Romans 6:22 But now you are free from the power of sin and have become slaves of God. Now you do those things that lead to holiness and result in eternal life. 23 For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life through Christ Jesus our Lord.
We can only become free from the power of sin and get out from under the authority of sin through the salvific work of Christ. Rom. 6:22a But now you are free from the power of sin and have become slaves of God. There is no other way to be cleansed and washed of our trespasses and sins. The Lord’s Word gives us instructions to clarify our thoughts on how to reject temptation and not submit to sinfulness. This concept of being sinless by faith in Christ makes it hard for the carnal or unredeemed man to comprehend. The gift of God’s salvation cannot be performed with human ability or our own self-righteous strength. This mystery of Christ’s salvation has been a stumbling block and nonsense to mankind since the crucifixion. 1Cor. 1:23 So when we preach that Christ was crucified, the Jews are offended, and the Gentiles say it’s all nonsense.
Here is the dichotomy. Sins become powerless through Christ, and the wages of sin are death to those who have not received Christ as their Saviour. Two opposite sides to the coin of life. Yes, I would agree that in a natural conversation, these thoughts are hard to think through. Paul wrote to the Galatians that if they were led by the Holy Spirit of God, they would not fulfill the lusts of the flesh. Gal. 5:16 Now I say, walk by the Spirit, and you should not gratify the desires of the flesh. This instructional word of God works only if we are first led by the Holy Spirit; then the result of being Spirit-led is that God’s righteousness will help us resist the sinful gratifying the flesh. It does not work in reverse; if I do not gratify or submit to the ways of the flesh because of my own self-righteousness, it does not mean I am walking in the Spirit. It only means that through my own disciplined effort, I was able to control my impulses and achieve good behavior. The Holy Spirit always leads to what the will of God the Father says is righteous. This is not the same as following my understanding of right and wrong, which only enforces good social behaviour.
All kinds of religions promote good behaviour, but those altruistic works are works of self-effort and self-righteousness, and the people performing them (no matter how magnanimous the sacrifice) are still sinners in God’s eyes. Rom. 3:10 As it is written: “There is no one righteous, not even one. No one is righteous in themselves, and therefore, has difficulty understanding the magnitude of the corruption and utter deadliness of sin. Our egos and personal interpretation of self-justification will get in the way of God’s laws, as we exaggerate our importance by thinking we should be accepted by God on our own good works. Whether we admit it or not, with these beliefs gnawing at the edges of our hearts, we are judging God for His standard of holy righteousness. The Lord tells us to be perfect. How would this be even possible without God’s perfection at work within our beings? Matt. 5:48 Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.
We live in a sinful and lost society. We tend to disregard the detrimental effects that sin has on the people of the world. Sin will numb the conscience of a person and lead them to accept that death and destruction are the normal ways of existence in this world. Therefore, the plan that God created to eradicate the power of sin had to be complete and needed to destroy sin’s ability to ever have power or authority over man again. Therefore, God the Son gave Himself as a sacrifice to pay in full the penalty of our sins. Rom. 5:21 For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him. Jesus took our sins and replaced them with His holy righteousness. Jesus swapped the death that our sins caused for the life of His power that lives in us forever. The blood of our Saviour truly washed and made us whole.
The Apostle Paul receives a revelation of this fact when, in chapter seven of the book of Romans, he explains his struggle with the various nuances and craftiness of sin and how it manipulates the human heart. However, Paul mightily declares that since he is washed in the blood of Jesus Christ, sin no longer has authority or power over him; he only wrestles with the deception, titillation, and temptations of sin. Rom. 8:1 There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit. What a victory Christ obtained in conquering sin and the resulting death that once came from it. The beauty of the victory that Christ obtained for us is that we no longer need to wander around as the Israelites wandered in the desert; we can step forward in the confidence of the Lord’s righteousness working within us and believe that there is forgiveness when we stumble. Psalm 37:23 The LORD makes firm the steps of the one who delights in him; 24 though he may stumble, he will not fall, for the LORD upholds him with His hand.
The ultimate goal of our hearts is to walk in forthrightness before our Lord, applying the blood of Jesus upon our minds that we may, by faith, believe that sins have become powerless in our lives. This is only possible through Christ. This needs to be done by faith because what is not of faith is sin. Rom. 14:23b For whatever does not proceed from faith is sin. Whatever we do in our relationship with Abba Father needs to be done by faith in His gift of salvation. God clearly says that we need to believe and have faith that He is who He says He is and can do what He says He can do. Heb. 11:6 And without faith it is impossible to please God. For anyone who approaches Him must believe that He exists and that He rewards those who earnestly seek Him. God states that through faith in Christ, sins themselves are powerless in our lives if we are led by His Spirit and resist the temptations that sin brings in abundance to us daily. I accept the washing of this word over my life.
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