Dear Generation: How to be Free from Sin (Romans 5)

Episode 13 of Dear Generation Podcast is a live recording from this past week’s Jesus Night message, where we walked through Romans 5 and landed on one of the most powerful verses in the chapter: Romans 5:17. In this episode, we talk about how freedom from sin is not found in striving harder, but in receiving the abundance of God’s grace and the gift of righteousness through Jesus Christ. If you’ve been battling sin, shame, or condemnation, this message will encourage you to see that God has given you what you need to reign in life and triumph over sin.

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Welcome to the Dear Generation Podcast, where each episode is a letter to our generation. And our goal for every listener is to encounter the truth that sets them free and live a life that's worth the price that Jesus paid. As I was asking the Holy Spirit about tonight, I was having a daily encounter with God today, and and that in that daily encounter, I was meditating on Romans 5. And that thing just rocked me. Like, and I'm just like, dude, we we I want us to just go through Romans 5 today, verse word by word, literally word by word. And we may not get through it all. Hopefully we can, but the goal is I believe there's a revelation there of the power of the gospel of Jesus Christ and freedom from sin that I believe he wants to reveal to you on a whole nother level. And oh man, as I was just meditating on this reality, like my joy was coming back even more. Because I'm telling you guys, we we live in a world where the enemy could steal your joy pretty fast if you let him. And we're gonna dive into Romans 5. And I got a couple things I want to highlight in there, but we're just gonna read verse by verse. I got the NLT, I should have an ESV, but I got an L NLT today, so bear with me. But um it's still I like the way it words things too. But um, if you have an ESV, uh New King James, um, if you got passing it passionate message, we'll pray for you at the end. Now I'm playing. I'm playing. Um, but this is good stuff. So yeah, let me flip there. So the title, the let's start with the very top. I don't know what yours says at the very top uh of chapter five. Mine says uh faith brings joy. What does yours say? Peace with God through faith. Anybody else? Faith triumphs? Okay, it's good, it's good. All right, I'm just I'm so charged. Okay. Romans five, verse one. Therefore, since we have been made right with God, in God's sight, by faith, we have peace with God because of what Jesus Christ our Lord has done for us. Okay, let's pause. Because I really want to I don't want to rush through this because there's a lot of protein in here that you don't want to miss. Amen. Straight to the bicep. So um, so since we have been made right in God's sight by faith, we have peace with God. So, what's a result of righteousness or you being made right with God? What's a result of it? Peace with God. But how does it come first? By what? By faith. Yeah, others say by believing, right? Okay. Verse two. Because of our faith, Christ has brought us into this place of undeserved privilege. Others say grace, where we now stand, and we confidently and joyfully look forward to sharing God's glory. Let's read that again. Because of be sorry, because of our faith, Christ has brought us into this place of undeserved privilege. Verse three, we can rejoice. Man, there goes that word again. There's a lot of joy in here. Uh, we can rejoice too when we run into problems and trials, for we know that they help us develop endurance. Everybody say endurance. Verse four, and endurance develops strength of character. Everybody say character. And character strengthens our confident hope of salvation. Everybody says salvation. And this hope will not lead to disappointment. For we know how dearly God loves us. How? Because he has given us the Holy Spirit to fill our hearts with his love. I'm gonna just pause right there. Father, I thank you that your Holy Spirit fills me with this love and it affirms the hope I have in salvation. I will never be disappointed, I will never be put to shame. Come on, just pray that right now. I will never be put to shame because this hope never disappoints. Verse 6. When we were utterly helpless, Christ came at just the nick of time, the right time. I added that, um, and died for us sinners. Now, most people who would not be willing to die for an upright or righteous person, though someone might perhaps be willing to die for a person who is especially good, verse eight, but God showed his great love for us by sending Christ to die for us while we were still sinners. Verse nine. Since we have been made right in God's sight by the blood of Christ, he will certainly save us from God's condemnation. Okay, pause. Let's let's meditate on that. And since we have been made right with God, in other words, we've we've been made righteous, because of that, verse nine, he has saved us from condemnation. Guys, condemnation is what we get when we're ashamed of our past. It's the feeling that condemns us and reminds us of where we've been and what we've done. And here it's saying, Because of righteousness, because you've been made right with God through the blood of Jesus, there is no condemnation. Doesn't that sound similar to a verse, Romans 8? For now there's no condemnation for those who are in Christ. Cool. Okay, verse 10. For since our friendship with God was restored by the death of his son, while we were still his enemies, we will certainly be saved through the life of his son. Verse 11. So now we can rejoice. There goes joy again, in our wonderful new relationship with God. This why I love the NLT. Look, it's look how it says this. Because our Lord Jesus Christ has made us friends of God.

unknown 6:25

That's fire.

