Christ Made Me Free
Pr Edi Giudetti
11-8-2019
The Spirit That Liberated
There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit. 2 For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death.
After numerous reconnaissance flights across the nation in the previous days, at 4:45 am on the 1stof September 1939 Germany invaded the nation of Poland and 2ndWorld War began.
During the next 6 years, the Hitler’s Nazi regime brought men, women, and children from many places around Europe to Poland to fulfill what they had come to refer to as “The Final Solution”, that is, the extermination of the Jewish people.
Two years after their invasion of Poland, on September 1941, Germany converted A Polish Army Camp to both imprison those determined for extermination, the Camp was called Auschwitz. It was a complex that contained 40 concentration and extermination camps and it lasted until it was finally liberated in 1945.
Poland had one of the largest population of Jews in Europe, but Jews were sent to the camps from Hungary, Slovakia, Yugoslavia, and other areas. It was not only Jews that were sent there but also prisoners of war from other areas, Gypsies, the disabled and homosexuals, 90%, however, were Jews.
The camps were specifically designed to destroy lives through labor enslavement, medical experimentation, starvation and Gassing, they had no other purpose. The space given to individual prisoners was stifling, barracks were no larger than 400m2 each and would hold up to 774 prisoners, that is a concentration of less than 1m2 per person.
Robert Jan van-Pelt wrote that they;
“were deprived of the minimum space needed to exist”.
I won’t go into the daily lives of these people while they awaited certain death. Though many died under heavy labor and of starvation, most of them would be ushered into areas they were told were showers. They were stripped of all clothing which was amassed on heaps, then ushered into a cell room which did not have a single faucet. Crammed tightly together, cylinders of poisonous gas were emptied into the chambers through openings in the ceiling, which would result in the death of every person in the chamber.
At its height, work in Auschwitz toward The Final Solution numbered 15,000 people per day. A total of 1.1 million people were killed in this Camp Facility until it was liberated in January 27th1945 by the Russian Red Army. But for 7500 remaining prisoners, the camp was deserted.
The famous writer Victor Frankl was one of those liberated prisoners who wrote the classic Best Seller, in consideration of those years called ‘Mans Search For Meaning’, Sadly the book never finds what it’s looking for.
To those who had long-awaited death in these camps, there was not an immediate exhilaration of being liberated, but sullen emotionless disbelief that freedom was attained. Bread was given to the people to replenish their starving bodies, sadly some had taken in too much too soon, their bodies not used to having a full belly, and these died as a direct result.
Each of us that are here for whom the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free, lived under a law of sin and death. Bound in sin, our malnourished spirit simply awaited the death identified in scripture. Prior to our liberation by Christ, the Bible says we were already “…dead in trespasses and sins” (Eph 2:1)
In our passage this morning Paul speaks in the first person, For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death. This is the Spirit that Liberated all those who have been saved by Christ.
No longer are they under that condemnation of the law of sin and death, no longer are they to be stifled in a manner of life in which none can truly live, now they are free, liberated, ‘there is therefore now NO CONDEMNATION to them’, but true liberation, true and real freedom.
Perhaps it was a blessing to me that in the day I was liberated and set free from sin, I did not truly yet know how free I was. Perhaps there is a reason why my malnourished soul was only given a little bread at a time.
When Israel was to finally enter the promised land of Canaan, the Lord promises before time saying that he would;
“… put out those nations before thee by little and little: thou mayest not consume them at once, lest the beasts of the field increase upon thee” (Deut 7:22)
But when you come to fully know of the liberty you now have, when you now see how the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death, how much will you now live?
7500 liberated souls are few compared to the 1.1 million who perished, how much would their lives have changed when the realization of their freedom truly hit them? So close you were to be numbered with the many on the broad road to destruction, how has life now changed for you who are ‘Liberated by the Spirit of Life in Christ Jesus’?
The Christ That Triumphed
3For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh:
Lest we ever come to think to ourselves that we had set ourselves free, lest we ever think it was even some good that God saw in us and took mercy, or that there was anything that warranted our Salvation, this text makes clear it cannot be so.
