Walking in the Holy Spirit

MARTIN LUTHER ON WALKING BY THE SPIRIT

Martin Luther, commenting on Galatians 5:16: "So I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh."

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“Moreover, when I say that you should walk by the Spirit and should not obey the flesh or gratify the desires of the flesh, I am not requiring of you that you strip off the flesh completely or kill it, but that you restrain it.

God wants the world to endure until the Last Day. This cannot happen unless men are born and reared; and this, in turn, requires that the flesh continue, and consequently also that sin continue, since the flesh cannot be without sin.

And so if we look at the flesh, we are sinners; if we look at the Spirit, we are righteous. We are partly sinners and partly righteous.

Yet our righteousness is more abundant than our sin, because the holiness and the righteousness of Christ, our Propitiator, vastly surpasses the sin of the entire world.

Consequently, the forgiveness of sins, which we have through Him, is so great, so abundant, and so infinite that it easily swallows up every sin, provided that we persevere in faith and hope toward Him.”

Luther’s Works, volume 27 “Lectures on Galatians 1535.Chapters 5-6; 1519.Chapters 1-6” page 68