Live by the Spirit*
Gal 5:1-26
Key verse 5:25
The entire message of Galatians centers on one question: how can we live a victorious life now and forever? This can be rephrased in this way: How can we be assured of our salvation now and maintain a ‘righteous’ and ‘holy’ life until we meet Christ personally?
In the passage, Paul reasons that:
a. Salvation came to them not by works, but by faith, which was proved by the powerful work of the Holy Spirit in miracles done in and among them.
b. There was a strong cultural compulsion to be circumcised as a sign of their commitment to abide by the Law of Moses, in addition to their belief in the Gospel. This is wrong and not from God but from men.
c. That the law did not replace the faith of Abraham but was only a temporary guardian for God’s chosen people until the Messiah came. Since Jesus came and offered a full sacrifice for the sins of all, believers are not obligated to follow the law at all.
d. By faith, we have become descendants of Abraham and inherited God’s eternal blessing.
In Ch. 5, Paul discusses how to develop the new life in Christ by faith. The life lived by faith is characterized by the freedom that Jesus gave to all believers. How to handle this freedom is discussed in this chapter. Freedom is thought of as both freedoms from the Law of Moses and freedom from the bondage of sin. But it also connotes freedom from all of the after-effects of sin. (When I say “the after-effects of sin”, I mean all the consequences of sin, i.e. all ill-effects that came from the fall of mankind, such as sicknesses and even death. Though Ch. 5 centers mostly on freedom from the Law of Moses, there are many languages that imply that freedom can also refer to an inclusion of freedom from the power of consequences of sin.) In addition, this is the freedom as sons/heirs of God, who would surely inherit eternal inheritance. (Romans 8:15)
Today’s passage will be divided into two parts: the freedom that rejects the slavery under the Law, and the freedom that enables us to live by the Spirit.
1. The freedom that rejects the slavery of the law (1-12)
Verse 1 describes circumcision as a sign of the covenant found in the Law of Moses. So the circumcision gave them a strong sense of being God’s children or being right with God. They would feel that they were abiding by the Law and consider themselves to be right with God. But actually, they were enslaving themselves to the yoke of the Law in order to be free from the slavery of sin. It is not just an addition to the blessing that God gave through Jesus; it is another binding rule. It is not innocuous at all but actually carries serious consequences.
Today, circumcision is rarely practiced. So the idea of performing circumcisions is alien and irrelevant to us. Yet, there are things that we do today that are like circumcision for the Jewish and Gentile believers. What are they?
Whatever we do in an effort to earn credit from God can be considered to be like a circumcision. If you believe that, because you helped the poor on a regular basis, you will be accepted by God, then it is a sort of a circumcision.
Remember, the Jews prayed every day. They fasted weekly. They sacrificed many animals. But all those religious activities did not earn God’s blessing because their hearts were not right. Whatever they did in and through their flesh, could not bring the changes in their hearts that would meet God’s holiness and righteousness. God was tired of their religious activities because their hearts were not changed. In other words, even with the best of their good will and efforts, they could not produce hearts that God could accept. Likewise, many activities that we may do to please God today, whatever they might be, may be considered another way of doing a circumcision, if our hearts are not changed.
In V2-5, Paul lists a few things that would happen if they continue to try to please God with only their actions:
a. Christ would be of no value.
b. They would be obligated to obey the whole law.
c. They would be alienated from Christ and fall away from the grace of God.
d. The righteousness that they were eager to gain could not be theirs, and
e. They could have no hope for entering the eternal kingdom.
Here Paul uses a concept of a slave serving under a master as he also mentions in Romans 6:16. Once they became circumcised, they became slaves to sin and its demands. Once one becomes a slave under one master, then how can he serve another master? Likewise, the moment one enslaves himself to the law and circumcision, all the benefits that comes his entrance into the eternal kingdom of God won’t be effective in his or her life. The binding of oneself to such a law would jeopardize the entire blessing in Jesus that they had earned by faith.
What is the nature of this influence sin had on the life of the believer?
a. It interrupted their life of faith. It is not from God or Jesus. But it is from men and has no foundation in truth.
b. It is like a little yeast that is put into a batch of dough. It cannot be seen or discerned at the beginning, but it spreads through the dough and makes the whole dough unholy.
c. Such an ungodly influence will surely result in its due penalty; eternal judgment from God.
d. It is the source of persecution. This is the most hostile and antithetical ideology to faith.
