CHRISTIAN LIVING

GALATIANS 5:24-26

NOVEMBER 8, 1998

           

The Apostle Paul was concerned to explain to the Galatians the nature and practice of true Christianity. He has already challenged a false understanding of justification. Now he further adds proof to his argument by demonstrating that a true faith in Christ will be shown through the character of the believer. The false gospel which the Judaizers proposed could only produce the "deeds of the flesh." But that gospel which is received by faith will manifest "the fruit of the Spirit."

 

All of this is well and good, we might say. But how do I as a believer live out the Christian life? Do I just operate on some sort of automatic pilot? Do I forget attempting to live for Christ in my daily life? Since I'm not justified by the works of the Law is there really any need in giving attention to obedience?

 

Faith in Christ is not a paper decision; it is a life meant to be lived to the fullest. But how can we live as a Christian? We have so many forces battling against us, tempting us, influencing us. How can we press on as those who are truly in Christ? I believe our text offers us some clear, sane explanations of how to live the Christian life. Let us consider them this morning.

 

I.  A look back at conversion

 

One thing we have noticed in our study of Galatians is that Paul never gets away from the roots of our conversion to Christ. He continually lives in the reality of the cross of Jesus Christ applied to our lives in saving power, but also continually applied in sanctifying grace. If we truly desire to walk with the Lord, we must live in the reality of what Jesus Christ has accomplished for us at the cross and subsequently applied to our whole being by faith in Him.

 

Too often we find those who are teaching we must have some kind of new experience apart from faith in Christ to carry us through this life. We never see this in the Scripture. Instead, the picture we have is of "the power of God" made known experientially through the gospel. The dynamic, radical work of God the Creator is focused upon the individual, setting him free from the power of sin, changing him from the inside-out, giving him new desires after holiness, and putting a new hope within him. To think that we need to add to this as though the gospel is inadequate is to fail to grasp the powerful nature of what Christ has accomplished for us at the cross and in the resurrection.

 

Paul begins in our text by making a summary exclamation: "Now." He is drawing to a conclusion his contrast of the deeds of the flesh and the fruit of the Spirit. He exhorts the believer so that the works of the flesh might find no place in his life. He explains, "Now those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires." He wants us to understand a wonderful reality which is true of each believer. What does he explain?

 

1.  Evidence of true conversion

 

First, we see that he speaks of an evidence of true conversion. "Now those who belong to Christ have...." He does not say, 'Those who wish to belong to Christ have crucified the flesh'. Nor does he say, 'Those who would belong to Christ must crucify the flesh'. Instead, he points to the relationship with Christ which already exists. He says something which is true of every believer.

 

We have already noted in 2:20 that Paul considered himself having been crucified with Christ. That passage expresses the reality of our union with Jesus Christ, so that at the cross He so perfectly served as our Substitute that we can say, "I have been crucified with Christ."  I am so much a part of Jesus Christ due to resting my eternity in Him by faith, that when he went to the cross, I went with Him. When He died, I died. When He bore God's judgment for me, I bore it in Him. From this point Paul goes on to explain that reality of the death of Christ becoming the basis for his ongoing living for Christ. "And it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me, and delivered Himself up for me."

 

But in our text he says something different. Yes, it has its basis in the fact that Christ was crucified for us and we identified with Him as our Substitute on the cross. However, here he speaks of something which the believer does. "Now those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires." It is an action which the believer exercises upon his own life in light of the cross of Christ. This has its relationship to what Jesus has done in the cross, but now as the sinner comes to the point of conversion, he dies to himself so that he might live wholly unto Christ.

 

Paul is not borrowing strange language. Jesus Himself said, "If anyone wishes to come after me, let him deny himself, take up his cross daily, and follow Me" (Luke 9:23, italics added). This is the act of conversion which is a response to the Spirit's work of regeneration. What happens in conversion? The sinner, being effectually called by God, is awakened by the Spirit's application of the Law and gospel, so that he is aroused by grace alone to respond in repentance toward God and faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. It is the decisive action of turning away from sin, denouncing one's way of life, dying to vain ambitions, and yielding all of oneself to the Lord, casting oneself upon the merciful Lord who died an atoning death and resting by faith in His merits alone before God. We describe this as conversion.

