1 John 1:7
The blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanseth us from all sin. (KJV)

In my last Blog, we saw how at the cross, Jesus was offered ‘ONCE’ as a sacrifice to forgive and take away all our sins, past, present and future. (1 Jn3:5, 1Jn 1:7). Hence when we sin, we need no longer ask for forgiveness, we simply receive it. It was all dealt with 2000 yrs ago.

So instead of being sin conscious (inward looking), which brings guilt and condemnation, we have now been set free to be righteous conscious (outward looking) in Christ (2 Cor 5:21). We look to the cross to see where Christ has set us free.

Rom 6:14  For sin shall not have dominion over you, for you are not under law but under grace.  (NKJV)

Using the Scripture above, let’s look at an example from life to see the different ways law (sin consciousness) and grace (righteous consciousness) can be applied to a problem area.

Eg: A man is a Christian but still struggles with an alchohol addiction. How can he break free from sin’s grip?

The law says, in order to please God, he must be victorious over his sin. The law says he must put God first in his life (Ex 20:3). He tries every remedy available to conquer his habit:  prayer, fasting, not placing himself in temptations way, councelling etc. But they all end in failure because his desire for alchohol is all consuming.

The inability to overcome his sin brings  hopelessness, defeat, shame, guilt, condemnation, and a sense of failure of falling short of God’s law. What’s happening? Sin has dominion over him. He is at the mercy of sin. Sin is his master.

You see, all the law can do is point out his sin, but it can’t deliver him, it can only condemn him. In fact, it is the law that is keeping him trapped in his sin. Let’s turn the Scripture around: For sin shall have dominion over you, for you are not under grace but under law.

But what does grace say……………………………………………………..

Rom 8:1-4  There is now no condemnation awaiting those who belong to Christ Jesus.  For the power of the life-giving Spirit- is mine through Christ Jesus and has freed me from the vicious circle of sin and death.  We aren’t saved from sin’s grasp by knowing the commandments of God because we can’t and don’t keep them, but God put into effect a different plan to save us. He sent his own Son in a human body like ours-and destroyed sin’s control over us by giving himself as a sacrifice for our sins.  (TLB)

Grace has now deposited the life giving Spirit of Christ into our hearts, and it is His role to bring victory over every sin. So……………..

1) This man can now ask Jesus (prayer) to do what he himself couldn’t – bring deliverance from alchohol addiction; and to stop wrestling with it and give it to Christ and rest in His delivering power and confess that he is looking to Christ to set him free.

2) As this process is taking place (however long that may be), if he slips and has a relapse back into drink, instead of coming under condemnation and shame, he receives forgiveness, throws off guilt and condemnation, confesses that he is still the righteousness of God and puts his trust back in Christ to deliver him and moves on in peace.

What’s happened: Where sin abounded, grace did much more abound (Rom 5:20),  and sin is no longer reigning over him because he is under grace not law Rom 6:14  For sin shall not have dominion over you, for you are under grace.

As he stands in this grace, God will begin to work in him and ultimately bring deliverance and set him free from alchohol, or drugs, or homosexuality, or pornography, or any addiction or sin.

Friends, until we allow the grace of Jesus to set us free, the law will keep us trapped in our sin, and the world, instead of seeing a victorious, beautiful, glorious bride, will see, a defeated, barren and shame filled church.

Meditation Point: To experience freedom from sin’s dominion, I must come out from under law and come under grace.

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