We Are Free!
(Galatians 5:1-4 NIV) It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery. (2) Mark my words! I, Paul, tell you that if you let yourselves be circumcised, Christ will be of no value to you at all. (3) Again I declare to every man who lets himself be circumcised that he is obligated to obey the whole law. (4) You who are trying to be justified by the law have been alienated from Christ; you have fallen away from grace.
(Romans 6:14 NIV) For sin shall no longer be your master, because you are not under the law, but under grace.
(1 Corinthians 15:55-57 NIV) (55) “Where, O death, is your victory? Where, O death, is your sting?” (56) The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. (57) But thanks be to God! He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.
- Freedom never comes from OUR struggle.
Whatever you focus on, you move towards.
- Freedom never comes from guilt and condemnation.
(Romans 7:15-20) NLT 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. (16) But if I know that what I am doing is wrong, this shows that I agree that the law is good. (17) So I am not the one doing wrong; it is sin living in me that does it. (18) 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. (19) 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. (20) 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.
People who are under guilt and condemnation are doomed to stay in bondage!
(Romans 8:1-2 NLT) So now there is no condemnation for those who belong to Christ Jesus. (2) And because you belong to Him, the power of the life-giving Spirit has freed you from the power of sin that leads to death.
(John 8:1-11 NIV) but Jesus went to the Mount of Olives. (2) At dawn he appeared again in the temple courts, where all the people gathered around him, and he sat down to teach them. (3) The teachers of the law and the Pharisees brought in a woman caught in adultery. They made her stand before the group (4) and said to Jesus, “Teacher, this woman was caught in the act of adultery. (5) In the Law Moses commanded us to stone such women. Now what do you say?” (6) They were using this question as a trap, in order to have a basis for accusing him. But Jesus bent down and started to write on the ground with his finger. (7) When they kept on questioning him, he straightened up and said to them, “Let any one of you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her.” (8) Again he stooped down and wrote on the ground. (9) At this, those who heard began to go away one at a time, the older ones first, until only Jesus was left, with the woman still standing there. (10) Jesus straightened up and asked her, “Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?” (11) “No one, sir,” she said. “Then neither do I condemn you,” Jesus declared. “Go now and leave your life of sin.”
Jesus still does this today!
(Hebrews 4:15-16 NIV) For we do not have a high priest who is unable to empathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are–yet he did not sin. (16) Let us then approach God’s throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.
- Freedom comes only from God’s grace.
(Romans 5:20 MSG) All that passing laws against sin did was produce more lawbreakers. But sin didn’t, and doesn’t, have a chance in competition with the aggressive forgiveness we call grace. When it’s sin versus grace, grace wins hands down.
Sin does not stop God’s grace from flowing, but God’s grace will stop sin.
(Romans 5:20-21 NLT) God’s law was given so that all people could see how sinful they were. But as people sinned more and more, God’s wonderful grace became more abundant. (21) So just as sin ruled over all people and brought them to death, now God’s wonderful grace rules instead, giving us right standing with God and resulting in eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.
(Romans 6:15 NLT) Well then, since God’s grace has set us free from the law, does that mean we can go on sinning? Of course not!
Translation of Romans 5:20: “For wherever sin exists in abundance and is multiplying and constantly expanding, that is precisely the time and place where grace is poured out in far greater and surpassing quantity.”