Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find your souls refreshed; my yoke is kindly and my burden light."

you will understand the truth, and the truth will set you free."

Jesus replied, "Truly, truly I tell you, everyone who commits sin is a slave.

Though they knew God, they have not glorified him as God nor given thanks to him; they have turned to futile speculations till their ignorant minds grew dark.

(for once dead, a man is absolved from the claims of sin).

Thank God, though you did serve sin, you have rendered whole-hearted obedience to what you were taught under the rule of faith; set free from sin, you have passed into the service of righteousness.

The Law is spiritual; we know that. But then I am a creature of the flesh, in the thraldom of sin. I cannot understand my own actions; I do not act as I want to act; on the contrary, I do what I detest. read more. Now, when I act against my wishes, that means I agree that the Law is right. That being so, it is not I who do the deed but sin that dwells within me. For in me (that is, in my flesh) no good dwells, I know; the wish is there, but not the power of doing what is right. I cannot be good as I want to be, and I do wrong against my wishes. Well, if I act against my wishes, it is not I who do the deed but sin that dwells within me. So this is my experience of the Law: I want to do what is right, but wrong is all I can manage; I cordially agree with God's law, so far as my inner self is concerned, but then I find quite another law in my members which conflicts with the law of my mind and makes me a prisoner to sin's law that resides in my members.

God will! Thanks be to him through Jesus Christ our Lord! [Move second part of this vers to follow vs 23] (Thus, left to myself, I serve the law of God with my mind, but with my flesh I serve the law of sin.)

the law of the Spirit brings the life which is in Christ Jesus, and that law has set me free from the law of sin and death.

You have received no slavish spirit that would make you relapse into fear; you have received the Spirit of sonship. And when we cry, "Abba! Father!",

You have received no slavish spirit that would make you relapse into fear; you have received the Spirit of sonship. And when we cry, "Abba! Father!", it is this Spirit testifying along with our own spirit that we are children of God;

(The Lord means the Spirit, and wherever the Spirit of the Lord is, there is open freedom.)

but now that you know God ??or rather, are known by God ??how is it you are turning back again to the weakness and poverty of the Elemental spirits? Why do you want to be enslaved all over again by them?

and though my flesh was a trial to you, you did not scoff at me nor spurn me, you welcomed me like an angel of God, like Christ Jesus. You congratulated yourselves.

Now this is an allegory. The women are two covenants. One comes from mount Sinai, bearing children for servitude; that is Hagar, for mount Sinai is away in Arabia. She corresponds to the present Jerusalem, for the latter is in servitude with her children.

with the freedom for which Christ set us free. Make a firm stand then, do not slip into any yoke of servitude.

I mean, lead the life of the Spirit; then you will never satisfy the passions of the flesh. For the passion of the flesh is against the Spirit, and the passion of the Spirit against the flesh ??the two are at issue, so that you are not free to do as you please. read more. If you are under the sway of the Spirit, you are not under the Law.

But the harvest of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, good temper, kindliness, generosity, fidelity, gentleness, self-control: ??there is no law against those who practise such things. read more. Now those who belong to Christ have crucified the flesh with its emotions and passions. As we live by the Spirit, let us be guided by the Spirit;

For it is by grace you have been saved, as you had faith; it is not your doing but God's gift,

their intelligence is darkened, they are estranged from the life of God by the ignorance which their dulness of heart has produced in them ??19 men who have recklessly abandoned themselves to sensuality, with a lust for the business of impurity in every shape and form.

and release from thraldom those who lay under a life-long fear of death.

You have not come to what you can touch, to flames of fire, to mist and gloom and stormy blasts, to the blare of a trumpet and to a Voice whose words made those who heard it refuse to hear another syllable read more. (for they could not bear the command, If even a beast touches the mountain, it must be stoned) ??21 indeed, so awful was the sight that Moses said, I am terrified and aghast.

Whereas he who gazes into the faultless law of freedom and remains in that position, proving himself to be no forgetful listener but an active agent, he will be blessed in his activity.

Live like free men, only do not make your freedom a pretext for misconduct; live like servants of God.

and we have seen, we can testify, that the Father has sent the Son as the Saviour of the world. Whoever confesses that 'Jesus is the Son of God,' in him God remains, and he remains in God; read more. well, we do know, we have believed, the love God has for us. God is love, and he who remains in love remains in God, and God remains in him.

The Spirit of the Lord is upon me: for he has consecrated me to preach the gospel to the poor, he has sent me to proclaim release for captives and recovery of sight for the blind, to set free the oppressed,

So, if the Son sets you free, you will be really free.

(I am the Gate; whoever enters by me will be saved, he will go in and out and find pasture.)

We believe that as we have died with Christ we shall also live with him; for we know that Christ never dies after his resurrection from the dead ??death has no more hold over him; read more. the death he died was for sin, once for all, but the life he lives is for God. So you must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus our Lord. Sin is not to reign, then, over your mortal bodies and make you obey their passions; you must not let sin have your members for the service of vice, you must dedicate yourselves to God as men who have been brought from death to life, dedicating your members to God for the service of righteousness. Sin must have no hold over you, for you live under grace, not under law. What follows, then? Are we 'to sin, because we live under grace, not under law'? Never! Do you not know you are the servants of the master you obey, of the master to whom you yield yourselves obedient, whether it is Sin, whose service ends in death, or Obedience, whose service ends in righteousness? Thank God, though you did serve sin, you have rendered whole-hearted obedience to what you were taught under the rule of faith; set free from sin, you have passed into the service of righteousness. (I use this human analogy to bring the truth home to your weak nature.) As you once dedicated your members to the service of vice and lawlessness, so now dedicate them to the service of righteousness that means consecration. When you served sin, you were free of righteousness. Well, what did you gain then by it all? Nothing but what you are now ashamed of! The end of all that is death; but now that you are set free from sin, now that you have passed into the service of God, your gain is consecration, and the end of that is life eternal.

Miserable wretch that I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death? God will! Thanks be to him through Jesus Christ our Lord! [Move second part of this vers to follow vs 23] (Thus, left to myself, I serve the law of God with my mind, but with my flesh I serve the law of sin.)

the law of the Spirit brings the life which is in Christ Jesus, and that law has set me free from the law of sin and death. For God has done what the Law, weakened here by the flesh, could not do; by sending his own Son in the guise of sinful flesh, to deal with sin, he condemned sin in the flesh, read more. in order to secure the fulfilment of the Law's requirements in our lives, as we live and move not by the flesh but by the Spirit.

with the freedom for which Christ set us free. Make a firm stand then, do not slip into any yoke of servitude.