Free At LastA cure for AIDS would be a wonderful thing. So would a cure for the struggle against sin. It would be nice to be able to take a pill which would instantly free us from any sort of struggle with sin. To be instantly freed from sin's influence would be a marvelous thing. We all take seriously our walk with Christ are painfully aware of the struggle with sin. It is real. Sometimes overwhelming. For some this struggle is so discouraging that they become depressed and thoroughly frustrated. It is easy for Satan to use these feelings and destroy our self-image.
We want to please God. At salvation, God implanted within us a new nature. But the old sinful nature, called the flesh, constantly seeks to reassert itself in our lives. What is going on? Why I am struggling? Why can't I seem to get the victory? Why is this happening to me? Have I failed God? Am I missing something? Is there a way to be free?
The apostle Paul experienced this struggle. It is described in Romans 7:15-23 (NIV). Paul struggled with the same conflict as you and I. It was the struggle of his attempt to live for Jesus. Here he openly shares that struggle with us. He seeks to be an encouragement. He had come to the end of his rope. Verse 24, "What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death?"
Paul had come to see his own effort for what it was. It was not enough! He shares the key to being free at last.
Sin Cannot Claim You!
The first thing we need to understand is that sin cannot claim us. Romans 8-1:2 "Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit of life set me free from the law of sin and death."
Because we are sinners, we are under condemnation. We deserve judgment. But the Bible teaches that, when we come to Christ, we are forgiven. We are free at last. But knowing we are free, and walking in that freedom is difficult. Our primary difficulty is dealing with the old nature. The struggle itself causes us to feel condemned.
Paul is saying that sin cannot claim us because Christ has set us free. Jesus Christ has set us free. The law no longer has any jurisdiction. We are free in Jesus Christ; free from the bondage to sin, free from the law of death.
We are set free now to live in a dynamic relationship of living union with Christ. We are free in Christ Jesus. What does it mean to be in Christ? To be in Christ means that God now sees us united to His Son Jesus. We are free from sin's dominion and adopted into the family of God.
We are now children of God. We are have all the rights, prerogatives, and privileges inherent in being in that relationship. John 1:12 "But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, even to those who believe in His name." In Christ we have been set free. That is the truth, believe it or not. God is not calling upon us to act on our feelings, but on the truth of His Word.
We really need a new self-image. One that is based on the truth of God's Word, not a self-image based on how we feel. We are personally free in Christ. Sin cannot claim us. Sin cannot claim us because we are free in Christ.
Sin Cannot Condemn You
We need to see that sin cannot condemn us. There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus. Because Christ condemned the sin, not the sinner. Christ judged sin. He paid the penalty for sin. He released us from the condemnation of sin. Jesus did what we could not do. It says, "For what the law was powerless to do in that it was weakened by the sinful nature, God did."
The Law was designed to draw us into a place of righteous living before a holy God. The Law was not weak, the flesh was weak. The Law was weak only insofar as we could not keep the Law. The Law as a standard of righteousness was a failure. What we could not do, which was live according to the righteous commandment of God's Law, God did for us in sending Jesus Christ.
He was sent in the likeness of sinful flesh, and as an offering for sin. He came as a man to live victoriously over all the bondage of sin. He was sinless. He came to live a sinless life, He came to die a sacrificial death.
You see, the sinless life of Christ is not enough. He had to go to the Cross so that we could enter into His life. What Jesus Christ did on the Cross is the greatest transaction in history. There He made a complete payment for our sin. Jesus Christ took our sin on Himself on the Cross.
The things you have done wrong, Jesus bore on the Cross. Actions, sins of attitudes, our willful rebellion against God, our wrong relationships. Jesus bore all of them on the Cross. He was judged instead of us. Because He was judged, we can go free. Not only did Jesus bear every sin we have ever committed, but Jesus bore every sin we shall ever commit.
That does not give us a license to sin. When Jesus died on the Cross, the sins of humanity were judged there. All sins, past, present, and future. All have been judged.
We enter into freedom. We begin to walk in it by the Spirit. We still struggle with sin. Romans 7 tell us that We still fight. Far too many times, we lose. We do not want to lose, but we lose. Sometimes we fail miserably in spite of our good intentions. We struggle, but there is no condemnation, even when we sin. Now that does not mean there is no conviction, but there is a vast difference between conviction and condemnation.
God convicts us. He tells us that we need to get right with Him, but He does not condemn us. When you sin and go to God, there is no condemnation, no rejection. When we humbly come to Christ, confess our sin, He forgives. (1 John 1:9).
God is not angry at us when we sin. Illustration: - Learning to walk. When your child was beginning to walk, and took a step, you were thrilled. They were learning. Soon, one step became two, two steps became four, and four became 10,000! But as they were learning, they fell. And when they fell, you did not scold them because they did not walk as well as you. You picked them up, set them upright again, and encouraged them. You dusted them off, told them; "you can do it!" God does not get angry with us when we fall.
God's love is not based on our performance. We need to realize that there is a freedom not to be who others want me to be. I can be who I really am. I believe and I doubt, I trust and I get discouraged, I love and I hate, I feel bad about feeling good, I feel guilty if I don't feel guilty.
It is the real me that God loves. I don't have to be anyone else. Someone said "For twenty years I tried to be Brother Teresa." I had to be a carbon copy of a great saint rather than the original God intended me to be. An evangelical preacher from Georgia once said "Be who you is, because if you ain't who you is, you is who you ain't".
God loves you so you'll change. I simply expose myself to His love! God loves me so much He'll change me and fashion me into the child that He wants me to be.
Sin Cannot Control You
We need to understand that sin cannot control us. We struggle with sin, but we have the victory. We have the victory because we are in Christ. God is presently at work in us. God is now at work in us. Sin cannot control us because God is at work in us.
What we are becoming is found in Romans 8:29 " to be conformed to the likeness of his Son." God's work in us is to conform us to Christ's image. That is what it means to walk according to the Spirit. Walking in the Spirit means that we live our lives in utter dependence upon the leadership of God.
We see this in the life of Jesus. John 5:19 "Jesus therefore answered and was saying to them, ‘Truly, truly, I say to you, the Son can do nothing of Himself, unless it is something He sees the Father doing: for whatever the Father does, these things the Son also does in like manner.'"
He lived dependent on God's leadership in His life. And so must we. Walking in the Spirit means we consult with God about our priorities. Walking in the Spirit means that we can give up trying to do it on our own. Walking in the Spirit liberates from the demands and expectations of others. Walking in the Spirit means our one priority in life is to please God, not by being perfect, but by being His.
Christ has freed us to be His.