Hebrews Lesson 55
May 25, 2006
NKJ Isaiah 40:31 But
those who wait on the LORD Shall renew their strength; They shall mount up with wings
like eagles, They shall run and not be weary, They shall walk and not faint.
Hebrews
5
Let’s
get back into our study. We are still in Hebrews; but we have migrated
around through a little lesson in discernment the last few weeks talking about
the subject of the leading of the Spirit, answering the question - is the
leading of the Spirit the same as divine guidance? The last two weeks I
spent time in Romans 8 because there are only two passages in the epistles that
talk about the leading of the Spirit. There is one passage in Luke 4 where
Jesus is led by the Spirit into the wilderness. But the context and the
dispensation and everything are different. So we only have two passages in
the epistles related to the spiritual life of the Church Age believer where we
have this vocabulary of the leading of the Spirit. Almost everybody down
through the ages is taking it to mean divine guidance. In fact my good
friend and former professor Charles Ryrie writes this quote in his book Basic Theology
which we have examined. He emphasized in here quote from Romans 8:14 that
“the leading of the Spirit is a confirmation of sonship for sons are
led”.
In
that he is almost saying that leading is a confirmation that you are a believer
because every believer is led. So if you are not led, maybe you aren’t
saved. I find that what he said here is somewhat questionable. He goes
on to say …
This work of guidance is
particularly of the Spirit. Romans 8:14 states it and the book of Acts
amply illustrates it.
Then
he cites several examples from Acts which we looked at and saw that none of
those relate to this. They all involved special revelation. I am
emphasizing to you that it is important to be students of the Word and to look
verses up and not just take somebody’s word that the verse teaches some point
that they just said. He goes on to say…
This is one of the most assuring
ones for the Christian. The child of God never needs to walk in the
dark. He is always free to ask and receive directions from the Spirit
himself.
That
last sentence is so dangerous because it sounds like if I am in a quandary I
can ask God and He will speak to me. I know that Dr. Ryrie doesn’t believe
that. He took this almost verbatim out of a book he wrote, maybe one of
his first books on the Holy Spirit. It is just stated very
poorly. But we are taking this as an example of how to be a discerning
reader and how to develop critical thinking skills when it comes to analyzing
what you hear from the pulpit or what you read in any kind of Christian
literature. There is a lot of Christian literature out there that is very
good. There may be 1% or 5% of it that is a little screwy, but you can
learn a lot from the other 85% - 95% that is there. You have to have your
doctrinal radar on and be paying attention to what they are saying because
every now and then something goofy slips in like we have here.
The
second passage that Dr. Ryrie doesn’t even mention in that brief paragraph that
relates to leading of the Spirit is Galatians 5:18. So turn with me to
Galatians 5.
Galatians
is the first epistle that Apostle Paul wrote. He wrote it to correct a
problem, a doctrinal error that was creeping in to the congregation in Galatia.
Galatia was in the (I take the south Galatian view) south central part of what
is modern Turkey. What had happened in Galatia was that Paul and Barnabas and
Timothy had gone into that area on the first missionary journey when they went
to Lystra, Iconium and Derbe.
They
taught the gospel and had many converts. That is where they first met
Timothy. After they had left the area this group of Judaizers came
along. The Judaizers were Jewish in their orientation and
background. They had accepted Jesus as Messiah but were still including
obedience to the Mosaic Law along with faith in Christ. It wasn’t a faith
alone in Christ for salvation. It was faith plus something else.
“It’s
not enough to trust in Christ alone for justification. You have to trust
in Christ and keep the law and enter into the covenant of Abraham by
circumcision in order to receive the blessing.”
So
this becomes a major problem because a work salvation is being introduced by
these heretics after the Apostle Paul had gone to Galatia. So the epistle
has to straighten out this legalistic error in two ways. It is affecting
their view of the gospel and it is affecting their view of the spiritual life.
The conclusion that deals with their spiritual life comes in chapter 5. So
this verse “if you are led by the Spirit” must be understood in terms of its
overall context. Again and again I emphasize the fact that we have to know
context. The old saying is that a text without a context is a
pretext. My favorite one is that if you take the text out of the context
you are left with a con. So here is the context.
In
5:16 a major shift takes place as everything from chapter 2 has been building
in this epistle to this conclusion. Paul says…
NKJ Galatians 5:16 I
say then: Walk in the Spirit, and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh.
Literally
it is an instrumental dative that means “walk by means of the Spirit and it
will be impossible for you to complete or to fulfill the lusts of the
flesh.”
