Galatians Part 4 - Walk in the Spirit

Sermon Cardiff 13 07 13

Good morning everyone.

If I asked you to list the fruit of the Spirit, I’d put money on you all being able to quote Gal 5v22 pretty much word for word.  But how many of you can quote me the context of this passage?  Maybe it’s just me but it’s easy to know a passage plucked out of the biblical context, and good as it may be, not see it as intended in the wider context. 

Galatians is a great book that we've been going through and it contains much insight into Paul’s ministry and the issues that he had to address in his day.  In some respects there was the same conflict and confusion then as we experience today in this church which has come out of legalism into an understanding of God’s love and grace.  We've seen in Gal 1 Paul makes it clear that he was writing on the basis of his direct revelation from Christ.  

Gal 1v11 I want you to know, brothers and sisters, that the gospel I preached is not of human origin. 

v12 I did not receive it from any human source, nor was I taught it; rather I received it by revelation from Jesus Christ.

We've seen that the church in Galatia has some issues and that Paul said that there were people teaching a false gospel which was so bad that those preaching it would be accursed.  We've seen that people were suggesting that people had to go under the law and Paul was exasperated that people were turning from Christ and turning to the law.  We've looked at the promise given to Abraham being now applicable to us, as Christ was Abraham's seed and we're in him.  We have therefore learned that no matter what our identity is, we are one in Christ.  Paul likened the law to slavery and we skipped over the bit that looked at Sarah and Hagar with the women and the children they bore likened to the covenents.  We'll go back to that some other time.

So today let’s continue with Gal 5. 

We’ll start in verse 1 which is a continuation of the previous chapter that went into freedom verses slavery.  

Gal 5v1 It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by the yoke of slavery.

What was the yoke of slavery? we see in the bible that both sin and the law are described as slavery, but we have been set free from both by the sacrifice of Jesus. 

Gal 5v2 "Mark my words! I, Paul, tell you that if you let yourselves be circumcised, Christ will be of no value to you at all.

v3 Again I declare to every man who lets himself be circumcised that he is obligated to obey the whole law."

Circumcision was the sign of the law and old covenant and don’t forget, Paul was here writing to the churches in Galatia so he was talking to a gentile or uncircumcised group of people.  Remember in previous sermons we've seen that there were people who came after Paul formed the churches who were telling them that they needed to become like the Jews and keep the law.  This shows they were telling them to be circumcised, i.e. go under the law and old covenant, and Paul says that if they did that, Christ would be of no value to them.  The seriousness of Paul’s letter to them is emphasised in 1v6-9 READ.  They would be cursed, or eternally condemned in other translations, which means excommunicated or cut off.  What Paul reveals here would be shocking to those who are legalistic - if they would even read Galatians which is full of difficult scriptures - it is all or nothing, the law or Jesus, you can't just pick and chose what you keep.

What we've been discovering in the book of Galatians is that Paul makes it clear that the law was a temporary means of showing people their sins and was to lead people to Christ – it was not the other way around as stated by some.  Where is that said, look back at chapter 3v19 and v23-25.   The law was a temporary guide until Jesus. 

Gal 3v19 "What, then, was the purpose of the law? It was to added because of transgressions until the Seed to whom the promise referred had come."

Gal 3v23 "Before this faith came, we were held prisoners by the law, locked up until faith should be revealed.

v24So the law was put in charge to lead us to Christ that we might be justified by faith.

v25 Now that faith has come, we are no longer under the supervision of the law."

It's like in Grand Designs when someone is living in a caravan whilst waiting for their mansion to be built.  When they can move into the mansion and freedom to live as they dreamed, none of them want to go back to the caravan!!

So the old covenant law was done away with - but, does that mean that you are free from responsibility and care?  No.  Jesus gives freedom but does not leave us without any boundaries.  Remember he gave two commands, Love God and Love your neighbour.  This freedom from the law changes the way we operate, from the negative - don't do it and don't even think about doing it - to the positive, and proactive - Love God and Love others.  As my brother says - sticking to 30mph doesn't make you a good driver!

Lets skip forward to Gal 6v2 talks about carrying one another’s burdens fulfilling the law - you don't see that in the Old Covenant.  

Gal 6v2 Carry Each other's burdens, and in this way you will fulfil the law of Christ.

Romans 13v8-10 says that love is the fulfilment of the law. 

Rom 13v8 "Let no debt remain outstanding, except the continuing debt to love one another, for he who loves his fellow man has fulfilled the law.

v9 The commandments, "Do not commit adultery," "Do not murder", "Do not steal," "Do not covet" and whatever other commandment there may be, are summed up in this one rule: "Love your neighbour as yourself."

v10 Love does no harm to its neighbour.  Therefore love is the fulfilment of the law."

Therefore, instead of looking at the law which showed people how bad they were, we should be looking at its fulfilment or completion.  The law showed Israel the problem and Christ gave them the solution!  Can you see the different mind set of love in the new covenant?  What is love and where does it come from? Love comes from God 1 John 4v7 & half way down v16.  God is love. 

