Saint Paul has not said to you, “Think how it would be if there were no condemnation”; he has said, “There is
therefore now none.” He has made an unconditional statement, not a
conditional one-a flat assertion, not a parabolic one. He has not said,
“God has done this and that and the other thing; and if by dint of
imagination you can manage to pull it all together, you may be able to
experience a little solace in the prison of your days.” No. He has
simply said, “You are free. Your services are no longer required. The
salt mine has been closed. You have fallen under the ultimate statute of
limitation. You are out from under everything: Shame, Guilt, Blame. It
all rolls off your back like rain off a tombstone.”
It is essential that you see this clearly. The Apostle is saying that
you and I have been sprung. Right now; not next week or at the end of
the world. And unconditionally, with no probation officer to report to.
But that means that we have finally come face to face with the one
question we have scrupulously ducked every time it got within a mile of
us: You are free. What do you plan to do? One of the problems with any
authentic pronouncement of the gospel is that it introduces us to
freedom.
-----Robert Capon in: Between Noon and Three
