Jesus said, “If the Son makes you free, you will be free indeed” (Jn 8:36 NASB); but how many Christians are actually living as though they’re free? Some portray the look of a death row inmate awaiting the day of execution! There are believers living with regret over past mistakes and sins, and they just can’t seem to move on. They appear unable to obtain the freedom that Jesus promised.
Jesus said, “My burden is light” (Mt 11:30), but many live from day to day with a weight of guilt on their shoulders that hinders them from moving deeper in their walk with Christ. Whenever they mess up at some small task, or when they mess up spiritually, they beat themselves up emotionally and sometimes even question their salvation.
I remember a young woman who would come to the front of the church week after week to pray for salvation, and as she walked the isle she appeared dejected and ashamed. When I would counsel with her at the altar, I discovered that when she committed sin during the week that she would feel condemned. She also believed that she had lost her salvation over one transgression.
It’s all too easy to question how God could love such a sinner. A believer can feel as though he or she isn’t receiving their just punishment, and then inflict self-punishment by declaring oneself as worthless and unlovable. One can even go so far as to stop spending time with the Lord, because they feel unworthy to come into His presence.
Michael was a new father, and he was not about to let his wife’s first Mother’s Day pass uncelebrated. But she was a nurse, and on that particular day she was working at the local hospital, and they weren’t able to celebrate together at home. So Michael put his new son, Jason, in the baby carrier, drove to the hospital and in front of all the patients and co-workers he surprised Miriam with candy and flowers and balloons that said, “World’s Greatest Mom.”
It was a great Mother’s Day. But after celebrating, it was time for Miriam to go back to work, and Jason and Michael to go back home. Michael gathered all the things that had been part of the celebration: the candy, flowers, and balloons. It wasn’t as much fun taking those things out to the car as it was taking them into the hospital for the surprise. He tossed the candy on the front seat and got the flowers arranged on the floor where they wouldn’t tip over. And he pulled the balloons in out of the wind and got everything arranged, and headed home.
On the way home, people began to honk their horns and flash their lights at him. He didn’t realize what was going on until he hit fifty-five miles per hour on the highway. He heard a long scraping noise go down the roof, followed by a loud thump. He watched in horror in the rearview mirror as the baby carrier bounced off the trunk onto the highway and began to slide along behind the car.
Michael screeched to a halt. He ran back down the highway to the baby carrier. Jason was okay. As the waves of guilt and fear and relief began to wash over him, Michael fell on the highway and began to sob, which did not stop a passing policeman from writing him up, nor the local newspaper from writing a story about it. A reporter interviewed Miriam, who showed amazing understanding. She said, “It’s so unlike him. He really is a good father.”
While there’s a part of us that says, “How could he do that?” there’s another part of us that relates to Michael. We recognize all the mistakes that we have made in life, the dumb things we have done born out of hurry or frustration or distraction. We know that there is enough Michael in each of us that we could be guilty of such things too.(1)
Each of us makes mistakes that are sometimes worthy of severe punishment; however, God forgives us and loves us for who we are. This is a lesson the apostle Paul had to learn, for he too struggled with sin. In Romans 7:14-15 and 18-19, Paul said, “For we know that the law is spiritual, but I am carnal, sold under sin. For what I am doing, I do not understand. For what I will to do, that I do not practice; but what I hate, that I do . . . For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh) nothing good dwells; for the will is present with me, but how to perform what is good I do not find. For the good that I will to do, I do not do; but the evil I will not to do, that I practice.”
This wasn’t Paul talking about the way he used to be a sinful person before he became a believer. This was him saying, “Just this morning, I gave in again.” Like many of us, Paul realized that he was unworthy of God’s love, for he stated In Romans 3:10, “There is none righteous, no, not one.”
At times, Paul seemed very frustrated with himself. For example, he declared in Romans 7:25, “O wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death?” He felt down about the mistakes he had made; however, he ultimately realized that God loved him; and in Romans chapter eight, Paul broke forth declaring, “There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus” (8:1a).