 

Paul uses the language of crucifixion to explain this. This act of execution was so decisive, that a person would not be crucified twice, nor would he survive it. It would be a slow, lingering death. All of the life of the person being crucified would be drained as though happening drop by drop. The initial act was called crucifixion as well as the process which continued until that time when the criminal had no more life in him.

 

Now the Apostle tells us that what happens at conversion is just like an act of crucifixion. It has a beginning, here in repentance and faith in Christ, and it continues, here with ongoing repentance and faith in Christ. It is not finished until the person completely dies, which by illustration would point to the final deliverance from sin which takes place when we awaken in the presence of the Lord.

 

In plain language, we would say that the believer never quits repenting, nor does he quit believing. It has its initial beginning at conversion. But until the day the believer stands before the Lord, he is ever repenting and believing Christ. John Brown explained it well. "Crucifixion...produced death not suddenly but gradually...True Christians...do not succeed in completely destroying it (that is, the flesh) while here below; but they have fixed it to the cross, and they are determined to keep it there till it expire" [quoted by John Stott, The Message of Galatians, 151].

 

2.  Effect in true conversion

 

What does this have to do with living the Christian life? Paul explains that those who are truly Christ's own, "have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires." The flesh, our nature of sin and rebellion against God, is characterized by its "passions and desires." It is, as John Calvin expressed it, "the depravity of corrupt nature, from which all evils proceed" [CNTC, 106]. It goes in the opposite direction from the desires of God. It turns away from the Law of God. Its longings are for total independence from holiness and righteousness. It is self-centered at its roots. Then it meets the killing power of the cross! The flesh is no match for the cross.

 

A transformation took place for every believer when the work of the cross was applied by faith to his life. He joins with Christ in crucifying the flesh through repentance, self-denial, and obedience. He begins at conversion with such decisiveness, that Paul can speak of this as being a past act which the believer exercised in response to the death of Christ. Now his own passions and desires have been reoriented by the cross. He is still in the same body, with the same personality, but now with a renewed nature. He is so affected by the reality that Jesus Christ died in his stead at the cross, that he turns away from his evil passions and desires by faith. He yields himself wholly to Jesus Christ. He has new passions and new desires which follow after the Spirit.

 

Now, back to the question. What does this have to do with living the Christian life? If you have truly repented of your sins and trusted in Christ alone for your salvation, then a whole different attitude toward the flesh, with its sin, was initiated at conversion. You are in the process of learning each day to look back to the application of the cross of Christ to your life. You are to see that it was a wonderful work indeed; but it was also a terrible work upon the flesh. The cross shows no mercy to our evil passions and desires. The cross comes with the thundering force of God's power against the thoughts, desires, and ambitions of the flesh. We are to live in this reality, with the conscious awareness that something extraordinary happened to us at our conversion. We did indeed see Christ as our only Redeemer and we did indeed turn from our sin, deny ourselves, and embrace the cross for the rest of our lives.

 

II. A different drum beat

 

Perhaps the next verse will shed more light on how we are to live. "If we live by the Spirit, let us also walk by the Spirit." Paul has already spoken several times of the work of the Holy Spirit in this epistle. It is the Holy Spirit who begins the work of salvation in the sinner rather than the person himself (3:3). We see this in the work of regeneration. Even the work of justification is called "the promise of the Spirit through faith" (3:14), so that we recognize the Holy Spirit's work in applying the redemptive activity of Christ to the sinner. It is the Holy Spirit whom God has sent forth into our hearts, crying "Abba! Father!" as He bears witness to the reality of saving faith (4:6). The Spirit also gives us an abiding hope which grounds our confidence in Christ as we await the end result of His redemptive work (5:5). As a result of these workings of the Spirit, we are now told to "walk by the Spirit" since we live by the Spirit (5:16).

 

The Galatian churches were made up of those who truly were justified by faith and those who were clinging to the false hope of adherence to the Law as the means for justification. Perhaps all of them were claiming to live by the Spirit. So Paul now focuses his aim upon what is true of those in the faith. They live "by the Spirit" and they are the only ones who are capable of "also walk[ing] by the Spirit." The evidence of their faith in Christ will be seen in walking by the Spirit in daily life.

 

1.  Condition of being

 

Again, the Apostle repeats a reality of true Christianity: "If we live by the Spirit." It is a condition of life or being. The root of our salvation is found in the Holy Spirit regenerating us, birthing us out of death and into life in Christ. Our Lord called this being "born again." It is precisely what He told Nicodemus was necessary for a person to enter the kingdom of God. They must be 'born from above', 'born of the Spirit' if indeed they are going to be part of a spiritual kingdom (John 3:1-8).

