Jesus answered them, Most assuredly, I say to you, whoever commits sin is a slave of sin."
Great text! In context it says in John 8 "33They answered Him, "We are Abraham's descendants and have never yet been enslaved to anyone; how is it that You say, 'You will become free'?" 34Jesus answered them, "Truly, truly, I say to you, everyone who commits sin is the slave of sin.
35"The slave does not remain in the house forever; the son does remain forever.
36"So if the Son makes you free, you will be free indeed."
Jesus has made us free from sin!! The slave does not remain forever, but the son does. We are sons of God!
Galatians 3 "23But before faith came, we were kept in custody under the law, being shut up to the faith which was later to be revealed.
24Therefore the Law has become our tutor to lead us to Christ, so that we may be justified by faith.
25But now that faith has come, we are no longer under a tutor.
26
For you are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus.
27For all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ."
He who sins is of the devil...In this the children of God and the children of the devil are manifest: Whoever does not practice righteousness is not of God, nor is he who does not love his brother.
1 John 3 "7Little children, make sure no one deceives you; the one who practices righteousness is righteous, just as He is righteous; 8the one who practices sin is of the devil; for the devil has sinned from the beginning The Son of God appeared for this purpose, to destroy the works of the devil.
9No one who is born of God practices sin, because His seed abides in him; and he cannot sin, because he is born of God.
10By this the children of God and the children of the devil are obvious: anyone who does not practice righteousness is not of God, nor the one who does not love his brother."
The indwelling Spirit doesn't lead one to practice sin, but righteousness. Notice verse 9. His seed abides in us and we cannot sin because we are born of God. When you are born again your spirit is perfect and righteous and is not defiled by sin.
Do you not know that to whom you present yourselves slaves to obey, you are that ones slaves whom you obey, whether of sin leading to death, or of obedience leading to righteousness?
Romans 6 "7for he who has died is freed from sin. 8Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him,
9knowing that Christ, having been raised from the dead, is never to die again; death no longer is master over Him.
10For the death that He died, He died to sin once for all; but the life that He lives, He lives to God.
11Even so consider yourselves to be dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus.
12Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its lusts,
13and do not go on presenting the members of your body to sin as instruments of unrighteousness; but present yourselves to God as those alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness to God.
14For sin shall not be master over you, for you are not under law but under grace.
15What then? Shall we sin because we are not under law but under grace? May it never be!
16Do you not know that when you present yourselves to someone as slaves for obedience, you are slaves of the one whom you obey, either of sin resulting in death, or of obedience resulting in righteousness?
17But thanks be to God that though you were slaves of sin, you became obedient from the heart to that form of teaching to which you were committed,
18and having been freed from sin, you became slaves of righteousness."
Obedience to the Gospel. When we respond in faith to the Gospel we are freed from sin and become slaves to righteousness. We are dead to sin and alive to God!
...for of whom a man is overcome, of the same is he brought in bondage
Yes, people are free to turn from Christ.
Sounds like: For if you live according to the flesh you will die
See previous post.
EGW says the same:
But while God can be just, and yet justify the sinner through the merits of Christ, no man can cover his soul with the garments of Christ's righteousness while practicing known sins, or neglecting known duties. God requires the entire surrender of the heart, before justification can take place; and in order for man to retain justification, there must be continual obedience, through active, living faith that works by love and purifies the soul.
Sorry, but this suggests salvation by works.
Let none deceive themselves with the belief that they can become holy while willfully violating one of God's requirements. The commission of a known sin silences the witnessing voice of the Spirit and separates the soul from God.
No, one cannot become holy that way. The only way to be holy is to accept Jesus' holiness as your own. 1 Corinthians 1 says that Jesus is our sanctification!
One sin unrepented of is enough to close the gates of heaven against you. It was because man could not be saved with one stain of sin upon him, that Jesus came to die on Calvary's cross. Your only hope is to look to Christ and live. He came to save to the uttermost all who came unto him; and he is fully able to do all that he has undertaken to do for you. He will lift us up from the degradation into which we have fallen because of sin.
Perfection is required. Absolute perfection. This is why Jesus gives us the gift of His righteousness.
1 Corinthians 1 says that Jesus is our righteousness! We are not to rely on ourselves for our salvation, but on Jesus alone.
