1. “He...will save His people from their sins” (Matt. 1:21).
We were drowning in sin and could not rescue ourselves; the Lord came to save us from our sins, making us free and happy.
2. “If therefore the Son sets you free, you shall be free indeed” (John 8:36).
Despite the fact that people today strongly promote freedom and want to enjoy freedom, everyone is under the bondage of sin; their spirit and conscience do not have freedom. When a person enjoys sin and casts off restraint, it seems as if he is following the desires of his heart, but actually he is going against them and contradicting his conscience to be a slave and captive of sin. He does not have true freedom. He is a slave until he receives the Lord Jesus as his Savior. Then he obtains true freedom in his heart, spirit, and conscience. The Lord Jesus is the Son of God, and the life of God is in Him. When a person receives Him as his Savior, the life of God within the Lord enters into him to be the power for his human life, freeing him from the power of sin and giving him freedom.
3. “The truth shall set you free” (John 8:32).
The truth in this verse is the Lord’s word (v. 31), which is the Lord Himself (14:6). The Lord and His word are found in the Bible, so the Bible can set us free. If we read the Bible frequently, we will know and obtain the truth in it. This truth, which is the Lord Himself and His word, will free us from sin and its bondage, making us free indeed.
4. “Our old man has been crucified with Him in order...that we should no longer serve sin as slaves” (Rom. 6:6-7).
God tells us in His Word, the Bible, that our sinful old man with its sins has been crucified with Christ and has died with Christ. A dead person is spontaneously free from sin. Since we died with the Lord, we were freed from sin and are no longer slaves to sin. By the Lord’s death on the cross on our behalf, we escape the punishment of sin; by our death with the Lord on the cross, we are delivered from the enslavement of sin. The Lord’s cross saved us from these two aspects of sin and made us free.
5. “Sin will not lord it over you”; “Having been freed from sin” (Rom. 6:14, 22, see also v. 18).
We were crucified and resurrected together with the Lord Jesus, so we are no longer under the law but under grace; therefore, sin can no longer lord it over us. The more an unbeliever relies on himself to keep God’s law, the more he feels sin lording it over him, and the more he is unable to escape the power of sin. When he receives the Lord’s salvation and life, he will see that his old man was crucified with the Lord. Then he will stop trying to keep God’s law by himself, and instead, he will enjoy the grace of God by the Lord’s life. In this way, he lives under grace, not the law. Having been freed from sin, sin cannot lord it over him. The Lord’s grace causes us to have His life, to be joined to Him, and to be crucified with Him, so we do not have to keep the law of God in ourselves. We can enjoy God’s grace by His life and escape the power of sin, having been freed from sin.
6. “The law of the Spirit of life has freed me in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and of death” (Rom. 8:2).
When we are saved, we receive the Spirit of life. In the Spirit of life there is a law, which is a spontaneous spiritual power that frees us from the law of sin and of death, meaning that it frees us from the spontaneous power of sin and of death. In the past, the law of sin and of death was a spontaneous power within us, preventing us from escaping sin and death. Now God has placed the Spirit of life in us as another law, a spontaneous power, that nullifies the law of sin and of death and nullifies the spontaneous power of sin and of death. This frees us from the law of sin and of death, causing us to escape sin and death and giving us real freedom.
7. “There is now then no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the Spirit of life has freed me” (Rom. 8:1-2).
No condemnation does not refer to having our sins forgiven but to being freed from sin; that is, there is no condemnation within ourselves (cf. 7:23-24). In the past, we condemned ourselves because we could not overcome the law of sin; instead, we were continually captured by sin to do evil. Since the law of the Spirit of life has freed us from the law of sin, we are no longer overcome by sin and no longer condemn ourselves. This release within our being makes us bold and free.