Freedom From Sin

If the Son sets you free, you are free indeed (Jn 8:36). The Lord has set us free from sin, evil and death (Rom 6:18). By his death on the wood of the cross, He has rescued us from slavery into sin. He has set us free. Freedom in this context means freedom from sin.

False Freedom

Freedom can be naively conceived as ‘doing what I like.’ I am free when I can do what I like, when I like, how I like and where I like. It is often asked; Am I not free to do what I like? Am I not free to live my life the way I like? Am I not free to use my body the way I like? The fundamental questions that concerns freedom is: does 'what I like' increase my freedom or enslaves me? Pope John Paul II says "freedom consists not in doing what we like, but in having the right to do what we ought."

Slippery Slope

The problem is ‘what I like’ may contravene the commandments of God or contradicts the will of God. The fallen human nature does not always desire what is good or noble.  So, in exercising ‘freedom’, the person may sell himself into slavery to sin. Sin begins with simple desire or suggestion that flouts God’s laws.  Suggestion becomes venial sin by consent; venial sin becomes mortal sin, mortal sin becomes a vice; a vice becomes an addiction. Eventually the sinner realizes that far from enjoying freedom, he is now chained into slavery.

Slavery to Sin

Far from doing what he likes, the sinner realizes that he is enslaved by what he likes. He is no longer free. He is now in bondage of sin.  There is no exercise of true freedom in the state of mortal sin. Sin enslaves. The state of sin is the state of slavery . The sinner is also a slave. I tell you most solemnly everyone who commits sin is a slave (Jn 8: 34). The  false ‘freedom’ exercised in sin ultimately turns into slavery. A sinner “uses external freedom only to more severely burden himself with inner slavery” ( St Philaret of Moscow). St Justin Popovich says “in truth there is only one freedom- the holy freedom of Christ, whereby He freed us from sin, from evil, from the devil. It binds us to God. All other freedoms are illusory, false, that is to say, they are all, in fact, slavery."

True Freedom

St Augustine says “love and do what you like.” Only those who have been reborn in baptism; washed in the blood of the lamb; sanctified by the Holy Spirit; whose heart has been purified; whose will conformed to the will of God can do ‘what they like’. Because what they like will coincide with what God wants. Since they desire to do the will of God and not their own will, what they desire will conform to what God desires. St Philaret of Moscow says “true freedom is the active ability of a man who is not enslaved to sin, who is not pricked by a condemning conscience, to choose the better in the light of God’s truth, and to bring it into actuality with the help of the gracious power of God.”

Christian Freedom is Not License

Freedom from sin is a gift of God. It is the fruit of the Holy Spirit. Where the Spirit of the Lord, there is freedom (2Cor 3:17).  It is also a fruit of conversion.   Christian freedom does not exonerate from duties, responsibilities and moral values. Christian freedom is not an invitation to license and immorality. For freedom Christ has set us free. Stand firm, therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery (Gal 5:1). Live as people who are free, not using your freedom as a cover-up for evil, but living as servants of God (1Pet 2:16). For you were called to freedom, brothers and sisters. Only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another  (Gal 5:13).