 

Paul affirms in Romans 8:9 that only those indwelled by the Holy Spirit are truly believers. "However, you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you. But if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Him." Living by the Spirit is not an option for a special group of intense Christians. It is simply true Christianity.

 

We must not slide over this as though it was of little importance. For we are overrun in our day with people who profess to be Christians, yet they know nothing of the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. They cannot honestly say, "...we live by the Spirit." Can you testify of living by the Holy Spirit? By this, Paul means that our very life is due to the provision of the Spirit in regenerating power. The content of our Christianity has been shaped and formed by the Holy Spirit. We are not practicing a mere institutional Christianity, but we have new life due to the work of the Spirit in our own spirits. This stands in contrast to those who think they are Christians because of what they have done by means of obedience or the works of the Law. They believe that they have some measure of adequacy within themselves to gain merit with God. But to those who truly "live in the Spirit," they confess with the Apostle Paul, "Not that we are adequate in ourselves to consider anything as coming from ourselves, but our adequacy is from God, who also made us adequate as servants of a new covenant, not of the letter, but of the Spirit; for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life" (II Corinthians 3:5-6). It is not the "letter," that is, my adherence to the Law that has given me new life, rather "the Spirit gives life."

 

Do you know this reality? Has there always been a coldness, a sterility to your profession of Christ? Do you look at others who are rejoicing in Christ and wonder why in the world they are rejoicing? Does it take someone practically leading you in cheers to bring forth even the faintest resemblance to joy in the Lord? Then my friend, it may be that you have never known the reality of the new birth, so that you "live in the Spirit."

 

The conditional nature of this sentence points us first to asking ourselves whether we are truly living in the Spirit or are we simply going through the motions of Christianity outwardly with no life within? If, however, you know that you are living by the Spirit's provision of true life in Christ, then you have the responsibility to "walk by the Spirit."

 

2.  Practice of behaving

 

This has to do with our conduct or behavior. We often use the expression of someone who is a bit different from the ordinary person, 'he marches to a different drumbeat'. By this we imply that there is something other than the ordinary which directs his life. He does not seek to conform to what everyone else expects him to be. Of course, we can use this in a negative fashion! But I choose to use this expression because of the meaning of the word "walk." "If we live by the Spirit, let us also walk by the Spirit."

 

The typical word for 'walk' which we see in Paul's writings means 'to conduct your life'. But here he utilizes a rather unique word. It means 'to stand in a row' as if at attention before the commanding officer. Or 'walk in a straight line' as if you are in military formation. The word infers that the one who is living by the Spirit will be marching to the Spirit's drumbeat. It is the intonations of the Holy Spirit at work in the heart of the believer that continually directs him in walking in obedience and following after the will of God. We could translate this more literally, "If we live by the Spirit, by the Spirit also let us conduct ourselves."

 

Notice that he tells the believer to do the walking. That is, he is to hear the Spirit's urgings and obey the Spirit's promptings. He is to be sensitive to the Spirit's direction and follow after Him. This is not a passive sort of life, the 'let go and let God' mentality which so many have embraced. It is instead, an active seeking to follow after the Holy Spirit in total obedience and delight.

 

How do we know what the Holy Spirit is speaking to us or what He is urging upon us? Obviously, some have embraced a sort of mysticism at this point, having come up with strange ideas of the Spirit's leading. Others claim to hear a literal voice which they pronounce to be the Holy Spirit's. Some engage in unintelligible gibberish which they claim is the Spirit's voice speaking some word to them. The problem, as I understand it though, is not all of the excesses which will always be prevalent in the world. Instead, the problem is our taking the time to develop in our walk by the Spirit so that we truly begin to understand what He is leading us to do and where He is leading us to go and how He is leading us to serve.

 

This is where our ongoing practice of spiritual discipline is essential. I doubt seriously that we will know much of the Spirit's leading in our lives if we are negligent in the means of grace He has given to us for knowing His mind. We are to avail ourselves of spending daily time in the Word of God. The Holy Spirit will always speak consistently with the revelation of God in His Word. If we would know the mind of the Spirit in daily direction, then let us give ourselves to that Word which He breathed into existence through human agencies. We have Scriptural warrant for such assertion. "All Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be adequate, equipped for every good work" (II Timothy 3:16-17). The Holy Spirit uses the Word of God to speak to us, teach us, give us new direction, inspire us, motivate us, discipline us, correct us, equip us, and strengthen us. He brings the written word to life through His revealing, illumining power.