Have you ever before felt like Paul, struggling daily with your sin and feeling guilty and condemned? A pastor by the name of Tim Bond says,
How many times a week could you just kick yourself for failing? You try to be patient with your kids, or your spouse, or your parents, but in a flash you strike out and the words you say have done their damage before you even knew it.
You thought you had broken the grip of that habit, but there was that one weak moment, and you listened to the whisper that told you, “It will be okay just this once,” and now you feel like a failure. You knew you should have steered clear, but you thought you could handle it. Before you knew it, you found out the hard way that you were weaker than you thought.
A thousand times and in a thousand different ways you have tried to live by the standards that you know are right. But . . . even though you knew better, you did the unthinkable. And now all you feel is dumb, unlovable, filthy, and wretched - to use the language of Paul; and you do not have joy in your Christian life.(2)
The problem that many believers have is they haven’t gotten a handle on the depth of God’s grace. They haven’t fully accepted His grace into their lives. From our main text, we will view Paul’s discovery of grace in his own life, in the hope of learning something to help in breaking free from the chains of condemnation that may be holding us back from pressing ahead into a life of joy and freedom in the Lord.
We Are No Longer Seen as a Sinner (v. 3)
3 For we ourselves were also once foolish, disobedient, deceived, serving various lusts and pleasures, living in malice and envy, hateful and hating one another.
Paul began by noting the believer’s spiritual condition before having accepted Christ into his or her heart. The list he presented sounds like some of the things that Christians tend to call themselves when they mess up and commit sin; and no doubt, these are some of the things that Paul associated with himself. He mentioned foolishness, disobedience, and hatefulness. Some believers, whenever they stumble, might call themselves a disobedient and hateful fool, or perhaps something far worse.
Unfortunately, we still commit sin after having accepted Christ; but if we have received Jesus as Savior, are we still condemned? No! In Ephesians 2:1, Paul stated how we were formerly dead in our trespasses and sins, but we are now - present tense - made alive in Christ. The blood of Jesus washes away our sin and makes us clean and spotless in the eyes of God, and our sin is no longer remembered.
Let me ask you a question. When God looks at us, does He see a sinner or a saint? Let me ask you something else. If I take a flight lesson every now and again, does that make me a pilot? No. However, if I have my pilot’s license and fly regularly, or I fly for a job as a commercial aviator, then I am a pilot. You see, after having accepted Christ into our heart, our former occupation of being a sinner is gone. We gave up our license to sin, and it’s as though we never had that job to begin with. We have been born again into a new life as a brand new creation, and sanctified to start afresh.
Even though we sometimes sin, our identity and label is no longer that of “sinner.” We need to start recognizing ourselves by our true identity: “We are a child of God.” Neil Anderson says, “As a born-again child of God you are no longer in the flesh; you are now in Christ. You were a sinner, but are now a saint according to the Bible.”(3)
I’m in no way making light of sin, for Paul said, “Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound? Certainly not! How shall we who died to sin live any longer in it?” (Rom 6:1). What I’m trying to stress is that believers often go around with the false label that they’re a worthless sinner, and they never allow themselves to break free from the condemnation that accompanies that label.
We need to stop identifying ourselves as a sinner. That was our former identity before knowing Christ, but we’ve been transformed into a new creation. Paul said, “If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new” (2 Cor 5:17). We are now a child of God, or what Paul called an heir (Ti 3:7). We need to begin living in the freedom of being a child of the King, and stop living in the condemnation of being a slave of sin.
We Are Now Justified by God’s Grace (vv. 4-7)
4 But when the kindness and the love of God our Savior toward man appeared, 5 not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to His mercy He saved us, through the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Spirit, 6 whom He poured out on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Savior, 7 that having been justified by His grace we should become heirs according to the hope of eternal life.
