Episode 5 - Freedom Part 1

Tim 00:00:23 We've talked about all what grace is, and we've kind of talked on what grace does for us, but what is the biggest advantage that you guys see to grace? Isn't it the freedom that we have now, And that's kind of the upside to all this, not that there's any downside, I'm not saying that, but this is the, this is the thing where you don't have to walk around defeated, you don't have, or go around feeling guilty. You don't, all these things that you don't have to deal with anymore because you're now free, and that's what I wanna spend a little time talking about tonight. If that's, I mean, you we're all we all in agreement. Mark 00:01:01 Sure. [Yep.] I would say as far as freedom being the biggest thing, I would say the biggest thing of the gospel is that now we know God, but that may be, that could also be defined as a sort of freedom too, right? I guess freedom from darkness and not knowing God, but you know, you know, me, the hair splitter, so, but, we're about to find out though, aren't we, whether freedom is the big thing or not, God lead us in lead us into the full truth, full measure of truth. [There you go.] So hit me, Ajai, what do you got, man? Ajai 00:01:37 Yeah, well, yeah, in Hebrew, it says that, you know, salvation is called as “so great a salvation”. So, there are many aspects, many great things to salvation, so that's why it's called so great a salvation, So, and of course, like I said, probably the biggest thing is knowing God, right, you know, having a relationship, but out of that relationship, we have so many benefits and one of them is the freedom that we have in the Lord. Jesus Christ. Mark 00:02:09 And tonight we're gonna talk about what types of freedom that is. What are the different types of freedom. Ajai 00:02:14 [Yeah. Yeah.] Mark 00:02:17 Can I read Ajai's text from today, Tim, to kind of set us up, [Sure.] cause I thought he did a great job enumerating, some of those freedoms, he said yes, “freedom from the law, freedom from guilt and condemnation, freedom from fear of death and fear of hell, fear of freedom from fear of losing our salvation and freedom from sin. And then one, I just love that, it's a great list, and I think if we count it, there'd probably be seven freedoms. Wouldn't there Ajai? Ajai 00:02:49 <laugh> I think it is seven action. Mark 00:02:51 <laugh> things tend to always work out in sevens for Ajai, but, which is the perfect biblical number of completion they say, but, that's a side note, but as I looked at Ajai's list, it seemed to me that freedom from the law and by the law, I mean that specific whole system of being judged by what we do, how well we do the things we should do and how poorly we're doing the things we shouldn't do that when you remove that system, which is what Christ died to do, and I real really feel like many time preachers spend a lot of time focusing on the fact that our sins are forgiven, which is awesome, we're not trying to belittle that, but they don't spend as much time on the fact that Christ died to take us out from that work system and, and, and bring us into righteousness, which we've talked about recently. So, I'll kick that to you guys Tim 00:03:56 That, that freedom from sin piece that we talk about there, I, I kind of like the fact that it was at the bottom of that list because it's not the most important part, it's not about being free from sin because then people want to try and turn that around. But the freedom from the law thing is freedom from that reward and punishment system that religion has put on top of the law even further it's you have to do this, or you'll get that, or if you have to do this to get that, in other words, you know, if you don't straighten up and fly, right, God can't bless you as much. If you don't give enough money to the church, you won't get your seven, ten, hundred-fold blessings, or, you know, if you forgive, God will forgive you. You know, it's, it's that freedom and reward that we constantly end up striving for because no matter how you take the law, it ends up being something that I, or you, have to do. We don't have to do these things to get anything or to not be condemned by it, and that is the hugest freedom right there to me Mark 00:05:09 And the apostle Paul called that system, a yoke of slavery, that were his, was his exact words about living by the law, and he was speaking to Christians, he was speaking to the Galatian Christians who were starting to add things back in again. And he said, you know what, stand firm and do not let yourselves be burned again by a yoke of slavery. And I've heard so many people falsely teach that he's talking about the burden of sin, of, you know, the burden of slavery of sin. He's not, he's talking about the law, cuz he's specifically talking about those who were trying to add the part