Grace, mercy, and peace from God our Father and the Lord
Jesus Christ
Our passage
in Galatians speaks about sanctification, in this letter from the Apostle Paul.
Walk by the Spirit, not by the flesh, he says. He is speaking to the baptized,
speaking only to Christians. He is speaking to those justified by grace, saved,
adopted into the household. He is speaking of what logically follows, of
sanctification. He is telling us how to live – but much more than that. He
describes the two worlds in which we live, worlds at war.
All people are born into one world,
the world absent the righteousness of Christ. It is the world of Adam’s sin,
the inclination away from life, away from good and away from the true God, of
the Father, of the Son, of the Spirit, one God. However, the church was re-born
into the other world, the world of Christ’s righteousness counted as ours. This
is the world of the second Adam’s faithfulness, He justifying sinners. It is
also the world of He sanctifying sinners, bringing us into His life, into the
good, into a living fellowship with the true God.
We, the baptized, live in both worlds
although not in the same way or at home in both. We flee the world of our
origin as we run toward our Saviour. We flee Sodom Israel
Let’s consider the easy part of Paul’s
passage first, his description of the battle front. On one hand there is the
bad: the works of the flesh are evident. The
Apostle says they become visible, manifest, and appear as these: Sexual immorality – briefly defined, all
sexual relations outside the marriage bed of
one man to one woman. Impurity – luxurious, profligate living
like the prodigal son, everything about me, a choosing a god by what I want.
(This word is also used in Scripture to describe what demons do to a person, to
bind us.) Sensuality – to be lascivious, licentious,
shameless, insolent… does this remind you of what passes for comedy on TV?
‘Sensuality’ is not relaxing in a bubble bath or eating a juicy steak, although
it could become that without thanks to God. Idolatry
is giving priority to, valuing anything, anyone, any idea more than the
true God. Sorcery is Harry Potter’s
world of manipulating others, by calling upon powers to affect your will rather
that God the Father’s will. Enmity is hostility, un-forgiveness. Strife is contention, wrangling, loving
a good fight. Jealousy - the rage of desire over something or
someone; aiming to control what is
not yours. We also get “zealot” from this word. (Oh, but God is a jealousy God
when it comes to you. His is a holy jealousy.)
Fits of anger, wrath, passion,
emotional excitement that explodes – what the world sometimes calls the
evidence of sincerity and commitment. Rivalries
are dissensions that lead to sects, parties, heresies. It includes
electioneering or intriguing for office and partisanship (politics anyone?) Divisions, envy and drunkenness
hardly need defined. Orgies – (as one commentator put it)
nocturnal and riotous processions of half drunken and frolicsome fellows who
after supper parade through the streets with torches and music in honor of Bacchus or some other deity, and sing and
play before houses of male and female friends[1]…
and things like these.
Things that are very normal in our
world, or the world into which we were born, the world we are fleeing for a
better home. I warn you, as I warned you
before, that those who do such things (who practice such things) will not inherit the kingdom of God
In contrast, what are the good
things? What is the new world like? But the fruit of the Spirit is… love - the
Greek word agape, self-giving for the benefit of another. Joy – thankfulness, gladness in Christ, including a confident hope
in the future with present freedom in the gospel. Peace, shalom, well-being and contentment from permanent reconciliation
with God. Patience - persevering in
the faith for the neighbor’s good.
Kindness - the combination of integrity and giving. Goodness - the combination of kindness and uprightness. Faithfulness – firmness, constancy in
receiving the grace of God. Gentleness - restrained
strength for the good of others, meekness. Self-control, mastery of one’s passions
and desires. Against such things there is
no law.
What law condemns these things, which
are in fact, the fulfillment of the law? What freedom when these things are a
constant friend and companion. If only we were just one list, never the other!
So we just covered the easy part, describing what ought not to be and what
ought to be. You know the difficult part, doing what is righteous and good. Are
you ready to be only of one world and not the other? Can you do that? By the
way, asking “can you do that” is a bit of baiting on my part. Who can fulfill
the law? Further, to place the focus on your doing is not correct. Why is that?
When it comes to what is good Paul doesn’t say “do” but “fruit.” The source of
fruit isn’t you, but the Holy Spirit.
As for what the struggle against the
flesh and for the Spirit is like, a comment by the Rev. Dr. Luther will help: “Therefore let no one despair when he feels
his flesh begin another battle against the Sprit, or if he does not succeed
immediately in forcing his flesh to be subject to the Spirit. I too wish that I
had a firmer and more steadfast spirit… ‘But I see in my members another law at
war with the law of my mind’ (Rm 7:23 ).