Back to Gal 5v4.

Gal 5v4 You who are trying to be justified by the law have been alienated from Christ; you have fallen away from grace.

This makes it clear that if we aim to be justified by the law, trying to do it ourselves, we are alienating ourselves from Christ and his grace.  If this is our aim we’ll be sadly disappointed because we can never be good enough by our own efforts.  This is why Christ had to die for us.  It is a stark warning isn’t it!! Col 1v17 shows that Christ holds everything together so alienation from the one who holds you together means that you would cease to exist!!.  This is my personal understanding of Hell and the fate of those who do not accept the gift of life that God's grace offers.  This is therefore a stark warning for those who legalistically cling to the law instead of relying fully on grace.  Will they believe that all they have to do is believe?  It’s like being asked to jump out of a plane with no parachute and having to rely on God’s grace to save you.  Would you jump or would you grab the parachute bag of the law in the hope you’re good enough to operate it.  The law in this analogy shows a lack of faith in God. 

Gal5v5 But by faith we eagerly await through the spirit of righteousness for which we hope.

Notice it is not our righteousness that counts – if it were, we’d be failures – it is by faith and God’s presence in our lives that that we eagerly await the righteousness that we live in hope for – who’s? Christ’s.  We are saved because of His righteousness not our own.  The next verse is important.

Gal5v6.  For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision has any value.  The only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love. 

This shows that it makes no difference if you are circumcised or not – don’t forget circumcision is the sign of the old covenant law and the sign of being Israel.  So the argument over whether or not anyone is part of the lost tribes of Israel today is irrelevant to Christians today.  Remember Gal3v26-29 says there is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male or female etc but all one in Christ.

Back to Gal 5v6 What matters is faith – and how is this expressed?  Through obeying the law? – no - through love.  We read earlier that love is the fulfilment of the law.  When something is fulfilled you look to the end result not what led to it.

Gal5v-7-8 Uses the analogy of running a race, and not just running a race but running a good race.

Gal5v7 "You were running a good race. Who cut in on you and kept you from obeying the truth?

v8 That kind of persuasion does not come from the one who calls you."

You can imagine a race when you are just on the final straight heading for the finishing line and suddenly you get tripped up and fall on your face.  This is clearly warning against someone putting obstacles in front of people – for more information of what Not to do, read Rom 14 on stumbling blocks.  We won't go there now, but Rom 14 uses two examples of what it describes as disputable matters of days and clean and unclean meats.  This is clear that we should be happy with our own personal convictions but that they should be kept between us and God and we should not judge others if they are convicted differently.  We should not put stumbling blocks such as days or meats in front of anyone else if they are not so convicted.  That works both ways – it is just as wrong to insist on Holy Days as it would be to insist on Christmas – observance is not a salvation issue - but the worse crime would be to judge those who disagreed with our convictions.      

v8 shows the source of the stumbling block as being not from God.  Therefore, we must be very careful not to put barriers between people and God by suggesting they have to do anything in order to be saved other than to believe in God's grace and mercy. 

V9 uses the analogy of yeast.  

Gal5v9"A little yeast works through the whole batch of dough."

Yeast starts off as a very small thing but spreads throughout the dough – so you have to be careful that a small disputable thought or idea does not spread through your thinking and consume you, as the consequences will lead to unnecessary heartache and confusion.  It's also a warning over wrong teaching spreading through the body of Christ.  We all have to be careful not to allow legalism to creep back in.

v10 Gives confidence in the congregations that they will not fall for the false message, but look at the consequence for the one preaching the false message

Gal5v10 – I am confident in the Lord that you will take no other view.  The one who is throwing you into confusion will pay the penalty, whoever he may be."

He will pay the penalty – whoever it may be.  Remember the dispute between Peter and Paul two biblical heavy weights in Chapter 2 - Paul didn't care who it was - if he saw wrong he tackled it.  That’s why the church only preaches what it considers is biblical and has abandoned many of the things that were only speculation, but had become doctrine over the years.  What is the penalty?  We read earlier in verse 4 that they are alienating themselves from Christ and falling away from his grace. 

v11-12 this makes it clear that he was not preaching circumcision.  If he was – why were the Jews persecuting him.   

Gal5v11"Brothers, if I am still preaching circumcision, why am i still being persecuted? in that case the offence of the cross has been abolished.

v12 As for those agitators, I wish they would go the whole way and emasculate themselves!"  

To promote the law more than grace is taking away from the magnitude of what Christ did for us and suggesting that our efforts somehow have something to do with it.  If he was preaching the law, there was no need for the cross.  His feelings about the agitators are clear – that they should emasculate themselves - too much info if you think about it, but it shows how strong he felt about those who were making others stumble!

Gal 5v13 "You my brothers, were called to be free. But do not use your freedom to indulge the sinful nature, rather, serve one another in love.

v14The entire law is summed up in a single command Love your neighbour as yourself."