of the law that you had to be circumcised to be saved, to make that part of salvation. So, it's clear that apostle Paul is saying we are free from the slavery of religion of do this, don't do that, that whole work system, which depends upon us, which doesn't depend upon Christ, [Yeah.] it's our ability. And some of us are naturally born sinning less than others or some sin in ways that are more apparent, ;et's put it that way and others sin more quietly and, and discreetly, you know, so they have a good front word appearance. Ajai 00:06:26 Yeah. Mark, you know, the scripture you're referring to is Galatians chapter 5, verse 1, “standfast therefore Liberty by which the Christ has made you free and do not be entangled again with the yoke of bondage”. So, to, to support, you know what you're saying, that it is not, freedom from, sin, but rather hear the context is the law. If you just go back one chapter, right, you know, in Galatians chapter 4, just before, that, first words of, chapter 5, you know, he talks about the two covenants, right, and starting from verse 21, the two covenants Paul says that, you know, the two covenants is referring to, is the old covenant and the new covenant, and in fact he talks about Abraham had two sons, one by a bond woman and one by the free woman, so, he is referring to, the bond woman, which is Hagar, and then the free woman, which is Sarah, then he says, the two women that represent the two covenants, one is Mount Sinai, and the other one is, you know, Mount Sinai and Arabia, which corresponds to Jerusalem, which is now in bondage, but the other one refers to Jerusalem, which is a, which is free. So from this whole context, you know, you can see that, he's referring to law and grace, and the law is the one that, you know, takes us into bondage, and grace is the one, you know, that, makes us free. And if you go all the way down to verse 30, it says, you know, verse 31. “So then brethren, we are not children of bond woman, but are of the free woman”. And going back to, Galatians chapter 5, verse 1, again, “standfast therefore in the Liberty with which Christ has made us free”. So, like you said, you know, one of the greatest freedoms that we have is the freedom from the law because law, you know, not only just about, you know, earning our, our righteousness or earning our salvation, or earning our blessings by our own self effort, but the bigger thing is right, you know, if you fail to keep the law, right, we are under condemnation and curse, and that's what happened with all of us, right, through Adam sin came into the world and then we all sinned. And now we are under the condemnation of the law. You know, most of us think that, you know, we are under the law, law so that, you know, we can become righteous and thereby, you know, we can gain blessings from God. But the fact of the matter is we are under the condemnation of the law and the death, and then, you know, we are only looking forward to hell fire. That's what is our situation. So, knowing that we are freed from the law means that, you know, we are freed from condemnation and judgment and hell fire. And we are also freed from this burden of, you know, trying to earn something by our own self effort and rather are resting in what the Lord Jesus Christ did for us. Mark 00:09:34 Well, in second Corinthians 3, which is Paul's, we've talked about this many times, Paul's brilliant comparison of the old covenant law to the new covenant in Jesus, blood, through faith, by grace, he calls the old covenant law, a ministry of death and condemnation, but he calls our new covenant, a ministry of righteousness and a ministry of the Spirit. Then at the end, he says, now “the Lord is the Spirit and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom” and you just won, here your soul just wants to scream out freedom, you know, it's just, you can just feel that the law is never gonna lead us to freedom because one, the Holy Spirit is not in the law. The Spirit is in faith, in Christ, which gives us freedom in all, in really all parts of our life. Ajai 00:10:33 [Yeah.] Tim 00:10:33 I'd like to point out a couple of practical, real life, examples of this yoke and slavery that we're under, and that is even in the church, I would arrive on Sunday morning and the pastor would start as five-part series on 10 ways to get closer to God. You know, each week I'd listen and I'd, I'd go, oh yeah, that sounds really like sage advice, and I'd, I'd start working on those two points, you know, and next week there'd be two more points, and now I've got four points I've gotta try and keep up on, by the end of this five week series, I got 10 different things. I'm trying to focus on any, as you can imagine with each week, my ability to focus on any one or two or so many of these has been watered down and, and you know, is