Why Freedom In Christ Isn’t A License To Sin

Rules say no; our hearts push back. That tension sets the stage for a clear walk through Romans 6, where we explore why the law exposes and even provokes sin—and how the grace of God in Christ breaks sin’s rule without turning grace into a permission slip. We open with a simple image—the forbidden cookie jar—to show how desire awakens under prohibition, then shift to the better news: where sin abounds, grace abounds more. Not as a loophole, but as liberation.

We unpack union with Christ as the center of change. Being “baptized into His death and resurrection” isn’t churchy jargon; it’s the source of new identity and real power. The old self was crucified with Christ so we are no longer slaves to sin; we rise to walk in newness of life. From there, we get practical and honest about the daily fight: reckon the old self dead, refuse to let sin reign, and offer your mind, tongue, and habits to God as instruments of righteousness. We contrast life under the treadmill of law with life under the strength of grace, and we press into the question many quietly ask: if we’re under grace, why not sin?

Using Paul’s language of service, we face the truth that everyone serves something. Yield to sin and it pays wages—death in pieces now and finally. Yield to righteousness and grace grows holiness, clarity, and joy. We connect justification and sanctification—secure standing and ongoing shaping—and reflect on the fruit of each path. The conversation culminates with Romans 6:23: the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. Wages are earned; gifts are received. That changes how we live today.

If this helped you see grace as power, not permission, subscribe, share it with a friend, and leave a review. Tell us: where do you sense grace inviting you to walk new this week?

Come On Up is the radio ministry of The Mountain Cross in Waynesville North Carolina. To learn more about us please visit: TheMountainCross.com. 

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:05

Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob. He will teach us his ways, and we shall walk in his paths.

SPEAKER_02 0:13

Welcome to Come On Up, the radio ministry of the Mountain Cross in Waynesville, North Carolina.

SPEAKER_01 0:20

He didn't even notice the cookie jar was there until you said, Don't go into the cookie jar. Now what are you doing? I'm trying to get into the cookie jar, right? That's what the law does. It provokes your sin. But where sin abounded, grace abounded much more. That's good news, isn't it? Where sin abounds, and you get overwhelmed, like, man, I was trying to do good, but the but the word said, Don't do this, and that's all I want to do, and it's it's overwhelming me. But God's grace is bigger than that.

SPEAKER_02 0:48

We are so rebellious by nature, aren't we? We see a sign that says, Don't touch, and that's all you want to do. Someone makes a rule limiting our impulses and desires, and our pride and desire for control over our own lives immediately rears up in protest. We may not have had a strong desire for that behavior, but being told no invites our rebellion. As Pastor Carl will point out, that nature is impossible to overcome on our own. But Christ's death on the cross frees us from sin and its consequences. And now, here's Pastor Carl.