Here, Paul spoke of how the Holy Spirit has washed us clean from our sins (Ti 3:4-7). He said that we’re not made clean by anything we can do, but that we’re made clean by the “kindness and the love of God our Savior” (3:4); and he made it clear that we have “been justified by His grace” (3:7).
The major place where we can run into trouble is in understanding and accepting God’s grace. Grace is a free gift. Grace is something that we receive from another that we do not obtain through our own efforts. Therefore, God’s love for us can never be earned; it must be humbly accepted.
In one Dennis the Menace cartoon there was a vivid picture of grace. Dennis was shown walking away from the Wilson’s house with his friend Joey. Both boys had their hands full of cookies.
Joey then asked, “I wonder what we did to deserve this?” Dennis delivered an answer jam-packed with truth. He said, “Look Joey, Mrs. Wilson gives us cookies not because we are nice, but because she’s nice.”
Each of our names could easily be replaced for Dennis, and God could be substituted for Mrs. Wilson. The good that comes our way is not because we’re good, but because God is so good.(4)
What happens to many believers is they fail to realize they don’t have to earn God’s favor. They try to be perfect and be the model Christian in order to “please God” and in order “to make God happy.” They forget that the very first time God came to them, they were not perfect to begin with (Rom 5:8). Pleasing God is not a prerequisite for receiving His love and grace.
Believers often establish self-created standards that they believe will please the Lord, and when they’re unable attain them they feel like a failure. They incorrectly judge and condemn themselves by their own rules. Paul said that we’re not saved through our own rules or works, but by grace through faith (Eph 2:8-9). If we will learn to live in God’s grace instead of by our own standard of righteousness then we will experience freedom in our Christian walk.
A fellow named George Wilson was sentenced to hang after he was convicted of killing a guard while robbing a federal payroll from a train. Public sentiment against capital punishment led to an eventual pardon by President Andrew Jackson. Unbelievably though, Wilson refused to accept the pardon.
The case became so legally confusing that the Supreme Court had to rule on it. Chief Justice John Marshall delivered the verdict: “A pardon is a parchment whose only value must be determined by the receiver of the pardon. It has no value apart from that which the receiver gives it. George Wilson has refused to accept the pardon. We cannot conceive why he would do so, but he has. Therefore, George Wilson must die.”
Consequently, Wilson was hanged. We must realize that God’s grace becomes a pardon from sin only to those who receive it.(5)
Time of Reflection
This morning, you might be looking at yourself as worthless. You must remember, however, that you re a child of the heavenly Father, and you are able to live in the freedom and forgiveness of His grace. All you have to do is choose to walk in that freedom.
There are many believers who know about grace in their mind, but they haven’t taken it to heart. You need to realize that God loves you for who you are, and you do not have to perform for Him and try to be perfect for Him, because that’s something you can never achieve. All He expects is that you simply be His.
Romans 6:23 says, “The wages of sin is death.” However, many believers get caught up focusing only on the condemnation part of this verse. They tend to forget about the second half, which says, “but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
The word “gift” is the Greek word charis, which also means grace. The wages of sin may be death, but if you’ll accept God’s grace, or the free gift of His Son, then you will gain eternal life and freedom from condemnation. You will be made free from sin, and you will become an heir and a child of God (Ti 3:7).
It is true that God doesn’t like it when you sin, but He loves you anyhow, no matter where you have been or what you have done. You need to accept His unconditional love and forgiveness, which is His grace. In order to receive God’s grace in your life you have to reach out and take it. God offers you the free gift of His one and only Son. So my question to you this morning, is what will you do with His gift?
NOTES
(1) Tim Bond, “There Is No Condemnation,” Sermon Central: www.sermoncentral.com/sermon.asp?SermonID=44934 (Accessed January 27, 2010).
(2) Ibid.
(3) Neil T. Anderson, The Bondage Breaker (Eugene, OR: Harvest House, 2000), p. 48.
(4) Houston Chronicle, July 13, 1995, p. 10A.
(5) Leadership, Summer 1991, p. 49.
