Remember the Good News (5:24–25)

III. Remember the Good News (5:24–26).

A. Believers belong to Christ Jesus (5:24).

B. Believers possess the Spirit (5:25)

Galatians 5:24–26 NASB95

24 Now those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. 25 If we live by the Spirit, let us also walk by the Spirit. 26 Let us not become boastful, challenging one another, envying one another.

Gal 5:24-26 “Now those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.

If we live by the Spirit, let us also walk by the Spirit.

A. Believers belong to Christ Jesus (5:24).

Gal 5:24 “24 Now those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.”

Now those who belong to Christ Jesus - A long phrase which is a great description of every believer = one who belongs to Jesus!

How did we show in this week whom we belong to? Did I live in a way that shows everyone around me that I am independent from God? or Did I show everyone around me dependence on the Spirit of God?

This phrase, “Those who belong to Christ Jesus” also implies that a costly price was paid to for the possession (His precious blood) has been paid to redeem us as His very own possession

Paul refers to belong in Romans 8:9

“9 However, you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you. But if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Him.”

Do we live with the central thought in our minds that we belong to HIM? He bought us with a price -

As Paul asked the Corinthians… 1 Cor 6:19 “19 Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and that you are not your own?”

Paul expressed this same idea of the "divine possession" of believers in several other passages...

Gal 3:29 “29 And if you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s descendants, heirs according to promise.”

Titus 2:14 “14 who gave Himself for us to redeem us from every lawless deed, and to purify for Himself a people for His own possession, zealous for good deeds.”

Rom 14:8 “8 for if we live, we live for the Lord, or if we die, we die for the Lord; therefore whether we live or die, we are the Lord’s.”

1 Cor 3:23 “23 and you belong to Christ; and Christ belongs to God.”

have crucified the flesh:

verb, aorist, active, indicative, third person, plural | finite verb

Gal 5:24 “24 Now those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.”

Have crucified the flesh - There are two ways that this verse has been interpreted

(1) believers have been crucified (past tense) with Christ and are in union with and identified with Christ; (1) speaks of a believer's position in Christ

(2) believers are to (effectively) "crucify" or mortify the flesh which, although crucified in the past when we died with Christ, is still active in every believer. 2) speaks of the the believer's experience made possible because of our position in Christ.

when we first believed, it was at that moment we "received the actual benefits of our identification with Christ in His death on the Cross, which benefits were only potential at the time He was crucified. The Christian’s identification with Christ in His death, resulted in the breaking of the power of the sinful nature over the life. This victory over sin which the Lord Jesus procured for us at the Cross, is made actual and operative in our lives as we yield to the Holy Spirit and trust Him for that victory. It is the Holy Spirit’s ministry that applies the salvation from the power of the sinful nature which God the Son procured at the Cross for us

Rom 6:6 “knowing this, that our old self was crucified with Him, in order that our body of sin might be done away with, so that we would no longer be slaves to sin;”

Gal 2:20 ““I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself up for me.”

Gal 6:14 “But may it never be that I would boast, except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world.”

flesh with its passions and desires.

Gal 5:24 “24 Now those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.”

The flesh with its passions and desires - It is as though these passions and desires were dead for believers, and have no power over us, unless we choose to walk according to the flesh and thereby "energize" them! Therefore, spiritual conflict is a certainty, spiritual perfection an impossibility, spiritual victory a reality (which we can enter into by keeping in set with the Spirit).

Passions (3804) (pathema) describes what happens to a person and must be endured, here referring not to suffering as in most NT uses (14/16 = suffering) but to impulses as those strong inward inflamed, aroused emotions that drive an individual. Passions are intense, driving, or overmastering feelings that compel one to action. Passions are emotions which are deeply stirring and/or ungovernable (or barely controllable).

These passions are living like rotten fruit within our Old Sin Nature -

Lets start looking at this verse in

1 John 2:16 “For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the boastful pride of life, is not from the Father, but is from the world.”

lust of the flesh

lust of the eyes

boastful pride of life

All of these sins are augmented by the enemies of our soul

The Devil

The World

The Flesh

And these things within our hearts is empowered by the LAW of MOSES that when I am trying to be good and trying to be righteous that I just cannot measure up to this righteous law that is set before me. Rom 7 Paul gives as an apostle, the real life experience of every Christian with the words - The things that I want to do, that I dont do, yet the things that I dont want to that I do”

The LAW is so contrary to what God wants, the LAW is made powerful in the Christian’s life when he or she moves under its authority to derive strength from it.

The Solution:

Romans 13:14 “14 But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh in regard to its lusts.”

Eph 2:3 “3 Among them we too all formerly lived in the lusts of our flesh, indulging the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, even as the rest.”

B. Believers possess the Spirit (5:25)

Gal 5:25 “If we live by the Spirit, let us also walk by the Spirit.”

Live by the Spirit

we live

verb, present, active, indicative, first person, plural | finite verb

If we live - The "if" introduces a first class conditional statement, which assumes that what follows is true or actual fact. It can be rendered as "since" or "in view of the fact that...". The idea of "if" however does convey the sense of "if they claim to live by the Spirit, let them prove it by keeping in step with the Spirit."

the Spirit in Galatians this far:

By the Spirit we are being sanctified (perfected) - Progressive sanctification - Gal 3:3 “3 Are you so foolish? Having begun by the Spirit, are you now being perfected by the flesh?”

By the Spirit miracles are done - Gal 3:5 “5 So then, does He who provides you with the Spirit and works miracles among you, do it by the works of the Law, or by hearing with faith?”

By the Spirit we wait patiently - Gal 5:5 “5 For we through the Spirit, by faith, are waiting for the hope of righteousness.”

Walk by the Spirit - Gal 5:16 “16 But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not carry out the desire of the flesh.”

Led by the Spirit - Gal 5:18 “18 But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the Law.”

Acts 17:28 “for in Him we live and move and exist (have our being), as even some of your own poets have said, ‘For we also are His children.’”

Walk by the Spirit

Walk (4748) (stoicheo from stoichos = row, line, rank; see word study of stoicheion = elements, basic foundational things like letters of the alphabet) is literally to walk in line, walk in a straight line, proceed in a row, to follow in someone’s footsteps. To keep in rank and file. To march in in file or in battle order.

BDAG writes that stoicheo means...

to be in line with a person or thing considered as standard for one’s conduct,

Figuratively it means to behave properly, to conduct one’s life, to live in conformity with some presumed standard or set of customs (cf Acts 21:24; Php 3:16-note). To live in harmony or agreement with, to live in conformity with (eg, with the Spirit, as in Galatians 5:25).

The word was used for movement in a definite line, as in military formation or dancing.

The walk of Galatians 5:16 is the general manner of the life of the individual believer considered in itself; here it is his manner of life in relation with others. That is an exhortation to walk boldly and firmly as guided and enabled by the Holy Spirit; this (Galatians 5:25) is an exhortation to keep step with one another in the same strength and guidance. Submission of heart (for the comprehensive use of this word in the Scriptures 1Thessalonians 2:4-note) to the Holy Spirit alone secures peace to the individual and harmony to the church. He who walks by the Spirit in his private life is the man who, by the same Spirit, keeps step with his brethren. The obvious way to uniformity of step is that each should keep step with the leader of all, that is, with Christ. To be in step with Him is to be in step with all who walk with Him. Hence in order to attain to unity in the church each is to watch not his brother, but his Lord. (Bolding added)