Live in Freedom

“Sin didn’t, and doesn’t, have a chance in competition with the aggressive forgiveness we call grace. When it’s sin versus grace, grace wins hands down. All sin can do is threaten us with death, and that’s the end of it. Grace, because God is putting everything together again through the Messiah, invites us into life—a life that goes on and on and on, world without end” (Romans 5:20b-21, MSG).

“You have been set free from sin,” Paul writes, “and have become slaves to righteousness” (Romans 16:18, NIV). Because of Christ's love for me, I have freedom from sin's clawing bondage. Where once I was in slavery to my own desires, now I am willingly enslaved to His. When sin attempts to increase in my life, His grace increases more (Romans 5:20b). His grace is sufficient to hold me safely in Him, and is sufficient for my every need (2 Corinthians 12:9). Grace invites me each day to choose His goodness, His love, His righteousness, His power, and His freedom! Each day that I choose sin will not be my master, I choose the powerful love of undeserved grace. When I choose His sacrificial and sanctifying love over any bondage, He empowers my choice to live for Him.

Real freedom is found only in Him. “If the Son therefore shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed” (John 8:36, KJV). I love the King James Version that says “free indeed”. Other versions say “through and through”. If He has freed me from sin, then I am released from its bondage. It is a complete work–not partial, but a finished work. His work in me will always be one that calls for personal obedience, sacrifice, and perseverance. “Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything” (James 1:4, NASB). The power of His grace can be realized in my physical life. If I persevere to grow in His grace, I will not lack in His power to sustain me. My deliverance from sin's bondage is daily appropriated by my faith in Jesus who saves me from my own destructive nature. For this work to be complete in me, I choose each day to live a righteous life, and not one that will destroy my faith. Sin will not be master over me if I daily choose not to be its slave (Romans 6:14).


Complete deliverance from sin's control is found in the redeeming gift of His grace, and that grace grows in my life through obedience―through knowing and living His Word―through prayer and the power of His indwelling Spirit. His grace takes me where the Word is no longer a book of rules and regulations that must be followed. Grace makes the Word a gift which offers the freedom of unburdened life in His Spirit (2 Corinthians 3:6b).His Word reveals the power of His grace, and the fact that His grace always prevails. It prevails through any battle so I might stand strong against the threat of sin. It shall always empower me to choose His freedom.

“Throw yourselves wholeheartedly and full-time—remember, you’ve been raised from the dead!—into God’s way of doing things,” Paul writes. “Sin can’t tell you how to live. After all, you’re not living under that old tyranny any longer. You’re living in the freedom of God” (Romans 6:13-14, MSG). If God makes me free, I am indeed free through and through!