SPEAKER_01 1:28

Chapter 6 of the Book of Romans, and we'll get started in our study. Paul is writing the Roman church who he's heard have come to the Lord and seen great success in growth, and just they love Jesus. But it's it's a funny thing in the lives of the Roman Church. We also see it in the lives of the Corinthian church and the and the Galatian church. And if we're honest, we see it in in the lives of our own church, in our own lives ourselves. As Christians, we we we've come to faith in Jesus Christ. We've been changed, we know we've been forgiven, but there's this tendency for us to fall back into the old ways, to fall back into the flesh. And with that, uh, pointing out the sins of other people and neglecting to acknowledge the sin that I'm still doing. Um and and and he's it gets complicated in this because our hearts are deceitfully wicked above all things. Who can know it? And and we come up with different ways to justify what we're doing. We believe we're we're in the Lord, and yet we're drifting from the Lord, and we're we're doing things in the flesh and trying to justify our flesh. And and Paul has been addressing numerous issues involved with that. At the end of chapter 5, he wrapped up this way. He said, However, the law entered that the offense might abound. One of the issues were between law and grace. You know, if you're gonna follow the law, that's the way to make it. Go ahead, try to make it. You're deceitfully wicked. You're you're all of us have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. Go ahead, try to fulfill the law. You know, the law has been given to show us our need for forgiveness, our need for a savior. It shows us our sin. And not only does it show us our sin, but when we're exposed to the law, it causes sin to grow and to go forward. You know, when you tell your kid, don't get into the cookie jar, he didn't even notice the cookie jar was there until you said, Don't go into the cookie jar. Now what are you doing? I'm trying to get into the cookie jar, right? That's what the law does. It provokes your sin. But where sin abounded, grace abounded much more. That's good news, isn't it? Where sin abounds, and you get overwhelmed, like, man, I was trying to do good, but the but the word said, Don't do this, and that's all I want to do, and it's it's overwhelming me. But God's grace is bigger than that. The price of Jesus shed blood on the cross is even greater than that. So that sin reigned in death, and even so grace might reign through righteousness to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. All right, so so now I got the idea of, all right, my sin is bad, it's really bad, but God's grace is even greater. So how do we react in our flesh because of that? That brings us into chapter 6. What shall we say then? Shall we continue to sin that grace would abound? Hey, you know, if grace is greater than all my sin, let's go sin and have at it, right? Is that what what we're talking about? And Paul's saying, no, that's your flesh talking again. No, it's not about being forgiven of your sin. It is partially, but it's about having freedom over your sin. Certainly not verse 2. How shall we who died to sin any live any longer in it? When you came to faith in Jesus Christ, you died with him on the cross and you died to the sin, and you rose again to new life with him as a new creation and no longer bound to sin. You've been freed from sin. Verse 3, or do you not know that as many as were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? Again, when you came to faith in Jesus Christ, you were baptized into Jesus by the Holy Spirit. And then we have our physical baptism that we do in order to proclaim what has happened to us. It's a believer's baptism. It's a declaration to the rest of the world that, yes, I believe, and this is my declaration to you, that I have died with Christ, and I have risen with him to new life. Therefore, we were buried with him through baptism into death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life. Our sin is great. The law brings it out and even causes it to uh uh abound. But God's grace is even greater than that and causes us to have victory over sin, not a license to sin. Are you following? Again, Paul goes in these circles to keep us thinking and kind of catch us where we would go off with our flesh and get us back into what is the heart of and the mind of God. Verse 5, for if we've been united together in the likeness of his death, certainly we shall be in the likeness of his resurrection. Knowing this that our old man was crucified with him, that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves to sin. He has died to free us from sin, not to continue to be slaves of sin, even if we're forgiven for it. Because that's not the point. The point is to have life and not death. When we're slaves to sin, it brings death. Are you following? Verse 7. For he who has died has been freed from sin. If you die, you are free from sin. Hold on to that verse, we'll come back to in just a second. Now, if we died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with him, knowing that Christ, having been raised from the dead, dies no more. Death no longer has dominion over him. Jesus had the ultimate victory over death. Death no longer has power over him, he has dominion over death and everything. And when we're alive with Christ, we no longer have that slavery to sin. Sin no longer has dominion over us. Death no longer has dominion over us. Now, going back to verse 7, for he who has died has been freed from sin. If you're you're dead, you're free from sin. Now, Paul is also saying, I've been crucified with Christ. And he says this also in Galatians. I've been crucified with Christ, so I no longer live, but Christ who lives in me. Have you ever pondered that verse and looked at it this way? Christ took our place on the cross. He identified with us as the perfect Lamb of God to pay our sin debt. But at the same time, we identify with Him on the cross, and now we die to our sin. We die to the old man. If you come to faith in Christ, this is what has happened positionally. And Paul wants us to get a grasp on that. You are now dead to sin. The problem is, our and it's described as the old man. We have the old man and the new land man, the old life and the new life. The life before Christ and the life after Christ. Our problem is the old man seems to come alive again and again when he's dead. And this is the subject of what he's trying to get at with us right now. We need to render ourselves dead. This is what has happened. Let's walk in it. Does that make sense? Verse 10. For the death that he died, he died to sin once and for all. But that the life he now lives, he lives to God to God. Likewise, you reckon yourselves to be dead indeed to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus our Lord. If you've become