now unfocused. And the next week I'd come into, you know, seven, seven steps to a better prayer life or whatnot, and it's like, no matter what I did, I couldn't keep up, cuz there was so much stuff being brought every week to give me new rules to follow. That is a yoke of slavery. You're bonded. You, you know, you're bound to be trying to fulfill all these things you think you have to do, and when you can't do it, that leads to guilt, and now I feel bad about not being able to do it, and I mean, and this cycle keeps repeating and repeating and repeating and, and eventually it, you know, I think a lot of people could just get to the point where, you know what, I don't, I can't do it no more and they either walk away or they just, you know, going to church just becomes a thing that they don't really get too involved in emotionally, mentally, or spiritually, and that leads to, you know, people not being able to live that relationship that can bring such beauty to your lives. Mark 00:12:21 Well, when you think about that kind of teaching and not, you know, I'm not trying to be unkind to many preachers who preach their series on different aspects of the life. There's nothing wrong with preaching to be a better father, to be a better, you know, in your job to be better serving the church, there's nothing wrong with that, it's how you do it, and generally they do it where we are the focus. They're gonna give us helpful hints in tips, accountability, even at worst, they'll guilt us to do us doing a better job where when you are in the freedom where the spirit of the Lord is, there's not just freedom, there's a Christ focus. It's all on Christ. And when our focus is Jesus, we are transformed because once again, second Corinthians said three, chapter three says that we are to contemplate his glory. He's our focus. And we do that with unveiled faces, removing the law. And when we do that, we're going to be transformed into the very image of Christ with ever increasing glory as we walk through this life. [Yeah.] So it's Christ focus, not me focused, not a self-help manual. Ajai 00:13:37 So, you know, digging a little deeper into, how we are delivered from the law, right? So Romans chapter seven talks about it. So Tim, you are referring to right, you know, it's when we go to the church, you know, where the preach the law, right, you know, they give you the laws, you know, that you can never keep and it becomes a never ending loop, right, and not only that, in fact, you know, Bible says in Roman chapter 7, right, you know, law is the thing that actually causes you to sin more. That is something, you know, we are totally missing. In Roman chapter 6, verse 14, it says, right. You know, sin shall not have dominion over you because you are not under the law, but under grace. And if you look at Roman 7, you know, the whole chapter is about if we are under the law, right, you know, Paul says, you know, I was once without the law and I was alive without the law, but once the law came sin revived and it slew me, he says. And then it also says, you know, when the commandment came that thou shall not covet, that's when you know, all manner of evil desires came up in him. So, law is extremely like why it is important that, you know, to understand that being freed from the law is so important for us. there are, several things, you know. First is Galatians chapter 3, it says, you know, “if you're under the law, they that are of the works of the law are under a curse”. So, if you're under the law, you're under the curse of God. And Romans, we see that, you know, it is the law that kills us. So if you're under the law, we are under the death, death is reigning us, right? So, these are the two things, you know, we can never be blessed if we are under the law. And the third one is, you know, law is the strength of sin. So, if you're under the law, right, you end up sinning more. They, this is a third thing, right, about the law. If you're under law, you know, we are under condemnation, under a guilty conscience all the time because the law says, you know, do something and if you don't do it, we are under guilt. So there are so many negative things about the law. And the final one is, you know, Galatians chapter 5 verse 18 says “if you're led by the Spirit, you're not under, under the law”. I mean, the converse of it is if you're under the law, you cannot be led by the Spirit. You know, that's what Mark is also saying. Finally, there's one more in Colossians it says law is a weapon of the devil, right, it says in col Colossians, you know, we need to get some of this references and probably post it later. but in Colossians it says, you know, when Lord Jesus died on the cross, right, he nailed the law to the cross and disarming the enemies, the powers, the principalities, right? So, the law is a weapon of