Advantage: Holy Spirit - Selected Scripture Verses
Pastor Dennis Bone
2/27/11
ADVANTAGE: HOLY SPIRIT 2-27-11
A little boy was helping his father clear a vacant lot next to their house. The boy was trying very hard to lift a big stone but failing. His father asked him, “Are you using all your strength?” His son answered, “Yes, sir,” “No,” said the father, “you are not. You haven’t asked me to help you.” This short and simple story should remind us that our heavenly Father does not expect us or want us to face the challenge of living the Christian life alone; He expects us to ask Him for help, and to take advantage of the resources He has given us. We don’t have the strength necessary to win the battles of life, or go through the challenges and trials alone, thus God has given us spiritual resources to succeed through the gift of the Holy Spirit.
Last week I talked about the fact that Paul tells us in Galatians 5:13 to not give sin an opportunity or an advantage over us. The reason Paul tells us this is because as Christians we have the advantage; we have the advantage of the Holy Spirit. This morning as we move on in our study of Galatians chapter 5, I want to talk about this advantage as we look at verses 16 – 18:
So I say, live by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the sinful nature. For the sinful nature desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the sinful nature. They are in conflict with each other, so that you do not do what you want. But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law.
Have you ever watched a wrestling match? Paul paints the picture of grappling or wrestling back and forth, with the desire to come out on top. He uses this imagery to point out the spiritual battle we now have as Christians. This struggle or battle with sin is something we can all relate to, but Paul’s point is that it doesn’t have to be a fair fight, because we have the advantage; we have the Spirit. Without the help of the Spirit we will be pinned to the mat; but with the leading of the Holy Spirit, we will be able to pin sin to the mat and be victorious.
Last week, as you may recall, we looked at the topic of Christian freedom. Jesus Christ has set us free from the penalty and power of sin, through the gift of His salvation that we receive by faith. This doesn’t remove the presence of sin; rather it puts us into a conflict with sin, and it’s the Holy Spirit who leads us to victory in the conflict; and who directs our freedom.
The verses we are going to study this morning remind us and teach us about the calling we have as Christians; the conflict we are in as Christians and the conclusion that we want as Christians. Let’s first look at the calling we have. In verse 16 Paul writes: “So I say, live by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the sinful nature.” God has called us to be free so that we can live as His children in this world; and the way we are able to do this – to fulfill our calling as Christians – is to live by the Spirit. Paul explains this calling in Ephesians 5 when he says, “You were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Live as children of the light – which consists of goodness, righteousness and truth – and find out what pleases the Lord.” This is now our calling as Christians.
The Holy Spirit gives us a new nature and calls us to a new life. Once we were darkness, now we are light; once we were dead in sin, now we are alive in Christ; once we were enslaved by our sin nature, now we have been set free and given a new nature. As Paul points out here in Galatians 5, and I talked about last week, this freedom of Christ’s salvation calls us to responsibility. As Christians, who have been given the gift of new life, we are to now live a life worthy of this calling. We were not called by God because we are worthy, but it is in response to God’s gracious calling that we have the responsibility to live as His redeemed and forgiven children. God has changed our heart through the gospel, and with this change comes the imperative and expectation to live as changed people. Paul says, “So I say” or, in other words, this is the command you now have as Christians – “Live by the Spirit.”
We have the responsibility to make sure that our conduct and our action be governed and directed by the Holy Spirit. This is our responsibility or duty as Christians. We are no longer to indulge the sinful nature, or be led by those desires; because we have been called to a greater purpose in this life: to love and serve God. Last week I talked a little about this and made the point – number 3 on your outline – that we now have the opportunity and ability to no longer satisfy the sinful nature. Paul says that we are called, even commanded to do this, but we now have the freedom to fulfill this calling. We are not called as Christians to do something we don’t have the ability to do; we are not responsible for conduct that God doesn’t give us the means to achieve. This is why He has given us the Spirit. Even though we have a new nature, with new desires and new abilities, to be successful in our new life as Christians, we must follow the lead of the Holy Spirit. The Spirit both directs us and enables us to live godly and holy lives.
In Romans 13:14 Paul calls us to “clothe ourselves with the Lord Jesus Christ” or in other words, to put on His qualities and attributes in our lives; and then Paul tells us what not to do – that is, what is the opposite of clothing ourselves with Christ – “do not think about how to gratify the desires of the sinful nature.” We have two options or choices as Christians; this is the “freedom” that salvation has given us. It’s the freedom to sin or not to sin; the freedom to serve ourselves and our sinful nature, or the freedom to serve God by following the lead of the Spirit. It’s this freedom that brings us into conflict, which is the second point to consider from verse 17 of Galatians 5 – the conflict we are in as Christians – “For the sinful nature desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the sinful nature. They are in conflict with each other, so that you do not do what you want.”
