We must pay very close attention to the foundation of our spiritual fight against the body and sin and the world. Any fight that is not built on the right faith will not help us at all.

First of all, we must be absolutely sure that Christ does not work in us without the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit does not work in us without Christ. And we cannot do anything without Christ and the Holy Spirit.

The Holy Spirit takes from Christ and gives to us. The Holy Spirit does not give us something directly from Himself. But His amazing power is this: He is able to take everything that belongs to Christ and give it to us. Everything that Christ did and finished in His life is for us.

Christ did everything in Himself and for us—all the things we must do and all the rules of holiness that every person must keep before God: 'For them I sanctify Myself, that they also may be sanctified by the truth' (John 17:19). So there is no hope and no chance and no share in any holiness or righteousness or salvation for anyone without Christ's life or outside of Christ's life: 'But of Him you are in Christ Jesus, who became for us wisdom from God—and righteousness and sanctification and redemption' (1 Corinthians 1:30).

But at the same time, everything that Christ did and finished in His life against sin and death for us, in that He 'condemned sin in the flesh' (Romans 8:3), could not come to us or have power in our lives except through the Holy Spirit. The Bible says: 'For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and death' (Romans 8:2).

That is, the Holy Spirit—with His power and ability that go beyond human nature, beyond our minds, beyond what makes sense, and beyond our bodies—is the One who breaks the law of sin and breaks the power of death from human nature. He does this for each person through a secret and mysterious process. It comes down to making the life of Christ—the living Christ—take the place of our old sinful nature. He takes everything that is ours and gives us everything that belongs to Christ. At the end a person can say with true feeling: 'I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me' (Galatians 2:20).

All of this is based on one thing: we must believe and depend on the fact that Christ died on the cross as a sinner for us and rose from the dead as our Rescuer. That is, 'He was delivered up because of our offenses, and was raised because of our justification' (Romans 4:25).

But the Holy Spirit is also the One who convinces us of this faith—the faith in Christ's death and rising for us. He lifts our faith to the level of certain belief that goes beyond our minds and our understanding. So we find that even faith itself, which is the foundation of the Holy Spirit's work in us, is really not from us at first. It is God's gift that goes beyond us. But it becomes, if we keep holding on to it, something that belongs to us and a lasting work of God in us. It is the foundation for the Holy Spirit's amazing work in us.

The Holy Spirit Changes Faith Into Action In Us:

The faith here is faith in Christ's death that pays for sin and His rising for sinners to make them right with God.

The action here is the fight against sin so we can live a holy life.

Faith and action cannot be separated. But faith that Christ finished for us cannot by itself change into action—that is, into fighting sin to reach holiness—without something in between. That something is the Holy Spirit!!

The Holy Spirit uses our faith that trusts with all its might in the living Christ. Through faith, the Holy Spirit goes into the deepest parts of us—our mind and our will—and puts our thinking and will in a state of surrender and acceptance to Christ's thinking and will. Then the person begins to go through a deep change. They become able to work and fight sin with ease and with power that goes beyond all their old mind and will power could do. This shows that Christ is living in the heart through faith and the Holy Spirit is in charge of the mind and will. Everything that happens to the person after this is just surrender and obedience and happy obedience to what the Holy Spirit is doing. Until the person, with their new will and new mind, finishes the work of salvation by fighting sin with heat and strength against sin and everything that looks like sin.

It is clear from what Paul says that God is the One who starts the work first through the Holy Spirit in our will. He convinces us to fight sin with joy. Because of this, He tells us to finish—that is, to complete—what He started in us, doing it 'with fear and trembling' (Philippians 2:12), so we do not lose our salvation and His work in us becomes something that speaks against us. Look at where Paul puts the word 'because' between 'fulfill your salvation' and 'for it is God who works in you.' Our work depends completely on God's work in us first!!

This amazing and secret way that God works in us at the level of will and action happens because God knows perfectly how weak our bodies are and how powerless our will is against sin and death. 'For what the law could not do in that it was weak through the flesh, God did by sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, on account of sin: He condemned sin in the flesh, that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit' (Romans 8:3-4).

That is, Christ came to us in Himself, going beyond the weakness of our body. He gave us what He had in His body—righteousness and victory over sin—a secret and wonderful gift through the work of His Holy Spirit in us. He does this by lifting our will to the level of Christ's will and lifting our mind to the level of Christ's mind, until we can work and fight sin with joy: 'For it is God who works in you both to will and to do for His good pleasure' (Philippians 2:13).

So it is clear that God is the One who starts first with His work through the Holy Spirit in our will. He convinces us to fight sin with joy. Because of this, He asks us to finish what He started in us with 'fear and trembling' (Philippians 2:12), so we do not lose our salvation. Notice where Paul puts 'because' between 'fulfill your salvation' and 'for it is God who works in you.' Our work depends completely on God's work in us first!!

This amazing and secret way that God works in us at the level of will and action happens because God knows perfectly how weak our bodies are and how powerless our will is against sin and death. 'For what the law could not do in that it was weak through the flesh, God did by sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, on account of sin: He condemned sin in the flesh, that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit' (Romans 8:3-4).

So Christ came to us, going beyond the weakness of our body. He gave us what He had in His body—righteousness and victory over sin—a secret and wonderful gift through the work of His Holy Spirit in us. He does this by lifting our will to the level of Christ's will and lifting our mind to the level of Christ's mind, until we can work and fight sin with joy: 'For it is God who works in you both to will and to do for His good pleasure' (Philippians 2:13).

For this reason, the Apostle James says with warning: 'Thus also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead' (James 2:26). For doing the work of salvation and fighting sin shows that the Holy Spirit is working in our mind and will. It shows that Christ is alive in the heart—that faith is really alive!!

And the Holy Spirit uses one very powerful way to convince us to keep fighting and working and watching against sin. He lets us feel forgiveness and innocence because of Christ's blood. He washes and takes away our sins in a way that amazes the mind. This happens whenever we have fought truly according to what God wants and what makes Him happy!

Here, keeping the fight going and growing stronger is not from human will and not from personal ambition. It is truly sincere obedience to the Holy Spirit's voice and His pushing and wonderful call to the heart to keep fighting. And as a direct result of tasting the sweetness of hard work and continuous fight against sin under the Holy Spirit's direction. So every step in our spiritual fight against sin under the Holy Spirit's direction helps us grip more firmly the reality of what Christ's blood does and the reality of what justification means and the reality of eternal life: 'Fight the good fight of faith, lay hold on eternal life, to which you were also called and have confessed the good confession in the presence of many witnesses' (1 Timothy 6:12).

This spiritual fight, with all the inner workings that the Holy Spirit creates in our will continuously and with amazing joy and with amazing control of every lust and every wrong turn, through the work of every fast and every deprivation and every purity and every turning away from everything that looks like evil, and every time we stand in prayer and watch no matter how long—all of this is what Paul the Apostle means when he says: 'There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit. For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and death' (Romans 8:1-2).

For living according to the Spirit is exactly this sweet continuous fight against sin under the Holy Spirit's direction.