the enemy. You know, most of us don't realize that, you know, our spiritual battle is actually here. Because if law is the enemy, weapon of the enemy, right you know, if you're under the law, that means, you know, we are weaponizing the devil. So, in order to disarm the devil and win the spiritual battle, right, you know, we need to be not under the law. And the beauty is that, you know, if somebody is under the law, right, you know, the only way to be, get out of the law, if you are under the law, and if you have broken the law, right, you know, you have to be punished under the law. So the only way to be freed from the law is let's say, you know, if there's a hardcore criminal, he's in jail, right, and he's on the death row, and let's say, you know, there's no way he can be escaped from the law, but let's say, you know, in the jail for somehow he dies, he is freed from the law, at that point, law could do nothing to a person who is dead at that point is completely freed from the law. And that's what happened to us. We are freed from the law, you know, not by doing something, but through the death of our Lord, Jesus Christ, through the body of Christ, right. We die to the law so that we may live unto God. So, when we die to the law, right, you know, all these disadvantages, like all the five things we talked about, they are removed, and we are set free from the curse of the law, we set free from the dominion of the death in our life. We are set free from guilt. We are set free from condemnation, and we are set free from, the power of the enemy, right? The weapon we de-weaponize the enemy, and then finally we are able to be led by the spirit. And like I said, in Roman 6, 14, it says, “sin shall not have do over you because you're not under the law, but under grace”. But most of the churches, you know, they exactly, reverse that, scripture. They say that sin shall not have dominion over you because you are not under the law. Sorry. I think sin shall not have dominion over you because you are under the law. They reverse the thing, but the fact of the matter is sin will not have dominion over us if we are not under the law, you know, that is, that's why it's so important, right, you know, that we realize that we are not under the law and then we don't go back under the law. Tim 00:18:33 Well, the Bible calls, Satan, the accuser. [Yeah.] Right. And what does he accuse us with? He accuses us with the law. If we are not under the law, he has nothing to accuse us with. [Exactly.] He is disarmed, like you said. [Yeah.] It's a great idea. Great thought. [Yeah.] Mark 00:18:52 And whatever we are accused with, we can just say, you know what, you're right, but Jesus took that for me. We don't have to argue with him. Or, you know, so a few weeks ago Tim said something I really like that has been rattling around on my cavernous mind for the last couple weeks. And that is that God didn't give us the law to show us how to do it right. He gave us the sh he gave us the law to show us that we can't do it right. And in that is where the freedom starts to come in when we own that and we say, you know what, I can't do it. I'm gonna stop trying and I'm going to depend and rely upon Jesus, cuz He's the one who did do it. And he did it on my behalf and right as we enter into that, I think that's what Jesus meant when he said whom the son sets free is free. Ajai 00:19:44 Yeah. In fact, you know, law is given, it's not only not to tell us that, you know, not to tell us that we can't do it, it also to shows that we already broke the law. Right? It is one thing, you know, there's one guy, you know, he is neutral, right, and you're introducing a new system and say, okay, either you can get a reward by following the law or you can get a reward by, you know, just believing in Jesus. But right now, you're neutral. But you know, for us, by the time law enters in our life, we already broke the law. It's like, you know, by the time you realize, okay, you know, I'm speeding by the time, you know, you already broke the speed limit. So, the thing is, you know, the Bible says in Roman chapter 3 and verse 20 law is given that, you know, that every mouth may be shut and the whole world may become guilty before God. So, law finds us guilty. The moment we discover the law, we are already condemned. So that is also important to know, right? It's not just, you know, law is given so that I can can, by obeying the law, you know, I can get somewhere and get the reward from God. But law is also given to show that we already broke the law. And that means, you know, we are under condemnation and Lord Jesus, you know, through His death, you know, He delivers us from the law and also gives us the eternal life, you know, that we can never get by obeying the, commandments in the law. Mark 00:21:10 And one of the other, freedoms that