The very fact that we are now called to live as children of God, because Christ has brought us into God’s family, is what brings us into this conflict. It’s an inner spiritual battle of desires – the desire to serve God and seek to please Christ; versus the desire to serve sin and please self – it’s the old nature or person, versus the new nature or new person in Christ. We enter this conflict because of our conversion. Conversion gives us a true awareness of our sin. We have been shown that we fall short of God’s standards and need Christ. When we receive Christ we are then instructed to not sin and are taught how not to sin by obeying God. In Ephesians 4 Paul says that when we became Christians we were taught in accordance with the truth that is in Jesus. He says, “You were taught with regard to your former way of life, to put off the old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires; and to be made new in the attitude of your minds, by putting on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness.”
It’s the Holy Spirit who gives us this new desire; He gives us this new ability to put off the old and put on the new; and we need the Spirit’s power to do this on a daily basis because it’s the Spirit who incites this conflict within us. The Spirit incites this conflict because of the continued presence of sin. The Spirit wants for us what is contrary, or the very opposite of what our sinful nature wants. This is a spiritual struggle and conflict we wouldn’t have if we didn’t have the Holy Spirit. We would not have the same awareness or conviction or concern or sorrow over our sin, nor would we have the same battle over trying to keep the desires of the sinful nature in check.
Paul puts it this way in Romans 7 when he says, “I find this law at work within me: When I want to do good, evil is right there with me. For in my inner being I delight in God’s law; but I see another law at work in the members of my body, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within my members. What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death? Thanks be to God – through our Lord Jesus Christ. So then, I myself in my mind am a slave to God’s laws, but in the sinful nature a slave to the law of sin.”
Paul is conveying the experience that we all have as Christians of knowing we belong to God and having the desire to obey Him, yet at the same time we fight against an inner enemy that has a different goal for us; and this conflict doesn’t go away. But we can overcome this conflict; we can be victorious in this battle because of Jesus Christ. Paul says, “Thanks be to God,” because it is Jesus Christ who rescues us from ourselves and our sin. He not only freed us from its penalty – for there is no condemnation for us who are in Christ – but also from its power by giving us the Holy Spirit. We have the advantage is this conflict because we have the Spirit. Paul explains this in the next chapter – chapter 8, verse 9 – when he writes: “You however are not controlled by the sinful nature but by the Spirit.” Yes, it’s true that the sinful nature is still at work within you; it still wages war with your members as Paul said in Romans 7, but it doesn’t have control, unless you give it control. It doesn’t have any advantage over you if you have the Spirit.
Paul continues in verse 10 saying, “If Christ is in you, your body is dead because of sin, yet your spirit is alive because of righteousness. And if the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit, who lives in you.” The Holy Spirit gives you the advantage. He frees us from the power of the sinful nature and leads us into righteousness. We don’t have to lose the conflict; we don’t have to give in to sin or follow its desires; rather we are free to follow the Spirit who promises to lead us into obedience and service.
You might ask, “Why does God put us through the conflict?” Couldn’t He just remove us from the presence of sin and take us to heaven, wouldn’t things be much easier.” Why didn’t He do this?
This conflict is for our benefit because we are being conformed to the image of Christ; He is working in us. God’s perfect plan of redemption was for us not to get all the blessings of our salvation at once; it wasn’t to remove us from the presence of sin and take us to heaven; and one main reason is that He wants us to go through spiritual conflict as His children, so that we grow up and mature as His people in this world, and be a witness to the world of what God can do for sinners by His grace. Our daily victories are based upon Christ’s redemptive victory for us; and His Spirit of sanctification in us. The Spirit’s role is to apply Christ’s victory in our lives, so that we can demonstrate the change that Christ has made in us, by living as His children in this world.
Sanctification is the process of winning the conflict over sin; and becoming more and more Christ-like in our lives. This then is the third point to consider from verse 18: the conclusion that we want as Christians – “But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law.” The conclusion we should draw from these verses is that we must follow the guidance of the Holy Spirit in our lives. This is the conclusion Paul wants us to come to so that we can fulfill our calling and be victorious in the spiritual conflicts of the Christian life. If we are led by the Spirit and follow His guidance or leading, we will not indulge the sinful nature, nor let that nature have an advantage over us. This is what Paul means when he says in Ephesians 5 that we are to be “filled with the Spirit.” The Spirit is to lead and control us, not the desires of sin. When you are led by the Spirit, you prove that you are not under the law.
