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P a g e | 1 Galatians 5:16-26 – Freedom to live by the Spirit
Paul has written this letter to take on a group of teachers, referred
to as the Judaizers, who have been telling the Galatian Christians
that they must follow the Mosaic law to “complete” their salvation,
to be right with God.
Their argument is Jesus + law = righteousness
Jesus + following the rules/being good = being made right with
God
Paul says – “No – it is Jesus alone, faith alone, grace alone that
saves us and makes us right with God.”
This is freedom. Freedom from the curse of the law. Freedom given
by Christ.
When you speak about grace long enough, when you emphasise
freedom from the law, and the fact that we are saved not by the
good things that we do, but by faith in Jesus and his death on the
cross… the question arises at some point, sooner or later, does this
mean we can do whatever we want?!
If we are saved by faith, if salvation is a free gift from God that
comes to us by believing, if we are free from the law and from rule
keeping, are we then free to do whatever we like?
What does this freedom mean?
If you take away the restraint and the counteracting force of the
law, what will stop us sinning! What will stop us doing wrong?
Where is the restraint?
The Judaizers are saying “you need the law to counteract sin, to
oppose your sinful nature, to make you right with God.”
P a g e | 2 Paul has said throughout the letter, no, we are no longer under
the law. We are free from the law. We now live by faith in the Son
of God.
But what does this freedom mean?
“You, my brothers, were called to be free. But do not use your
freedom to indulge the sinful nature; rather serve one another in
love.” (5:13)
16-18:
Here Paul presents another opposing force to the sinful nature (in
place of law) = The Spirit of God.
Live by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the sinful
nature.
Don’t use your freedom from the law to indulge your sinful
nature…instead live by the Spirit and you will not gratify the desires
of the sinful nature….
The Spirit and the sinful nature are opposites. They are in conflict
with each other. It is this opposing force of the Spirit of God that
stops us doing whatever we want (5:17), that stops us going
wherever our sinful nature would lead us.
It is the Holy Spirit in us, not the law imposed on us, that
counteracts and fights against and opposes the sinful nature. This
is not the same thing as the law. This is not what the Judaizers are
proposing.
“But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under law.” (18)
So….to recap…to get this straight….
P a g e | 3 How can I be made right with God? How can I have a relationship
with God?
Is it by being a good person? By trying my best? By following the
rules? By following the commandments? Do I need to believe in
Jesus and then follow certain rules, commands, ritual, forms of
religious observance, to be ok?
No. You are made right with God simply by believing in, putting
your faith and trust in, Jesus Christ. You accept that Jesus died on
the cross for you to take your sin on himself and to make you right
with God. He takes your bad stuff and he gives you his good stuff.
He takes your debt and he gives you his credit. He becomes sin.
You become right with God.
So I don’t have to do anything? I just have to believe?
Yes, that’s it. It is all by believing. By faith in Jesus alone. This is
given to you by grace, you can’t earn it, work for it, deserve it,
pay for it. It is a free gift of God.
So what about all the rules? The ten commandments? The law in
the Bible? What is all that for?
Can I just ignore all that stuff and do what I want? You are telling
me I am now free from the law? I can just believe and have faith
in Jesus and do what I want…
Not exactly. When you believe, when you place your faith and
trust in Jesus Christ to make you right with God, you become a
brand new person. The Holy Spirit of God comes into you, and
P a g e | 4 changes you from the inside out. The Bible calls this a spiritual
birth.
When this happens, your desires and behaviours begin to change
because of your faith in Jesus, because the Spirit of God now lives
in you.
You do not change your behaviour to become right with God.
You are made right with God through Jesus, and then, as a result,
as a consequence, through the work and the person of the Holy
Spirit who lives in you, you begin to change, your behaviour
begins to change, your desires begin to change.
This is the consequence of salvation, not the cause of salvation.
When you become a Christian, placing your faith in Jesus, the
Spirit of God comes and lives in you and a resistance movement
against sin in your life begins.
The Holy Spirit is the agent of holiness in your life as a believer.
Here is the battle.
The sinful nature versus the Spirit of God in you.
How do you know what is the sinful nature and what is the Spirit?
There are symptoms. Works. Fruit. Paul gives us two lists with
examples….
The acts of the sinful nature
5:19-21
Sexual immorality – sexual intercourse between unmarried people
Impurity – unnatural sexual practices and relationships
P a g e | 5 Debauchery – uncontrolled sexuality, unrestrained sexual practices
Idolatry/witchcraft/sorcery – Refusal to worship the one true God and turning
to other sources rather than trusting in God
Then come eight things that destroy relationships
Selfish ambition – excessive competitiveness, a self-seeking motive
Envy – coveting and desiring what others have
Jealousy – zeal and energy coming from trying to feed a hungry ego
Hatred – hostility, an adversarial attitude
Discord – being argumentative, seeking to pick fights
Fits of rage – outbursts of anger
Dissensions – divisions between people
Factions – permanent parties and warring groups
Finally, two words which refer to substance abuse
Drunkenness/orgies/carousing – not sex orgies but drinking orgies, wild
parties, unrestrained excess
Paul gives a stark warning at this point:
“Those who live like this….will not inherit the kingdom of God”
Paul is referring to habitual practice, rather than infrequent, and
repented of lapses.
As Tim Keller states:
“For someone continually to indulge the sinful nature without
battling against it is to show that the Son has not redeemed them,
and that the Spirit has not renewed them. Paul is not looking to
undermine Christian assurance here, but he is aiming to banish
complacency.”
P a g e | 6 If these things are regularly present in your life as habitual
practices, you are indulging your sinful nature and you are not
being led by the Spirit of God.
