Galatians 5:16-25 “I say then: Walk in the spirit, and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh. (17) For the flesh lusts against the spirit and the spirit against the flesh; and these are contrary to one another, so that you do not do the things that you wish. ... (24) And those who are Christ's have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. (25) If we live in the spirit, let us also walk in the spirit.”
We have seen in a previous section that our spirits can only walk in righteousness while our flesh can only walk in sin. In the passage of scripture quoted above the Holy Spirit through the apostle Paul teaches us that our spirits and our flesh are completely against each other. The reason for that is because the spirit has the nature of God while the flesh has the nature of the devil. In this passage Paul admonishes the saint to walk in the spirit and not in the flesh, and so clearly the saint has the ability to choose how they will walk. The believer who chooses to walk in the spirit will walk in righteousness and free from sin, while the believer who chooses to walk in the flesh will walk in sin and “free” from righteousness. The believer who chooses to walk in the flesh remains righteous in their spirits however, for as we have already discussed, their spirits cannot sin. Nevertheless even though their spirits remain unaffected by the sin of their flesh there is still a consequence for their actions, which we will discuss in a later section. In this passage Paul goes on to say that because the flesh is against the spirit, the believer is hindered from obeying God’s laws. But then he reveals to us that those who exercise their faith in the finished work of the cross are able to crucify the flesh and thus walk in the spirit.
1 Peter 4:1-2 “Therefore, since Christ suffered for us in the flesh, arm yourselves also with the same mind, for he who has suffered in the flesh has ceased from sin, (2) that he no longer should live the rest of his time in the flesh for the lusts of men, but for the will of God.”
In the passage of scripture quoted above the Holy Spirit through the apostle Peter teaches us that the flesh is against the will of God, for the only desire of the flesh is to commit sin. And so we see that both the apostles Peter and Paul clearly teach us that to live in the flesh is to live in sin. Just as clearly, the apostle Peter admonishes the saints to refrain, as a matter of choice, from walking in the flesh and to rather walk in the will of God. As we have already seen, to walk in the spirit is to walk in the will of God, and so Peter is essentially saying the same thing that Paul says, for both apostles encourage the saints to walk in the spirit and the will of God, and to refrain from walking in the flesh. And so we have clearly seen in this section, that as an act of our will we decide whether we will walk in the spirit or in the flesh.
Romans 1:17 “For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith; as it is written, "The just shall live by faith.”
All believers know the above quoted passage of scripture very well, i.e. the just shall live by faith. What that simply means is that there is nothing we can do in the kingdom of God except by faith. So why is that? The answer to that question is just as simple. It is only by God’s power that we can walk as God has called us to walk, and it is only by faith that we have access to God’s power. It is for this reason that the Holy Spirit teaches us that without faith it is impossible to please God (Hebrews 11:6). And so anything done outside of faith is done in the flesh, which is why the apostle Paul teaches us that anything not done in faith is in fact sin (Romans 14:23).
Romans 6:1-12 “What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound? (2) Certainly not! How shall we who died to sin live any longer in it? … (11) Likewise you also, reckon yourselves to be dead indeed to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus our Lord. (12) Therefore, do not let sin reign in your mortal body, that you should obey it in its lusts.”
And so we see that we overcome sin in the flesh by faith and faith alone. In other words we must believe that the Lord Jesus has made it possible for us to no longer commit known sins. If we do not believe this is possible then we will never overcome sin in the flesh, for it is only through the power of God that we can overcome sin and it is only by faith that we have access to the power of God. There is no other way possible for the Christian to overcome sin, for if there was then we would not have needed Jesus, because we could have done it without Him. The passage of scripture quoted above puts the ball in our court, for the scripture tells us to reckon ourselves to be dead to sin and to not let sin reign in our mortal body. God is not unjust and He would not tell us to do something that we could not do. We certainly can do it. But we can only do it by faith in His transforming power, for it is the power of God that enables us to walk free from sin.
Michael E.B. Maher
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