The Flesh Wars Against the Sprit?

Regarding Galatians 5:17 (KJV 1900)

17For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh: and these are contrary the one to the other: so that ye cannot do the things that ye would.

Some question whether this passage can mean that, as believers, our human spirit is always fighting against some form of our humanity (the flesh) such that we are required to battle for our righteousness every day of our lives.

This is not the case. We are not having a battle within ourselves. The battle is fought by Holy Spirit.

The translators of every major version of the Bible agree that Holy Spirit is in view here. This is a battle between the Spirit of God and the earthy, worldly way of dealing with life by relying on our senses. The things we want to do but are often prevented from doing here are those godly things that our new heart truly desires to do, but our senses tell us are a bad idea.

Given this, someone might argue that I am saying that the so-called “spirit-filled life” is automatic. That is indeed my position. We are the temple of the living God. Holy Spirit dwells (lives) in us, and we are in Christ. We cannot get any fuller. We are one spirit with Him. (This does not make us gods in any way.) Nevertheless, since we do not always conduct ourselves in godly ways in attitude and action, it is clear that something is lacking—and we know it cannot be on Gods side.

What's lacking is growth in grace and the knowledge of the Lord. As we understand more fully what has been given to us and done to us by His grace and as we more intimately and relationally know Him, we find that all those imperatives (instructions and commands about how we should live) we read about in the New Testament become our heartfelt desires and we are increasingly obedient from the heart.

All of this is from Him. It is He who works in us both to desire and to actually do godly things that are in line with His purposes.