This article is part 3 of the “How to Walk in Freedom” series. The full series can be found here.
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INTRODUCTION
In the first two articles, we began discussing what the word freedom means in a biblical context. We discussed that it means freedom from sin and freedom to serve others in the service of Jesus Christ. We also discussed that it means freedom from the self-life rather than just freedom from addiction and vice.
In this article, we will continue our discussion on the meaning of freedom, focusing our attention on the nature of the freedom that we currently possess in Christ.
WE ARE ALREADY FREE
We will cover this more in depth when we get into Romans 6 later in the series, but the Bible teaches that every single person who is born again is already free from the power of indwelling sin.
“Knowing this, that our old man is crucified with him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin. For he that is dead is freed from sin.” Romans 6:6-7
He that is dead is freed from sin, and if you are in Christ, you have been crucified with Him, and you are therefore dead with Him.
“For you are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God.” Colossians 3:3
“I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.” Galatians 2:20
Not only that, but we are also buried with Christ and raised with Him unto newness of life.
“Buried with him in baptism, wherein also you are risen with him through the faith of the operation of God, who has raised him from the dead.” Colossians 2:12
“Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life.” Romans 6:4
This experience of being crucified, buried, and raised with Christ isn’t a post-salvation experience. It’s a description of the born-again experience — something that happens when we are first saved and receive the Holy Spirit. It’s a description of what the Bible calls regeneration (see Titus 3:5).
This being the case, it is an objective fact that every single person who has experienced regeneration is dead with Christ and is therefore free from sin.
HOW CAN WE BE FREE FROM SIN?
Many would object to what I just said about every born-again believer being free from sin. Some might attempt to object on the basis of Scripture, but most would object purely on the basis of their own experience and perception. “No one is free from sin,” they might say. “Even after we get saved, we still sin.”
I agree wholeheartedly with the second statement — that we still sin even after we get saved — but I completely disagree with the first statement — that no one is free from sin. The disagreement lies in the fact that the person who says no one is free from sin is using the words sin and freedom in a different way than Paul used them in Romans 6:7 when he declared that everyone who is dead with Christ is free from sin.
We are free from sin, not free from sinning.
In Romans 6-7, Paul isn’t using the word sin as a verb describing sinful actions. Instead, he’s speaking of sin personified. In Romans 6-7, sin is spoken of as having the potential to reign, enslave, and hold captive:
“That as sin has reigned unto death, even so might grace reign through righteousness unto eternal life by Jesus Christ our Lord.” Romans 5:21
“Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, that you should obey it in the lusts thereof.” Romans 6:12
“For when you were the servants of sin, you were free from righteousness.” Romans 6:20
“But I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members.” Romans 7:23
We will come back to this repeatedly throughout this series, but for our purposes here — understanding how it’s possible that we’re free from sin even though we still sin — the point I’m making is simply that Paul isn’t saying “he that is dead is freed from sinning.” Instead, he’s saying, “he that is dead is freed from the law of sin that once held them captive and reigned over them like a king.”
Notice what he says in the following passage:
“For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and death.” Romans 8:2
So, now that we’ve begun to define Paul’s use of the word sin in Romans 6, let’s talk about how he’s using the word freedom.
We are free to obey God.
When Paul speaks of being free from the law of sin, he’s not saying he no longer has the potential to yield his members to sin and carry out its commands. That’s abundantly clear from the fact that 5 verses after he declares that we’re free from sin, he tells us not to let sin reign in our mortal bodies anymore:
“Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, that you should obey it in the lusts thereof.” Romans 6:12
If we have to be told not to obey sin, it follows that it’s possible for us to obey sin.
If we’re also told that we’re free from sin, it follows that it’s possible for people who are free from sin to obey sin.
If it were impossible for people who have been freed from sin to let sin reign in our mortal bodies, Paul wouldn’t warn us not to let sin reign in our mortal bodies. Instead, he’d inform us that we don’t need to worry ever again about the possibility of letting sin reign in our mortal bodies.
So, freedom from sin is not freedom from the potential to let sin reign in our mortal bodies.
Instead, freedom from sin is the potential to obey God, letting Him reign in the members of our body and obeying Him, rather than obeying sin.
When we were still servants of sin — before we were made free from sin — we lacked the potential to obey God:
“For when you were the servants of sin, you were free from righteousness. What fruit had you then in those things whereof you are now ashamed? For the end of those things is death. But now being made free from sin, and become servants to God, you have your fruit unto holiness, and the end everlasting life.” Romans 6:20-22
Notice the flow of Paul’s argument.
First he states, “When you were the servants of sin, you were free from righteousness.” Why does he make that statement about being free from righteousness? Because, in this context, righteousness is a master that produces a different kind of fruit — holiness. A person who’s a servant of sin cannot bring forth this kind of fruit. That person is free from righteousness and therefore, like a branch detached from the vine, cannot bring the kind of fruit the vine produces.