 

I know that we often speak of spending time in God's Word on a daily basis, so that some might despair of ever doing so for fear they cannot do enough. Let me encourage you to set aside time each day in which you read and meditate upon the Word of God. If you can give five minutes, then discipline yourself for five minutes to concentrate upon the reading of the Word. Seek to snatch moments throughout your day in which you retreat in your mind to the portion of the Word that you gave yourself to earlier. If you can increase this to ten, fifteen, twenty or more minutes, then do so with regularity. Seek to meditate upon the word, turning it over in the mind for the spiritual food it contains. As Thomas Watson wrote, "The reason we come away so cold from reading the word is, because we do not warm ourselves at the fire of meditation" [quoted by Don Whitney, Spiritual Disciplines for the Christian Life, 45].

 

Don Whitney defines meditation "as deep thinking on the truths and spiritual realities revealed in Scripture for the purposes of understanding, application, and prayer" [45]. He uses the analogy of meditation being compared to a tea bag in hot water. If you merely dip it in the hot water and quickly pull it out, you will have little of its flavor. But if you take the time to steep it in the hot water, soaking it thoroughly, the contents of the tea bag permeates the water. If we steep our minds in the Word, its contents soak in more thoroughly, permeating every part of our lives.

 

We also learn of the Holy Spirit's leadings in prayer. We are called to be a people of prayer. Our Lord set the example for us. We read throughout the Gospels that Jesus would slip off to some quiet place for prayer (e.g., Luke 1:35). There He would refresh His soul in the Father's presence, communing with Him and pouring His soul out before the Father. Do you recall the occasion in the Garden when Jesus prayed concerning the cup of God's wrath which He was about to endure? He asked the Father to remove the cup if it was His will. Then we find our Lord completely submitting to the Father's will as He prayed. When He arose from prayer, He was at peace and ready to face the agonies ahead. It was in prayer that the assurance of divine direction came. Can we not make this our practice as well? Let us set aside time each day to seek the Father in prayer, praising Him, worshipping Him, thanking Him, and then laying our needs before Him until we have that sense of peace and assurance that He will accomplish His purposes in us. May I encourage you to put prayer into the plans of your day? John Piper has written helpfully on this in his book, Desiring God.

Let us take time this very day to rethink our priorities and how prayer fits in. Make some new resolve. Try some new venture with God. Set a time. Set a place. Choose a portion of Scripture to guide you. Don't be tyrannized by the press of busy days. We all need mid-course corrections. Make this a day of turning to prayer--for the glory of God and for the fullness of your joy [151].

What other means of grace are given to help us in growing in the Lord and walking by the Spirit? We are involved in one even now, as we have gathered to worship the Lord and to hear the proclamation of the Word of God. Those who neglect worship and the preached word are dangerous when they claim to be walking in the Spirit! God has chosen to use the proclamation of the Word, the "foolishness of preaching," for the furtherance of His kingdom in this world. Do you seek to be prepared for worship and the ministry of the Word each week? I cannot tell you how many times someone has come up to me after a service and said, 'That was just what I needed' or 'I've been thinking on that very subject and the Lord spoke to me this morning'. And how often have our hearts been warmed to the Spirit's promptings as we worship together! In the richness of setting our affections upon the Lord with the rest of the body, I have often found myself drawn into a deeper sense of love and obedience to the Lord. My mind has been sharpened to understand the ways of the Holy Spirit and His pleasures in my life. I would add to this the ongoing teaching of the Bible each week which is ours through Sunday School, Bible study classes, catechism, and other opportunities. If you long to follow after the Spirit, then avail yourself of the means He has given for teaching and training you.

 

I would be remiss if I failed to point out that if we are going to "walk by the Spirit" we must certainly daily yield ourselves to His authority in our lives. Paul tells us, "Do not be drunk with wine, which is dissipation; but be [continually] filled with the Spirit" (Eph. 5:18). This means that we are to continually be under the control of the Holy Spirit; every part of our lives. Do you seek in your home life, social life, personal relationships, work life to be under the control of the Holy Spirit? There is the tendency to compartmentalize our lives, so that we are glad to give our church life to the Holy Spirit, but we want to march to our own drumbeat in the rest. But our text commands us clearly, if we are living by the Spirit, then we have the necessity to march to the Spirit's drumbeat in every area of our lives.

