A popular book on overcoming sexual sin is titled Every Man’s Battle. We need to fight the good fight of faith (1 Tim. 6:12). But the challenge to live in victory over the world, the flesh and the Devil is more than just a personal struggle. Our commitment to personal holiness is a bigger battle than our choice to walk in obedience.

Reginald Wallace observed that this cosmic war involves the believer’s three enemies: the world is our external enemy, demons are our infernal enemies, and the flesh is our internal enemy.[1]  So overcoming sexual sin has bigger implications than just a choice for personal obedience. It’s a matter of being loyal to God‘s kingdom instead of the world, being loyal to Jesus and holy angels, rather than capitulating in spiritual warfare, and walking in the Spirit, instead of fulfilling the lust of the flesh.

Thankfully, as a believer in Christ, you are on the winning side! “What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things?… In all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us” (Rom. 8:31,32,37).

We worship God the Father, who is sovereign over all, and His kingdom will never end. We pray that His kingdom will come, and His will will be done in our lives as it is in heaven. So we can have victory over the world system that sponsors pimps, prostitutes and pornographers. “For the earth will be filled With the knowledge of the glory of the Lord, As the waters cover the sea” (Hab. 2:14). 

In Christ we can have victory over the Devil and his fallen angels. The Lord Jesus came to destroy the works of the Devil (Heb. 2:14). Some demons are are already chained in Hades, and the rest will be cast into Hell at the end of the age (2 Peter 2:4; Rev. 20:10). During Christ’s earthly ministry, He saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven, and through His death and resurrection Christ has been given all authority (Luke 10:18; Col 2:15). Christ has ascended above the realm of all angelic or demonic powers (1 Pet. 3:22). As believers, we are raised with Him and share His authority over our spiritual enemies (Col 3:1-4). Therefore, stand in Christ’s victory, suited up in spiritual armor (Eph. 6:10-18).

The flesh in us is corrupt and enslaving; it is prone to lust and self-deception. Paul said “In my flesh dwells no good thing” (Rom 7:18). “For the flesh lusts against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; and these are contrary to one another…(Gal 5:17). But the Holy Spirit in us is more than able to give us victorious life. “I say then: Walk in the Spirit, and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh” (Gal 5:16).

Regarding the enablement of the Holy Spirit in you, remember His powerful work at the beginning of creation. The Zondervan Pictorial Encyclopedia of the Bible states,

“As for the world of nature, in the beginning (Gen 1) the Spirit of God brooded like a bird on the nest over the formless primeval chaos. As a result, from chaos there emerged the cosmos. The Spirit, as the source of all energy and life, impregnated, as it were, the deep nothingness or formless void, and out of it came forth at the divine behest the vast realm of the created order. Once the creation had been achieved, the same Spirit conserves, renews, and withdraws life by a continuous process in the realm of nature (Job 33:4; Ps. 33:6; 104:30). Thus the OT justifies the epithet, ‘the One who makes alive,’ used to describe the Spirit in the Nicene Creed.”

This same Holy Spirit of God lives in us as believers and can give us the fruit of self-control (Gal 5:23).

So as we choose to walk in freedom from intentional sin patterns, let us consider that this involves a bigger battle than just our own experiences. We don’t live for ourself alone, we live unto the Lord (Rom. 14:7,8). Our testimony affects the advancement of God‘s kingdom, the health and growth of Christ’s church, and the ministry of the Holy Spirit in and through us.

“But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ” (1 Cor. 15:57).

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[1] Reginald Wallace, The New Life, ch. 1. GraceFellowshipInternational.com

JBW