Enjoying Our Freedom In Christ

Christ is still in the business of changing lives and sets the sinner free, not having anything to say to the so-called righteous who see no need for him, but only for the so-called losers of society, even the outcasts, the untouchables, and the riffraff!  Remember, we are slaves to whom we choose to obey! (cf. Romans 6:16; cf. 2 Pet. 2:19).  But, the more enslaved to Christ, the freer we are in spirit.

Acts 13:39 says that he who believes is freed from all things!  He is no longer the slave or servant of sin, but of righteousness.  That doesn't mean he's lawless (as the antinomian would suggest), but that he has the power to live in the Spirit, being freed from the power of sin and the flesh.  In salvation, we are not only forgiven for what we've done, but delivered from what we are (this is our justification and sanctification).  

When someone sins, he's not demonstrating his freedom but proving his slavery!  Romans 6:16 says that we are slaves to the power we choose to obey.  Christ will not save those He cannot command and obedience is the measure of our faith and its manifestation.  As Bonhoeffer said, "Only he who believes is obedient; only he who is obedient believes."  We are never free to do what is wrong or to do our own thing or what is wrong in our brother's eyes.  Our liberty is curtailed by our brother's conscience.

The antinomian (one who is a law unto himself) sings the song:  "Freed from the law, O blessed condition; now I can sin all I want and still have remission."  We must never be presumptuous and take advantage of God's patience and grace.  There is sin unto death too (cf. Psalm 118:18; 1 John 5:16) and God disciplines His own and brings them back to the fellowship (cf Heb 12:5-6).  We know that the whole world lies in the power of the evil one but he cannot touch us (cf. 1 John 5:18-19).  

Antinomianism is the license to sin and leads to moral laxity and becoming slack in the faith (namely, backsliding).  It's also known as libertinism and is really the quest for moral liberty gone amuck.  We never have the freedom to do as we want, but as we ought!  Israel tended towards libertinism in Judges when it's described as each man doing that which is right in his own eyes (cf. Judges 17:6, 21:25).

On the contrary, true freedom is the power to live in Spirit because of walking with Christ in fellowship with Him or filled with the Spirit.  The new nature needs no law; the old nature knows no law.  Being free doesn't imply that there are no laws; for example, a free park has rules or it would be chaos. We should never go beyond that which is written though (cf. 1 Cor. 4:6).  Legalists tend to make people feel bound where they should be free.

We remain free by not becoming legalists and learning of the power of the Spirit to lead us and guide us--for we are never free from the will of God!  We do this by not majoring on the minors or emphasizing minor sin and ignoring a more serious one, like the Pharisees who tithed their spices like "... mint, dill, and cumin. But [they] have neglected the more heavy matters of the law--justice, mercy, and faithfulness.  [They] should have practiced the latter, without neglecting the former.  [They are] blind guides!  [They] strain out the gnat but swallow a camel" (Matt. 23:23-24, NIV).  It is too easy to pay attention to the letter of the law like the Pharisees did, and ignore the Spirit of the law,  "... for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life" (2 Cor. 3:6, NIV).

"[B]ecause through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit who gives life has set you free from the law of sin and death" (Rom. 8:2, NIV). Legalism is spiritual tyranny and antinomianism tends to think the Bible sanctions the right to do one's thing.   Legalism is the antithesis of antinomianism but just as fatal to our faith and the only way to steer clear of their paralysis is to have a knowledge of the Word.  

In sum, the more enslaved to Christ we are and the more we allow Him to inhabit us and we're surrendered to His will, the freer we are--in slavery to Christ we are free! We are both the bondslaves of Christ and Christ's free man!   WE ARE SLAVES THAT WE MAY BE FREE!  Soli Deo Gloria!

The Limits Of Our Freedom

"So then it depends not on human will or exertion, but on God, who has mercy"  (Rom. 9:16, ESV).
"So, if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed"  (John 8:36, ESV).
"The LORD saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually"  (Gen. 6:5, ESV).
"The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it?  ["who can know it?" KJV]"  (Jer. 17:9, ESV).