 

III. The cross applied

 

Paul ends his exhortation on walking by the Spirit with instruction concerning a specific fleshly attitude. It may very well be, as Timothy George points out, that Paul is dealing with a particular sin within one of the Galatian churches [NAC, 406-407]. Or he could even be dealing with sin going on between the various churches in the Galatian region. "...This lust for the limelight led to  disastrous results for the fellowship of the Galatian churches" [407].

 

In light of this, we see practical application of "crucif[ying] the flesh with its passions and desires" and "walk[ing] by the Spirit." Here we see the danger of drifting into fleshly ways in our relationship to others.

 

1.  By personal action

 

The issue at hand was the sin of "conceit," that sin of thinking we are always right even if that means that others are always wrong [Leon Morris, Galatians: Paul's Charter of Christian Freedom, 176]. "Let us not become boastful, challenging one another, envying one another." At first glance, this verse seems to be coming out of left field, as though it has nothing to do with the context. But here we find part of the root issue that prompted the Apostle to write. Some of the Galatians were glorying in themselves. The word for "boastful" means 'vainglorying' or 'empty-glorying' or 'vain-minded'. It is an arrogant attitude of life in which a person "thinks more highly of himself than he ought to think" (Rom. 12:3). "It implies that we are so sure of our superiority that we want to demonstrate it. So we challenge people to dispute it in order to give ourselves a chance to prove it" [John Stott, The Message of Galatians, 156]. In our text, the empty boasting led them into even more sins of "challenging one another, envying one another." In simple fashion, "We are motivated by feelings either of inferiority or superiority. If we regard ourselves as superior to other people we challenge them, for we want them to know and feel our superiority. If, on the other hand, we regard them as superior to us, we envy them" [Stott].

 

So what are we to do when we see such sin in our lives? We are to call it what it is: SIN. We are to repent of it, confessing to the Lord our shame for acting in such fleshly ways, and pleading for His mercy in turning away from it. We are to remember that we have crucified the flesh; so live like it. We have died with Christ, so act as one who has been raised from the dead (Gal. 2:20; Rom. 6:6-7). We are to starve the unholy appetites coming out of our minds. We are to die to the desires we have for this kind of spirit. Instead, we are to give ourselves in service to the very ones we have been challenging. And we are to give thanks to God for the very ones we have been envying.

 

2.  To issues of the flesh

 

With all of the wonderful work of grace in our hearts and all of the saving power of the gospel, we still live in these 'tabernacles of clay'. We still have a 'proneness to wander' into sin. Until our final redemption is complete and we stand before the Lord, we will have battles in these bodies of flesh. As long as we are battling by the strength and grace God gives, we are pressing on in Christ, walking by the Spirit. It is when we think we have no more fights with sin or think we have already conquered all personal issues of the flesh that we find ourselves in trouble.

 

Brethren, let us each day go back to the cross of Christ. Let us see that He bore our debt and that we also died with Him. Let us be reminded that apart from Him, we are nothing. We have no more cause to go on living for the flesh. We belong to our Redeemer "who gave Himself for our sins, that He might deliver us out of this present evil age" (Gal. 1:4).Let us live holy lives, distinctly Christ-like in our ways and demeanors. We have the constant power of the Spirit at work within us. He warns us of sin approaching. He is grieved within as we sin or quenched when we despise the truth of the Word. He steals away the peace of God within, so that we might run back to Him to know the assurance that we belong to Him. "If we live by the Spirit, let us also walk by the Spirit." The evidence of this will be found in our turning from sin by the Spirit's help.

 

Conclusion

 

The Christian life is meant to be lived to the fullest. We cannot do this in our own strength. But we can if we will learn to walk by the Holy Spirit's power and strength. Will you give yourself afresh to knowing how to walk with Christ and doing it by God's grace?

 

Perhaps as we have looked at some of the evidences of true Christianity, you have realized that you are not in Christ. Let me point you to the only Redeemer of sinners, Jesus Christ the Lord, who died for your sins that He might deliver you from the judgment of God and give to you a new life by the Spirit. Turn from your sin and rest your faith upon Christ alone.

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