Your Helper the Holy Spirit: Session 8 – Walking in the Spirit

Notes:

Walking in the Spirit

1) Know Your Position

  1. A) Our position is that we are ‘in Christ’ (Rom.8:1)
  • Do we go back into Adam when we sin? There is nothing more ridiculous than that you can be in Christ one moment and out of Him the next.
  • Since a Christian is a person who has been taken out of Adam he has also been removed forever from the realm of condemnation. There is no condemnation to those in  Christ. Not now, not ever.
  • Because God deals with us on the basis of representation.

 

B) Our position is that we are in the Spirit. We are free from the law (Rom. 8:2-4)

  • Everything the law demanded Jesus performed therefore the law has no further claim on us.
  • If we want to be delivered from sin we must first be delivered from the Law,  1 Cor.15:56. Don’t go back!
  • The Spirit of life in Christ Jesus is now God’s way of living. We walk by the Spirit. He is the guarantor of our holiness. He will make it happen. He will reproduce the life of Jesus in us.

C) Our position is that we are righteous, and because we are righteous we will be holy (Rom. 8:5-7)

  • Holiness is not something you get by doing; it is the outworking of something you already have.
  • Rom. 2:12-13. Holiness is the outworking of righteousness, Rom.6:19&22.
  • When we walk according to the Spirit we set our mind on the things of the Spirit. We don’t ask, ‘How am I going to do this?’ But, ‘How is the Spirit going to do this?’
  • To be spiritually minded is life and peace (in contrast to enmity against God – see Rom.8:7).
  • Peace is a consequence of righteousness. The two go together, Rom.5:1; 14:17.

D) Our position means that we are pleasing to God (Rom. 8:8-9).

  • Those in the flesh cannot please God. Through faith in Christ we are not in the flesh but in the Spirit.
  • You can’t please God except by believing in His Son, Heb.11:6.

2) Understand the Nature of the Christian Life

  • We are body and spirit. Rom. 8:10-11. ‘The body is dead’. It is a mortal body, Rom.6:11. The seed of death is in our bodies. There is a principle of physical decay and of death already operating in us.
  • Even our body, will be delivered from sin and death, Rom.8:22-23. As our spirits are, so our bodies will be. My body will be sown in weakness, raised in power; sown a natural body, raised a spiritual body.
  • All this is certain because the Spirit dwells in us. His indwelling in the guarantee of our final redemption.
  • Though the body is dead, our spirit is alive toward God on account of righteousness.
  • Because of this we can mortify the deeds of the body. Sin cannot reign in us; we have been delivered from it once and for all, (Rom.6:13). Sin remains in the body and the Christian battles against sin there.
  • This struggle is not at the heart of who a Christian is, Rom.7:22-23. He is at peace with God, hates sin and is saved. But the problem is in his body.
  • The flesh wars against the Spirit and vice versa. The flesh wants us to behave in the same manner we conducted ourselves before we were in Christ. But the Spirit wants to live Christ’s life through us.
  • This conflict is without condemnation. God is not angry with us when this struggle takes place in our lives. It is an indispensable part of the Christian walk.

3) Learn to Live by the Spirit

  • Rom. 8:12-13. Paul urges us to be careful not to live according to the flesh.
  • These two verses are the application of Rom. 8:1-8 – ‘therefore’.
  • Paul’s approach to practical Christianity is first doctrine then application. Work out what He has worked in. First, discover what He has worked in, then work it out.
  • We are under no obligation to the flesh whatsoever. But, by yielding our bodies to the Spirit we put to death the deeds of our body. This is just a repeat of Rom. 6:11-13.
  • Don’t focus on fighting sin but on walking in the Spirit. Don’t fight the darkness, turn on the light. We will not overcome sin by attacking the flesh but by engaging the Spirit, Rom.8:2.


# Answers to this quiz are found in the notes above. Click on quiz to commence. Only correct spelling is recognised. A minimum 70%  correct is required to advance to the next session.