Romans 8:12-15

So then, brothers, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live after the flesh. For if you live after the flesh, you must die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live. For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are children of God. For you didn’t receive the spirit of bondage again to fear, but you received the Spirit of adoption, by whom we cry, “Abba! Father!”

We shouldn’t be trying to independently demonstrate our goodness to God. If we attempt to make our flesh please Him, we will fail miserably because we will actually do what our flesh wants rather than what our minds want. The One we should submit ourselves to, is the Holy Spirit. After all, we are now God’s own children and it is by the Spirit of God that we have life as a Christian.

The Law is very different because it is a “Big If.” IF you do it right, only then do you have a good relationship with God. IF you don’t, then you die. Living with the “Big If” means to live in fear especially since we know how likely we are to fail. Some teachers claim that Christianity promotes the “big if” idea. They think it’s the way to keep people from sinning. This is not Christianity at all. The only way that the Christian life is to be lived is by Christ in us. If we don’t let the Holy Spirit work in us, all it will do is lead back into a frustrating life of failure and pressure that we read about in chapter seven.

As Christians we are already children of God and this is evident because in our hearts we cry out to him as our Dear Father. Only God’s true children will allow the Holy Spirit to lead them. We are not condemned by God, we are His children and we have nothing to fear! All we need to do now is to accept His strength in order to do what is right.