Free At Last!

‘Everyone who sins is a slave to sin. Now a slave has no permanent place in the family, but a son belongs to it forever. So if the Son sets you free you will be free indeed’ John 8:34-36.

If we are tempted ‘when we are dragged away by our own evil desires’, and, if we sin when we give in to temptation and do things our heavenly Father has told us not to do because sin damages us, other people, and our fellowship with him, then learning how to overcome temptation is an essential part of our discipleship as apprentices in the kingdom of God.

And this is the gloriously wonderful truth, that through loving Jesus and seeking the kingdom and learning the dynamic life of his Spirit we can learn how to reject the desires of our sinful natures that lead to sin.

Does that mean we can be perfect? Yes and No.

Yes, because Jesus ends his interpretation of the Ten Commandments in the Sermon on the Mount by saying; ‘Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly father is perfect’, Matthew 5:48. Paul states that Christ died so, ‘that we should no longer be slaves to sin’ Romans 6:6. And then Paul wonderfully summarises that Christ died to sin ‘so that the righteous requirements of the law might be fully met in us who do not live according to the sinful nature but according to the Spirit’, Romans 8:4.

No, because we are on a journey towards that goal which will be fulfilled when we meet him; ‘we know that when Christ appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is’ 1 John 3:2.

Discipleship involves learning and discovering how we can turn from temptation and reject it because Christ and the kingdom and the life of the Spirit are so much greater and better. Who would choose to drink a glass of dishwater when Christ has the most superb chilled wine for you in the fridge?

Next, we’ll look at how normal believers just like you and me can learn to turn away from and overcome the temptations of our sinful natures.