No one should be surprised or frightened when he feels this conflict of the
flesh against the Spirit in his body, but he should fortify himself with these
words of Paul: ‘The desires of the flesh are against the Spirit’ and ‘These are
opposed to each other, to prevent you from doing what you would.’ With these
statements he is comforting those who are undergoing trails, as though he were
saying… Your flesh will be an obstacle…(yet do not) lose heart on this account,
but by the Spirit he should fight back and say: ‘I am a sinner, and I am aware
of my sin; for I have not yet put off my flesh, to which sin will cling as long
as it lives. But I will obey the Spirit rather than the flesh. That is, by
faith and hope I will take hold of Christ. I will fortify myself with His Word,
and thus fortified, I will refuse to gratify the desires of the flesh.” (AE
27:72, Galatians).
The conflict is in our flesh,
inherited in our birth into one world. (Note that in this context this is not
your physical being, your body, which is a different Greek word). We were born
of the flesh, the old Adam, the old nature, the sinful concupiscence that still
dwells in the believer, conquered though it is. On the other hand, you were
re-born by water and the Word, the Holy Spirit producing faith in you, faith
laying hold of justification; and then the Spirit producing fruit, a sanctified
life. So I take hold of Christ through His word and obey the Spirit.
The war of the worlds is more than
doing since the roots run deeper and the cure higher. True, when we give
ourselves to the works of the flesh we fall under the condemnation of the law.
So we repent our sins and believe the absolution that frees us from the law’s
demands. Then we walk in the Spirit because the Spirit dwells in us. As those
set free, declared righteous, the Spirit is working the actual righteousness of
Christ into our very lives. That’s the walk, the walk of sanctification. Walk by the Spirit… the desires of the
Spirit are… if you are led by the Spirit…the fruit of the Spirit is… of those who belong to Christ Jesus...
The walk isn’t your search for a
little voice within, struggling to feel the Spirit, to ask if He wants you to
go to the beach or the mountains for your vacation. It isn’t a feeling that says
brush your teeth, go here, go there. The Spirit does not come independently of
the Word, that is, without Christ. The
Spirit comes to you through the word and sacraments declaring grace, stirring
up faith and then growing fruit. That’s how you walk in the Spirit, by walking
in the word of God. Luther described well the walk that doesn’t work to obtain
love, joy, peace, and all the rest,
although it seems like work. The qualities of paradise are fruit from a tree,
from the tree of paradise, from Christ Jesus’ tree, grown by the Spirit in you.
When did fruit happen? It began when
you were baptized into Christ, brought out of darkness and called into His
kingdom of light. In baptism, as the Apostle points out in Romans chapter 6,
you were crucified, crucified with Christ and raised to new life. Your flesh
was nailed to the cross when you were joined to Christ’s death and life, the
Spirit given to produce the fruit of Christ’s death and life in you. Now the
Spirit leads you to mortify the flesh and to live in fellowship with the Father
and the Son and the Holy Spirit, one God. For the Spirit testifies of Jesus,
taking you to the Word and to the Word’s promises in the Sacraments; pouring
out life, strength, grace, mercy and peace. He confirms you were saved by
grace, by Christ’s declaration of peace with God, sinner though you are. Then
He enters into you for your sanctification, your walk into actual
righteousness, since Christ also won that for you. And the Spirit bears fruit.
You pray, praise and give thanks just like the one leper who returned to give
thanks (Lk 17:19 ).
Faith heals us, because it receives
the word and by the Spirit, resists the flesh.
Faith makes us whole because Christ reaches out to us, stirring up
faith. That summarizes the two worlds in which each Christian lives,
simultaneously sinner and saint; sinners since the flesh still dwells in us,
and saints by virtue of Christ’s sacrifice.
The sinner must die and the saint, live. It is a challenge, an impossible
one apart from Christ, and apart from faith. Therefore our Lord already
completed the necessary work when He cried, “it is finished.” Justification
saves us. Yet He is now, by the Spirit, working actual righteousness in us,
calling us to die to the flesh and live in Christ. Even now the Spirit is
working the fruit of faith in us. Even now, though dying, we taste eternal
life. Even now we banquet in the feast to come, forgiven and strengthened until
that glorious day.
How then shall we live? Not earning
our standing before God by works, by
fulfilling the law, but by believing Christ fulfilled the law in our
stead. And believing He declared us righteous, we then walk in the gifts of
God. We live in Him who has already joined us to His death and life. We live by
faith in the Word of God that proclaims Christ won you. He already won the war.
The peace of God which
passes all understanding keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus our Lord
(Amen)
[1]Strong, James: The Exhaustive Concordance of the
Bible : electronic ed. Ontario S. H0
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