Walking with the Spirit

A lot of people make the mistake of reading the Bible in the same way that they read text books, merely intellectually. In this way some become Bible scholars. But their way of life is not much different from how other scholars live, a little different from ordinary people because they have more knowledge, but basically in the same way, following their own desires. But God gave us the Bible to reveal to us the way by which we can be saved from sin, and sin is basically to do our own will irrespective of what God says. That is why God's word is called a lamp for our feet.

Then we see many people who have apparently decided to follow Jesus claiming that they are now free from the law. God makes us free from the law in the sense that it is not by keeping the law that we can become acceptable to God. God accepts us if we admit we are sinners who deserve His judgment, and when we look to Jesus to forgive our sin and to save us from sinning (Mt.1:21). This is to turn away from living for ourselves because of which we have sinned in the past, to following Jesus as our Saviour and Master. So we can see that we have not become without any law, but we follow the laws of the Spirit who guides us along the way.

On this way, our goal is to be always pleasing to our Lord (2Co.5:9). As we travel along, we find various old lusts from our flesh tempting us to please ourselves as before, or at least once in a while (Jas.1:14,15). If we want to follow the laws of the Spirit of God, we will have to deny ourselves our fleshly desires and then do His will. Isn't this to follow the law of the Spirit? It is easy to see that if we don't make this choice each time we are tempted, we cannot expect to become freed from sin's power or to become like Jesus.

But many Christians who find verses in the Bible that mention freedom from the law and walking by faith in Jesus for salvation even fight against this way of sanctification. They consider anything that we have to do as 'works' and wait for Jesus to transform them entirely from His side. Thus they do not enter spiritual battles but wait passively for sin to disappear.

But think, if we don't deny ourselves when we are tempted, what does it show except that we are not serious about overcoming sin? Then we are like people who say they want to be healthy, but who don't even take the trouble to be careful about what they eat and drink! They are deceiving themselves thinking that they are walking by faith!

"Work out your salvation with fear and trembling; for it is God who is at work in you, both to will and to work for His good pleasure" (Php.2:12,13). "Therefore, having these promises, beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all defilement of flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God" (2Co.7:1). "And he who does not take his cross and follow after Me is not worthy of Me" (Mt.10:38). People of God need to become active in our seeking salvation which God has graciously offered to us.