Jesus Is The Answer

Posted on by Adrian Clark

“I have discovered this principle of life—that when I want to do what is right, I inevitably do what is wrong. I love God’s law with all my heart. But there is another power within me that is at war with my mind. This power makes me a slave to the sin that is still within me. Oh, what a miserable person I am! Who will free me from this life that is dominated by sin and death? Thank God! The answer is in Jesus Christ our Lord. So you see how it is: In my mind I really want to obey God’s law, but because of my sinful nature I am a slave to sin.”
Romans 7:21-25 NLT

Paul continues with the dilemma we found in a previous blog. He refers to a power within him “that is at war with [his] mind”. There is almost a picture here of a person who, regardless of his heart-felt desires and preferences, is hooked on a drug we call sin. This “drug” is so powerful that there is no natural antidote. There is no rehab centre that could help. The addiction to this drug is beyond anything Paul, or any other human being, could overcome by sheer mental determination. Yes, there might be brief periods of freedom, allowing entry into God’s presence, but soon the “old man” raises his ugly head, and the hassle starts again. In sheer frustration Pail laments, “Oh, what a miserable person I am!” Other versions of the Bible refer to Paul as being “wretched”, surely an undesirable place to find himself. Paul’s loathing of his sinful self caused him to write in 1 Timothy 1:15, “This is a trustworthy saying, and everyone should accept it: “Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners”—and I am the worst of them all”. The Apostle Paul, the worst of all sinners? Hardly. But that is how he saw himself.

It is true that when we pilgrims hold ourselves in the light of God’s presence, we come up against feelings of guilt. We feel grubby and unclean. The light of His purity and holiness just shows up all that is sinful in us. We can get to this place just by reading the Jewish Law, or the words of Jesus in Matthew 5-7. but there is also a “still small voice” within us, the Holy Spirit, who is quietly reminding us that doing what we know we shouldn’t, repeating a sin, is perhaps not right in God’s sight.

But suddenly, a thought, probably inspired by the Holy Spirit, bursts into Paul’s mind. He exclaims “Thank God!”, as he suddenly thinks, “The answer is in Jesus Christ our Lord”. Jesus is the answer. Had Paul taken a long time to get to this point in his life, or was he re-running the sequence of events for the benefit of his Roman readers? Probably the latter, but the revelation of the saving power of Jesus was real and life-changing to Paul. And it is to us as well. 

Jesus told a man called Nicodemus what His mission was by coming to Planet Earth. We read in John 3:16-17, “For this is how God loved the world: He gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life. God sent his Son into the world not to judge the world, but to save the world through him”. Well worn verses of course, but they will never lose their power. Jesus had the answer to Paul’s dilemma, and He is the answer to ours as well. We will find out more in the days ahead.

Dear Lord Jesus. Thank You for coming to this Planet two thousand years ago. And by doing do You showed us the way back to a relationship with Your Father. We are so grateful. Amen.

It’s Sin’s Fault

Posted on by Adrian Clark

“So the trouble is not with the law, for it is spiritual and good. The trouble is with me, for I am all too human, a slave to sin. I don’t really understand myself, for I want to do what is right, but I don’t do it. Instead, I do what I hate. But if I know that what I am doing is wrong, this shows that I agree that the law is good. So I am not the one doing wrong; it is sin living in me that does it. And I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my sinful nature. I want to do what is right, but I can’t. I want to do what is good, but I don’t. I don’t want to do what is wrong, but I do it anyway. But if I do what I don’t want to do, I am not really the one doing wrong; it is sin living in me that does it.”
Romans 7:14-20 NLT

Paul is perplexed. In fact, he is so perplexed that he repeats his dilemma twice in these 7 verses. He says, “I am not really the one doing wrong; it is sin living in me that does it”. But is this really the case? Is it a valid excuse to say before a judge, “I haven’t done anything wrong – it’s the sin living within me that is at fault”? Of course it isn’t but, superficially at least, that seems to be what Paul is saying. 

