We are taking a brief break from the Taboo Series to deal with a subject that may seem to be basic but is one that we could definitely use some reminding about. We know about the Holy Spirit working through our lives the gifts of the Spirit but what is the true ministry of the Spirit that we can not do without?

So I find it to be a law that when I want to do right, evil lies close at hand. For I delight in the law of God, in my inner being, but I see in my members another law waging war against the law of my mind and making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members. Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, I myself serve the law of God with my mind, but with my flesh I serve the law of sin.
(Romans 7:21-25 - ESV)

You may have been taught that the life of a Christian is supposed to be like the struggle of the man talked about in Romans 7. Now, we all will be tested in our faith, go through challenges and encounter spiritual warfare in our lives but does God want us to have victory over sin in this life or to succumb to sin until we do and embrace eternity? Read Romans 6 and Romans 8 and you will realize that living according to the flesh (sinful way) is not what God intended for believers in Jesus Christ.

For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit set their minds on the things of the Spirit. For to set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace. For the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God, for it does not submit to God's law; indeed, it cannot. Those who are in the flesh cannot please God.
(Romans 8:5-8 - ESV)

Do you have sin in your life that you want to get rid of but you can’t? If you are trying to erradicate the sin in your life under your own strength and by your own efforts, you will not succeed. God has made it so we will not be able to solve our sin problem without Him. And it doesn’t matter if you are a believer or not.

Many times when preachers speak about the grace of God, they talk about the means that God provides for our salvation and the ability He gives us to respond to His calling to salvation. It is by the grace of God that Jesus Christ died on the cross for our sins and it is by the grace of God that His Spirit convicts to the point where we understand that we need to repent in Jesus Christ. But is this as far as God’s grace goes?

For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation for all people, training us to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives in the present age, waiting for our blessed hope, the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ, who gave himself for us to redeem us from all lawlessness and to purify for himself a people for his own possession who are zealous for good works.
(Titus 2:11-14 - ESV)

When reading this, how can we come to the conclusion that we are somehow supposed to sin in thought, word and deed all the time, every day? Is this the conclusion that you come to reading these verses? The passages in Titus are very clear that the grace of God working in our lives involves Him working the ability within us to live out a godly and holy life. This is part of the ministry of the Holy Spirit. And when we repent and believe in Jesus Christ, the Holy Spirit comes to make its abode in us. Just like the temple of the Old Testament had God’s presence, so His Spirit dwells in His temples (the believers in Jesus Christ) today. And it is through God’s giving of His Spirit that we receive the ability to overcome our sins.

And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules.
(Ezekiel 36:26-27 - ESV)

This was a promise that God had given to the Israelites in the Old Testament but the promise came with a condition. The people needed to repent. And the same is true when we repent today because when we do, we have God’s promise that we will receive a Helper (John 16) who will lead and guide us in all truth.

It is God who must work in us the ability to resist temptation and the ability to be able to overcome our sins. Better yet, we must allow the Holy Spirit to have the access in our lives to where He can do a deep cleaning and conform us to the image of Christ. This we can never do on our own, even after we have come to Christ. So remember, our confidence is to be in Jesus Christ, not ourselves.   Remember the words of Paul:

For we are the circumcision, who worship by the Spirit of God and glory in Christ Jesus and put no confidence in the flesh—though I myself have reason for confidence in the flesh also. If anyone else thinks he has reason for confidence in the flesh, I have more: circumcised on the eighth day, of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; as to the law, a Pharisee; as to zeal, a persecutor of the church; as to righteousness under the law, blameless. But whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ. Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith—
(Philippians 3:3-9 - ESV)

We would be wise to heed the words of Paul and put no confidence in our flesh, aka ourselves. The devil wants us to do this so that he can overrun our lives and have us in bondage to what he desires. Satan wants us to take our trust and confidence away from God and to think that we can accomplish God’s design for us to live a holy and blameless life by ourselves. But we can not do this ourselves any more than we can work the gifts of the Spirt ourselves and or that we can save ourselves from judgment. We need Jesus Christ. And this is why Paul says this:

I can do all things through him who strengthens me.
(Philppians 3:13 - ESV)

Again I tell you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the kingdom of God.” When the disciples heard this, they were greatly astonished, saying, “Who then can be saved?” But Jesus looked at them and said, “With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.”
(Matthew 19:24-26 - ESV)

It is only through God, through Jesus Christ, that we can be saved and it is only through God and through Jesus Christ that we can live out the life God has intended His people to live out. Because as believers, we will have challenges and trials and we will encounter all sorts of temptations in our lives. And yet, we are called by the Lord to overcome them all through Him.

CLICK TO READ PT. II