“If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit.” (Galatians 5:25)
The apostles did not envision a life in Christ apart from a walk in the Spirit. The two are to go hand in hand. If we live in the Spirit we are to walk in the Spirit. “For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God.” (Rom. 8:14)
We have not been saved so that we can continue to live according to what we think, what we feel, what we want, without even bothering to check in with God. When one is in Christ, his stubborn, selfish, self-willed days are to be over. He is to declare: “It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me.”
God’s condemnation remains upon the flesh. Jesus died to deliver us from our old man who did things his way, not God’s way. If we are in Christ, and if we have died with Him, we are now dead to ourselves and alive to the Spirit that raised Jesus from the dead. We dare not continue in a dullness and insensitivity to the voice of the Holy Spirit. He will lead us and guide us in all things, but we must be submitted to our God and ready to obey.
“There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.” (Romans 8:1)