Sermon Tone Analysis

Flesh Versus Spirit

Scripture:

Galatians 5:16–18

Last week we learned from Galatians 5:13–15 that the good news of Christ is a call to freedom.

God’s revealed will for all of us is that we have the opportunity, the ability, and the desire to do what will give us the greatest satisfaction now and in a thousand years.

We also learned that the only activity which we can perform in freedom is love.

“You were called to freedom . . .

so through love be servants of one another” (Galatians 5:13).

This love is not optional.

It is commanded.

And it is very radical: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.”

In other words, we are called in our freedom to desire and seek the happiness of others with the same zeal that we seek our own.

But if you take this command seriously, it is so contrary to our natural inclinations that it seems utterly impossible.

That I should get up in the morning and feel as much concern for your needs as for my own seems utterly beyond my power.

If this is the Christian life — caring for others as I care for myself — then it is hard, indeed, and I feel hopeless to ever live it out.

Paul’s answer to this discouragement is found in Galatians 5:16–18.

The secret is in learning to “walk by the Spirit” (verse 16).

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.”

So I want to build today’s message around three questions: What?

Why? And, how?

What is this “walking by the Spirit”?

Why is it crucial to walk by the Spirit?

And, how, very practically, can we walk by the Spirit?

What Is Walking by the Spirit?

First, what is this “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, “If you follow the Spirit you are not under law,” it would have been true, but in using the passive voice (“If you are led”) he emphasizes the Spirit’s work, not ours.

The Spirit is not a leader like the pace car in the “Daytona 500.”

He is a leader like a locomotive on a train.

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.

“If the Christian life looks too hard, we must remember that we are not called to live it by ourselves.”

The second image of our walk in the Spirit is 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.

So in answer to our first question, What is this walking by the Spirit?

we answer: It is “being led by the Spirit” and it is “bearing the fruit of the Spirit.”

The work of the Spirit is emphasized, yet the command is for us to do something.

Our wills are deeply involved.

We must want to be coupled to the locomotive.

We must want to abide in the vine.

And there are some things we can do to keep ourselves attached to the flow of God’s power.

But before we ask how to walk by the Spirit let’s ask . . .

Why Is It Crucial to Walk by the Spirit?

Why is it crucial to walk by the Spirit?

The text gives two reasons, one in verse 16 and one in verse 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.

The RSV here is wrong when it makes the second part of verse 16 a command instead of a promise and says, “Do not gratify the desires of the flesh.”

All the other major versions are right to make it a promise because this particular Greek construction has that meaning everywhere else in Paul.

The verse should be translated, for example with the NASB, “But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not carry out the desire of the flesh.”

So the first reason we should walk by the Spirit is that when we do, the desires of our flesh are overcome.

In recent messages, I’ve tried to define the flesh as Paul uses it.

Most of the time (though not always, see below) it does not simply refer to the physical part of you.

(Paul does not regard the body as evil in itself.)

The flesh is the ego which feels an emptiness and uses the resources in its own power to try to fill it.

Flesh is the “I” who tries to satisfy me with anything but God’s mercy.

Notice Galatians 5:24: “Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.”

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

In Galatians 2:20, “flesh” is used in its less usual meaning referring to ordinary bodily existence, which is not in itself evil (“I now live in the flesh”).

But the important thing to notice is that in Galatians 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, that is 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, like the old TV commercial, “I’d rather do it myself.”

It is not surprising, then, that 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 give Paul the benefit of the doubt and assume that both are somehow true, and 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, and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh; for these are opposed to each other to prevent you from doing what you would.”

The main thing to learn from this verse is that Christians experience a struggle within.

If you said to yourself when I was describing the flesh, “Well, I have a lot of that still left in me,” it does not necessarily mean you aren’t a Christian.

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!