Paul’s point is that we are directed by the grace of God’s Spirit, not the fear of God’s law. To be “under the law” means to be under its control or domination, and to be obligated to rules and regulations in order to be accepted by God. To be under the law only spells guilt and condemnation; its conclusion is one of penalty and punishment. The law brings fear; the Spirit brings grace. As Christians we did not receive a spirit that makes us a slave again to fear, but we have received the spirit of sonship. The Spirit does not impose the law, but frees us from its penalty, and enables us to keep it – not out of fear, but because of grace – the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ. We are saved by grace and we are led by grace. The Spirit’s work within us is an act of God’s grace. He graciously, yet powerfully leads us away from sin and self, and towards the truth of God’s Word and obedience to Him.
Our prayer should be, “Lord, make me more like yourself, and less like myself.” As we pray for God to work in us and continue to change us through the Spirit’s work of sanctification, we have the responsibility to follow the lead of the Spirit. We need to open up our minds to the voice of the Spirit through God’s Word, and through our prayers; we need to be willing to follow His guidance and direction in our lives. As Paul reminds us in Philippians 2 – it’s not our responsibility to work for our salvation; but it is our responsibility to work out our salvation – meaning that we are called to respond to God’s work in us; and seek to follow His Spirit.
As I said earlier, the freedom of Christ’s salvation calls us to responsibility; we are responsible to live as God’s children and fulfill our calling as Christians. Paul is reminding us in Galatians that we are set free from the curse and power of the law, because of Christ’s work of salvation, so that we can keep in step with God’s Spirit. This means that we should want the Spirit to lead us in every area and phase of our lives and conduct; and that we are willing to follow that lead.
I think at times we feel that we are at a disadvantage as Christians, maybe because of our culture and what seems like a deterioration of Christian values, or maybe because of personal failures and a lack of success in overcoming sins, or possibly because you think Christians should be underdogs. But when it comes to living the Christian life and fulfilling our call as Christians, Paul teaches us that we have an advantage – maybe not in politics or at our job or over circumstances that happen, but definitely over sin because we have the Holy Spirit. So don’t give that advantage back, rather live by the Spirit and follow His leading in your life.
©You’re welcome to recycle these resources for your church free of charge. However, if you find them useful, please consider making a donation to the ministry of GCC
Pastor Dennis Bone
2/27/11
ADVANTAGE: HOLY SPIRIT 2-27-11
A little boy was helping his father clear a vacant lot next to their house. The boy was trying very hard to lift a big stone but failing. His father asked him, “Are you using all your strength?” His son answered, “Yes, sir,” “No,” said the father, “you are not. You haven’t asked me to help you.” This short and simple story should remind us that our heavenly Father does not expect us or want us to face the challenge of living the Christian life alone; He expects us to ask Him for help, and to take advantage of the resources He has given us. We don’t have the strength necessary to win the battles of life, or go through the challenges and trials alone, thus God has given us spiritual resources to succeed through the gift of the Holy Spirit.
Last week I talked about the fact that Paul tells us in Galatians 5:13 to not give sin an opportunity or an advantage over us. The reason Paul tells us this is because as Christians we have the advantage; we have the advantage of the Holy Spirit. This morning as we move on in our study of Galatians chapter 5, I want to talk about this advantage as we look at verses 16 – 18:
So I say, live by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the sinful nature. For the sinful nature desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the sinful nature. They are in conflict with each other, so that you do not do what you want. But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law.
Have you ever watched a wrestling match? Paul paints the picture of grappling or wrestling back and forth, with the desire to come out on top. He uses this imagery to point out the spiritual battle we now have as Christians. This struggle or battle with sin is something we can all relate to, but Paul’s point is that it doesn’t have to be a fair fight, because we have the advantage; we have the Spirit. Without the help of the Spirit we will be pinned to the mat; but with the leading of the Holy Spirit, we will be able to pin sin to the mat and be victorious.
Last week, as you may recall, we looked at the topic of Christian freedom. Jesus Christ has set us free from the penalty and power of sin, through the gift of His salvation that we receive by faith. This doesn’t remove the presence of sin; rather it puts us into a conflict with sin, and it’s the Holy Spirit who leads us to victory in the conflict; and who directs our freedom.
The verses we are going to study this morning remind us and teach us about the calling we have as Christians; the conflict we are in as Christians and the conclusion that we want as Christians. Let’s first look at the calling we have. In verse 16 Paul writes: “So I say, live by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the sinful nature.” God has called us to be free so that we can live as His children in this world; and the way we are able to do this – to fulfill our calling as Christians – is to live by the Spirit. Paul explains this calling in Ephesians 5 when he says, “You were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Live as children of the light – which consists of goodness, righteousness and truth – and find out what pleases the Lord.” This is now our calling as Christians.
