In last week’s study we began addressing the “elephant in the room” for many Christians: the topic of sin and how we as believer’s in Jesus Christ can truly find victory and defeat sin.
The Price of Your Freedom
As Christians, we want to overcome sin in all its forms, but many of us have been religiously indoctrinated to believe that it’s simply not possible; we’ve been conditioned to think that all we can ever hope for is to do our best in our own strength and willpower to not sin as much as before— that’s a very weak position! It’s not a place of victory, but of uncertainty and endless striving, because it relies on self!
As we’ve looked at for the past few week’s the Gospel, the good news, the message of the cross of Christ is far greater than what we commonly realize. Jesus did not simply give us fire insurance. The scripture records that a divine transference took place. All of our sin, and our old sinful identity was laid upon Jesus on the cross. Isaiah 53:4-6 says:
“ 4 Surely he has borne our sicknesses, and carried our pains: yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted.
5 But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was on him; and with his stripes we are healed.
6 All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all.”
You see, it was not His sin that He bore on the cross (He didn’t have any sin) but he was wounded for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities. It was our transgressions, our iniquities that Jesus suffered for.
What was the result? Read the rest of verse five: the chastisement for our peace was on Him; and with His stripes we are healed. Now, think about that… the chastisement for our peace was on Him.. He was chastised, so that we would have peace. But many Christians don’t have peace today— instead we walk around with man-made doctrines and theologies saying that God is chastising us still.
But Jesus bore the punishment for our sins; if we don’t understand that, we will never be free. Look at verse six again: the second half says, the LORD has laid on Him [Jesus] the iniquity of us all. Does that include you? I’m not being facetious when I ask that question… I’m asking that question to get you to identify with the sacrifice of Jesus on a personal level. To start to see that the suffering Jesus endured, was the price for you to be free from sin, and the catalyst for your transformation.
Breaking Free Through Transformation
The foundation for victory over sin must be the cross. We need to understand that the sacrifice has already been made, the payment has already happened. Many Christians are trying to reinvent the wheel; they make themselves the payment for sin, trying to offer the imperfect payment of their works and efforts… and that card has already been declined.
Jesus made the perfect sacrifice, completed the work, and said “It is Finished”, literal Greek means “Paid!”
But Jesus didn’t just pay the debt for sin to give you fire insurance, He did something even greater than that. The scriptures say that through the sacrifice of Jesus Christ, he took in your sin, so that you could take on His divine righteousness. This is the new birth— being reborn into Christ, and this transformation gives you victory over sin, in all its forms. Look at 1st Corinthians 15:56-57:
“ 56The sting of death is sin; and the strength of sin is the law.
57But thanks be to God, which gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.”
We see in verse 56 that the sting of death is sin, and the strength of sin is the law. While many well-meaning but misguided preachers think that the solution to sin is more legalistic preaching, this verse tells us that the opposite is true. Sin is actually strengthened by the Law.
The law interacts with the sin-nature in man and strengthens our desire for wickedness. Put simply, more law equals more condemnation and the tendency for sin increases. This is where most people get stuck.
They not only fail to recognize the sacrifice of Christ, but they also try to transform themselves through willpower and behavior modification, and all it does is tighten the grip of sin.
However notice verse 57, because the story doesn’t end in hopelessness:
But thanks be to God, which gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.
There are several things to see in this verse. First, that God is the active agent. He is the one who gives what we are about to see… and it is a gift, He gives it, it is not a payment for services rendered, or something that we earn through merit. It is a gift.
Second, He gives us victory over sin. This tells us that there is indeed victory to be had. We are not doomed to a never-ending struggle against sin, or hanging on by our fingertips to not “fall from grace” which is a misnomer by itself.
Third, our victory against sin, comes through our Lord Jesus Christ. Our victory against sin does not come from our strength or effort, but through our Lord Jesus Christ. And this verse is speaking about your new nature.
Join Me Again Next Week
We’re going to continue this topic next week, as we dive deeper into being reborn into Christ; what it means and what it looks like in daily life. I look forward to thriving with you again.
Be blessed.