For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh:
Jesus Christ alone conquered sin, he triumphed, he liberated, he set the world free if they only would step out of that camp of sin and death.
For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh
Scripture says that this law is not one that pertains to freedom but is the ‘Law of sin and death’ (v2), 2 Cor 3:7 refers to it as “the ministration of death”, in 2 Cor 3:9 calls it “the ministration of condemnation”.
Please understand that it is not that this law is evil, the Law itself is not sin, only that its function was not to liberate, it was not designed to set man free, but to simply convince man of sin and thereby to bind them over to death.
Romans 3:20 says “by the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in his sight: for by the law is the knowledge of sin.”
Romans 3:19 makes clear its stated purpose “…that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty before God.” (Romans 3:19)
But it was Jesus that Blotted “out the handwriting of ordinances that was against us, which was contrary to us, and took it out of the way, nailing it to his cross;”(Col 2:14)
For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh:
It was Christ that Triumphed. The old saying, “nothing of myself I bring, simply to the cross I cling” is well stated here. The Law is described here as weak through the flesh. Interestingly, scripture says it was a “shadow of good things to come”.
Turn in your Bibles to the book of Hebrews 10:1-6
1For the law having a shadow of good things to come, and not the very image of the things, can never with those sacrifices which they offered year by year continually make the comers thereunto perfect. 2 For then would they not have ceased to be offered? because that the worshippers once purged should have had no more conscience of sins. 3 But in those sacrifices there is a remembrance again made of sins every year. 4 For it is not possible that the blood of bulls and of goats should take away sins. 5 Wherefore when he cometh into the world, he saith, Sacrifice and offering thou wouldest not, but a body hast thou prepared me: 6 In burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin thou hast had no pleasure.
The Law could not triumph for mankind, it could not deliver a soul from death, it could not make the comers thereunto perfect. But a better hope did.
Hebrews 7:18-19.
18For there is verily a disannulling of the commandment going before for the weakness and unprofitableness thereof. 19 For the law made nothing perfect, but the bringing in of a better hope did; by the which we draw nigh unto God.
The scriptures so wonderfully confirm themselves over and over again. The Law could not triumph for man, for his sin, it was weak and unprofitable, therefore there was a ‘disannulling of the commandment’, why? Because “the law made nothing perfect, but the bringing in of a better hope did”. It was Christ that triumphed, not a single man on earth was worthy, not a single man in the world could give his life as a ransom for anyone.
Ezekiel reminds us of the limitation of man even to deliver any other soul by our own righteousness saying in Ezekiel 14:20;
Though Noah, Daniel, and Job, were in it, as I live, saith the Lord GOD, they shall deliver neither son nor daughter; they shall but deliver their own souls by their righteousness.
But the Son of God came in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh. In the ancient days of Israel it was the high priest who made atonement and intercession for the sake of the people, and this he did but once per year. He could not make them perfect, there was a remembrance of sin every year for the people. The high priest also could not continue for ever because he would die, and another would yet take his place. All this too was but a shadow of good things to come.
consider verse 22-25
22By so much was Jesus made a surety of a better testament. 23 And they truly were many priests, because they were not suffered to continue by reason of death: 24 But this man, because he continueth ever, hath an unchangeable priesthood. 25 Wherefore he is able also to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by him, seeing he ever liveth to make intercession for them.
To what extent did Christ triumph? He did so to the uttermost. There were many military victories in the second world war, but there was none that vanquished its enemy to the uttermost. In the Great War, the first world war, it was believed that the Germans were defeated to the Uttermost, but it was they who rose again twenty years later to threaten the world yet once more.
But this is not your case, sin shall not have dominion over you, for you are not under the law, but under grace (Rom 6:14). You are Dead indeed unto sin but alive unto God through Christ Jesus (Rom 6:11)
Death has lost its sting, the grave has lost its victory (1 Cor 15:55). And who has won the victory, who has triumphed? None have done so more completely than Christ, who has saved us to the uttermost.
The Conversion That Ratifies
4That the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.
