Freedom from Sin

Freedom from SinBy Jesse MorrellRomans 6:22 “But now having been set free from sin, and having become slaves of God, you have your fruit to holiness, and the end, everlasting life.”\tDeep in the corridors of death row sat a guilty prisoner awaiting execution. On one fateful day the jailer walked into the prisoner’s cell causing the prisoner to wonder if this would be the day of his death. After months and years of waiting on death row, he knew this day would inevitably come. Just as the prisoner was dropping his head in shame and despair, the jailer said the words which echoed through his mind, “I am setting you free. Another man has turned himself in and requested that you be released immediately.” After fully expecting to die, the prisoner had a look of astonishment on his face. The jailer assured him by telling him that all his criminal records would be erased. He went on to say that he will not be put to death and that he can freely walk out of his cell today. It would be an understatement to say the prisoner was overjoyed. Overwhelmed with gratitude, the prisoner thanked the jailer and walked out of the cell that had him bound for countless years. \tIs this not a picture of the wonderful freedom men receive by grace through faith in the blood of Jesus? Jesus Christ has turned himself in so that we can walk freely out of the cell that has had us bound. Not only are we free from the guilt and consequences of our crimes against God, but we are free from the chains of bondage that held us captive. Teaching and preaching that a man can be saved from the guilt and consequences of his sins, but yet not be saved from his sins themselves would like the jailer telling the prisoner “you are free, your record is erased, you will not be put to death, but you must remain bound in this cell for the rest of your days.” That would be no freedom at all! If we are to be slaves of God and slaves of righteousness, we must be free from death, hell, and also sin itself.\tGod calls the Christian to run the race, but the race does not take place on a treadmill. There is no such thing as treadmill Christianity. To say that a man who desires to be holy will never be able to reach it in this life opposes the very teachings of Jesus who said “blessed are those who hunger and thirst after righteousness, for they shall be filled.” (Matt 5:6). God never intended for the Christian to be as a mouse in a cage running anxiously and endlessly on a running wheel yet never getting anywhere. God has always intended to set men free, and “Therefore if the Son makes you free, you shall be free indeed.” (John 8:36).Am I proposing here that a man can be holy while remaining here on earth and that a man can obey all the commandments of the Lord? Absolutely I am because this is what reason, logic, and the scriptures force me to believe and accept and I wouldn’t want it any other way. “For this is the love of God, that we keep His commandments. And His commandments are not burdensome” (1 John 5:3). And also “I say then: Walk in the Spirit, and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh.” (Gal 5:16). If you are lead by God will He not lead you into all righteousness? Is it impossible to obey the One who said “follow me”? (Luke 18:22). Was it unreasonable when Christ said “I have given you an example that you should do as I have done”? (John 13:15). God has not charted a course which is impossible to sail. Nothing shall be impossible for God. So long as God is the Captain and Commander of the ship He can and will sail it wherever He so pleases. Certainly mutiny against the Captain and Commander is possible on our part, but loyalty is also a possibility.\tE. M. Bounds stirs us to pursue personal holiness in this quote: “Nothing short of absolute obedience will satisfy God. The keeping of all His commandments is the demonstration of obedience that God requires. But can we keep all of God’s commandments? Can a man receive moral ability that helps him to obey every one of them? Certainly he can. By the same token, man can, through prayer, obtain ability to do this very thing…Does God give commandments that men cannot obey? Is he so arbitrary, so severe, so unloving, that He issues commandments that cannot be obeyed? The answer is that, in all of Scripture, not a single instance is recorded of God having commanded any man to do a thing that was beyond his power. Is God so unjust and so inconsiderate to require a man something that he is unable to do? Certainly not! To infer is to slander the character of God.” \tI fear that the issue is not that man can not obey God, but that many men will not obey God. Many do not walk in holiness because they have yet to forsake their sins and walk in complete repentance. But true repentance is always complete. If a man is driving down a two way road and fails to pay attention and therefore ends up on the wrong side of the road he is in great danger. He is in even greater danger when he notices a massive Mac truck heading straight for him. Panic grips his heart and sweat pours from his brow. What must he do? The answer is simple enough. He must suddenly, not slowly, get back on the right side of the road. If he leaves even a little bit of his vehicle on the wrong side of the road that would be enough to get him killed. Likewise, when you’re on the road of life and you end up on the wrong side of the road called sin, you are in grave danger because the Mac truck of death and hell is heading straight for you. What ought you to do? As quickly as you can you must get completely on the right side of the road. If you leave even the least bit of your life on the wrong side of the road is that not enough to get you killed?\tAnd so it is that Christ has set us free, so we must walk free. The pardon has been issued, the records have been erased, and the cell gate has been opened wide. Now it is up to us to walk out of the chains of bondage into the marvelous freedom that is found in Jesus Christ. Quote: The Complete Works of E. M. Bounds page 155-156.

