Well friends, the Bible says that Christians have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God. Romans 6 verse 22. What does that really mean? Well, as Christians, we all know only too well that no matter how much we resolve not to sin, yet we fail again and again. We do sin, we Christians do. We also know from the Scriptures that there was no failing in Christ's atonement for all our sins. The Father accepted his sacrifice on our behalf. Scripture says that after Christ offered for all time a single sacrifice for sins he, that's Christ, sat down at the right hand of God. Hebrews 10 verse 12. Something a high priest could never do because his work was never finished. It was only symbolic and it wasn't real. Christ made actual purification for sins, Hebrews 1 verse 3. So, why do we believers keep on sinning after conversion and after tasting the sweetness of God's forgiveness in Christ? Well, we must read the Scriptures if we believe that Scripture teaches that we can live completely sinless lives here and now on earth, for God has not promised us that. What the Scriptures actually say is not that Christ has set us free from sin per se, but that he has set us free from sin reigning, from sin dominating, from sin controlling everything in our lives. Believers still sin, but sin is no longer the driving force in their lives. Sin is not what motivates them. Sin does not have complete dominion over believers. Chapter six, Romans six, verse 14. So it's one thing to sin and to fail and to do wrong and to come short. It's another thing to have sin, the rule and motivating principle of our lives. Sin is not what gets us up in the morning and it does not dominate our thinking all the day long. Now the subject that has been spoken about in Romans chapter 5 verse 21 is sin reigning, not sin's presence in the believer. Sin will always be present with us believers until we get our new bodies at the resurrection and we live in the new heavens and the new earth. Our complete sanctification only takes place at death, when our mortality will put on immortality. Although our souls have been regenerated, we still live in this body of death. Romans 7 verse 24. On this earth, we are still in the flesh. We don't have spiritual bodies yet. We will, on resurrection day, for God will transform our lowly body to be like his glorious body. It will be the day when just as we have borne the image of the man of dust, Adam, and his sin, we shall also bear the image of the man of heaven, the Lord Jesus Christ. 1 Corinthians 15, 49. Here on earth we Christians have to grow and be constantly sanctified. Yes, we must experience sanctification as it cannot be separated from justification. If we're justified we'll be sanctified. That is, we grow in grace and knowledge and wisdom, et cetera, et cetera, into maturity. But sin is still mixed with all that we do. When we Christians sin, we flee to Christ and confess our sins and he forgives us. Paul was sure of the salvation of the Thessalonians, but he prayed for their sanctification, saying, Now may the God of peace himself sanctify you completely, and may your whole spirit, soul, and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. 1 Thessalonians 5, verse 23. God wanted his congregation to be blameless, not sinless, because that was not possible. We're blameless and seen by God as blameless because we're covered by the righteousness of Christ and he often withholds rebuke for our sin. He doesn't deal with us according to our sins. How could Paul possibly mean that Christians are sinless when he had to say about himself that evil I do not want, it's what I keep on doing? And how could he say that the sin that dwells within me and say that is making me captive to the law of sin in my members? And then add wretched man. Not that I was, simply. That's Romans 7, 15 to 24. If he believed Christians were sinless, he could not possibly have said that. No, Paul accepted the reality that believers still sin. Sin is not the defining characteristic of their lives. We must grow in grace, though, and we must add to our faith the various virtues that Peter writes about in his second epistle. And he goes on that we, you and I, must go on to spiritual maturity. Let us seriously believe Paul's previous verse, verse 20, which teaches that although we were great sinners, Christ can make us even greater believers because he transforms people. Christ transforms every believer. Verse 20 reads, where sin increased, grace abounded all the more. All the more, verse 20. Grace is stronger than sin. Although we're not sinless, we can be so transformed by the grace and love of God that we become, in a real sense, a new creation, as indeed the Scriptures say we are, a new creation. Through God's grace, we're no longer controlled, dominated, motivated, driven by the sinful nature, but by the love of Christ, which controls and constrains us to obey Him and serve Him. Of course, true believers have what no unbeliever has, because every believer has this element, evangelical repentance. Evangelical repentance. But again, this is a free gift of God, it's by His free grace. This pure grace alone. Believers repent of their sins, unbelievers don't. Unbelievers do not, although they can be grieved over the consequences of their sins and perhaps over any hurt and any damage that's been done by their sin, but there's no grief over sin per se. or about the damage done to the cause of Jesus Christ. As Paul pointed out to the Corinthians, a people who did have godly grief, repentance, together with the accompanying fruits in their lives. For Paul says godly grief produces a repentance that leads to salvation. without regret, whereas worldly grief, it produces death. John Owen said that death is not merely the consequence of sin, it's the means by which sin displays its power over us. So the big question for you and I is what defines us? Is it sin or is it God's saving grace? It's one or the other. May God bless these thoughts to us.