This is the Conversion that Ratifies, This is the Transformations that endorses, this is the change that occurs in the redeemed that confirms the righteousness of the law. No longer are we led by the flesh, it no longer has any dominion in our lives, in fact the very opposite is true. We now desire above all else to live in accord with the righteousness of the law.
There are two elements to this text, the one I am dealing with is the change in our lives that confirms the work that was done. The other, is that Jesus is the complete fulfillment of the Law, and all that he did demonstrates the righteousness of the law, that was fulfilled in us. The changed lives testifies to it.
Please note that this change is not a change of the mind, thinking to ourselves that living by the law is a good thing to do.
Moses himself spoke of all the blessings that shall come upon the family of Israel when they do so, he also spoke of the curses that come upon the family of Israel when they do not do so. This is not a change of mind, but a change of heart.
Jeremiah spoke of this for the Children of Israel of a time yet future to him, the Lord saying “I will put my law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts; and will be their God, and they shall be my people” (Jer 31:33b)
Hebrews chapter 8:10.
The apostle confirms Jeremiahs prophecy as being fulfilled in the New Covenant, the new Law in Christ
“For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, saith the Lord; I will put my laws into their mind, and write them in their hearts: and I will be to them a God, and they shall be to me a people” (Heb 8:10)
In verse 12 he goes on to repeat “For I will be merciful to their unrighteousness, and their sins and their iniquities will I remember no more”
Then in verse 13, notice his explanation;
“In that he saith, A new covenant, he hath made the first old. Now that which decayeth and waxeth old is ready to vanish away.”
(This is the verse from which we obtain the Titles of our Bible, the ‘Old Testament’ and the ‘New Testament’) It is a change of heart and it is this change of heart that completely transforms our desires, it is this conversion that ratifies the truth of the righteousness that is in the Law.
4That the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us, This second part of the verse(who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit), is Descriptive not Prescriptive.
It is first mentioned in the first verse of the chapter saying;
There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.
There have been some people troubled that this latter portion of the verse modifies the former, and looking for a hope that it is written in error, while other want to use it to show that Salvation is only to those who continue to “walk in the spirit”.
They think that it is prescriptive, in other words, they think that it is a prescription by which salvation is to be retained, rather than a description of change Salvation has wrought.
So some think it’s placement here in verse one gives an indication that a soul might think they can become lost again and so justify, in their doctrine, the likely removal of this portion of the verse in verse one due to its repetition in verse four.
But this idea is an error of judgement. Beloved the phrase who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit in verses one and four is Descriptive, it describes the change that has taken place.
If we read on from verse five it will provide the context
5 For they that are after the flesh do mind the things of the flesh; but they that are after the Spirit the things of the Spirit.6 For to be carnally minded is death; but to be spiritually minded is life and peace. 7 Because the carnal mind is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be. 8 So then they that are in the flesh cannot please God. 9But ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you. Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his.
Simply put, if the Spirit of God dwell in you, then you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if you don’t have the Spirit of Christ, you are none of his.
Only those who have the Spirit of Christ walk after the Spirit.
Now recalling that this does not mean we live a perfect life this side of eternity, recall Paul’s own words in the previous Chapter when he said;
“For that which I do I allow not: for what I would, that do I not; but what I hate, that do I” (Rom 7:15)
He describes, not a perfect adherence to the Law, but wrestling with the flesh never before experienced.
Beloved, before I was a Christian I had no desire whatever to abide by the Law of God. In fact I did all I could to ignore it and chose for myself what are my good morals and ethics.
Any law that might present itself as “absolute” was so foreign to me. I lived and walk in perfect accord with my flesh nature. I had no disagreement with myself…ever! It was not difficult to give excuse for sin, in fact I never really thought what I did was sin.
- If everybody lied, so did I.
- If everybody exalted themselves, so did I;
- If everybody fornicated, so did I.
No one stands out if the traffic is all going the same speed! As far as the Law of God was concerned, it had no hold on my life, nor did it hinder my walk in the flesh.
BUT; when my heart was changed the Lord placed his Law there and I have never been the same again. No longer could I play with sin like a pig in mud.
I had been cleaned by Christ and my new desires were to walk in direct accord with that new covenant. No person can clean themselves up before coming to Christ.
