Restricted freedom of Christians
One of the greatest privileges of being a Christian is that we have been made free. The question is free from what? There were a lot of things we were subjected to, that we were under and they held us in bondage. The good news is that we have been set free. In this article I will be discussing those things we have been set free from, what we are set free to do and we can go about it.
SIN
Rom 6:7-12 KJV 7 For he that is dead is freed from sin. 8 Now if we be dead with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with him: 9 Knowing that Christ being raised from the dead dieth no more; death hath no more dominion over him. 10 For in that he died, he died unto sin once: but in that he liveth, he liveth unto God. 11 Likewise reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord. 12 Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, that ye should obey it in the lusts thereof.
Since the fall of man in the garden, man has been in bondage to sin. Sin rule him, his flesh dominates him and he does what his body, mind and feelings tells him to do. His spirit is alienated from God as Paul said in Ephesians 2.
Eph 2:1-2 KJV 1 And you hath he quickened, who were dead in trespasses and sins; 2 Wherein in time past ye walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience:
He is without God in this life.
Eph 2:12 KJV That at that time ye were without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope, and without God in the world:
In fact his mind is enmity unto God. He cannot comprehends the things of God and according to Paul they are foolishness unto him. He laughs and makes mockery of spiritual things. His mind is beclouded and blinded by the devil, he cannot perceive rightly the things of God.
1Cor 2:14 KJV But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.
Rom 8:7 KJV Because the carnal mind is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be.
The god of this world has veiled his mind.
2Cor 4:4 KJV In whom the god of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them.
Because of all these, he yields his members, that is members of his body as instruments of sins. Rom 6. He has no life of God in him. He has no eternal life. This is the state of every one that has not known Christ and it doesn’t matter their pedigree in life, their nature, colour of skin, nationality does not matter. Even if they live in the developed country or in what is called third world. Their position in the society matters less, rich or poor, male or female, as long as you are not in Christ, your description perfectly fit the above.
Here is the good news that when a man received the life of God and becomes born again, he becomes a new creation as Paul said in 2Cor 5: 17. But much more that than that, he is set free from the sin.
Rom 6:7-12 KJV 7 For he that is dead is freed from sin. 8 Now if we be dead with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with him: 9 Knowing that Christ being raised from the dead dieth no more; death hath no more dominion over him. 10 For in that he died, he died unto sin once: but in that he liveth, he liveth unto God. 11 Likewise reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord. 12 Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, that ye should obey it in the lusts thereof.
He is free from sin because of what Christ has done. Christ died to sin once for all, so Paul said we too should see ourselves as dead to sin. If we died to sin then we are free from its influence and dominion.
The word used for “sin” is “hermatia” in Greek while the word commonly used for “sin” is hermatano” this is the verb, it indicates an action, conduct and performance. “Hermatia” is the noun and it means propensity to sin or much better the sin nature, the old man.
When the Bible says Christ died to sin, he did not died to his own sin, he had none. He did not died to wrong behaviour and conduct but the Greek word used there is “hermatia” which is a noun.
Rom 6:6 KJV Knowing this, that our old man is crucified with him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin.
In order words He died to imputation and punishment and judgement, guilt, condemnation of sin. This he did once and for all. The consequence is that sin does not have rule or dominion over Him any longer, He is free forever. Now the point Paul is making in verse 12 is that we too we should reckon, consider, adjudge ourselves like that. Why? Because we are in Christ Jesus, as a matter of fact what He did, He did it for us and it is put into our records as if we were the one that did it. We have died to sin. We are not trying to die, we are not trying to be holy, we have been made holy Eph 4:24. The final statement of Paul, is that anyone that is dead is free from the master he serves. When the master or boss died, the servant is free, so also Jesus took the sin nature which is the old man and died with it. The sin nature did not resurrect with Him, he came out with newness of life and so are we.
Our responsibility
It is now our individual responsibility to reckon ourselves dead to sin. We are free from is guilt, condemnation, judgement and punishment.
Secondly, we used to yield our bodies as instrument of unrighteousness because we don’t know better, now we have to yield ourselves as instrument of righteousness. We can do it, we can act right because we have been made right with God.
WHY DO CHRISTIAN STILL SIN?
The old man mentioned in Rom 6:6 left a body an mind which has been trained to act contrary to the law of God, now that it is dead and gone for good, the body it left is still there and that is why Christian behaves live un-regenerated at times. The solution is what Paul offered in Rom 12: 1-3 that we should renew our mind to who we are now in Christ-freed people.
This knowledge will set us free from the bondage of sin, he is no longer my master, he doesn’t dictate what and what I do and what I don’t do. I have my will and I can exercise it freely. I can cooperate with the Holy Spirit in my spirit to walk rightly. Praise God I am freed.
FREED FROM CONDEMNATION
When a town planner or quantity surveyor comes to a building, examined it and discover it unfit for abode, he just condemn that house as unfit. In the same light, when we were unbelievers, we were under condemnation and guilt of our inability to fulfil the law of God. Our conscience is defiled, we walk around with guilt conscience and it doesn’t matter how good we look, we were guilty and insolvable before God. Jesus said he that does not believe is under condemnation already. In fact, He said he is not the one that judge or condemn but the “word” condemns.
