Can we Really be Free from Known Sin

[Ramez5]

Jesus Talks About Freedom From Sin
So Jesus said to the Jews who believed in him, “If you continue to accept and obey my teaching, you are really my followers. You will know the truth, and the truth will make you free.” John 8:31-32
A good friend, just recently made a comment to me, that I didn't feel comfortable answering right then and there--no time for one thing. "If you have found a way to live free from sin, by all means, tell me!" I have to tell you I was afraid to answer. How do you tell someone.. well Yes..you really can.

It's a compelling idea is it not? For most of us the answer must be, "No--I'm still living in Romans 7."

Struggling with Sin
… For we know that the Law is spiritual, but I am of flesh, sold into bondage to sin. For what I am doing, I do not understand; for I am not practicing what I would like to do, but I am doing the very thing I hate. But if I do the very thing I do not want to do, I agree with the Law, confessing that the Law is good.…
So the question remains.. Can we be free from habitual sin.. or from a continue struggle between our flesh and our spirit? I know for a fact, what so many Christians have known in times past --especially most of our commentators, and many of our Christian fathers like Hudson Taylor, Amy Carmichael, Hannah Whitall Smith, Oswald Chambers, Andrew Murray, David Brainerd, George Mueller and I suspect countless others--that Yes, we really can.

It would be such a sad sad thing, if Jesus only had the power to save us from hell, but could not save us from daily bondage to or a massive tug of war with our flesh. If we had to live out our daily lives as Christians, continually fighting the tug or pull of the flesh, sometimes snapping at those who irritate us, indulging the flesh in various ways, feeling envious of others success, or consumed with anger or fear, then to me.. it sadly lessens the glorious transforming power and message of the gospel.

If we as the Lord's disciples obey today's verse.. continuing in Jesus' teachings and living by them day in and day out, by His grace, we can experience the Lord living HIS life through us. No our flesh is hopelessly bound, but Jesus can indeed live through us if we deny ourselves and follow Him.. daily. Once the flesh is out of the way, the Holy Spirit is free to live the Christ life through us.. and Jesus gets all the credit. Truly we do get set free!

This is what being a disciple of Christ is really all about. We deny ourselves.. our flesh.. mortifying our sinful impulses with God's help, ready to give up anything for him. And we live in and abide in His word.. ready to obey.. not just reading it.. but assimilating it. And He changes us as we gaze on and obey and follow Him. It's about the heart.. not the head.

Christianity is about a relationship.. not just living by a set of rules laid down in God's word. We are disciples.. followers.. servants.. and worshipers.. not just theologians or bible students. Put it all together and it's glorious. Head knowledge alone is not enough to transform us. We need to see His face. We need to love Jesus with all our hearts, souls, mind and strength.

The normal life for many Christians consists of 'struggling' with sin.. but never coming to a place of peace and rest from it. It is not only unnecessary to live this way.. but it strongly dampens our testimony of the saving and sanctifying power of God's redeeming grace to a lost world who wants real answers.

We really are supposed to have some Good news! And many times all we experience is the beginning.. and not the rest of what the good news really is. No wonder most of us Christians live no differently than the world. This was the case for me.. and for many Christians I know.

How grateful I am that the Lord brought me to the end of my human ability to 'live the Christian life'... because empty handed, I was once again willing for him to do through me what I couldn't do in my own strength.

Then are ye ... - This is the true test of Christian character. John 14:21; "he that hath my commandments and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me." See John 2:4; John 3:24; 2 John 1:6. In this place Jesus cautions them against too much confidence from their present feelings. They were just converted - converted by a single sermon. They had had no time to test their faith. Jesus assures them that if their faith should abide the test, if it should produce obedience to his commandments and a truly life, it would be proof that their faith was genuine, for the tree is known by its fruit. So we may say to all new converts, Do not repress your love or your joy, but do not be too confident. Your faith has not yet been tried, and if it does not produce a holy life it is vain, James 2:17-26.~Barnes Commentary
Am I saying that we will never sin once we become Christians? Of course not. Am I saying we can become perfect i.e. sinless? No. Emphatically not.

What I am saying... is that when you are saved, and you give the Lord your whole heart and devotion.. when you read His Word.. to see what He teaches, and then set your hearts to obey it by the power of the Holy Spirit in you, and you do this every day... you will eventually (not a long time either) experience freedom from this struggle!

When once you quit trying to 'be good'.. and simply cry out to the Lord to live through you and you scoot over, denying yourself and Jesus gets to live his life in and through you--you abiding in Him and His words abiding in you, before you know it, you will realize that you are changed. It could be all at once.. or gradually. Some of the freedom I experienced all in a moment though it took me a few weeks to realize something amazing had happened. Many sinful ways in me.. the hidden things.. have taken time. I'm know the Lord has tons yet more to do in me.. and will till the day I die.

We can never stop sinning by gritting our teeth and determining through self-control of our own making to stop sinning--at least not for long.

Well.. we can for a while.. but it's all our doing. It's hard and exhausting and not at all what the Lord intended.