The Holy Spirit gives us a new nature and calls us to a new life. Once we were darkness, now we are light; once we were dead in sin, now we are alive in Christ; once we were enslaved by our sin nature, now we have been set free and given a new nature. As Paul points out here in Galatians 5, and I talked about last week, this freedom of Christ’s salvation calls us to responsibility. As Christians, who have been given the gift of new life, we are to now live a life worthy of this calling. We were not called by God because we are worthy, but it is in response to God’s gracious calling that we have the responsibility to live as His redeemed and forgiven children. God has changed our heart through the gospel, and with this change comes the imperative and expectation to live as changed people. Paul says, “So I say” or, in other words, this is the command you now have as Christians – “Live by the Spirit.”
We have the responsibility to make sure that our conduct and our action be governed and directed by the Holy Spirit. This is our responsibility or duty as Christians. We are no longer to indulge the sinful nature, or be led by those desires; because we have been called to a greater purpose in this life: to love and serve God. Last week I talked a little about this and made the point – number 3 on your outline – that we now have the opportunity and ability to no longer satisfy the sinful nature. Paul says that we are called, even commanded to do this, but we now have the freedom to fulfill this calling. We are not called as Christians to do something we don’t have the ability to do; we are not responsible for conduct that God doesn’t give us the means to achieve. This is why He has given us the Spirit. Even though we have a new nature, with new desires and new abilities, to be successful in our new life as Christians, we must follow the lead of the Holy Spirit. The Spirit both directs us and enables us to live godly and holy lives.
In Romans 13:14 Paul calls us to “clothe ourselves with the Lord Jesus Christ” or in other words, to put on His qualities and attributes in our lives; and then Paul tells us what not to do – that is, what is the opposite of clothing ourselves with Christ – “do not think about how to gratify the desires of the sinful nature.” We have two options or choices as Christians; this is the “freedom” that salvation has given us. It’s the freedom to sin or not to sin; the freedom to serve ourselves and our sinful nature, or the freedom to serve God by following the lead of the Spirit. It’s this freedom that brings us into conflict, which is the second point to consider from verse 17 of Galatians 5 – the conflict we are in as Christians – “For the sinful nature desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the sinful nature. They are in conflict with each other, so that you do not do what you want.”
The very fact that we are now called to live as children of God, because Christ has brought us into God’s family, is what brings us into this conflict. It’s an inner spiritual battle of desires – the desire to serve God and seek to please Christ; versus the desire to serve sin and please self – it’s the old nature or person, versus the new nature or new person in Christ. We enter this conflict because of our conversion. Conversion gives us a true awareness of our sin. We have been shown that we fall short of God’s standards and need Christ. When we receive Christ we are then instructed to not sin and are taught how not to sin by obeying God. In Ephesians 4 Paul says that when we became Christians we were taught in accordance with the truth that is in Jesus. He says, “You were taught with regard to your former way of life, to put off the old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires; and to be made new in the attitude of your minds, by putting on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness.”
It’s the Holy Spirit who gives us this new desire; He gives us this new ability to put off the old and put on the new; and we need the Spirit’s power to do this on a daily basis because it’s the Spirit who incites this conflict within us. The Spirit incites this conflict because of the continued presence of sin. The Spirit wants for us what is contrary, or the very opposite of what our sinful nature wants. This is a spiritual struggle and conflict we wouldn’t have if we didn’t have the Holy Spirit. We would not have the same awareness or conviction or concern or sorrow over our sin, nor would we have the same battle over trying to keep the desires of the sinful nature in check.
Paul puts it this way in Romans 7 when he says, “I find this law at work within me: When I want to do good, evil is right there with me. For in my inner being I delight in God’s law; but I see another law at work in the members of my body, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within my members. What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death? Thanks be to God – through our Lord Jesus Christ. So then, I myself in my mind am a slave to God’s laws, but in the sinful nature a slave to the law of sin.”
Paul is conveying the experience that we all have as Christians of knowing we belong to God and having the desire to obey Him, yet at the same time we fight against an inner enemy that has a different goal for us; and this conflict doesn’t go away. But we can overcome this conflict; we can be victorious in this battle because of Jesus Christ. Paul says, “Thanks be to God,” because it is Jesus Christ who rescues us from ourselves and our sin. He not only freed us from its penalty – for there is no condemnation for us who are in Christ – but also from its power by giving us the Holy Spirit. We have the advantage is this conflict because we have the Spirit. Paul explains this in the next chapter – chapter 8, verse 9 – when he writes: “You however are not controlled by the sinful nature but by the Spirit.” Yes, it’s true that the sinful nature is still at work within you; it still wages war with your members as Paul said in Romans 7, but it doesn’t have control, unless you give it control. It doesn’t have any advantage over you if you have the Spirit.