Joh 5:24 KJV Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that heareth my word, and believeth on him that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation; but is passed from death unto life.
The good news is that when we now become Christian, we are freed from condemnation.
Rom 8:1-4 KJV 1 There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit. 2 For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death. 3 For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh: 4 That the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.
The reason is because Jesus bored our condemnation. We could not fulfil the law of God perfectly as we are expected and as a result we become condemned, guilty and very offensive to God Deut 28. We deserve punishment. It is not what many people thought that if I do my best God will accept me, God does not grade over a gradient like in mathematics, rather the injunction is that we must fulfilled all the law perfectly. James 2:10 says anyone who break one is guilty of all the remaining ones. It Is like a windscreen, if you throw a stone on it, and only a small part is broken, you have to replace the whole part completely. But here comes Jesus and He fulfil the law perfectly for us, so delivered us from the condemnation deserved. The law could not justified us, so God condemn sin in the body of Jesus, he was condemn so that we can be freed. What the law demands was fulfilled.
FREED FROM MOSAIC LAW
The law of Moses demands absolute perfection as stated above. Death is the penalty of violation of the law. The wages of sin is death. Sin is the transgression of the law. In order to avert people dying for every sin committed, God instituted the Levitical priesthood which creates the offices of High priest and priests. One of their major duties is to offer sacrifices for sin. The sin offering takes the place of the sinner, as he lay his hands on the animal and confesses his sin, the animal is substituted for him, the animal died while he is set free. Alongside of sacrifices are feast on special days and years that must be observed by everybody.
The fact is that all the sacrifices and feasts were shadow of the main substance which is Jesus. They all pointed to Jesus. After Jesus became our sacrifice and fulfilled the law for us, we are set free from the Mosaic law.
Col 2:16-17 KJV 16 Let no man therefore judge you in meat, or in drink, or in respect of an holyday, or of the new moon, or of the sabbath days: 17 Which are a shadow of things to come; but the body is of Christ.
Some teaches that it is only from ceremonial laws that we are freed from, but that is not true, we are freed from the law. The law held us bound, we can’t fulfill it perfectly, Jesus did that for us. Now we don’t live by the dictates of the law, we are not to be guided by the law but by the Spirit of God that dwells in us, this is mind blowing. Is the law bad? The law is good and holy as Paul says in Rom 7, but the weakness of our flesh will not allow us to fulfil it no matter how much we try to do it. Our flesh is a rebellion one. We have to mortify the deeds of the flesh.
Rom 7:6 KJV But now we are delivered from the law, that being dead wherein we were held; that we should serve in newness of spirit, and not in the oldness of the letter.
The Greek word used for “delivered” in that verse is “katargeō” and it means: to render idle, unemployed, inactivate, inoperative, to cause a person or thing to have no further efficiency, to deprive of force, influence, power, to cause to cease, put an end to, do away with, annul, abolish, to cease, to pass away, be done away, to be severed from, separated from, discharged from, loosed from any one, to terminate all intercourse with one.
In order words we have no more intercourse with it! We are freed from the law as a regulating devise to order our paths. I know many people will argue and say so how am I going to know what is wrong from what is right? What is going to direct me? Here is what Paul says in that verse as presented by Amplified Bible.
Romans 7:6 But now we are discharged from the Law and have terminated all intercourse with it, having died to what once restrained and held us captive. So now we serve not under [obedience to] the old code of written regulations, but [under obedience to the promptings] of the Spirit in newness [of life].
We are under the obedience of the Spirit as we listen to His promptings, intuitive and the knowing in us.
Gal 4:9 KJV But now, after that ye have known God, or rather are known of God, how turn ye again to the weak and beggarly elements, whereunto ye desire again to be in bondage?
Gal 5:1 KJV Stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free, and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage.
Which bondage was Paul talking about? It was bondage to Mosaic law from which we have been set free from.
There is a greater law and that is the law of the Spirit of life in Christ. What does it do?
Rom 8:2 KJV For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death.
The final nail in the coffin of the law is what Paul talked about in the book of Corinthians:
1Cor 15:56-57 KJV 56 The sting of death is sin; and the strength of sin is the law. 57 But thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.
FREED FROM SATAN
The ability of Satan to put people into bondage is in his capacity to create fear. Fear has torment. God has not given us the spirit of fear. Why are people afraid? The Jews were afraid of God that He might killed them so they asked Moses to speak to them and not allow God to speak to them directly.
Exo 20:19 KJV And they said unto Moses, Speak thou with us, and we will hear: but let not God speak with us, lest we die.
It was the same fear that made Adam to ran from God rather than to run to God. Fear of punishment. In fact Solomon says the fear of God is the beginning of wisdom. We are to fear God or better still reference God.
Rom 8:15 KJV For ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear; but ye have received the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father.
Satan put people in bondage and that includes non believers and believers that do not know their right and privileges.
Heb 2:15 KJV And deliver them who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage.
