"Living by the Spirit" by Rod Bayley, 13 July 2008, AM Service, Galatians 5:16-26

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I don’t know if you’ve ever seen a person in need of a heart
transplant. They are breathless, often not being able to walk more
than a few paces before needing to catch their breath. They have to
sleep sitting up - they can’t lie flat or their lungs fill with fluid
because the heart can’t pump blood around their body fast enough.
They often have swollen limbs for the same reason, and are forced to
have a very bland diet with low fluid intake. Their quality of life
is very poor - they often lose interest in food or any sports or
physical activity because they are unable to take part in even the
mildest exercise. They cannot help themselves - they need someone to
give them a new heart. But what a radical change occurs if they are
given a new heart, especially if they are young. They’re able to play
sport, to run around the block without getting breathless. They have
new abilities, new desires, new interests - the transformation is
truly radical. They are a new person seeking to live a new life.

I believe that this picture of change for a heart transplant patient
is a useful analogy of the new Christian. Suddenly, they are also a
new person - they have new life through faith in Jesus, whose death
and resurrection brought forgiveness of their sin, and they have a
strong desire now to live for God. They have new interests - to pray,
read the bible and meet with God’s people. And there is a great
desire to grow as a Christian - to become more like Jesus, to live a
new life. But how can they grow in holiness or godliness - how can
they live the Christian life and turn away from their past sins?
Indeed, how can any Christian, no matter how many years they have
believed, grow as a Christian and live the new life that God calls us
to live? Is it just a matter of self-effort - of following a whole
lot of Christian rules and trying hard to live a new life? Can growth
come by just reading the bible enough or praying for so many hours
every week? Am I on my own as it were - is it simply a matter of self-
discipline now I’m saved? The passage we are going to look at today
from Galatians 5 answers this important issue, these crucial questions
about how to live as a Christian.

Notice firstly, in verse 16, the writer Paul begins by actually giving
us a command about how we can turn away from our sins, or as he puts
it “not gratify the desires of the sinful nature.” Our sinful nature
is our natural tendency to rebel against God, and live life our own
way, rather than seeking to please him. The sinful nature is what is
in charge of the non-Christian life - our selfish desire to please
ourself, to live with myself as God of my life. Well, what is the
apostle Paul’s command? Notice in verse 16, that if we are to avoid
following the desires of our sinful nature, Paul tells us to “live by
the Spirit.” The “spirit” here is a reference to God’s Holy Spirit -
He is the third person of the Trinity and He was given by God to
Christians at Pentecost (Acts 2) after Christ returned to heaven.
Romans 8:9 tells us that the Spirit is given to a Christian the moment
he or she trust in Jesus - He lives inside us to change us and guide
us, that we might become more like Jesus.

But what does this phrase “live by the Spirit” mean if Christians
already have the Holy Spirit living inside them? More literally, this
phrase could be translated ‘walk about in the Spirit’ - that is, it is
a continuous regular action, a habitual way of life. Among other
things, ‘walking’ implies progress - going from one place to another.
Notice that we are commanded to do this, ‘to walk’ - we have a role to
play - we don’t just sit back and expect that the Holy Spirit will
just automatically change us. Rather, as a Christian submits to the
Spirit’s control by responding to what is written in God’s
instructions, the bible, we will move step by step towards being more
like Christ - we will grow in godliness. The Spirit renews our mind
helping us to understand how to live to please God (John 16:13-14) and
our character is changed inwardly by the Spirit (Gal 5:22-23). As we
continue to grow in this knowledge, and especially as we grow in our
ability to put this into practice with the Spirit’s help, we are
living by the Spirit or walking in the Spirit.

However, in verses 17 and 18 we learn that this process of change is
not easy - in fact there is a huge tug-o-war going on, we are in a
battle. Notice what is written in verse 17: “For the sinful nature
desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is
contrary to the sinful nature. They are in conflict with each other,
so that you do not do what you want.” This is why we are commanded to
“walk in the Spirit” in verse 16 - this is why we have a part to play
- the transformation is not done by remote control. We have a civil
war going on inside us, as it were, and we have to engage in the
battle. The Christian author John White wrote a book about our
ongoing growth in godliness and he titled it “The Fight” - that’s what
it is, we are in the middle of a big struggle. And this battle didn’t
exist before we were a Christian - because we didn’t have God’s Spirit
living in us convicting us of our sin and driving us on to please
God. Before we became a Christian we simply did what we wanted, we
just followed our sinful nature - we didn’t have the desire to live
God’s way. But now our mind, our will, is a war zone. And we cannot
win any of the individual battles, let alone the war, unless we are
willing to be “led by the Spirit” - we have to work with the Spirit.