a believer in Jesus Christ, if you've been changed by the cross, if you believe the gospel and you've been born again, you are a new creation. The old is passed, and behold, all things are new. But that old man keeps coming back. We need to reckon that old man dead. This is about renewing our minds. This is about walking in the faith that He's now given us. And no longer do I live to myself because my old, let's call the old man, the old sinful self. I no longer live for him, but now I live for the Lord. Because the Lord is everything. The Lord is my life. Jesus Himself no longer lives as a man bound in this body, but now he's free and he's serving God with his whole self. Now, of course, as a man he was sinless, he was tempted, he understands where we come from because he became one of us, but he is free. He is free and he's serving God. We indeed in him are free, and there's no other way to be free. Alright? You following with me? Therefore, do not let sin reign in your mortal body that you should obey its lusts. As a believer, now we have a choice. We can walk in the faith that God has given us, we can walk in the grace and the strength and the power that He's given us to be free from sin, or we can fall into our old ways. Before we came to faith, we're stuck in our old ways. We have no choice. We walk in sin because that's what we are. We're sinners. But as a believer, all things are new. This has changed. And until we get our new resurrected bodies and we see them face to face, this potential problem of the old man coming back is something that we're wrestling with every step of the way. So he says, uh reckon yourselves dead to Christ. Now that's not that's a southern term, right? Reckon? I reckon that's true. It's also an accounting term. Reckon that this is what it is. Walk in it. This is true. Therefore, do not let sin reign in your mortal body, that you should obey its lusts. Do not present your members as instruments of unrighteousness to sin, but present yourselves to God as being alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness to God. I'm no longer my own. I'm no longer a slave to my sinful desires. I am now a servant of God. I am now alive in Jesus Christ. And he gives me a new life and a new purpose. And I will, yes, I will indeed follow that path. I will indeed yield myself to him and say, I am yours, Lord. Use me as you see fit. Not about this, if it feels good, do it, sort sort of thing. I was born this way. I need to live this way. Those are lies. I mean, you may have been born that way, which indeed we all were. We were all born into sin. Whatever that way is in your life, you've been freed from it. You're alive in it. Now push that aside and walk in the grace that God has given you. Use yourself, your body that you've been given as instruments of righteousness for God. And you can't be righteous in your own flesh. It's something that God does in and through you. So it's a matter of yielding and agreeing and acknowledging and walking in faith, right? For your sin shall not have dominion over you, for you're not under law, but under grace. The law brought out your sin, the law declared your sin. The law showed your sin. You're no longer under the law when you've come to faith in Jesus. You're under grace. So it doesn't have that same effect on you. You're now free from sin. You now have victory over sin. So walk in it. But what does that look like, Paul? This is strange. Verse 15, what then? Shall we sin because we are not under the law, but under grace? You know, okay, so we're not under the law anymore because we're under grace. And then in our flesh, we're we're trying to be logical here, or trying to find an excuse to do the things that our flesh wants to do. So so if we're not under the law, then we can go ahead and sin because we're under grace. Because the law seems to be a bad thing. So if we're under grace, then we can sin and it's not. You see how deceitful our hearts can be? He says, certainly not. Do you not know that to whom you present yourselves slaves to obey, you are that one slaves to obey, whether of sin leading to death or obedience leading to righteousness? Again, before we came to Christ, we were slaves to sin. And we were stuck in it. We had no choice. Now we've been changed. And what direction are we going to walk in? You've been saved, you understood the gospel and and and it's changed you, but you're drifting back into the old habits. You have a choice now to deny those and to follow after the Lord. And Paul's laying it out. He says, look, you're only a slave to something if you uh if you turn yourself over to it. You've been given the power now to not turn yourself over to it. But that power is in the grace of God, and it's the power of God working in you. It's not your flesh trying to be good enough to fulfill God's righteous requirement. It's God working in and through you. Are you working with God? Are you allowing him to have your way, his way with you? Verse 17. But God be thanked that though you were slaves to sin, yet you obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine to which you were delivered. What is that doctrine that delivers us from the sin? It's the gospel of Jesus Christ. It's the cross of Christ, it's it's the innocent Lamb of God taking our sin upon Himself on the cross to whoever would believe that would be accounted as righteousness. Toever would believe, God would save. God has paid our way. Do we accept it? Do we walk in it? And did that gospel really change you in the heart? Or did you just, is it a mental thing and you understand it, but and yet your heart is still just as wicked as it ever has been? These are things that Paul wants us to wrestle with. What's really going on? What's the truth? How am I applying it to my life? Is God really doing that work in me? Have I been changed? If I haven't been changed, why? Did I really believe? Didn't I believe? Maybe I ought to believe. Lord, help me to believe. I believe. Help my unbelief. Verse 18, and having been set free from sin, you became slaves of righteousness. You're either a slave to sin or a slave to righteousness. You're either a slave to Satan or you're a slave to the Savior. I always like to quote the immortal words of Bob Dylan. You gotta serve somebody. It's either gonna be Satan or the Lord, but you gotta serve somebody. You're going to be a servant to either sin or the freedom of grace in God, a slave to righteousness. Paul calls himself a bond servant of Jesus Christ, a willing slave. I want to serve God with my whole heart, and I've given my whole life to him because he's given his whole life to me. I hope that's your attitude this morning. Verse 19, I speak in human terms because of the weakness of your flesh. You're not fully applying the truth of the gospel to your lives. So I need to talk to you in these terms so you understand and start