SPEAKER_00 6:26

I'm gonna say that again. Verse 11. So now we can rejoice in our wonderful new relationship with God because our Lord Jesus Christ has made us friends of God. Everybody say friends of God. Who made you a friend of God? Jesus Christ made you a friend of God. And so we can rejoice in this new relationship that we've entered in because we've been made right with God. We're friends with God. I want to just say that right now. I'm a friend of God. Amen. Now this is where it gets fiery even more. Ready? Verse 12. Now he's gonna talk about Adam and Christ and how Adam was a type of Christ. Verse 12. When Adam sinned, sin entered the world. Adam's sin brought death, so death spread to everyone. For everyone sinned. 13. Yes, people sinned before even the law was given, but it was not counted as sin because there was not yet any law to break. 14. Still everyone died, from the time of Adam to the time of Moses, even those who did not disobey an explicit commandment of God as Adam did. Now Adam is a symbol, a type of Christ, a representation of Christ who was yet to come. 15. But there is a great difference between Adam's sin and God's gracious gift. For the sin of this one man Adam brought death to many. But everybody say, but even greater is God's wonderful grace and his gift of forgiveness to many through this other man, Jesus Christ. Now it's building, it's building. Verse 16. And the result of God's gracious gift is very different from the result of that one man's sin. For Adam's sin led to condemnation. There goes that word again. But God's free gift leads to our being made right with God, even though we were guilty of many sins. Can we say that last part again? The result, verse 16. Result of God's gracious gift is very different from the result of Adam's sin. For Adam's sin led to commendation, but God's free gift leads to what? Righteousness, even though we were guilty of many sins. Now here is where we land on the helicopter pad. Verse 17. Okay? This is it, guys. Verse 17. For the sin of this one man, Adam, caused death to rule over many. But there goes but again. Everybody say, but even greater is God's wonderful grace and his gift of righteousness. For all who receive it will live in triumph, or others say will reign in life. But triumph over what? Sin and death through who? Jesus Christ. Okay. I'm about to jump through a wall.

