The Truth Will Set You Free

John 8:32 says “the truth will set you free.” Let me explain. Since Satan can’t control us he deceives us. When we believe a lie we act on the lie. For example, if I believe something is really good, even if God has said “it is bad”, then I will give in to what I believe to be good - even though in reality it is actually bad for me. Here’s an example so you can wrap your brain around it.

When I was a kid in Sunday School this college student named Andy was guest speaker. He brought in what we believed to be ice cream. He scooped it out of an ice cream container then covered it in whip cream, cherries, sprinkles, hot fudge, etc. It LOOKED amazing. Then he called on two volunteers (myself being one of them) an asked us to race to finish the sundae. We ate as fast as we could and I soon gave up because something just didn’t taste right in the ice cream. To make a long story short, it wasn’t ice cream. IT WAS BUTTER!

I ate the stupid thing because of what I believed about it. I believed it was ice cream and that it was good. Nothing could have been further from the truth? Why did I eat it? I was deceived! I believed something that simply wasn’t true. If I had known the truth I wouldn’t have raised my hand to volunteer. I would’ve let another idiot (besides myself) volunteer :)

In other words, THE TRUTH WOULD’VE SET ME FREE!

And this is the key to overcoming temptation. It’s to see past the whip cream, cherries, hot fudge and sprinkles that Satan covers sin with and to see it for what it really is. It is NOT good for us. It is BAD for us. Why do you think sin is so alluring? Because Satan is trying to cover and mask what is underneath. If God calls something sin it is bad for us. We only give in to temptation when we believe the lie that what God has called bad is actually good.

It’s the same old trick Satan used on Eve. God said that eating the fruit (Genesis 3) would result in death. Satan said it wouldn’t. Then he went a step further and said it would make her wise. He promised that sin could give Eve something that it couldn’t. And that’s exactly what Satan does with us today. He dresses something up to look really good. He influences us to believe it’s NOT bad for us. Then he goes a step further convincing us there is some great benefit to participating in what God has called sin. When we are deceived we give in. What results? We DON’T get what we thought sin would give us and we DO get disappointment, guilt, shame, etc.

Well, now we know the truth. And my prayer is that THE TRUTH WILL SET YOU FREE (and me too!).

Dead to Sin

Romans 5:11 teaches that we should consider ourselves dead to the power of sin. Here’s a great illustration from Charles Stanley in his book Temptation, that explains what that means.

Someone who isn’t saved can be compared to a dog with a collar around it’s neck. The master says sit and if the dog doesn’t obey he yanks the chain to force the dog to do what he wants. The collar represents the power of sin. And when you’re not serving Jesus the power of sin has authority over your life.

But when someone accepts Jesus as Savior and Lord, God takes the collar off. He breaks it! Satan is still able to tell us “Lie!” or “Steal!” or “Lust!”, etc. but the difference for the believer is that he/she no longer has to obey. The power of sin no longer has any authority over the believer’s life.

I thought that was such a good way of explaining what it means for the power of sin to be broken in the life of a believer.