The Good News is bad news for Satan, the spirit-being who leads all rebellion against God. Satan wants his own kind of resurrection—for your old, sinful self to rise up again. Our spirits have been reborn, but our fleshly bodies live in the same world. We’re tempted and still struggle with bad habits. Here’s the great difference: God’s Holy Spirit is now on our side, fighting powerfully for us.
For if you live according to the flesh you will die, but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live (Romans 8:13).
[I pray that] He may grant you to be strengthened with power through His Spirit in your inner being…. Now to Him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us…(Ephesians 3:16, 20).
Look again at Romans 8 and Ephesians 3. Did you discover your key to success? You overcome “by the Spirit.” He lives in you to strengthen you “with power”— more power for change than you ever thought possible.
Even as you grow, your faults will trip you up. Satan’s goal is for you to give up, to stop trying. Look at a baby learning to walk. When he falls, does he stay down? He gets up and tries again… and again… becoming stronger with each attempt. In the same way, God’s Spirit gives us increasing power for renewal. While we keep trying, we are also honest about our faults. Most of all, we have confidence in God’s grace.
There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus (Romans 8:1)
Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come (2 Corinthians 5:17).
But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin. If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness (1 John 1:7-9).
How much personal failure is removed by Christ’s blood? “All sin… all unrighteousness” (1 John 1:7,9). While we stay with Jesus (“walk in the light”), He continually washes us clean. Our holy status is not because of any goodness in us (Titus 3:5). It is God’s marvelous gift of mercy, and the perfect result of Christ’s death. Satan may win some battles along the way. But that is not the same as winning the war. In Christ we have won the war already!