I am very glad to hear that you were blessed by the article. Other two on the same topic that I have written recently are "Dead unto Sin" and also "Naming the Name of Christ" which can be found at: https://www.sermonindex.net/modules/articles/index.php?view=category&cid=304Please do with these articles whatever you feel the Lord would have.

It seems that there is much confusion on man's ability to obey the commands of God and experience true victory over sin. Many people honestly believe that they must live with sin until the day they die. Many actually expect to keep sinning in thought word and deed every day.Is it possible to have victory over sin? YES!!Let me make this very clear, NO ONE can ever obey God or overcome sin by his own unaided efforts or power. If man could overcome sin by his own efforts, energy and power, than Christ's death on the cross would have been wasted. GOD HAS GIVEN US HIS PROMISES AND THEY ARE FULLY AVAILABLE NOW!! The promises when received will fulfill all the requirements of the law.Now the PROMISE of Christ is designed by God to take a sinner, who is living in sin and rebellion and make him a son of God who truly loves God. This is the ONLY solution that God Himself has provided for mankind. It is NOT POSSIBLE for anyone to ever please God without taking hold of the promise of Jesus Christ. I repeat again, THIS IS THE ONLY SOLUTION!!!Everything that God offers mankind is in the form of a promise. Salvation itself is based on Gods free gift and promise to us. The gift of Christ is now fully available to anyone who will take hold of the promise by faith. Without receiving the promises of God, salvation is totally impossible.2 Peter 1:3-4 "According as His divine power has given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness, through the knowledge of Him that has called us to glory and virtue: Whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises: that by these you might be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust."The design of the promises is to make a person a partaker of God's divine nature. God forms His character in the believer by the provisions of the gospel. God has made ample provision for all holiness and spiritual growth. The promise when received fulfills all the requirements of the law. What the law requires, God freely makes available to every person as a gift. We must truly believe and then receive this gift. There is nothing lacking in God's provision for us to fulfill the law and His requirements. What the law requires, God freely gives to those who take it.God has provided man with everything that he could possibly need to live a pure and Holy life. He has made everything freely available in the form of promises. Salvation, Jesus, Christ, and the Holy Spirit are all offered to mankind by the promises. The ONLY way to experience being a partaker of God's Holy nature and escape the corruption in the word is from receiving the results of the promises. Without first receiving the results of a promise, holiness is impossible. For every command of God there is a promise from God that, if received, will fulfill that command. Or another way to put it is, what the law requires, God's grace freely makes available by faith. Only as a person receives the promise by faith and experiences its fulfillment in himself will he truly obey the commands of God. For example, the following command will never be obeyed without first receiving the results of the promise.CommandMatt. 22:37 "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul, and with all your mind."PromiseDeut. 30:6 "And the Lord your God will circumcise your heart, and the heart of your seed, to love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, that you may live."It is clear that the love that the law demands is made freely available by God. 1. It is impossible to directly choose to love God. 2. Only when we receive the results of the promise, will we really love God correctly. 3. We have to first receive the fulfillment of the promise before we will love Him as the law demands. 4. Without receiving the results of the promise, we will not fulfill the command. 5. Obedience to God is TOTALLY impossible without first receiving the promise of God. 6. Keeping God's commandments is impossible without first receiving the promise. 7. We are required to lay hold by faith the promise before any obedience can take place. 8. True obedience is the result of are receiving of the promise.The language of the promise means just as much as the language of the command. It seems that few people misunderstand the command to fully love God continuously. Now, when it comes to the promise many seem to try to dilute it or make it seem weak. Does not the promise mean just as much as the command? The truth is, the only way this command will ever be fulfilled is by first receiving the results of this promise.The law demands perfect obedience and threatens with a harsh penalty if the obedience failed. Under the law, it depends only on man's faithfulness to obey. Only IF man obeyed would he be blessed, if he failed he would be cursed. The law will never make any one obedient, in fact the law was never designed to make any person's heart holy. The Law will never supply the love God demanded. All it did was make demands and threats when the demands were not met. Man broke the law time and time again. He proved his unfaithfulness.God has provided the only solution for mans disobedience and total failure through Jesus Christ. God's provision WHEN RECEIVED will fulfill all the requirements of the law. What the law demands, grace supplies. God has made provision for mans unfaithfulness and has made this solution freely available in the form of a promise.Another command and promise.CommandEzek. 