Free From Me

Free From Me

Over the last couple weeks I’ve been talking to God and meditating on what the Bible calls death to self and life in Christ, with this in mind, I have been spending a good amount of time reading and rereading Romans chapters 6, 7, & 8. Here are a few truths in those chapters that have really been jumping out to me.

“For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death. For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do. By sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh, in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.” -Romans 8:2-4

There is a law of sin and death, law meaning a force or influence impelling to action, think law like the law of gravity. There is another law, the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus, this law makes us free from the law of sin and death, think of an airplane that overpowers gravity by thrust and lift. When we walk in the Spirit we will walk free from the law/force of sin and death which is constantly working to keep us enslaved.

The law of sin and death is at work in you and in me, honestly the law of sin and death has been at work in every person ever since Adam and Eve sinned in the beginning. God’s solution to free us from the law of sin and death isn’t to fix us up, it’s actually to put you and I to death so that we might walk in newness of life by faith in Jesus Christ. We are to die that Christ might become our life. You are no longer suppose to be the driving force of your life, but the Spirit of Christ is!

“We know that our old self was crucified with him in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing, so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin. For one who has died has been set free from sin. Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him.” -Romans 6:6-8

“I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.” -Galatians 2:20

I have found that dying to our human weakness can make sense to us, it’s dying to our human strength that is normally hardest for us. When we aren’t able to overcome sin in an area, it’s easy for us to let go and let God lead us into freedom. On the other hand, when we work hard in our own strength to be righteous, though it looks good on the outside, the power and life of the Spirit of God is still lacking if it's our strength working to lead us into and maintaining freedom. Attempting to attain to righteousness by our own strength and efforts is the same as being under the law. Christ’s proscribed way to life and freedom is death to self and surrender to the Spirit of God who will then lead us into and maintain life and freedom in Christ.

“Likewise, my brothers, you also have died to the law through the body of Christ, so that you may belong to another, to him who has been raised from the dead, in order that we may bear fruit for God.” - Romans 7:4

“So I find it to be a law that when I want to do right, evil lies close at hand.” -Romans 7:21

What does it mean to die to the law? Well, to be under law is where “I” try by my own strength to attain to righteousness by so closely following the written code of do’s and don’t that God is pleased with me. It’s an attempt to attain to and live a righteous and fruitful life by human works, strengths, and efforts. The problem with this is no matter how hard “I” try, “I” will never be able to live a truly fruitful and righteous life because the law of evil aka the law of sin and death lies close at hand when “I” want to do good. Sin and death still have a foothold as long as “I” live, if “I” am still the one in control of everything, if self is the source of our righteousness and fruitfulness it will always fall short.

I pray God helps us to see our complete inability to live the life He calls us to in our own strength and simultaneously opens our eyes to see the freedom and life He has for us as we let Him take us into death to self that we might let His Spirit lead. May we be a people who stop looking to our own ability and instead fix our eyes on the Spirit of God and follow Him. I pray God grants us revelation and faith to believe Christ and walk in the fullness of the life and freedom He died for. May God in His grace apprehend you, that you might truly live!

“..consider yourself dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.” - Romans 6:11

“For to set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace.” - Romans 8:6

May Christ be all, and may I be free from me!