Paul continues in verse 10 saying, “If Christ is in you, your body is dead because of sin, yet your spirit is alive because of righteousness. And if the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit, who lives in you.” The Holy Spirit gives you the advantage. He frees us from the power of the sinful nature and leads us into righteousness. We don’t have to lose the conflict; we don’t have to give in to sin or follow its desires; rather we are free to follow the Spirit who promises to lead us into obedience and service.
You might ask, “Why does God put us through the conflict?” Couldn’t He just remove us from the presence of sin and take us to heaven, wouldn’t things be much easier.” Why didn’t He do this?
This conflict is for our benefit because we are being conformed to the image of Christ; He is working in us. God’s perfect plan of redemption was for us not to get all the blessings of our salvation at once; it wasn’t to remove us from the presence of sin and take us to heaven; and one main reason is that He wants us to go through spiritual conflict as His children, so that we grow up and mature as His people in this world, and be a witness to the world of what God can do for sinners by His grace. Our daily victories are based upon Christ’s redemptive victory for us; and His Spirit of sanctification in us. The Spirit’s role is to apply Christ’s victory in our lives, so that we can demonstrate the change that Christ has made in us, by living as His children in this world.
Sanctification is the process of winning the conflict over sin; and becoming more and more Christ-like in our lives. This then is the third point to consider from verse 18: the conclusion that we want as Christians – “But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law.” The conclusion we should draw from these verses is that we must follow the guidance of the Holy Spirit in our lives. This is the conclusion Paul wants us to come to so that we can fulfill our calling and be victorious in the spiritual conflicts of the Christian life. If we are led by the Spirit and follow His guidance or leading, we will not indulge the sinful nature, nor let that nature have an advantage over us. This is what Paul means when he says in Ephesians 5 that we are to be “filled with the Spirit.” The Spirit is to lead and control us, not the desires of sin. When you are led by the Spirit, you prove that you are not under the law.
Paul’s point is that we are directed by the grace of God’s Spirit, not the fear of God’s law. To be “under the law” means to be under its control or domination, and to be obligated to rules and regulations in order to be accepted by God. To be under the law only spells guilt and condemnation; its conclusion is one of penalty and punishment. The law brings fear; the Spirit brings grace. As Christians we did not receive a spirit that makes us a slave again to fear, but we have received the spirit of sonship. The Spirit does not impose the law, but frees us from its penalty, and enables us to keep it – not out of fear, but because of grace – the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ. We are saved by grace and we are led by grace. The Spirit’s work within us is an act of God’s grace. He graciously, yet powerfully leads us away from sin and self, and towards the truth of God’s Word and obedience to Him.
Our prayer should be, “Lord, make me more like yourself, and less like myself.” As we pray for God to work in us and continue to change us through the Spirit’s work of sanctification, we have the responsibility to follow the lead of the Spirit. We need to open up our minds to the voice of the Spirit through God’s Word, and through our prayers; we need to be willing to follow His guidance and direction in our lives. As Paul reminds us in Philippians 2 – it’s not our responsibility to work for our salvation; but it is our responsibility to work out our salvation – meaning that we are called to respond to God’s work in us; and seek to follow His Spirit.
As I said earlier, the freedom of Christ’s salvation calls us to responsibility; we are responsible to live as God’s children and fulfill our calling as Christians. Paul is reminding us in Galatians that we are set free from the curse and power of the law, because of Christ’s work of salvation, so that we can keep in step with God’s Spirit. This means that we should want the Spirit to lead us in every area and phase of our lives and conduct; and that we are willing to follow that lead.
I think at times we feel that we are at a disadvantage as Christians, maybe because of our culture and what seems like a deterioration of Christian values, or maybe because of personal failures and a lack of success in overcoming sins, or possibly because you think Christians should be underdogs. But when it comes to living the Christian life and fulfilling our call as Christians, Paul teaches us that we have an advantage – maybe not in politics or at our job or over circumstances that happen, but definitely over sin because we have the Holy Spirit. So don’t give that advantage back, rather live by the Spirit and follow His leading in your life.
©You’re welcome to recycle these resources for your church free of charge. However, if you find them useful, please consider making a donation to the ministry of GCC
