THE FOUNDATION FOR CHRIST-LIKE CHARACTER
"But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you won’t fulfill the lust of the flesh.
For the flesh lusts against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; and these are contrary to one another, that you may not do the things that you desire."
After having been born again, the believer is required to grow spiritually by manifesting Christ-like character. This involves holy living enabled by leading of the indwelling Holy Spirit. Paul challenges the Christian to crucify the flesh with all its desires and walk by the Spirit. Paul begins with a charge to the fact that believer to live a life controlled by the Spirit of God.
The scripture continues to explain to us that there is a continual war between the flesh and Spirit in the life of the believer. This is because every believer has two nature's a sinful nature and a Christ - like nature which we receive when we accept Jesus as Lord and Saviour. Both natures have desires - one for evil and the other for holiness. But Paul admonishes us to overcome the desires of the flesh which he spell out in Galatians 5:16-17,we can do this by first crucifying the flesh and then bear the fruits of the Spirit. We crucify the flesh by accepting Christ's sacrificial love on the cross by faith and then develop a personal relationship with God. This way we can now bear fruit by Christ's strength through the guiding presence of the Holy Spirit.
Bearing fruit of the Spirit means living a God - centered, spiritually focused lifestyle which produces Love, Joy, Patience, Peace, Kindness, Goodness, Faithfulness, Gentleness and Self-control (Galatians 5:22).Again the Bible urges Christians to be led by the spirit. Paul explains that a godly life is not lived under the rules of the law anymore but it is a life led by the Spirit, because we have been delivered from the law by Christ's sacrificial death. Now we are led by the Spirit.
Since our two natures - the sinful nature and the new life in Christ are in conflict with each other, the result is that this keeps the believers from living by the Spirit.But ,believers should allow their whole lives to be controlled by the indwelling Holy Spirit and by this we can overcome the sinful nature and continually bear the fruit of the Spirit.