Encouragement to walk after the spirit
There is a spirit that's been given to us in the word of God, and when we let it fill our hearts, it begins to work effectually in us to free us from the law of sin and death, so that we can serve God. In Romans 8:22, Paul tells us, "The law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set me free from the law of sin and death. For what the law could not do in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh." The sin in our lives has already been judged, and we don’t have to carry that judgment anymore. Yes, sin exists, but we are not obligated to follow it: we are not a debtor to the flesh. God has not asked us to fix our flesh; he's asked us to reckon it dead. Quit trying to fix it. The moment we try to fix it is the moment we've given it its power back. It's dead, it's condemned; we don't have to fix anything in it.
God did this so that we could fulfill His law, which we couldn’t do in the flesh because of our sin nature, and now through his Spirit, the righteousness of the law is being fulfilled in us who walk not after the flesh but after the Spirit. The moment we try to fix our sinful nature ourselves, we lose the battle. God has freely given us the gift of life through His Son, who has risen from the dead. We, as believers, need to learn how to come into union with Christ, through the written word, because without this union to Christ, though we are saved, and can still struggle to do what God wants. It’s important to understand how to live in unity with the Son of God through the Spirit [of the written Word] renewing our minds, so that He can work his life in us to bring forth fruit unto God.
