Put on my yoke, and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls, for the yoke I offer is easy to wear, and the load I ask is light to bear

and you will know the truth and the truth will set you free."

Jesus answered them, "I most solemnly say to you, everyone who lives in sin is a slave of sin.

because, although they once knew God, they did not honor Him as God, or give Him thanks, but became silly in their senseless speculations, and so their insensible hearts have been shrouded in darkness.

For when a man is dead, he is freed from the claims of sin.

But, thank God, that though you once were slaves of sin, you became obedient from your hearts to that form of teaching in which you have been instructed, and since you have been freed from sin, you have become the slaves of right-doing.

For we know that the law is spiritual, but I am made of flesh that is frail, sold into slavery to sin. Indeed, I do not understand what I do, for I do not practice what I want to do, but I am always doing what I hate. read more. But if I am always doing what I do not want to do, I agree that the law is right. Now really it is not I that am doing these things, but it is sin which has its home within me. For I know that nothing good has its home in me; that is, in my lower self; I have the will but not the power to do what is right. Indeed, I do not do the good things that I want to do, but I do practice the evil things that I do not want to do. But if I do the things that I do not want to do, it is really not I that am doing these things, but it is sin which has its home within me. So I find this law: When I want to do right, the wrong is always in my way. For in accordance with my better inner nature I approve God's law, but I see another power operating in my lower nature in conflict with the power operated by my reason, which makes me a prisoner to the power of sin which is operating in my lower nature.

Thank God! It has been done through Jesus Christ our Lord! So in my higher nature I am a slave to the law of God, but in my lower nature, to the law of sin.

For the life-giving power of the Spirit through union with Christ Jesus has set us free from the power of sin and death.

For you do not have a sense of servitude to fill you with dread again, but the consciousness of adopted sons by which we cry, "Abba," that is, "Father."

For you do not have a sense of servitude to fill you with dread again, but the consciousness of adopted sons by which we cry, "Abba," that is, "Father." The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirits that we are God's children;

Now the Lord means the Spirit, and wherever the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom.

but now, since you have come to know God, or rather have come to be known by Him, how can you turn back to your own crude notions, so weak and worthless, and wish to become slaves to them again?

but still you did not scorn the test my illness made of you, nor did you spurn me for it; on the contrary, you welcomed me as an angel of God, as Christ Jesus Himself.

This is spoken as an allegory. For these women are two covenants, one coming from Mount Sinai, bearing children that are to be slaves; that is, Hagar (and Hagar means Mount Sinai, in Arabia) and corresponds to the present Jerusalem, for Jerusalem is in slavery with her children.

This is the freedom with which Christ has made us free. So keep on standing in it, and stop letting your necks be fastened in the yoke of slavery again.

I mean this: Practice living by the Spirit and then by no means will you gratify the cravings of your lower nature. For the cravings of the lower nature are just the opposite to those of the Spirit, and the cravings of the Spirit are just the opposite of those of the lower nature; these two are opposed to each other, so that you cannot do anything you please. read more. But if you are guided by the Spirit, you are not subject to the law.

But the product of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. There is no law against such things. read more. And those who belong to Jesus the Christ have crucified the lower nature with its passions and evil cravings. If we live by the Spirit, let us also walk where the Spirit leads.

For it is by His unmerited favor through faith that you have been saved; it is not by anything that you have done, it is the gift of God.

with darkened understanding, estranged from the life of God because of the ignorance that exists among them and because of the stubbornness of their hearts;

and set at liberty those who all their lifetime had been subject to slavery because of their dread of death.

For you have not come to a blazing fire that can be touched, to gloom and darkness, storm and trumpet-blast, and a voice whose words made the hearers beg that not a word more should be added; read more. for they did not try to bear the order, "Even if a wild animal touches the mountain, it must be stoned to death," and so terrifying was the sight that Moses said, "I am terrified and terror-stricken!"

But the man who looks at the flawless law that makes men free, and keeps on looking, proving himself to be, not a forgetful hearer but an actual doer of what it requires, will be blessed in what he does.

Live like free men, only do not make your freedom a pretext for doing evil, but live like slaves of God.

We have seen and now testify that the Father has sent His Son to be the Saviour of the world. Whoever owns that Jesus is the Son of God, God remains in union with him and he in union with God. read more. So we know by experience and trust the love that God has for us. God is love, and whoever continues to love continues in union with God and God in union with him.

"The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, for He has consecrated me to preach the good news to the poor; He has sent me to announce release to captives and recovery of sight to the blind; to send the downtrodden away in liberty and

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

I am the door myself. Whoever enters through me will be saved, and will go in and out and find pasture.

So if we died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him, for we know that Christ, who once was raised from the dead, will never die again; death has no more power over Him. read more. For by the death He died He once for all ended His relation to sin, and by the life He now is living He lives in unbroken relation to God. So you too must consider yourselves as having ended your relation to sin but living in unbroken relation to God. Accordingly, sin must not continue to reign over your mortal bodies, so as to make you continue to obey their evil desires, and you must stop offering to sin the parts of your bodies as instruments for wrongdoing, but you must once for all offer yourselves to God as persons raised from the dead to live on perpetually, and once for all offer the parts of your bodies to God as instruments for right-doing. For sin must not any longer exert its mastery over you, for now you are not living as slaves to law but as subjects to God's favor. What are we to conclude? Are we to keep on sinning, because we are not living as slaves to law but as subjects to God's favor? Never! Do you not know that when you habitually offer yourselves to anyone for obedience to him, you are slaves to that one whom you are in the habit of obeying, whether it is the slavery to sin whose end is death or to obedience whose end is right-doing? But, thank God, that though you once were slaves of sin, you became obedient from your hearts to that form of teaching in which you have been instructed, and since you have been freed from sin, you have become the slaves of right-doing. I am speaking in familiar human terms because of the frailty of your nature. For just as you formerly offered the parts of your bodies in slavery to impurity and to ever increasing lawlessness, so now you must once for all offer them in slavery to right-doing, which leads to consecration. For when you were slaves of sin, you were free so far as doing right was concerned. What benefit did you then derive from doing the things of which you are now ashamed? None, for they end in death. But now, since you have been freed from sin and have become the slaves of God, the immediate result is consecration, and the final destiny is eternal life.

Wretched man that I am! Who can save me from this deadly lower nature? Thank God! It has been done through Jesus Christ our Lord! So in my higher nature I am a slave to the law of God, but in my lower nature, to the law of sin.

For the life-giving power of the Spirit through union with Christ Jesus has set us free from the power of sin and death. For though the law could not do it, because it was made helpless through our lower nature, yet God, by sending His own Son in a body similar to that of our lower nature, and as a sacrifice for sin, passed sentence upon sin through His body, read more. so that the requirement of the law might be fully met in us who do not live by the standard set by our lower nature, but by the standard set by the Spirit.

This is the freedom with which Christ has made us free. So keep on standing in it, and stop letting your necks be fastened in the yoke of slavery again.