Four Spiritual Freedoms
“And if Christ be in you, the body is dead because of sin; but the Spirit is life because of righteousness.” Romans 8:10
In Chapter 8 of the book of Romans, the Apostle Paul gives us four spiritual freedoms which are possessed by those who are in Christ. The first is found in Verse 1 which states that “There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus”. Believers are free from judgment. We were condemned in Adam but as followers of Christ our sins have been forgiven because Christ paid our penalty for all those sins that we have committed or will commit until we close our eyes in death. This works because we are no longer under the law, therefore the law has no power to condemn us. The law which God gave to the Hebrews has no jurisdiction over us, no “range of authority”. The law could never save mankind nor make folks perfect as God requires. Jesus came in the likeness of sinful flesh, not in sin for He is sinless. However, for Him to pay the penalty for our sins, He had to take them on. He didn’t commit any sin but became the representative in order to take the punishment that we deserved. The “law of double jeopardy” states that a person can’t be tried twice for the same crime. Since Jesus stood trial and paid the penalty for our crimes, we cannot be condemned for them.
The second spiritual freedom is freedom from defeat. Verse 6 tells us, “For to be carnally minded is death; but to be spiritually minded is life and peace. Believers do not have to walk around with our head hanging down as if our lives are meaningless. Since we are not an enemy of God, we cannot suffer defeat, but because we are friends of God, we are members of His family. We don’t have to worry about losing in life for we have all we need to sustain our lives here on earth and for all eternity. For some who have been saved a long time, they perhaps tend to forget what it was like to live in the flesh. An unsaved person is dead spiritually. He or she is already living a life of defeat, an empty shell without the power of God living within, but the one who is spiritually minded has already won the race to eternity.
In Verse 22-23, Paul states “..that the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now. And not only they, but ourselves also, which have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body.” The third spiritual freedom is freedom from discouragement. It is really easy to get discouraged when we focus on the here and now, on the day-to-day problems and challenges that we all face. Americans are always looking for a better day. Most of them believe it’s just around the corner, but that “utopia” never comes. They are never satisfied because they are looking for the wrong thing in all the wrong places. There are so many troubles in our world. Sometimes we can’t help but get depressed over our trials, but beneath the surface, in the depths of our hearts, we know that all of our troubles and worries will vanish one day, and all will be complete rest, joy, and peace. Even so, I can’t say that we never experience discouragement. After all, we live in a world of discouragement, pain, and suffering, but we have something about which the world knows nothing.
In Verse 31, Paul asked a very important question: “If God be for us, who can be against us?” The fourth spiritual freedom is freedom from fear. We know that God is for us because He gave us His Son. God would not turn against anyone who would receive His Son as Lord and Savior. If God is for us, protecting and providing for us, then what can anyone do to us without His permission? Because of God’s grace through Jesus Christ our Lord, we can be overcomers of worldly trials. Because of Christ’s victory in overcoming sin and death, we are also victorious and will reap the benefit of His work. We can conquer sin and death because of Him. Death is not to be feared for the believer. Death is merely a passing from this earthly life into a life of joy and peace forever. We may fear what we have to endure at the end of our lives because the unknown is fearful to us. However, nothing is unknown to the Lord. He walks with us through every area of our lives including our passing. I didn’t count all the times in scripture in which God tells us not to fear, but He really only had to say it one time to assure us that He has our back.