The good news is God did not leave us to fight alone. He secured our salvation by sending the Holy Spirit. He teaches us how to “stand” by faith, like Jesus, who completely trusted the Father and who lived a holy life devoted to obeying the Father. In this age of already and not-yet the Holy Spirit is making us holy people. That is why He teaches us and enables us to live godly lives that will make us holy. We can be sure of that! To become holy, righteous, godly people of God all we have to do is live our lives in obedience to the Spirit, or as the Paul says, “We walk by the Spirit,” “live by the Spirit” and “keep in step with the Spirit....This is God’s surefire method for saving us from the power of sin. Think about it. Paul is not talking like a man struggling with the flesh. He is talking like man who has crucified the flesh because he has the Spirit of God living in him. He’s talking like a person who is no longer under the “curse” of the law because he is a person “led by the Spirit.” Then he says, “Since we live by the Spirit…” He is saying, “Since we live this new life through the Spirit let’s keep in step with Him.”
Every Believer set free from the power of sin can choose one of two options, either obey his sinful nature (the flesh) or obey the Holy Spirit. A genuine Believer chooses to obey the Holy Spirit and is “eternally secure” in the fact that God does not lie and He is faithful to His word. So when God says, “walk by the Spirit and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh,” he is absolutely sure that God is not lying to him. He knows he will not sin because he lives in obedience to the Spirit. That’s because the true Believers life is lived through the Spirit, “we live by the Spirit.”
