This article is Part 6 of the “How to Walk in Freedom” series. The full series can be found here.
Listen: To listen to the podcast version of this article, click here.
Watch: To watch the video version of this article, click below.
INTRODUCTION
Now that we’ve covered the scope and nature of the truth that Jesus said we need to know, we will begin to examine the content of His teaching, with a particular focus on what He taught about how to walk in freedom from sin. As a reminder, when we speak of Jesus’ teaching, we’re including the apostles’ teaching, as Jesus said He would speak to the apostles through the Spirit after His ascension.
The rest of this series will get into several details on this topic, but in this article, we will focus on the central topic and theme of Jesus’ teaching about how to experience freedom from sin.
THE GOSPEL IS THE WORD OF TRUTH
Remember from the previous articles that Jesus said if we continue in His Word, we will know the truth. This is obvious in the New Testament, but many miss the fact that the Apostle Paul actually referred to the Gospel he preached as “the Word of Truth”:
“In whom you also trusted, after that you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation: in whom also after that you believed, you were sealed with that Holy Spirit of promise,” Ephesians 1:13
The Word of Truth that will make you free if you know it is nothing other than the Gospel of Jesus Christ. The key to experiencing freedom from sin isn’t learning the 5 different things the Bible says to do when you’re tempted; nor is it discovering the 7 psychological principles hidden in the New Testament. Freedom doesn’t come from any list of steps, strategies, or scattered, disconnected insights. Freedom comes from understanding the Gospel.
In response to what I’ve just said, I can imagine some of you are thinking, “Wait a minute. I already know the Gospel, but I’m still not free.” Remember what we talked about in the Freedom = Potential article, though, which was Part 3 of this series. In that article, we discussed how in Romans 6, Paul teaches us that being free from sin means having the potential to yield our members to God in obedience to Him; it doesn’t mean it’s impossible for us to yield our members in obedience to indwelling sin. We also discussed how every single person who is in Christ possesses this potential to obey God, meaning every single person who is in Christ is free from sin (Rom 6:6-7). The way we all came to be in Christ was through hearing the Gospel, believing it, and putting our trust in what it says about who Jesus is and what He did for us on the cross. As such, the way we were first made free from sin was through knowing and putting our trust in the Word of Truth: the Gospel of our salvation.
AS YOU HAVE RECEIVED, SO WALK
Okay, so the Gospel makes us free in Christ initially, but how do we walk in that freedom after that? The answer is more simple than you might think. Listen to these words from Paul in his letter to the Church at Colosse:
“As you have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk ye in him” Colossians 2:6
As you have received, so walk.
We walk in Christ the same way we received Christ. We don’t receive Christ one way and then walk in Him a different way. We don’t receive freedom one way and then walk in freedom another way.
The same way we first received freedom from sin is how we walk in freedom from sin.
We receive Christ by hearing the Gospel of our salvation, believing it, and putting our trust in Christ and what the Gospel says about Him. So likewise, we walk in Christ and experience freedom in Him by believing and trusting in what the Gospel says about who He is and what He’s done.
The Colossians were trying to live out their Christianity through keeping ordinances based on the commandments and doctrines of men (Col 2:20-22), as though Christ and the Gospel were insufficient. They were seeking wisdom beyond Christ and beyond the Gospel. They were likely under the impression — the same way many are today — that the Gospel was just the beginning, with some deeper wisdom to be discovered thereafter about how to live for God.
Knowing the Colossians needed guidance about how to live for God, Epaphras traveled to Rome to seek guidance from Paul. The Book of Colossians in the New Testament is the letter Paul sent back with Epaphras to teach the Colossians how to walk in Christ.
Among other things — which we will discuss in more detail later in this series — Paul reminded the Colossians that all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge are found in Christ:
“That their hearts might be comforted, being knit together in love, and unto all riches of the full assurance of understanding, to the acknowledgment of the mystery of God, and of the Father, and of Christ; in whom are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.” Colossians 2:2-3
He also taught them that everything they could ever need — which includes the ability to walk in freedom from indwelling sin — was to be found in Christ alone:
“Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ. For in him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily. And you are complete in him, which is the head of all principality and power.” Colossians 2:8-10
This is all in the same context as Colossians 2:6 — the passage we just read about walking in Christ the same way we received Him. Paul is drawing the Colossians back to where they first began, not giving them some new wisdom beyond Christ and the message of His victory through the cross.