We don't need free will to be saved--we need our wills made or set free!   Actually, our freedom is a curse because we are only capable of sinning apart from being saved (as Augustine phrase puts it, "Non posse non peccare," or, in English, the double negative, "unable not to sin"), whereby we gain the power not to sin by grace--but when we do sin, it's because we choose to do so without compulsion or impulsion--all lost people can do is sin and cannot please God and they sin because they want to sin!  We are not automatons though, nor dumb beasts who have no understanding!  Job 18:3, NLT, says, "Do you think we are mere animals? Do you think we are stupid?"

Our freedom of the will is very limited and actually has very little to do with our salvation (genes, lineage, parentage, upbringing, experience, national origin, not to mention friends, all influence and affect our wills to make them limited in total freedom and not unmoved or uncaused like God's will, which is what makes Him totally free and the one and only Great I AM).  Actually, Martin Luther wrote an entire book on this subject, The Bondage of the Will, or, De Servo Arbitrio, as written in Latin.   Remember Paul's words to the Philippians in verse 2:13, ESV, italics added, saying, "For it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure."

Our wills are part of our heart and soul and are depraved just like our minds and emotions--totally, though not utterly as much as possible. However, after the Fall, man has not lost the faculty of choice completely, just the ability to choose God and please God--his motives are wrong and basically selfish and for the applause of others. To be specific:  Have you ever convinced a girl to go out with you or convinced your wife to do something that she was ill-disposed to do?  God can likewise work on our minds, wills, and emotions to change us and give us a new heart after His will.  She maintained her freedom of choice and didn't do anything she didn't want to, but just had a change of heart caused by you. Note that God is the initiator and sole primary cause of our salvation: "Salvation is of the LORD," per Jonah 2:9; Heb. 10:38; Rom. 1:17; Gal. 3:11.  That's what repentance is:  a totally and radicalized change of heart from the inside out.  We make a complete turnaround after God works repentance in our hearts by grace and transforms us (repentance is granted according to Acts 5:31; 11:18; and 2 Tim. 2:25).

Only man has been given a choice to obey or disobey God, animals do not have this liberty of will.  Augustine said in a maxim that we are "free, but not freed"; meaning we have an independent will, but no liberty to exercise it-we do have a will of our own.  Why then is our will in bondage and the slave of sin and must be set free just like the rest of our soul?  We are not born free, but slaves to sin, and our whole heart is desperately wicked and deceitful according to Jer. 17:9!  God is the only Being that is totally free and can do His will without intervention or interference.  He is the unmoved mover and uncaused cause, meaning no one or nothing can influence Him or change Him and He alone is the sole primary cause of the cosmos and is the initiator of all events per Eph. 1:11---all things that perspire are orchestrated by Him through Providence.

We cannot come to the Father unless we are called and drawn or wooed by the Holy Spirit (cf. John 6:44, 65).  Matt. 22:14, ESV, says, "For many are called, but few are chosen." This doesn't mean permission to come, but ability--in a state of sin and rebellion and even stubbornness of heart we don't want to come on our own, but must be enticed; what it does mean is that don't have the ability to come to the Father in our state of sin!  We are not unmoved movers (even if we are movers and shakers!), nor uncaused causes, like our God and our faith must be quickened within us by an act of grace (cf. Acts 18:27).

Since our freedom can be changed and is changeable, in a state of flux, it is limited and influenced by God, therefore, not totally free--we don't negotiate our salvation from a point of neutrality but are biased and all our inclinations to good and to love God have left us in the Fall of Adam, with whom we are in solidarity with at birth. God desires all the glory for our salvation and doesn't' want us to have reason to boast as if we willed ourselves into the kingdom (cf. Rom. 9:16).

We must realize that our complete heart (intellect, volition, emotion) is depraved and in need of salvation.  God transforms each of them and gives us the heart to love God (will to obey and mind to know) at salvation.  The Bible speaks quite often about the stubbornness of man's heart and that he is in a state of rebellion--and condemns it in 1 Sam. 15:23, NLT:  "Rebellion is as sinful as witchcraft, and stubbornness as bad as worshiping idols...." Those who claim to have come to God of their own free will probably leave Him of their own free will and all alone too.

None of our freedoms are unlimited; no government allows absolute free speech or right to bear arms--only in restrictions of liberty is their freedom for all protected from the tyranny of the majority. Even God is not free to sin and we won't be either in glory!  In the final analysis, you must decide if you want your will to be saved (which is part of your heart), or you want to remain independent of God (for sin is merely man's declaration of independence from God) and be a spiritual lone ranger or lone wolf.