The picture emerges in Paul’s mind that within him there are effectively two people. One person who loves God’s ways, who wants to spend all his time with Him, and who really, really, wants to do what is right. And to help that “man” inside of him is God’s Law, which “is spiritual and good”. The other person inside him is the “old man”, his sinful nemesis, a part of him determined to continue in the ways of evil. Perhaps an internal battle that never seems to subside. The Godly part of him mourns and grieves over the thoughts and actions of the sinful man, leading to frustration and conflict. At least Paul doesn’t blame the devil, as some have done, for his sinful man. Personable responsibility is never avoided, in Paul’s life.

Does all this sound familiar to us pilgrims? Are we too caught up in this internal battle that never seems to end? Of course we are. And in the days ahead, we will, with Paul, journey into a place where God has provided a remedy. What a wonderful Saviour!

Dear Lord. Thank You for Your salvation, a gift so freely given. Help us to grasp it and grow in the nurturing soils of Your grace. In Jesus’ name.Amen.

Good to Evil

Posted on by Adrian Clark

“Sin took advantage of those commands and deceived me; it used the commands to kill me. But still, the law itself is holy, and its commands are holy and right and good. But how can that be? Did the law, which is good, cause my death? Of course not! Sin used what was good to bring about my condemnation to death. So we can see how terrible sin really is. It uses God’s good commands for its own evil purposes.”
Romans 7:11-13 NLT

Paul found himself in a situation in which he was perplexed. Once he was exposed to the demands of the Law, he discovered that his thoughts and deeds, some habitually committed since his earliest days, were actually sinful. The Law was a standard against which he found himself falling short. However, he found that if it wasn’t for the Law, he would never have known that what he thought or did was wrong.

As an example from society today. The expression “Oh my god” is ubiquitous, even being abbreviated to OMG in messaging, but do the users of this expression know that they are violating the second commandment from Exodus 20, “You must not misuse the name of the Lord your God. The Lord will not let you go unpunished if you misuse his name” (Exodus 20:7)? Without the benefit of the Law perhaps they would never have known. Of course, people, even Christians, claim that, because of Jesus, the Law no longer has any jurisdiction over them. But that isn’t really the case. Jesus said, as recorded in Matthew 5:17-19, “Don’t misunderstand why I have come. I did not come to abolish the law of Moses or the writings of the prophets. No, I came to accomplish their purpose. I tell you the truth, until heaven and earth disappear, not even the smallest detail of God’s law will disappear until its purpose is achieved. So if you ignore the least commandment and teach others to do the same, you will be called the least in the Kingdom of Heaven. But anyone who obeys God’s laws and teaches them will be called great in the Kingdom of Heaven”. 

So Paul lamented the fact that because of the Law, he found out that he was a sinner. He recognised that the Law was good, even holy, but because of it, it had effectively an evil purpose. 

Of course, we need laws to set boundaries on our lives and prevent society from falling apart. Without the Highway Code, drivers would have no idea of what constitutes a safe journey. Imagine the chaos if no-one knew what side of the road to drive on? But should we veer into the wrong lane, even by accident, we know that we have committed a dangerous act and put ourselves in danger. 

The Law acts as a constant reminder, a perfect standard, against which we pilgrims can gauge our progress in the Christian life. But thankfully, falling short need not be fatal, if we cover ourselves with Christ’s redeeming power, and listen to the Holy Spirit whispering within us. The old Apostle John wrote, “But if we confess our sins to him, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all wickedness” (1 John 1:9). What is He saying to us today? Many activities and thoughts will drown Him out if we are not careful and allow Him space. He is always more willing to speak than we are to listen.

Dear Father God. We thank You for Your grace and mercy. Your care for us knows no limits. Thank You. Amen.