I used to work for an Engineering firm, and my boss owned a Belgian
Shepherd - similar to a German shepherd but with a thicker coat
designed for cooler climates. Now Jake the Belgian shepherd had gone
to ‘obedience school’ and could obey all sorts of commands on cue, but
when my boss or his wife took him for a walk, he would occasionally be
very difficult. In fact often he would take them for a walk, going
along at a very brisk walking pace. He had the lead on, and that gave
them some control, but he was often pulling against it, fighting to
just go his own way at his own pace. If they made the mistake of
letting him off his lead, well then they had little control, and he
would occasionally take off and they would spend an hour trying to
find him. You see, with the lead off, they were reduced to just
yelling out commands - they had taught him all sorts of rules, but
they could yell out commands till they lost their voice and he would
simply ignore them if he had decided to be his own master.

It is the same with us - we need to be led by the Holy Spirit, who
causes us to heed our master Jesus. But if we are always turning away
from what our renewed mind and conscience knows is true, we are
working against the Spirit. And if we ignore the Spirit’s leading, no
amount of rules or laws will keep us on God’s path - commands haven’t
got the power to overcome our sinful nature and cause us to change -
we will simply ignore them, or find a way around them. Notice that
Paul tells us in verse 18, that if we are led by the Spirit we are
“not under the law.” Laws cannot help you - self-discipline alone
cannot achieve godliness. There is no use reciting a long list of
rules to yourself every morning in the hope that you will obey them
through your own self-effort. Paul has spent the first four chapters
of Galatians saying that you cannot be saved from sin or made right
with God by obeying rules or laws, and now he says in chapter 5 that
once you are a Christian that laws don’t help you grow as a Christian
either. Rather, what we need is to be led by the Spirit - to work
with the Spirit that writes God’s laws on our hearts, that inwardly
changes us and brings a growing desire within us to please God.

Now, there is an important application that we need to understand from
this battle which Paul is describing - and that is that this inner
struggle is actually the normal experience for the Christian. The
problem is, we often think we should be able to ‘get it all together’
as a Christian. Also, we will come across other Christians who speak
as if they never struggle, that they are always victorious over sin,
that they never battle with their sinful nature. Worse still, such
Christians will often tell us that there is a ‘quick fix’ solution -
that all you need to live the Christian life can be given to you in a
one-time cure-all. For example, you just have to have a second
blessing or second baptism in the Holy Spirit when you speak in
tongues, and then you will find things easy as a Christian - or, you
just need to come and get baptised at our church and God will really
empower you to live the victorious life. Or you just need to come to
our healing service or our this or our that, and God will just
straighten your life out once and for all, and you will be on Cloud
nine after that, untouchable, triumphant over sin every day.
Rubbish! None of these ideas or any other ‘quick fix’ solutions are
offered in the bible - they are selling you a lie. Your Christian
experience will always have ups and downs - we will not be made
perfect in this life. But having said that, this doesn’t mean that
it’s all doom and gloom - as we have already noted from verse 16,
“walking in the Spirit” implies progress. There may be setbacks and
failures, but we will continue to grow in godliness and in our ability
to be led by the Spirit and turn away from sin, one step at a time.

In verses 19 to 21 Paul describes for us the affects or the bad fruit
produced by our sinful nature. If we need to be reminded of what we
are fighting against, some of the struggles we are slowly overcoming,
then here is a list. Notice that this is not an exhaustive list -
Paul finishes his list with the phrase “and the like.” This list
could be broken up into three broad categories: our sexuality, our
religion or worship, and our relating to one another. But notice at
the start of verse 19, that these “acts of the sinful nature” are
described as “obvious.” It’s not like we would dispute any of these -
we actually know what our sinful natures can produce - we see these
actions in ourselves or in others in the world around us. Paul is
just offering them by way of a quick reminder, and to deliberately set
them in contrast to the fruit of the Spirit which follow.

Verse 21 ends with a warning - notice what Paul states: “I warn you,
as I did before, that those who live like this will not inherit the
kingdom of God.” Paul clearly notes that this is not the first time
that the Galatians have received this warning - these sins are not
ones that they had recently been tempted by. Rather, these appear to
have been sins that were common in their culture which the Galatian
Christians were still struggling with. It’s a strong warning - a
person’s salvation appears to be at stake, their eternal inheritance
in the kingdom of God. Because this list is fairly encompassing and
the warning so severe, this passage has caused many Christians to
doubt their salvation. We can be so acutely aware of our struggle
that we can think it affects our status before God - that somehow my
forgiven, justified status before God is affected by my performance -
that my holiness determines whether I am really right before God.
This can lead to a lack of assurance as to whether we are even saved
at all.

But the key phrase is “live like this” which is more literally
“practice such things.” It is the continual, habitual practice of
such sins that shows that a person is not born again, is not saved,
and so therefore is barred from entrance to the kingdom of God. It is
not saying that once you become a Christian, if you ever fail in any
of these areas, even once, you can’t be saved - if that were the case
there would be no-one going to heaven. We need to be clear on this,
or else we will live in fear and guilt if we have a sensitive
conscience. God’s decision that you are right before him, that your
sins are forgiven because of your trust in Jesus’ death and
resurrection which paid for them, is a once-for-all deal. At your
point of placing your faith in Jesus, your sin is debited to His
account, and you are credited with His righteousness. The big
theological word for being made right before God is justification -
you have been justified or acquitted of your sin as we saw last week.
That forgiven, justified status that you have, cannot be affected by
your performance. The growing in godliness, the living of the
Christian life that we are talking about today is called
sanctification. We must understand that our growth in holiness, or
lack of it, does not affect our forgiven status before God. Rather,
our growth in godliness is simply the fruit of being saved. If you
like, justification or salvation is the tree, and our growth in
godliness is the fruit on the tree. This is the connection. So
Paul’s warning is to those who have never genuinely repented and
trusted - he is effectively saying that you’ll know that by the
absence of fruit.