Salvation is a miracle of transformation of the heart to a new person, and the will is included; God metaphorically takes our "heat of stone" or stubbornness and gives us a "heart of flesh" (cf. Ezek. 36:26) or one inclined to do His will--a litmus test for believers is that we yearn for God's will, for we have denied, relinquished, surrendered, and substituted themselves for Christ, as He lives through us (cf. Gal. 2:20)!   We become "new creations" in Christ (cf. 2 Cor. 5:17)!

We are empowered to live life by the Spirit as our enabler.  God indeed makes the unwilling willing and has the omnipotence to change us from the inside out, not by force though, which would be coercion or determinism or the use of outside forces as though we're puppets on a string or programmed to respond a certain way by an impersonal fate--we never do anything we don't want to do, but God makes us willing--what a concept!

A few words to the wise concerning God's providence over all should suffice:  Our destiny is ultimately in God's hands (Psalm 31:15, HCSB, says, "The course of my life ["of my future" or "of my times" in other versions] is in your power...").  Note that the only will that is free is one that is uncaused and unmoved like God's!  We cannot thwart God's will! As it is written in Job 42:2, ESV, "'I know that you can do all things and that no purpose of yours can be thwarted."

God's sovereignty is not limited by man's freedom either; it's absolute and total, including every spin of the dice (cf. Prov. 16:33), every ruler (cf. Prov. 21:1), and every molecule being micromanaged and ruled with no room for, and nothing to, chance or happenstance ("... [W]ho works all things according to the counsel of his will" Eph. 1:11, ESV, italics mine).

I do like to ascribe full and complete, absolute sovereignty to God, for what kind of God isn't in control of everything?  This is God's prerogative and right; he's no ruler like the "do-nothing" sovereign of GB--he rules and doesn't just reign (cf. Psalm 22:28)!  Let me close with this caveat from Paul in Romans 9:16, ESV,  "You will say to me then, 'Why does he still find fault?  For who can resist his will?'"  Soli Deo Gloria!

A Bona Fide Savior

We don't worship a martyr for a good cause, or a good teacher of moral principles, nor even a great example or role model of how to live life to the full, but a risen Savior who gives us a real hope of heaven and even a more abundant and fulfilling life in the here and now, which we learn to live in light of eternity as God's will is revealed to us through Scripture.

We must realize we are lost before Jesus can find us, for He came to seek and to save those who are lost (cf. Matt. 18:10; Luke 19:10).  That's why a good rule of thumb for evangelistic outreach is to get them lost first!  We are not to reach out with an easy-believism that downplays the importance of taking up our cross and following Him, as we learn to deny ourselves.  It's also called cheap grace that doesn't point out the cross to bear only justifies the sin, not the sinner.  Salvation is not cheap at all, but costs us everything--it's free, but paradoxically it's at the cost of ownership of our lives as we follow Him as Lord of our life.

It has been said wisely that, the more we realize what a sinner we are, the more real of a Savior Christ becomes.  Also, the closer you get to Christ, the more aware and convicted you become of your own shortcomings, failures, and sins.  William Jay of Bath said that he is a great sinner, and Christ is a great Savior!

The gospels are not bios of Christ and do not attempt to describe Him, but to make Him known.  That's the difference:  We can know our God personally--a facet of God denied by Islam and Eastern faiths.  In other words, God gets personal with us and is a personality to get to know through His residence in our hearts.  The purpose of Jesus becoming manifest to the world was to save us, because that was our problem, and we were lost in sin and needed forgiveness and justification.  Jesus didn't come to educate us or enlighten us, but to open our spiritual eyes, and not to tell us what creed to believe, but to change our lives by residing in our hearts in personal union and fellowship.

Our salvation differs from Eastern tradition because it's not just learning a code of conduct, rules to live by, good advice, nor a collection of wise sayings to ponder, but is a restoration of our relationship with God.  The religions of the world believe in a creed, Christians believe in a person!  We don't need another to-do list, list of taboos, or prohibitions to refrain from legalistically.  God teaches us right from wrong and writes His law in our hearts so that we need no one to order us to do the right thing.  Jesus promised the Holy Spirit to anoint and teach us so that we can go directly to the Bible and read God's Word for us and speaking to us.