Coveting is Wrong

Posted on by Adrian Clark

“Well then, am I suggesting that the law of God is sinful? Of course not! In fact, it was the law that showed me my sin. I would never have known that coveting is wrong if the law had not said, “You must not covet.” But sin used this command to arouse all kinds of covetous desires within me! If there were no law, sin would not have that power. At one time I lived without understanding the law. But when I learned the command not to covet, for instance, the power of sin came to life, and I died”
Romans 7:7-9 NLT

What is “coveting” all about? A dictionary definition is “to wish for earnestly”. Other words crop up like yearning and desiring. So I see a shiny new car in my neighbour’s driveway and “covet” it. I imagine how great it would be to own a model like that, and my imagination starts to kick in with all sorts of feelings, leading me down a sinful path at variance with the tenth commandment. Another example of coveting is with all those people who wish they could win the lottery. They start to imagine what they could do with all that money. Coveting.

Paul wrote that the Law exposed how sinful he was. He made the assumption that he “would never have known that coveting is wrong if the law had not said, “You must not covet.”  But is he right in this? Surely there is something inbuilt within us that would understand that coveting is a pointless exercise that could degrade into sin, should it be pursued to its limit? Perhaps. To take a modern example from the UK Highway Code, if we did not have such a reference book detailing the laws of driving would we still find ourselves driving safely, or would chaos reign? I suspect the latter position! Seeing something like a law written down in black and white draws our attention to a non-negotiable position, designed for our protection and safety. God gave the Ten Commandments to Moses for a very good reason. It brought social cohesion and God’s expectations to a bunch of rebellious ex-slaves, and is expanded upon in books such as Leviticus.

But the specific Law, “You must not covet”, was included in God’s list for a reason. The commandment in Exodus 20:17 reads, “You must not covet your neighbour’s house. You must not covet your neighbour’s wife, male or female servant, ox or donkey, or anything else that belongs to your neighbour.” It is interesting that this commandment is focused on what our neighbours have. Nothing about more general coveting, which is so often driven by national advertising, incessantly pushed on our televisions and media sources. But the principle is still there. 

How much debt and misery has been caused by people who have responded to an advert and got into debt as a result. A child nags their parents for a particular game, or item of clothing, or the latest type of mobile phone. Often unaffordable, the parent capitulates and runs up a debt that takes months to pay off. How many families get caught up in the commercial materialism of Christmas and end up trapped to a payment plan? It’s all starts with coveting and ends up in misery. 

When God issued the commandment “You must not covet” he knew what the propensity of human beings was like. We pilgrims will get caught up in this as well, the still small voice of the Holy Spirit drowned out by the coveting nature of our unredeemed sinful selves. When times are hard financially perhaps we should ask  ourselves whether what we desire is a need or a want. Hmmm… 

Dear God. You promised to provide for all our needs, so we trust in You and Your provision. Please forgive us for when we get caught up in the sin of covetousness. For Jesus’ sake. Amen.

Death to the Law

Posted on by Adrian Clark

“So, my dear brothers and sisters, this is the point: You died to the power of the law when you died with Christ. And now you are united with the one who was raised from the dead. As a result, we can produce a harvest of good deeds for God. When we were controlled by our old nature, sinful desires were at work within us, and the law aroused these evil desires that produced a harvest of sinful deeds, resulting in death. But now we have been released from the law, for we died to it and are no longer captive to its power. Now we can serve God, not in the old way of obeying the letter of the law, but in the new way of living in the Spirit.”
Romans 7:4-6 NLT

Perhaps we can see how the Roman Christians became a bit confused, prompting Paul’s detailed and enlightening letter. They must have thought that if the Law was replaced by something far better – their faith in the redeeming power of Jesus – then they were free to do what they wanted. Paul associated the Law and its many rules and regulations about what to do and what not to do with arousing within them the desire to do what they shouldn’t. Imagine the scene. There is a door to a cupboard in the house and a small boy living there is warned to never open it and look inside. What is the first thing he would do when the opportunity arises? He will open it and have a look. Perhaps if he had not been given that instruction, he might never have given it a thought. Paul wrote, “the law aroused these evil desires that produced a harvest of sinful deeds”. 

