Follow The Spirit
First, how do you receive the Holy Spirit? And what or who is it?
"Peter said to them, “Repent, and each of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins; and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.” Acts 2:38
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The Holy Spirit is given by God to those who obey him:
“If you love me, you will obey my commandments. Then I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Advocate to be with you forever— the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot accept, because it does not see him or know him. But you know him, because he resides with you and will be in you." John 14:15-17
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The Lord is the Spirit and changes us to be more like him:
"For the Lord is the Spirit, and wherever the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. So all of us who have had that veil removed can see and reflect the glory of the Lord. And the Lord—who is the Spirit—makes us more and more like him as we are changed into his glorious image." 2 Corinthians 3:17-18
The Spirit frees you from the power of sin:
"So now there is no condemnation for those who belong to Christ Jesus. And because you belong to him, the power of the life-giving Spirit has freed you from the power of sin that leads to death." Romans 8:1-2 NLT
More literally, the NASB identifies that "the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and of death."
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"He gave his life to free us from every kind of sin, to cleanse us, and to make us his very own people, totally committed to doing good deeds." Titus 2:14
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​​Your free will is intact so you must choose to let the Spirit control your mind
"Those who are dominated by the sinful nature think about sinful things, but those who are controlled by the Holy Spirit think about things that please the Spirit. So letting your sinful nature control your mind leads to death. But letting the Spirit control your mind leads to life and peace. For the sinful nature is always hostile to God. It never did obey God’s laws, and it never will. That’s why those who are still under the control of their sinful nature can never please God.
But you are not controlled by your sinful nature. You are controlled by the Spirit if you have the Spirit of God living in you. (And remember that those who do not have the Spirit of Christ living in them do not belong to him at all.)" Romans 8:5-9
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"Since we have died to sin, how can we continue to live in it? Or have you forgotten that when we were joined with Christ Jesus in baptism, we joined him in his death? For we died and were buried with Christ by baptism. And just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glorious power of the Father, now we also may live new lives.
Since we have been united with him in his death, we will also be raised to life as he was. We know that our old sinful selves were crucified with Christ so that sin might lose its power in our lives. We are no longer slaves to sin. For when we died with Christ we were set free from the power of sin." Romans 6:2b-7
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You will be a slave to one of two choices and outcomes
"Don’t you realize that you become the slave of whatever you choose to obey? You can be a slave to sin, which leads to death, or you can choose to obey God, which leads to righteous living." Romans 6:16
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Thank God! Once you were slaves of sin, but now you wholeheartedly obey this teaching we have given you. Now you are free from your slavery to sin, and you have become slaves to righteous living." Romans 6:17-18
​"Because of the weakness of your human nature, I am using the illustration of slavery to help you understand all this. Previously, you let yourselves be slaves to impurity and lawlessness, which led ever deeper into sin. Now you must give yourselves to be slaves to righteous living so that you will become holy." Romans 6:19
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So you can see that our choice to be slaves to righteous living will make us become holy.
This is what Christ set us free from sin to do.
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We have to become "slaves of God" to be free from the enslavement of sin which is true freedom. We will be enslaved to one or the other. We are being "conformed to the image of his Son" (Romans 8:29). In Christ, we "have been clothed with the new man that is being renewed in knowledge according to the image of the one who created it." Colossians 3:10
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"For when you were slaves of sin, you were free in relation to righteousness. Therefore what benefit were you then deriving from the things of which you are now ashamed? For the outcome of those things is death." Romans 6:20-21​
But now you are free from the power of sin and have become slaves of God. Now you do those things that lead to holiness and result in eternal life.
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Romans 6:22
This message is so significant, that I want you to see it again in a more literal translation, so you can verify the meaning for yourself.
"But now having been freed from sin and enslaved to God, you derive your benefit, resulting in sanctification, and the outcome, eternal life." NASB (literal) ​​Holiness is a synonym for sanctification (according to the Strong's definition of the Greek word used here).
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​​​​We are declared righteous by faith (Rom. 5:1) and God is setting us free from the power of sin so that we can “do those things that lead to holiness and result in eternal life.” This is not earning our salvation. This is God's provision and process. Scripture assigns responsibility to the believer. Through Christ, God sets you free from sin, enables you to obey him and do what is right which leads to holiness and results in eternal life. To put it another way, instead of being enslaved to sin which brings death, we can be free to exercise our free will and become slaves to righteous living which results in eternal life.
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It's easy to mistakenly identify our greatest need as immediate happiness. But you've now seen for yourself that in order to take hold of eternal happiness, we must know that our greatest need is holiness. Those who are not holy will not see the Lord:
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"Work at living in peace with everyone, and work at living a holy life, for those who are not holy will not see the Lord." Hebrews 12:14
If we make our choices within the restraint of God’s will that we may live holy, we are investing in eternal happiness. Remember in Matthew 7:14, "the way is constricted that leads to life." And it's not a burden to live this way. "For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments. And his commandments are not burdensome." 1 John 5:3
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Sow to the Spirit; reap eternal life
​"Do not be deceived: God is not mocked, for whatever one sows, that will he also reap. For the one who sows to his own flesh will from the flesh reap corruption, but the one who sows to the Spirit will from the Spirit reap eternal life. And let us not grow weary of doing good, for in due season we will reap, if we do not give up. So then, as we have opportunity, let us do good to everyone, and especially to those who are of the household of faith." ​​Galations 6:7-10
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The scripture is encouraging us not to grow weary of doing good because it's connected to what we reap. If we sow to the flesh, we will reap corruption, but if we sow to the Spirit, we will reap eternal life. James 2:24 says, "So you see, we are shown to be right with God by what we do, not by faith alone."
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You will live...if
“Therefore, dear brothers and sisters, you have no obligation to do what your sinful nature urges you to do. For if you live by its dictates, you will die. But if through the power of the Spirit you put to death the deeds of your sinful nature, you will live.” Romans 8:12-13
Did you observe the contingency? The condition that "you will live" is based upon what?
"if through the power of the Spirit you put to death the deeds of your sinful nature, you will live."
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Who does God assign this action to? "you"
You​ are empowered with the Spirit and act in partnership on the freedom you've been given. If not, in the second sentence of the passage, can you see there is another contingency; that "if you live by its dictates (your sinful nature), you will die?"
That instruction, “if through the power of the Spirit you put to death the deeds of your sinful nature, you will live” is assigned to us as our responsibility, but we have the power of the Spirit.
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What we do matters.
Remain in Christ next.​​​​​