The reason Jesus is a Savior is because He is in the business of changing and transforming lives.  We learn an exchanged life in Christ with Jesus living through us!  If all you want to do is to improve your behavior, or kick a habit, or reform your vices, any religion will do, but if you want to know God, Christianity is the only one the foots the bill and can satisfy; merely acknowledging Him for who He is doesn't satisfy, we must surrender to Him and trust Him implicitly and unconditionally.  Yes, it might cost something to follow Jesus, but it costs more not to!  The whole beauty of our faith is that it rests in the power of God and not our own wisdom (cf. 1 Thess. 1:5; 1 Cor. 2:4-5)!

One pertinent promise to believers is that God promises that they will not be dissatisfied or disappointed in Christ (cf. Isa. 28:16; Rom. 10:11)--it's the way to the more abundant life Christ promised in John 10:10.  Walking in the Spirit, or with the Lord is a joy to transform and once you've experienced it, you want to pass it on!   One thing about the real McCoy of a genuine follower of Christ is that you can discern they have been with Jesus because it's apparent and cannot be denied because the Spirit will be irresistible and noticeable.  The Christian soon finds out that if he has Christ, he has all he needs and all that is necessary for a fulfilled life that has purpose and meaning.

All religions will tell you some moral principles and virtues, but everyone falls short because the real problem is man's sin, and only Christ gives us the power to overcome it and defeat it victoriously--we are not all on our own to find our own enlightenment or to reform ourselves by our own efforts and strength.  Christ is the threefold Savior:  As Prophet, He saves us from the ignorance of sin; as Priest from the guilt of sin; as King from the dominion of sin!  Yes, Jesus saved us--He did; He keeps us--He does; He's coming for us--He will!  Jesus was more than just another teacher or prophet--the Law did come through Moses, but grace and truth came through Jesus (cf. John 1:17).   He is the very personification of truth itself (cf. John 14:6), and all who are of the truth hear His voice (cf. John 18:37).

There is a world of difference between putting a new suit on the man, and putting a new man in the suit!  This is shown just as Paul said in 2 Cor. 5:17 (NLT):  "This means that anyone who belongs to Christ has become a new person.  The old life is gone; a new life has begun!"  A point in fact:  Jesus isn't looking for sidekicks, admirers, groupies, fans, nor buddies, but worshipers, lovers, and devoted servants who trust Him to take the pilgrimage with Him as their Pilot or Captain, going wherever He leads, following in His steps.

We must reverence Him for who He is, not just patronize Him with human respect or homage as a great leader, teacher, or example.  We must not only believe that He lived and died on a cross, but did so for us and is alive today!  The whole summation of Christian ethics is summed up in following Him, and this means a surrender to His lordship and ownership of our lives, there's no accepting Him part way or conditionally--He demands unconditional surrender, as it were; in the final analysis, obedience is the only measure of faith!  Genuine believers walk the walk and talk the talk, their profession is not bogus, but is demonstrated by a life of good works as proof (cf. Titus 1:16).

Of all the major world religions, you can remove its founder and still have the religion remain intact; i.e., Islam doesn't need Muhammad, nor Buddhism need Buddha--it's merely a collection of teachings and philosophy.  However, if you remove Christ from Christianity you disembowel it and there is nothing left--Christianity is Christ, and all else is circumference, it's been described by John Stott.  That's because Christianity is not a creed nor a code, but a relationship--this is not just a cliche, but a deeper truth to be recognized personally.   In short, salvation is but the establishment of a personal and family relationship with the person of God; while the only proof of salvation is fruit (cf. Matt. 7:16, 20)! We are saved to become a blessing (cf. Zech. 8:13).

We need to be set free!  "People are slaves to whatever has mastered them"  (cf. 2 Pet. 2:19).  Paul says in Romans 6:16 (NLT):  "Don't you realize that you become the slave of whatever you choose to obey?  You can be a slave to sin, which leads to death, or you can choose to obey God, which leads to righteous living."  We are meant to stand fast in our liberty and not become slaves again (cf. Gal. 5:1).   Acts 13:39 (NIV):  "Through him, everyone who believes is set free from every sin, a justification you were not able to obtain under the law of Moses."

