But even though our sins, past, present, and future, have been removed from us and punished on the cross, we are still sinful people whose souls and bodies are yet to be glorified and made perfect.[3]We harbor sinful thoughts. Entertain sinful fantasies. Walk around with sinful attitudes. Speak sinful words. Perform sinful actions. And when we sin, the devil jumps at the chance to whisper toxic lies, like:

You call yourself a Christian? If you were really saved, you wouldn’t talk like that!

You aren’t really a follower of Jesus. Christians don’t struggle with sin like you do. They don’t think those thoughts…

You are such a weakling! You fall for temptation time and again; there’s no chance your salvation is secure.

God is angry with you. Better start behaving right if you want to avoid His wrath.

There is one resounding word that adequately sums up the way these lies make us feel:

Condemned.

The Holy Spirit inspired Paul to pen Romans 8 so that that wretched word would melt beneath the heat of heaven’s electrifying truth when we read it. In this power-packed chapter, we’re reminded of who we are in Christ: adopted children, rightful heirs, overcomers…not condemned.

Today, when the enemy shoots arrows of unworthiness through your mind, or uses disparaging people in your path to make you feel condemned, turn your thoughts to the cross where Jesus paid your sin debt in full. Turn your heart to your Shepherd, Savior, Priest and King who defends your righteous standing against the accusations of the devil, the Father of Lies. Turn your gaze to the heavens where your name is written – with permanent ink – in the Book of Life.^[4]