We as followers of Jesus should make it our goal to live a life guided by the Holy Spirit. We often call this living a spirit-filled life. How can we know if we are walking with the Holy Spirit vs. following another spirit or our flesh? In Romans, Paul gives us a compare and contrast of living a life that follows the flesh vs. a life that follows the Holy Spirit. Romans 7 shows us what it’s like to walk in the flesh while Romans 8 shows a life walking in the Spirit. Let’s take a look at these 2 chapters. 

The Law

The flesh has rules it must abide by in order to continue to live. You must do this and not that lest you die. For example, you must eat healthy and exercise regularly or else your physical body will waste away and die. Without food and exercise our physical bodies will waste away until our heart or other vital organs fail to work properly. If we continue to ignore these signs our physical bodies are telling us, we will die.

This same principle goes for us spiritually. When you allow your flesh/physical body to be the boss, you have to follow the spiritual rules set up to keep your flesh from sinning and dying. We call these rules the law. When you walk in the flesh you are bound to the law. You must follow EVERY SINGLE LAW lest you be found guilty, and suffer the consequences of that guilt. Romans‬ ‭7‬:‭1‬ (‭ESV) tells us, ‬‬“Or do you not know, brothers—for I am speaking to those who know the law—that the law is binding on a person only as long as he lives?” ‭‭

With the physical body in the driver’s seat, comes bondage to the law. However, things change when you allow your human spirit to lead because your human spirit is ruled by the Holy Spirit. We call this living a spirit-filled life. 

Freedom Comes In Walking With The Spirit

Romans‬ ‭8‬:‭2‬-‭4‬ ‭(ESV‬‬), says, “For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death. For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do. By sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh, in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.”

‭‭This is not to say we shouldn’t still obey the rules God has set up for his people. We will still reap what we sow. We should absolutely continue to not kill or steal or commit adultery etc. 

The New Law

The old law which states: “you must follow every single rule perfectly, and if you don’t, you will be forever separated from God’s presence” is no longer in effect.

Instead, the new law says, “Jesus came in the flesh to do what we could never do. He lived a sinless life, died on the cross, and took our sins upon himself. Then he conquered sin and death by raising from the dead.” 

You no longer have to be perfect to be in his presence. The blood of Jesus has made atonement for every single rule you have broken or will break. Jesus came to take our punishment because he loves us. ‭‭Romans‬ ‭5‬:‭8‬ ‭(ESV)‬‬ tells us, “but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” 

God loves you so much he was willing to sacrifice his only son, Jesus, so that you can have the freedom to accept this free gift and be free from every single wrong thing you have ever said or done both in the past, and future. Furthermore, Jesus was willing to leave his place with the Father to come live a sinless life on the earth. He willingly died so we could be reconciled to the Father. In Hebrews 12:2 (ESV) it says, “looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.”

That’s right. Jesus endured the cross with joy in his heart. He saw the joy of being with you more than he saw the torture of the cross.

When we accept this free gift Jesus offers us, we then have a choice to make: Are we going to continue to live in the flesh or are we going to learn to live our life walking with the Holy Spirit guiding all we do and say? This is a choice each one of us needs to make everyday and sometimes every minute of every day. 

The Traffic Law

When we allow Jesus to be our Savior, we are placed in a new realm with new rules. It’s like when they build a new road. While the road is under construction the speed limit will be lower to protect the workers. Then, once the road construction is finished, the speed limit will be raised. We no longer need to drive slow to protect the construction workers, so going slow wouldn’t make sense. Which speed limit is the one we are supposed to follow? The higher speed limit because the lower one is no longer valid. If we are going 35mph in a 55mph, we will likely get pulled over and given a ticket. It would be dangerous to go 35mph in a 55mph zone. 

So it is when Jesus rose from the dead. He did what we could never do because of our sinful flesh. Now the law states that we must live according to the Spirit because if we continue to live according to the flesh we will die. The new law of life, freedom, and blessing trumps the old law of death, bondage, and curses. We no longer are bound to the law because we have been set free in Christ Jesus. 

We are in Jesus and Jesus is in us. Therefore, we have been set free from the bondage of the law. Does that mean we no longer have to obey the laws of the Lord? By no means! We just don’t have to follow them perfectly. We are cleansed when we fail to meet the requirements of the law because the blood of Jesus covers us. 

Living A Life In The Flesh 

Living in the flesh means a life full of struggle. Romans 7:15-20 (ESV) tells us, “For I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate. Now if I do what I do not want, I agree with the law, that it is good. So now it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me. For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh. For I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out. For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing. Now if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me.”‬‬

Living a life in the flesh means you know what you should do but your flesh continually fights you and you find yourself not doing all the things you want and need to do. Instead, you find yourself doing all those things you don’t want to do and you know are unhealthy. We know we should get up and move our bodies, but instead we sit on the couch watching Youtube. We know our bodies feel bad if we eat too much sugar, but that donut is calling you. We know we need to spend time in prayer and reading our Bible, but our flesh tells us to just sleep a little longer.

When we allow our flesh to tell us what to do, we rarely do what we are supposed to do. Rather, we find ourselves doing all the things we don’t really want to do in the first place. Really we want to get up and move, find a healthier snack, and spend time with the Lord. However, in the moment our flesh tells us we want the opposite. Then we must suffer the consequences of allowing our flesh to tell us what to do. We find ourselves in bondage to a body that hurts because of lack of movement, overweight because we couldn’t say no to that donut, and feeling like God’s voice is not there because we chose sleep over spending time with him. 

