Imperishable Inheritance

After urg­ing the Gala­t­ian Chris­tians to not live as though they were under the Mosaic stip­u­la­tions, Paul then warns them of using their lib­erty as a license for an immoral life. He fur­thers his dis­course on the supremacy of life in the Spirit then life under the Mosaic Law. The Spirit brought us into true free­dom, and liv­ing life in the Spirit actu­ally helps the Chris­t­ian ful­fill the Law!

“For you were called to free­dom, brethren; only do not turn your free­dom into an oppor­tu­nity for the flesh, but through love serve one another.” (vs. 13)

We have talked back in chap­ter 3 about Paul’s ref­er­ence to call­ing so I need not repeat it here.¹ Paul wants to remind them that they were called (saved) into free­dom and not slav­ery, but Paul has a warn­ing for them: “do not turn your free­dom into an oppor­tu­nity for the flesh.” Paul is warn­ing the Gala­t­ian Chris­tians to not use their Chris­t­ian lib­erty as an excuse for per­pet­ual sin. This is rem­i­nis­cent of Paul’s rhetor­i­cal ques­tion in Rom 6:1–2: “What shall we say then? Are we to con­tinue in sin so that grace may increase? May it never be! How shall we who died to sin still live in it?”

This is a good warn­ing for all of us. We do con­tinue to sin as Chris­tians (1 John 1:8), but our grad­ual process of sanc­ti­fi­ca­tion should drive us away from sin. We should express a con­trite heart over sin and con­tin­u­ally seek repen­tance. The “flesh” talked about isn’t to be under­stood as our epi­der­mis and every­thing under it–it refers to our cor­rupt, sin­ful nature. There is noth­ing inher­ently evil with our flesh; the prob­lem is with our sin­ful souls. We must be care­ful not to become Gnos­tic Chris­tians. They thought that the flesh was so evil that Jesus didn’t have a bod­ily form. The Bible tells us not only that the eter­nal Word became flesh, but that in the end of days we will be raised bod­ily to exist in a body for­ever as Jesus cur­rently is (1 Cor 15; Rev 20).

Paul then makes an amaz­ing state­ment: “through love serve one another.” With­out the appos­i­tive Paul is say­ing to use your free­dom to serve another through love. There is an implicit state­ment is that we are not to be a slave to Law or use our free­dom as an excuse to sin–but we are to become a slave to love and serve one another! F.F. Bruce extrap­o­lates for us:

“The call to free­dom, then, is a call to one­ness in Christ and to lov­ing ser­vice within the believ­ing com­mu­nity. The lib­erty of the gospel is not to be exer­cised in iso­lated inde­pen­dence. The Chris­t­ian does not emu­late the self-sufficiency of the Stoic…his suf­fi­ciency is in Christ, and he is involved in the inter­de­pen­dent and lov­ing fel­low­ship of the peo­ple of Christ.“²

For the whole Law is ful­filled in one word, in the state­ment, “YOU SHALL LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR AS YOURSELF.” But if you bite and devour one another, take care that you are not con­sumed by one another. (vs. 14–15)

Back in verse 3 of this chap­ter Paul says that “every man who receives cir­cum­ci­sion, that he is under oblig­a­tion to keep the whole Law,” and here Paul is say­ing that through love alone the Law is ful­filled! Paul quotes from Lev 19:18, in the Pen­ta­teuch, to illus­trate that it has always been this way. Jesus says that this com­mand, along with lov­ing God with all your heart, soul, and mind, is what “depend[s] the whole Law and the Prophets” (Mat 22:40). Lov­ing and serv­ing oth­ers at the com­mand of Jesus (the “Law of Christ”) actu­ally ful­fills all of the Law and Prophets!³

Paul’s ref­er­ence to quar­relling appears to mean that the teach­ing that the Gala­tians had received from the Judaiz­ers had brought in dis­sention and threat­ened to break their com­mu­nity. They were close to “con­sum­ing” one another with their quarrels.

“But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not carry out the desire of the flesh. For the flesh sets its desire against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; for these are in oppo­si­tion to one another, so that you may not do the things that you please.” (vs. 16–17)

To “walk by the Spirit” is to sub­mit to the Spirit’s lead­ing and author­ity in all areas of our life. Paul says that if we walk by the Spirit our sin­ful, “fleshly” desires will not be car­ried out. The Spirit is the only agent that can pre­vent us from sinning.

