For much of my life, I felt like I was caught between two worlds. Like I was trying my best to live a life for God and follow His leading, but at the very same time, I felt controlled by sin. In one moment, I was completely confident in myself, and in the next I would be consumed by fear of what people thought about me. One day I would experience freedom from the things I was struggling with, and the next I would feel ashamed by my faults and failures, stuck in the same loop as the years before.
The way I was living stemmed from the things I believed. I believed I was walking daily with Jesus, but that I was also still chained to sin – bound to my corrupt nature and waiting for the day I would truly be free.
But, praise God! That’s not what His word says about those who are in Christ Jesus!
“Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in the newness of life.
For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his. We know that our old self was crucified with him in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing, so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin. For one who has died has been set free from sin. Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him. We know that Christ, being raised from the dead, will never die again; death no longer has dominion over him. For the death he died he died to sin, once for all, but the life he lives he lives to God. So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.” Romans 6:3-11 (ESV)
The Word of God tells us that there is no longer room for the power of sin to rule in our lives. We can no longer walk around believing that we are still who we once were: enslaved to sin and destined for shame.
We were born with a broken, sinful heart, and we sought a righteousness and life of our own. But the moment we placed our faith in Jesus, we were born again – not by the will and sin of man, but born of God (John 1:12). Our old self was crucified with Him, dying to sin, and our new self rose victorious over death! By faith and through baptism, we have been united in Jesus’s death and resurrection, and made completely new by His blood.
Galatians 2:20 says, “I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live by Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh, I live by faith in the son of God who loved me and gave Himself for me.”
2 Corinthians 5:17 says, “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.”
Throughout the New Testament, we see the freedom that Jesus purchased for us. As believers in Jesus, this reality is the truest thing about us. It is more true than our mistakes or failures; it’s more true than our feelings or our circumstances. Even if we were to fall into old thought patterns or slip up and fall into a sin that once ruled us, it doesn’t mean that our old self has come back to life or that the sacrifice of Jesus wasn’t enough to secure our full freedom.
Our emotions or even our actions, though they may be true to our experience, don’t set forth the truth in our lives. The only thing that shapes us, defines us, or identifies us is the truth of the Word of God. There is nothing more powerful than Jesus’s sacrifice and resurrection. Who the Son sets free, is free indeed! (John 8:36)
“Do you not know that if you present yourselves to anyone as obedient slaves, you are slaves of the one whom you obey, either of sin, which leads to death, or of obedience, which leads to righteousness? But thanks be to God, that you who were once slaves of sin have become obedient from the heart to the standard of teaching to which you were committed, and, having been set free from sin, have become slaves of righteousness. I am speaking in human terms, because of your natural limitations. For just as you once presented your members as slaves to impurity and to lawlessness leading to more lawlessness, so now present your members as slaves to righteousness leading to sanctification. Romans 6:16-19 (ESV)
What we believe to be true is the most influential thing in our lives. If we believe that sin still rules us or that Jesus’s sacrifice only gave us a partial or future freedom, then that’s how we’ll live: enslaved to sin. But if we believe what His word says is true, that we have been crucified with Christ, that we are dead to sin and have been made alive to God, then that’s how we’ll live–in freedom! As Paul says, we are to consider ourselves by the reality of what Christ has accomplished in us: He’s freed us from sin and death and filled us with His righteousness, with His very life. That truth can be so difficult for us to comprehend.
This is the vibrant, abundant life that Christ has secured for us. Living in the fullness of His love, unhindered by our past or our current circumstances, fixed on who He is and what He’s done. It is for freedom that we’ve been set free (Galatians 5:1); let us not submit to the lie of the enemy that we are still enslaved to sin! As we stand in this truth, our minds are renewed to align with the victory of Jesus in our lives. Since we now know the full redemption that Jesus secured for us, we can live from His fullness and increasingly display His life through our own.
This understanding has changed my entire life. I am no longer thrown by the winds of emotion or ruled by sin’s apparent authority in my life. I now have peace knowing that Christ has defeated sin once and for all and has set me free to live in complete unity with Him. I am no longer fighting shame from my past failures or consumed by a fear of what others think of me, but I have a godly confidence because of who Jesus has made me. And of none of this can I boast, for it is only by the finished work of Jesus that I stand holy, righteous, blameless, and powerful over every attack or lie of the enemy. Thank you, Jesus!
My prayer for you friend, is that these truths empower you to walk in the full freedom that Christ has purchased for you. These truths are not concepts or ideas – they are not simply pieces of your story or hints at your future – they are your truest reality and the source of your identity. As you read these scriptures today and ponder the depth of God’s transformative love that was poured out for you through Jesus, I pray your heart is filled with gratitude and celebration because His victory is yours! Let this sink in deeply today and carry you forward: you are free! Truly, right now, fully free!
