The Book of Galatians #24
Galatians 5:16-18
Now anyone who knows anything about the basics of the Christian life knows that the key to living the Christian life is the Holy Spirit.
At the moment of salvation, the Holy Spirit takes up residence in the life of a believer and becomes the resource and the energy and the power for that believer’s life and that is basically the theme of these verses. Eventually we will get to verses 22 and it tells us about the fruit of the Spirit, "love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, and self-control."
But in order for that to ever become a reality we must learn to walk in the Spirit. The key to living the Christian life successful is the power and enrgy of the Holy Spirit.
Now remember the book of Galatians is giving us a contrast between law and grace. In particular the last two chapters deal with the living of the Christian life. You can do it “by the law” or you can do through grace. One is an outward set of rules. The other is an inward guide and power.
And Paul’s point is the believer does not need to live under a code of written law. He can simply walk by the Holy Spirit indwelling him and fulfill what God always intended for man in terms of holiness.
Now last time we contrasted the old and the new. Paul first tells us we are free in Christ, and then provides a list of what liberty in Christ is not.
Freedom doesn’t mean you can do anything you want to do. It doesn’t mean I can injure others. Nor does it mean I can ignore the law.
But how does it work? How can I be free and keep from doing those things and fulfill the law through love?
The simple answer is found here in verse 16. Walk in the Spirit. This is the springboard for all of Paul's discussion through verse 25.
Now this is a basic to the Christian life and it's the theme. Notice in verse 18 he repeats it again, "If you be led by the Spirit, you're not under the law." Verse 25 says "If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk by the Spirit." Three times in this passage he talks about walking by the Spirit. That's the theme.
He is trying to point out that sin doesn't run wild without law, because the Spirit is there and we can have holiness in our lives without legalism. The holiness comes as we walk by the energy of the Holy Spirit.
So let me give you some words to help us understand this principle of walking by or in the Spirit.
First of all, let's look at
1. The Command
verse 16
The word “then” points us backward to what he’s just said. if our liberty is not liberty to sin, and not to injure others and not to ignore the law, how do we prevent it?
"Walk by," and it's really in the present tense, continue to walk or keep on "walking by the Spirit." This is a daily routine. This isn't something you come to in one point in your life and say from now on I commit myself. I'm going to accept the Spirit walk. It's not a once for a deal. You just do it every day. Keep on walking by the Spirit and you shall not fulfill the lusts of the flesh."
You know what this says to me? This says that a Christian, even if he's only a minute old in Christ, has the resources to completely fulfill the requirements of God for holiness.
You say, but he doesn't know anything. He only needs to know one thing. What? Keep on walking by the Spirit and the Spirit will produce in him the things that God desires. You know, it's very easy for us to say well, I know he's a young Christian and that's why he got goofed up. No. He's got the same resources as a one who’s been a Christian for 50 years. It’s the same for both. Walk by the Spirit and you will not fulfill the lusts of the flesh.
By the way, have you noticed how sin is usually not a question of information or what you know or don’t know. It's a question of whether you're walking in the Spirit or not, walking in His power and His energy by His strength.
So the command of God is to walk in the Spirit. When He comes in and controls the life, then we will exercise our liberty in a way that never violates ourselves or others or God. Those are the very things Paul says we will not do if we continue to walk by the Spirit.
And in principle, that’s pretty simple isn’t it? If you want to live right and honor God and treat others the way you’re supposed to, just let the Holy Spirit control your life.
But obviously that, secondly, creates a problem. So let’s look at
2. The Conflict
Verse 17
Well, thanks a lot Paul. First you say just walk by the Spirit, then you say it's going to be tough and it's going to be a fight. It's a simple concept but not so simple to put into practice. There is a struggle involved.
And that's about the very first Christian principle that a new believer learns. He finds out that his life is now a conflict.
He’s a brand new creation, but still living in the same body with appetites and capacities for sin. The physical body still bears the sin principle. Sin is still present. He's human, he hasn't been glorified yet..
So as Christians, we look at the Scripture and find God's pattern, but have problems doing it. I know all about holiness. I know all about walking by the Spirit, but it seems to be a hassle all the time.
So we have this conflict and that is what verse 17 is talking about.
Now verse 17 raises a good question: What is the flesh?
It's a very important term in New Testament teaching. Sometimes it can refer to just the physical body. For example, in Luke 24:39 Jesus said, "A spirit does not have flesh and bones as you see Me have," and He was just talking about tissue. The flesh can be used in the Bible to refer to the body.
It also refer to human effort. We saw that in Galatians 3:3. Here the word flesh references the effort of a human being on his own in the natural to accomplish the supernatural.