Paul then sets up a dichotomy between the “flesh” (sin­ful nature) and the Spirit. Our sin­ful natures have desires that are com­pletely anti­thet­i­cal to those of the Spirit. The sin­ful nature wants to indulge itself against the author­ity of God, but the Spirit helps us in sub­mis­sion and sanc­ti­fi­ca­tion. The Spirit wants us to be more like Jesus–that is, holy; and the sin­ful nature wants to go the other direc­tion. The Spirit is also there “so that you may not do the things that you please.” The things that I please to do often are not of God and sin­ful. Paul makes a ref­er­ence to this in Romans 7:15: “For what I am doing, I do not under­stand; for I am not prac­tic­ing what I would like to do, but I am doing the very thing I hate.”

“But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the Law.” (vs. 18)

This is Paul’s amaz­ing dec­la­ra­tion against the “antin­o­mian” charges that the Judaiz­ers were sure to give. Paul’s state­ment ear­lier in the work is that the Mosaic Law was con­fined to Israel’s his­tory before Christ (3:24–26), and we now live in the age of the Spirit (5:18). Paul makes men­tion of this con­trast as well in his sec­ond let­ter to the church of Corinth where he com­pares the Old Covenant (law/letter) to the New Covenant (grace/Spirit):

“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.” (2 Cor 3:5–6)

Paul’s teach­ing that the Mosaic Law drove Israel to Christ (3:24–26) is now illus­trat­ing the newer, greater source of sanc­ti­fi­ca­tion (lead­ing to and becom­ing more like Christ), and that is the Holy Spirit. If we are led by the Spirit, we are not under the Mosaic Law to lead us to Christ for the Spirit is far greater (John 16:7). There are two suc­ces­sive “ages” in the mind of Paul: one of Law and one of Spirit (before and after the Messiah).

Deeds of the Flesh	Fruits of the Spirit
Immoral­ity Impu­rity Sen­su­al­ity Idol­a­try Sor­cery Enmity Strife Jeal­ousy Anger Dis­putes Dis­sen­sions Fac­tions Envy­ing Drunk­en­ness Carous­ing “Things like these”	Love Joy Peace Patience Kind­ness Good­ness Faith­ful­ness Gen­tle­ness Self-Control

“Now the deeds of the flesh are evi­dent, which are: immoral­ity, impu­rity, sen­su­al­ity, idol­a­try, sor­cery, enmi­ties, strife, jeal­ousy, out­bursts of anger, dis­putes, dis­sen­sions, fac­tions, envy­ing, drunk­en­ness, carous­ing, and things like these, of which I fore­warn you, just as I have fore­warned you, that those who prac­tice such things will not inherit the king­dom of God.” (vs. 19–21)

Paul then begins a con­trast between the iden­ti­fi­able works of the “flesh” and the Spirit. He says “the deeds of the flesh are evi­dent” and begins to list them. While I won’t exposit every deed, it is clear that he makes men­tion of sex­ual impu­rity, cov­et­ing, excess, and divi­sions as over-arching cat­e­gories of deeds. He says that those “who prac­tice such things will not inherit the King­dom of God.” He is not say­ing that if you ever com­mit one of these deeds you will not inherit the King­dom; he is how­ever say­ing that those who live in this state habit­u­ally prove that they are not of the Spirit and will not inherit the King­dom (Mat 7:16–20; cf. 1 John 2:18–20).

The King­dom of God is an immense topic, and one that would involve a whole other study. In brief, it is defined as by George Eldon Ladd:

“The King­dom is pri­mar­ily the dynamic reign or kingly rule of God, and, deriv­a­tively, the sphere in which the rule is expe­ri­enced.“⁴

So Paul is stat­ing that those who live in habit­ual sin will never enter the King­dom which is, in essence, the pres­ence of God. Chris­tians enter into King­dom cit­i­zen­ship after sal­va­tion, but the King­dom will not be con­sum­mated until the Gospel reaches all the nations in ful­fill­ing God’s promise to Abra­ham (Mat 24:14; Gen 12:1–3).

