Walk by the Spirit
Warm-up: When you buy a new gadget, are you the type who first reads the manual, or someone who first tries without it? Why?
Read: Galatians 5:16-6:2
1) v16 “But I say…”: What did Paul highlight as the key difference between the doctrine of his opponents and the gospel?
- Where did they perhaps not differ; i.e. what did they agree on at least in part?
- Why did they agree to call humans ‘flesh’, and what did this term include besides our bodies? Jn 3:6; Ro 8:9
- Where did they get that notion, despite the Platonism of Hellenistic culture? Gen 2:7 (KJV)
- How does this biblical view of man sit with the modern view that we (body and soul) consist of the sum of our genes?*
- Read Gal 3:3. Apparently, they agreed that something still requires finishing. What is that? cf Heb 10:14; 1Jn 4:12-18
- Why then did Paul not appreciate their zeal to adhere to the letter of the law?
2) v17: In what sense is the Spirit against ‘desires of the flesh’?
- Is Paul saying that God is against how He created us as flesh? Why or why not? cf Gen 6:3
- What does God desire for our soul and body? Does He want you in control, v17b? – Why not? cf 1Cor 6:19-29
- Human desires willfully oppose this eternal will of God, even in the name of defending God’s commandments. How so? Gen 3:5
3) What does v18 mean, and how can we know whether we understood Paul?
- Did he try to calm the Galatians that they need not worry of becoming legalists if they as Christians use the law as their guide (Tertius Usus)?
- Did he recommend the Ten Commandments as the instrument by which the Spirit wants to rule your conduct?
- Or did he now explain what we need instead of the Law to ever be free from the Law?
- Hints: What light do the previous four and a half chapters shed on this question? e.g. Gal 3:22-23
- What happens to Christian religion if you replace Love in 5:13 by the word Law? Or if 5:13 would read “The whole love is fulfilled in ten commandments”?
- What is most glaringly missing in the Moral Law (and in legalists) even though it is at the heart of love? Gal 6:1; cf Lk 7:47 (not ESV!); Jn 1:17
- Why do people worry that the Holy Spirit won’t sanctify born-again Christians without help from Moses? Did Paul share this concern? Why not, v17b?
4) vv19-21 explains why the Holy Spirit does not want you (or the law) in charge of your sanctification: Why is that?
- How is it evident even to those who never heard Moses that the vices listed by Paul are vices? Gen 4:7; Ro 1:32; 2:15
- The Greek word for “evident” is the root of our word ‘phenotype’ that describes the visible features and behavior encoded in a ‘genotype’: Does Paul mean by ‘flesh’ a certain genotype (the cause), or only its phenotype (the effect)?
- What is the phenotype of our (natural) genotype, and what is the consequence, v21? cf Jn 3:5
- v21: What deceives some who are not ‘born again’ to fancy that God accepts them in this way nonetheless?
- Which use of the law is for them: Didactic, Pedagogic, or Civil use? cf Jn 5:39-40
- What happens if such persons think that they have entered the kingdom and now adopt the Tertius Usus Legis to not be called antinomian, Gen 4:7-8; Jn 7:19?
5) v22 contrasts works of the flesh to fruit of the Spirit: Why?
- In what sense is it fruit of the Spirit?
- Why will the Spirit accomplish what no law can?
- What is the very first of this awsome fruit? What’s the implication how the law is finally fulfilled? cf v14
- How does fruit still involve the tree, i.e. is something left for us to ‘do’? v22; cf Jn 15:4, 7-8
6) vv23-26: If “…there is no law” to command such fruit, how else does it come about?
- v24: Who does the crucifying that is mentioned here?
- Unlike 2:20, 5:24 uses active voice: They have crucified…”. In what sense are they (lit.) “…of (genitive) the Messiah Jesus…”? cf 1Cor 6:19-20
- Why put all emphasis here on the fact that these (!) (already) “…have crucified their flesh” (aorist tense, denotes a definite event)?
- While no one disputes that self denial is required daily, (Lk 9:23), why didn’t Paul command such self denial here? Instead, he only stressed here the fact that all Christians in some sense have already done it. Why?**
- When did all Christians do so, even if they do not yet quite understand what really happened to them, Ro 6:3? =>
- How does this (!) rebut the argument of the circumcisers that the law is for believers?
- How does the explanation of by this context refute every sectarian who instead abuses v24 to look down on those who allegedly do not mortify themselves enough?
- v25: What if Paul would have replaced “…in step with the Spirit” by “…in step with the Law“? Why didn’t he opt for such a ‘balance’ of Spirit and Law and prove it by citing e.g. Ps 37:31, or Jer 31:33?
- If Paul would have introduced the Third Use of the Law, how would his opponents have responded, v3?
- And what difference would it make for us? If Melanchthon could teach it, why not Paul? v11
7) Personal & application
- Is the letter to the Galatians in any sense like a manual of Christianity for you? Why or why not?
- What came out for you as the take home message of this chapter? Has Paul already explained how Christians walk in the Spirit? How do you do it? cf Gal 3:2
- What was God’s law to you before becoming a Christian, and what is it to you now?
- Do you find chapter 5 disturbing in any way? Should it disturb us? Why?
- How does Paul’s message here about the law and the gospel compare to what we communicate to others within and outside church?
- Christian virtue is summed up here in only two verses (vv22-23). Compared to 5 entire chapters of ‘theology’, that looks like nothing, and we still have not heard of any DOs or DON’Ts, have we? Do you find such reasoning too ‘cerebral’, or do you think it is practically relevant? Why or why not?
* In the Bible, flesh means the whole human being as it is by nature, including body and mind Gen 2:7 (KJV). All that is born of the flesh is flesh (Jn 3:6), i.e. not only our bodies, but also the soul/spirit that God ‘breathed’ into it. Altough, “soul” can refer to either what is mortal or immortal, depending on the context (e.g. Mt 10:28; Acts 3:23).
** This is something we did decisively at the moment of conversion. (Stott, J. The Message of Galatians: Only one way. Inter-Varsity Press):
When a man believes in Jesus the first point that helps him to crucify the flesh is that he has seen the evil of sin, inasmuch as he has seen Jesus, his Lord, die because of it.
C.H. Spurgeon, Sermon on Gal 5:24
For a comprehensive online resource of commentaries about v24, see preceptaustin.org
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