NKJ Galatians 5:17 For
the flesh lusts against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; and these
are contrary to one another, so that you do not do the things that you wish.
Galatians
5:17 is parenthetical to emphasize this battle that is going on that every
believer experiences between the Holy Spirit who is indwelling the believer and
guiding them with the Word and the sin nature.
These
are contrary to one another. They are polar opposites. It is one or
the other. One thing you run into and is popular with many people who
teach the Christian life is you can be a little bit carnal and a little bit
spiritual at the same time.
They
say something like, “We all do things by mixed motives. It is a little bit
good; it is a little bit bad. It is a little bit selfish: it is a little
bit generous. But it is a mixed bag.”
In
Galatians 5:17 is one or the other. It is the flesh or the other. It
is none of this mixed motive kind of stuff. Let’s deal with what the text
says.
That
last phrase is very important for understanding what is going on in the
background. You do not do the things that you wish. In other words
the believer that is not walking by the Spirit won’t be able to do or bring to
fulfillment that which he wants to do. That is Paul’s experience in Romans
7. We will deal with that in a minute.
Then
there is a conclusion.
NKJ Galatians 5:18 But
if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law.
Verse
18 must be understood in the context of 5:16 so that we will see that walking
in the Spirit is just another way of talking about walking by the Spirit. That
is the same thing that we saw in our study the last couple of weeks in Romans
8. In Romans 8:1-14 Paul talks about these two polar opposites in the
Christian experience. You are either walking according to the flesh or you
are walking according to the Spirit. Your mind is set on the flesh or it
is set on the Spirit. You are living according to the flesh or you are living
according to the Spirit. They go back and forth. They are just
different ways of saying the same thing whether you are talking about set on
the flesh, walking according to the flesh, living according to the flesh or
just according to the flesh; it is all describing the same thing. That is
the believer who is living or operating according to the sin nature. On
the other side, set on the Spirit, walking according to the Spirit, living
according to the Spirit or simply according to the Spirit is talking about the
believer who is in right relationship with the Holy Spirit, in fellowship with
God, and is walking by means of the Holy Spirit. Then we saw in Romans
8:14 when it talks about being led by the Spirit, those who are led by the
Spirit are what? The huios, the adult sons of God. So being led by the Spirit is
another way in Romans 8 of talking about walking according to the
Spirit. We will see the same thing here. This phrase “being led by
the Spirit” is the flip side of walking by the Spirit. It is not something that
is mystical. It is not based on some sort of subjective impression. It is
based on a clear path that is laid out before believers. To understand
that, we have to go to an even broader context. That is the context of the
book of Galatians itself.
So
just as we walked our way through Romans we are going to walk our way through
the book of Galatians to see how Galatians 5:16-18 fits within this whole
pattern or structure of what Paul is saying in this letter to the Galatians.
What is important to understand is that too often we get so microscopic in our
analysis of the Scripture that we lose the picture. We understand the verse,
but we don’t fit it within the overall flow of what is being said. There is
also a place for micro-cosmic exegesis but there is also a place for
macro-exegesis where we are looking at the overall flow of what is being said
in a letter. Remember when Paul wrote these they were received by a
congregation and the pastor would stand up and read it from the first verse to
the last verse. He wouldn’t take a whole lot of time explaining a lot of
the details. He just read the whole thing straight through
Let’s
go back to the beginning.
The
first 5 verses give us the introduction to the book. There is always a
standard greeting. Paul identifies himself as an apostle.
NKJ Galatians 1:1 Paul,
an apostle (not from men nor through man, but through Jesus Christ and God the
Father who raised Him from the dead),
He
is an apostle because Jesus Christ designated him to be an apostle and
designated him to proclaim the gospel to the gentiles. He includes those
who are with him.
NKJ Galatians 1:2 and
all the brethren who are with me, To the churches of Galatia:
Then
he gives the opening greeting.
NKJ Galatians 1:3 Grace
to you and peace from God the Father and our Lord Jesus Christ,
There
is always a connection between grace and peace in these letters. Grace or charis was
the standard greeting of any Greek to another Greek just as we say howdy,
hello, or how are you a Greek speaker would say, “Charis”. It means grace.
If
you were a Jew and you greet somebody on the street of Jerusalem you would say,
“Shalom”. And
so you have grace and peace.
What
Paul does under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit is he takes these two common
greetings and he links them together because it is the grace of God that is the
one and only source of real peace for the individual. It is because of
God’s grace that we have peace with God. That is the argument of Romans 5 that
because we are justified we have peace with God, reconciliation.
