What Does Set Free From Sin Mean?

[0isez]

What does set free from sin mean if you still sin and are sinner? Romans 6:14 says sin will have no dominion over you yet I still sin. Dominion means power, control, manipulation. Am I to understand that I am no longer compelled to sin in the old way before I became a believer? But now as a Christian I am sinning without sin’s dominion and doing this on my own volition? If that’s true then why does Paul say; For I do not understand my own actions, for I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate. Romans 7:15. Doesn’t that seem to imply that there is another source of sin of which Christians have not been released from (besides the devil’s domain)? Is there another source of sin originating without the devil's influence over you compelling you to do wrong?
I have always thought that when I am set free from something I walk away never looking back like a prisoner released from prison (probably a bad analogy) or better yet a captive who escapes his oppressors. The captive never returns. That to me is set free. So, going back to something that I have been set free from, something that I abhor is puzzling, why would I be compelled to go back if the power of sin is no longer a fact in the life of a Christian? If I have been freed from sin’s bondage in Christ, is there another source of sin of which we are not freed from? Something outside myself? Or inside? Go easy on me brother and sisters. Although old, I am still a babe in Christ and have neglected my duties in Christ for years. But due to His graciousness toward me, led me back to his flock of which I now realize is a great, great favor.

 

[Contra_Mundum]

One good way, perhaps it is the best (I'm hesitant to claim for it)--it certainly is biblical--of thinking in terms of what Paul has in mind about being set free from sin's dominion, is to recognize the Exodus paradigm.

The people of Israel were set free from the dominion of death, of the world and devils, their bondage broken; and were set forth upon a new path, with a new Sovereign (really, their father's God come to save them), their destination: the Promised Land.

We also are set free in Christ from the dominion of death, with its powerful enemies: the world, the flesh, and Satan himself. Our bondage is broken, and we are set forth on the path of life, the upward way. Along the way there are various attacks by our old enemies, and a persistent temptation to return to the supposed ease of our former life. That is, actually, a return to captivity, and some nameless individuals may have found their way back. But in general, Israel was not going to experience "return" to Egypt; the symbolism of God's power to release was not going to suffer that. God even used Moses' intercession for the covenant-breaking people to affirm the fact he was not going to start the salvation-story over.

The attacks on you are real. The world, the flesh, and the devil have not disappeared; although the power they once represented over you has truly been broken. Still, your flesh has not been changed (not yet, but 1Cor.15:52); as Paul writes it wars against you, as a thing that belongs ultimately, in its current form, to the world you have left behind. And, while the world in its most potent aspect is behind you, the wilderness is still "of" the world; safety in the Promised Land lies in the distance. Satan, too, prowls around like a roaring lion.

But you are shepherded. You are guided. Your God goes before you and behind you, Ps.139:5, Is.52:12, Ex.14:19. Do not imagine you are utterly beyond all dangers, but do not imagine that you must fall or fail or be left outside of the protection promised. Live faithfully and repentantly and dependently every day, until you enter your eternal home, which has been cleansed of all toxins by the almighty power of God. Then, you too being purified soul and body have an entrance into that inheritance "that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading," 1Pet.1:4; cf. Eph.1:11; cf. Act.13:19.

 

[CathH]

Some writers personify sin and speak of sin as an evil tyrant. Mr Sin was previously our cruel slavemaster, until Christ came and comprehensively redeemed us for himself. Now we decisively belong to Christ - he claims us as his own, our basic allegiance is to him and we love to serve him. But the old habits of thralldom to Mr Sin are hard to abandon overnight (one thing) and Mr Sin himself keeps enticing us back into his service (another thing). So sometimes believers find themselves doing the very thing they hate, and even doing it willingly.

This is more or less the recurring experience of a believer all their life long - a taste of the freedom of serving Christ, then their own sinfulness staring them in the face again. It is our own sinfulness though, not (or not only) the devil's influence. The power of sin is broken but not eliminated when someone is born again - they still have 'indwelling sin' to strive against till they reach heaven. The comfort/encouragement is that Christ gives us the Holy Spirit to enable us to actually do that striving, and also that holiness really is the new dominant principle in the soul, not sin any more for ever. Christ loves his people too much to let sin have the last word in their lives.

 

[Semper Fidelis]

Just to summarize what has already been noted, with the Fall, mankind is both guilty and under the dominion of sin. In the first part, he bears guilt for the sin of Adam as well as his own transgressions. In the second part, he is a slave to sin in the sense that all his faculties are not willing to glorify God in his actions.

Thus, mankind is guilty and under sin's dominion. The latter is often referred to as the flesh, and it rules men who are in Adam.

The Gospel brings about a twofold change with respect to sin. It justifies the sinner and breaks sin's dominion.

Now, as Bruce noted, even though sin (the flesh) no longer has dominion, it still has power within the sinner who is now in Christ.

The Puritans spoke of men in Adam as hanging on Adam's belt - sinners who are guilty and enslaved to sin.

Christ takes sinners off of Adam's belt and hooks them to Himself - they are still sinners, but they are positionally holy in Him and are being made holy by Him.

This is important because it is a Protestant (read Biblical) principle that Christ justifies sinners. The Roman Catholic analogy to the above Puritan idea is that a sinner is in Adam, cooperates with grace and is made holy by the infusion of grace. Salvation in their schema is the holding forth of a kind of medicine to bring to a state of health and then a program of good nutrition by which one cooperates with it in order to stay healthy (remain holy). In the end, only those that God finds "fit" (sees them as holy in themselves) are saved.

But, as the Gospel notes throughout, Christ is the friend and savior of sinners. Not those who are ever truly righteous in themselves but those who still have the remnants and power of the sinful flesh throughout. Their internal temptations are unholy, but, in Christ, we have the power to put them to death and obey however haltingly.

We are never "healed" of the flesh in this life. This is the wrong way to see sin's dominion as broken and is the heresy of the higher life. We are, however, enabled in Christ to put to death every day the sin that wars in our members because Christ Himself is committed to making us more and more holy.