The fear of death is the principal fear that the devil uses. The reason you are afraid of height is because of death, the reason you can’t fly in Aero plane is nothing but fear of death, many don’t like travelling because of fear of accidents that may result in death, and so on and so forth.
But Jesus delivered from the bondage of death by dying for us.
Heb 2:14 KJV Forasmuch then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, he also himself likewise took part of the same; that through death he might destroy him that had the power of death, that is, the devil;
He partook in death as a man, and so doing destroyed death. The word used for ‘destroy” is the same word used for “delivered” in Rom 7:6. It is “katageo” Satan has been rendered idle, paralyzed and ineffective. When someone is in that condition, then his captives are freed. And this what happened, after Jesus destroyed Satan, we became freed from his bondage.
IMPLICATION OF THIS FREEDOM
This grace is too much, too good to be true news and that is what Gospel is called. We have great freedom in Christ, set freed from that has held us bond. We are at liberty, a greater liberty. Does it means we are free to do whatever we like after all there is no more condemnation to us? Can we live in sin? Does it matter again?
Rom 6:1-2 KJV 1 What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound? 2 God forbid. How shall we, that are dead to sin, live any longer therein?
Paul had in Chapter 5: 20 said something very marvelous and mind blowing:
Rom 5:20 KJV Moreover the law entered, that the offence might abound. But where sin abounded, grace did much more abound:
So many people were asking then we can do as we like, live and conduct ourselves anyhow. God is not going to punish me and he is not imputing my sins unto me after all 2Cor 5:19-21.
Paul in refuting that thought says it is not so. It is true we have all these freedom in Christ but they don’t freed us to go and live in sin, because we are already dead to sin, how can “we” live inside what we are dead to again? The word “we” denotes a special kind of people and that is what we are to God. We are His peculiar treasure 1Pet 2:9. He illustrate that with act of baptism, when we are dip inside water, we were buried with Christ and when we come up it depicts resurrection from the dead just as Christ resurrect from dead and got freed from it. We are not alive to sin but alive to God now.
1Pet 2:24 KJV Who his own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree, that we, being dead to sins, should live unto righteousness: by whose stripes ye were healed.
Many people have come against preacher of grace by saying that they are encouraging sin. We are not giving people license to sin, as a matter of fact, people have been sinning without license. They should condemn Paul first because Paul preaches the Gospel of grace and he did not preach that we should go and live like a devil. He said the same thing again in verse 15 that God forbid.
Rom 6:15 KJV What then? shall we sin, because we are not under the law, but under grace? God forbid.
The fact is that people abuse everything in this life time and that does not excludes grace. Should that stop us from preaching grace? We cannot stop but continued to preach the good news of the freedom we have in Christ. If anyone feel that he can go and live like the devil, the truth is that he is not born again. When someone becomes born again, the spirit in him wants to live righteous and do right.
1Jn 3:3 KJV And every man that hath this hope in him purifieth himself, even as he is pure.
You will want to live holy, you may be doing badly at it, but you desire it, mistake can come once in a while but your major disposition is to live holy.
Peter also lends his voice to this notion of people abusing grace of God when he wrote the his epistle.
1Pe 2:16 KJV As free, and not using your liberty for a cloke of maliciousness, but as the servants of God.
He addressed two groups that made the church in diaspora then, the Jews and the gentiles or heathen converts. The Jews naturally considered themselves as freed people and as a result they cannot be subjected to any other person, they held their allegiance unto God only. And when they became Christian, Jesus made them free from Mosaic laws and its rituals, that is double freedom. But Peter made it known unto them that even though they are free in Christ they should still subject themselves to the laws of the land. Which will be an indication of their obedience and subjection to the laws of God. The Jews were known for rebellion and seditions because of this wrong notion about freedom
The heathen gentiles were also to know that even though they are free from Mosaic law like their Jewish counterparts by the freedom they have in Christ, they are not to rebel against constituted authority.
Peter enjoins the two group not to see their freedom as a covering for maliciousness.
1Pet 2:16 KJV As free, and not using your liberty for a cloke of maliciousness, but as the servants of God.
We are not called to take grace for opportunity to live in sin, act like unbelievers.
Jud 1:4 KJV For there are certain men crept in unawares, who were before of old ordained to this condemnation, ungodly men, turning the grace of our God into lasciviousness, and denying the only Lord God, and our Lord Jesus Christ.
Gal 5:13 KJV For, brethren, ye have been called unto liberty; only use not liberty for an occasion to the flesh, but by love serve one another.
Conclusion: Since we enjoy this grace in Christ Jesus, we should not abuse it. We should yield ourselves to God, allow Him to live His live through us.
Rom 6:18 KJV Being then made free from sin, ye became the servants of righteousness.
If we follow the dictates of our flesh and give occasion to it, what we are doing is to create an in-road to the devil into our lives. We open door to all he can afflicts us with -poverty, affliction, sickness, evil, oppression, condemnation of conscience and al manner of terrible things. Why will you allow the devil into your life? Right living shut the doors against he adversary. Grace is available for us to live right. It is a restricted freedom. Enjoy it.