Galatians

Flesh and Spirit, 5:19-25

In Paul's letter to the Galatians he argues against the idea that new life in Christ is promoted by law-obedience. Having pressed this argument home, Paul now argues against the idea that freedom from the law means freedom to sin. It is very easy to give the sinful nature free reign in our lives, but those who have found new life in Christ are not impelled to evil, rather, they are impelled to resist evil. Given that we possess new life in Christ, being daily shaped by the indwelling-compelling of the Spirit, let us give ourselves to the leading of the Spirit.

v19-21a. Paul sets out to illustrate the battle that exists between the flesh and the Spirit by listing the outward expressions of both life-styles. The first list summarizes the product of the "sinful nature". It consists of fifteen different evils; by no means a complete list. The "vices" make up four different kinds of evils: sexual immorality, religious heresy, social conflict and habitual drunkenness. Sexual immorality heads the list and this because of its association with idolatry, but it's the evils of social discord that Paul focuses on. The Galatian church was full of discord, dissensions, factions ......, and the like.

v21b. Paul warns his readers that to "practice" such sins ("live like this") bars a person from God's kingdom. Of course, Paul is not saying that individual sins bar us, rather that perpetually living like this, in defiance of God's word, will bar us from the kingdom of God.

v22-23a. Paul now lists nine life-style qualities that flow from a life lived under the power of the Spirit. The qualities are a subset of "love", and all of them are relational qualities, the opposite of biting and devouring one another, Gal.5:15.

v23b. This verse is rather difficult to understand, but Paul's point is simple enough: the law is not able to promote such virtues; it can't restrain sin and promote holiness; law-obedience is helpless in bringing this about.

v24. A believer shares in the Spirit-empowered life because they are identified with Jesus in his death, and for this reason their life under the tyranny of the flesh is ended. Of course, the struggle with our sinful nature goes on.

v25. Given that we possess new life in Christ, daily shaped by the indwelling-compelling of the Spirit, we need to live our lives under the guidance of the Spirit.

Too often we fallen angels display "repetitive, loveless, cheap sex; a stinking accumulation of mental and emotional garbage; frenzied and joyless grabs for happiness; trinket gods; magic-show religion; paranoid loneliness; cutthroat competition; all consuming-yet-never-satisfied wants; a brutal temper; an impotence to love and be loved; divided homes and divided lives; small-minded and lopsided pursuits; the vicious habit of depersonalizing everyone into a rival; uncontrolled and uncontrollable addictions; ugly parodies of community" and the like, Eugene Peterson.

Yes, we all taste the bitterness of "the sinful nature" for as Martin Luther said, "the old Adam retains his power until he is deposited in the grave." Yet, at the same time, our compassion is unrestrained. So, how do we accentuate the positive and eliminate the negative, how do we grow love and depreciate "the desires of the lower nature"?

There is a trick to living the Christian life and it's quite unexpected. I often had a debate with a mate of mine, now in glory, over the purpose of the law. We agreed that the law served to expose sin and so lead us to Christ for mercy, and that it also served as a guide to the Christian life, but he argued that it served to restrain sin. The point Paul makes in v23b is that the law is useless when it comes to shaping our behavior, either encouraging love, or restraining selfishness. In fact, the law actually promotes a rebellious attitude. Tell someone not to do something and that's a sure-fire way of encouraging them to do it. So, trying to use law-obedience to promote our Christian life can actually achieve the opposite; it can turn us into a self-righteous hypocrite, even undermine our very salvation.

So, how do we move forward in the Christian life? Verses 24 and 25 have the answer. In eternal terms we are crucified with Christ, our sinful self was nailed with Christ to the cross such that, as Luther put, Christ was "forsaken for me." In Christ our perfection is complete. This fact is not just a theory, but actually affects our day-to-day living. There is a sense where the old Adam in us, the sinful selfish self, has been put to death. Sure, the song lingers on, but its power is broken. It is broken because, in the first instance, we are no longer under the law and its sin-promoting power, and in the second instance, it is broken because the indwelling compelling Spirit of Christ sings a new song in our heart. The simple fact is, the believer is free to choose the song they sing, either of the flesh leading to death, or the Spirit leading to life.

The apostle leaves us with a simple exhortation to apply in our day-to-day living for Christ; "let it be the Spirit that guides our steps" - always try to sing the new song.

Martin Luther said "there is no perfect Christian"; we all slip and fall, we all sing a selfish song from time to time. Why is it then, that when we fail our Lord, Paul's warning in verse 21 does not necessarily apply?