Coming face-to-face with sin in our lives often leads to one of two responses: It may lead to feelings of guilt and shame that cause us to either run and hide or to simply stop trying and give ourselves over to a particular pattern of sin, or it may lead to a place of genuine confession and repentance followed by a deep trust in the power of God to help us walk in freedom.
Romans 8 provides for us a warning against living according to the flesh, but it also declares a promise that we can cling to in our battle against sin.
Romans 8:8-9 says, “Those who are in the flesh cannot please God. You, however, are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God lives in you. If anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to him.”
These verses give surprising hope to the believer battling sin in his or her own life. The hope comes in the form of the Spirit of God, alive and present in the follower of Christ.
What help is this in our battle against sin? It is everything! The promise of the Spirit of God living in a believer offers hope by way of the power of God—powerful enough to defeat the devil and raise Jesus from the dead—is alive and working to fight sin in our lives.
Paul goes a step further, too. Not only is the Spirit of God at work in the heart of the believer allowing us to battle against sin, but the Spirit works in such a way that we can actually please God.
We can have hope in our battle against sin because the Lord has given us Himself in such a way that by His power at work in us, we can battle against sin and live a life pleasing to Him. “And if the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead lives in you, then he who raised Christ from the dead will also bring your mortal bodies to life through his Spirit who lives in you” (Romans 8:11).
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