February 2012

Pastor Mike Osladil

Imagine a person imprisoned and sentenced to hard labor breaking rocks for the rest of his life. Day after day he wakes up early, and after a small meal starts his daily work of breaking up rock with a sledge hammer. He continues to labor this way day after day. But one day, he receives a pardon. No longer must he labor under his cruel taskmaster. His captors no longer have legal jurisdiction over him. What would you think if he remained in prison and continued to break rocks? The reality of his freedom has not yet sunk in.

Now, we can understand if an infant Christian does not yet understand all the ramifications of what it means to be a Christian. But we who have been in the faith should know better.

As a believer in Jesus Christ, God set you free from the ruling power of sin (cf. Rom 8:1). How did this take place? When you trusted in Jesus Christ as your Savior, God gave you a new Master. The Holy Spirit  now leads us (cp. Rom 8:2 with 8:14).

You are under new management. And the Holy Spirit will not have any rivals telling His subjects what to do. The Holy Spirit has freed you from the ruling power exercised by sin.

Because you have been identified with Christ’s death you have been freed from the position of having sin as your master (cf. Rom 6:7). How did God’s Holy Spirit free you from the controlling power of sin? Why are you not condemned to a life of servitude to your sinful disposition? “The power of the life-giving Spirit has freed you through Christ Jesus from the power of sin that leads to death” (Rom 8:2 NLT).

In Romans 6 Paul teaches that we have been freed from sin as our master. Never again will the sinful disposition hold the position of master over us. But in Romans 7, Paul shows that even though we have been freed from sin as our Master, we are not strong enough in ourselves to live a victorious life. You cannot live a victorious life in your own effort.

Although the sinful disposition has lost its position of master over us, it still remains with us and tries to exercise control over us. Even if we reckon that we no longer hold the position of slave under our sinful disposition, we cannot experience freedom from its controlling power as long as we try to gain that freedom through self-effort. Every time we try to get away from the controlling power of our former master on our own, it takes us captive against our will. Unless someone more powerful than the sinful disposition intervenes on behalf of us and sets us free from the controlling power of our former master, we are doomed to a life of servitude to a disposition that has no right to exercise power over us.

Thankfully, the Holy Spirit has intervened on our behalf. At the time you put your trust in Jesus Christ you were set free by the Holy Spirit from the controlling power of the sinful disposition. At the time when you were “born again,” at the moment you trusted Jesus Christ as your Savior, you are indwelt by the Holy Spirit (cf. Rom. 8:9). This indwelling of the Holy Spirit provides the basis for the Spirit’s controlling power being made available to us as believers.

Allow God’s Spirit to lead you out of the prison yard of sin. You have the power you need to fulfill God’s will for your life by the Spirit dwelling within you. Your source of power comes from depending moment-by-moment on the power of God’s indwelling Spirit working in and through you.

As a believer in Jesus Christ you cannot produce the holy life God desires in yourself. The Holy Spirit produces it in and for us through His power. Thus, the Holy Spirit produces what the old covenant law demanded but could not produce.  “For God achieved what the law could not do because it was weakened through the flesh. By sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and concerning sin, He condemned sin in the flesh, ^8:4 so that the righteous requirement of the law may be fulfilled in us, who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit” (Rom 8:3-4 NET).

Paul uses the concept of walking for a purpose. The appropriation of the power of the Holy Spirit is not a once-for-all act that delivers you from the controlling power of your sinful disposition forever. Just as walking is a step-by-step procedure, so the appropriation of the controlling power of the Holy Spirit is a moment-by moment procedure. Paul is not saying that we, as believers, are perfect, but he implies that believers are characterized as those “who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.”

During those moments when we, as believers, are depending upon the power of our own humanity to enable us to have victory over sin, our sinful disposition will take control of us against our will. During those moments when we are depending upon the power of the Holy Spirit, we will experience freedom from the sinful disposition’s control, and our lives will be characterized by holiness.

How can you escape the prison yard of a life dominated by sin and continue to become more like Christ? The Holy Spirit gives us one victory after another over the controlling power of the sinful disposition as we keep submitting to Him. So many skirmishes can be won during the course of our life as we appropriate the power of the Holy Spirit, but the whole war is not completed in victory until we have gone to be with the Lord.