Paul wrote that because of Jesus and all that He did at Calvary, and through their faith in Him, they were released from the power of the Law. So for the small boy in our example, instead of listening to his “evil desires”, he has the opportunity to listen to the “still small voice” of the Holy Spirit within him, leading him to make the right decision. Perhaps not a good example but it hopefully illustrates the point.

God’s Spirit has unfettered access to the hearts and minds of redeemed Christians. And we pilgrims welcome Him in with open arms. Without the Holy Spirit we are very spiritually impoverished and thrown back to a time when all we had was the letter of the Law. But thanks to God and His wonderful plan we have a new way – life in the Spirit.

There was a principle taught to youth groups a few years ago, and it spawned a number of wrist bands with the letters WWJD engraved on them. The letters stand for ”What Would Jesus Do”. Perhaps this could be a mid point between the legalism of “obeying the letter of the Law” and true life in the Spirit. For most people it is perhaps too big a leap going from a Law-inspired life of sinful thoughts and actions to one of pure obedience to the Holy Spirit within us. So on occasion there might be a fog of doubt and confusion as to whether the voice within was really the Holy Spirit. To put skin on the Spirit’s voice is often helpful in times of uncertainty. But as we listen more and more to the Holy Spirit within us we increasingly recognise His voice and learn, almost intuitively, how to learn the ”new way of living in the Spirit”.

Dear Father God. What would we do without Your Spirit’s dwelling within us? Going back to slavery in the Egypt of laws is not an option we can consider. We are so grateful. Amen.

Laws Are For The Living

Posted on by Adrian Clark

“Now, dear brothers and sisters—you who are familiar with the law—don’t you know that the law applies only while a person is living? For example, when a woman marries, the law binds her to her husband as long as he is alive. But if he dies, the laws of marriage no longer apply to her. So while her husband is alive, she would be committing adultery if she married another man. But if her husband dies, she is free from that law and does not commit adultery when she remarries.”
Romans 7:1-3 NLT

It is as though Paul is now starting a new paragraph in his lengthy letter to the Roman Christians. He refers again to the “law” and he makes an obvious point – the “law” only applies during a person’s life. Once they have died it no longer has any hold over them. Though it may be very frustrating to a person seeking justice for a crime committed against them, if the miscreant is dead, they will have no redress in law. As an example, and to take a very high profile case in the UK in recent years, Jimmy Saville, a famous DJ and a man even knighted for his charitable work, left a trail of hundreds of allegations of sexual abuse that were only investigated after his death. The police concluded that he was a prolific and predatory sex offender but there was no legal redress for his victims because the law no longer applied to him. He was dead. 

There is a temptation for the victims of crime to feel cheated if the one who offended against them has died and can’t be brought to justice. But they forget one thing. Justice doesn’t end with our natural deaths. One day everyone will have to stand before God to give an account for their lives. Paul wrote in 2 Corinthians 5:10, “For we must all stand before Christ to be judged. We will each receive whatever we deserve for the good or evil we have done in this earthly body”. And about evil people, Jesus said to His disciples, “And they will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous will go into eternal life” (Matthew 25:46). The old Apostle John recorded a revelation given to him by Jesus, and at the end of Revelation 20 we read, “I saw the dead, both great and small, standing before God’s throne. And the books were opened, including the Book of Life. And the dead were judged according to what they had done, as recorded in the books. And anyone whose name was not found recorded in the Book of Life was thrown into the lake of fire” (Revelation 20:12,15).