18:30b-31 "Repent, and turn yourselves from all your transgressions; so iniquity shall not be your ruin. Cast away from you all your transgressions, whereby you have transgressed; and make you a new heart and a new spirit: for why will you die, O house of Israel?"PromiseEzek: 36:25-29; 36b "Then will I sprinkle clean water upon you, and you shall be clean: from all your filthiness, and from all your idols, will I cleanse you. A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you: and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes, and you shall keep my judgments, and do them. And you shall dwell in the land that I gave to your fathers; and ye shall be my people, and I will be your God. I will also save and deliver you from all your uncleannesses: and I will call for the corn, and will increase it, and lay no famine upon you. I the LORD have spoken it, and I will do it."Another command and promise.CommandDeut. 10:12 "And now, Israel, what does the LORD your God require of you, but to fear the LORD your God, to walk in ALL His ways, and to love Him, and to serve the LORD your God with ALL your heart and with ALL your soul."PromiseJer 32:39-41 "And I will give you one heart, and one way, that you may fear me for ever, for your own good, and for your children after you: And I will make an everlasting covenant with you, that I will not turn away from you, to do you good; but I will put my fear in your heart, that you shall not depart from me. Yes, I will rejoice over you to do you good, and I will plant you in this land assuredly with my whole heart and with my whole soul." Here is an exact Charles Finney quote from The Promise of The Spirit published by Bethany House 1980. Lecture 11. THE PROMISES--No. 1, page 135. "We never keep the commandments, only as we take hold of the promises. By this I mean that grace alone enables us from the heart, to obey the commandments of God. It is, therefore, only when we lay hold of the promise, by faith, and receive its fulfillment in ourselves, that we really, in heart, obey the commandments of God. For example we never love the Lord our God, according to the first great commandment, only as we lay hold on, and receive the fulfillment of some such promise as this: "I will circumcise your heart, and the heart of your seed, to love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, that you may live."We can take hold of the promises of God and then receive what we need. Exact quote from Finney's Systematic Theology 1851 Edition Lecture 50------------------- "It is true indeed that God requires of men, especially under the gospel, what they are unable to do directly in their own strength. Or more strictly speaking, he requires them to lay hold on His strength, or to avail themselves of His grace, as the condition of being what he requires them to be. With strict propriety, it cannot be said that in this, or in any case, he requires directly any more than we are able directly to do. The direct requirement in the case under consideration, is to avail ourselves of, or to lay hold upon his strength. This we have power to do. He requires us to lay hold upon his grace and strength, and thereby to rise to a higher knowledge of Himself, and to a consequent higher state of holiness than would be otherwise possible to us. The direct requirement is to believe, or to lay hold upon his strength, or to receive the Holy Spirit, or Christ, who stands at the door, and knocks, and waits for admission. The indirect requirement is to rise to a degree of knowledge of God, and to spiritual attainments that are impossible to us in our own strength. We have ability to obey the direct command directly, and the indirect command indirectly. That is, we are able by virtue of our nature, together with the proffered grace of the Holy Spirit, to comply with all the requirements of God. So that in fact there is no proper inability about it."-----------------The grace of the gospel offers you, with every command, the strength to obey, and work in you the very thing commanded. Every command implies a corresponding promise, that is, if we are required to do anything by Christ, the very requirement is an implied promise or offer of all the aid we need to make it possible for us to perform it. Indeed, the command in itself is an implied gift of all needed help. The command itself implies the ability to obey it. Every command of God implies this in the strongest manner. It should be remembered that God is perfect in both love and wisdom: therefore He cannot be so unjust as to demand something from us that is impossible for us to perform. THE GRACE OF GOD TURNS THE REQUIREMENT OF THE LAW INTO A PROMISE OF GOD.From Christian Perfection by Asa Mahan------------- " The sinner is not required to "make himself clean," or to "make to himself a new heart," in the exercise of his unaided powers, but by application to the blood of Christ, "which cleanses from all sin." The grace which purifies the heart is provided; the fountain, whose waters cleanse from sin, is set open. To this fountain the sinner is brought, and because he may descend into it, and there "wash his garments and make them white," he can fulfill the command, "Wash you, make you clean," "make to yourself a new heart and a new spirit," and "cleanse yourself from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit." The sinner is able to make to himself a "new heart and a new spirit," because he can instantly avail himself of offered grace. He does literally "make to himself a new heart and a new spirit," ONLY when he yields himself up to the influence of that grace. The power to cleanse from sin lies in the blood and grace of Christ; and hence, when the sinner "purifies himself by obeying the truth through the spirit," the glory of his salvation belongs, not to him, but to Christ."