We are free from the yoke of the law, but we should use this freedom responsibly – I don’t know if you saw Carwyn Jones’s speech after the referendum on extra powers for the Welsh Government a couple of years ago – the gist was that now the Welsh Government has freedom from Westminster, but, it should act responsibly with that freedom.  I think Nelson Mandela also said something similar.  Same with us – instead of indulging the sinful nature we should serve each other in love.  This comes back to the great commandment which is here described as the summary of the entire law.  A negative set of laws – don’t do this, that, or the other is not enough – love is a positive command to do something.  Again, where does love come from – it comes from God and His presence in us by his Spirit.

Gal 5v15 "If you keep on biting and devouring each other, watch out or you will be destroyed by each other."

Again this is a warning to the Galatians not to worry about what others are doing.  Unfortunately throughout the history of Christianity, we see that people have not heeded this warning and the church has had fights and divisions and it has literally been its own worse enemy.  Even more unfortunately we’ve seen this in our own church to the extent that there are literally dozens of splinter groups all claiming to be right and who believe that everyone else claiming to be Christian is somehow deceived.  We, on the other hand, believe that Christ died for everyone – and therefore we’re only a small part of the overall body of Christ so we do not judge those who disagree with us – we pray with love that all people will come into a relationship with Christ, either now or in the future when Christ reveals himself to them.  Paul on the other hand told the Galatians that anyone who preached a false gospel was under a curse and to emphasise the point repeated it!.   

So how should we live?

Gal5v16 "So I say, live by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the sinful nature.

v17 For the sinful nature desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit is what is contrary to the sinful nature."

v18 But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law."

Notice that the way to stay away from sin is to live by the Spirit or in other words live by God’s presence in our lives.  This draws a contrast between the Spirit and our own sinful nature, that are described as contrary to one another.  Our nature wants to do what's wrong and the Spirit wants us to do what's right!  This is the conflict that we're constantly living in.

v18 shows it's simple and straight forward – if you are led by the Spirit you are not under the law – because God, being loving in nature would not lead you to do something which is contrary to his love and thereby lead to you sin. 

A few sermons ago I quoted Steve McVey (Grace Walk Ministries) who said this.

"Greasy grace" is a term used by those who say that grace is a slippery slope toward just doing whatever we want to do. They miss the point that authentic grace *does* allow us to do what we want to do.  The secret is that authentic grace changes our wants!"

Gal 5v19 "The acts of the sinful nature are obvious: sexual immorality. impurity and debauchery:

v20 idolatory and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissentions, factions  

v21 and envy: drunkenness, orgies and the like.  I warn you, as I did before, that those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God."

Paul lists some obvious sins that normally appear in such lists first but then goes into some that may have been addressing some of the issues of the day, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissension, factions and envy before continuing with more obvious ones like orgies.  Notice these are things that would destroy relationships within the body of Christ, the church and cause division as we’ve seen in many churches over the years.  The warning is that those who live like this will not inherit the Kingdom of God.  If you are not living by the Spirit and you are doing all of the above, you have not accepted the gift of life.  That's not to say that people won't make mistakes, nor is it saying that people can't change and start living by the Spirit.  That’s the negative – what not to do.

Then we get to the Fruit of the Spirit.  The fruit of God’s presence in

our lives.

Gal5v22 "But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness,

v23 gentleness and self control.  Against such things there is no law.

This is God’s character being shown in us and through us to others.

Gal5v24 "Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the sinful nature with its passions and desires."

If we belong to Christ – having faith in him rather than ourselves, we will kill our own ambitions, desires and passions and seek to be led by God’s presence in our lives.  As it says in Gal 2v20 I am crucified with Christ and no longer live but it is Christ who lives in me.

Gal 5v25 "Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit."

This shows the importance of always trying to be faithful to God’s will and being in step with Him.  We can do this through prayer, study and meditation.  We should be continually praying for him to reveal his will for our individual lives and being in step with that will.  God multiplies and adds to the body rather than dividing and splitting it up, so we have to be careful to make sure that all we do is to His honour and glory.

V26 again warns us to not become conceited provoking or envious.   This means we should live peaceably with those around us. 

So to summarise, Paul has a warning to the Church at all levels to be careful not to add to the simplicity of the gospel, and especially not to put a stumbling block in front of anyone.  Saying that to be saved you have to keep the law undermines what Christ has done and alienates you from Christ with grave consequences.  We need to believe that Jesus is the son of God and that he died on our behalf to pay the penalty for our sin.  Anything other than this is a false gospel and we would run the risk of condemnation.  Love, and the way we treat others is the fulfilment of the law.  If something is fulfilled, it is complete, or finished.  We see that the law was temporary and its function was to guide Israel until Jesus.  We need therefore to be careful in what we read and watch to make sure that we don’t get side tracked by what is described in Romans as disputable matters, to the peril of the things that really matter.  What matters and what results if we live in step with the Spirit is the fruit of the Spirit being evident in us in the way we live and the way we treat others. The result of God's Spirit living in and flowing though us is Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self control.  Against such things there is no law.

References are from the New International Version.