If the truth that you know says that you’re only a sinner saved by grace who’s damned to sin everyday, freedom is found in the knowledge that at least you’re forgiven.
But, what if the truth you know says that you are a saint; a new creation; perfected by the Father through the finished work of the cross; dead to sin but alive to God; a partaker of God’s divine nature, and now naturally producing the fruit of the Spirit – not out of duty or obligation but out of rest, nature and identity as a child of God; then wouldn’t freedom look completely different? It would look FREE indeed!
If the truth that you know keeps you bound to sin, then that truth is probably a lie.
It’s funny how we will justify our sin in spite of what the Bible says because of our human nature. We say that “nobody’s perfect.” That we’re all just “sinners saved by grace.” We believe that our human nature damns us to sin every day. That if we’re breathing, we’re sinning, and THANK GOD! we said a prayer to have all of those sins overlooked. It was like a magic spell or incantation that we cast on God to protect us from His justice because our nature is damned to produce the fruit of unrighteousness.
But is this what the Bible teaches? That Jesus died simply to overlook and excuse our sin? That if we say a prayer and ask Him into our heart, somehow now the perfect God can now dwell with man in his sin.
The Bible actually teaches the exact opposite. Read 1 John. He makes it pretty clear that if we are in Him who is light, that there cannot be any darkness within us. That anyone who says they have relationship with Him and yet continues to dwell in darkness is a liar. The whole purpose John chose to write the letter was so that we would not sin. He does make provision “IF” someone sins, but “IF” is not “WHEN.”
John explains that if we know Him, we will keep His commandments. If we don’t, again he calls us a liar. People will know that we’ve been born again as a child of God because we will live our lives like Jesus did when he walked the earth.
4 Everyone who sins is breaking God’s law, for all sin is contrary to the law of God.5 And you know that Jesus came to take away our sins, and there is no sin in him.6 Anyone who continues to live in him will not sin. But anyone who keeps on sinning does not know him or understand who he is.
Did you get that? Anyone who continues to live in Him WILL NOT SIN. Surely John is writing some kind of new heresy here – right? Why does he continue though in this train of thought by stating that anyone who keeps on sinning doesn’t know or understand who Jesus is and the purpose He came.
He came to set us free from the law of sin and death. To put to death the old man who was born into Adam with the seed of sin, and to resurrect a brand new man, born again with the same seed and same spirit that raised Christ from the dead. The sin nature is cut away and we’ve been freed from the obligation to obey sin as our master. We’ve been given a new master. We’ve been given a new nature – God’s divine nature. The bad tree has been cut down and been made new and good. And good trees naturally produce good fruit. It’s not hard work. It’s natural.
Just as easy as it was for you to sin when you “WERE” a sinner, it is equally as easy for you to produce the fruit of the Spirit now that you have met the way, the TRUTH, and the life and been set free.
If after evaluating your own beliefs and life you find that you are bound in sin, depression, anger, pride . . . then perhaps the “truth” that you know is not really “truth” at all. Because if it was “truth,” you would be free, and the fact that you are still bound is evidence that you are believing a lie.
Repent – change the way you think. You don’t need ministry and prayer. Your heart needs to respond to truth so that you can experience the freedom that Jesus gave His life for your inheritance.
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