Lesson 11 Walking by the Spirit
Questions 3 and 4
What we've seen in this course is that this freedom happens at the cross. At the cross, Jesus entered your darkness (Luke 23:44-46) to rescue you out of it. "For he has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son he loves, 14 in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins" (Colossians 1:13-14). He was nailed to the cross to break your chains and set you free!
And now, through the death and resurrection of Jesus, God has given us the Holy Spirit. And He is the key to freedom!
Earlier in this course, we learned that we receive the Spirit by hearing and believing the good news about the cross (Ephesians 1:13; Galatians 3:1-5). This truth was illustrated by the Israelites receiving the fresh flowing water when the rock was struck (Exodus 17:1-6).
We also learned the importance of coming to the cross daily and often, receiving more good news and experiencing the Holy Spirit's ongoing power. The cross and the Spirit are united (1 Corinthians 2:2-5).
So, what you need to hear is:
Jesus took your sins upon Himself and suffered and died to forgive you and free you.
Jesus loved you enough to step in front of the arrows of God's wrath, and He died instead of you (1 Thessalonians 1:10)!
Jesus became the "bull" that died with your sins on Him, and the "Scapegoat" that removed your sins far from you on that great "Day of Atonement" (Leviticus 16).
And if we will believe this good news, the Holy Spirit's power will be all over us! And His power is what we need to be free.
For the remainder of this lesson, we will look at the work of the Holy Spirit. As we've seen before, our role is to learn how to walk by the Spirit so that we don't gratify the lusts of our flesh (Galatians 5:16).
Let’s look together at Galatians chapter 5:
“You, my brothers, and sisters, were called to be free. But do not use your freedom to indulge the flesh; rather, serve one another humbly in love. 14 For the entire law is fulfilled in keeping this one command: “Love your neighbor as yourself.” 15 If you bite and devour each other, watch out or you will be destroyed by each other.” Galatians 5:13-15 (NIV)
Question 3. According to Galatians 5:13, what were you called to be?