Finding sin freedom is rarely taught, and teaching about this is getting more scarce. Actually, the bondage of sin is rarely mentioned. So, no one knows that freedom from sin is even possible. Few know before they meet Jesus that this issue even exists.

“Do you not know that we who were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into His death? Therefore we were buried with Him by baptism into death, that just as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life. For if we have been united with Him in the likeness of His death, so shall we also be united with Him in the likeness of His resurrection, knowing this, that our old man has been crucified with Him, so that the body of sin might be destroyed, and we should no longer be slaves to sin. For the one who has died is freed from sin.” [Romans 6: 3-7]

For the one who has died is freed from sin

What an immense statement! Of course, this assumes you know that before you presented yourself as a living sacrifice to Jesus [Romans 12:1] you were a slave to sin. (If you haven’t done that yet, you need to take care of this.) This is why you couldn’t quit sinning, no matter how hard you tried. No wonder people do drugs, become addicted to sex, and all the other horrible things you and I did before the Lord brought us out of that bondage.

Before a person is saved, he or she has no freedom (other than what sin they choose today). They don’t even have the freedom to choose Jesus. That can only be done by the power of the Holy Spirit. So, all of us were living lives of bondage to sin and absolute frustration.

But finding sin freedom is just the start

This is something where we need to cooperate. We need to choose to stop specific sins. The Holy Spirit will bring those to mind—so we can deal with them. Some people are almost completely cleaned up with their salvation. But, that is not the norm.

Even getting the Baptism of the Holy Spirit, with its obvious filling with power, doesn’t magically remove sin from your life. It removes the power of sin, but not the habitual committing of sin.

You may be free, but you need to walk in it

Getting rid of some sins in our lives takes an act of our will. This seems to be true of fleshly sin. I mean, if you’re stopping by your wife’s friend’s office on the way home for a quickie, you must simply stop it. The Holy Spirit will back up your choice. The same is true of drug use [yes, alcohol is a drug—one of the worst ones]. But we find that choice needs to be made—often out loud verbally. You choose to stop sinning and exercise your faith to enable the Holy Spirit to back up your choice. If that doesn’t work—you may need deliverance from the enemy. But that’s simple and easy also.

Other things are taken care of by the renewing of our minds [Romans 12:2]. I never chose to quit watching junk TV. My mind simply changed over several years and I found I simply no longer had any interest in watching that stuff. For me, the same thing happened with pork. Your life is different. But if you’ve walked with the Lord for any length of time, you discover some old bad habits are simply gone.

Slave to righteousness is the flip side of this concept

Later in Romans 6, Paul shows us the flip side. Just like we need to choose to stop sinning—after discovering we now have the freedom to do that. We need to choose righteousness in a similar manner.

But thanks be to God, for you were slaves of sin, but you have obeyed from the heart that form of teaching to which you were entrusted, and having been freed from sin, you became the slaves of righteousness.

I speak in human terms because of the weakness of your flesh, for just as you have yielded your members as slaves to impurity and iniquity leading to more iniquity, even so now yield your members as slaves to righteousness unto holiness. For when you were the slaves of sin, you were free from righteousness. What fruit did you have then from the things of which you are now ashamed? The result of those things is death. But now, having been freed from sin and having become slaves of God, you have fruit unto holiness, and the end is eternal life. For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. [Romans 6: 17-23 MEV]

Choose righteousness, Bubba or Bubbette!

You’ll be glad you did.