to click and start to want to grow in the faith. For just as you presented your members as slaves to uncleanliness and of lawlessness, leading to more lawlessness, so now present in your members as slaves of righteousness for holiness. Before you came to faith in Christ, that's all you did. But now you're able to present yourself as members, your body, your whole self, as slaves of righteousness for holiness. God has set us apart to be holy, and in him we are positionally holy. You know, that's the two big words, justification and sanctification. When we come to faith in Jesus Christ, we've been justified, which means when God the Father sees us, he sees Jesus perfect, no spot, no blemish, because he's taken our sin from us. But the sanctification is, you know, we still are in these, you know, human bodies, even though we've been given a new beginning. Uh there's a process of being sanctified, being conformed to the image of Christ, and he continues to do that as we walk and until the day we see him face to face. We're now to present our members as slaves to righteousness for holiness, not to have a license to sin, but to be more and more like Jesus. And isn't it so much better to be more and more like Jesus? That the promises of life and excitement of sin in this world are so empty, ultimately. They're exciting for a season, but they lead to death, and he'll talk more about that too. Um but but life in the Lord is abundant, it's eternal, it's full, it's so much better than the things that we ever long for and yearn for and try to fill with the things of this world. Being set apart for holiness is a good thing. Verse 20. For when you were slaves of sin, you were free in regard to righteousness. That's an interesting phrase, huh? You were free from being righteous. When you were under the law, when you were you know even ignoring the law, just living out in your sin, you didn't have any regard to righteousness. Being holy wasn't a goal for you. And and and you were no longer you were not serving holiness. You were free. To righteousness. But what fruit did you have then in the things of which you are now ashamed? How was that working for you? When you're living for sin and fulfilling the lust of your flesh, what did that lead to in your life? Perfect peace. Great relationships. Did it? No. No, you always had strife. You always had, you know, bad relationships. You never were fulfilled. For the end of those things is death. Sin was leading to death. You might think you were free from having to do good things. You were free to do whatever your heart desired. But how did that work for you? What did that lead to? Death and destruction. Ultimate death. But along the way, just dying along the way. You think you've got a leg up on the rest of the world. You think you you have found the way to finagle your way in to get what you want out of life, but it's not fulfilling. It doesn't do what it's supposed to do. You're just dying more and more inside. So you go after more and more of that sin, and you just get deeper and deeper, and you go after more and more. That's what happens in our fallen self, doesn't it? And Paul's saying we're free from that. But now, having been set free from sin and having become slaves of God, you have your fruit to holiness and the end after everlasting life. Now, when you become slaves to the Lord, servants to the Lord, and you deny your flesh and grow in his grace, the fruit of that is righteousness, is holiness, which is good, and it leads to life. Life with no death, life with no end, life with no end in chronological senses, and life with no end in the area of fulfillment and purpose in life, and just excitement and joy that God has for us. Just imagine when when we we we totally do away with sin, when we when we have our new resurrected bodies and we see the Lord face to face, face to face, and there's no more sin and no more death, just think of all we can do and experience, and and it is gonna be exciting. This is what he has for us. For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life and Jesus Christ our Lord. The wages of sin. When you go to work, you get a paycheck. What do we get paid for the works that we do in our flesh? What do we get paid for the sin that we do in our life? It leads to death. That's the payment. But the gift of God, the work of God in our lives, the work of Jesus on the cross, that leads to eternal life. A life that's full, a life of meaning in Christ Jesus our Lord. Not in our flesh, not in our own efforts, but in Him. That's a good word, isn't it? Chapter 7, verse 1. Or do you not know, brethren, for I speak to those who know the law, that the law has dominion over a man as long as he lives. For the woman who has a husband is bound by the law to her husband as long as he lives. But if the husband dies, she is released from the law of her husband. So then, if while her husband lives, she marries another man, she's also called an adulteress. But if her husband dies, she is free from that law, so that she is no adulteress, though she has married another man. He's not bringing this up so that we can be nitpicky about, okay, when can I divorce or when can I not, or when can I remarry, or when can I not? That goes back to our trying to justify what we want to do in our flesh. The point he's making is if the law is eliminated, or if you are dead to the law, it has no power over you.

SPEAKER_02 24:07

You've been listening to Pastor Carl here on Come On Up, as he covered another interesting passage in Romans. The book of Romans has many meaningful verses that are good to keep in mind. For example, Romans 6.23 states, For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. Never forget that God's generous gift of salvation through faith allows you to be saved by grace. May you walk in that truth today. Come on Up comes to you from the Mountain Cross, a group of believers in Jesus who seek to grow in faith by simply teaching the Bible verse by verse, chapter by chapter. We meet Sundays at the Smoky Mountain Cinema in Waynesville, North Carolina, beginning at 10 a.m. To learn more about us, visit our website, themountaincross.com. You can also make plans to join us for the next Faith Film Night. We show faith-based films on the first Monday of each month. Our February film is the 10th anniversary presentation of Risen, which follows a Roman soldier who was given the task of finding Jesus' body after the resurrection. Mark your calendar for Risen back on the big screen, Monday, February 2nd at 6.30 p.m. at the Smoky Mountain Cinema. To learn more, go to themountaincross.com. You can also search for Faith Film Night on Facebook. That's all we have for today. But come on up to the mountain with us again tomorrow as we seek to learn more from the Lord through His Word. Come On Up is sponsored by the Mountain Cross, a Calvary Chapel fellowship.