NKJ Galatians 1:4 who
gave Himself for our sins, that He might deliver us from this present evil age,
according to the will of our God and Father,
In
this verse we have the synopsis, a snapshot of what he is going to develop in
this whole epistle. Number one, Jesus is the one who gave Himself for
us. That is focusing on phase, one salvation, what we call justification,
a recognition that Jesus Christ died for our sins as our substitute. So this
summarizes the message that is going to be covered in the first section of the
book, the emphasis on justification from 1:6-2:21, the end of the second
chapter.
He
gave Himself for our sins for a purpose – that He might deliver us from
this present evil age. It doesn’t say that He might deliver us from
hell. It doesn’t say that He gave Himself for our sins that He might
deliver us from the Lake of Fire. It says that He gave Himself for our
sins that He might deliver us from what? From this present evil
age. In other words that He might deliver you from worldly thinking, from
cosmic thinking, from living in the power and under the bondage of the sin
nature. It is talking about sanctification. Jesus justified you so
that you could go through experiential sanctification. So the significance
of sanctification is what is covered in 3:1-6:18. So you have two key
doctrines that are the foci of this epistle: justification in 1:6 -2:21 and
sanctification in 3:1-6:18.
Now
just let’s have a little side bar on these two terms and their connection. If
you were born in the Middle Ages any time after Augustine who was the Bishop of
Hippo who was considered the prime Roman Catholic theologian, then you thought
that justification was a process. It occurred over time. We use the term
progressive sanctification. You have heard that many times. They
understood justification to be progressive. Justification and
sanctification were progressive. The problem with that is that it leads to
knowing you are justified by knowing you are sanctified. Wait a
minute. Sanctification is the Christian life. What they are basically
saying is that the only way you know you are justified is if you are living the
Christian life. If you aren’t living the Christian life you don’t know
that you are justified. So you can’t know that you are saved or have an
assurance of your salvation unless you are living the right kind of
life. If you are living the wrong kind of life or you commit any of the
list of sins that is that century’s worst sin (and every century and every
culture has a different list), then if you commit those sins, then you are
probably not a Christian. You are just not saved. The only way you
know you are saved is by what you do.
Jody
Dillow who wrote the book Reign of the
Servant Kings which is a book that as soon as someone gets serious about
seminary or going anywhere in formal academic training - that is the first book
that I have them read is Reign of the Servant Kings. It has been out of print for a
while. It has just come back into print.
I
had a meeting with him on Monday as well. It was very enjoyable. It was the
first time I have had a chance to spend time with him. He has written 5
books in his life. His book on tongues which was only in print for a
couple of years is the finest books on tongues issue that I have ever
read. His doctrinal dissertation was on the water vapor canopy of Genesis
1 and all the implications of that. His undergraduate work was in
engineering. Then he wrote the book on the Reign of the Servant Kings which is the
finest discussion of the difference between lordship salvation and the free
grace gospel. It is about 700 or 800 pages. It is basically a
systematic theology for understanding all of the problem passages that people
go to for understanding the gospel and whether or not you are lordship or free
grace. What we have to understand is that the backdrop for all of this came out
of Roman Catholicism and in the Protestant Reformation understanding that
justification and sanctification were separate. Justification was punctiliar. Have you ever heard that
word before? It is a point in time.
The
instant you put your faith alone in Christ alone, you are justified. God
imputes to you the perfect righteousness of Jesus Christ. His justice sees
that you possess the perfect righteousness of Jesus Christ and declares you
justified. That is what the reformers understood. That is what Martin
Luther understood. Later Calvin understood it. It is the doctrine of
justification by faith alone. One of the mottos of the Reformation was the
phrase sola fide, by faith
alone. (Sola Scriptura means by Scripture alone and sola gratia by grace alone.) This is biblical. Lordship
salvation comes along and it makes the same claim that Roman Catholicism
made. It blurs the distinction between justification and sanctification so
that if you trust Christ as your savior, you don’t know if it is a true saving
faith until you have lived the right kind of life.
Dillow in his book Reign of the Servant Kings calls it
experiential predestinarianism. Don’t you just
love it? I just love these terms. The only way you know if you are
part of the elect is through the experiment of your life. So you don’t know if
you are saved unless you live like you are saved. If you don’t live like
you were saved, then you didn’t have the right kind of faith.