“But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kind­ness, good­ness, faith­ful­ness, gen­tle­ness, self-control; against such things there is no law.” (vs. 22–23)

Paul then con­trasts the “fruits of the Spirit.” If we think of fruit we are con­fronted with the idea of some­thing that grows slowly but steadily and even­tu­ally ripens. The Chris­t­ian is not expected to mas­ter all of these right awa–or even in our life on earth–but we are expected to grow in these and thereby model the char­ac­ter of Jesus.⁵

He says that there is no law against the fruits of the Spirit. The state­ment is that the Law doesn’t pro­hibit or cre­ate these fruits. The Law does not con­vict a per­son who lives in the Spirit pro­duc­ing His fruits.

“Now those who belong to Christ Jesus have cru­ci­fied the flesh with its pas­sions and desires.” (vs. 24)

If we truly belong to Christ than we have “cru­ci­fied” or put to death the sin­ful desires that reign within us. To cru­cify is a slow, painful process to die as Jesus endured on our behalf. To kill the pas­sions and desires of the flesh it is indeed a slow and painful process. Paul explains both sides of sanc­ti­fi­ca­tion: killing off of the old self, and the awak­en­ing of the new self (regen­er­ated nature).⁶

If we live by the Spirit, let us also walk by the Spirit. Let us not become boast­ful, chal­leng­ing one another, envy­ing one another. (vs. 25–26)

Here Paul is say­ing that if you are liv­ing in the Spirit than walk by the Spirit. This invokes images of tak­ing orders, and the Chris­t­ian is to indeed take orders at the Spirit’s lead­ing. It’s not enough (or truly even pos­si­ble) to “live by the Spirit” but not “walk by the Spirit.” The for­mer neces­si­tates the latter.

Paul’s admo­ni­tion at the end of this thought is to not be boast­ful, chal­lenge, or envy another all of which come from pride and not of the Spirit. The oppo­site of these we are to emu­late through the Spirit: humil­ity, gra­cious­ness, and contentment.

Ques­tions for Application

• Does the con­cept of being free from the Law to be a slave to oth­ers make sense? Do you exem­plify this characteristic?
• When tempted, do you make a con­scious effort to remem­ber the Spirit’s lead­ing to avoid car­ry­ing out the sin­ful desire(s)?
• Do you find your­self prac­tic­ing more of the deeds of the flesh or the fruits of the Spirit?
• Do you “walk by the Spirit?”

1. For those that weren’t at that study, the call­ing in this verse and back in 1:6 (cf. 1:15) refers to God’s work in elec­tion. We are “called” or “elected” by God unto sal­va­tion (cf. John 6:44; Rom 8:29, 9:22–24; 1 Pet 1:2). [Back]
2. F.F. Bruce (pg. 241 [Back]
3. Dou­glas Moo com­ments on this pas­sage (and Rom 13:8) in Five Views on Law and Gospel (Grand Rapids: Zon­der­van, 1999), pgs. 359–60:
   

   “[T]he texts sug­gest that Paul does, indeed, see love as in some sense dis­plac­ing the com­mand­ments of the Mosaic law…If love for oth­ers â??sums up’ the com­mand­ments, the impli­ca­tion is that the one who truly loves will have no need of these commandments…‘Fulfilling’ the law, on the other hand, denotes that com­plete sat­is­fac­tion of the law’s demands that comes only through Chris­tians’ iden­ti­fi­ca­tion with Christ…and their sub­mis­sion to that com­mand­ment that Christ put at the heart of his new covenant teach­ing: love (Gal. 5:14; Rom. 13:8, 10).”

   [Back]

4. Quoted in Wayne Gru­dem, Sys­tem­atic The­ol­ogy: An Intro­duc­tion to Bib­li­cal Doc­trine (Grand Rapids: Zon­der­van, 1994), pg. 863. [Back]
5. To exposit each char­ac­ter­is­tic would take more space than would be prof­itable in this medium. For an in-depth look I sug­gest F.F. Bruce’s com­men­tary (pgs. 251–5). [Back]
6. Ryken, pg. 239. [Back]