His power not only saves us from the penalty of sin, and the bondage of sin, but can give us the grace to put to death the flesh, so that we don't struggle any more. As we continue to read and obey His word, and worship Him with our whole hearts.. he changes our desires and strengthens our spirit so that the flesh is easily mortified. Yes we still get tempted.. but our hearts desire the Lord and as we surrender, he is free to live through our mortal bodies. We are still there.. but one with Christ.
This suggests, that true freedom is by Jesus Christ, the Son of God; see Galatians 5:1. He it is that makes the saints free from sin; not from the being of it in this life, but from the bondage and servitude of it, from its power and dominion, and from its guilt and liableness to punishment for it, by procuring the pardon of their sins through his blood, and justifying their persons by his righteousness: he also makes them free, or delivers them from the captivity of Satan, by ransoming them out of his hands, taking the prey from the mighty, binding the strong man armed, and delivering them from him, and from the power of darkness, and putting them into his own kingdom; he does not indeed free them altogether from his temptations, but he preserves them by his power from being hurt and destroyed by him:~Gill's Exposition of the Bible

How do we do this then? The answer is through Jesus of course!... but explained more clearly here in a verse referenced by John 8:31.. in 2 Cor. 3:17 -18.
Now the Lord is that Spirit; and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty.


But we all, with uncovered face beholding as in a glass (mirror) the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image, from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord.
Mary had it right... to be the Lord's disciple.. and to experience His transforming power, we must seek Him, gaze on Him, worship and love Him, and listen to His words..

and then by his Grace respond appropriately to anything we see in the mirror of His word with a complete willingness to obey.. however difficult or costly that obedience might appear.

Three things come to mind that hindered me from experiencing this freedom before this February.

First, I didn't want to give up the sins the Lord showed me in his Word that I was cherishing. Once I did get sick of it, and expressed to Him the willingness to do so.. the rest was history! In only a couple of weeks, I was beginning to realize the glorious freedom. Not to say I didn't have it right away.. but it took me a while to notice that wow.. this situation or that was no longer upsetting me. I was stunned! The freedom shocked me and then I was like..wow.. does anyone else understand why suddenly sin in all its forms is no longer holding me down? I had no idea this was going to happen nor did I read about it anywhere. It just happened. I was amazed beyond words.

Second, I thought I could 'be good' and obey God's word without seeking the Lord and coming to Him daily. In other words, I was NOT reading my bible daily, worshiping Jesus, looking to Him for strength, or reading the bible with an eye to obedience. Being too busy for this time was, in my opinion, evidence of my confidence in the flesh. And in the flesh we cannot please God. We must do this by faith in God's power and grace.


Are you so foolish? Having begun in the Spirit, are you now being made perfect by the flesh? 4 Have you suffered so many things in vain—if indeed it was in vain?
5 Therefore He who supplies the Spirit to you and works miracles among you, does He do it by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith?— 6 just as Abraham “believed God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness.”[a]Galatians 3:3-6

Third, I thought everyone lived in that miserable state called Carnal Christianity.. where we forever struggle in the battle between the flesh and our spirit. Everyone not only sins.. regularly.. but is expected to. To claim you aren't, is to supposedly be a hypocrite or worse. So even if you are experiencing this freedom, you might be a bit nervous to say so. Who would believe you?

Because everyone expects that it is impossible to live free of that struggle.. that because we always have a sin nature.. then we must always give in to it, and that that is not only normal but expected of all Christians, that I could not hope to experience it. Failure to obey is the 'norm'.. and if so, then we need not feel bad. Right? We just assume that the Lord overlooks our sinful ways because we have a sin nature. If that's the case, why bother giving us freedom from the power of sin?


Christians giving in to the flesh and constantly fighting that flesh, and failing or living by the grit of their own moral teeth is not what we were saved for.

Jesus wants to set us free from that.

Unless we seek.. and keep seeking.. ask and keep asking... knock and keep knocking.. we may never know the truth of much of scripture on this topic. God will answer those who seek Him. There is a freedom from sin that Paul assumes all Christians will live in and in fact we are expected to do so!

It's so astonishingly clear! I used to read all the many references to our victory in Christ and freedom from bondage and wish it was true. And how I winced when reading God's call for us to put away ... all these sins.. and clothe ourselves with Christ. It seemed impossible to do so. It felt a little unfair to tell you the truth--a bit like false advertising.

I cannot really say any more. I will leave it to you to ask the Lord help you understand this as how else can we understand anything from God's word? We don't have to wait till heaven to live free from willful sin. The temptations will always be there, but so will the ways of escape.

We will still, even after experiencing this great grace, be in the process of dying to our flesh, and seeing sin, unconscious sin and blindspots. We simply offer those things up to the Lord, repent, and ask for the grace to change. Yes we may even willfully sin, but of course he is faithful to forgive us if we confess those sins.

Not till heaven will we be free of that. But we don't have to willfully sin on a constant or even daily basis or constantly fight a flesh that dominates us. That we can be free of.

Dear Lord, I pray that you would give my readers more faith, and reveal the truth of this marvelous redemption and sanctification you died to procure for us. Open our eyes so we can see and ears so we can hear. May we give up the things you ask us to.. knowing that you have a glorious life to exchange for our meagre one. May we love you with our whole hearts and worship you constantly. May our lives be changed to be as much like you as possible, as we behold thy Likeness. Amen

[Mary Naeem]

Thanks Ramez