You
see the Bible talks about faith generically. Everybody believes. You
are sitting in a chair. When you sat down you didn’t walk up to it and
knock it around a little bit to make sure it would hold you. You trusted
it would hold you and you sat down in that chair. It is the same kind of
faith that you exercise toward the chair is the same kind of faith you exercise
toward the cross. There is no “different kinds of faith”. Faith is
simply believing something to be true.
In
language we understand, that faith always has an object. It is the object
that is significant not the kind of faith. It is the object of faith that
saves. If you believe that Jesus Christ died on the cross for your sins;
then the object of your faith (Christ on the cross and His death) is what saves
you, not the faith. It is Christ’s on the cross that saves you. It is
having the right object. If your object is that I am saved because I trust
in Christ and I am baptized and I am living a good life and I join the right
church, then you are not saved. It is a false gospel because whenever you
add any human effort to the cross, it dilutes and destroys the cross. It
waters down the gospel. This is what Paul gets into in Galatians 1:6.
NKJ Galatians 1:6 I
marvel that you are turning away so soon from Him who called you in the grace
of Christ, to a different gospel,
A
heteros gospel, one of a
different kind. It is not the same kind of gospel. The message is
different. It is a faith in something else; it is not in Christ alone.
NKJ Galatians 1:7 which
is not another; but there are some who trouble you and want to pervert the
gospel of Christ.
NKJ Galatians 1:8 But
even if we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel to you than what
we have preached to you, let him be accursed.
NKJ Galatians 1:9 As
we have said before, so now I say again, if anyone preaches any other gospel to
you than what you have received, let him be accursed.
Twice
he mentions this! The word there for accursed is anathema. This is strong language
from the Apostle Paul.
He
virtually is saying, “If anyone preaches another gospel, let them go to hell.”
The
emphasis here is on faith alone in Christ alone. He goes through an
explanation of his defense of the gospel. He had to defend it in Jerusalem
because Peter had waffled on the gospel after he had first taken the gospel to
the Greeks.
The
Judaizers came along and said, “Well, that is fine and good that the gentiles
are getting saved; but they have got to get under the law. We can’t have a
bunch of unclean, immoral gentiles getting saved. They have got to enter
into the Mosaic Law and come under the provisions of the Mosaic Law otherwise
they are not saved.”
He
completely blasts Peter for that and explains that encounter with Peter in
Antioch in verse 11.
NKJ Galatians 2:11
Now when Peter had come to Antioch, I withstood him to his face, because he was
to be blamed;
Wouldn’t
you have liked to be a fly on the wall in that encounter? Paul reams out
Peter because he screwed up the gospel.
Paul
goes down to explain the basis of the gospel.
NKJ Galatians 2:15
"We who
are Jews by nature, and not sinners of the Gentiles,
Then
it begins with the word knowing. Actually it should be translated as a
causal participle from the Greek – because we know something.
NKJ Galatians 2:16
"knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law but by faith
in Jesus Christ, even we have believed in Christ Jesus, that we might be
justified by faith in Christ and not by the works of the law; for by the works
of the law no flesh shall be justified.
No
matter how good you are, no matter how consistent you are, the works of the law
will never, have never bring justification to somebody because what a person
needs is perfect righteousness. That cannot be achieved through obedience
to the law.
Jesus
Christ is the object of our faith.
Three
times he makes this point that the works of the law can’t bring
justification. Justification only comes because you put your faith alone
in Christ alone. Jesus is the object of the faith and only Jesus.
That
is why we say, “By faith alone.”
Faith
is not accompanied by anything else - faith alone in Christ alone. The
object is not accompanied by anything else. It is really important
especially if you are evangelizing, if you are witnessing to somebody who is
coming out of Church of Christ background or Roman Catholic background. They
hear this verbiage all the time coming right out of the Scriptures that you
have to believe in Christ, you are saved by grace. What you have to do is
make sure that you understand what they mean by these words. Don’t just
pull out your gospel gun and shoot them with Ephesians 2:8-9. Ask them
some questions.
“Well,
what do you mean by grace?”
I
remember talking on the phone to a person one time and I was doing a lot to
help out my folks. My mother had a series of strokes.
This
person said, “Well, you certainly are earning a lot of grace.”
They
were Roman Catholic and that was their concept of grace. It wasn’t your
concept of grace. It wasn’t the Bible’s concept of grace. It is
something that is worked for, not something that is freely given.
Somebody
may say, “You are saved by grace.”
Take
a little time and ask, “What do you mean by grace?”
Pull
out what they mean by these terms.
“Christ
died for my sins.”
