Walk By The Spirit

Good News: ‘If you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law.’ ¹

News doesn’t get much better than that. God has created a new means for us to live in agreement with Him, to have the full life He intended us to have in relationship with the LORD. Just so we can be clear of what is ‘under the law,’ we are given a summary of works that typify life lived under the powerlessness of the Law:

Now the works of the flesh are evident: sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these. ²

While we may say we aren’t that bad of sinners, if we are truly honest and don’t redefine our lifestyle, we are ‘those’ kind of people ‘for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.’ ³ Sin, by its very nature, is more crude than we want to admit. Sin is a vile departure away from the image of God and there is no appropriate way to mitigate how bad sin is.

I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God. ⁴

There is no way to soften the nature of sin—it is an affront to the LORD and cannot be tolerated by His character. Sin is not allowable in the presence of God. But, if you are led by the Holy Spirit, walking in agreement with the Spirit, there is a different fruit produced by His life in you:

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law. ⁵

God’s work in us by the indwelling Holy Spirit transcends any of the possibilities that life under the Law could suggest. Only by the enabling, leading and patient process within us does the Holy Spirit produce such a different outcome in the image of Jesus through the Spirit-led disciple. These fruits are not typical of the person living after the flesh but in the disciple, that flesh has been crucified with Christ.

And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. If we live by the Spirit, let us also keep in step with the Spirit. Let us not become conceited, provoking one another, envying one another. ⁶

Only in Jesus by the power of the Holy Spirit do we have the Way to live walking in the Spirit of God. And no thinking more highly of ourselves than we ought. It is so good of God to remind us not to think the fruit is of ourselves…