unknown 9:54

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 9:54

Okay, okay, okay, okay, okay. Let's look up here. For the sin of this one one man, Adam, caused death to rule over many. But even greater is God's wonderful grace and his gift of righteousness. For who? For some? For all who what? Receive it. Okay? Will what? Live in what? Triumph over sin. Wait, so you're telling me that sin won't triumph over them, but they will have triumph over sin? You're saying that they could be free from sin, that they could destroy sin, sin could be under their feet through this one man, Jesus Christ. So it's clear that it's not through you, right? It's through Jesus. Just to be clear. So you're not free from sin by clenching your fist and trying not to sin. You're free from sin through this one man, Jesus Christ. And how? His wonderful grace. I know I you see the church emphasizes sin too much. It says, but even greater. Even greater. You know what's even greater than your sin? God's grace. You know what's even greater than your past? God's righteousness. His free gift that he's given to us. For all who receive it. I want to land on that. Everybody say for all who receive it. You know, I got to do a study on that, and I got to break it down in the Greek and see like what is that phrase for all who receive it? Because like this is pretty explicit that this right here, this beautiful good news, triumph over sin, God's wonderful grace and righteousness, is only for all who have received it. So I camped out there and I broke it down in the Greek, and I got my wife is downloading it right now and uploading it to, but we're gonna break it down together because this is important. All who receive it. Not all who just hear it or know about it or just hear a preaching on it, but those who receive it. And right now we're gonna break it down. It's gonna come up on the screen very soon, but you'll learn that the word receive in Greek is an active, it's an active verb. Meaning it is it is not just stagnant, it is not just you listening, but you moving towards it, laying hold of this reality of God's wonderful grace and his gift of righteousness. First, let's go here. So, for those who may not know, let's define grace and righteousness. Okay, grace is God's power and favor that enables us to do what we can never achieve on our own strength. Okay, it's literally God's favor, God's power on one's life to enable and give access to everything he couldn't access himself, right? You couldn't save yourself, you can forgive your own sin. You it's by the grace, it's God's power on your life that you've been forgiven, right? And then there goes righteousness. Righteousness is God's gift of making you right with himself by grace through faith. It's you literally standing before God without shame, guilt, or condemnation, as if you never sinned, right there before at the throne of God. That's righteousness because you've been made right with God. Meaning, guys, if we go to 2 Corinthians 5.21, we see that God made him who knew no sin to be sinned for us so that we might become the righteousness of God in Christ. So there goes that word again. And we see that word all throughout scripture, right? You know, blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness. And then seek first the kingdom of God in his righteousness. The kingdom is not made up of uh meat or drink, but righteousness, peace, and joy. That word righteousness is all over scripture. Hebrews 5.13 talks about uh a babe who only partakes of milk is unskilled in the word of righteousness. So it's like, dude, what is this word? We see it everywhere in scripture. We don't hear it preach much, but here we got it. It's a gift that God gave you the moment you put your raw faith in him and he declares you righteous, which means that replaces your identity as sinner. Can I can I be quite blunt with you? The okay, the reason a lot of believers are still stuck in sin is because they believe they're still a sinner. If you just say, Well, I'm just a sinner, I'm just a sinner, then guess what you're gonna do? And so if you transition to the new beloved identity that God has plucked you out of, right? He took you from sinner, made you a saint, he declared you righteous, he gave you a new beloved identity. If you identify with that identity, sin will slowly lose or fast, fastly, if that's a word, lose its grip off of your life. We gotta have stop. Look, look, not that it's bad to struggle, but we gotta have, we gotta stop this like pity party of like, you know, oh, I'm going on my men's group. Yeah, watch porn again. Oh, brother, okay. You know, do better and uh, you know, call me next time you do it. What when are you gonna be free? Did Jesus die for nothing? Are you waiting till you die to get to heaven to be free? No, Jesus came to earth so you could be free, and he died on earth, resurrected on earth, so he could send the Holy Spirit down the earth, live inside of you, and bring that freedom out of you through the scriptures. Freedom is now. And the biggest deception in the church today is that you're still a filthy sinner, you're always gonna struggle, you're always gonna be, you know. Now, here, don't hear what I'm not saying. I'm not saying you're never gonna sin. I'm not saying you're gonna be perfect and flawless like Jesus was, but I'll say this Jesus was sinless to pave the path to make you sin free. All have sinned, right? Only Jesus is sinless. But guess what? Everything he did was to pave a path. And right as we're stepping and following behind him, we're walking free from sin. He was a sinless one, we're the sin-free ones. We're free from sin. Romans, right? If we keep reading Romans, I believe seven or eight, it says that sin shall not no longer have dominion over you, for we're not under law, but under the grace of God. Okay. Now we painted that picture. Let's uh let's let's camp out there. Yeah, let's do that. Okay, let's camp out for all those who receive it, right? We have a beautiful good news that it's uh for those, you know, wonderful grace, gift of righteousness for all who receive it. That just stood out to me. God, am I the one am I receiving it? Am I a part of that? Or was I a part of that a couple weeks ago when I read it? Was I a part of that a couple years ago when I heard a preacher preach it? Well, am I a part of that now? You notice the verse does not say those who admire grace, those who know about righteousness, those who hear it preached. Okay, it says for all who receive it. So I broke it down in the Greek, and the the root word for receive in that in the context of that phrase is is uh let's see if that's here, right? Lambano, right? Lombano. And uh I'm not gonna even try to attempt to to say that the legit Greek one there, but um, and it literally means to receive, take, accept, lay hold of. And so it literally means the ones receiving, the ones receiving, so it's a it's an active verb. Are you constantly laying hold, taking hold, receiving, accepting, taking this reality into your own life? Are