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Jesus came to set us free from our sin.

In this article I would like to look at verses which tell us that Jesus sets believers free from their sin. Being set free from sin does not mean a believer becomes sinlessly perfect. It means that he does not have a habitually sinful lifestyle. At one time or another a Christian may sin because of weakness or circumstances but his sin is not wilful or ongoing. That is, sin is not a part of his normal way of life. 1 John 2:1 tell us that Christians might sin occasionally while 1 John 3:9 says that they don't make a practice of sinning.

In Matt. 1:19-21, an angel told Joseph that he was to name his son Jesus, meaning 'the Lord saves', because "he will save his people from their sins". Notice that we are told that Jesus came to save His people from their sins; not IN their sins nor WITH their sins but FROM their sins. The word "save" means to keep safe or rescue from danger while the word "from" means separation, departure and cessation so Jesus came to rescue us from the danger of hell by separating us from our sin; we depart our sinful lifestyle and cease from habitual sin.

Many people say that we are only human and that sin is part of our nature so we will always sin. It is true that we have a sinful nature but Jesus is greater than our nature and He says that He can free us from slavery to sin. In John 8:34, 36 He said, "I tell you the truth, everyone who sins [continually] is a slave to sin if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed." Jesus has made it clear that continuing in sin is nothing less than slavery to sin but He can set us free. In Rom. 6:22, Paul said, "you have been set free from sin and have become slaves to God, the benefit you reap leads to holiness, and the result is eternal life." Like Jesus, Paul tells us that Christians are freed from slavery to sin and become slaves to God which results in eternal life.

The following are some other verses which speak of freedom from sin:
1 John 3:5 tells us that Jesus appeared to "take away our sins", that is, to remove our sins.
In Rom. 7:24-25, after talking about his sinful nature, Paul said that Jesus "rescued" him from his sinful body of death. "Rescue" means to deliver or set free so Jesus can set us free from our sinful nature just as He did with Paul.
Titus 2:14 tells us that Jesus gave Himself to "redeem" us from all lawlessness. "Redeem" means to release or to liberate so Jesus gave Himself to liberate us, to free us, from all sin.
Rom. 6:14 says, "sin shall not be your master." Obviously, if we continue in sin then we are still in slavery to it and it is still our Master.
Col. 1:13 tells us that Jesus has, "rescued us from the domain of darkness." As already stated, "rescue" means to set free so once again we are told that Jesus sets us free from sin.

The verses quoted so far clearly show that Christians are set free from their sins. 2 Cor. 5:17 says, "if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come." If I say that I'm in Christ but I'm still wilfully sinning then what's new about me? Absolutely nothing at all! I'm still a slave to sin. To be freed from slavery to sin, and become a new creation, my old self must first die just as Rom. 6:7 tells us, "anyone who has died has been freed from sin." 

The aim of this article has been to show that Jesus frees His people from their sin. Part 2 is about how we die to obtain freedom from sin. Amen.


Mick Alexander
leeandmick@gmail.com