If you believe God's Word about forgiving and pardoning our sins, but have difficulty believing His promise to subdue our sins and turn us from our iniquities, then you are not alone. Many people struggle with this concept. Yet, under the New Covenant, the battle is not ours; it is the work of God's Spirit. Indeed, Jesus has invested all of His might and power in the Holy Spirit for this battle.
The Holy Spirit is the great gift of the New Covenant, and He was sent to do in us what we cannot do in our own ability or strength. He is the one, after all, who wooed each of us to Christ, and now He has been given all power and authority to thwart sin's dominion over our lives. In fact, if we do not have God's Spirit dwelling in us, then we do not belong to Christ. The Holy Spirit does nothing isolated from the cross and the implanted grace of Christ.
I ask you: If you throw yourself on the mercy of the Holy Spirit - trusting Him completely, believing He is able to fulfill everything God demands of you - what enemy could stand against His power to accomplish all things in you? What temptation could overwhelm His might, which abides in you? The Holy Spirit simply asks that we come to Him believing that He has all power and authority to break sin's dominion over us.
Please understand that this New Covenant promise does not apply to Christians who are not convicted or troubled by their sins. It offers nothing to believers whose theology allows them to continue in their iniquities. Such people are libertines, turning the grace of God into lasciviousness. But to every lover of Jesus who hates his or her sin - those whose one great desire is to walk righteously before the Lord - the New Covenant offers power from above to destroy sin's dominion.
Make no mistake - God expects perfect obedience under the New Covenant just as He did under the Old. Thus, Paul urges us, "If by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live" (Romans 8:13). Our Lord has never once winked at our sin, nor has He eased up on His call to holiness.
Now, however, He has given us His very own Spirit to fulfill in us all of the Law's demands. This does not mean we are suddenly able to achieve sinless perfection. Nor does it mean that the Spirit will do this work without our cooperation. Rather, it means that just as Christ's sacrifice and perfect obedience suffice for us, so His Spirit subdues our sins and crushes their dominion over us, through our faith in the New Covenant promises.
How does the Holy Spirit do this in us? How does He break the power of sinful bondage in our lives? I honestly do not know. His ways are past finding out. But one thing is crystal clear: Our part is simply to trust that He will do everything Christ sent Him to do.
Walking in New Covenant truth is knowing that my battles are not really mine - they are God's.
I came to Jesus out of a homosexual background. Through the years I often questioned why God allowed same-sex attraction in my life. Did He make a mistake when He made me? Am I a black sheep, a "devil child"? Maybe God just forgot about me somewhere along the line. Even after accepting Jesus as my Savior, I still asked these questions.
I realized that my path to freedom is something I am totally unable to accomplish in my own strength. On my own, I am too weak to withstand temptation and do what I know is right.
Even though my emotions fluctuate and my personal life goes up and down, God's standard of truth does not change. The path to freedom is His work, not something I can do through my own efforts. And it certainly is not something that happens because of what I deserve.
Walking in His New Covenant truth is not a magical, easy journey. It is simply knowing that my battles are not really mine - they are God's. He will fight these battles - and will win - and He will help me if I ask Him. Understanding the New Covenant teachings and walking in His love, mercy, grace and power is the only path of lasting victory for me.
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We are also to be encouraged by the evidence we see of His divine work in us. He convicts us, opens God's Word to us, anoints our eyes and ears to see and hear His eternal truth and takes possession of our hearts as we respond to His wooing. He lovingly warns us and chastens us. He sometimes removes temptations from our hearts and oftentimes He makes Christ so real to us, it drives from our hearts all desire to sin.
God has sworn by an oath to give us a new heart - one that is inclined to obey: "I will give them a heart to know Me, that I am the LORD; and they shall be My people, and I will be their God, for they shall return to Me with their whole heart" (Jeremiah 24:7). Also, He states: "I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; I will take the heart of stone out of your flesh and give you a heart of flesh" (Ezekiel 36:26).
God fulfills His covenant with us not only to give us a new heart, but also to write His commands on our hearts. In other words, He promises to cause us to know Him. Again, the Holy Spirit is the one who accomplishes this work in us. He teaches us about the Father's nature and ways - and, in the process, He transforms us into Christ's divine image.
Our Lord has sworn a sovereign oath to be merciful to us in our struggles against sin. And until full victory comes, He will be patient and loving with us, never casting us aside. He promises, "No matter what I demand of you, I will supply you with all the power you need to accomplish it. I won't ask anything of you for which I have not made provision."
The same power that raised Jesus from the dead - and which enabled Him to fulfill God's Law through a perfect, sinless life - now abides in us. God's own Spirit is alive in us, providing all power over every work the enemy tries to bring against us. He promises to demolish all demonic strongholds.
But you may ask, "What about our part?" Our part is not easy. Faith never is. Yet that is the requirement in submitting to the Holy Spirit's work. By faith, we are to cast ourselves completely into His care and trust Him to lead us out of every satanic snare: "'Not by might nor by power, but by My Spirit,' says the LORD of hosts" (Zechariah 4:6).
When the enemy comes flooding into your soul, enticing you toward an old lust, call upon the Holy Spirit. Listen to His every whisper and obey His every command. Do not shut Him out. His deliverance will not work for you if you do not really want to hear what He has to say. But if you are prepared to do whatever He empowers you to do, He will not withhold His word from you. You will hear Him behind you, saying, "This is the way - walk in it."
You can move out of the Old Covenant and into the New in a single step. It happens when you see how impossible it is for you to overcome sin by your own human efforts. It dawns on you that a covenant-making God has sworn to give the Holy Spirit to all believers who ask and that He will accomplish in you what the Lord has promised by oath. So, finally, you abandon yourself totally to God and His promises. You believe He will perform what He has promised.