“For if you live according to the flesh, you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the misdeeds of the body, you will live.” Romans 8:13
When we become children of God, the Spirit provides power that reshapes our desires and enables a different kind of life. Romans 8:2 says the law of the Spirit who gives life has set us free from the law of sin and death. So when we walk by the Spirit, we will not gratify the desires of the flesh. This is exciting! This does not make us infallible, but it makes us transformable.
The sole objective of our redemption is for us to conform to the image of Christ, to have the mind of Christ. The deliverance from sin’s penalty (justification) and sin’s power (sanctification) was the complete work of grace at Calvary. The appropriation of the latter involves putting to death our old nature.
Romans 8:3 says God sent His own Son to deal with sin. Christ condemned sin in the flesh, so that the Spirit’s righteous requirement might be fulfilled in us. As Titus 3:5 and 6 declared that, God saved us through the washing of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit, whom He poured out on us richly through Jesus Christ.
We can understand the process of our sanctification by studying the full story of man’s redemption, beginning not just at the garden of Eden, but from what preceded it. The enemy lost his position through rebellion and set out to deceive man, which unfolded in the garden. Yet God had already foreknown and planned our redemption. Through the ages, human as Cain was asked to master the emotion that arose from his fallen nature. Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, and every chosen lineage labored under the law that was meant to guard humanity until the fullness of redemption came. All human efforts failed.
The fact is that God has always intended to work from the inside out. In Ezekiel 36:26 and 27, He promised, “I will put my Spirit within you and cause you to walk in my statutes.” This was a promise of inner transformation that produces obedience. Philippians 2:13 shows us how this works in practice: “It is God who works in you to will and to act in order to fulfill his good purpose.” God himself stirs our desires and energizes our actions. The result, as Romans 12:2 describes, is that we are “transformed by the renewing of your mind.” Together, these passages reveal that sanctification is God’s work within us, reshaping our will, our actions, and our thinking from the inside out.
The victorious Christian life is walked out in daily dependence on the Holy Spirit. Galatians 5:25 puts it plainly: “Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit.” It is a conscious, moment-by-moment yielding to his leading, allowing him to direct our thoughts, decisions, and desires.
To keep in step with the Spirit means staying sensitive to his promptings and responsive to his direction. When he convicts, we repent. When he guides, we follow. When he empowers, we act. This is how the righteousness that Christ secured for us at Calvary becomes a living reality in our everyday experience, a positional truth worked out in practical transformation.
The Spirit leads us into victory. He is the one who stirs the will, renews the mind, and guide us to put to death the deeds of the flesh. The Christian who walks in step with the Spirit will find the life of Christ becoming increasingly visible in them, in their patience, their purity, their love, and their purpose.
This is the life we were redeemed for, a life of freedom, fruitfulness, and conformity to the image of Christ. The Holy Spirit is the very power by which this life is made possible. To live victoriously, we must walk with Him, in step, every day.
May God himself, the God of peace, sanctify you through and through as you yield to his Spirit in you.
Author
kay.alli@legalview.co.uk