Free From Sin

With many people this phrase "tree from sin" is a fearsome expression. Sad as it may seem, some are more afraid of being "free from sin" than they are of "con¬tinuing in sin."

"But the expression is Biblical (Rom. 6: 7, 18, 22) and did not alarm Paul.

As a matter of fact, all souls are free — either free from sin or free from righteousness (Rom. 6: 18, 20). Which freedom is yours, mine?

The believer is freed from sin's condemnation. Paul proves this in Romans 4 and 5 and magnifies the justifying grace of the Lord Jesus.

The believer is also freed from sin's mastery, sin's dominion. Jesus first announced the great principle, "Whosoever committeth sin is the servant of sin" (John 8: 34). One committed sin, one act of obedience to Satan makes us servants of sin. No man, therefore, is free because no man can honestly say that he has not sinned (Rom. 3: 19, 23).

The crucial question is: When the sinner is justified, does God then break sin's dominion over him? Emphatically Paul answers in the affirmative. "Shall we continue in sin? . . . God forbid."

Paul then proceeds to state why the born-again believer is freed from the mastery of sin. First of all, in conversion the believing sinner was baptized into Christ's death. Now Christ's death was not just a death to mortality; it was primarily a death to sin. And when Christ died to sin, He reached a point where He was out of the reach of sin's power. The proof of His victory lay in His glorious resurrection. Following that resurrection He walked in "newness of life." Sin no more dogged Him; in fact, sin no more touched or tempted Him. Sin became only a memory of past conflicts. He died once for all to sin, and forever lives unto God free from sin.

Now the believer is not yet freed from death, nor freed from the presence of sin about him. Sin impreg¬nates the atmosphere of this world. Satan is the prince of this world, and the heavenly places are infested with multiplied myriads of evil spirits (Eph. 6: 12). The believer has to live in a body subject to death and in a world saturated with evil.

Yet, the believer is "free from sin." When vain tradition suggests an act of wrong, or when Satan tempts him to yield to the mastery of the temporal ("lust of the flesh"), to popular acceptance ("lust of the eye"), to self-assertion and self-display ("pride of life"), the believer may resist successfully. For "greater is he that is in you than he that is in the world" (I John 4: 4).

This is good news. Fellow believers, this is the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. No justified believer need live under the mastery of sin. We are "freed from sin" and therefore free to serve Christ!

The believer falls heir to this freedom, but he must exercise this freedom if he would enjoy its benefits. Paul gives us two necessary rules. First, "Let not sin reign . . . neither yield ye your members as instruments of un¬righteousness unto sin." Deny your body, your time, your goods to Satan. Tell him that he has no longer any right to you, that only Jesus has the right to your "soul, life, all." Then maintain this resistance against sin even "unto blood" (Heb. 12: 4) if need be, making even the sacrifice of life, before you allow sin any dominion.

The second rule is equally important. “Recon ye also yourselves to be alive (Greek, “living”) unto God … yield yourselves … and your members … from Satan’s serfdom, and take your place among those saints serving the Lord God of hosts. After you take your stand among God’s freemen, then actively engage in the service of Christ. Security is linked to activity. He who does not fight with the forces of freedom will soon desert their ranks.

This new life, “free from sin,” is the beginning of fruitfulness. “Ye have your fruit unto holiness.” How sweet and precious are those fruits, and how desirable is that holiness.

What about the destination of such a life? “The end [is] everlasting life.” Slavery to sin is not true living, and man could not wish it to be eternal—through it will be unless stopped by the grace of God. But slavery to Christ—“freedom from sin”—is true living; it is a life worthy of lasting forever, and every believer holds that as his highest and most precious hope.

Make me a captive, Lord, and then I shall be free,
Force me to render up my sword, and I shall conqueror be.

My heart is weak and poor until it master find;
It has no spring of action sure—it varies with the wind.

It cannot freely more till thou, has wrought its chain;
Enslave it with thy matchless love, and deathless it shall reign.

--George E. Failing