you enumerated was the freedom of losing your salvation. Because the minute we're no longer under the law that it's not up to us, well, there's nothing we could do to gain it, so how can there be anything we can do to lose it? It's all Christ. And that's a great freedom there. And that's a freedom that a lot of Christians, unfortunately don't have, and that's why that debate has been going on between different denominations of the Christian religion as to whether you can lose your salvation or not. But scripture is very clear that when you are in Christ, you can't, because it doesn't depend upon you. The only way you'd lose yours, if somehow Jesus would fail, which He can never do. Ajai 00:22:03 Yeah. In fact, that's a great point, and, we can spend a whole podcast on this one because it's very important for, believers to understand that we can never lose your salvation. And there are many scriptures, you know, to support that. Mark 00:22:15 Just think about the ramifications from that truth. [Yeah, yeah.] That can, that can just change your life. Ajai 00:22:21 Yeah. But Mark, to your point, right, and it's a great point, if you are not under the law, right, there is nothing that can condemn you and cause you to lose your salvation. And like you said, you know, to begin with, we never got our salvation by the works of the law, so what makes you think that you can lose your salvation by not keeping the law? So, that's a great point and understanding, you know, that we are not under the law through that, you know, we can explain all other freedoms, you know, like you said, in the text, some of the other freedoms that I mentioned, you know, all of them can be explained simply by, you know, understanding that we are not under the law. For example, you know, the freedom from guilt is if the law doesn't condemn us, right, we will not feel guilty. There's no guilty conscience if you're not under the law, so we are also delivered from freedom from guilt. But that doesn't mean that, you know, when we are saved, there are two things happen, justification by faith, right? Our sins are totally forgiven; past, present and future are forgiven, and at the same time, you know, we are also given as a gift of righteousness. And when we receive the gift of righteousness, right, we are not only declared righteous, we are actually made righteous our spirit man, the inner man, right? The Bible talks about when we are saved, right, you know, God gave us two things. Our body still remained the same, but God gives us a new spirit in Ezekial 36 exists, right? I'll give you a new spirit. That is the new spirit is a life of Christ, right? A spirit that is righteous. It is no longer the dead spirit that we didn't have, that died when Adam sinned, but is a new spirit, that is a righteous spirit. That is a righteousness of God in Christ. Bible also says that, you know, when we are born again, we receive a new heart. That means we received a new nature. So, what happened when salvation is, you know, first we are declared righteous so that we can receive the life of Jesus. But when we receive the life of Jesus, we are actually made righteous. So what that means is, you know, after our salvation, we are made the righteousness of God in Christ and we will never be sinners again, our core nature is changed for, so there is one thing, right? You know, a sinner remains the same, right? And he's taken out of the law, even though the law doesn't condemn him, right. He's still a sinner. You know what I mean? But for us, that's not the case. We are removed out of the law and simultaneously we are also made righteous so we can never be guilty. On one side, law is not condemning us on the other side, you know, God gave us a gift of righteous so we are actually made righteous. So that way we are delivered from guilt as well. So, we should never be condemning ourselves because if you go back under the law, right, you know, we'll go back under guilt and condemnation again. But when we consider ourself dead to the law, right, all we have is righteousness and righteousness gives us the peace and the joy and the hope of salvation, you know, and the fear of condemnation is completely remote Mark 00:25:27 And kind of spinning all the way back to the beginning where I kind of made the se statement that most people, when they think of freedom, the freedom that the Bible talks about, they think of freedom from sin. You read a scripture a little while ago. That actually that is also one of the freedoms we have on a couple different, in a couple different ways. You read a scripture, maybe you can remember which one it was that talks about that when we are no longer slaves to the law, that our, our desire for sin, what was that scripture, you know what I'm talking about? We're no longer once we're out from one of the law, we're no