The only way to be set free is in Christ:  "So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed"  (John 8:36, NIV).  We no longer live in bondage to our old sin nature nor the yoke of the Law.  We do not have the freedom to live in the flesh, but the power to live in the Spirit!  We are no longer subject to the power of the Law:  "For sin shall not be your master, because you are not under law, but under grace"  (Romans 6:14, NIV).  Soli Deo Gloria!  

The Freedom Of The Will

"For who makes you to differ?  What do you have that you didn't receive?"  (cf. 1 Cor. 4:7).
"Apart from Me you can do nothing"  (cf. John 15:5).
By definition:  the will is the choosing faculty of the mind that makes decisions as it desires, apart from feeling any outside force--the issue is how free it is; basically, it's free to make mundane decisions but has lost ability to make divine choices to choose God apart from His work on our heart. What is important is that we still have self-determination; i.e., we make a decision for or against God voluntarily.   

Jonathan Edwards wrote a book by the above title, but he was a Calvinist, or as some call Reformed theologian par excellence, and wasn't propagating Arminianism or that grandiose idea or notion of a so-called free will  (liberum arbitrium).  "We are free but not freed," said Augustine--meaning we have retained the power to make choices and decisions, but have lost our liberty--we're voluntary slaves!  We sin and rebel against God precisely because we want to!  We are fallen creatures who have lost our inclination to good completely and totally--what so-called good we do is tainted (cf. Isa. 64:6) by evil motives and self-interest, like the applause of man.  We feel no outside force, though, which would be coercion or determinism.

Sin is rebellion against God's divine order and nature and anything that is repugnant to His holiness!  Martin Luther wrote the book, or diatribe,  De Servo Arbitrio, or, The Bondage of the Will, to refute Erasmus and the Catholic ideas of free will.  This word is never mentioned in Scripture, except for free will offerings, meaning voluntary ones.  We don't need a free will, but wills made free; we are not born free but born slaves to sin!  We get set free upon salvation and the Son is the only one who can adequately do it (cf. John 8:32,36).

In our decision making, the will is only a small part of the equation:  environment, heredity or genes, custom or tradition, pressure, etc. all play a role.  We all owe God for being born in America and most of us to Christian parents!  The thing about God being our Maker is that He designed our nature:  sanguine, choleric, melancholy, impetuous, happy-go-lucky, etc.  The point is that we didn't choose our nature!  We always act according to our nature, even whimsically or in an arbitrary manner sometimes.   As an analogy from nature:  the dove eats seed by nature; the hawk kills prey by nature; the vulture eats carrion by nature.  They will not act au contraire!   God is able to make us willing, though, and do so that we become believers (even against our former will), if He chooses to--God made a believer out of you and me, and it wasn't because we were virtuous or intelligent or even wise--we "believed through grace" (cf. Acts 18:27).

When we get saved, our whole soul and spirit gets saved: our heart, mind and will:  we become willing to do God's will; and able to comprehend God's Word, and able to love with our hearts and worship God with our spirits.  Our mind, heart, and will are all depraved--this is called total depravity (the first point of the Reformed acrostic TULIP).  If you deny total depravity you cannot maintain consistency with any of the other points in TULIP.  The will is wicked and stubborn (cf. Jer. 17:9; Isa. 46:12),   and needs redemption also--the heart of man is desperately sick and evil and we cannot know it (cf. Jer. 17:9).  God literally takes our stony hearts and makes them hearts of flesh (cf. Ezek. 36:26).

God bends our wills to His will by an act of sovereign grace ("grace reigns" cf. Rom. 5:21).  Our wills are not neutral in that they are able to weigh the pros and cons and make a freewill decision without any influence or wooing from the Holy Spirit to convict us and open our hearts to believe (cf. Acts 16:14).  Man was intended to have a mind to know God, a heart to love Him, and a will to obey Him, but this was lost at the Fall, but is restored at salvation. Note that we never ceased to be men, but ceased to be good--after the Fall man is inclined towards evil.