But its primary significance and what we find here in Galatians 5 is our fallen nature. It is that part of us that hasn't yet been redeemed. And that's the flesh where sin exists. It's not just your body. It's your mind, too. It's not a philosophical dualism that says Spirit is good and flesh is...or material things are bad, it's not just your material body. It's your feelings and your thoughts, your mind, all of that is tainted by the flesh. The flesh is your unredeemed humanness that waits the glorification of the body when you get a new body and thus a new kind of humanity which knows no sin.
Paul talks about it in Romans 7. He says, "The things I want to do I don't do, the things I don't want to do I do." Why, Paul? "It is sin that is in me." Where is it, Paul? "That is in my flesh," he says, Romans 7:14 and following. It's in my flesh. My spirit has been changed and I have a new man in me but it has to be living in this old house. And that's what debilitates.
So over in 17 it says, "The flesh now is no longer in harmony with the spirit in a person because you now have salvation, you have a new nature, the Holy Spirit is there and the Holy Spirit then is fighting against the flesh." And in fact verse 17 says these are in opposition to one another to the degree that you may not do the things you please.
Have you noticed that? Have you noticed that you don't do what you ought to do and you do what you ought not to do? Sure, that's the battle of a Christian. That's Romans chapter 7. That's not an unbeliever's battle, that's a Christian's battle. That's the flesh and the Holy Spirit at war.
Now if that is true, and it is, then the idea that you could come up with some human solution to your problem is ludicrous because it's just more of the flesh. The flesh is not only our unredeemed humanness but the flesh is all of our human effort.
Psychology is just a human answer. All the pragmatic solutions that people come up with for spiritual problems are nothing more than the flesh. And the flesh is not going to control the desires of the flesh. Flesh then refers to natural effort, independent of God that is weak, helpless and sinful.
So the war is on. Evil desire moves in the flesh. It is the beachhead where temptation lands and lusts move the flesh in a battle against the Holy Spirit to dominate the Christian's life. And the power of the flesh is great. But the power of the Spirit is greater.
So all we have to do is walk in the Spirit and we will not fulfill the lusts of the flesh. We will not carry out its desires if we walk in the Spirit. If we offer fleshly solutions to the flesh, we pour gas on the fire. That's the conflict. Whatever the Holy Spirit endeavors to do, the flesh endeavors to stop. So we must walk in the Spirit. We must be filled with the Spirit.
Then look at verse 18.
This is very important. This is very important. Why does he say this? It's the same as verse 16. He equates here the flesh with the law. In verse 16 he said walk by the Spirit and you'll not carry out the desire of the flesh. Verse 18 he says, "If you are walking by the leading of the Spirit, you're not under the law." And he equates the desire of the flesh with the law.
What does he mean? The law is rules given to man by which, if he keeps them, he can control himself. If you could keep the law you'd be a perfect man, right? If you could keep the law, you'd completely control the flesh. But you can't.
The law here then in this particular section refers to human effort. So he says if you're led by the Spirit and you're walking by the Spirit then you're not going to be under the law, you're not going to be under human effort.
And his point is that human effort is one thing, it's connected with the flesh; spiritual effort is another, it's connected with the Spirit. To be operating under the law means to be operating by works, to be operating by human effort.
And that's absolutely useless. Any human solution, any human agenda, any human wisdom, any human approach, methodology, means only feeds the flesh.
So verse 16 says if you're walking by the Spirit you'll overcome the desires of the flesh. And if you're led by the Spirit, verse 18 says, also implying that you're walking and following the leading of the Spirit, then you're not going to be trapped in a system where, by human effort, you're trying to attain spiritual means.
You see, the battle, the conflict, in every believer's life is the flesh and the Holy Spirit are at war. If you walk in the Spirit you overcome the flesh. But you certainly can't overcome the flesh with human effort.
So back to verse 18 and look at the solution.
We are to follow the Holy Spirit's leading. His part is to lead, our part is to walk. But the flesh resists. The flesh fights. The flesh wants to hinder and we must walk by the Spirit to overcome the flesh. We certainly can't let happen to us what happened to the Galatians.
They started so well. They started in the power of the Holy Spirit. And then they left all that behind and went back to works and the Holy Spirit was ignored.
And if nothing else, they illustrate for us how ridiculous it is to try to fix spiritual problems with fleshly solutions.
Think about this: every problem in life comes from the flesh. And every solution comes from The Spirit. And yet, when we have a problem, where do most people look first? Instead of going to the Holy Spirit, we look for some human solution.
Think about what 2 Corinthians 6:16 says, "For you are the temple of the living God." What a statement. God lives in you. As God has said, "I will dwell in them and walk in them." He is walking. He is leading. He's saying walk the same path. The Spirit of almighty God is in you alive and moving and you are to follow and I am to follow. That's the only way you can conquer the flesh.
So we have the command and the conflict. We’ll stop right there and next week we’ll see the contrast and hopefully, we’ll get to the conquest.