It is sin, rather than righteousness, that reigns in this person’s mortal body. This is made clear in the next sentence when Paul asks, “What fruit did you have in the things you are now ashamed of?” His point is that when they were servants of sin, their fruit was unrighteous and unholy.
“But,” he says, “now that you’ve been made free from sin and have become a servant of God, you are no longer free from righteousness — now your fruit is unto holiness.”
In simpler terms, the point is this:
The result of being made free from sin is the potential to bring forth a new kind of fruit — the fruit of righteousness, which is holiness.
When we were enslaved to sin, we could only bring forth unrighteous fruit. But now that we are free from sin, we can stop letting sin reign in our mortal bodies and bring forth fruit unto God (see also Romans 7:4).
In short, the freedom we possess as believers is freedom in the form of new potential, not freedom in the form of guarantee.
HOW IS IT FREEDOM IF IT’S ONLY POTENTIAL?
Consider these two analogies.
First, imagine you’re a prisoner locked in a cell. Also imagine you’re blind. Now imagine that, without you hearing it (somehow), someone unlocks the cell and leaves the door wide open. You are now truly, 100% free. However, because you’re still seated in the cell, your freedom exists only in the form of possessing the potential to get up and walk out of the cell. Whether you experience the freedom depends on whether you take advantage of the potential you now possess. It’s possible for you to remain in the cell, but that doesn’t mean you’re not free — because it’s also possible for you to walk out of the cell.
Now consider another analogy. Imagine you’re literally a slave with a cruel master. Now imagine another master — a kind one — purchases you from your original master and tells you that, so long as you stay close to him, he will not let your old master force you to do anything. You are now truly free from the old master and possess the potential to obey your new master without being forced to do anything by your old master. However, you aren’t free from the potential to obey your old master. If you fail to stay close to your new master, it’s possible for your old master to force you to obey him. So, the freedom you possess is real, and powerful, but you possess it in the form of potential to obey your new master, not the impossibility of obeying the old master.
Freedom from sin is like these analogies in the sense that, being free, we have the potential to obey God — which we didn’t have when we were slaves of sin — but it’s not impossible for us to obey sin.
There are also some similarities between freedom from sin and these analogies in terms of what causes the freedom to be potential rather than guaranteed:
In the prison cell analogy, you need knowledge, belief, and direction to actually walk out of the cell. Because you’re blind, you need to know the door has been opened, you need to believe the door is open, and you need instructions about which direction to walk in. Likewise, for us to actually experience the freedom we have in Christ, we need to know we’re free from sin, we need to believe we’re free from sin, and we need instructions about how we should walk as servants of Christ.
In the slave master analogy, your ability to actually experience freedom is dependent on whether or not you follow the new master’s instructions to rely on his assistance with the old slave master. Likewise, our freedom from sin is dependent on whether we depend on God’s provision — the indwelling Holy Spirit — for assistance with our old slave master — the indwelling presence of sin in the flesh.
WE HAVE TO BE CAREFUL WITH ANALOGIES
While these analogies illustrate some important concepts, we have to be careful not to suppose everything is one-for-one between these analogies and real life.
For example, in the prison analogy, the picture painted is that walking through the door one time is all that will be needed to experience a lifetime of freedom. Freedom from sin isn’t exactly like that, though. It’s more like walking through a maze of cells our entire life and eventually making it all the way out of the prison at the end.
In the slave master analogy, the only task given to experience freedom is to “stay close” to the new master. However, staying physically close to Jesus isn’t even possible in this life. We do need to learn to depend on Jesus at all times, but we shouldn’t oversimplify how that’s actually accomplished. It’s a learning process. If it weren’t, we would walk in perfection from Day 1.
We also shouldn’t suppose that the instructions given in these analogies for experiencing freedom are exhaustive. While we do need to know, believe, follow, and depend, there are some other essential tasks for us as well — such as reading. The act of reading the Bible won’t mystically cause doses of freedom to be infused into our being, but it will be impossible for us to know, believe, follow, and depend if we aren’t reading the instructions that tell us what to know, what to believe, how to follow, and on Whom to depend. We’ll get into how all of that looks later in the series, but for now, the point is just to take the analogies for the points they make without supposing they’re a one-for-one equivalence.
SUMMARY
In summary, every born-again believer is free from the dominion and reign of our old slave master — sin. However, being free from our old slave master doesn’t mean we lack the potential to obey him. Instead, it means we possess a new potential that we didn’t possess when we were enslaved — the potential to obey our new master. Whether or not we make the most of that potential depends on whether we follow the instructions in the Bible about how to make the most of it — which we will continue to discuss in this series.