Paul gives an overall picture of the origin and nature of sin’s slavery of man. I would like to highlight two things: first, it is of men and of the world and is deeply rooted in the sinfulness of men. Second, it forms the most hostile force against our faith.
From the beginning of his ministry among his fellow Jews, Paul was ridiculed and persecuted by them. Wherever he went, some people followed him with the intent to kill him. The reason was clear since he preached that they had crucified Christ and that the law had no power to save them. Why? Because anyone who comes to the cross of Jesus must confess that they are sinners. But these Jews had no desire will to accept that they were sinners and that they were responsible for the death of the Son of God. So the Gospel is a stumbling block for all those who claim to be righteous through their own good deeds. Jews were the first hostile respondents, but they are not the only ones.
As we review the religions of the world, we come to realize that most of these religions are based on works-salvation. Their basic tenets of belief are: “If you do what is right (according to their sets of an ethical, moral, or religious code of conducts), then you are saved.” This is also well illustrated in the Muslim faith.
I asked quite a few Muslims one question: Are you sure that God will accept you? All of them uniformly said: “only God knows. I don’t know. I will find it out when I die”. They are living with endless uncertainty. They are driven to fulfill righteousness according to their own sets of rules. In order to uphold the rules that men have set up, they force
What God gave to Moses, the Law of Moses, was just a guardian until Jesus came. Now the whole world, which is under the law, has been provided with the Gospel of Jesus. This Gospel is God’s offering to the entire world that is living under the slavery of the law. Knowing this, do you want to go back to slavery again? Paul did not want to know anything but the cross of Jesus and rejected circumcision and the Law of Moses.
If we go back to these rules if we try to do good to earn righteousness, then how can we say that we are better than many who follow religions of works-salvation, including atheistic or agnostic humanists?
Then what should we conclude concerning circumcision?
a. What men do has no bearing on their standing before God. The only thing that is counted in God’s eyes is ‘faith’. Heb. 11:6 is unambiguously clear on this: “it is impossible to please God without faith.” By faith, we establish our relationship with God. This faith has to do with what credit/honor/respect we are willing to give to God. Then, nothing else matters, whatever he or she does. This is even clearer when we examine Abraham’s faith that God counted as righteous (Gen. 15:5-6).
b. Faith is expressed in love if it is genuine and of God. The essential character of the cross of Jesus is God’s love for sinners. Knowing and believing in this love and applying this love in the life of truth are the elements of faith. When we take such faith into our hearts, love for our fellow men is the exact expression of our faith. In Ch. 6, how this love should be practiced in and among believers is detailed.
c. After the moment that we believe in Jesus, whatever we do or don’t do, does not add anything to our salvation or blessing. No matter how hard we do good works, it does not add any merit before God. No matter how many times we fail to do good works, that failure will not be counted against us! This is an amazing truth!
In V6, Paul declares that, in Christ Jesus, neither circumcision nor uncircumcision has any value. The only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love. This phrase is repeated in Galatians 6:15. Neither circumcision nor uncircumcision means anything; what counts is the new creation. Here, ‘faith’ is replaced with ‘the new creation’. The locus of change is neither in flesh nor in actions, but in our inner being, our spirit, in the depth of our mind. This is where faith must take place and the new creation is formed. Unless our inner being is changed, whatever one does, it will not do much good in the eyes of God and the believer will be unable to love their neighbor in a godly way.
2. The freedom that chooses to live by the Spirit (13-24)
In this second part, we will look into how to use the freedom that we have received through Jesus. As was noted in Ch. 3-4, we have become children of God with free will. There is no law that oversees us. There is no guardian that overrules our wills or decisions. This freedom is so precious and often we are not accustomed to using it properly. In the movie “Shawshank Redemption”, there is a man named Brooks. He was jailed for life, because he murdered a person when he was young. After many years, Brooks, then an old man, was paroled. For the first time during those long years, he was released from prison and he could taste freedom. But he did not know what to do with his newly earned freedom. The world had changed so much but he had not changed at all. For him, the prison life was more comfortable. He was afraid of this freedom in this new world. He felt he had to go back to prison, his home. So, he thought about committing another crime solely for the purpose of going back to jail. But he did not want to disappoint those who had wished him well. Eventually, he hung himself in a motel.
As was mentioned before, freedom is not without risk. John Green explores the connection between free will and sin in his book, “The Fault in Our Stars”: “Some tourists think Amsterdam is a city of sin, but in truth, it is a city of freedom. And in freedom, most people find sin.” Freedom also has to have some purpose and direction.
