IF THE SON SHALL MAKE YOU FREE

And the LORD said, I have surely seen the affliction of My people which are in Egypt, and have heard their cry by reason of their taskmasters; for I know their sorrows; and I am come down to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians...Now therefore, behold, the cry of the children of Israel is come unto Me: and I have also seen the oppression wherewith the Egyptians oppress them.  Come now therefore, and I will send thee unto Pharaoh, that thou mayest bring forth My people the children of Israel out of Egypt." (Exodus 3:7-10).

The eyes of the Lord are always upon the righteous, and His ears are ever open to hear their cry (Psalm 34:15; 1 Peter 3:12).  He sees our afflictions just as surely as He saw the afflictions of His people in Egypt; and He understands the burdens and sorrows that we carry because of the taskmasters that enslave us in this life, and in this world.  God wants us to be in this world, but not of this world.  Knowing that whoever commits sin is the slave of sin, our Father wishes to deliver us completely from the power that sin holds over us, and from this worldly system that reinforces the behaviors that lead to sin and carnality.  When the Israelites entered Canaan, God cautioned them to maintain a certain level of separation from the unbelieving nations among whom they would have dealings.  This principle was reinforced to Christians by Paul when he wrote, "Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers: for what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness? and what communion hath light with darkness?  And what concord hath Christ with Belial? or what part hath he that believeth with an infidel?  Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you, and will be a Father unto you, and ye shall be My sons and daughters, saith the Lord Almighty" (2 Corinthians 6:14-18).

 

Just as God sent Moses to be a savior to the Israelites and lead them out of the bondage of Egypt, and from Pharaoh's wicked rule, He has likewise sent the Savior Jesus Christ to be our deliverer today to set us free from sin, bondage, and Satan's wicked rule.  Jesus said, "Verily, verily, I say unto you, Whosoever committeth sin is the servant of sin.  And the servant abideth not in the house for ever: but the Son abideth ever.  If the Son therefore shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed." (John 8:34-36).  It has been God's intention from the start to deliver His people from sin, and this He has accomplished in Christ.

 

God knew that as long as His people remained in Egypt, they would be subject to Pharaoh.  The King of Egypt feared the Jews would rise up and overthrow his rule, so he wanted to make sure that he kept them weak and preoccupied with simple survival.  It was God's purpose, therefore, to lead them out altogether and place them where Pharaoh would no longer have any jurisdiction over them.  He told Moses to declare to Pharaoh, "Let My people go, that they may serve Me." (Exodus 8:1).  Because of the King's stubbornness God sent a series of plagues upon Egypt.  Moses eventually led Israel across the Red Sea on dry land releasing them once and for all from Egypt.  When Israel stepped into the wilderness on the other side of the Red Sea, they had ceased to serve Pharaoh and had begun to fully serve God.  They were dead to Egypt, and Egypt was dead to them.  Similarly, Satan fears God's people today.  Just as he sought to destroy the Christ, so he seeks to weaken and destroy the body of Christ.  He has developed a world system that glorifies the carnal man and the visible world so that man's spiritual nature is weakened, and he is distracted from the invisible world.  "While we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen: for the things which are seen are temporal; but the things which are not seen are eternal." (2 Corinthians 4:18).  Our deliverance must be as dramatic and as final as the Israelites' when they crossed the Red Sea.  When we have crossed over, it must be just as clear that Satan no longer has any jurisdiction over us.  That deliverance has been won for us by the sacrifice of our Lord Jesus Christ on the cross.  "But God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by Whom the world is crucified unto me, and I unto the world." (Galatians 6:14). 

 

The 6th chapter of Romans is extremely important for believers to understand.  It describes the deliverance that God has provided for us in and through Christ.  Many Christians, once they have been baptized, seldom think of that experience again; but it is this simple act that identifies us with the death and resurrection of Christ.  His action becomes our action, His cross becomes our cross, His victory and resurrection becomes ours also.  "Buried with him in baptism, wherein also ye are risen with him through the faith of the operation of God, who hath raised him from the dead." (Colossians 2:12).  Just as the children of Israel passed through the likeness of death when they walked through the Red Sea, and passed from death into new life when they came to the other side; we too pass through the likeness of death into a new life by baptism.  The Jews had been saved by the blood of the Passover lamb, but that didn't deal with the fact that they were still in Egypt.  For that they needed to die - and yet live!  This is the purpose of baptism: so that we may die to our old life, and our old nature, and be raised to a new life in God.  "I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me." (Galatians 2:20). 

 

This deliverance is what sets us free from sin.  Paul asks at the beginning of Romans 6, "Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound?" (v.1).  He quickly answers his own question by saying, "God forbid. How shall we, that are dead to sin, live any longer therein?" (v.2).  There are those who believe that it is not possible to keep from sinning in this life and that we must simply continue to sin and trust God's grace to cover it.  Paul seems amazed by this line of reasoning, however.  He wonders how those who are dead to sin can continue to live as though they were not.  Verses 6 and 7 are very powerful.  There Paul says, "Knowing this, that our old man is crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin.  For he that is dead is freed from sin."  Our baptism becomes one moment in time - one historical event - that we can point to when we are tempted or feel weak. It is then that we can say we were set free from sin, the world and its allurements, and from Satan.  It is no longer a matter of whining about our weakness, or begging God to help us to overcome our passions and lusts: it is a matter of just believing that we have passed over and left our enemies behind us.  God has already worked the miracle for us in Christ!  Shall we stay in Egypt looking for something more, or accept the deliverance that He has provided?  The answer is pretty easy.  "Likewise reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord." (Romans 6:11).

 

There was nothing the Israelites could do to set themselves free from Egypt.  The Red Sea was formidable, and they had no boats.  God did the work Himself so that they could not say they had overcome on their own merit, or by their own strength.  Neither can we set ourselves free from sin.  God is willing to deliver if we are willing to obey.  Many refuse to let go of sin and make a clean break with it.  They say they want to be free, but continue to place themselves in situations where they know they will be tempted.  If we acknowledge our sin to God and repent, then He will freely forgive our sin; but then we must believe that He has given us the power to walk in righteousness from that point on.  "As ye have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk ye in Him: rooted and built up in Him, and established in the faith, as ye have been taught, abounding therein with thanksgiving." (Colossians 2:6).  It is one thing to receive Christ as Savior, and another thing to learn to walk in Him and in His strength. 

 

In Roman 6, Paul goes on to make some very bold and decisive statements regarding sin:

 

·         "Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, that ye should obey it in the lusts thereof." (v.12).

·         "Neither yield ye your members as instruments of unrighteousness unto sin: but yield yourselves unto God, as those that are alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness unto God." (v.13).

·         "For sin shall not have dominion over you: for ye are not under the law, but under grace." (v.14)

·         "Know ye not, that to whom ye yield yourselves servants to obey, his servants ye are to whom ye obey; whether of sin unto death, or of obedience unto righteousness?" (v.16).

·         "Being then made free from sin, ye became the servants of righteousness." (v.18).

·         "For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord." (v.23).

 

It is time that we, the Church of Jesus Christ, rise up and claim the victory that the Lord has purchased for us with so great a price.  It is time for us to receive the power to become the sons of God. (John 1:12).  It is time for us to believe!  Yes, we will have to endure some hardness, and suffer some things in the flesh as we pursue purity, but the result will be the relationship that we forge with our God.  "Forasmuch then as Christ hath suffered for us in the flesh, arm yourselves likewise with the same mind: for he that hath suffered in the flesh hath ceased from sin; that he no longer should live the rest of his time in the flesh to the lusts of men, but to the will of God." (1 Peter 4:1, 2).