Fool4Christ
Active member
The gift and task of true freedom are intertwined in Paul’s famous passage on Christian freedom:
6 We know that our old (unrenewed) self was nailed to the cross with Him in order that [our] body [which is the instrument] of sin might be made ineffective and inactive for evil, that we might no longer be the slaves of sin.
7 For when a man dies, he is freed (loosed, delivered) from [the power of] sin [among men].
8 Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him,
9 Because we know that Christ (the Anointed One), being once raised from the dead, will never die again; death no longer has power over Him.
10 For by the death He died, He died to sin [ending His relation to it] once for all; and the life that He lives, He is living to God [in unbroken fellowship with Him].
11 Even so consider yourselves also dead to sin and your relation to it broken, but alive to God [living in unbroken fellowship with Him] in Christ Jesus.
12 Let not sin therefore rule as king in your mortal (short-lived, perishable) bodies, to make you yield to its cravings and be subject to its lusts and evil passions.
13 Do not continue offering or yielding your bodily members [and faculties] to sin as instruments (tools) of wickedness. But offer and yield yourselves to God as though you have been raised from the dead to [perpetual] life, and your bodily members [and faculties] to God, presenting them as implements of righteousness.
14 For sin shall not [any longer] exert dominion over you, since now you are not under Law [as slaves], but under grace [as subjects of God’s favor and mercy].
15 What then [are we to conclude]? Shall we sin because we live not under Law but under God’s favor and mercy? Certainly not!
16 Do you not know that if you continually surrender yourselves to anyone to do his will, you are the slaves of him whom you obey, whether that be to sin, which leads to death, or to obedience which leads to righteousness (right doing and right standing with God)?
17 But thank God, though you were once slaves of sin, you have become obedient with all your heart to the standard of teaching in which you were instructed and to which you were committed.
18 And having been set free from sin, you have become the servants of righteousness (of conformity to the divine will in thought, purpose, and action).
19 I am speaking in familiar human terms because of your natural limitations. For as you yielded your bodily members [and faculties] as servants to impurity and ever increasing lawlessness, so now yield your bodily members [and faculties] once for all as servants to righteousness (right being and doing) [which leads] to sanctification.
20 For when you were slaves of sin, you were free in regard to righteousness.
21 But then what benefit (return) did you get from the things of which you are now ashamed? [None] for the end of those things is death.
22 But now since you have been set free from sin and have become the slaves of God, you have your present reward in holiness and its end is eternal life.
Romans 6:6–22
This freedom is not to be confused with sinless perfection. John makes this clear: “If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.… If we say we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us” 1 John 1:8,10. Godly Christians who have walked with the Lord for years are more aware of their sinfulness than when they first came to Christ. What is the antidote to the poison of ongoing sin in the Christian life? “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness”. 1 John 1:9
The antidote is heartfelt confession and acceptance of forgiveness and cleansing from Christ. Nevertheless, sinless perfection is the goal that every believer in Christ will attain in future glory. We're not there yet.
In Christ, then, the freedom of positive relationship with God is restored; we know God and are enabled by the Holy Spirit to love and serve him and one another. The Spirit gives us new inclinations of the will, but our old sinful inclinations still haunt us. We want to glorify God—and do much of the time—but we still live selfishly and fail to glorify him. Consequently, although we have recovered much of the true freedom lost in the fall, we “groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies”
And not only the creation, but we ourselves too, who have and enjoy the first fruits of the [Holy] Spirit [a foretaste of the blissful things to come] groan inwardly as we wait for the redemption of our bodies [from sensuality and the grave, which will reveal] our adoption (our manifestation as God’s sons).
Romans 8:23
Perfect, true freedom still awaits those who have been saved by Christ, when we see him face to face.
6 We know that our old (unrenewed) self was nailed to the cross with Him in order that [our] body [which is the instrument] of sin might be made ineffective and inactive for evil, that we might no longer be the slaves of sin.
7 For when a man dies, he is freed (loosed, delivered) from [the power of] sin [among men].
8 Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him,
9 Because we know that Christ (the Anointed One), being once raised from the dead, will never die again; death no longer has power over Him.
10 For by the death He died, He died to sin [ending His relation to it] once for all; and the life that He lives, He is living to God [in unbroken fellowship with Him].
11 Even so consider yourselves also dead to sin and your relation to it broken, but alive to God [living in unbroken fellowship with Him] in Christ Jesus.
12 Let not sin therefore rule as king in your mortal (short-lived, perishable) bodies, to make you yield to its cravings and be subject to its lusts and evil passions.
13 Do not continue offering or yielding your bodily members [and faculties] to sin as instruments (tools) of wickedness. But offer and yield yourselves to God as though you have been raised from the dead to [perpetual] life, and your bodily members [and faculties] to God, presenting them as implements of righteousness.
14 For sin shall not [any longer] exert dominion over you, since now you are not under Law [as slaves], but under grace [as subjects of God’s favor and mercy].
15 What then [are we to conclude]? Shall we sin because we live not under Law but under God’s favor and mercy? Certainly not!
16 Do you not know that if you continually surrender yourselves to anyone to do his will, you are the slaves of him whom you obey, whether that be to sin, which leads to death, or to obedience which leads to righteousness (right doing and right standing with God)?
17 But thank God, though you were once slaves of sin, you have become obedient with all your heart to the standard of teaching in which you were instructed and to which you were committed.
18 And having been set free from sin, you have become the servants of righteousness (of conformity to the divine will in thought, purpose, and action).
19 I am speaking in familiar human terms because of your natural limitations. For as you yielded your bodily members [and faculties] as servants to impurity and ever increasing lawlessness, so now yield your bodily members [and faculties] once for all as servants to righteousness (right being and doing) [which leads] to sanctification.
20 For when you were slaves of sin, you were free in regard to righteousness.
21 But then what benefit (return) did you get from the things of which you are now ashamed? [None] for the end of those things is death.
22 But now since you have been set free from sin and have become the slaves of God, you have your present reward in holiness and its end is eternal life.
Romans 6:6–22
This freedom is not to be confused with sinless perfection. John makes this clear: “If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.… If we say we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us” 1 John 1:8,10. Godly Christians who have walked with the Lord for years are more aware of their sinfulness than when they first came to Christ. What is the antidote to the poison of ongoing sin in the Christian life? “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness”. 1 John 1:9
The antidote is heartfelt confession and acceptance of forgiveness and cleansing from Christ. Nevertheless, sinless perfection is the goal that every believer in Christ will attain in future glory. We're not there yet.
In Christ, then, the freedom of positive relationship with God is restored; we know God and are enabled by the Holy Spirit to love and serve him and one another. The Spirit gives us new inclinations of the will, but our old sinful inclinations still haunt us. We want to glorify God—and do much of the time—but we still live selfishly and fail to glorify him. Consequently, although we have recovered much of the true freedom lost in the fall, we “groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies”
And not only the creation, but we ourselves too, who have and enjoy the first fruits of the [Holy] Spirit [a foretaste of the blissful things to come] groan inwardly as we wait for the redemption of our bodies [from sensuality and the grave, which will reveal] our adoption (our manifestation as God’s sons).
Romans 8:23
Perfect, true freedom still awaits those who have been saved by Christ, when we see him face to face.
