Author: Gary Witcher

Freedom from Sin (2)

     Last time we looked at sin and what it does to us.
     We learned that all have sinned.  Sin separates us from God. The consequence of sin is death.  After death comes the judgment.  And judgment is a terrible thing for those who are separated from God.
     As we stated, though, there is the possibility of being set free from sin and its consequences.
     "Or do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus have been baptized into His death?" Paul asks in Romans 6:3.
     "Therefore we have been buried with Him through baptism into death," he continues, "in order that as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life.
     "For if we have become united with Him in the likeness of His death, certainly we shall be also in the likeness of His resurrection, knowing this, that our old self was crucified with Him, that our body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves to sin; for he who has died is freed from sin.
     "Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him, knowing that Christ, having been raised from the dead, is never to die again; death no longer is master over Him.
     "For the death that He died, He died to sin, once for all; but the life He lives, He lives to God.
     "Even so consider yourselves to be dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus."
     "And having been freed from sin," Paul goes on in verse 18, "you became slaves of righteousness."
     "But now having been freed from sin and enslaved to God," he says in verse 22, "you derive your benefit, resulting in sanctification, and the outcome, eternal life."
     "For what the Law could not do, weak as it was through the flesh," Paul points out in chapter eight verse three, "God did: sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and as an offering for sin, He condemned sin in the flesh."
     Hebrews 10:2 states that the sacrifices of the Old Law were not able to remove the consciousness of sins.  Otherwise, these sacrifices would not have had to have been offered on a continual basis.  Verse 17, referring to the New Covenant, says that God will no longer remember our sins.
     It is clear from these verses and others that it is possible to be freed from our sins.  It is also clear what it is that frees us: the sacrifice of Christ.  Revelation 1:5 states clearly that we are released from our sins by the blood of Christ.  And it is clear how we come in contact with that blood.  We participate in the death, burial and resurrection of Christ when we are immersed with Him through baptism.  The teaching of Romans chapter six could not be any clearer.
     We have already seen what happens when we refuse to take advantage of this way to freedom and remain in the state of separation from God due to our sins.  But what happens when we believe and obey what the Bible teaches, as we are told to do in Mark 16:16, John 3:36 and other passages?
     First of all, we are freed from dead works.  Works of Law never have been, and never will be, able to save us from our sins.  As we find in Galatians 5:3 and James 2:10, salvation through law keeping requires 100 percent compliance.  One mistake makes us lost.
     Fortunately, the blood of Christ changes all this.  The writer of Hebrews discusses this in chapter seven.  Verse 14 presents the fact that the blood of Christ cleanses us from dead works to serve the living God.
     "It was for freedom that Christ set us free," Paul notes in the first part of Galatians 5:1.
     Just what is it that we are freed to do?  We have just seen in Hebrews 9:14 that we are freed to serve the living God.  We are free to perform good works.
     Paul opens his first letter to the church in Thessalonica by referring to their work of faith, labor of love and steadfastness of hope.
     "For God is not unjust so as to forget your work and the love which you have shown toward His name," Hebrews 6:10 promises.
     Paul talks in Ephesians two about our being saved by grace through faith, and not by our works.  But he concludes in verse 10 by pointing out that we have been created in Christ Jesus for good works.
     "Who gave Himself for us," Titus 2:14 says of Jesus, "that He might redeem us from every lawless deed and purify for Himself a people for His own possession, zealous for good deeds."
     "This is a trustworthy statement," Paul says in verse eight of the following chapter, "and concerning these things I want you to speak confidently, so that those who have believed in God may be careful to engage in good deeds.  These things are good and profitable for men."
     So the blood of Christ, freeing us from sin, frees us from dead works.  And it frees us for good works.

     It's one thing to be free from sin.  But it means even more to be free from the burden of the guilt of sin.  And the blood of Christ does both.
     Colossians 1:9-14 talks about the inheritance we have through Jesus.
     "For He delivered us from the domain of darkness," verse 13 claims, "and transferred us to the kingdom of His beloved Son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins."
     "For in Him all the fullness of Deity dwells in bodily form," Colossians 2 says beginning with verse 9, "and in Him you have been made complete, and He is the head over all rule and authority; and in Him you were also circumcised with a circumcision made without hands, in the removal of the body of the flesh by the circumcision of Christ; having been buried with Him in baptism, in which you were also raised up with Him through faith in the working of God, who raised Him from the dead.
     "And when you were dead in your transgressions and the uncircumcision of your flesh, He made you alive together with Him, having forgiven us all our transgressions, having cancelled out the certificate of debt consisting of decrees against us and which was hostile to us; and He has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross."
     Remember what Hebrews 10:2 says about the Old Law not being able to eliminate consciousness of sins?  The New Law, through the blood of Christ, IS able to eliminate consciousness of sins because it is able to forgive them.
     The confidence and joy that we enjoy in Christ is discussed in every chapter of John's first epistle.
     "And these things we write," John explains in verse four of the first chapter, "so that your joy may be made complete."
     "My little children," he begins in chapter two, "I am writing these things to you that you may not sin.  And if anyone sins, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous; and He Himself is the propitiation for our sins; and not for ours only, but also for those of the whole world.
     "And by this we know that we have come to know Him, if we keep His commandments."
     "We shall know by this that we are of the truth," according to chapter three verses 19-22, "and shall assure our heart before Him, in whatever our heart condemns us; for God is greater than our heart, and knows all things.
     "Beloved, if our heart does not condemn us, we have confidence before God; and whatever we ask we receive from Him, because we keep His commandments and do the things that are pleasing in His sight."
     The passage from verse 13 to verse 19 in chapter four concludes by saying, "There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear, because fear involves punishment, and the one who fears is not perfected in love.
     "We love, because He first loved us."
     Verses two through four of the fifth chapter talk about loving God and keeping His commandments.
     "These things I have written to you who believe in the name of the Son of God," John explains in verse 13 of that same chapter, "in order that you may know that you have eternal life."
     Our sins have separated us from God.  The due penalty for sin is death.  After death comes the judgment.  But the blood of Christ can free us from our sins.  It can free us from dead works.  It can free us for good works.  And it does such a complete job that it can free us from the burden of the guilt of sin.
     That's the truth, and it will set us free.

Unless otherwise noted, "Scripture taken from the NEW AMERICAN STANDARD BIBLE(R), (C) Copyright The Lockman Foundation 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977. Used by permission."