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We need to live to the Spirit, and set aside our will, to be faithful to the Lord.
When we receive sanctification, it doesn’t have anything to do with our flesh changing. It is our spirit that is affected. Our flesh is just as weak as it was before. Even though we are saved, the flesh is still the same vulnerable flesh. The difference is, when we are sanctified, that we have a heart and a divine nature that enables us to be able to crucify the flesh and keep it dead. When we first get saved (justified), the Holy Ghost is with us and will help us crucify the flesh. In sanctification there is a greater strength and ability because the Spirit of God is dwelling within and ruling from within our heart and very nature. Consequently, there is a greater ability to crucify the flesh.
In the Bible, the book of Romans chapter 7 is often misunderstood in how it deals with the weakness of the flesh. Because of the weakness of the flesh, without the Spirit of God ruling within, there is a need for a law to constrain and control the flesh. In chapter 7 the Apostle Paul is highlighting the weaknesses of the law to keep the flesh from doing sin - because the flesh is weak. That is why in the previous chapter (Romans 6) and in the subsequent chapter (Romans 8) that Paul clearly explains the need to have the Spirit of God within us! Then by the love and nature of the Spirit of God within, we can crucify the will of the flesh and obey God completely from the heart.
To emphasize the fact that the law was an incomplete solution, and that we are not under the law when we have submitted ourselves to the Holy Spirit: Paul starts chapter 7 by comparing the law to someone that we were married to in the past. Know ye not, brethren, (for I speak to them that know the law,) how that the law hath dominion over a man as long as he liveth? For the woman which hath an husband is bound by the law to her husband so long as he liveth; but if the husband be dead, she is loosed from the law of her husband. So then if, while her husband liveth, she be married to another man, she shall be called an adulteress: but if her husband be dead, she is free from that law; so that she is no adulteress, though she be married to another man. Wherefore, my brethren, ye also are become dead to the law by the body of Christ; that ye should be married to another, even to him who is raised from the dead, that we should bring forth fruit unto God. For when we were in the flesh, the motions of sins, which were by the law, did work in our members to bring forth fruit unto death. But now we are delivered from the law, that being dead wherein we were held; that we should serve in newness of spirit, and not in the oldness of the letter. Romans 7:1-6
Paul is using marriage as an example here. In this age that we live in, many people take marriage so lightly, that many are cohabiting without the privilege of marriage. But Paul here is using the example of marriage in the perspective of the Bible - true love and true faithfulness. When true, faithful love exists between two, the marriage is only broken by the death of one. The Apostle is emphasizing this to show that through Christ's death and resurrection that we are free from the law (that was for the flesh) so that we can be married to Christ, by living to the Spirit. Again, in Romans 6, this is why he emphasises our relationship with both the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.
Know ye not, that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his death? Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life. For if we have been planted together in the likeness of his death, we shall be also in the likeness of his resurrection: Knowing this, that our old man is crucified with him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin. For he that is dead is freed from sin.: Now if we be dead with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with him: Romans 6:3-8 Because sin is so grievous to God, He had to look away when Christ took upon himself the sins of the world and died, taking our sins with him to the grave. (This is why Jesus cried on the cross "My God, My God, why hast thou forsaken me!") Paul said to consider ourselves also dead and buried with Christ. Not that we physically need to die, but we are to follow Jesus' example, for our "fleshly way" needs to die. The "old man" or fleshly man, needs to be spiritually taken to the grave also and buried with Him - so that we can live in obedience and love towards the Spirit of God.
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