How to be Set Free from Sin

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Do you ever feel stuck in your journey to God? You desperately want to believe that God delivers, but you are still stuck in sin. Dear friend, you can be set free from sin! You are not stuck in Egypt like the Israelites. It’s time to find your freedom in Christ.

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My God Sets Us Free

Many years ago as a young woman, I was convinced I did not want to have kids. The thought now is ludicrous as I sit here writing this pregnant with my fourth child. I would gladly open my heart up to as many children as God sees fit to send us. Although my husband may have a different opinion on that!

You may be curious why I didn’t want children. Well, the truth is that I didn’t want the work and 24/7 care that I knew was ahead of me if I chose that path. At the time I was a pre-K and literacy teacher plus a nanny and I adored it! Absolutely loved it with all my heart. But I also knew what caring for a young child was like and in my selfish pursuit, I wasn’t sure that was the path I wanted to traverse. Instead, I wanted to continue on in my own interests, hike every day, and go to bed at my own choosing. Although I didn’t recognize it as selfishness, that is certainly what it was.

Fast forward to my life as a mom today, and I have experienced a different type of sin. Actually, motherhood has unveiled more sin in my heart and my actions than I ever knew existed. I love motherhood, I have an entire blog about it! But just like me, my children are selfish. They want what they want and their selfishness collides with my selfishness and creates a burst of ugliness that truly unveils just how lost we are.

Want to go deeper with this concept of sin and motherhood? I highly recommend Paul David Tripp’s book called Parenting.

Sinful people parenting sinful children. now that is a recipe for disaster! The consequence of sin is death. The New Testament is clear on that, so how can we be set free from sin without death?

The law of sin is on our hearts and without a savior we are truly lost in the ugliness of the power of sin. The presence of sin was always in my life, but motherhood welled up another side that made me realize anew my sinful nature. The Apostle Paul declares that the ‘wages of sin’ is death. I yearned anew for the true freedom that is found at the foot of the cross. The penalty of sin is death. Let that sink in for a moment. Sin started in the Garden of Eden, but it continues to this day and it is our own doing. Death is the consequence…but Jesus. God’s grace and God’s love is more than enough to cover our sin. There is hope to be set free from sin coming.

For freedom Christ has set us free; stand firm therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery.

Galatians 5:1 ESV

The Christian life does not automatically mean that we are free from sin. Our old self, before Christ, will still remind us of sin’s power. We have a body of sin that is a mortal body. Someday we will see eternal life and reap the consequences of our decisions here on Earth. In the meantime, we have the knowledge of sin, but we also know the freedom Christ provides.

Unfortunately, we will battle for our sanctification on a daily basis where we preach the Gospel to ourselves as much as humanly possible. We cannot keep the whole law by our own will, we need the power of Jesus in our lives. If you want to be set free from sin, keep reading.

Delivered by God and Addicted to Sin

It reminds me of a people who were delivered by God, they were set free relentlessly, yet when the times began to roll and sway, they simply forgot all that He had done. (Numbers 11). More than that, it was as if His character was on display and tarnished by their own sinful inclinations.

Frazzled by idiosyncrasy. In the thick of it, they longed for Egypt. The place where they had been enslaved and bruised. The place from which God Himself had delivered them. This was the place where God presented the miraculous through Moses. Rather than longing for Egypt, or God, they were longing for familiarity. For control, they wish they had a grip of God’s Eternal Lordship over their present and temporary circumstance.

The truth is, I can visibly recognize this in myself. I can recognize this in my motherhood, in my marriage, and in so much more. My guess is that you can too.

Some days it’s almost hard to detect because I’ve covered that pride with “good intent.” My own addictions are like the bar I was trying to grip so tightly. For my life, for my safety, and for solace. It was the safety net that I needed to remain underneath me when all else failed. When I say all else, I really mean God.

Addictions are words we occasionally like to flippantly use as a replacement word for sin. Addiction almost has a ring to it, a nicer tune that makes us seem more like the victim than anything else. I must reiterate that addictions seem to perfectly land on the platform of our wicked hearts, upstaging all other truths.

We are addicted to sin and our deepest motivation is not to fall at the throne of grace, but really at the grips of desire. We cower under these things, under our trauma and shame, and become trapped under their weight. We need to stay rooted in Christ but instead, we fall prey to sin’s expectation dragging ourselves through the mud and the muck every single time.

The word slaves in this passage often triggers lots of emotions. We are to be obedient slaves to Christ Jesus. The imagery here is stark because our own desire is shameful.

But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God, the benefit you reap leads to holiness, and the result is eternal life.

Romans 6:22

Our Sin Does not Love Us

Our sin does not love us. Our sin requires us to sacrifice ourselves. Our families, our health, our mental sanity, our emotions. It asks much of us because it does not give, it only takes. Robs and steals. we need to be set free from sin! Once again, God delivers.