Acts 18:27 says that we believe through an act of grace--it's a gift per 2 Pet. 1:1 and God grants it to us according to Phil. 1:29.  God gives each of us a measure of faith according to Romans 12:3.  The people that believe in free will think that God's sovereignty is limited by our wills!  They also claim some desire to be saved while others don't--no one seeks God per Rom. 3:11!   God's sovereignty is total and He reigns and rules over all--what kind of God wouldn't be in control of all?  Our destiny is in God's hands, and He decides who will get saved, not us--it's not a matter of sincerity or of willpower!  Some very strong-willed seekers will never come to faith because they simply rely on themselves--it's not a matter of trying, but of trust.  Note the hard saying of Jesus in John 6:44 and 65 that no one can come to Him unless the Father draws and grants it.

Salvation is monergistic, not synergistic, that is, it's solely an act of God apart from our cooperation--we don't contribute to our salvation nor do any presalvation works.  We are dead spiritually and God quickens faith within us and regenerates us so that we can believe in our hearts.  We weren't elected because we believe (prescient view) but we are elected unto belief, so that "Salvation is of the Lord"  (cf. Jonah 2:9).  It is not of man and God working jointly or in concert, nor of man's sole effort, but of God alone!  We don't save ourselves--there's only one Savior!   God wants all the credit and glory and we cannot even say that we wanted to get saved apart from His grace--without which no one would believe.  The almighty and sovereign God is able to change our disposition so that we desire Christ!   Soli Deo Gloria!

Out Of The Slave Market Of Sin

Please reflect on and ponder the following verses relating to our freedom in Christ! 

"Being made free from sin, ye become the servants of righteousness"  (Rom. 6:18, KJV).

"Let it be known to you therefore, brothers, that through this man forgiveness of sins is proclaimed to you, and by him everyone who believes is freed from everything [namely, sin]"  (Acts 13:38, ESV).

"For freedom [liberty] Christ has set us free; stand firm therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke [bondage to] of slavery [to the Law or legalism]"  (Gal. 5:1, ESV).   

"Anyone who continues to live in him will not sin.  But anyone who keeps on sinning does not know him or understand who he is" (1 John 3:6, NLT).  [Carnality is temporary.]

"Those who have been born into God's family do not make a practice of sinning, because God's life is in them.  So they can't keep on sinning, because they are children of God"  (1 John 3:9, NLT).

"So if the Son [only Christ can liberate us from sin's power] sets you free, you will be free indeed [from sin's bondage]"  (John 8:36, ESV).

"Let it be known to you therefore, brothers, that through this man forgiveness of sins is proclaimed to you, and by him everyone who believes is freed from everything"  (Acts 13:38, ESV). 

INTRO IN ITALICS:
Note that it's the prerogative of the Holy Spirit to convict of sin, performing an open-and-shut case, while the adversary, the devil, merely accuses us of sin.  We are only responsible for what God reveals to us and convicts us of, not any vague sense of guilt or having a guilt-complex.  Jesus challenged the authorities and Pharisees to convict Him of sin (cf. John 8:46), and He knew no sin, did no sin, and had no sin, yet Christ became sin on our behalf and suffered its full penalty.   But He had to live for us also a life of obedience to the Law of Moses, in order for God to impute His righteousness to us.


Theologians define our situation of depravity as follows:  "We are not sinners because we sin; we sin because we are sinners [we can't help but sin and only do what's natural to our nature]."  We are not basically good but evil: inherently and thoroughly tainted from the image of God:  "Can the Ethiopian change his skin or the leopard his spots  Then also you can do good who are accustomed to do evil"  (Jer. 13:23, ESV).   Paul says in Romans 3 that there is none that does good, no not one! Saint Aurelius Augustine, Bishop of Hippo, proclaimed our predicament:  non posse non peccare or that we are unable not to sin--we can only sin as natural men, even our good deeds are tainted and have wrong motives, our righteousness is as filthy rags per Isaiah 64:6 and our righteousness is not our gift to God, but His gift to us (cf. Isa. 45:24).  Our fruit is from Him (cf. Hos. 14:8) and "... [He] has done for us all our works" (Isaiah 26:12, ESV).  Paul said in Romans 15:8 (ESV):  For I will not venture to speak of anything except what Christ has accomplished through me...." 

