Freed From Sin

For those who have come to the realization that we cannot measure up to God’s standard based on our own merits and good works, we must accept that the only way to be rectified with God is through His Son, Jesus Christ.  Once we see that we have this free gift of salvation that Christ offers to those who are willing to accept Him, we must come to the question that Paul asks in Romans 6, do we continue in our sinful ways? Paul answers this question in a most absolute way, if we are among those who have died to sin then may it never be that we continue in it (Romans 6:2).

But why is it that we are free from the chains of sin?  Paul continues to answer this as he states that those of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus, baptized by the Spirit not just a water baptism, have also been baptized into His death.  When Christ became the perfect sacrifice for the sins of the whole world, buried and then rising to life again, He defeated the hold that sin has on those who accept Him.  When we accept this sacrifice, we have also been buried with Him (Romans 6:4).  Sin no longer has a hold on us because we become new creatures. “17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here!” (2 Corinthians 5:17). “6 knowing this, that our old self was crucified with Him, in order that our body of sin might be done away with, so that we would no longer be slaves to sin;” (Romans 6:6). Our past sins no longer have any hold on us because we become a new creation in Christ. We take on the likeness of Christ not just in the likeness of His death, but also the likeness of His resurrection (Romans 6:5). This does not mean that we will not make mistakes, our sin nature is still there, but it means that the punishment of death is no longer applicable to us.  Sin no longer has us bound because through our baptism into the death of Christ, we become new.

Through Paul’s explanation that we have died with Christ, we also see that we will also live with Him (Romans 6:8). He is talking about the spiritual death which we who are living in Christ, have also died in Christ. Our sins were placed on the cross and are no longer attributed to us for punishment. Though we might die in this body, we are living in Christ. Spiritual death, is where sin has caused a permanent separation from God and does not allow second chances, for those who are not saved this is what awaits you, “then I saw a great white throne and Him who sat upon it, from whose presence earth and heaven fled away, and no place was found for them. And I saw the dead, the great and the small, standing before the throne, and books were opened; and another book was opened, which is the book of life, and the dead were judged from the things which were written in the books, according to the deeds. And the sea gave up the dead which were in it, and death and Hades gave up the dead which were in them; and they were judged, everyone one of them according to the deeds. Then death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. This is the second death, the lake of fire. And if anyone’s name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire,” (Revelation 20:11-15). But for those who are saved, who have their name written in the book of life, they are Christ’s. So we who are supposed to be imitators of Christ need to understand that when Christ died for the sins of the world, He was raised from the dead, and this allowed Him to have mastery over death.  “10 For the death he died he died to sin, once for all, but the life he lives he lives to God” (Romans 6:10).  This should be our response to sin, we must consider ourselves dead to sin but alive in Christ (Romans 6:11).  Sin no longer has hold on us, we no longer offer our ways as instruments of unrighteousness, but instead offer ourselves as instruments of righteousness to God (Romans 6:13).  We must die daily to our sinful nature and instead live as Christ lives, offering our actions to the glory of the Living God.

Paul continues to state that we are not under the law, for our salvation cannot come through the law, but our salvation comes through grace.  This does not allow us to continue in our sins because we are not under the law because we either continue in our sins and allow sin to continue its mastery over us, or we present ourselves to God and through obedience to Him we are righteous.  When we become obedient to God we have been freed from our sins and are instead slaves of righteousness (Romans 6:18).  When we were slaves to sin, no matter how good of a person we thought we were, our actions lead to further sins and ultimately the second death.  We saw this when we looked at how we cannot be saved through the law.  If we are guilty of one action that separates us from God, then we are guilty of them all.  But when we accept His free gift of salvation then we become slaves to righteousness which results in sanctification.  And the outcome of sanctification is eternal life.  “5 It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery” (Galatians 5:1).

Seek the Truth and encourage one another,

                        Alex