From Confined to Free

Christians have been freed from the confines of sin to enjoy the blessings of God’s grace.

Do you ever just feel stuck? Stuck in your life? Stuck in your relationship with God? Stuck in your marriage? Stuck struggling with the same struggles with the same sins? Stuck in the same arguments with your kids? Are you stuck? Do you feel like there is no way out?

That’s a good place to be, because when we realize how stuck we are, we can begin to look for help. When we realize that we are stuck in our sin problem, we begin to look to God fro help. The initial response that many of us have is to try to be right and do right and therefore deserve to be with God. That doesn’t work with God. That doesn’t work with our other relationships.

We know that there is always something wrong. We always depend upon grace rather than righteousness in any relationship. The same is true with our God relationship. It depends on his grace which we receive through faith.

Scripture has Confined All—.

God wants us to realize that we are confined in sin by the Scripture for his purposes. God has “shut up everyone” (NASBU) “imprisoned” (ESV) under sin ( συνέκλεισεν). “God’s will as expressed in the Scripture) has locked everything in under the power of sin (BDAG 322). The same concept is seen in .

The Interpretation of St. Paul’s Epistles to the Galatians, to the Ephesians, and to the Philippians The Temporary Nature of the Mosaic Law

It is astonishing yet altogether true, the purpose of the law is transgressions. It is for sinners only; sinless persons need no law. But the moment the law meets a sinner, he reacts by transgression because of the sin in him. The law brings it out so that he and all men may see it. Compare Rom. 5:20 and 7:13. Let us make it drastic. While it is latent, sin stirs but slightly. It is like a lion who is asleep or is moving about quietly. Apply the stick of the law to it, prod it a little, and its fangs flash, its rages and roars, it tries to rend and tear, it displays what a wild beast it really is. That stick does not make the beast a beast; it cannot kill or change the beast; all it can do is to make it show what it is. That is true even when the stick is heavy enough to subdue the beast for the time being; the very subdual is brought about by overpowering force alone.

This is part of the reason why we can never feel or be complete outside of Christ. The struggle will always be real because we can’t win without Jesus.

William Arndt et al., A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament and Other Early Christian Literature (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2000), 952.

God Has Freed the Saved—

This incredible reality is seen here in but also in and .

What is the “faith” that has come in verse 25?

A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament and Other Early Christian Literature, 3rd ed. πίστις

as true piety, genuine devotion (Sextus 7a and 7; ParJer 6:7), which for our lit. means being a Christian (τὸ ἀληθινὸν πάσχα … πίστει νονούμενον Hippol., Ref. 8, 18, 1; Did., Gen. 54, 11) Lk 18:8 (s. Jülicher, Gleichn. 288); 22:32; Ac 6:5=vs. 8 v.l.; cp. 11:24.—6:7; 13:8; 14:22; 15:9; 16:5; Ro 1:5, 8, 12, 17ab

Jude 3 ESV

Beloved, although I was very eager to write to you about our common salvation, I found it necessary to write appealing to you to contend for the faith that was once for all delivered to the saints.

Jude 3

How do individuals become sons of God through faith according to verses 26 and 27?

What is the effect of being in the faith?

Social—all men one

Spiritual—in Christ