Why do I not live a chaste life even though I am a believer and the Holy Spirit dwells in me?

This is the Christian faith: we were “buried with Him by baptism into death … knowing this, that our old man was crucified so that the body of sin might be abolished, so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin” (Rom. 6:6). We have become the new, free human being; yet motions of the lust of the flesh continue to war against us, although we are not enslaved to them; for as St. Augustine says, our striving is founded on the work of grace. It is in the spirit that we can reject the motions of lust and prevent our members from obeying the lust of the flesh.

• a. We reject the motions of lust and do not consent to them when our will is good and, by the Holy Spirit, potent; even in the face of continuous attack by the motions of lust. We say with the apostle: “I thank God—through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, with the mind I myself serve the law of God, but with the flesh the law of sin” (Rom. 7:25). The apostle means that in the spirit, I desire what is good and serve the law of God; but the lustful motions of the flesh wage war in my members, though they do not enslave me.

• b. The disobedience of our members to the lust of the flesh : The lust of the flesh has been crucified since our old man has been crucified; yet, although crucified, these motions continue to wrestle with us. We strive by the Holy Spirit not to obey the members of our body, “for just as you presented your members as slaves of uncleanness … so now present your members as slaves of righteousness for holiness” (Rom. 6:19).

You died with Christ, and with your mind you rose with Him. Never cease your striving to take the Kingdom by force [cf. Matt. 11:12] by rejecting the thoughts and motions of evil and refusing to surrender your members to evil. After the apostle affirms that “our old man was crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves of sin” (Rom. 6:6), he instructs us to “Likewise you also, reckon yourselves to be dead indeed to sin [do not consent to it], but alive to God in Christ Jesus our Lord. Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body, that you should obey it in its lusts. And do not present your members as instruments of unrighteousness to sin, but present yourselves to God as being alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness to God” (Rom. 6:11–13).

Whoever dies with the Lord Jesus and rises with Him in his mind must not allow sin reign over him. This comes about through great effort and self-coercion, for “let him

who thinks he stands take heed lest he fall” (1 Cor. 10:12). Regarding this, the apostle tells us, “My little children, these things I write to you, so that you may not sin. And if anyone sins, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. And He Himself is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the whole world” (1 John 2:1–2).

This is the concept of the life in Christ: unceasing endeavor by the power of grace towards a life of holiness, without falling into despair, but always hoping in the mercies of God, even amidst stumbles and falls. The apostle Paul says, “I say then: Walk in the Spirit, and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh” (Gal. 5:16), and by this he warns us against the motions of lust against us, lest we fulfill them. Elsewhere, the apostle tells us, “For you died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God” (Col. 3:3); and then, he commands us, saying: “Therefore put to death your members which are on the earth: fornication, uncleanness, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry” (Col. 3:5).

If we already “died” [verse 3], then why [in verse 5] does he say, “put to death your members”? Truly, anyone who dies with our Lord Jesus, and whose life is hidden with Christ in God, must not commit these evils of adultery, impurity, passion, etc.; even though the lustful motions of the body war against him without enslaving him so long as he remains on the path of unceasing repentance, rejects the motions of lust, and refuses to allow his members to be subject to them. He goes on to call to us: “but now, you yourselves are to put off all these … since you have put off the old man with his deeds, and have put on the new man who is renewed in knowledge according to the image of Him who created him” (Col. 3:8–10).

Chastity is the work of God in your life. If God has granted you repentance, strive in submission to the Lord that you may not lose what you have received, but rather renew your new human being — which you received through baptism — to knowledge according to the image of his Creator.