Introduction
Sin’s power over us was absolute, and had the direst of consequences for our lives. Only Christ’s death on the Cross could break the power of such an immeasurably strong tyrant. Sin enslaved us, leading us into patterns of life and behaviour that would have led God to condemn us to Hell on the Day of Judgment. Sin was our all absorbing interest and passion. It had complete control over our minds, and gave us only hatred for the holiness of God, and the claim of God over our lives.
Yet through Christ’s death and resurrection, we are freed to love God and live holy lives. More than this God bestows on us the right to be called His sons – to be welcomed into His family here on earth. What’s more we shall behold the glory of Christ for all eternity beyond the grave. God has truly judged sin, removing its penalty, breaking its power, reversing its effects in our lives, and banishing it completely from us beyond the grave.
God Reverses Sin’s Penalty and Power
The Penalty and Power of Sin Broken
The first thing we see is that God reverses sin’s penalty for those who are in Christ.
“There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit.”
Romans 8:1
Paul, has shown that every human being is guilty before God – every human being sins on the face of this planet. Those who’ve had the knowledge of God’s law (from the Bible) do not live up to it. Those who have not had a knowledge of God’s law through the Bible still have consciences. That dim light, not perfect, can be seared and hardened, but they have something of the law of God inscribed on their hearts and they haven’t lived up to it either.
He then shows (Romans Chapter 3:21 through towards the end of Chapter 5), that the penalty of sin is removed by faith – that we can stand not guilty before God innocent, if we have that faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. This is because the perfect life of Christ that He lived under the law is transferred to us. But more than that, the punishment that should be duly meted out for our disobedience to God’s law was taken by Christ on the cross. The penalty of sin, guilt before God has been dealt with by Christ on the cross.
In Romans Chapter 6 Paul demonstrates that the cross broke the power of sin. The cross is not just the key to us being declared innocent before God, removing the penalty of sin, our guilt. It is actually the key to a holy life that can be lived before God. The believer is united with the Lord Jesus Christ by His Spirit. Because we were united with Him in His death upon the cross the power of sin is broken over us.
Christ died, was placed in a tomb, rose again, and ascended to heaven. Christ lives at the right hand of God the Father, living a holy life pleasing to God. The believer is united with the Lord Jesus Christ by His spirit. Because we are united in His resurrection we have a new Holy power to live in obedience to God.
No condemnation for those who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit. It’s so closely bound up. The penalty of sin is removed (“no condemnation”) and the power of sin is broken (“do not walk according to the flesh”) for those who are in the Lord Jesus Christ.
Freedom Not Slavery for Those in Christ
“For what the law could not do in that it was weak through the flesh, God did by sending His own Son in likeness of sinful flesh, on account of sin: He condemned sin in the flesh.” Romans 8:3
The law was limited, it could judge sin but could not destroy its power, almost quite the reverse. We see in Romans 7 that Paul didn’t know what coveting really was until he came to God’s law, and his sinful nature was stimulated to covet all the more. He wanted to covet because he found out what it was, from God’s law. The law could condemn sin but he couldn’t remove its power, almost the opposite. When our sinful nature came to the law, it stimulated us to sin.
Our enslavement to sin was part of God’s judgment on sin. When Adam and Eve fell, when they rejected God, when they went their own way, God said, “On the day that you sin you will die.” They died spiritually. They were locked into being slaves of sin due to their sinful natures. They were locked into a self-destructive pattern. They died spiritually being separated from God. Additionally they had a physical death sentence passed upon them as their bodies became mortal bodies..
God’s pronouncement of sins penalty wasn’t simply guilt before Him – the punishment of hell – but it also included sins domination over us as we lived upon this earth. Sin separates us from Him, the author of life itself and the only One that has the ability to break the power of sin over us. Our enslavement to sin was part of the judgment to which we are consigned. There is no release from this bondage until sin receives its judicial condemnation in the cross of Christ and its application to us. What the law could not do because it stimulated sin in us, God the Father accomplished through His sending His son into this world to the cross – life not death, freedom not slavery, obedience not disobedience to Christ.
God Frees Us From Sins Absolute Control Of Our Lives
Freed From Sin’s Control of Our Mind
“For those who live according to the flesh, set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit, the things of the Spirit.” Romans 8:5
In the flesh, human nature is corrupted, directed, and controlled by sin. Those who are in the flesh innately have nothing else acting on them. They set their minds on the things of the flesh. It is to have the things of the flesh as the absorbing objects of our thoughts, our interests, our affection, and our purpose. It’s the center of our lives; the things that we get absorbed with under the sun, the things of this earth. Our passions, our desires, and our obsessions are on these things and these things alone satisfy us. Those in the flesh set their minds on the flesh and live according to the flesh.
The resulting walk, the things that we do, and the things that we say, all our actions are controlled and dominated by the sinful nature. God has freed us from this. Those who live according to the Spirit have their mind set on the things of the Spirit; freed from sinful mind and life.
Freedom from the Hatred of God.
“Because the carnal mind is enmity against God; for it is not subject to the law of God, nor indeed can it be. So then, those who are in the flesh cannot please God.” Romans 8:7,8
Those whose dominating power, whose controlling or absorbing interest is directed by the sinful nature, hate God and cannot submit to Him. Their minds cannot please God, and have enmity towards God. The guiding principle of the flesh is settled opposition to, and hatred of, God. God’s law is a reflection of His nature, as He is hated, so will His law be.