So we never need fear that anyone who dies before they have been called to account in a court of law has escaped the punishment they deserve. But of course we must also remember that God’s grace extends even to criminals. A confession of sin and a turning to God even with our dying breaths will ensure that our names are written in the “Book of Life”. One of the criminals being crucified with Jesus turned to Him in repentance, convicted of his sins, and he said, ““… Don’t you fear God even when you have been sentenced to die? We deserve to die for our crimes, but this man hasn’t done anything wrong.” Then he said, “Jesus, remember me when you come into your Kingdom.” And Jesus replied, “I assure you, today you will be with me in paradise”” (Luke 23:40-43). Such love! Such grace! It may be difficult to think that someone who has lived a life of evil crime and makes a last minute confession can find a Heavenly future. But we need to remember that it is only God who has the final word. We trust Him for His righteousness and His fairness, and praise and thank Him for His grace and mercy. After all, we may not have violated any laws of our country, or at least we haven’t been caught offending, but we are all sinners. There is no distinction in God’s eyes between the seriousness of sins. They are all enough to ensure a “Guilty” verdict before God’s throne. 

I am always touched by mothers who have lost a son, killed in some event in the street, and who are able to forgive their son’s killer. They are the ones who have truly discovered God’s heart and perhaps they too will find themselves in paradise. They are able to trust God for the right outcome. Only He can see the end from the beginning. 

Dear Father God. Your grace and mercy knows no bounds. We praise and thank You today. Amen.

The Wages of Sin

Posted on by Adrian Clark

“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 NLT

Those of us who are working get paid for our services. We call it a wage or a salary. But the principle is the same – we provide a service to someone and get paid in return. Sadly, governments want to break into what should be a simple business transaction and take their cut – we call it income tax – but we end up with enough money, hopefully, to pay our bills and provide for ourselves and our dependent families. 

It doesn’t matter what we do because there is always a consequent response. So we work and get paid. Of course, someone can volunteer to do work and not get a monetary reward, but they will get their “wages” in other ways. In a wider sense, everything that we do will have some sort of payback. If we do something kind for someone else, such as doing the shopping for an elderly neighbour, then they will be blessed by our work. And we receive our “wages” spiritually, because we are doing what God has asked us to do. Jesus said one of the greatest commandments was loving your neighbour, as recorded in Matthew 22:39, “A second is equally important: ‘Love your neighbour as yourself.” So a law of cause and effect is in play here. Jesus said in Luke 6:38, “Give, and you will receive. Your gift will return to you in full—pressed down, shaken together to make room for more, running over, and poured into your lap. The amount you give will determine the amount you get back”. 

But we now come to what Paul said about sin. He said “the wages of sin is death”. Sin has a root, which is rebellion against God. When this happens, the sinner is doing or thinking something that contravenes God’s design for them. Sin has two serious consequences – a sinner cannot be in God’s presence, and a sinner will not enjoy God’s covering and protection. I often go to Psalm 91 – here are the first four verses, “Those who live in the shelter of the Most High will find rest in the shadow of the Almighty. This I declare about the Lord: He alone is my refuge, my place of safety; he is my God, and I trust him. For he will rescue you from every trap and protect you from deadly disease. He will cover you with his feathers. He will shelter you with his wings. His faithful promises are your armour and protection“. Notice that only those with the right qualifications of living close to God will receive the assurance of finding His rest and safety. At a time of danger, a mother hen will cover her chicks with her wings. A lovely picture of God’s protection for His people. Another encouraging verse about God’s care and protection for His people can be found in Isaiah 41:10, “Don’t be afraid, for I am with you. Don’t be discouraged, for I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you. I will hold you up with my victorious right hand.” 

Those who sin and who never repent and turn to God will one day receive the wages for their rebellion and sin. They will find eternal death in a place where they don’t want to be. But Paul continues to write about the “free gift of God”. Which is “eternal life through Christ Jesus our Lord”. We all love gifts, don’t we? And yet most people will choose sin and eternal death rather than turn to God and receive His free gift of eternal life. 