you doing it every day? You wonder why Jesus says, do this in remembrance of me. Why? Because he knew you we'd forget. He says, do communion in remembrance of me, my body broken, my blood shed. Why? He knew we'd forget the gospel. He knew we'd forget what he did. He knew we'd forget that the blood erases all sin, removes all sin. He knew we'd forget that. He says you got to do this in remembrance of me. And we do that gladly. If you come to one of our communion nights, we preach on communion. But this right here, for all who receive it, guys, I want to challenge you. Receive it every day. Receive it as much as you can. God, I receive your grace. I receive your gift of righteousness that you've given me through this one man, Jesus Christ. God, I receive this because I want to reign in life. Other versions say on the ESV, it says, reign in life. You want to reign in life? I'm so sorry. I don't witness with my two eyeballs a lot of Christians reigning in life. Well, brother, I'm struggling. You know, okay, I get it. Are you reigning in life though? According to Romans 5, 17, because you can reign in life. You can live in triumph over sin. You don't have to be stuck in shame, you don't have to be stuck in your pornography addiction, you don't have to be stuck in your vanity addiction, your selfie addiction, your self-image addiction, your Instagram addiction, whatever. Fill in the blank. You don't have to walk with a backpack on your back while you're telling people that they could be free from sin when you yourself are not walking free from sin. How can you want to preach the gospel when the gospel is a gospel of freedom, not a gospel of bondage, and you're walking in bondage? You know why so many Christians don't evangelize? Because they're stuck in sin. And they know, how can I go out onto the streets of Minneapolis and love on somebody and tell them they could be free from sin because Jesus paid the highest price for them to be free when I'm not walking in freedom. So maybe that's why we see the lack of outreach and evangelism in the church today. Maybe, maybe, what if, right? For those for all who receive it. I want to be one that receives it every day. I want to be one that receives it every day. I'm gonna go on a tangent here. I was having a daily encounter a couple days ago, and I studied when Jesus said, if you want to follow me, you gotta deny yourself, pick up your cross and follow me, right? So I'm like, I've heard preachers preach on that, and there's no and and none of them have preached it within the context that it was preached in. Do you know Jesus saying, pick up your cross? It was the most offensive thing to say in that time. It meant that you had to surrender to the Roman Empire's verdict on your life. For example, let's paint a case. Let's say someone accused you in the Roman Empire, someone accused you of stealing, and he snitched on you to some Roman guards. These Roman guards go to your house, pull you out, and says, You stole this amount of money, you didn't pay your taxes, drag you out, bring you before Pontius Pilate or whoever is there. They convict you in the court of law, there's no due process. That's how it was back then. They'll just say, You did it, you did it. And guess what? You know what the Roman Empire would do? So, what today, you know, a judge would just hit the hammer and your sentence is done, you go in cuffs, you go to jail. That's not what happened back in the day. Back in the day, this is what would happen. They would declare your verdict, then they would force you to carry a crossbar through city streets. And that was you publicly telling everyone, I surrendered to the verdict that the Roman Empire put on me. And then guess what? They would later die on that cross. So this is what Jesus is saying. He says, You want to follow me? You gotta deny yourself, you gotta pick up your cross and follow me. But what cross? Was he talking about the cross of shame, the cross of sin? No, because you can't die for your own sin. He was talking about the his own cross. The cross, meaning the verdict that Jesus laid hold of for your life. When Jesus died on that cross, he said three words before he died. It is finished, meaning the price of your sin was paid. So he was saying this. He says, if you want to follow me, you gotta deny yourself, meaning deny your old sinful nature, deny who you think you are. Pick up that cross, prick up the pick up the verdict of what I declared over you, surrender to the verdict that I have declared over you. That's what it means to pick up your cross. You ever you ever wonder? You gotta read it in context. He's talking about the Roman Empire and picking up your cross and surrendering to the verdict of the Roman Empire. But he's not saying that for today. He's saying, I have a verdict over your life, you got to carry that cross and surrender to that. Verdict every day. What's the verdict over your life? It is finished, it is done. You've been forgiven. You've been made the righteousness of God. You're a new creation in Christ. The old things have passed, the new has come. That's the verdict on your life. So what Jesus is saying, if you want to follow me, deny your old self, pick up the cross of what I've done, and surrender to that verdict. God, I wake up tomorrow morning, God, I thank you that you've made me the righteousness of God. You've picked up your cross. You want to pick up your cross tomorrow morning when you wake up? Wake up and say, Father, I thank you that I'm a new creation. The old is gone, the new has come. That's you picking up your cross. Surrendering to the verdict of what was declared over you. Is that good news or what? Triumph over sin and death. Other versions say, reign in life. I don't know how you can interpret that and say that I can't be from free from sin and sin can't be under my feet. I don't know how else you can interpret that, but to say that number one, you're gonna reign in life by God's grace, by righteousness, through Jesus, not by your own works. And so Christians love to put up an example or an excuse for their sin, but I want to call us higher that we have to think higher. The gospel requires more of us, it requires us to believe the fullness of. Listen, the gospel is not a ticket to heaven. It's not the slip up your hand on one looking around thing. It's beyond that, it's deeper than that. You live by the gospel every day. The gospel determines who you've become. That's amazing. So you got to eat, sleep, and breathe the gospel because you got to remind yourself, knowing that Jesus said, You're gonna rem you got to do this in remembrance. I mean, you're gonna forget, knowing you're gonna forget. You have to press forward every single day, pick up your cross, surrender to the verdict, and say, God, your word says, I'm called to live in triumph over sin and death. I'm called to reign in life, but I don't feel like I'm reigning right now. Would you help me? Would you give me your grace to defeat that secret sin, that fox that's been spoiling the vine in my life?