“Well,
what do you mean by that? If you didn’t go to church, if you never
participated in the sacraments, if you never took mass, if you never did any of
these things, if you committed a bunch of mortal sins would you still go to
heaven by trusting in Christ alone?”
If
the answer to that is, “Well, I am not so sure”, then they aren’t
saved. They haven’t understood the gospel. They are trusting in Jesus
plus something else, their own works or their own obedience.
Paul
says, “That is a different gospel and you aren’t saved.”
They
are trying to be justified by works. So chapter 1 and chapter 2 deal with
justification by faith.
A
key word is missing from chapter 1 and chapter 2. I put together a chart of
three key words in Galatians. It is kind of like the chart we had last
week in Romans. These three words come out of Galatians 3:3-4. The
first is pneuma
which is the word for the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit isn’t mentioned in
chapter one or chapter two. It isn’t that He isn’t present in
regeneration. Paul isn’t taking about that. He is focusing on
justification. We don’t see the word pneuma appear until Galatians 3. Four
times the word pneuma
appears in Galatians 3 in reference to the Holy Spirit, two times in Galatians
4, 8 times in Galatians 5, and once in Galatians 6. So if you want to
study what is happening with the Holy Spirit in Galatians, where would you
go? To our passage in Galatians 5.
Okay,
let me back up. There is a shift that takes place between Galatians 2:21
and 3:1. Verses 1 and 2 dealt with justification but then he reams them
out again. As he started to talk about the gospel he really laid into
them.
NKJ Galatians 3:1 O
foolish Galatians! Who has bewitched you that you should not obey the truth,
before whose eyes Jesus Christ was clearly portrayed among you as crucified?
NKJ Galatians 3:2
This only I want to learn from you: Did you receive the Spirit by the works of
the law, or by the hearing of faith?
He
pulls them up and says, “I want to know one thing, just one thing. Pay
attention. Did you receive the Spirit by the works of the law or by the
hearing of faith? Now how did you get the Holy Spirit when you were
saved? Was it by the law or by hearing with faith?”
We
have just gone through this whole explanation of justification that you are
justified by faith alone is and that is when you receive the Holy Spirit.
Then
in verse 3 he says…
NKJ Galatians 3:3
Are you so foolish? Having begun in the Spirit, are you now being made perfect
by the flesh?
This
is the second time he has used the word foolish. You can tell Paul is
really wound up here.
How
do you begin? By means of the Spirit? Justification, the Holy Spirit
makes it clear to us. The Holy Spirit regenerates us.
“Now”
is what? After salvation or at salvation? After salvation.
Now
let’s bring this into our vernacular. “Being made perfect” doesn’t mean
sinlessness.
It
means completion. It is a form of our verb epiteleo. Epiteleo means to bring something to
completion or to bring it to maturity.
Translation:
Having begun by the Spirit you were saved because of the ministry of God the
Holy Spirit in salvation. Are you now trying to grow, not by the Spirit,
but by the flesh?
Now
let me ask you a question? What were these Galatian believers doing to try
to grow? Were they a bunch of immoral, antinomian sinners out there
raising hell all of the time? No, they are trying to obey the
law. But what does Paul say?
“You
are trying to reach spiritual maturity by the sin nature.”
So
he is equating obeying the law apart from the Spirit with being perfected by
the sin nature.
He
is saying, “Trying to be moral and live the law apart from the Holy Spirit is
nothing more than the works of the sin nature.”
In
other words, all of your morality and ritual and religious activity is all from
the sin nature because you are leaving the Holy Spirit completely out of the
equation.
Now
there are three key words that are in verse 3. Those three key words are
Spirit, made perfect and flesh (sin nature). We don’t see these three key
terms connected again until Galatians 5:16. Now if you have these three
key terms in this rhetorical question in Galatians 3:3 and Paul doesn’t come
back to mention those three things together until Galatians 5:16, that ought to
raise a red flag that Galatians 5:16 finally going to answer the question and
explain the issue that is raised in Galatians 3:3. But he has to go a long
way around the barn in the rest of chapter 3 and chapter 4 in order to explain
the role and purpose of the law and its relationship to Abraham and the
Abrahamic covenant before he can finally get back to explaining the role of the
Holy Spirit. They have been confused. They are trying to get grace
and get saved or sanctified through circumcision. Circumcision wasn’t a
sign of the Mosaic Covenant. It was a sign of the Abrahamic Covenant.
(Genesis 18) The sign of the Mosaic Covenant was obedience to the
Sabbath. Paul is first of all going to show that the Abraham Covenant
guaranteed that in Abraham all nations would be blessed and quotes that in
3:8. He doesn’t connect it to circumcision. He says in verse 9…
NKJ Galatians 3:9 So
then those who are
of faith are blessed with believing Abraham.