5:22
The Fruit of the Spirit on the other hand is:
“Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness,
gentleness and self-control.”
“Against such things there is no law. Those who belong to Christ
Jesus have crucified the sinful nature with its passions and desires”
So, Paul admonishes,
16: “Live by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the
sinful nature.”
18: “But if you are led by the Spirit you are not under law.”
25: “Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit.”
How can we live by and be led by the Spirit?
25-26 “Since
this is the kind of life we have chosen, the life of the
Spirit, let us make sure that we do not just hold it as an idea in our
heads or a sentiment in our hearts, but work out its implications in
every detail of our lives.” (The Message)
(J.I.Packer’s book – Keep in step with the Spirit)
P a g e | 7 1)
Form godly habits
“By the Spirit’s enabling, Christians resolve to do particular things
that are right, and actually do them, and thus form habits of doing
right things, and out of these habits comes a character that is
right.”
Sow an action, reap a habit; sow a habit, reap a character.
Paul describes the process of character formation by this means
as one of being changed into Christ’s likeness from one degree of
glory into another (2 Cor 3:18) and calls the character that results
the fruit of the Spirit.
We need to remember two things here, both of which sometimes
get forgotten.
A)
The Spirit works through means – through objective means of
grace, namely biblical truth, prayer, fellowship, worship, the
Lord’s Supper and through subjective means of grace, such
as thinking, listening, questioning ourselves, examining
ourselves, admonishing ourselves, sharing what is in our heart
with others…
The Spirit uses these means to change us for the better and
for the wiser as we go along.
“Holiness teaching that skips over disciplined persistence in
the well-doing that forms holy habits is thus weak; habit
forming is the Spirit’s ordinary way of leading us on in
holiness.”
B)
Holy habits, though formed in this natural manner by selfdiscipline and effort, are not natural products – the discipline
and effort must be blessed by the Holy Spirit, or they would
P a g e | 8 achieve nothing. So all our attempts to get our lives in shape
need to be soaked in constant prayer that acknowledges
our inability to change ourselves.
“Holiness by habit forming is not self-sanctification by selfeffort, but it is simply a matter of understanding the Spirit’s
method and then keeping in step with him.”
2)
Expect and don’t be discouraged by conflict
“The desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires
of the Spirit are against the flesh.” (Gal 5:17)
A. Reality of tension. B. Necessity of effort. C. Incompleteness
of achievement
The believer faces active opposition to being holy from the
world, the flesh and the devil. He fights back and wins
victories against all three, yet he regularly falls short of
perfection.
The holy life always involves conflict.
“The Christian pushes on against constant opposition without,
plus moments and moods of reluctance within that seem to
come from nowhere, but which he learns to identify as antiSpirit desires of the flesh.”
3)
Remember that God is constantly at work restructuring and
reforming your life
Building sites (airports, schools, hospitals) that are still in
operation, but which are also under construction. The builder
knocks down and rebuilds sections as he goes, while other
areas continue to function.
This is like God’s work in our lives….
“God is constantly at work on that site, demolishing your bad
P a g e | 9 habits and forming Christlike habits in their place. The Father
has a master plan for this progressive operation. Christ,
through the Spirit, is executing this plan on a day-to-day
basis. Though it involves frequent disruptions of routine and
periodic bewilderments as to what God is up to now, the
overall effect of the work as it continues is to increase your
capacity to serve God and others.”
Christ is being formed in us. It doesn’t come all at once. It
takes work and time.
So, we are free. But not free just to do whatever we want,
whatever we feel like doing, whatever sin dictates.
Don’t use your freedom in that way, don’t abuse God’s grace
that way. Instead, use your freedom to live by the Spirit, to keep in
step with the Spirit.
Take an inventory. Acknowledge the conflict. Remember you are
still under construction, Expect the Holy Spirit to help you and
empower you. Work with the means and ways of the Holy Spirit –
keep in step with Him. Form and develop godly habits and
character.
Expect to be changed and transformed. Expect Christ to be
formed in you.
“So I say, live by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the
sinful nature.”
P a g e | 10 Community group discussion points and questions:
1.
What are the two contrasting forces that Paul highlights in
this passage (5:16-18)?
2.
Paul has been arguing that we are free from the law. What
does this freedom mean and what should it be used for?
(5:13)
3.
How can we tell whether we are living by the Spirit or in
accordance with the sinful nature/flesh? (5:19-23)
4.
Paul calls us to “live by the Spirit”, to be “led by the Spirit”
and to “keep in step with the Spirit”. What do these terms
mean and how can we do this? Consider together some of
the practical application points towards the end of Geoff’s
message…
5:25-26 “Since
this is the kind of life we have chosen, the life of
the Spirit, let us make sure that we do not just hold it as an
idea in our heads or a sentiment in our hearts, but work out its
implications in every detail of our lives.” (The Message)
5.
What are the “means” by which life in the Holy Spirit is
developed? (The Spirit works through means – through
objective means of grace, namely biblical truth, prayer,
fellowship, worship, the Lord’s Supper and through subjective
means of grace, such as thinking, listening, questioning
ourselves, examining ourselves, admonishing ourselves,
sharing what is in our heart with others)
6.
We should “expect” areas of conflict in our lives in these
areas. How can we live with these and grow through them?
P a g e | 11 7.
What is it important to remember as we grow in our
relationship with Jesus and in holiness?
(“God is constantly at work on that site, demolishing your
bad habits and forming Christlike habits in their place. The
Father has a master plan for this progressive operation. Christ,
through the Spirit, is executing this plan on a day-to-day
basis. Though it involves frequent disruptions of routine and
periodic bewilderments as to what God is up to now, the
overall effect of the work as it continues is to increase your
capacity to serve God and others.” J.I.Packer)