“Therefore, no condemnation now exists for those in Christ Jesus because the Spirit’s law of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and of death.  What the law could not do since it was limited by the flesh, God did. He condemned sin in the flesh by sending his own Son in flesh like ours under sin’s domain and as a sin offering, in order that the law’s requirements would be accomplished in us who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.  For those whose lives are according to the flesh think about the things of the flesh but those whose lives are according to the Spirit, about the things of the Spirit.  For the mind- set of the flesh is death but the mind-set of the Spirit is life and peace.”

~Romans 8.1-6

We, as believers, live a life resurrected in Christ Jesus and the old way of doing, being and seeing has died.  Who we were in the world as racial beings, how we were identified and how we identified ourselves in terms of its stereotypes is no longer our reference point as it all has been buried with Christ.  We have begun again.

Thus, the life lived in the flesh is a past life. When Christ Jesus got up, our new life in Him to be lived in the Spirit began.  When Jesus rose so did our standard of living and being.  We now no longer live according to the flesh.  There are now new laws and expectations.  And one thing that we can expect in the life lived in the Spirit is not to be condemned.  Christ’s death has ripped up the old contract that we served under in the flesh and has written another with His finger of love, using His own blood.

How, then, do we identify with race?  Why do we continue to let the social coloring of our skin serve as a means by which to be condemned to its prejudices and stereotypes?  How can we, as Christians, condemn others by these social standards?  We have been resurrected with Jesus Christ.  We have been born again. This morning, I am serving as an alarm clock and this is your morning wake up call.  Get up!  Wake up!  No condemnation exists for those in Christ Jesus.  It does not exist.  There is nothing that race can say about you.  It has nothing on you and can hold nothing against you.  Because we don’t live our lives according to the flesh but by the Spirit.  So, get up and live!  Wake up and live without condemnation!