longer slaves to sin. Yeah. Ajai 00:26:08 Yeah. Roman 6, 14. It says, you know, sin shall not have dominion over you because you're not under the law under, but under grace. Mark 00:26:15 So that that's a very counterintuitive kind of thing to most people take the law out. They think that's a license to sin, and that's what they're always worried about. But the scriptures telling us, no, it's just the opposite you get out from it, you're no longer under it, and you're going to see sin diminish in your life as you go through your life. The other point is that I corrected myself on and I'll dare to correct Ajai on now is the saying that when Christ died on the cross, he died for all our sin past, present and future. But I recently just kind of deduced that, well, wait a minute. Once we put our faith in Christ and we're no longer under the law, we no longer sin against God anymore, so we don't have to be forgiven future sin against God, it's just past sin before we come to him. Correct? Tim 00:27:14 I would say, I agree with that at, at the spiritual level between us and God and us and Christ and the whole spirit. [Sure. Yeah.] But we can still do things that hurt other people, [right.] that hurt ourselves, [Right.] that, that we would've considered sin [Sure.] up, up until that point, we can still commit these actions, it's just that we're not going to be ultimately held accountable. Now that mean doesn't mean we're not gonna be held accountable here. If I go out and, and you know, hurt you, I'm gonna, I might lose my relationship with you, you know, or, or whatnot, I still suffer some things in the physical, in the world. Mark 00:27:53 Right. Absolutely. Tim 00:27:54 You know, if I commit a crime and get caught by the police, I'm going to jail, you know, that kind of thing. But God, God, my relationship with God, doesn't change. Like I don't lose my salvation, I don't become a sinner again, and I don't get that held against me in, in the quote, unquote, heavenly courts. Mark 00:28:11 Right? Absolutely. And what I would say is the difference is, is that when we sin against each other here on earth, even after we're Christians, it's no longer breaking the law, cuz we're not under the law. We no longer owe God an apology. He paid for it on the cross. We do owe each other an apology. And I mean, there's plenty in the Bible from all the different apostles saying that we should confess our sins to one another, forgive each other, you know, go and ask for forgiveness. Those are all still very wise things to do to keep our relationships on earth in a good standing. [Yeah.] But it doesn't, it no longer affects our relationship to God as far as salvation fulfillment of the law, getting greater blessing if I don't sin against Tim, or Ajai both, that's becomes a separate issue on, on, on the horizontal. Ajai 00:29:09 Yeah. Yeah. I think, yeah, we, you both are saying, the actually addressing the different sides of, the same truth, right? With the regards to God, he said he will remember our sins no more. And Roman chapter 4 says “Blessed is a man to whom the Lord will not input sin”. So as believers, right, even as we, when we sin, right, in the Lord’s eyes, it, he's not imputing to us because, you know, Lord Jesus Christ removed that sin as far as east is from the west. But at the same time, you know, in this world as Tim, you said, right, as a Christian as after I'm born again, right. If I go and do something right, you know, go slap someone on their face, it's still is a sin, right. It's still a bad thing. Or if, we cheat on our spouses, but still it's sin, in that regard, you know, we are still sinning. But at the same time, you know, as we discussed, Lord has removed all those sin. The sin that I commit today as a Christian tomorrow as a Christian, all of them are removed already because of the blood of Jesus. I think we will address this, later, you know, I'm sure we'll talk about it several times, but we are not saying that, you know, because of, because you are a Christian and because you know, your sins are not imputed to you, you can go and live like a sinner and a wildlife. You know, we will address that later. But again, I think going back, it's suffice us to say that if we are under grace and we are not under the law, sin will not have dominion over us. It means, you know, we will be whether we realize it or not, we'll be sinning less and less if we are under grace and not under the law Mark 00:30:54 And having that freedom in Christ and the Spirit of God living in us that does not lead to us, slapping our way for, you know, that's not what comes out of that. Ajai 00:31:06 That's Mark 00:31:07 Right. That that's not, it's never gonna produce that. Yeah. In fact, living on the law is what's more apt to produce that kind of behavior. Ajai 00:31:15 In fact, Paul addresses this