As we continue our study, it may be helpful for us to take a brief overview of the truths that we’ve examined thus far:

Therefore there is now no condemnation at all for those who are in Christ Jesus. (Romans 8:1)

This verse hearkens back to the truth of the fifth chapter of Romans. There is no condemnation toward us because we have been justified:

Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. (Romans 5:1)

The Apostle Paul then described the freedom we have since we have died to self and we live for Jesus:

For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set us free from the law of sin and of death. (Romans 8:2)

In Romans chapter seven Paul indicated that although we have died to the law, we still struggle with our fleshly desires. He concluded chapter seven by acknowledging that Jesus can set us free from our body of death:

For what the Law could not do, weak as it was through the flesh, God did: sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and as an offering for sin, He condemned sin in the flesh. (Romans 8:3)

Paul then differentiated between walking in our own strength and walking by the Spirit:

so that the requirement of the Law might be fulfilled in us who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit. (Romans 8:4)

The key to walking in freedom and experiencing a life of victory is a life controlled by the Holy Spirit. We can choose to depend upon our own strength or we can depend upon the Spirit:

For those who are in accord with the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who are in accord with the Spirit, the things of the Spirit. For the mind set on the flesh is death, but the mind set on the Spirit is life and peace, because the mind set on the flesh is hostile toward God; for it does not subject itself to the law of God, for it is not even able to do so. (Romans 8:5-6)

Our identity is in reiterated later on as those who have the indwelling Holy Spirit:

However, you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you. But if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Him. (Romans 8:9)

Do you believe that the Spirit of God dwells within you? How long will you continue to follow your own will rather than setting your mind on the Spirit? A life of joy and peace awaits you as you follow His Spirit.