Anger demanded more of me than I could give. Eating disorders drained more than my weight. Promiscuity promised me validation but never came through. Anxiety and depression played like Jekyll & Hide but never showed me the other side of daybreak. A short temper in my motherhood promised me rest, but never allowed true rest.

All these things were mere mirages, figments of comfort but never grace. My idols asked of me robbed me, and pushed me to make an oath that they did not keep.

Set Free from Sin

Yet there is ALWAYS GOOD news. There is new life!

In the case of Christ?

He IS the ultimate sacrifice. 

God delivers you and sets you FREE from sin! Our old life can die and we can be set free from sin and experience a new life for the glory of God!

For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death.

Romans 8:2 ESV

The previous and following verses will be available in scripture card format at the bottom of this post.

Do not white knuckle something that is dead and was conquered 2,000 years ago. Don’t add a safety net where God put nails and crucified it. Don’t add a semi-colon where God put a period and said, “IT IS FINISHED.” Cry out to the holy spirit on days that are tough.

Later, knowing that everything had now been finished, and so that Scripture would be fulfilled, Jesus said, “I am thirsty.”  A jar of wine vinegar was there, so they soaked a sponge in it, put the sponge on a stalk of the hyssop plant, and lifted it to Jesus’ lips. When he had received the drink, Jesus said, “It is finished.” With that, he bowed his head and gave up his spirit.

John 19:28-30 NIV

There is nothing else to add or gain. He perfected it because He alone is perfect. I don’t know what the face of your sinful addictions looks like. I don’t know what traumas have unfolded in your life, but I do know that you will collapse under the falsehood that you can satisfy your soul with physical things.

Christ died for your freedom. Have I mentioned that it is also free? The free gift of God is eternal life. He offers it freely!

I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.

Galatians 2:20 NIV

Christ died to give us eyes to see what our idols truly are. Our idols will never sacrifice more for us than Christ ever has. The sinful world will offer us many types of temptations and treasures that we think will satisfy. They will never redeem us. Forgive us. Christ has already done that, once and for all. You will find a newness of life that provides deeper satisfaction than sin ever has. The truest description of love is perfectly described in this verse:

“But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”

Romans 5:8 NIV

God Delivers us with Christ

As I was finishing writing this post, my 4-year-old waddled out of bed and climbed into my lap. In his hands, he carried two books, both of which were small Bibles. For his fourth birthday, my precious West asked for only one thing, “a little itty tiny Bible.” Don’t worry, he got more than just that. For months he would press his fingers together to indicate how tiny he wanted the Bible to be.

On his birthday morning, while we ate breakfast, he opened his Bible and to his delight shouted, “My tiny Bible!” He carried that little 2″ Bible around all day and slept with it along with the bear he had built at Build-A-Bear at the Mall of America. He also carried that Bible with him through the mall clutched in his tiny hands.

This morning as he came out of his room he was clutching that little Bible. He climbed into my lap and asked me to read it. Many times over the last month of him carrying that tiny Bible around, I’ve been reminded of Matthew 5:6.

“Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied.

Matthew 5:6 ESV

The spirit of the Lord is doing a work in my sinful child’s heart. And trust me, he is sinful. Cute, but sinful, just like the rest of us. I can only pray that the Holy Spirit will continue to do a great work in my 4-year-old as the thirsts for scripture. Someday I pray he will be a new creation and accept Jesus as his Lord and Savior!

Jesus said, “Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these.”

Matthew 19:14 NIV

Our flesh will always tell the fable of how we can love and romanticize our cheating idols but, in the Gospel, God pursues us first. God delivers us deeply with Christ’s love. The gift of freedom is real! Lavishly loves and forgives the one who has committed deep adultery against His established covenant. Us.

But thanks be to God, that you who were once slaves of sin have become obedient from the heart to the standard of teaching to which you were committed, and, having been set free from sin, have become slaves of righteousness.

Romans 6:17-18 ESV

He is the expression of the faithful husband who lays His life down, sacrificing His Son for our adoption. Bridges the gap, embraces us, and pulls us into the tabernacle. He is the One who desires our hearts but also grants us the transformation to love Him more than anything else. Our idols want us to do more and be more but in scripture? It is already done. For His glory and honor and for your good.

Our idols may all look different. Sin has flourished under the pressure of motherhood for me, but maybe your situation is different. It can manifest in many different circumstances.

I pray you see the picture that all comes together seamlessly, painted with truth and colorful splashes of His goodness. The masterpiece that has come together at the cross, where we see the depiction of our tainted sin for what it is in the face of a beautiful redemption. Splotches of love and mercy form the timeless art of His pursuit.

May you know this above all else, in the face of all things that have gripped you tightly. Rest assured in knowing that freedom has been purchased. May you spend every second in the embrace of His grace alone. May you bask in the freedom of this truth and cling to the truth of God’s Word, just as my little one has physically clutched to his tiny Bible. Amen. You can be set free from sin!

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If you have enjoyed the scripture passages we have talked about, feel free to download our scripture passage notecards! You can print these off for your own use. The link will take you straight to a Dropbox download.

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