Tuesday, November 7, 2023
Sin is no longer your master, for you no longer live under the requirements of the law. Instead, you live under the freedom of God's grace. Romans 6:14 NLT
Live Free
Freedom. It is something that we take for granted way too often. But sometimes we don’t live in freedom like we should as children of God, saved by grace, forgiven and redeemed. That is because we may know in our heads that we are forgiven and absolved, but we allow the power of sin to maintain its grip on our hearts. We can’t shake it. We can’t accept that sin has been defeated because of Jesus Christ rescuing us and instead, we live defeated lives. Living like this makes everything Jesus did on the cross in vain. What good is His sacrifice if it doesn’t deliver us from the captivity of sin and allow us to live in His grace and freedom? As long as we are humans living on this earth, we will struggle with sin, saved or not saved. The difference is that we have the power of Christ to fight temptations and sin. We don’t have to fail or remain in the bondage of sin. Because of His sacrifice on the cross we are free from the penalty of sin and the power of sin. With this gift of absolution, we should soar in the freedom from that bondage.
There is nothing like relief from the bondage of sin or the bondage of anything that weighs heavy on us – debt, worry, anxiety, regret, depression, fear, etc. The moment the weight is lifted off your shoulders and the peace floods in is the best feeling in the world. Weightlessness, freed from the mummy wrapped trappings of sin that entangle us and constrict us to the point of squeezing our life right from us. Instead of letting sin have the power over us, we need to give the power to freedom.
There is great power in freedom in Christ and Christ desires that for all of us. Satan, however, is another story. Satan wants us to live under the power of our sin and never know the freedom of Christ’s forgiveness. He can’t touch us because we are released from the penalty of our sin, but he loves it when we continue to live oppressed lives under the power of sin. What a waste of such a beautiful sacrifice. Jesus has given us this amazing gift. How effective could we be for His kingdom if we fully exercised the influence of our freedom in Him?
What good would it be to a prisoner if he were pardoned, the cell door opened, and he chose not to leave. What good is the gift of freedom from our penalty of sin if we can’t enjoy the freedom because we are still too bound up from the power of sin? Live free. Release the power of sin in your life and take back the freedom you were given.
But now you are free from the power of sin and have become slaves of God. Now you do those things that lead to holiness and result in eternal life. For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life through Christ Jesus our Lord. Romans 6:22-23
