Series: Understanding Salvation
Practical applications
Lesson Introduction
The Holy Spirit took up residence in us the moment we were born again. He gives us power by which the resurrection life of Christ is manifest in our lives.
By faith the child of God relies upon the fact that he died and was resurrected with Christ, and now the Holy Spirit lives His life through you. The resurrection life of Christ is a moment by moment walk of faith by means of the Spirit abiding within you. Only as we walk in the Spirit will we overcome sin in our lives. Galatians 5:16 reminds us, “walk by the Spirit, and you will not carry out the desire of the flesh.”
The moment you believed on Christ the Holy Spirit took up residence within you. He came to dwell in you and lead you. He came to be your new master so the sin nature would no longer possess you. When you are filled with the Spirit you are under His control. When He is in control your life is in submission to Him and His will.
“And do not get drunk with wine, for that is dissipation, but be filled with the Spirit” (Ephesians 5:18).
When you are under the control of the Holy Spirit your life will be different. Just as your life is different if it is under control of alcohol or drugs. You are not the same. When the Holy Spirit is in control of your life you have a new kind of life. You are different. Your old self is no longer in control. The Holy Spirit is now in control of your life. His goal is to conform us to the likeness of Jesus Christ. We become different people when the Spirit is in control.
You want to know what we become like? Look at Galatians 5:21–22. The context shows us what we are like when we are not under the influence of the Holy Spirit.
God’s solution to our sin problem was to put us to death with Christ. He put us in the grave with Christ to remove us from the old realm in which we operated. He raised us out of the grave with Christ to bring us into a new kind of life. We have been co-crucified, co-buried and co-resurrected with Christ in order to walk in the newness of life with Christ. Christ lives His life in us.
Paul tells us to “reckon” on this great principle of victorious Christian living.
“Reckon, count it a fact, that you are dead unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord.”
Because of what Christ has accomplished for us we have been set free from all obligations to serve sin.
As we reckon upon the fact that we have been crucified and resurrected with Christ and we permit the Holy Spirit to live the resurrection life of Christ through us.
It Is His life in us that makes it possible to live the Christian life. As we yield ourselves to His control of our lives He gives us the resolve to say no to the flesh, the power to overcome temptation, the conviction that the Christian life is the only life worth living, the joy in the midst of our adversities, the perseverance to endure persecution. We do not have the power to put into action the new life we received by regeneration. Only as we walk in the power and strength of the Holy Spirit can we manifest the resurrection life. He produces the life of Christ in the believer. If we do not yield to the Spirit’s control He cannot manifest the resurrection life of Christ in us. The Christian life takes on a whole new dimension when we yield ourselves to Him so He can live out His life through us.
You have died with Christ and you were resurrected with Christ. Because of that great fact we are free to walk in newness of life.
Galatians 5:1, “It was for freedom that Christ set us free; therefore keep standing firm and do not be subject again to a yoke of slavery.”
These principles become real when you count upon them to be true.
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