Galatians 5:24-25
“And those who are Christ’s have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit.”
When the Lord found us and saved us, it was such a wonderful moment. Many of us can recall the powerful emotion of that moment. In that moment, we realized that all we needed was the Lord and that we would never walk through life alone again. We understood salvation as a free gift; it was given out of God’s grace, not in response to anything we did or could ever do. All we had to do was believe and receive—so simple. But then the walking came.
This is where Christianity can become difficult. Salvation is free, but we are challenged by Jesus to deny ourselves, pick up our cross, and follow Him. To deny ourselves is to crucify the flesh with its passions and desires. To pick up the cross is to surrender ourselves daily to the Lord—a life that can only be lived as we walk in the Spirit. However, we must be aware of and sensitive to the Spirit’s leading, because we cannot faithfully follow Christ without the Holy Spirit’s help. If we are not careful, we can be deceived into believing that if we read enough, pray enough, or discipline ourselves into a joyless life, then we can keep our salvation and make Heaven our home. But salvation does not rest on our ability to obey; it rests on the finished work of Christ and His faithfulness to forgive us our trespasses when we confess them before Him.
God was fully aware that we are incapable of following the law on our own. This is why Jesus sent the promised Helper in the Holy Spirit. The Helper cleanses us, transforms us, renews our minds, and sanctifies us. We cannot live holy lives without the Holy Spirit. But praise be to God, for when we were saved, we received the Holy Spirit who dwells within us and leads us into lives of clean words, thoughts, and actions. So let us be sensitive to the Helper today and truly walk in the Spirit.