Faith,
not those who are circumcised.
See
that is an illusion to the same thing that he does in Romans 4 showing that we
are justified by faith just as Abraham was justified by faith because Abraham
is the Old Testament example for justification by faith alone.
NKJ Genesis 15:6
And he believed in the LORD, and He accounted it to him for righteousness.
Then
in verse 10 and following he emphasizes the fact that the law doesn’t bring
life; it brings condemnation. It brings a curse. Then he goes on to
explain the importance of the law and the purpose of the law and the
covenant. What we have is different. The law’s purpose wasn’t to
bring righteousness. The law’s purpose was to act like a school teacher, a
pedagogue. It was to teach people that you can’t be justified by being
moral. No system of ritual or sacrifices can bring justification.
NKJ Galatians 3:25
But after faith has come, we are no longer under a tutor.
That
is faith in Christ.
The
law was temporary.
NKJ Galatians 3:26
For you are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus.
The
emphasis here is on our adoption.
NKJ Galatians 3:27
For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ.
Here
he is talking about the result of faith alone in Christ alone and baptism by
means of the Holy Spirit.
Then
in chapter 4 he goes to deal with the law versus the Spirit. He uses the
situation between Sarah and Hagar down towards the end of the chapter that one
is the picture of the Spirit and the other is a picture of the flesh. That
which was produced through Sarah is a fruit of the Spirit; that which was produced
according to the flesh (Abraham’s effort to produce his own heir) is according
to the flesh. So after he develops this analogy between Hagar and Sarah,
Sarah representing those who are relying upon God and trusting in Him and Hagar
is the sin nature solution, he says…
NKJ Galatians 4:28
Now we, brethren, as Isaac was, are children of promise.
Just
as Isaac was the result of an Old Testament promise and the result of grace so
we as Church Age believers are the result of grace and children of the promise.
NKJ Galatians 4:29
But, as he who was born according to the flesh then persecuted him who was born according
to the Spirit, even so it is now.
What
terminology ought to catch your attention in that verse? It is Galatians
4:29 - according to the flesh versus according to the Spirit. That is the
same phraseology and contrast that we saw in Romans 8 and we are going to see
it again in Galatians 5:17.
NKJ Galatians 5:17
For the flesh lusts against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; and
these are contrary to one another, so that you do not do the things that you
wish.
So
he is building his case that those who are of the law are of the
flesh. They are a product of the sin nature trying to achieve the blessing
of God, not resting in the promise and provision of God’s grace.
Then
we come to chapter 5. Chapter 5 is where he begins to talk about the
Spirit and 8 times he mentions the Spirit. He emphasizes the fact that it
is in Christ that we are made free. The law is nothing more than bondage
just as Hagar was the bondwoman.
Now
let’s skip down to verse 16 where we were headed.
In
verse 16 we have the basic use of this root teleios. We had epiteleo earlier [3:3] now we
have teleo in 5:16.
NKJ Galatians 5:16 I
say then: Walk in the Spirit, and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh.
What
is Paul saying? He is saying that you have two alternatives. You can
either walk by the Spirit or you can walk by the flesh. What we have here
in the Greek is a very emphatic construction. It is a double
negative. If you use a double negative in the English one negative cancels
the other negative.
You
don’t say, “I am not never going to do something” because that means you are
going to do it.
But
in Greek you would use these two different words for “no”, ou and me. If you joined them together with a verb in the subjunctive
mood, it was the strongest way of saying that something could never ever, ever
happen. It is impossible.
So
what Paul says here is, “If you walk by means of the Spirit, it is impossible
for you to bring to completion the lusts of the flesh.”
A
lot of people say, “If I am walking by means of the Spirit, how do I ever sin?”
It
is a matter of negative volition. I got a great illustration of this years
ago when was in Pokipsy, New York speaking
at a church. I came down from my hotel room ready to be picked up and as I
got downstairs and the doors opened I discovered there was a geriatric
convention in town. There were about 50 elderly people and their walkers
going in front of me and I couldn’t come out of the elevator. Every one of
them was walking along with their canes and their walkers.
I
was teaching this that night and I thought, “Walk by means of the Spirit,
walking by means of their walker.”
Now
if you are walking along with a cane then you have to think about it a little
bit unless you have done it for a while. It is a step-by-step
procedure. And that is what walking is here. It is the Greek verb peripateo which emphasizes the walk,
step-by-step aspect. Each time you do your thinking about it, you are
walking by the Spirit.
