Freedom in Jesus Christ

The greatest joy on the face of this earth is to be free from the powers of sin. In fact, there is no lasting peace or deep satisfaction as long as the flesh life is bound in sin and guilt. The nature of sin is a peace destroyer, a body depleter, and a mind disturber. In every instance the nature of sin or the action of sin is death at work in your mortal body. Sin leaves no life untouched, no soul unmarred, and no captive without marks. Sin has Hell as its companion and misery as its comforter. The greatest need in our believer’s world is to get sick of sin, sick enough to cry out to God for purity and cleansing.

Do you think that I’m making too much about the darkness and sorrows of sin? Then, listen to Apostle Paul, the great teacher of our New Testament covenant. “For to be carnally minded is death; but to be spiritually minded is life and peace. Because the carnal mind is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be. So then they that are in the flesh cannot please God” (Romans 8:6-8).

You cannot even think sin without the death that it represents working in your helpless body. Sin absolutely destroys every person in whom it reigns as king, and it refuses to be anything but king. It will rule unless the divine blood of the Son of God destroys it.

Every person is either a sinner or a saint. You cannot be both at the same time. I am absolutely sick of our religious world demanding that sin can reign in the life of a saint of God. Every book of the Bible proves the fallacy of such contrary theology. Such an idea is loved by a worldly church and a worldly ministry, but is wreaking havoc in the religious community. Such apostate thinking is reducing Biblical Christianity to the same level as pagan religions. A new survey of 3,500 people – all church affiliated – revealed that 70% (7 out of 10) of these persons believed that Jesus Christ is only one of the many ways to God and Heaven.

If saints are nothing but sinners in disguise, then we are no better or no different than the rest of the religions. I am determined to affect the church world with a higher truth and the absolute promise from the cross of a suffering Savior. There is freedom in Jesus Christ from the powers of sin. Apostle Paul almost screamed in his letter to the Roman church. “Likewise reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord. Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, that ye should obey it in the lusts thereof” (Romans 6:11-12).

A sinner is a sinner and a saint is a saint. The new covenant, which we call the New Testament, continually affirms this truth over and over. To the Hebrews the Apostle Paul stated, “For if we sin willfully after that we have received the knowledge of the truth, there remaineth no more sacrifice for sins” (Hebrews 10:26). I heard the great preacher, Stephen Olford, elaborate on this text with the same emphasis that I preach. The Blood of Jesus Christ does not cover sin; it cleanses sin, breaks its hellish powers, and sets the sinner free.

We can sin and may sin, but if and when we sin, a real saint will run to the High Priest of their salvation and weep bitter tears of sorrow and repentance. The apostle whom “Christ loveth” and who leaned in great devotion on His breast said, “My little children, these things write I unto you, that ye sin not. And if any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous: And he is the propitiation for our sins: and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world” (I John 2:1-2).

Thank God for this provision because you will need it, but it is not an excuse to live in habitual sin or to practice sin. While the blessed Redeemer knows our frailty and possibilities, He also carefully reveals the power of the saving and sanctifying Blood. We may sin, but we do not camp out in the courts of sin. We get up, grow up, put on the nature of our Savior, and go on unto perfection. This Holy Ghost anointed proclamation of the Apostle Paul settles the issue of continuing in sin, “Therefore leaving the principles of the doctrine of Christ, let us go on unto perfection; not laying again the foundation of repentance from dead works, and of faith toward God” (Hebrews 6:1).

The original Methodists preached “Second Work Sanctification” and the original Baptists preached “Lordship Surrender.” Both gave the same end results of this teaching equally. As the believer walked in grace, consecrated themselves, and lived in the Scripture and on their knees; they became mature saints. Not by works, but by grace. Not by legalism, but by the living power of the resurrection. The saints that labored to win the lost were determined that the lost became more than religious. They preached righteousness in Christ that transformed. Sin was not tolerated, but defeated.

In Jesus Christ there is freedom from sin and all its destructive powers. It is not our flesh that wins, but His abundant grace. Read carefully! “But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellency of the power may be of God, and not of us.” “Always bearing about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our body. For we which live are alway delivered unto death for Jesus’ sake, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our mortal flesh” (II Corinthians 4:7, 10-11).

Shout it, “I am free!”