For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh:
4 That the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.
Jesus is the fulfillment of the Law, he makes the change within those he has saved and their lives confirm the righteousness that is in the Law.
It is The Conversion That Ratifies.
The Distinction That Identifies
5For they that are after the flesh do mind the things of the flesh; but they that are after the Spirit the things of the Spirit.
For those who continue to state the notion that a born-again believer can look like the world, talk like the world, act like the world and still claim to be redeemed like the saint, this passage calls that notion a lie.
It is only those who are after the flesh that mind the things of the flesh, they have no mind for the things of the spirit. They are Carnally minded, and “to be carnally minded is death” (Rom 8:6), why is it death? Verses seven and eight tells us;
Because the carnal mind is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be. 8 So then they that are in the flesh cannot please God. (Rom 8:7-8)
Did you see the state of the carnal mind? It is not subject to the Law of God, in fact the verse says that it cannot be!
Have you ever wondered why it is that you try to correct a professing Christian of their error, even showing the scriptures to them, and they disregard it completely? Are these individuals lost? Well they can have no solid assurance they are not!
Please understand, a temporal disregard for the scriptures is not what is referred to, but if that disregard has no conviction in the heart of the professing believer, they can have no assurance of hope.
There must be a change, there simply must be an evident and complete alteration to a person’s desires if they can have any confidence that they are CHANGED.
One preacher once said, “You cannot get hit by a freight train and not be changed, you cannot have had a confrontation with the living God and not be changed”
Turn in your Bibles to 1 Peter 3:15
But sanctify the Lord God in your hearts: and be ready always to give an answer to every man that asketh you a reason of the hope that is in you with meekness and fear:
Beloved, it is simply not possible that any person will ever ask you for a reason of the Hope that is in you if that hope is not evident through you!
There must be external evidence of hope for any to ask you of the hope they witness in you!
If your life bears witness to mind the things of the flesh and not of the Spirit, none would see any difference between you and them.
If that is the case, then you can simply have no confidence that you have the Spirit of God dwell in you, and if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his.
There will certainly be some of you who get angry at me for bringing up such a thing so often, and I would not do so if it were not an evident condition of the text, or also not so often a problem in these last of days. But sadly, there are far too many who think they are Christs and yet remain lost. They look like the world, walk like the world, and quack like the world, yet they think they are not of the world.
These fool themselves, and sadly there are more than enough timid shepherds out there confirming the lost in their own self-delusion rather than encouraging them to search their hearts before the Lord. I will admit to you that I care less for your temporal comfort than I do for your eternal peace.
If I have gotten under your skin with this issue then that itself is a good sign you need to consider these words with the gravest of warning. You must go to him and seek him, you must earnestly do so and do not rest till you have an answer that your walk can confirm.
5For they that are after the flesh do mind the things of the flesh; but they that are after the Spirit the things of the Spirit.
Many are the indicators of minding the things of the Spirit, scripture gives to us numerous indicators. Ephesians 5:9 tells us 9 (For the fruit of the Spirit is in all goodness and righteousness and truth;)
Turn to that famous passage in Galatians 5 that is taught to every Sunday School child.
Galatians 5:22-26
22But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, 23 Meekness, temperance: against such there is no law. 24And they that are Christ’s have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts. 25 If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit. 26 Let us not be desirous of vain glory, provoking one another, envying one another.
Beloved, Peter tells of these things as that which we are to grow into and gives to you and I the most loving advice.
Turn to 2 Peter 1:5-11 and we shall close on this passage;
And beside this, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue; and to virtue knowledge; 6 And to knowledge temperance; and to temperance patience; and to patience godliness; 7 And to godliness brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness charity. 8 For if these things be in you, and abound, they make you that ye shall neither be barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. 9 But he that lacketh these things is blind, and cannot see afar off, and hath forgotten that he was purged from his old sins. 10 Wherefore the rather, brethren, give diligence to make your calling and election sure: for if ye do these things, ye shall never fall: 11 For so an entrance shall be ministered unto you abundantly into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.
And there is nothing more wonderful in the entire world that knowing we shall enter the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.
0 Comments