Freedom without hope and a clear sense of direction is very dangerous. In order to free us from the bondage of sin, Jesus gave his life on the cross. He suffered a great deal, shedding all his blood and enduring all the pain, in order to free us. If he paid so much to free us, then we must use that freedom for a good and godly purpose. This freedom is experienced through the son-ship we have to our real father God. God is our father and he provides all our needs. He secures our well being now and for all eternity. So in this son-ship, we do not have to worry about or fear anything. What I mean is that our freedom is tightly attached to our new standing as sons of God. What are the choices that we have in our newly found freedom?
. According to V13, there are only two: one is to indulge in the desires of the flesh and the other is serving others in love.
We understand what it means to indulge the desires of the flesh. But what about serving others in love?
In V14, we see that the essence of the Law is to love others as ourselves. This spirit is demonstrated by the cross of Jesus. That is, in order to save sinners, Jesus gave his life on the cross. This is life-giving love. If we are not filled with this Spirit, we all keep on biting and devouring each other. The result of this will be destruction (15). So having or not having the Spirit of Christ makes the difference. This difference makes our choice obvious: to love others. But we know there is an enormous desire of the flesh living in us. So we ask: “Can we enjoy both?” Why not enjoy the desires of the flesh and, at the same time, serve others in love?
According to V16, the choice to love others is replaced with a command to walk by the Spirit. Unless we walk by the Spirit, we cannot love others as God commanded. If we are not first walking by the Spirit, loving others will be another law that we are obligated to follow. So the choice is to meet the desires of flesh or to choose to walk by the Spirit.
The desires of the flesh, according to V16-17, are totally opposed to the Spirit of Christ. These two are not compatible with each other. We can commit to only one! If we choose to have desires of the flesh, then, there won’t be in us the Spirit of Christ. If we choose to welcome the Spirit, then the desires of the flesh have no room in our lives.
By this time we know what we should choose because we know in our hearts how much we have suffered and groaned under the power of sin and the desires of flesh! We cannot underestimate the power of the flesh. Paul exclaimed, “What a wretched man I am!” What are the desires of the flesh?
V19-21 gives us the obvious acts of the flesh: sexual immorality, impurity, and debauchery, idolatry and witchcraft, hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions and envy, drunkenness, orgies, and the like. If we sort out this list, the first three are related to sexual sins. The next two are things that oppose God, followed by eight things related to hatred. These eight deal with our relationship with others. The basic root of this is selfishness and jealousy. The last group has two that cause addiction: drunkenness and orgies.
We know that all of these things have permeated deeply into our society. One example is sexual sins. It is listed first of all in this passage. This is the most common sin that comes from the desires of the flesh! It is no wonder that over 50% of marriages end up in divorce. Casual sex has no bearing on the minds of the majority of our society. As a human, it is considered acceptable! In the middle are all kinds of other frictions that we see in our society. The last two on the list are drunkenness and orgies. We know how many are living under the influence of alcohol or drugs. Under such an influence, there is no sensibility. We cannot think of anything spiritual under the influence of such drugs. These influences render anyone to be void of any godliness.
All these are examples of being led by the desires of the flesh! We may say that they are victims of the desires of flesh! We were under them in the past, but we are not enslaved to them anymore and we are not going back to them again. But are we free from their influence? How can WE overcome them? Can we tame these desires? Can we put reins on them? The desires of the flesh are so strong and uncontrollable. They pop up anytime and any place.
One of the best examples of this is King David. One afternoon he strolled on top of his palace and happened to see a woman bathing. The desires of the flesh rolled into his heart and he took the lady for the night. He eventually killed her husband and took her as his wife.
Men’s willpower cannot tame the desires of the flesh or put reins on it for good. Paul expressed his helplessness against such untamable desires of the flesh in himself in Romans 7:15 – “I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do”.
This has been a source of failure for all men. Nevertheless, not only did God free us from the Law, but He also opened a way for us to tame or put a rein on it. How?
In V16-17, we read that the desires of the flesh diametrically oppose the Spirit and these desires cannot coexist with the Spirit. When we choose the Spirit, the power of the flesh is totally nullified. It is gone! This is the victory that Jesus earned on the cross for us all. He is willing to impart this victory to us as soon as we welcome Him in as our Lord. Through him, we are offered this opportunity to tap into this power in the Spirit.
