What Does It Mean to Have Freedom in Christ?
Jesus said, “If the Son sets you free, you are free indeed.”
- John 8:36
What does it mean when you hear that Christ has set us free? What did He free us from?
Jesus freed us from the penalty of sin, the power of sin, and someday, we will be free from the presence of sin forever.
The penalty of sin: Before putting our belief and trust in Jesus, we were condemned to be eternally separated from God because we cannot fulfill His perfect law. He is holy and just, requiring that sin (wrongdoing against God’s law of perfection) is justified. As with any crime, it requires a punishment. Jesus fulfilled the law with His sinless life, which covers our sinful life, and took our punishment by being crucified on the cross. If we believe in Him, we are free from trying (and failing) to earn God’s favor and free from ever being separated from Him.
John 3:18 says, “He who believes in Him is not condemned; but he who does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.”
Romans 8:1-2 says, “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. For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and death.”
Galatians 5:1 says, “Stand fast therefore in the liberty by which Christ has made us free, and do not be entangled again with a yoke of bondage.”
The power of sin: We have the Holy Spirit residing in us as believers in Jesus. We have access to live by the Spirit, which is God’s way of life. That means that we have the ability to choose righteousness over sin. That also includes overcoming the effects of sin such as worry and anxiety. By walking in the Spirit, we overcome the power of sin in our lives. Likewise, sin has no power to separate us from the love of God. Once we become His children, nothing can take us out of His hands.
Galatians 2:20 says, “I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me.”
Galatians 5:16-18 says, “So I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. For the flesh desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the flesh. They are in conflict with each other, so that you are not to do whatever you want. But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law.”
Romans 8:38-39 says, “For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
The presence of sin: Our blessed hope as believers is that someday we will never have to deal with the corruption of sin again. We will live in an eternal kingdom with the author of perfection, Jesus Christ. We are free from living with sin and the effects of it once we are in our glorified state.
Revelation 21:4 says, “He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.”
Philippians 3:20-21 says, “But our citizenship is in heaven. And we eagerly await a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ, who, by the power that enables him to bring everything under his control, will transform our lowly bodies so that they will be like his glorious body.”
1 Corinthians 15:54-55 says, “When the perishable has been clothed with the imperishable and the mortal with immortality, then the saying that is written will come to pass: ‘Death has been swallowed up in victory. Where, O Death, is your victory? Where, O Death, is your sting?’”
Find encouragement in these truths. You are free in Christ forever!
- Alina