Set Free

“For one who has died has been set free from sin”—Romans 6:7

Freedom is what citizens of every nation desire—freedom from oppression, persecution, subjugation, and tyranny.  The greatest tyrant of history was not Pol Pot, Idi Amin, Kim Jong-il, Mussolini, Lenin, Stalin, or Hitler.  It was and is sin.  Sin is a tyrannical dictator that makes slaves of all who do it.  As the apostle Paul wrote,

“Do you not know that if you present yourselves to anyone as obedience slaves, you are slaves of the one whom you obey, either of sin, which leads to death, or of obedience, which leads to righteousness?”—Romans 6:16. 

We are all slaves to sin, and no matter how hard we try, we can’t stop.  We can’t get free.  We are imprisoned by sin, and forced to do whatever it desires.  Sin is a merciless dictator that cares for nothing save what it wants.  The only way out of sin’s slimy grip is by death.  We must die to be set free.  But if we die, then sin has won.  And hell is our destination.  We are hopeless and lost crying out as Paul did, “Wretched man that I am!  Who will deliver me from this body of death?”—Romans 7:24.

How can we be freed from the tyrannical power of sin?  How can we be set free from our slavery?  Who can possibly liberate us?  Jesus Christ is the only one who can set us free (John 8:36).  By dying on the cross in our place, He died our death and paid the price for our sin.  He cut the chains of our slavery on the cross.  And it is through our faith in Him, that we “consider ourselves dead to sin” (Romans 6:11) because we have been “crucified with Christ” (Galatians 2:20).  We now carry about in our bodies the “death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be manifested in our bodies” (2 Corinthians 4:10).  Because we were “buried therefore with Him” we can now by faith in His resurrection “walk in newness of life” (Romans 6:4). 

May the Great Liberator, Jesus the Christ, God’s one and only Son, enable us by the power of His Spirit, to walk in the newness of life afforded by His crucifixion and resurrection for the glory, honor and praise of His great and awesome name.  Amen.