Now
let me use an analogy. If you are walking by means of the cane, you won’t
fall down. What do you have to do to fall down? Stop using the cane
and you will automatically fall down. That is what this is talking
about. As long as you are leaning on the Spirit, as long as the Spirit is
the guide, then you are not going to fall down. But as soon as you decide
to stop using the cane (or the walker) or stop using the Holy Spirit, you will
fall down. That is how sin occurs. We choose to stop being dependent on
the Holy Spirit.
Now
is this some sort of mystical inner lightism? No, it is not
because the Spirit guides through His Word. So it is this thing that we
see over and over again in the New Testament that the Christian life is through
the joint effort of two things, the Word of God and the Spirit of God
together. It is never one without the other. So Paul begins in verse
16 with the command to walk by the Spirit and you won’t sin. As soon as
you stop being dependent on the Holy Spirit, the sin nature is back in that
default position and you instantly go over to operating on the sin nature. It
is one or the other. They are mutually exclusive. This is absolute
spirituality. You are either walking by the Spirit or you are not. It
is not a little bit or a little bit more. It is one or the other.
Then
in verse 18 he says…
NKJ Galatians 5:18
But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law.
So
the Spirit is out in front. If I am walking by the Spirit, then I am
following the Spirit. But it’s not just guesswork.
It’s
not, “I wonder what the Holy Spirit wants me to do.”
So
let’s skip ahead. The verses in between talk about how you know whether
the Spirit is producing anything in your life. You have the works of the
sin nature versus the fruit of the Spirit explained. Then at the end of
that discussion on the work of the flesh in verses 19-21 and the fruit of the
Spirit (the production of the Spirit) in verses 22 and 23, in verse 25 we read…
NKJ Galatians 5:25 If
we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit.
It
is a first class condition. We live by the Spirit, don’t we? At the
instant of faith alone in Christ alone, God the Holy Spirit regenerates us and
we have eternal life.
NKJ Titus 3:5 not by works
of righteousness which we have done, but according to His mercy He saved us,
through the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Spirit,
The
Holy Spirit produces life. So if we live by the Spirit (and we do) let us
also walk by means of the Spirit. Here we have a completely different
Greek word than the one we have in Galatians 5:16.
In
Galatians 5:16 Paul uses the word peripateo. That was a famous Greek word
because when Socrates would teach philosophy at the academy, we would just walk
around in the portico among the columns and he would teach outdoors. They
walked around with his students everywhere and talked. So they walked around
following him and were called the peripatetics. Peripateo means to walk
step-by-step. But the word that we have in verse 25 isn’t peripateo; it’s a different word, stoicheo. It means to follow in
ranks. It means to follow a set path. The only way you can be led by
the Spirit is if you are following a trail. He lays out the trail. He is a
trail- blazer. Walking step-by-step with the Holy Spirit in verse 16 is
combined with following the leadership of the Spirit walking along the
stepping-stones in verse 25. The stepping-stones aren’t a matter of
guesswork. In order to follow them, there has to be something objective
there that you can see and discern. That is the Word of God. The
steps are laid out in front of us. Those stepping-stones are laid out in front
of us and we walk along step-by-step. So it is not a matter of guess-work
– what does God want me to do? He lays out an objective path, an
objective trail that is laid out in the Word of God and the Holy Spirit is
guiding us and leading us down that trail. So when we talk about the
leading of the Spirit and divine guidance, what we are talking about is the
Holy Spirit is going to lead us and guide us only through Scripture. It is
clear what that path consists of. We don’t have to guess about it.
That
tells us as believers we really have to learn the Word of God. The more we
think and mediate on the Word and the more we plumb its depths, the more we are
able to think biblically about the circumstances and situations in
life. The one who is working behind the scenes to help us understand
everything and put things together is the Holy Spirit. It’s like one of
those programs that you run on your computer and it’s running in the background
all of the time. You don’t see it but you know that it is running. It
is making other things work. You don’t focus on that covert action; you
focus on what you are doing in typing your Microsoft word document or working
with PowerPoint or whatever program it is that you are doing. Behind the
scenes you have a virus protection going on and you have other things that are
going on behind the scenes. That is the role of the Holy Spirit. He
works together with the Word of God.
So
Paul brings to conclusion that initial question he asked back in 3:3.
NKJ Galatians 3:3 Are
you so foolish? Having begun in the Spirit, are you now being made perfect by
the flesh?
