A person in Christ is a new person. He or she is not simply the old person worked over. That’s why Paul wrote, “If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new” (2 Corinthians 5:17). Think of the miracle God performs when a person places faith in Christ. The believer has an entirely new power source and new possibilities.

Sanctification is about discovering and appropriating this power and these possibilities. Union with Christ is an essential discovery for believers desiring a fuller spiritual life. The foundational truth of our crucifixion with Christ is the basis of a Christian’s freedom from the power of sin. Unfortunately, this concept is often misunderstood, unbalanced in its presentation, and unused in its application.

Christ’s mighty work on the Cross sets His people free from the reign of sin and death (5:12-18). His mighty life provides the power to live the life they were set free to live (5:19-21). And His Holy Spirit unites them with Him through spiritual baptism (1 Corinthians 12:13). This concept of being united with Christ is developed chiefly by Paul. In Romans 6:1-10 he links union with Christ to victory over sin, teaching that believers are identified with Christ’s death, burial, and resurrection:

The Spirit unites believers to Christ—dead to sin and alive to God!

Romans 3:21-26 is the foundational passage for the doctrine of justification. All the concepts involved in justification—the righteousness of God, faith, grace, redemption, and propitiation—are skillfully and wonderfully integrated into the most powerful paragraph in the Bible. Justification by faith has been “ground zero” to every revival in church history. Humanity’s ruin through sin and God’s remedy through faith in the justifying merit of Jesus Christ is a message that cannot be restrained. The personal implication of this powerful doctrine is profoundly simple:

When I believe in Christ, God declares me Righteous. 

The full and free justification offered to all humanity, through faith alone, in Christ alone, brings ecstatic joy and the most profound comfort to every believing heart. 

In the first hundred years of Christianity there was no more strategic community of believers than those living in Rome. “All roads lead to Rome” was a reminder that the city of Rome was the cultural, commercial, and political center of the Empire.

To this young church, Paul writes his most thorough treatise on Christianity. His purpose is clear—to call them to a life of commitment by giving their all to God (Romans 12:1-2). His motivation is also clear—to encourage them to make this radical but reasonable decision because they are overwhelmed by God’s mercy. For eleven chapters, the Apostle of Grace exalts the mercies of God. “God’s righteousness is revealed in His mercies to all who believe,” writes Paul. “So I am not ashamed of the Gospel of Christ; it has the power to deliver believers from the wrath of God and set them on a path of faith that will radically transform their lives.”

The Eternal Benefit of Spiritual Maturity:

Spiritual maturity sets us on a path to realize our destiny, which we were made new in Christ to accomplish (Ephesians 2:8-10). It’s a winding path following a continual process described by Paul in Philippians 3.

In Paul’s process of maturing, he describes an awareness of his value system changing dramatically because of who he now was in Christ:

God has a specific destiny for your life. It is always greater than your capacities and goals.

The Eternal Benefit of Spiritual Maturity:

Spiritual maturity sets us on a path to realize our destiny, which we were made new in Christ to accomplish (Ephesians 2:8-10). It’s a winding path following a continual process described by Paul in Philippians 3.

In Paul’s process of maturing, he describes an awareness of his value system changing dramatically because of who he now was in Christ:

God has a specific destiny for your life. It is always greater than your capacities and goals.

Results of Living by the Spirit: Those Christians who live by the Spirit display Christ’s selfless love, not by following the law but by having crucified the flesh.

This is the true fruit of liberty—love. We have been set free to live by the Spirit to love with the type of love characterized by the eight characteristics listed in Galatians 5.

Since the law was given to constrain the flesh, there’s no need for the law when we live by the Spirit. When we trusted in Christ, the power of the flesh in our lives was crucified.

“If you’re led by the Spirit, you’ll live by loving one another well. That’s not how you’re treating one another, according to the reports I’ve heard”

True spiritual maturity: Liberated Christians, living by the Spirit, glorify God by their Christ-like love.

It’s the most loathsome bait and switch in church history.

Relentlessly trying to become spiritually mature by listening to the moralists and religious tyrants, we stunt our growth and lose the wonder of following a Savior who said,

“Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke on you and learn from me because I am gentle and humble in spirit, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy to bear, and my load is not hard to carry” (Matthew 11:28-30).

Paul’s loving confrontation of the Galatians in 5:7-15 exposes the lie of legalism and invites weary Christians to find the rest for their souls Jesus promised by using their freedom to love one another.

Legalism hinders Christian growth and ruins Christian unity!

Stand in the freedom of grace or wallow in the slavery of works.

The choice is yours. You, not the legalist, decide to submit to their religious nonsense. And when you do, you sever yourself from the real-time benefits of the grace gospel that is yours in Christ Jesus.

More is at stake than you ever imagined. Literally, your sanctification and your impact for the Lord Jesus depend on your decision to either rely on your works or to rely on the Spirit.

The Spirit is compelling you to use your liberty in ways that your faith causes you to become impatient for experiences of true righteousness in this world and the world to come.

The Spirit is compelling you to use your liberty in ways that your faith is expressed through love.

Christ set us free to love and serve others!

Your Christian freedom is not about you but about Christ and others. Bill Thrall says: As we move toward maturity, there are three broad categories of maturing in the Christian life:

1. “Me” centered—healing the needy new believer.

2. “Others” centered—maturing the healing believer.

3. “Christ” centered—releasing the mature believers.

One of the greatest gifts you can give to a young believer is a safe place (opportunity) where they can disclose what is true about the sin that is in them and where they can disclose what is true about the sin that has been done against them to provide a safe place where they do not have to hide anything. (Trueface)

Maturing is a process. When growing yourself or nurturing others, do not push maturity beyond the pace it takes for Christ in us (Christian character) to mature. Right answers do not equate to the right choices.

Christians who live by the “law of liberty” are doing the works you would expect from a follower of Christ. The Spirit is compelling and empowering them to bridle their tongues, care for the powerless (specifically, widows and orphans), and not allow this self-centered world to stain their lives.

Righteousness and spiritual maturity are, and always have been, by grace through faith.

Deliverance from sin and the reception of true righteousness comes only by grace through faith, not by following the Law or any set of religious rules and regulations.

The only way to live the Christian life is by applying the gospel. The Christian life isn’t a life of constantly trying to do better and be better for the God who has already accepted and declared us good enough for Him. The Christian life is a life of falling into our Heavenly Father’s love and living out our transformation as we trust in the good news about His Son and the good news about us.