How do believers get separated from their old life of sin and bondage?
Believers escape sin's shackles and bondage through faith in the gospel: Christ died, was in the grave three days and three nights, and rose from the dead. That three-day separation in the tomb is the basic premise; without it there is no gospel.
Les explains that way back in Exodus, God was already giving a picture of this basic premise: there is no setting us free from the shackles of sin any more than Israel could be set free of Egypt unless three days separated them from their place of captivity. It is the same in salvation. If we ignore the basic premise of the gospel—that Christ died, was in the grave three days and three nights, and rose from the dead—we have no gospel. But when we put our faith in that gospel, those three days and three nights in the tomb separate us from the old life of sin and bondage. He also ties this to Matthew 12:38-40, where the only sign given is the sign of the prophet Jonah: as Jonah was three days and three nights in the whale's belly, so the Son of Man would be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.