Romans 8:1 says that there is “no condemnation” for a believer. That means, simply, that if Jesus has received our punishment and made payment for our sins, God can not then receive a second payment out of us as well. God does not exact “retribution” from a believer, because of Jesus and because, if he really punished us for our sins, we’d all have been dead long ago.319 But God often appoints some aspect of the brokenness of the world (caused by sin in general: Gen. 3; Rom 8:18ff) to come into our lives to wake us up and turn us to him. The severity of this depends on our heart’s need.
