I am Free in Christ
My brothers and sisters, sin has many people today shackled, bound disenfranchised, and incarcerated. Regardless to the best efforts of escape, many are under the “law” or control of sin. Despite of how many times one might say, “This is the last time I will do this.” It is often that very thing you find yourself doing! Paul wrote in Romans 7:19-21, “For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing. Now if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me. So I find it to be a law that when I want to do right, evil lies close at hand.”
There are many here today who feel like the Apostle Paul. You are trying to get over that problem; however, you just cannot seem to shake it. The question many are asking today, my brothers and sisters, is, “Must a believer spend his whole life on earth frustrated by the ongoing struggle with and defeats of sin?” Paul even asks in Romans 7:24, “O wretched man that I am! Who shall deliver me from the body of this death?” I submit to you today my brothers and sisters, freedom can be attained; if freedom is to be attained from the pain, pressure, peril and prison of sin, The first thing is:
You must be born again!
My brothers and sisters, freedom does not come because you come to church on Sunday. Freedom is not attained because your father was a preacher or a deacon. Freedom will not come by standing at the altar or running around the sanctuary screaming “I’m Free!” Under Roman, law anyone who was free had to be born free. That is why Jesus said to Nicodemus in John 3:7, “Ye must be born again.” 2 Corinthians 5:17 says, “Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new. Salvation makes a difference!
Conversion, my brothers and sisters, is the initial change of attitude and will that brings a person into a right relationship with God. Conversion, involves the turning away from evil deeds and false worship and turning toward serving and worshipping the Lord. Conversion marks a person’s entrance into a new relationship with God, forgiveness of sins, and new life as part of fellowship of the people of God. So, when your friends and haters come to you trying to bring up your past you need to tell them, “I’m glad you remember, but Jesus has freed my from all of that! James Bignon wrote a song and said, “I don’t walk like I use to walk: he made the difference. I don’t talk like I use to talk: he made the difference. Is there anybody here today whose glad God changed you?
Second thing you need to understand in attaining your freedom is:
Jesus is the source of freedom
For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death. (Romans 8:2)
Sin, my brothers and sisters, robbed the world of peace and tranquility when Adam and Eve ate of the fruit in the Garden of Eden. Sin caused the destruction of the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah. Sin caused God to destroy the earth with a flood and save only Noah, his family and two animals of every kind. Sin caused David to cry out in Psalm 51:10 and say, “Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me.” Sin has a way of enslaving us, controlling us, dominating us, and dictating our actions. O but I submit to you today my brothers and sisters; God is able to break sins power over your life! You need to realize knowing Jesus is knowing real freedom.
You don’t mind if I call a witness do you? In John chapter eight we find a woman who the scribes and Pharisees say was caught in the act of adultery. They told Jesus, that the law states she should be stoned to death and wanted to know what Jesus thought. The bible says that Jesus started writing on the ground. Then, He looked up and said, “He that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone at her”. Jesus began to write on the ground again, I don’t know what He wrote, but the bible says people started leaving. Jesus asked the woman, “Woman, where are those thine accusers? Hath no man condemned thee?” Jesus went on to say, “Go and sin no more”. I’m glad my brothers and sisters, even though the people around me want to see me dead, Jesus has the ability to see my potential! Songwriter said, “He looked beyond my faults and saw my needs”. Jesus said in John 10:10, “The thief cometh not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy: I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly.”
Not only has Christ freed you from the consequences of sin, He has also freed you from the death sentence. Sin placed a bounty on humanity that was spelled out in Romans 6:23 which says, “For the wages of sin is death;” If the verse was to stop there it would seem all over for humanity, but I’m glad the verse goes on to say, “but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord”. Is there anybody here who is glad God sent His Son Jesus?”
John 3:16 says, “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.”
Romans 5:6 says, “For when we were yet without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly.”
Galatians 4:4 says, “But when the fullness of the time was come, God sent forth his Son, made of a woman, made under the law, that we might receive the adoption of Sons.”
Now that you have been converted and Jesus is the source of your freedom, nothing can get in the way of your new life or your freedom.
Romans 8:1 says, “There is therefore (for this reason [Jesus]) now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.”
Go ahead and try to scandalize my name, I am not worried. I am Free! Jesus said in John 8:36, “If the Son therefore shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed.”
Go ahead and try to tear me down, I John 4:4 says, “Greater is he that is in me than he that is in the world.” Psalm 27:1 says, “The Lord is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear? The Lord is the strength of my life; of whom shall I be afraid?”
People may try to tell you, you will never be able to change, but Philippians 4:13 tells me, “I can do all things through Christ which strengthens me.”
All of this is possible because of Christ’s sacrifice on Calvary!