unknown 24:03

Come on.

SPEAKER_00 24:05

I don't know what you got. But I just know this. You can be free today. Listen, the Bible says, whom the whom the sun sets free is free. Indeed, the Bible says that you shall know the truth and it will set you free. And so what if, but just what if the lack of truth is the lack of freedom. But the provision of truth is the fulfillment of your freedom. Because he said, You shall know the truth, and the truth will make you free. What if the freedom you're looking for is found in truth that you need to fill your mind with? You know, you you it's not enough for me to preach this, and you'll be like, that's good, Pastor. Next. And you have to fill your mind every day with this truth. I don't care if you read Romans 5.17 for literally 17 days straight. I don't know what do what you gotta do to get it in you so you can believe it. Guys, there's times where I've read scriptures 10, 15 times, and I didn't believe it after the 20th time. I'm like, it hit my heart and it just lit me up. And I'm like, I believe it now. I truly believe it. Confess, hear, believe. The Bible says faith comes by hearing, about hearing the word of God. So if I were you, I would confess the word of God so I can hear it, so I could build faith in me. It's a little life hack, huh? How about how about how about this? You read Romans 5, 17 every day and you confess it. It loops around, hits your ears, hits your heart, you grow faith. Right? If you're having a trouble believing this, if you're having trouble, you could possibly be free from every from sin. How about this? Let the word decide that for you. How about you declare the word with your mouth? Because if believing and confessing has the power to get you saved, how much more can it keep you free? How much more can it break chains off you in a given moment? I've had people with food uh eating eating disorders. I was a youth pastor in Burnsville at this local church, and I just remember preaching this a lot. And one day, this one girl, um, she's 16 years old, and she just had this severe eating disorder, like really bad. Um, nobody knew, and she would keep it a secret from a lot of people. One day she was on her way to youth that night, and and she ate something she completely regretted, and she was actually right then and there, literally trying to throw it up out the window as she's driving. That's how bad her disease was, her eating disorder was. It was that she was trying to make herself get to throw out the food on her way to youth. Mind you, this is demonic. And all of a sudden, she hears my voice. It was Holy Spirit, but the Holy Spirit reminded her of what I preached that night. You shall know the truth, and the truth will make you free. And all of a sudden, she's got her hands on the steering wheel. I just feel the Holy Spirit right now. And she was she just started declaring, God, your word says, Whom the sun sets free is free indeed. And I'll know the truth, and it'll set me free. And she just started declaring what I call bullets in her chamber. Bullets in her chamber. Second Corinthians 5.17. I just drilled that into my youth so that they knew it off the top. And she was in there, Romans 5.17. I'm a new creation in Christ, I'm no longer a slave to sin. The old is gone, the new has come. And as she's declaring this, she feels something leave her body. And she just begins weeping in her car. Weeping. Mind you, she comes to youth. I see her face, she looks at like she's got joy on there like never before. And I'm like, You good? She's like, I'm great. You know, she didn't tell me until I was transitioning out of that church, and and the youth um wrote me letters on my last day, and she wrote me this letter that rocked me. I was just bawling. And she just wrote this letter and she's like, Pastor Lamuel, you don't know this, but you're like the words that you sue you sowed into me of the word of God grew as a seed, and it set me free in a millisecond when I believed it. And and she said, share that story. I was in the car, I was I was trying to throw up my food outside of the window as I'm driving, and then I just came to my senses. Come on, that prodigal son, he came to his senses, and in that moment he knew he had more in his father's house. Come on, guys, there's more, there's freedom. You don't have to walk in shame, you don't have to walk in sin, you don't have to struggle, you don't have to. Jesus struggled. Jesus fought sin and defeated it. Why do you keep fighting it? It's defeated. You gotta come into agreement with the reality of what he's done. Amen. It may happen in a millisecond, it may happen over time. For that girl, my youth group, it happened, it took a couple months. I would say like six months, until that truth was a seed and it began to grow. And as seeds grow, it expands and it breaks the chains. Amen. Thank you for watching this week's episode of the Deer Generation podcast. We love and appreciate every single one of you. Make sure to like and subscribe on all social platforms, and we'll see you next time.