Living by the Spirit
Galatians 5:16-18
Happy Mothers’ Day
I think many of us struggle with feeling powerless in our
Christian lives. We know what we ought
to do, but we struggle with living out what we know. We struggle with certain habitual sins that
hold us in their grip. We struggle with
anxiety, anger, jealousy, resentment, criticalness, etc. We hurt and get hurt by each other. Although we believe that we have the power of
God available to us, quite honestly, we feel so very human. This is not the way the Christian life is
supposed to be.
For the Moms, theirs days are filled with diapers, bibs,
crayons, toys, laundry, dishes and noise.
They feel exhausted, and for good reason. But is this all there is for us? Shouldn’t there be something more?
Today, Paul points us to a different kind of life. The Christian is to be led by the Spirit, to
live by the Spirit. There’s more to the
Christian life than religious routines, moral values, and nice service activities. There is the presence and power of God in our
lives. And we need it.
1.
The Spirit and the Flesh are in a battle (v.
17)
We recognize that in the believer,
there is a battle between the Spirit and the Flesh/sin nature. They move in opposite directions, are in
conflict
Flesh can be defined as “anything
that opposes God”, “anything we trust in apart from God.” Lord willing as we move on in Gal 5 we’ll
better understand how it is that the Spirit and the Flesh battle each other,
we’ll see what exactly this battle is about.
In the past, we’ve said that it’s a
dog fight, and usually, the dog you feed is the dog that wins.
Feed the Spirit, starve the
Flesh—we’ll talk more about this later.
If there is no struggle or battle,
if the Christian life has been pretty and clean, manageable and tame, then I’d
like to suggest that it is not because your Spirit is so strong but because you
do not have the Spirit. You are not a
child of God. The Christian has the
Spirit, which is then in conflict with our flesh/sin nature.
Last week I said that if there is
no discipline or desire for prayer or
Scripture, for service or ministry, for worship or love, it is appropriate to
ask whether we really are Christian.
We did a survey last semester, and
when asked about your salvation, you had 3 options: certain, not sure, not
Christian. 95% said you were certain
that you were saved. 5% of you said you
were not sure. On that Sunday, one
person said he/she wasn’t a Christian.
As much as I’d like to believe it,
I’m hesitant to say that 95% of us should be certain that we have Christ in us
and are children of God. I fear that
there are a significant number of us who may be mistaken. Some of us should honestly ask ourselves
whether we see evidence of the Spirit of God and the battle in our lives.
2.
The Spirit defeats the Flesh (v. 16)
Paul is giving us a principle:
increase the Spirit, you decrease the Flesh
This is interesting because some thought
(might think) the most effective weapon against the flesh is the law.
Imagine someone is selfish and
uncaring. We see their flesh being very
unloving.
What do we say? How do we defeat the desire of the flesh?
Tell them, the Bible says we should
love one another. The usual answer is,
“Law.”
But Paul says we will not gratify
the desires of our flesh when we live by the Spirit.
Some of us are living in spiritual
defeat because we’ve not learned to live by the Spirit. We struggle in vain trying to follow God in
our own strength.
3. The Spirit creates
law-fulfilling fruit (v. 18)
If we are led by the Spirit we are
not under law, that is, we are not condemned by the law. If we are led by the Spirit we in fact
fulfill the law.
The Spirit produces love, and love
is the sum of the law. And so we fulfill
the law.
Last week we said, the Gospel does
not mean we do not live by the law (licentiousness). The Christian does fulfill the law, by the
Spirit.
How do we know if we’re true
Christians? We look for fruit: do we see
Spirit-generated love for others and love for God?
But the big question is, what does it mean to be led by the
Spirit, to live in the Spirit? How do we
do this?
I’m going to quote Piper on this: You walk in the Spirit
when your heart is resting in the promises of God.
I had said before that living by faith, Christ in me, living
in freedom, living in the Spirit—these are different ways of describing the
same thing.
Living by Faith Living by the Law
(self-reliance)
Living by the Spirit Living by the Flesh
Paul now uses
different categories, a different picture, but I’d like to suggest that Paul is
still talking about the same reality.
Let me take a moment to connect the dots and show that in
Paul’s mind,
Living by the Spirit ~ Living by Faith
1. Where does love
come from?
The only thing that counts is faith
expressing itself through love. (Gal
5:6)
The only thing that matters is
faith, and this faith expresses itself through love.
Last week we said that faith frees
us to love. Faith is the chemo that
destroys the love-cancers of guilt, greed and fear.
Where does Biblical love come
from? It comes from faith.
But the fruit of the Spirit is love
. . . (Gal
Where does Biblical love come
from? It comes from the Spirit.
Faith and the Spirit are closely
related as the source of Christian love.
2. How are we freed
from the law?
Before this faith came, we were
held prisoners by the law, locked up until faith should be revealed. (Gal 3:23)
The coming of faith frees us from
being a prisoner of the law, ‘confined under the law.’
But if you are led by the Spirit,
you are not under law. (Gal 5:18)
How are we freed from the
law? By being led by the Spirit.
