Spirit’s Help In Holy Living

Posted by: Sober Chick on: October 10, 2012

• In: Christian Walk | Growing In Christ | Renewing The Mind
• 24 Comments

This is a paper I wrote for my class in Systematic Theology.  The assignment was as follows:

“Alex excitedly tells you, “I recently received the Holy Spirit’s power. I’m no longer a carnal Christian like so many people. I’m just letting go and letting God. Now I can overcome sin with hardly a struggle, and I can live the kind of life that makes me acceptable to God.” Write what you would say to Alex, based on your own understanding of justification, sanctification, and the Spirit’s help in holy living.”

Hope you enjoy it.

I would first start off by telling Alex that there is nowhere in the Bible telling us that just because we become a child of God through salvation and went through the process of justification and sanctification, that we won’t have struggles with sin. We are powerless over our sin nature but there is hope and strength through the help of the Holy Spirit but we first must seek Him, change our way of thinking and allow God to work in our lives. Faith requires action, not just sitting by and letting things happen. We have to fight to stay on track and on the right path, otherwise the devil will get a foothold in our life.

It is true when the Bible says, “Greater is He that is in me, than he that is in the world.” But even so, we still have to be vigilant in our daily life and be sensitive to the Holy Spirit’s leading and guidance. Satan will attack this every chance he gets.

In fact Jesus told us we will have more attacks from the devil, because the devil doesn’t want us to please or bring glory to God. Satan will work overtime on believers. The good news is that we have weapons of faith that God has provided and given us to be able to sustain these attacks. These weapons of faith are explained as the “armor of God” as written in Ephesians 6:10-18. We are given the power of the Holy Spirit to aid us in times of conflict.

In a book written by Wayne Gruden titled, “Bible Doctrine”, he defines justification: “An instantaneous legal act of God in which He (1) thinks of our sins as forgiven and Christ’s righteousness as belonging to us, and declares us to be righteous in His sight.” He goes on to tell us that, “Legal declaration of justification by God affirms we are just in God sight”.

In other words, we have a right legal standing before God because He has given us forgiveness of our sins. This means we are completely forgiven by Him and are longer subject to punishment. It is important to point out that “legal declaration” in itself doesn’t mean that our internal nature changes and not even our character. Although Alex’s view of “letting go and letting God” can be a powerful way to live your life, it does not mean we are to be aloof and careless in protecting ourselves against temptations of the world. Being pro-active in our faith is important.

After justification there is sanctification. This process implies we are being set apart for God’s’ use. The Holy Spirit is predominately at work in the process of sanctification. Through God’s grace, the Holy Spirit renews us on a daily basis. It means we are to make a conscious choice to no longer love sin, be dead to it, and to stop and overcome patterns of behaviors that were sinful in our life. We are dead to sin and alive Christ. This should be our new mentality and our lives should show accordingly.

One of the greatest gift and resource we have to help us in this life is the Holy Spirit. He gives us strength when we need it. He gives us courage when we need it. He gives us wisdom, helps us make wise choices and speaks to us when He thinks we are making a wrong choice. He is our protector and teacher. He gives us guidance and direction. We must ask God The Father every morning to have His Spirit close to us for leading and guidance.

Tags: Bible, Bible Doctrine, Christ, Christian, Christianity, God, holy living, HolySpirit, Jesu, justification, Religion and Spirituality, sanctification, Satan, Systematic Theology