PLEASE READ THIS FIRST: Acts 13:32-41
What do you sense the Lord saying to you in this passage?
“Through him everyone who believes is set free from every sin…” (Acts 13:39)
Usually when we talk about forgiveness, we mean being pardoned, set free from guilt.
Being pardoned from my guilt is not enough, I need to be freed from the grip of sin.
The word ‘forgiveness’ involves both being set free from the penalty AND power of sin.
Paul here stresses how the resurrection is the key to our being set free.
Think of Jesus as another Adam, like us, being tempted by Satan to sin.
Satan succeeds in derailing all humans, just like he did Adam, and so we all die.
But in Jesus for the first time, an Adam refuses to sin, even when tortured.
Jesus remains true to God and God’s will, and breaks Satan’s grip on humanity.
The resurrection represents the resulting reversal of the curse of sin (Genesis 2:17).
In Jesus, humanity is set free from both the penalty AND power of sin.
We are no longer under sin and Satan, we are under Jesus, and alive in him.
Don’t get me wrong, we still sin, Satan still messes with us… but we belong to Jesus!
I still struggle with sin, but not under sin; I struggle with sin under Jesus!
This is good news, because Jesus has already won the victory for us!
PRAYER
Thank you Jesus for setting me free. All my attempts to do it fall short. I struggle, I falter, I strive, I fail – but I am confident in you for the victory, for you have already won it for me!
“Through him everyone who believes is set free from every sin, a justification you were not able to obtain under the law of Moses.” The covenant under Jesus is superior to the old – Jesus won for us salvation – we are made right with God – and the relationship that God desired with us his created in the garden of Eden is restored. Thank you Jesus – you have justified me! Lord, help me to live a justified life. Help me to be open to your leading and trust that you will use me to be a blessing whatever the circumstance that I find myself in – even as I vacation and travel – especially then!
In the first Adam, I too fell into the depths of sin.
In the second Adam who was sinless, I am made alive to serve Him.
Serving Him I live today and will live forevermore.
A non-believer thinks he lives now but dies forevermore today and through death to an eternal death.
A Christ follower lives for Jesus today and everyday and through death’s door lives forevermore with his Saviour.
I heard the voice of Jesus say,
“Behold, I freely give
The living water: thirsty one,
Stoop down, and drink, and live.”
I came to Jesus, and I drank
Of that life-giving stream;
My thirst was quenched, my soul revived,
And now I live in Him.
3
I heard the voice of Jesus say,
“I am this dark world’s Light;
Look unto Me, thy morn shall rise,
And all thy day be bright.”
I looked to Jesus, and I found
In Him my Star, my Sun;
And in that Light of life I’ll walk
Till trav’lling days are done.