Faith and the Spirit are closely
related in our freedom from the law.
3. How is it that
Christ lives in us?
I have been crucified with Christ
and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body, I
live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. (Gal 2:20)
Paul describes his Christian living
as “Christ in me,” and then “live by faith in Christ who loves me.” That is, “Christ in me” parallels “living by
faith in Christ”—two phrases to describe Paul’s life.
In what way can we say Christ is in
us? We would say it is the Spirit who
dwells in us:
Because you are sons, God sent the
Spirit of his Son into our hearts, the Spirit who calls out, “Abba,
Father.” (Gal 4:6)
The life Paul lives is the Spirit
of his Son in his heart, it is living by faith in Christ who loved me.
4.
How do we receive the Spirit?
I would like to learn just one thing
from you: Did you receive the Spirit by observing the law, or by believing what
you heard? . . . Does God give you his
Spirit and work miracles among you because you observe the law, or because you
believe what you heard? (Gal 3:2, 5)
We receive the HS by faith. I think this is a key verse for us. The connection between living by the Spirit
and living by faith is that we received the HS through faith.
We’ve said before, faith is the
channel/pipe/aqueduct, the Spirit is the water
Living in the Spirit is Living by
faith: You walk in the Spirit when your heart is resting in the promises of
God.
Keep these thoughts and let’s look at another passage on how
we receive the HS.
11 “Which of you fathers,
if your son asks for a fish, will give him a snake instead? 12 Or if he asks for an egg, will give
him a scorpion? 13 If you
then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how
much more will your Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask
him!” (Lk
11:11-13)
We first note that Jesus promises that the Father gives the
HS to those who ask him. How do we
receive the HS? We receive by asking the
Father. At one level, we receive the HS
by prayer.
Now look at the context.
Jesus is emphasizing the heart of God, how he is a good Father who
delights to give good things to his children.
A few months ago, Elijah was really
into magic tricks. We had gotten a book
of magic tricks from the library and he had learned a few simple tricks
(including the rope trick I had used once).
For Christmas, Janette had gotten him a magic trick set. And we were so excited to give it to
him. We knew he would love it, and we
were so happy to give it to him.
On this mother’s day, it’s good to acknowledge how much our
mothers so deeply want to give us good things.
I saw it in Janette’s mom as she came out to help Janette through a hard
part of this pregnancy. I saw it in my
own parents as they also came to help us.
They just wanted to help us, to do whatever they could to serve and
bless us. I remember as a child how much
my mom wanted to feed me.
Jesus is pointing out that even though I am a far from
perfect father, I know how to give good things to my children. Our moms so deeply want to give to us and
bless us.
But our Heavenly Father has an even bigger and purer
heart. He deeply loves to give us good
things.
Living by faith is to be able to see that heart of our
Heavenly Father. It is to be so assured
of this love, this heart, that we’re moved, we’re comforted, we’re thankful and
joyful.
What is Jesus doing in Luke 11? He is giving us assurance, He is
strengthening our faith. We receive the
HS when we believe He is our good Father who loves to give good gifts to His
children. That’s why we ask/pray. We receive the HS by faith.
A side note: God
often uses community.
If you’ve been blessed to have loving parents, then these
verses may speak to you personally and powerfully. But I’ve noticed that we don’t have to have
good parents or be parents to understand.
I was reminded this week of how much my wife, my brother, a friend—how
they care for me and want to give me good things. They are living metaphors of the
Gospel—through their love they remind me of how much more my Heavenly Father
wants to give me good things.
God often uses combinations: it is through community and
God’s Word—God’s Word helps us see something of God through community. And community helps us see something of God
through His Word.
We had mentioned a few weeks ago
Love this is the fruit, the
fulfillment of the law
Holy Spirit that love is the fruit of the HS,
we need to be filled with the HS
Faith we
receive the HS by faith; some preachers have used the analogy, Faith is the
channel/pipeline, the HS is the water
Word our
faith is strengthened through the Word (Ro 10:16, faith comes from hearing), in
particular, promises/gospel
We had said that our life in God’s Word is directly related
to our inner transformation of love.
I was listening to a pastor share about some research done
on churches. He said that in this
research the number one predictor of spiritual growth and transformation, the
single most important factor related to a person’s loving God and loving
others, was personal reflection on
Scripture.
I’ve been repeating myself a lot today. If I could give you one practical application
on how to life by faith, how to live in the gospel, how to live in the Spirit,
it is to meditate on the promises of God.
Look at the Psalms.
We need to feed the good dog. We need more of the Spirit, which is received
by faith, which is built up by God’s Word.
Feed the good dog: meditate on God’s Word.
I saw more clearly than ever that
the first great and primary business to which I ought to attend every day was
to have my soul happy in the Lord. The
first thing to be concerned about was not how much I might serve the Lord, or
how I might glorify the Lord; but how I might get my soul into a happy state,
and how my inner man might be nourished . . . Now what is the food for the
inner man? . . . the Word of God. (George Muller, Autobiography, 152-4).
You walk in the
Spirit when your heart is resting in the promises of God.