Freedom from Sin
So then, since Christ suffered physical pain, you must arm yourselves with the same attitude he had, and be ready to suffer, too. For if you have suffered physically for Christ, you have finished with sin. You won’t spend the rest of your lives chasing your own desires, but you will be anxious to do the will of God. You have had enough in the past of the evil things that godless people enjoy—their immorality and lust, their feasting and drunkenness and wild parties, and their terrible worship of idols. (1 Peter 4:1–3)
Those who are “in Christ” have been transformed. This transformation brings with it at least four benefits that Peter mentions. We no longer serve sin as our master; we don’t spend our days overcome by desires as we once did. We have closed the book on godless living.
We’ve sowed our wild oats. Most have had enough time to see the end result of this lifestyle of loose living. Peter calls that lifestyle “the desire of the Gentiles” (1 Peter 4:3 NASB).
Before Christ entered our lives, we had no power to withstand sin. When temptation came along, we yielded. We were unable to do otherwise. When the weakness of the flesh appeared, we fell into its trap. Though we may have looked strong on the outside, we had no inner stability. But when Christ took up residence in our lives, He gave us strength so that we could cease serving sin as a master. (Romans 6 is a wonderful section of Scripture on this subject.) Because Christ now lives within us, we have been released from sin’s control. We are no longer enslaved to sin. We’ve been freed!
Observe how “the will of God” is contrasted with “the desire of the Gentiles.” Notice, too, how “the desire of the Gentiles” —the old habits, practices, associations, places of amusement, evil motives, and wicked pastimes—are all scenes from the past. The list sounds like your average Animal House on some college campus: sensuality, lusts, drunkenness, carousals, and drinking parties.
We thought these things represented twentieth-century wildness! When it comes to a shameless, pagan lifestyle, nothing is new. What is so liberating about our relationship with Christ is that He fills the void in our lives that we once tried to fill with all that garbage. With the void filled, the gnawing emptiness that accompanied it is gone too. With the emptiness gone, we no longer crave the things we used to crave.
That’s where Christians are different from the world. That’s where we stand out. That’s where the light shines in the darkness.
Taken from Hope Again by Charles R. Swindoll. Copyright © 1996 by Charles R. Swindoll, Inc. Used by permission of HarperCollins Christian Publishing. www.harpercollinschristian.com
