The mantra to remember in theology is, “I am wrong. Jesus is right.” How do we correct our beliefs? We look to Jesus.
Does Jesus himself teach us the truth? Indirectly: We look at what he taught in the scriptures. But whenever there are blanks to be filled in, the Holy Spirit does fills in those blanks. Jesus is the truth, (Jn 14.6) and the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of truth, guides us into all truth. (Jn 16.13) He points our way to Jesus, applies everything that’s in Jesus’s authority to give us, (Jn 16.15) and corrects us when we’re wrong.
And once we’ve been through step 1—we realize we’re sinners, that we’re powerless over sin when we’re separated from God, that we can’t manage our lives—we must proceed to the only way out of this mess. We must realize the Holy Spirit can fix us.
We must realize he’s the only person who can. We can’t fix ourselves. We tried that. It doesn’t work. We need help.
Secular 12-step groups replace “Holy Spirit” with “higher power.” Christian 12-step groups tend to use “Jesus,” which is a step in the right direction. But the only reason I don’t say Jesus is because Jesus clearly stated the Holy Spirit is to be our helper. (Jn 15.26) Yes, both Jesus and the Holy Spirit are God: The problem isn’t that they aren’t One, don’t communicate, and if you only talk to Jesus the Spirit might miss the memo. It’s that Jesus made the distinction, and made it for sound reasons. So it’s best that we obey Jesus, and depend upon the Helper he put in place.
Besides: The Holy Spirit is the one with the power.
We are powerless. The Spirit is almighty.
How’d Jesus perform his miracles? The short answer Christians usually put forward is, “He’s God. Of course he can do miracles.” But that’s actually the wrong answer. Yes, Jesus is God, but Jesus is God after he emptied himself of power in order to become human. (Pp 2.5-7) So Jesus had no divine, miraculous power. That being the case, now how’d Jesus perform his miracles? Simple: He had the Holy Spirit. (Ac 10.38)
The Holy Spirit was never emptied of power in order to become human. He’s still as Almighty as he’s always been. He’s just as capable of creating universes as he was when he created ours. And he’s here to help us. Not to do whatever we want or say, as if we’re the master and he’s our magic genie; the Holy Spirit is still Lord. But the Holy Spirit doesn’t want an “I’m the boss, you’re the slave” sort of relationship. He wants, mind-blowingly enough, a partnership: We follow Jesus, and he helps us follow Jesus.
So if we want to follow Jesus by not sinning, he’s here to help. And if your excuse is, “But I can’t stop,” then you’re clearly not taking advantage of the Holy Spirit’s offer to help. Of course we can’t go without sinning under our own power. But when we avail ourselves of the infinite almighty power of the creator of heaven and earth, the only thing we can’t do… is sin.
Can the Holy Spirit help? Absolutely he can. Will he help? Yes. That’s why he’s here.
Carnal people think carnal things.
Spirit-led people
think Spirit-led things.The carnal mind
produces death.The Spirit-led mind
produces life and peace.The carnal mind
produces hatred toward God.It won’t submit to God’s Law; it can’t.
Those who live carnally can’t please God.
None of you live carnally:
You live spiritually, since God’s Spirit dwells in you.
If anyone doesn’t have Messiah’s Spirit,
this doesn’t
describe them.—Paul, Romans 8.5-9 KWL
So why do people still sin?
So if all of us Christians have access to so great a power, why do we still sin so much? Obviously it’s because we don’t tap into that power. For all sorts of reasons.
Some folks like their sins too much, so they’ll never go to the Spirit for help. They’re kinda hoping when the Spirit resurrects them at Jesus’s Second Coming, the new improved bodies they’ll get will be reprogrammed so they’ll no longer want, or enjoy, what they currently love so much. But until that happens, they’re not gonna bother to reprogram themselves. Their figuring this form of idolatry—this worship of their sin, this giving it an absolute precedence above following God—will be overlooked in the resurrection; that God’s grace will be big enough to make up for the fact that they never actually followed him. But Jesus doesn’t warn us against this sort of thing for no reason.
Some folks really don’t believe the Holy Spirit is Almighty. They think God turned off the miracles, so the idea that the Spirit can miraculously get them to stop sinning doesn’t work for them. They think God forsake us, and left us to figure these things out on our own, and stop sinning by our own willpower. Or they think God knows we’ll never stop sinning by our own willpower, ’cause it’s impossible, so he’s pouring on the grace. And maybe they’ll make the effort to stop. But more often, they don’t, and hope God’s grace will be enough.
Some folks have redefined all their sins so they don’t look like sins anymore. Yeah, they’re hypocrites, and are just lying to everyone—and themselves—but this is their way of not depending on the Holy Spirit any, while still feeling like they’ve cut way back on the sin. They don’t lie (except for lies of omission, which they figure don’t count). They don’t cheat (except for cheating on cheaters, ’cause turnabout doesn’t count; or except for taking what they figure they’ve got coming to them, ’cause stealing your own back doesn’t count). They don’t covet (’cause they don’t deny themselves a thing). They don’t murder (but they do destroy people’s lives and drive them away). They love their neighbors (except it’s all tough love), and they love God (except it’s not God’s love, but hospitality, and expects to be compensated for its time and effort). Their lives are one self-justification after another, and because they’ve put so much into making themselves feel right, never once do they realize, “I’m wrong.”
Because they don’t want help, or because they think he can’t help: For all these reasons and more, these folks never realize the Holy Spirit can help them. So they stay in their sins. Some of them have convinced themselves they’re just fine; they’re in utter denial about the world falling down around them. They’re gonna have to hit bottom, and reach a place where the only direction they can look is up, towards God. But sometimes even that doesn’t work: They still look at themselves. Or at nothing.
So this is a big step. We gotta recognize the Holy Spirit can fix us. Nobody else can.
The next step is surrendering to him.