At salvation, we are redeemed from the slave market of sin and set free, no longer in bondage to our old sin nature as its slave, but given the power to overcome.  Indeed if we remain in our sins or continue in them we are not free. There is no category of believer who is in perpetual sin or carnality if he is unrepentant, he is lost--the believer may fail his Lord, but he yearns to obey.  Obedience is the only true test of saving faith, as a Lutheran pastor and theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer, who was martyred by the Nazis, said, "Only he who believes is obedient; only he who is obedient believes." However, we see the result of salvation:   "For sin shall have no dominion over you, for you are not under law, but under grace"  (cf. Rom. 6:14).

As believers, we are saved from the penalty of sin at salvation, the power of sin in time, and the presence of sin in eternity.  We are born to become overcomers and be masters of our own domain, and comfort zone, not like fish out of water.  Who is it that overcomes the world, but he who believes in the Son of God? (Cf. 1 John 5:5).  We also know that the whole world lies in the power of the evil one (cf. 1 John 5:20).  We ought to consider ourselves dead to sin, no longer obeying that cruel taskmaster.

Romans 6:16 (NLT) says, "Don't you realize that you become the slave of whatever you choose to obey?  You can be a slave to sin, which leads to death, or you can choose to obey God, which leads to righteous living."   And 2 Pet. 2:19 (NLT) says, "They promise freedom, but they themselves are slaves of sin and corruption.  For you are a slave to whatever controls you."    Jesus said that unless you believe He is who He says He is, you will die in your sins (cf. John 8:24).  

We are to examine our fruit regularly (cf. 2 Cor. 13:5) to see if we are walking in the Spirit and following on to know the Lord in fellowship and obedience.  We have been rescued from Satan's power and the power of our own selves because we are our own worst enemy.  The same power that raised Jesus from the dead is available to us to overcome sin and set us free:  "[That] I may know him and the power of his resurrection..." (Phil. 3:10, ESV).

However,  the adversary knows our weaknesses and vulnerabilities and exploits them to catch us at an opportune time after a victory or on a spiritual high.  Epictetus appropriately said that we are never free till we have mastered ourselves.    Everyone has some easily besetting sin (cf. Heb. 12:1) or even pet sin that they find difficult to stop committing and keeps tripping them up.  But the good news is that there is always an escape clause and way to defeat it because no sin is a temptation Christ didn't face and overcome--He is able to sympathize with our weakness and even intercede for us when we do sin.

The whole purpose of repentance is not to change your opinions about your sins, but to come to a change of heart, which means mind, feelings, and will.  It will result in the fruit of a changed life and conduct (cf. Acts 26:20; Luke 3:8).  We "must prove [our] repentance by [our] deeds" (cf. Acts 26:20).  We must also bring forth fruit worthy of our repentance.  No fruit, no repentance.  The key to overcoming sin is genuine repentance, and confession, which implies saying the same thing about as God says and being willing to stop it;  we must be sorry enough to quit!  Our commission:  "... [That] repentance and forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem"  (Luke 24:47, ESV).

The trouble with the sinner is that he doesn't see his own sin, according to Martin Luther,  and even flatters himself too much to hate it (cf. Psalm 36:2).  We don't have the power in ourselves to overcome sin, but must learn to walk in the Spirit--the secret to that is to keep short accounts of your sin with regular and frequent confession.  Walking with God is only possible with progressive and continued repentance--it's a way of life, not something we go to confession to do and be absolved by a priest.

We can fall from grace, but not the state of grace, and not absolutely; however, we can and do backslide, but God can heal us of it and restore us (cf. Hos. 14:4).  Paul told the Galatians just that and to stand fast in the liberty they had in Christ.  The whole point of salvation is to be saved from the tyranny of sin and live a transformed life in Christ:  "... [And ] you shall call his name Jesus, for he shall save his people from their sins"  (Matt. 1:21, ESV).

Religion is an exercise in futility as one lifts himself up by his bootstraps and reforms himself and engages in a do-it-yourself proposition, while Christ gives us the power for change by grace [a foreign word to world religion]. Conversion is not an acceptable way to have a nervous breakdown, but a transformed life, not done by self-help, an AA-like pledge, nor self-reform, but God changing one from the inside out.  When sin abounded, grace abounded all the more (cf. Romans 5:20).

Victorious living is then learning to put off the old man, and put on the new man, made in the image of Christ. "Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom"  (2 Cor. 3:17, ESV).    In sum, when we sin we are not showing our freedom, but demonstrating our slavery!
Soli Deo Gloria!