Every Christian knows by their own daily experience that the Lord does not take possession of believers and cause them to live lives pleasing to Him. Many would wish God would make them live righteously. The truth is that we have a part in this. As with salvation that was received “by grace through faith,” the Christian life is based upon “the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus” operating within the believer “by grace through faith.” Paul wrote; “As ye have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk ye in him” (Col 2:6).

How exactly did we receive Christ’s “the Spirit of life”? It was “by grace though FAITH” in Christ! Then how are we to conduct our daily walk? Our daily walk is to be “by grace through FAITH”... trusting him to execute His way by living through in us as He wills it.

But do we have ‘power’ to resist temptation to sin? The fact is that we have within our spirit all the power necessary… by the resident ever-present “Spirit of life in Christ Jesus” (Rom 8:2a), which has already overcome the power “of sin and death” that still abides in our flesh bodies.

“For the law (operating principal) of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath (already) made me free from the law (operating principal) of sin and death. (Romans 8:2 (KJV), which is “Sin in the flesh” (Rom 8:3b).

We thus have ‘the Spirit helping our infirmities (weakness)’ (Rom 8:26) in overcoming the ever-resent Sin-nature. Christ’s has cross “destroyed the works of the Devil” (1Jn 3:8). The power of His Spirit is freely provided within us, by His grace. Yet, this help must be appropriated by us…by faith as we face each situation, moment by moment in the course of our daily life.

So, there’s no blanket provision for automatic continuous victory throughout our life… we have a part in this. In the face of the trials of life and in the face of temptation to knowingly sin, we must look to Him, turn our heart to Him… in faith, trusting Him for the help we need in each separate circumstance. Only Christ in us can live the Christian life in righteousness… not we ourselves.

“For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure.” (Philippians 2:13)

With regard to victory over sin, is not that it’s not possible for the believer to sin, but rather that in any given case it is possible for believers to not sin. The fact is that deliverance from Sin is freely provided by grace… if we will but appropriate it by faith. The question in times of temptation is generally whether we truly desire to overcome. Of course we are not Christian robot. Christians still have a free-will; we can say yes to the prompting or restraining that we sense by His “Spirit of life” within us, or we can reject that innermost sense of the Spirit’s prompting or restraining and do as we please. We’ve then revert to self-serving rather than living to serve the Lord.

But just how is deliverance provided? Daily deliverance is provided us by the power of the Holy Spirit, which Paul calls “the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus (Rom 8:2). The Lord Jesus is “that spirit” within us!

“Now the Lord (Jesus) is that Spirit: and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty” (2 Cor 3:17)

Liberty from what? It is liberty from ‘the Power’ of “Sin in the flesh.” Sin was been neutralized at the cross! No believer needs to remain enslaved to Sin because “the Spirit of the Lord” lives in and through us. Christ’s own resurrection life was imparted to us when we received Him (cf. Col 1:27, Col 3:4a). He in us is the strength to overcome the wiles of Sin’s temptation that tempts us to live independent of the life and will of the Lord.

Also, when we face trials and seem unable to even to pray as we ought, “the Spirit (of the Lord) also helpeth our infirmities” and making “intercession for us” (Rom. 8:26). When weak and ill, we may be “strengthened with might by His Spirit in the inner man” (Eph.3:16). The Spirit even strengthens God’s people to physically sick to overcome sin, for we read:

“But if the Spirit of Him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, He that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken [strengthen] your mortal bodies by His Spirit that dwelleth in you” (Rom. 8:11).

The following verse goes on to say: “Therefore, brethren, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live after the flesh” (Rom.8:12). The thought here is that, since believers have “the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus” in them to help them overcome sin, they are debtors — and not to the flesh, but to God, to live pleasing to and in accord with Him.