Dare to live FREE, Pt. 2

Stop calling yourself a sinner.

It’s recited in the lyrics of music. It’s baked into our prayers and thoughts. It’s inscribed into our everyday vocabulary.

“We’re all sinners.”

Even when used to display humility and explain our need for grace, we claim the identity of “sinner” far too often.

Though I understand the sentiment, what if we understood that we are no longer sinners to begin with?

It’s for freedom that Christ set us FREE. -Galatians 5:1

A farmer is expected to farm. If a teacher wants to keep his job, he’d better teach. When we call ourselves sinners, odds our we will continue sinning as though it’s our literal occupation.

Before going any further, I’d like to expunge any preconceived notions on what I am referring to as “sin”. It is a heavy word that is loaded with personal opinions and convictions that I have no interest in debating. However, I would argue that when we get caught up in the specific actions that constitute as sin, we’re gravely missing the point.

According to the Bible, God hates sin. But if we read between the lines and dig deeper, the truth is that he hates anything that keeps us from being in a relationship with him. He knows that certain decisions screw with fully understanding our identity as his kids and make us lose our desire to spend time with him. He longs to free us from the prison of walking in a false identity. When we start to understand the implications of sin, we’ll start to hate it as much as he does. 

He’s less concerned about the action than he is the outcome.

Sin is an institution. The objective is to keep us in a web of lies about who we are. If we don’t understand it’s infrastructure, we’ll continue to fall into its traps.

Over the past two months, my eyes have been opened to the deeper issue that hides within the shadows of all behavior. On a crammed van in the thick heat of the Philippines, my team got lost in conversation. God revealed that my perspective on sin was skewed. In the past, I’ve tried to stop repeating specific actions that were sinful in my own effort, and I would fail continuously. But rather than striving to stop sinning, the key is to believe that you are no longer a sinner, period.

When [the enemy] lies, he speaks his native language, for he is a liar and the father of lies. -John 8:44

We see here that the enemy’s occupation is a liar so, naturally, he lies. He wants us to believe our identity is “sinner” so, naturally, we continue to sin. Yet, we have the freedom to stop believing his lies.

Does this mean you will never sin again? No. And that’s not the point. But rather, this means something far greater: We are no longer captive to a false identity, we are FREE. When we start to believe that, the natural response is to avoid actions that keep us locked up, distant from our Father.

A good parent seeks relationship with their children and protects them from anything that would prevent that. God is no different.

Overall we give the concept of sin way too much attention and power over our lives. Following Jesus is not about what we no longer can do because of him, it’s literally the opposite. Following him is about what we CAN do now that we understand our identities as the literal children of the Creator of the universe. You guys, that’s living FREE.

Once you were alienated from God and were enemies in your minds because of your [sin]. But now he has reconciled you by Christ’s physical body through death to present you holy in his sight, without blemish and free from accusation. – Colossians 1:21-22

These are the true words that God already knows about your identity. You are holy, blameless, FREE of accusation. Not only did he set us free from sin, but from religion as well. Let’s stop seeing sin as a list of do’s and don’ts, and understand it is a system that has already failed.

Let’s dare to live FREE.

 

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If you made it this far, thank you. Follow me on my journey towards FREE.