I was often puzzled by the propensity of some of my workmates to choose to be rebellious and awkward when asked to do something by the boss, purely because they thought it violated their “rights”. Without a knowledge of a bigger picture and the goal to which the company was heading, they thought they knew better. They chose to go a different way, often with consequences they had not foreseen. Regarding sin, it is of course someone’s “right” to continue their evil ways, but such people choose to ignore the consequences. 

How better it is to listen to God and follow His ways, assuring a future that starts with the free gift of salvation and continues with a life eternally spent in a wonderful place we call Heaven.

Dear Father. What else can we say other than “thank You”? Amen.

Shame

Posted on by Adrian Clark

“When you were slaves to sin, you were free from the obligation to do right. And what was the result? You are now ashamed of the things you used to do, things that end in eternal doom.“
Romans 6:20-21 NLT

Isn’t it strange? In our previous lives, before our eyes were opened to God’s saving grace through Jesus, we sinned and thought nothing of it. A speed limit broken, a glass of some alcoholic beverage too many before the drive home, a couple of pencils taken from the office stationery cupboard, an extra-marital affair with someone else’s husband or wife, and probably many other things we want to push down into the dark corners of our minds, hoping they stay there hidden. We really were in a dark place, enslaved to a way of life that involved sinful thoughts and deeds. Yes, we may have felt the odd twinge of guilt. Yes, intuitively, we knew we were doing wrong. But the thrills and attractions of living a sinful life drowned out all other feelings of conscience. Because “[we] were slaves to sin, [we] were free from the obligation to do right”. 

Now our past lives have been exposed to us through the light of God. And we feel a deep sense of shame. We realise now that what we did in the past really would have ended “in eternal doom”. We realise now that all our past sinful deeds and thoughts violated God’s principles. Meaning that although He loved us, He couldn’t be anywhere near us. Our sins and God’s presence were, and still are, incompatible.

We pilgrims have a constant problem though. There is something within us that constantly urges us to return to the old way of living, with its sin and shame. We were steeped in sinful practices and it takes a long time, punctuated by repentance and God’s forgiveness, before the old ways are leached out of us, and we leave behind us the old life. We now have an obligation to do what is right. The old ways are always there, beckoning to us, but increasingly we are being saved from them. We read in Ephesians 4:23-24, “Instead, let the Spirit renew your thoughts and attitudes. Put on your new nature, created to be like God—truly righteous and holy.” Through Jesus’ sacrifice at Calvary we are made new, and His Spirit will work within us, helping us to become “truly righteous and holy”.  It will take a lifetime but its worth it.

Dear Father, we thank You that You have lifted us up out of the “miry clay” through Jesus, and what He did for us. We are so grateful. Amen.

Not Giving In

Posted on by Adrian Clark

“Do not let sin control the way you live; do not give in to sinful desires. Do not let any part of your body become an instrument of evil to serve sin. Instead, give yourselves completely to God, for you were dead, but now you have new life. So use your whole body as an instrument to do what is right for the glory of God. 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 6:12-14 NLT

Paul gets down to the nitty-gritties of living a life of faith. He starts to get personal. But how can he, a sinful man as well, tell others how they should and shouldn’t live? What right does he have, perhaps you ask? But what he writes is correct. As Christians, we cannot, must not even, allow sin to be the dominant force in our lives.

Paul starts with our minds. “Sinful desires” start in that space between our ears. We look at something and we lust after it. That cream cake. A new car. Men in particular can have a problem with beautiful women. And before we know it we are in the danger zone, sorely tempted to give into a “sinful desire”. And in case we find ourselves in a safe place, our enemy, the devil, will creep up on us and plant a sinful seed into our minds. A rationalising process can take place, much as it did with Eve in the Garden. Just one more chocolate biscuit won’t hurt. Another glance at that web page won’t really matter. “Did God really say …”. But we must stand firm, always alert for an attack on our minds, on our thoughts. Paul wrote in 2 Corinthians 10:3-4, “We are human, but we don’t wage war as humans do. We use God’s mighty weapons, not worldly weapons, to knock down the strongholds of human reasoning and to destroy false arguments.” Someone once said that we can’t stop birds flying over our heads, but we can stop them nesting in our hair. 