Living A Life In The Spirit

On the flip side, when we live a life led by the Holy Spirit we experience life and freedom. “For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit set their minds on the things of the Spirit. For to set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace. For the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God, for it does not submit to God’s law; indeed, it cannot. Those who are in the flesh cannot please God.” Romans‬ ‭8‬:‭5‬-‭8‬ (‭ESV)

‬‬People believe living a life surrendered to Jesus equals becoming a slave and losing the ability to have fun. This is a lie! Living a life surrendered to Jesus allows us to have the Holy Spirit teach us and lead us into a life filled with abundance and blessing. Jesus came to give us a life of abundance. It’s Satan who wants to take everything we have and leave us to die. “The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I (Jesus) came that they may have life and have it abundantly.” John‬ ‭10‬:‭10‬ ‭(ESV)‬‬(words in parenthesis mine)

Free To Choose The Right Thing

Why does allowing the Holy Spirit to lead you cause you to be free? We become free to choose to do the right thing. Doing the right thing leads to other good things happening in our life. 

Let’s say we own a business and we notice a customer overpaid for our service. They haven’t noticed…yet. We could keep the extra money and treat our family to a nice meal. After all, there is a chance they will never notice they overpaid us. Or we could choose to do the right thing and give that money back to the customer. What will the end result be? Well, if we choose to give the money back, the customer will be so delighted at our honesty they will recommend us to all of their friends and family. We could end up earning much more money because of the extra work. On the flip side, if we chose to keep the money, the customer might discover the discrepancy and figure out we over charged them. Will they be so quick to suggest our company to their friends and family? No, in fact they will likely tell them to stay away from us because we are crooks. 

When we live a life led by the Holy Spirit, we are free to make the right decision – give back the money – and as a result we reap the fruit – more money via future business. 

Are You A Victim?

When we live our life in the flesh we become perpetual victims to our situation. “For we know that the law is spiritual, but I am of the flesh, sold under sin. So I find it to be a law that when I want to do right, evil lies close at hand. For I delight in the law of God, in my inner being, but I see in my members another law waging war against the law of my mind and making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members.” ‭‭Romans‬ ‭7‬:‭14‬, ‭21‬-‭23‬ ‭(ESV)‬‬ 

We will be taken captive to sin because we are still trying to live our life under the old law. We will find ourselves running in circles, getting nowhere. You will feel like you can never get ahead. You will make plans but find those plans fail because you aren’t working with the Holy Spirit to make those plans. If you feel this way, I encourage you to spend some time in prayer and even fasting to discover with the Holy Spirit where you need to make changes.    

Or A Conqueror                                                   

When you are living a spirit led life you become more than a conqueror! “No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.” Romans‬ ‭8‬:‭37‬ ‭(ESV) How can this be? Jesus makes you a conqueror because you are living in him and he in you. Because Jesus is more than a conqueror, you also become more than a conqueror when you are in Jesus. ‬‬When attacks from the enemy try to come your way, you are able to work with Jesus to stop them. 

Brett and I recently had to work with Jesus to stop lies about us from spreading. We fought the fight in prayer with Jesus in the spirit before we ever confronted the lies. Because we did this, the people wanting to spread the lies were silenced and left our group. We became more than conquerors because we allowed Jesus to fight on our behalf. 

A Life Of Condemnation

When you are living a life with your flesh in control, you will face a life filled with shame and condemnation. You want to make the right choice, but you find yourself choosing the sinful choice instead. Then, after making the wrong decision, the enemy will come to you and remind you that you made the wrong choice, and he will tell you that you are just a dirty, rotten sinner who doesn’t really deserve the love and forgiveness of Jesus. Furthermore, there is no such thing as grace when you are bound to the law. You must follow the law because if you don’t you will have to live with unholy titles. 

“For a married woman is bound by law to her husband while he lives, but if her husband dies she is released from the law of marriage. Accordingly, she will be called an adulteress if she lives with another man while her husband is alive. But if her husband dies, she is free from that law, and if she marries another man she is not an adulteress.” ‭‭Romans‬ ‭7‬:‭2‬-‭3‬ ‭(ESV)‬‬

The choices you make determine what your identity is according to how well you follow the law. When you choose the action, under the law, you choose the identity that goes with it. According to the law, you must remain married no matter what. If you choose to divorce and remarry you will be considered an adultress. If you steal, you become a thief. When you lie you become a liar. Your identity will be those things until you make a sacrifice and clear your guilt before the Lord.

No More Condemnation

However, when you are filled with the spirit you are told that there is no condemnation no matter what you do wrong. There is grace to cover you when you sin. This means the accusations no longer hold power over you. The enemy can accuse you of anything he wants, but every single accusation is a lie because the blood of Jesus has taken care of every sin you ever made and ever will make. “There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.” Romans‬ ‭8‬:‭1‬ ‭(ESV)‬‬ 

Accusations no longer have power over you, even if there is a hint of truth in them. Accusations come from the enemy and as a child of God, they no longer have power over you. God says you have no condemnation because you are in Jesus. This is very good news!

So, what is your choice? Are you going to live according to the flesh, and be chained to the law? The other choice is to live according to the Spirit and live a life of freedom! The choice is yours to make.