Attempts to bring the sinful body under control are often met with spectacular failure. In the Apostle Paul's day, worldly attempts looked good but were futile in bringing about inner change. These practices, Paul says, "are based on human commands and teachings. Such regulations indeed have the appearance of wisdom, with their self-imposed worship, their harsh treatment of the body, but they lack any value in restraining sensual indulgence." (Colossians 2:22-23) Plenty of effort, but no results.
The Jews were meticulous in observing ceremonial cleanliness, but neglected the real source of their problems – the sinful heart. Jesus said to them, "What comes out of a man is what makes him ‘unclean' [spiritually unclean]. For from within, out of men's hearts, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, greed, malice, deceit, lewdness, envy, slander, arrogance and folly. All these evils come from inside and make a man ‘unclean.'" (Mark 7:20-23) The heart is what needs to be changed. Maintaining a high standard of personal hygiene never produced a holy life.
And then there were Christians who tried dealing with sin in their life by their own endeavours. Paul asks them, "Are you so foolish? After beginning with the Spirit, are you now trying to attain your goal by human efforts?" (Galatians 3:3) If heroic efforts could not save them initially, how could they live a changed life "by human efforts"? They couldn't, and they didn't.
The Divine Solution
Only God can change our life. Our efforts are doomed to failure. Through the Holy Spirit, who dwells in us, we have been equipped and empowered for change. The sinful thought patterns that have been with us for years, along with the behaviour that leads to sin, can be arrested and our life changed by the power of the Holy Spirit. In the context of living free of sexual immorality, Paul tells the Christians, "It is God's will that you should be sanctified: that you should avoid sexual immorality... For God did not call us to be impure, but to live a holy life. Therefore, he who rejects this instruction does not reject man but God, who give you the Holy Spirit." (1 Thessalonians 4:3,7-8)
God, whose desire is that we live free of sexual immorality (pornography, lust, sexual affairs), has given us the Holy Spirit to make his desire for us become a reality. Our sinful nature cannot be defeated by our willpower, our determination or our resolution; "but if by the Spirit you put to death the misdeeds of the body, you will live." (Romans 8:13) Only the Holy Spirit can defeat sin in our life. The immoral thoughts and acts can be overcome when we become dependent upon the Spirit. We must acknowledge in prayer that we cannot be pure on our own. We need divine help. By praying in this manner, we are depending upon the power of the Lord to change us. We must hand ourselves over to God each day in a spirit of dependence upon him. This will be as a response to the divine nudging of the Holy Spirit, who creates holy desires and longings in our heart. This is how God put it, speaking through the prophet Ezekiel: "I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit in you and move you to follow my decrees and be careful to keep my laws." (Ezekiel 36:26-28)
Through yielding to the Holy Spirit, we are being empowered "not to think about how to gratify the desires of the flesh." (Romans 13:14) The pull in our heart to surf the internet for pornography, the pleasure of flirting with a work colleague, the urge to engage in lusting, the desire to take revenge and be hateful can be overcome by the power of the Holy Spirit. Furthermore, the surrendered life will result in our being "strengthened with power by his Spirit in the inner being". (Ephesians 3:16) And as we "live by the Spirit" we have the blessed assurance that we "will not gratify the desires of the sinful nature". (Galatians 5:16) It is clear then that the sinful nature that desires gratification outside the will of God can be defeated. I sincerely believe that by the Sprit we can live holy, pure lives that do not have even a hint of immorality. We don't have to be permanent victims to sinful ways. There is deliverance and there is divine power available to bring about a changed life if we "keep in step with the Spirit" (Galatians 5:25).