This is a wonderful biblical topic which every Christian would know about. I find that not many preach on the freedom of a Christian and therefore our generation has been getting ripped off. Dr. Michael L. Brown is one of my favorite writers and preachers. He was mentored by Leonard Ravenhill, speaks at The Call, and started Fire School of Ministry and also The Call School of Ministry. Well, he wrote a book I highly recommend called "Go And Sin No More: A Call to Holiness". The forward is by Bill Bright, Founder and President Campus Crusade for Christ International. You can find this wonderful book on amazon.com

It is the will of God that we move from being "just a sinner saved by grace" to a Saint that is empowered by grace! That is His will, that you go from being conquered by sin to being a more then a conqueror of sin. If the Law is the strength of sin (1Co 15:56), then grace should be the strength of righteousness.

Oh dear brother, if it involves coveteousness in ministry, I've been there. Oh thank God, I have been delivered. But I still have to guard my vessel, and not entertain these temptations. I have to be content with those things such as I have.I would ask that you do yourself a huge favor and read the following prayerfully:http://www.awildernessvoice.com/posturing.htmlYou will not find a better article on this subject. Striving for "position" is not the way of the Lord Jesus Christ. We simply follow the Holy Spirit second by second, and give thanks for the places He opens doors for us to be.There is not a person on this planet who would like to be in "full time ministry" more than I. Yet I am in full time ministry because of the place God has put me. It's not a place of my choosing, but His. Therefore, I dare not miss what I'm doing now, or the hope of what may follow will perish. It's all in His timing and His provision, not our own.Tozer said that God will "crucify without pity, those whom He wishes to raise without measure". I find comfort in that, even in my difficulties. I trust you will too. Finally, I simply cannot believe that anyone reaches a place of sinless perfection. Not even Paul did that. God said that His grace is sufficient. It is sufficient for Paul, and it's sufficient for you and I. Does this give us liberty to act carnally and after the flesh? God forbid. But we have an advocate with the Father. Jesus Himself pleads our case on our behalf, and His closing arguments are always that the price has been paid in full for our sins. Glory be to God, He ought to know. So let us all join together in one accord and give Him the glory, honor and praise. Alleluia.

I love what Duncan Campbell said "You'll never be in the position where it is impossible for you to sin. But praises be to God that you are in a position where it's possible for you not to."

Paul gives the problem:Romans 7:19 "For the good that I will to do, I do not do; but the evil I will not to do, that I practice"And then the problem again:Romans 7:24 "O wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death?"AND THEN HE GIVES THE WONDERFUL ANSWER!Romans 7:25 "I thank God--through Jesus Christ" our Lord!