Paul was a disciple of Christ to the point where the Holy Spirit inspired Him to write, "Be you followers of me, even as I also am of Christ.” (1 Corinthians 11:1). He had continued in Jesus’ word, discovered the truth, and the truth had made him free. In his letter to the Colossians, he said this about the truth he had discovered:
“We give thanks to God and the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, praying always for you, since we heard of your faith in Christ Jesus, and of the love which you have to all the saints, for the hope which is laid up for you in heaven, whereof you heard before in the word of the truth of the gospel; which has come unto you, as it is in all the world, and brings forth fruit, as it does also in you, since the day you heard of it, and knew the grace of God in truth.” Colossians 1:3-6
Jesus said, “If you continue in my word, you will know the truth, and the truth will make you free.”
According to Paul, the Gospel is that Word of Truth that brings forth the fruit of freedom from sin.
GOD GIVES GRACE TO THE HUMBLE
What I’ve just written is so simple that it’s offensive to some. It offends the effort and intellect of man to tell him that the answer to his dilemma with sin is not something he does or some wisdom he discovers. Instead, it is God’s wisdom in Christ alone. Pride can keep us from discovering this simple truth, but if we’ll let our track record of failure versus success in the area of sin humble us, we will be in a place where we can see the truth.
“But he gives more grace. Wherefore he says, God resists the proud, but gives grace unto the humble.” James 4:6
We just read in Colossians 1:6 that when the Colossians first heard and believed the Gospel, that was when they knew “the grace of God in truth.” If we are to know that same bondage-breaking truth and grace, we must humble ourselves. We must stop looking for answers within ourselves and look outside ourselves to Christ. Freedom from sin comes from a Savior, not from saving ourselves. And this Savior doesn’t give freedom to those who work the hardest and deserve it the most. He gives freedom to ungodly sinners who didn’t earn it, didn’t work for it, and don’t deserve it, but have been humbled by the weight of their sin to the point where they learn to put all their hope in Him alone.
After I discovered this truth nine-and-a-half years ago, I kept saying to my wife in the car on the ride home from church, “I can’t believe it’s so simple.” I’d scoured Christian books and television looking for answers without ever understanding, but the simple answer was right there to be discovered the whole time. The answer is simply Christ. The answer is a Savior. The answer is the victory over sin that He won on the cross 2,000 years ago. He didn’t die on the cross for nothing. He died for us. He did it so people like you and me could experience freedom from sin — if we’re willing to humble ourselves and depend only on what He did for us.
CONCLUSION
At this point, you might be asking, “What is it about Christ and the Gospel I’m supposed to know?” We will certainly get to that, but before we do, it’s important that you come to the conclusion that the truth you’re looking for is surely the Gospel itself. As long as you keep looking for the truth in fragmented pieces of God’s Word — or worse yet in the wisdom of man — you will never come to know the truth Jesus was speaking of in John 8:32. What you need isn’t a tip here and a tip there, a list of steps and strategies, or some psychological insight. You need a more complete understanding of the Gospel and how it relates to walking in freedom from sin.
So before we go on to discovering that truth, I encourage you to make today a turning point in your search. Make a decision to stop chasing the latest Christian fad or looking for answers in the world’s way of doing things. Make a decision to stop looking to your own effort and intellect. Make a decision that you are going to depend on Christ alone and that you’re going to depend on His work alone. Even if you don’t get it right away, even if you fail, and no matter how many times you fail, decide that you will never again turn away from Christ and look to other things for deliverance. Make a decision to come back to where you first saw the light, knew the grace of God in truth, and it brought forth fruit in your life. Make a decision to come back to the cross. As the song says,
”At the cross, at the cross
Where I first saw the light,
And the burden of my heart rolled away,
It was there by faith I received my sight,
And now I am happy all the day!”
Remember, we must continue in Jesus’ teaching, which we have just learned is the Gospel. We don’t just believe the Gospel once and then stop. We walk in freedom the same way we received it. Once we’ve learned to look to the Gospel for our initial salvation, we must then engage in the process of learning to look to the Gospel for all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge that God offers — including the ability to walk in freedom from sin.