In verses 22 and 23, we have the contrasting list of the fruit of the
Spirit. The Spirit not only helps us to avoid the acts of the sinful
nature, but it also positively produces a new character in the lives
of those who are Christians. Notice that the fruit is singular - it
is not ‘fruits’ of the Spirit, but “the fruit of the Spirit” - all
these characteristics come together as a package - all of them are to
be produced in the life of a Christian. They are not like spiritual
gifts where one Christian has this gift and another has that gift -
you have patience and I have love. These are not abilities or skills
but virtues or aspects of our character which are to exist and grow in
all Christians. The fruit of the Spirit is actually an outward
indicator of our salvation - “You will know them by their fruits” said
Jesus (Matt7:16) - the Spirit produces in us the evidence that we are
God’s children.
In verses 24 to 25 we are given the application of all this by Paul
himself - we are told how to have more of the fruit of the Spirit, and
less of the acts of the sinful nature. Here Paul is giving us a final
call to take the Spirit’s path. It’s a short summary of what Paul has
been stating in this whole passage. So what are we to do?

Firstly, in verse 24 we are told that our old pre-Christian life where
we simply followed our sinful nature is dead - crucifixion was a means
of execution. That doesn’t mean that sin is no longer present in our
life - rather, the power of the old sinful nature has been broken at
our conversion when we trusted in Jesus - it is not our master holding
us in bondage any longer - we are now free to serve the Lord. Paul is
saying the war has been won, we are just fighting the mopping up
battles. Our sinful nature is like a chicken with its head cut off -
it has been dealt a death blow when we were saved, but it continues to
run around the barnyard of our life until the last nerve is stilled.
It’s not in control anymore, the Spirit is.

Secondly, this is why in verse 25 Paul writes: “Since we live by the
Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit.” Here the phrase “keep
in step with Spirit” could be translated “queue up behind the Spirit”
- it raises a similar idea to being led by the Spirit (v18), walking
in the path that the Spirit is leading us in. We need to step in
behind Him, let Him be our leader as we think and speak and act. We
need to be in the right queue.

I remember enrolling at Sydney University back in 1989 and lining up
for ages - at least an hour - to speak to a particular person and get
them to check my subject choices and sign off on them. I patiently
waited and eventually got to front of the queue on a very warm day in
the old main quadrangle rooms with no air-conditioning and little air
flow at all, only to be told: “I’m sorry, you need to see this other
person first,” or some such comment, “go and join the end of that
queue over there.” Of course that queue was even longer - how
frustrating is that? It’s like taking the harbour tunnel by mistake
and getting out the other end at Moore Park before you remember you
needed to take the bridge to get to where you wanted quickly, and now
you have to double back through all the traffic again, and you may as
well turn around and go back through the tunnel and start again given
how long it will take. You seem to be going backwards.

It’s like that with our Christian life - if we are forever looking
around at the non-Christians who are simply following their natural
desires and passions and copying them, or we are simply reverting to
the actions of our old sinful nature without any help, then we are in
the wrong queue. We are supposed to be lined up behind the Spirit -
we are supposed to be in His queue. How frustrating the Christian
life then becomes, because we are always working against our self and
the Holy Spirit. We keep sinning in the same areas and feeling like a
failure - the Christian life seems so difficult - you seem to be
taking 1 step forward and 2 steps back. If that is you, get out of
the sinful nature’s queue, and line up behind the Spirit - stop giving
the devil a foothold in your life. Your sinful nature has been
crucified - it leads only to death - give it away. Start putting
God’s word into practice with the Spirit’s help - put off the old and
start seeking the fruit of the Spirit, the new character or virtues
that the Spirit is working to create in you inwardly. You need to
work with the Spirit - as we mentioned earlier, God is not going to
‘zap you’ and make you holy instantly - it is a life-long process.

The classic story and animation film ‘Peter Pan’ is about a boy who
never wants to grow up. He has the famous line, ‘I just want to be a
boy and have fun’ - ‘I just want to be a boy and have fun.’ No
responsibilities, not a care in the world. Unfortunately, many
Christians live like Peter Pan - just wanting to have fun and not take
responsibility for their Christian living. They are looking for the
easy road, and so do not commit themselves to the harder yet more
rewarding road of growing in godliness, by working with God’s Spirit -
by being led by the Spirit and refusing to indulge their sinful
nature. Let’s not be like that - rather, we need to follow Paul’s
command in verse 16 to “live” or “walk by the Spirit.”