'None of them that trust in Him shall be condemned.' The word which is
inadequately rendered 'desolate,' and more accurately 'condemned,'
includes the following varying shades of meaning, which, although they
are various, are all closely connected, as you will see--to incur guilt,
to feel guilty, to be condemned, to be punished. All these four are
inextricably blended together. And the fact that the one word in the Old
Testament covers all that ground suggests some very solemn thoughts.
First of all, it suggests this, that guilt, or sin, and condemnation and
punishment, are, if not absolutely identical, inseparable. To be guilty
is to be condemned. That is to say, since we live, as we do, under the
continual grip of an infinitely wise and all-knowing law, and in the
presence of a Judge who not only sees us as we are, but treats us as He
sees us--sin and guilt go together, as every man knows that has a
conscience. And sin and guilt and condemnation and punishment go
together, as every man may see in the world, and experience in himself.
To be separated from God, which is the immediate effect of sin, is to
pass into hell here. 'Every transgression and disobedience,' not only
'shall receive its just recompense,' away out yonder, in some misty,
far-off, hypothetical future, but down here to-day. All sin works
automatically, and to do wrong is to be punished for doing it.
Then my text suggests another solemn thought, and that is that this
judgment, this condemnation, is not only present, according to our
Lord's own great words, which perhaps are an allusion to these: 'He that
believeth not is condemned already'; but it also suggests the
universality of that condemnation. Our Psalmist says that only through
trusting Him can a man be taken and lifted away, as it were, from the
descent of the thundercloud, and its bolt that lies above his head.
'They that trust Him are not condemned,' every one else is; not 'shall
be,' but is, to-day, here and now. If there is a man or woman in my
audience now who is not exercising trust in God through Jesus Christ, on
that man or woman, young or old, cultivated or uncultivated, professing
Christian or not, there is bound the burden of their sin, which is the
crushing weight of their condemnation.
So my text suggests, that the sole deliverance from this universal
pressure of the condemnatory influence of universal sin lies in that
fleeing for refuge to God. And then comes in the Christian addition, 'to
God, as manifested in Jesus Christ.' The Psalmist did not know that. All
the more wonderful is it that without the knowledge he should have risen
to the great thought of our text--all the more inexplicable unless you
believe that 'holy men of old spake as they were moved by the Holy
Ghost.'
Wonderful it is still, but not unintelligible, if you believe that. But
you and I know more than this singer did; for we can listen to the
Master, who says, 'He that believeth on Him is not condemned'; and to
the servant who echoes--and perhaps both of them are alluding to our
psalm--'There is therefore now no condemnation to them that are in
Christ Jesus.' My faith, if it knits me to Jesus Christ, unties the
bonds by which my sin is bound upon me, for it makes me to share in His
Spirit, in His righteousness, in His glory.
And so, dear brethren! the Psalmist, though he did not know it, may
point us away to the truth hidden from him, but sunlight clear for us,
that by simple trust we may receive the Saviour through whom all our
condemnation will pass away, and may be found in Him having the
'righteousness which is of God by faith.'
'Not condemned'--Is that all? Are the blessings of the Gospel all to be
reduced to this mere negative expression? Certainly not. The Psalmist
could have said a great deal more, and in the previous context he does
say a great deal more. But to that restrained and moderate statement of
the case, which is far less than the facts of the case, 'he that
trusteth is not condemned,' let us add Paul's expansion, 'whom He called
them He also justified, and whom He justified them He also glorified.'