Christian and the War Within

Galatians 5:13-18

Human mind is self-rationalizing. In other words, we will rationalize our thoughts and actions according to ourselves, rather than to some external source. Even when we read something or hear something and alter our behavior, it is because we choose to believe that thing we read or hear—we have rationalized it in our brains. We consider ourselves to be the best resource for determining truth.

This system works fine until we take one thing into consideration: our minds lie to us. In the ancient world, the mind and soul were thought of as the “heart” of a person—the center of their being.

Jeremiah 17:9 The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it.

It would be great if the mind was deceitful and good, but such is not the case. In the Garden of Eden, when Adam and Eve decided they knew better than God—that rebellion did something in us. God called it “death” and “sin.” We could no longer see God and we could no longer think clearly. Our DNA was infused with evil passed down through the generations.

The only way out of this mess is for God to “transform” our minds by dealing with our sin by paying for it on the cross then giving us new life by the Spirit of God coming into us to make a permanent abode in our hearts. Now, for the first time, we actually have a choice of how to think. And as we venture further into Chapter 5 of Galatians, Paul points out the choice—go back into legalism and you are thinking in a fleshly, “this age” way. Think like the Spirit and you think like God thinks. If the Christian life looks too hard, we must remember that we are not called to live it by ourselves. We must live it by the Spirit of God. The command of love is not a new legalistic burden laid on our back; it is what happens freely when we walk by the Spirit. People who try to love without relying on God's Spirit always wind up trying to fill their own emptiness rather than sharing their fullness. And so love ceases to be love. Love is not easy for us. But the good news is that it is not primarily our work but God's. We must simply learn to “walk by the Spirit.”

Let’s talk about these three questions, what's this “walking by the Spirit”? Why is it crucial to walk by the Spirit? And, how can we walk by the Spirit?

What Is Walking by the Spirit?

There are two other images in the context which shed light on the meaning of “walk by the Spirit.” The first is in verse 18: “If you are led by the Spirit you are not under law.” If Paul had said this, it would have been true, but in using the passive voice (“If you are led”) he emphasizes the Spirit's work, not ours. We do not follow in our strength. We are led by his power. So, “walk by the Spirit” means stay hooked up to the divine source of power and go wherever he leads.

Second, in verse 22: “The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, etc.” If our Christian walk is to be a walk of love and joy and peace, then “walk by the Spirit” must mean “bear the fruit of the Spirit.” But again, the Spirit's work is emphasized, not ours. He bears the fruit. Perhaps Paul got this image from Jesus. You recall John 15:4–5: “Abide in me, and I in you. As a branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you unless you abide in me. I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in me, and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit.” So, “walk by the Spirit” means “abide in the vine.” Keep yourself securely united to the living Christ. Don't cut yourself off from the flow of the Spirit.

Why Is It Crucial to Walk by the Spirit?

The text gives two reasons, verse 16 and 18. In verse 16, the incentive for walking by the Spirit is that when you do this, you will not gratify the desire of the flesh, so, the first reason we should walk by the Spirit is that, the desires of our flesh are overcome.

But the important thing to notice is that in 5:24, the “flesh“ is crucified and in 2:20 “I” am crucified. This is why I define the flesh in its negative usage as an expression of the “I” or the “ego.” And notice in 2:20 that since the old fleshly ego is crucified, a new “I” lives, and the peculiar thing about this new “I” is that it lives by faith. “The life I live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.” The flesh is the ego which feels an emptiness but loathes the idea of satisfying it by faith, i.e., by depending on the mercy of God in Christ. Instead, the flesh prefers to use the legalistic or licentious resources in its own power to fill its emptiness. As Romans 8:7 says, “The mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God; it does not submit to God's law.” The basic mark of the flesh is that it is unsubmissive. It does not want to submit to God's absolute authority or rely on God's absolute mercy. Flesh says,  “I'd rather do it myself.”

It is not surprising, in verse 17 there is a war between our flesh and God's Spirit. It is a problem at first glance that there is a lively war between flesh and Spirit in the Christian, according to verse 17, but the flesh is crucified in the Christian, according to verse 24. We'll talk more about the sense in which our flesh is crucified when we get to verse 24. For now, let's focus on this war within: our flesh versus God's Spirit.

God's Spirit Conquers Our Flesh

Verse 17 says, “For the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit,… The main thing to learn from this verse is that Christians experience a struggle within. A Christian is not a person who experiences no bad desires. A Christian is a person who is at war with those desires by the power of the Spirit.

Conflict in your soul is not all bad. Even though we long for the day when our flesh will be utterly defunct and only pure and loving desires will fill our hearts, yet there is something worse than the war within between flesh and Spirit; namely, 'no war within' because the flesh controls the citadel and all the outposts. Praise God for the war within! Serenity in sin is death. The Spirit has landed to do battle with the flesh. So, take heart if your soul feels like a battlefield at times. The sign of whether you are indwelt by the Spirit is not that you have no bad desires, but that you are at war with them!

But when you take verses 16 and 17 together, the main point is not war, but victory for the Spirit. Verse 16 says that when you walk by the Spirit, you will not let those bad desires come to maturity. When you walk by the Spirit, you nip the desires of the flesh in the bud. New God-centered desires crowd out old man-centered desires. Verse 16 promises victory over the desires of the flesh.

How Do You Walk by the Spirit?

You walk by the Spirit when your heart is resting in the promises of God. The Spirit reigns over the flesh in your life when you live by faith in the Son of God who loved you and gave himself for you and now is working everything together for your good.

Here's the evidence from Galatians. First, Galatians 5:6, “In Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision is of any avail, but faith working through love.” Genuine faith always produces love, because faith pushes out guilt, fear, and greed and gives us an appetite to enjoy God's power. But Galatians 5:22 says, love is a fruit of the Spirit. So, if love is what faith necessarily produces and love is a fruit of the Spirit, then the way to walk by the Spirit is to have faith — a happy resting in the promises of God is the pipeline of the Spirit.

Galatians 3:23, “Now, before faith came, we were confined under the law.” The coming of faith liberates a person from being under law. But what does 5:18 say? “If you are led by the Spirit you are not under law.” How, then, shall we seek to be led by the Spirit? By faith. By meditating on the trustworthiness and preciousness of God's promises until our hearts are free of all fretting and guilt and greed. This is how the Holy Spirit fills and leads.

Galatians 3:5, the clearest of all: “Does he who supplies the Spirit to you and works miracles among you do so by works of the law, or by hearing of faith?” The Spirit does his mighty work in us and through us only by the hearing of faith. We are sanctified by faith alone. The way to walk by the Spirit and so not fulfill the desires of the flesh is to hear the delectable promises of God and trust them, delight in them, rest in them.

March 19, 2018