So Steve brought out some interesting things in the Milk and Honey post and a scripture that he so kindly allowed me to expound on. John 8:34 Jesus is talking here and says “Truly, truly, I say to you, everyone who commits sin is the slave of sin. 35 The slave does not remain in the house forever; the son does remain forever. This scripture is cut and dry, there are only two people in the world; those that are slaves to sin and those that aren’t and in this context they are called sons.
So now arises the question, how are we set free from being a slave to sin? The answer lies within my favorite scripture (which is why Steve saved if for me). If you want to open up your Bible to Romans 6 and take some time and read the entire chapter, it is only 23 verses but those 23 verses are jam packed with answers.
Paul starts out with a rhetorical question to the believers in Rome “What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin so that grace may increase?”
Interesting concept right, continue on in sin so God’s grace is glorified? There is a phrase for that today, its called “come as you are”. Ask yourself one question; what was the first thing Christ preached when He started His ministry? I will give you a clue; come as you are isn't in the Bible. Here are the scriptures of how Jesus started preaching. Matthew 4:17 “From that time Jesus began to preach and say “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand”. Mark 1:15 “The time is fulfilled and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel”.
Repent in the Greek is translated Meta-nous it’s a compound word simply put it means “change your mind”. Coming as you are does not equal changing your mind, it means the opposite; it means I’m fine where I am at, even if I partake in drunkenness, sexual promiscuity, sensuality, strife, and jealousy; I’m only human God understands... Jesus was very clear about those that do not repent it is in Luke 13:3. We as people have two options; change our mind and do things God’s way or perish. There is no plan C its life or death that’s how serious it gets.
You can see this in Paul’s response to his own rhetorical question in verse 2 of Romans 6. “May it never be! How shall we who died to sin still live in it?”
So this brings us back to our original topic; how are we freed from sin? Paul is speaking to a group of believers that have already been freed from sin it says in 2 that they died to sin. How do you die to sin though?
If you continue on reading it answers that question. “or do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus have been baptized into his death”
So this group of believers that had died to sin, died to it by being baptized into the name of Jesus Christ. In Acts 4:12 it says “for there is no other name under heaven that has been given among men by which we must be saved” Baptism has to be done in the name of Jesus Christ, you can’t be baptized into a church or anything else because there is no other name that can save you.
There is a list of promises if you keep on reading through Romans 6 that all follow baptism.
1) Become united with Christ in the likeness of His death
2) Also be of His resurrection
3) Our body of sin is done away with
4) You are no longer a slave to sin
5) Have the ability to live with Christ
6) We are alive to God in Christ Jesus
7) Enslaved to God (in which we derive our benefit resulting in sanctification and eternal life.)
There are more things that come through baptism that are listed in other scriptures like in Acts 2:38 we receive the Holy Spirit when we repent and are baptized.
Our main focus however is how to be set free from sin. As Steve brought out before, Israel could not serve God in Egypt because they were under bondage and Egypt was the pleasures of sin. So put two and two together they were slaves to sin. Nothing has changed since then; people can not genuinely serve God while they are still slaves to sin, they have to act on what the scripture says. When Christ said “repent and believe the gospel” believe actually derives from an Anglo Saxon word that means “by life” it is more than just “knowing it is real or exists” it means LIVE IT. So now put that into what Christ said, “Repent and make the gospel your life.” Has a bigger impact I think.
So if you have struggles overcoming your flesh and you are ready to stop fulfilling the lusts of your flesh there is an answer and it works. The Bible is truth and I believe Romans 6 says it better itself than I could ever explain it. There is a neat scripture in Isaiah 43:2 it says “when you pass through the waters, I will be with you.” Christ meets you under the water when you take that step of faith to be baptized into His name and He gives you the victory and sets you free from sin. Praise the Lord!
Like always if you ever have any questions feel free to ask and if you are thinking about getting baptized feel free to write and we will try and answer any questions you may have about it in greater detail.
Until next time, keep those Bibles open and searching the scripture through.