No,
you can’t be made perfect by the flesh. He equates the flesh with the
law. This is the problem in Galatians 5:18.
NKJ Galatians 5:18
But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law.
There
is the contrast between being led by the Spirit and operating on the
law. In Galatians 3:3 the contrast is between the Spirit and the
flesh. So if the contrast here is Spirit versus flesh and the contrast
here is Spirit versus law; then law and flesh are equated to one another.
Now
you say, “Wait a minute. I thought you said Paul said the law was good.”
He
did say that the law was good within its proper purpose and function.
As
we close, turn back to Romans where we were last week. This time we will go to
Romans 7. Romans 7 is sandwiched in between our position in Christ in chapter 6
and the ministry of the Holy Spirit in chapter 8. In chapter 7 Paul is
trying to live the Christian life by the law without the Spirit. The Spirit
isn’t mentioned until chapter 8. He is extremely frustrated. He is
trying to be so good and so moral and to apply the law so consistently, but it
doesn’t work. He comes to this conclusion.
NKJ Romans 7:14 For we know
that the law is spiritual, but I am carnal, sold under sin.
There
is something good and valuable about the law.
NKJ Romans 7:15 For what I am
doing, I do not understand. For what I will to do, that I do not practice; but
what I hate, that I do.
What
is he doing? He is trying to obey the law.
“No
matter how hard I tried to keep the law consistently, I just can’t do it.”
“No
matter how hard I try to obey the law, somehow I always end up sinning.”
Morality
is a product of the sin nature. Spirituality is distinct from
morality. Jehovah Witnesses can be moral. Mormons can be
moral. Moslems can be moral. But, that’s not the Christian life.
NKJ Romans 7:16 If, then, I
do what I will not to do, I agree with the law that it is good.
NKJ Romans 7:18 For I know
that in me (that is, in my flesh) nothing good dwells; for to will is present
with me, but how
to perform what is good I do not find.
What
he is saying here is basically simple.
“I
want to do the right thing. I want to please God. I am working so hard to
do it by obeying the law, but ultimately I always end up in sin.”
And,
he can’t figure out why. No matter how moral he is trying to be he always
ends up doing what he doesn’t want to do and he ends up right back in a pool of
carnality.
NKJ Romans 7:19 For the good
that I will to
do, I do not do; but the evil I will not to do, that I practice.
“What
I end up doing is the very evil that I don’t want to do.”
It
is because he realizes the evil of covetousness (that he has coveted whatever
his neighbor has) that he realizes that he is a sinner. He may convince
himself that he is following the other 9 commandments, but when it comes to not
coveting (that mental attitude sin of lust) he always falls apart at that
point.
NKJ Romans 7:20 Now if I do
what I will not to
do, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells in me.
NKJ Romans 7:21 I find then a
law, that evil is present with me, the one who wills to do good.
NKJ Jeremiah 17:9
" The heart is
deceitful above all things, And desperately wicked; Who can know it?
NKJ Romans 7:22 For I delight
in the law of God according to the inward man.
NKJ Romans 7:23 But I see
another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me
into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members.
No
matter how much he tries to please God and be moral, without the Holy Spirit it
just falls apart. There is a conflict within him and he feels torn. He feels
like he has multiple personalities inside of him. You just feel the
frustration in verse 24.
NKJ Romans 7:24 O wretched
man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death?
NKJ Romans 7:25 I thank God
-- through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, with the mind I myself serve the law
of God, but with the flesh the law of sin.
He
connects the sin nature to the law of sin.
Then
in 8:1 he says,
NKJ Romans 8:1 There is therefore
now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, who do not walk according
to the flesh, but according to the Spirit.
It
is chapter 8 where he focuses on the real solution - “I can’t do it myself. I
have to do it by living according to the Spirit, walking in the Spirit, and
being led by the Spirit.”
The
Spirit leads through the Word of God. It is the Spirit of God and the Word of
God; it is not inner light mysticism. It is not some sort of liver
quiver. It is clear objective guidance down the path by God the Holy
Spirit.
So
when we come back to Hebrews next time, we are going to have greater
appreciation for what the writer of Hebrews is saying when he addresses his
audience and what he tells them in chapter 5.
NKJ Hebrews 5:14
But solid food belongs to those who are of full age, that is, those who by reason of use have
their senses exercised to discern both good and evil.
This is how we practice discernment. You think through things. But, you have to have that frame of reference of Bible doctrine in order to do that. So next time we will come back and finish chapter 5 and get ready to go into the warning passage in Hebrews 6.