Paul then moves onto our bodies. Our physical beings. Those bits of us controlled by our minds. Perhaps he is saying that it is bad enough to think sinful thoughts but to then use our bodies to apply the sin compounds the felony. By so doing they become an “instrument of evil”. Jesus emphatically made this point – we can read His words in Matthew 5:29-30, “So if your eye—even your good eye—causes you to lust, gouge it out and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to be thrown into hell. And if your hand—even your stronger hand—causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to be thrown into hell.” Of course, theologians try and rationalise what Jesus said. Perhaps I do as well. But Jesus was deadly serious. If our bodies become an “instrument of evil” then there is only one place where they will end up, probably with the rest of us following close behind.

But now to the positives. Paul wrote, “for you were dead, but now you have new life”. Of course we do. We are a new creation, in transition to becoming the persons God designed us to be. Work in progress, journeying through life. Through Jesus we have an opportunity, breathtaking in its simplicity, profound in its concept, and eternal in its outcome. An opportunity that just cannot be overlooked and missed. Living a life of holiness, because that is what separation from sin is all about, may, in worldly eyes, be dull and boring, but the resulting life to come will be filled with so much incredible joy and excitement that we will never regret it.

Dear Father God. We thank You for these Spirit-inspired words of wisdom from Your servant Paul. Please help us to take note of them and apply them to our lives, day by day. In Jesus’ name. Amen.

Freedom!

Posted on by Adrian Clark

“For when we died with Christ we were set free from the power of sin. And since we died with Christ, we know we will also live with him. We are sure of this because Christ was raised from the dead, and he will never die again. Death no longer has any power over him. When he died, he died once to break the power of sin. But now that he lives, he lives for the glory of God. So you also should consider yourselves to be dead to the power of sin and alive to God through Christ Jesus.”
Romans 6:7-11 NLT

Paul made an extraordinary statement when he wrote “when we died with Christ we were set free from the power of sin”. The last thing that a person in a Western society will feel is that they are under the power of anything. In some perhaps misguided way, we all assume that we are free. And that is certainly true to a certain extent, because, for example, we are not locked up in a jail, or under house arrest, or have our freedom restricted in any way. So here in the UK we are “free” to go where we please, and live where we want to, unrestricted by government or anyone else. But in an absolute sense, we are not totally free because we could be restricted in some way by money, or health. By a relationship or education. There are many factors at play that could enslave us.

But Paul was referring to something far more profound and important – our standing before God. You see, an unbeliever cannot enter God’s presence because of their sin. The “power of sin” in their lives will constrain them to a life of enslaved rebellion against God, and an eternity to be spent in a place where they don’t want to go. Slaves locked up in hell.

The Pharisees remonstrated with Jesus about freedom. We read in John 8:31-36, “Jesus said to the people who believed in him, “You are truly my disciples if you remain faithful to my teachings. And you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” “But we are descendants of Abraham,” they said. “We have never been slaves to anyone. What do you mean, ‘You will be set free’?” Jesus replied, “I tell you the truth, everyone who sins is a slave of sin. A slave is not a permanent member of the family, but a son is part of the family forever. So if the Son sets you free, you are truly free”. 

Jesus set us free from slavery to sin through His death, if, of course, we put our faith in Him. He said quite clearly that all those who “remain faithful to [His] teachings”  will be set free from sin. And in some way, through our faith, we die with Him. We choose to align ourselves with God and openly declare that we will sin no more. The consequence is that, as Jesus rose from the dead, we too will be resurrected to spend eternity with Him in Heaven. How amazing is that? Too profound a truth to keep to ourselves?

Dear Father. Thank You for setting us free from the sin that we are so familiar with. Amen.