What Freedom in Christ is All About
“You don’t have to be a slave to sin. Yet so many Christians continue to live as slaves to sin. They keep going back to their old slave master – the flesh, the old man, and Satan – and say, ‘Master, what you want us to do today?’ They still live in the bondage of sin. But God wants you free.” – Tony Walliser
Read Romans 6:1-13
What Freedom in Christ is All About
Does the name Flip Wilson ring a bell with you? In the late 1960s and ‘70s he was a popular comedian, called by some “TV’s first black superstar.” His skits included several characters, one of which was ‘Geraldine,’ best-known for her funny line, “The devil made me do it.”
When you’ve stumbled in sin of some form, have you ever wanted to use that excuse? ‘The devil made me do it?’ If we believe the Bible, as followers of Jesus we don’t have that option. Because the Scriptures tell us Satan no longer controls us. He can suggest things we know are wrong – and he’s very skilled at doing that. But our spiritual enemy no longer can make us do anything.
This passage in Romans is one of the most powerful in the Bible. It tells us that when we receive Christ – become “born again,” as He stated in John 3:3 – we gain a new life. Romans 6:4 says, “…just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life.” Other translations put it this way: “we too may walk in newness of life.”
But what’s that got to do with no longer being under the control of the evil one? We get the explanation a couple verses later: “For we know that our old self was crucified with [Christ] so that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves to sin…count (reckon or consider) yourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus” (Romans 6:6,11).
Let’s put it this way: Have you ever heard someone explain their wrongdoings saying, “Well, I’m only human,” or “I’m just a sinner saved by grace?” What’s wrong with that? In one sense those statements are true – we are imperfect humans, and we were sinners who have been saved and forgiven by Christ’s death on the cross, the ultimate expression of God’s mercy and grace.
But that’s not the whole story. As we read in the verses above, in Christ we have become “new creations in Christ” (2 Corinthians 5:17). And another verse assures us that “I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me” (Galatians 2:20).
That means, quite simply, that we’ve been set free. We’re no longer “slaves to sin.” To sin is no longer our ‘default setting,’ to put it into computer terms. Satan may tempt us with all kinds of enticements, but the devil can’t make us do it any longer!
Years ago, I was a relatively new believer struggling with anxiety, anger, and a short-fused temper. I would pray and plead, “Lord, help me do better!” but nothing changed. I had learned the verses that say, “Christ lives in me” and that I was a “new creation,” but they didn’t seem to apply to me. ‘Maybe I’m not even a true believer,’ I thought. ‘Maybe I’m just fooling myself – and others.’
But God graciously placed me in the home of a man who loved to help believers understand their true identity in Christ. What I learned was not only that I had new life spiritually and that Jesus was living in me through His Holy Spirit, but also that I had the wrong understanding of the so-called “Christian life.”
I had been trying to live for Christ in my own strength, asking for His help, maybe sending a spiritual boost when needed. But life in Christ isn’t intended to be lived through our own fleshly power. I came to understand that the Lord wanted to live His life in me – and through me.
The watershed moment – and it’s now been more than 40 years ago – came when I gave up. I simply told God, “I can’t!” To which He replied (not audibly but still very real), “I know you can’t. But I can and will – if you’ll let Me.”
That day I discovered what true freedom is all about. Freedom from sin – and freedom to let the Lord work in and through me so I can become everything He wants me to be. Instead of seeing myself as “a sinner saved by grace,” I realized that I’m a saint who sometimes sins.
It’s like having a huge debt that must be paid immediately, but you’re thinking, ‘I don’t have the money to pay it!’ However, some anonymous benefactor has actually put more than enough money in your bank account to pay the debt in full. You just don’t know it.
In a similar but far more profound way, when confronted with sin we don’t have to yield to it, offering the excuse, “The spirit is willing but the flesh is weak.” That may be true, but through Christ we have everything we need not only to conquer sin but also to live the victorious life that glorifies Him.
As Martin Luther King Jr. said so well, “Free at last! Free at last! Thank God Almighty, we’re free at last!” – B.T.