You Say You Want To Be Free From Sin ?

It seems to me that the subject of freedom from sin is one of the most distorted of all Biblical truths being taught today.
The usual line preached goes something like this: "Brother, if you want to be free from sin, then you had better consecrate yourself to the Lord and walk after all of His laws. God's Law is our boundary to protect us from falling into sin." Have you ever heard this approach before? You probably have in one way or another, and the really sad thing is that most people who hear this type of reasoning usually nod their heads in fervent agreement.
Let's get right to the heart of it by looking at Scripture. God's Law won't keep you from sin. The startling truth is this: God's Law keeps you bound up in sin! How can I say this? Well, it's not me saying it. The Bible repeatedly says this.
1 Corinthians 15:56 says: "The power of sin is the Law." This verse says that sin derives its power from the Law. The third Chapter of Romans tells us why this is so. "Now we know that whatever the Law says, it speaks to those who are under the Law, that every mouth may be closed and all the world may become accountable to God" (3:19). What does this mean?
Perhaps I should say here that God's Law is just, holy, and good. God's Law is right. There is not one thing wrong or out of place in it. But here is what the next verse in this chapter of Romans tells us: "Because by the works of the Law no flesh will be justified in His sight; for through the Law comes the knowledge of sin" (verse 20).
You see, God's Law is right, but there is one big flaw with the whole system of the Law. The Law is right, but we aren't! The Law is God's word, but we can't obey it, and the result is that through the Law comes the knowledge of sin. Our failure to consistently meet the demands of the Law only makes us aware of sin and failure. You can preach the Law until you are blue in the face, but there is only one possible outcome to that kind of message: defeat and sin-consciousness.
You may be wondering at this point why, if this is so, God instituted the Law in the first place. The reason is simple: He wanted us to know we could not meet its demands. In his letter to the Galatians, Paul put it this way: "But before faith came, we were kept in custody under the Law, being shut up to the faith which was later to be revealed. Therefore the Law has become our tutor to lead us to Christ, that we may be justified by faith. But now that faith has come, we are no longer under a tutor" (Gal. 3:23-25)
Why was the Law given? To lead us to Christ. The Law makes us aware of sin. Thus, sin's power is found in the Law. The reason God does it this way is so we will see our need for a Savior. When a person comes to Christ, we are no longer under the tutor – the work of the Law is done. Its usefulness is over.
To continue under this tutor as a Christian is to ignore Jesus Christ. It's putting yourself right back under the very power of sin.
So what happens to the Law anyway? The Bible tells us that Jesus fulfilled the Law and the Law becomes fulfilled in us when we receive Christ as Savior: "The law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and death. For what the Law could not do, weak as it was through the flesh, God did: sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and as an offering for sin, He condemned sin in the flesh, in order that the requirement of the Law might be fulfilled in us, who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit." (Romans 8:2-4)
This text perhaps more than any other shows us how the Law and sin were, and are, interwoven. Moreover, we see that the reason Jesus died for us was to condemn sin in His flesh, so the requirement of the Law might be fulfilled.
Think about this: if something is fulfilled, do you still need to do it? If it's fulfilled, then it's finished, right? We can go on to something else now because the Law is finished. We can walk in the full provision of the new message of Jesus Christ, for He has fulfilled the Law, met all of its demands, and it is fulfilled in us who believe.
Can you see that saying the Law keeps us from sin is a total misunderstanding and the cruelest of all teachings to give to a Christian? The Law doesn't keep you from sin, it keeps you IN SIN! Its demands only make you aware of your failures.
THERE IS A BETTER WAY. Recognize what Jesus has done, walk in His finished work, and you will be experientially free from sin. Here is where grace comes in, because this fantastic freedom from sin is made available to us through the grace of God.
Look at this verse closely: "Sin shall not be master over you, for you are not under Law, but under grace" (Rom. 6:14). As long as you try to live under the Law, sin will be master over you. The good news is that you can be free from sin as you live in God's grace. You see, grace is stronger than the Law. The Law said, "Do this and you will live. Don't do this and you will die." But grace says, "Jesus has done it all, and He now offers His victory to you freely." Grace is stronger because we don't play a part in it. We have been, and always will be, the weak link in the chain. So in grace we see Jesus doing for us what we could never do for ourselves, and He includes us in His victory.
Let me ask you a simple question, one which will let you know where you stand concerning freedom from sin. When you stumble and sin, what are you aware of – your failure or God's covering grace?
