The moment you become a child of God by giving Jesus control of your life, you have been set free from all sin. You are free from all sin in the past, present, and future. Psalm 103:2-3a (ESV) says, “Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits, who forgives all your iniquity,… We see in Hebrews 8:12 (ESV) God says, “For I will be merciful toward their iniquities, and I will remember their sins no more.”

Here’s the really cool part. The word iniquity doesn’t just mean sin. It also means guilt from sin, consequences or punishment for iniquity, and fault. This means God doesn’t just forget the action you took that was sin, but he also forgets all consequences and punishment plus any fault you may have from sinning. Furthermore, he can’t even see that you are guilty; he sees Christ’s righteousness instead. It’s as if you never did the action of sinning in the first place. You’re innocent. 

This is not to say we, as believers, won’t have physical, emotional, and spiritual consequences for sin. If I go out and cheat on my husband, I will have physical consequences. He will be hurt and may even leave me forever. At the very least I will have to regain his trust again. Emotionally I will feel disconnected from my husband. I will have to work hard to reconcile my relationship with him. Spiritually I have opened the door to demonic influence. I will need to go through deliverance to rid my soul and mind of these demons. 

However, as far as God is concerned the consequence of losing our relationship with him is null and void. Jesus paid the price for my sin. Because I have made Jesus the boss of my life, I am free from the consequence and punishment from God for my sin. According to God’s records I never sinned to begin with. 

What God Sees

When Satan comes to God and tells him of the sin you just committed, God responds with, “No, she didn’t. According to my records she is perfect. You must have false information.” When God looks at you he can’t imagine you doing anything like what Satan tells him you did. He only sees you as perfectly blameless. 

Jesus didn’t die on the cross just to give you a ticket to heaven when you die. You don’t have to wait until after death to experience freedom from sinning. When you give Jesus your life, he sets you free from all sin. The life you lived before coming to Jesus is dead. You once were a slave to sin and had no choice but to sin. Now you have the freedom to not sin. How cool is that? 

“For when you were slaves of sin, you were free in regard to righteousness. But what fruit were you getting at that time from the things of which you are now ashamed? For the end of those things is death. But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God, the fruit you get leads to sanctification and its end, eternal life. For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.” Romans‬ ‭6:20-23‬ ‭(ESV‬‬)

You walk from being a slave to sin to a slave of God, which produces fruit that leads to freedom and abundant life. While sin puts you in unwanted bondage as a slave, God gives you the freedom to choose to give yourself completely to him. Yes, you can call yourself a slave of God, but really you are choosing to give all your life to him. You make him the boss and you do whatever the boss says. 

What Is Your Fruit

Every action and decision will plant a seed and produce fruit. When you plant the seed of a sinful act, you give opportunity for plants of iniquity to grow in your life, and then you will reap the fruit of death. However when you plant seeds of righteousness in your life, you will start to reap the fruit of the Spirit, leading to a life of freedom and abundance, eternal life. Living a life full of freedom is done through the work of the Holy Spirit. 

Romans‬ ‭8:2‬ ‭(ESV)‬‬ says, “For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death.”

When we choose to live filled with the Holy Spirit everyday, we choose  a mindset filled with life and peace. “For to set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace.” Romans‬ ‭8:6‬ ‭(ESV)‬‬

It is impossible to set your mind on the Holy Spirit and live absent of life and peace. Likewise, you cannot walk with the Holy Spirit and gratify the fleshly cravings (aka sin). “But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh.” ‭‭Galatians‬ ‭5:16‬ (‭ESV)‬‬

‬‬Christ has set you free from sin. So why would you ever want to go back to that old sinful life? Sin never leads to anything but death. It may be the death of a relationship, the death of achieving goals, or worst of all, the death of being able to hear the voice of God. “For freedom Christ has set us free; stand firm therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery.” Galatians‬ ‭5:1‬ ‭(ESV)‬‬ 

What Do You See

My question to you is this: When you look in the mirror, do you see a sinful person just trying to make it, or do you see a perfect child of God who is holy, blameless, and worthy to live a life filled with good things? 

I implore you to see yourself like God sees you. I dare you to ask God what he sees when he looks at you. His answer will blow your mind! 

He has already forgotten every sin you have committed and every sin you will commit. He sees his precious child, who is made perfect through the blood of his Son. Our perfection does come with a price, the most costly thing in all the earth: the blood of Jesus. Let’s live a life worthy of the price. We can only live that life when we are fully surrendered to Jesus and walk in step with the Holy Spirit. Then we won’t be nearly as tempted to sin because we will quickly recognize doing that isn’t who we are. Why would I do something that is completely opposite to who I am? 

You Are Not A Fish

It’s like looking in the mirror and saying, “I am a fish,” then going to a body of water and trying to breathe underwater. God didn’t create us to breathe underwater. He created humans to breathe air. To try and breathe underwater would literally kill us. 

When we see clearly who we are, we are way less likely to sin because it feels like breathing underwater. We can’t do it, and we know trying to do so will kill us. Am I saying we will never ever sin again? Absolutely not! What I am saying is we will stop sinning much quicker, we will recognize when we sin sooner, and we will be less likely to fall into the trap of sinning to begin with. The cycle of being tempted to sin, sinning, and repenting will be significantly shorter. Remember, to repent really means to change the way we think. So let us all repent from seeing ourselves as “Sinners saved by grace.” Let’s start seeing ourselves as “I was a sinner, but now I am saved by grace and a completely new creation without blemish.”   
“Live as people who are free, not using your freedom as a cover-up for evil, but living as servants of God.” ‭‭1 Peter‬ ‭2:16‬ (‭ESV)‬‬