Roman chapter ,6 I think at some point we can go into in depth study of Roman chapter six in a way clearly addresses these questions. Or if I'm under grace, you know, I'm not under law, there's no punishment. Okay. Now I can sin like crazy. So that kind of thinking, you know, Paul clearly addresses that and we know we are not preaching that, right, you know, our desire is that, you know, equip people not to sin, you know, not to give them license to sin, but actually even if they have the license to sin, equip them and give them the desire not to sin. So that's a greater freedom than not having a license. Yeah. Mark 00:31:57 Plus our ultimate goal isn't just to be not under the law, but under grace, our ultimate goal is to live by the spirit of God and the Spirit of God is never gonna lead us to do that, right. If we were just under grace, but not under the Spirit, not in Christ, well then perhaps we could go do whatever we want, but when, when you have the Spirit of Christ in you, it actually makes you love people more. Tim 00:32:25 Yeah. No, being under the being in the Spirit is not going to lead a, you just said these, some of these words, I'm gonna say again, sorry, isn't going to lead us into doing things. It's not our nature now is not okay, I'm the rules are off, I'm finally unshackled to do as I please, you know, it is, however I am in the spirit, I love the Lord, I have the Spirit guiding me. I may still do things that aren't Spirit led or given because I'm flesh and I still live in the world. But those aren't because I'm trying to flaunt my freedom, it's it, it's remnants of the old man that I, that I have not managed to. Mark 00:33:11 I haven't been transformed yet. <laugh> Tim 00:33:13 Thank you, there's the words I was looking for. Ajai 00:33:16 Yeah. Again, you know, the freedom, the true freedom is not freedom to sin, but actually freedom from sin. And that's what the Bible talks about. Right. You know, we are freed from sin through the death of our Lord, Jesus Christ. So when we realize that, you know, we are not under the dominion of sin and we are set free from the law and we realize that there is no condemnation, it totally empowers us to sin less and less. You know, when we realize that, you know, there's no condemnation it doesn't, it's not like, oh my God, yeah, wo, now I can go and do whatever I want. Because at the core we are changed and Lord puts new desires in us and it is totally counter intuitive, but the more you condemn yourself, the more you are prone to sin more, and the more you realize that there's no condemnation, the more you are prone, not to sin. You know, that is again, the divine mystery of the gospel. Mark 00:34:11 The more you see yourself as a sinner, the more you're gonna end up sin. The more you see yourself as the righteousness of God, that's your new identity and you're gonna live out of that, right that identity. Tim 00:34:25 So we'll have to talk about, license to sin in another episode. But, you know, that, I think that the idea we laid the foundation is if we're in Christ, our new nature is never gonna lead us into those things. We may still do those things, but they're not held against us anymore. Freedom from death, freedom from condemnation, freedom from guilt, all those things come with. Even when you recognize I did something that really wasn't my nature anymore. You don't, you don't, you don't sit there and beat yourself up. You learn from it, pick and move on. You know, it's, that's how your new life is free of guilt free of condemnation. I'm not gonna say those again. Mark 00:35:11 <laugh> well, you know what? You can't say, 'em too many times Tim, cuz sometimes we're slow to learn and we need to keep hearing that truth so that it sinks into our very DNA. Tim 00:35:22 I was just beginning to feel like a parrot there. [Yeah.] Mark 00:35:25 Well, you know what? We've heard the opposite viewpoint our whole lives time and time and time again, so we cannot hear that we are righteous in Christ too many times. Ajai 00:35:35 Yeah. Tim 00:35:36 <laugh> sorry, Ajai, I cut you off twice. What, what you gonna say? Ajai 00:35:39 No, in fact I was going to say, you know, on this podcast, you know, we are giving the conclusions of years of discovery, right? It is, we are just saying, you know, we are not under the law, but you know, it took us many, many years. So, for someone who, he hears it for the first time, you know, they might, for some, it might be too good to be true, but for some, you know, they might even get angry, right? It's almost like heresy for them. So even for me, it took me many, many years, even though we read in the Bible several times we are not under the law, but to actually realize, and I accept and believe it took many, many years. Tim 00:36:17 Yeah. I've got a couple of pastors that probably still have