If you become fixed upon your failure, then you must still be caught up with the false concept of thinking the Law keeps you from sin. As long as you try to follow God by attempting to obey all the laws, I can guarantee you a life of failure and self-condemnation. Under that system, every fall you have will only further highlight the great gap between God's word and your performance. You will continually feel that you ought to be able to do better and will probably condemn yourself for not overcoming whatever particular sin it is that trips you up. Moreover, after a while you'll begin to feel like the boy plugging the hole in the dyke; you put your thumb in one hole and three more holes pop out.
Let's face it, the sin itself lasts only a moment, but the guilt we and others take on can last a lifetime. As long as you measure your performance by the Law, that's how long you will feel like a spiritual flop. Or worse, you may run the risk of hardening your heart so that you won't feel the guilt. Or maybe you will brush your sins under the rug by focusing on other people's sins. You see, this whole system of trying to perfect oneself by the Law is corrupt and your continuation under it can only harm you.
Under grace, you realize that Christ lives in you, as you, and for you and that by your new birth you ARE free from sin in your new nature. Sin's paralyzing after-effects are gone. Now if you fail, you can simply agree with God about your sin, receive His forgiveness, and move on. "If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness" (1 John 1:9). Forgiveness is for the sin itself, whereas cleansing is for the debilitating guilt which always comes after.
You may be thinking that this sounds too easy. Maybe you feel that God shouldn't let you off the hook. Do you see how deeply ingrained within us is the concept which says we need to pay for our sins? As Christians we do a slight variation on this tune. Since we know Jesus died for our sins and for the sins of the world, we can no longer say we need to pay for our sins. So in the place of "pay for sin" we substitute "feel guilty for sins." But it's still the same thing, no matter what you choose to call it. You still find yourself suffering for your sins.
"There is now no condemnation for those in Christ Jesus" (Rom. 8:1). Stop whipping yourself with guilt and condemnation. Stop this practice of comparing your failures with God's Law. It's time to throw out the false doctrine of victory through obedience to the Law. It's time to recognize who you are in Christ.
I'm not saying it's OK to sin, but let's clear the air with the honest confession that we do sin. Now, what are we going to do about it? We can go on condemning ourselves and others if we really want to, or we can stop the games and get down to the business of finding true victory over our sins.
Here is a radical but true statement: GOD IS NOT INTERESTED IN YOUR PERFORMANCE! He is drawing you and waiting for you to come to the place where you will get sick of your works and will finally turn with the eyes of faith to behold His mighty power working within you. It's HIS performance, not yours, that God is interested in. By becoming fixed in a Christ-consciousness, we will come to where victory really is. God has done it and grace is the door to a true spiritual realization of it.
It has always been the fundamental postulate of religion that MAN IS MADE FOR FELLOWSHIP WITH GOD. To hold communion with his Creator – this is his nature and the very purpose of his existence. Man bears God's image. It is man's glory to live in this world as a child in his Father's house.
But religion has always recognized that there is one factor in human experience which has the fatal power of disturbing this fellowship. That factor is sin. Of all sin's consequences, by far the most serious is the loss of fellowship with God which sin involves. It interrupts the family relationship. This is what Paul calls "alienation". He charges his converts that they "walk not as other Gentiles walk…alienated from the life of God" (Eph. 4:18).
Christianity is not to be understood by the analogy of any other faith whatever; if we think to understand it so, we are sure to error badly. With one voice the other religious creeds declare that man must take steps to reconcile or to "please" his God, and so restore himself to favor. Christianity cuts clean across this, and declares the exact opposite. GOD IS THE RECONCILER. God in His untiring love has taken the initiative, has broken into the atmosphere of man's hostility, and has thrown down every barrier that guilt and hopelessness and resentment can erect.
Everything in Christianity that matters starts from God's side. The passion and hunger FOR God comes FROM God, and God answers it with Christ.
When we accept and allow Christ to direct our life on a day to day basis, we achieve the freedom from sin as designed by God. Because sin is nothing more and nothing less than choosing to live independently from God. And by choosing our union with Christ, we are choosing to NOT LIVE INDEPENDENTLY.
Grace is the only true freedom from sin. Grace points us away from ourselves and to our Lord Jesus Christ.
"SIN SHALL NOT BE MASTER OVER YOU, FOR YOU ARE NOT UNDER LAW, BUT UNDER GRACE."

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