But there must be a clear will to choose to follow the lead of the Spirit! If not, we will naturally follow the desires of the flesh, and our desires will lead us to destruction, as it says in V15. As much as we are being bombarded by the desires of the flesh, far more so, should we be willing to be led by the Spirit!This is to be an ongoing choice for us throughout our earthly lives.
This is the same situation that we see in the Garden of Eden. To Adam, God gave one choice: to choose the tree of life or to choose the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. To choose the knowledge of good and evil is rejecting the tree of life. Adam’s experience and our own lives tell us the tragedy of this choice. But be happy for we are in a better position than Adam because we know our weaknesses and we have the redeeming grace of Jesus with us and the Spirit as a powerful guardian for us.
V26 talks about having a conceited mind. “Conceit” is similar to pride or arrogance but it is different because we know our history, we know our sins, and we know we are saved by grace and we know that we are children of God and must seek His will. We do not go outright for disobedience or arrogance.
The dictionary defines “conceited” as having or showing an excessively high opinion of your own qualities or abilities. “Conceit” then is having a high opinion of yourself, especially one that is not justified. It also shares the same root with arrogance and pride.
If I put this in practical terms, “I feel that I can handle anything and I know what I am doing. I have done it well and I can do it again.” It is when we are not depending on the guidance of the Holy Spirit but depends on what we know and what we have. This is the primary method of rejecting the Holy Spirit. But if we follow the leading of the Holy Spirit, what fruits do we bear?
V22-23 tells us the fruits we will bear are love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. When our hearts are filled with love, joy, and peace, what else do we need? This is the description of contentment and happiness! I am not in want! All three come to us through the cross of Jesus. Do you know the first greeting of Jesus to his disciples soon after his resurrection? “Peace be with you!”
In Paul’s letters, he always wished the recipients two things: peace and grace from Jesus and God Almighty (i.e. 2 Peter 1:2 Grace and peace be yours in abundance through the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord).
Simply speaking, when we follow the leading of the Spirit, our hearts are filled with joy, peace, and love, fully satisfied and content; we feel lack nothing!
At the same time, whatever riches we have on earth affect little with our peace and joy. No matter how small we have we are not in want. We are happy and at peace with what God has given us. How much we have does not influence our happiness. Peace, happiness, and joy have little to do with what we have on earth. They have to do with what I believe about my life, my future, and my eternity. When we are led by the Spirit, we are not in want, though we may be in need of many things that we are to live on. This is why there is no room for envy and jealousy. We are not happy because we do not have what we want, and we give ourselves into envy and jealousy.
Our characters are revealed in our relationship with others. These are expressions of our inner being. They are deeply rooted in love and hope for our brothers. Now we know what to choose and how to overcome the desires of the flesh. There is one last thing I would like to discuss the Spirit. What does the Spirit impart to us?
In V24, the Spirit is called the Spirit of Christ. This is the Spirit that Jesus demonstrated and was filled with when he was hung on the cross. It is also called the Holy Spirit because it is the reminder, supporter, and enforcer of all that Jesus said and did. According to Romans 8:9, we are no longer in the realm of the flesh but are rather in the realm of the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God lives in us. And if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, they do not belong to Christ.
V25 is not a command; when we are commanded, the only thing we can do is to either obey or disobey. But here he said ‘let us”, urging us to choose what God called us to do! We have a free will and, in this free will, we are compelled to choose the guidance of the Spirit, the Spirit of Christ.
Since we began to live by the Spirit, we must keep in step with the Spirit. What this means is not clear. How can we keep in step with the Spirit? Literally, it means to go along with the Spirit, shoulder-to-shoulder. By this, we have some understanding or insight into what it means to keep in step with the Spirit. I like to quote Jesus’ word when he said in John 6:54-56, “Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise them up at the last day. For my flesh is real food and my blood is a real drink. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me, and I in them”. We must look up at the cross of Jesus and eat his flesh and drink his blood! Let the Spirit of Christ live in our inmost being! I believe that this is the best way to keep in step with the Spirit day by day!
Indeed the Spirit of Christ living in us makes us successful in godly living. Personally, I was, and still am, easily angered, frustrated, and short-tempered. At work, I face many occasions whereby people try to take advantage of others’ goodwill. In the past, I bore little with such abuse and I got easily upset and angry. But now I am joyful all the time. I do this, not because I am able to curtail my passion, but because I submit to the Spirit of Christ and let it live in me. Only the Spirit of Christ rescues me from this weakness in my flesh.
If we begin to win little battles by keeping in step with the Spirit, we will win any battle in the Spirit. Let us keep in step with the Spirit!
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