People might initially tell you they’re quite open to the possibility of the idea of God. But then you start saying to them, “Admit that you are a moral failure to God. Admit that you haven’t loved Him with all your heart, your mind, and your soul, that you haven’t put Him first before you in all your decisions in every day. At every moment of your life right from your youth, you haven’t made it your first priority to find out about Him, to follow Him, to love Him, to be in obedience to Him.”
What is often the response? “He’s arrogant then, isn’t he? Well, have I got to do what He says? I’ve got no part to play in this?” The natural mind hates God, and does not want to be interfered with – “This is my life. I will do with it what I want and who is this person over here called ‘God’ to tell me what to do?”
The natural mind has an inability to obey the law. It cannot be subject to the law. The apostle says, it is a moral and psychological impossibility for those who are “in the flesh” to have any disposition of obedience with respect to the law of God. There might be an external show, to a certain extent. But the inward heart and mind, does not have a desire to love God every moment, nor has it any humility before Him. The natural mind cannot do this.
Our enmity against God stems from our total depravity. Sin has affected every part of our lives. That we cannot please God is our total inability. We have been freed from sinful mind and life, freed from alienation from God, and freed from the hatred of God that we might have peace with Him.
God Calls Us to Holiness and the inheritance of Christ’s Glory
The Call to Live Holy Lives
“Therefore, brethren, we are debtors – not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh. For if you live according to the flesh you will die; but if by the Spirit, you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live.”
Romans 8:12, 13
The sons of God live holy lives. There is a call direct to our wills. Because God has done this for you, because he’s broken the power of sin over you, because he’s given you life by the Holy Spirit, don’t return to the ways of the flesh. It is implied that we are debtors to the Spirit, to live after the Spirit. How contradictory for us having been delivered by the Spirit from the law of sin and death, and having been in-dwelt by the Holy Spirit, to then yield our obedience and service to that which the Holy Spirit delivered us from. Don’t return.
There are various times when Paul has, in terms of our sanctification, portrayed the believer as being passive. In Romans Chapter 6 he tells us that we are united with Christ, and that breaks the power of sin over us. We don’t do anything. It is the Spirit’s work upon us that breaks the power of sin. We again are united with Christ in His resurrected state. We have His Holy Life within us. We haven’t done anything. We haven’t taken Christ and raised Him up to a holy life. There are times when Paul portrays the believer as passive in enabling us to live a holy life. But there are also times when he calls us to be active and put to death the sinful nature within us.
“If by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body.” This is us trying to avoid sin and temptation. This is us struggling with our sinful nature, something of what Paul covered in Romans Chapter 7. There is a perfect balance here between the Spirit’s work and our activity. The believer has died once for all to sin. But this does not free him from necessity of mortifying, i.e., putting to death, sin in the body. Rather it makes it necessary and possible for him to do so.
Sons of God are Heirs to Christ’s Glory
“And if children, then heirs – heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with Him, that we may also be glorified together.”
Romans 8:17
He hasn’t just broken the power of sin over us and then said, “You stay out there you who once were sinful people. You’re too dirty to come next to my holy nature.” He says, “Come in. Come in to my family. I want to be part of your life. I want you to relate to me as a Father.” He is the best and perfect Father anyone can have and He welcomes us into His family.
God gives us an inheritance. The sons of God are heirs of the inheritance which God Himself has laid up for them. The richer and deeper thought on our inheritance is that God Himself is the inheritance of His children.
“Oh Lord, You are the portion of my inheritance and my cup.” Psalm 16:5
“In Your Presence is Fullness of Joy.” Psalm 16:11
The Psalmist is saying, “You are my inheritance, Lord. You.” What more can you ask for than being in the presence of God? Where there is the fullness of joy and where there are pleasures forevermore. Knowing something of the fullness of God, being in His Presence, the Psalmist is saying, “This is my inheritance. This is what I want.”
But we are also going to be joint heirs with the Lord Jesus Christ. The Lord Jesus Christ wants us as believers to be with Him and to see His glory.
“And now, O Father, glorify Me together with yourself, with the glory which I had with you before the world was.” John 17:5
Christ will be basked with that glory that he had from all eternity past. But does he want this just to be for Himself? Is this something that just He will enjoy?
“Father, I desire that they also whom You gave me may be with me where I am; that they may behold my glory which You have given Me; for You have loved Me before the foundation of the world.” John 17:24
The Lord Jesus Christ wants His people to be with Him for all eternity seeing something of His glory. We are joint heirs with the Lord Jesus Christ. We cannot think of Christ’s work on the cross without reference to His people. Christ did not die on the cross for Himself. He had no sin. In the same way, we cannot think of Christ’s exalted glory at the right hand of the Father without reference to His people. This is what Christ died for. He wanted us to see His glory, to be with Him for all eternity. We cannot separate out Christ’s glorified state from ourselves; being there, experiencing Christ’s glory is a part of our future eternal state.
Let’s give thanks and praise to God for our Saviour who loved us so much that He gave His life for us, not just to save us, but He wanted us to be with Him for all eternity and not separated from Him.
All scripture quotations, unless otherwise indicated, are taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
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