bruises from the fights and arguments we'd have over this, having grown up in the performance based church where once you were, you know, you, you may have been forgiven when you came to Jesus, but now you gotta straighten up your life and fly right. You know, now these preachers tell me, no, you just have to love God. Oh wait a minute, waitm you're, you're changing my worldview and I don't understand it and I'm lost. And then, so we went rounds. I've I I've had a couple pastors who I'm really grateful for putting up with me. Mark 00:36:46 Well, there's a scripture that says, there's a way that seems right to a man, but only leads to dus destruction. And so many times you hear pastors preach that as meaning sin. I don't believe that's I believe it means living under the law is a way that seems right. It seems right, doesn't it, it seems very religious that I have to do X, Y, and Z that I never do the thou shalt nots, that I do that seems right. doesn't it like, look how look, how religious I am. Oh, I'm a religious boy, you know, but that only leads to destruction because salvation only comes by faith, by grace, through faith alone in Christ alone. Tim 00:37:31 And I agree with you now, you know, soon as you read that version said that verse. I was like, oh, N really literally another fresh revelation. Oh, that's what that means. Being out from under the law, not [right.] you know, I mean, I don't have a, a corner on the truth here, but when, when I hear certain things and get fresh revelation, not necessarily meaning brand new, but just another iteration of the level to which I'm understanding it. It's that free, all I can say is, we're, we're talking about it's freedom. It's like, wow, boom, there's more, there's more right there. Mark 00:38:05 And, and we know that it's not referring to sin because that's not a way that seems right to a man. People that are murderers know that that's, doesn't seem right to them. They know they're not doing right. That they're doing wrong. But if you start talking about religion and following rules and the law, that seems right. You know, look at me, I'm a very religious sort. <laugh> so that was a, a good conclusion there, I think. Huh. And any asks words from anybody, Ajai? Ajai 00:38:37 Yeah, I think we might go ma we can go back to our, Galatians chapter 5, right, So it is freedom for Christ made us free and do not be entangled again with the yoke bondage in order to, you know, enjoy the freedom and live the freedom that Christ gave us through our salvation by saving us, you know, it is very important for us not to go back under the law. So, for whoever is listening to this podcast, right, so I would urge you, you know, if you think that, you know, what we are saying is kind of, you know, <inaudible>, you know, unbelievable. I urge you to go look at the scriptures, you know, especially this, from the book of Galatians, from the book of Romans, especially Galatians, right? So the whole book is about, Paul is, you know, strongly, you know, against the people who are preaching the mixed gospel. And finally he says in Galatians 5, “standfast therefore in the Liberty, by which Christ has made us free”. And that standing fast happens by not being entangled again with the yoke of bondage, which is a law. Mark 00:39:45 And one of the greatest fights in Paul's life, obviously his burning passion was to preach the gospel of the Lord, Jesus Christ, but what took up a huge amount of his time and passion and energy was opposing those that were trying to, as he call it, pervert the gospel. It's a perversion when we add one thing to faith alone in Christ alone, it's a perversion. You can't do it. He says, you've fallen away from grace in Christ of no value to you because you're adding your own, works your own ability to do things. If it was that an important fight to him to, and the people he was opposing were other Christians, they were the council in Jerusalem, made up of some of the original apostles, the super apostles as he called them, that we're trying to add things to that gospel. And that was, that was his lifelong fight and I feel like that's been a fight that's been going on since creation throughout the centuries from the first church, through the Middle Ages, into the great reformation, which was a return to the one true gospel that the three of us are talking about now. But then the same slide started to happen again from the time of Martin Luther and all the, the great reformers, and, and Martin Luther at the end of the life even said that whenever you preach the true gospel, it's going to produce conflict, but every generation needs to take up the fight to preserve the true gospel. And that's really what we're about is just defining that and helping people get back to that freedom. Tim 00:41:37 Amen. Well, thank thanks guys. For tonight.