"If we live by the Spirit, let us also keep in step with the Spirit." - Galatians 5:25
I recently took up cycling in order to get into shape
and so that I might have an enjoyable means of burning calories. I quickly fell in love with the sport. It wasn’t long before I took my first group
ride. I love riding alone, but I
absolutely and completely enjoy riding with friends. It is a thrill to be in a group of guys,
riding down the road at 25 miles per hour.
You hear the wind whizzing by your head and the steady breathing of
athletes pulling together to make something happen. The leader has to pull the rest of the group
along stretches of the road. In order to
be in the group you have to draft the rider’s wheel in front of you in a tight
formation. This involves just being
inches from the rider’s back wheel. The
pack uses hand signals to warn for obstacles on the road such as branches,
cracks in the road, or train tracks. The
leader keeps his or her head up and guides everyone else. It is quite exhilarating (to put it in my
daughter’s words).
The pack has to keep in step with one another. If you are leading, you set the tone. You can push hard or you can back off a bit
for recovery. The second rider in the
pack must pace himself to the leader and the rider behind him must do the
same. You have to come to a point where
you are locked in to the same rhythm and speed.
This is what Paul means when he says, “But I say, walk by the
Spirit.” He literally instructs the
Galatians to keep in step with the Spirit.
In cycling terms it would be, “Keep your RPM’s the same as the
Spirit.” Lock and load.
In other words, if you have been justified by faith
and are free under the Gospel, then you will desire to keep in step with where
the Holy Spirit leads you and desires to change you. We are to always be asking God what He wants
from us and how we can become more like Christ.
When a person becomes a Christian the battle is not
over. In fact, that battle has just
begun. If you don’t believe me, take a
look at Paul’s words in Romans 7. He
tells us that whenever he desires to do what is right, that evil is right there
waiting to crush him and pull him down. When
you come to know Jesus as Savior there is a war where there was once calm. The Holy Spirit is engaged in warfare against
our sinful desires.
What is the flesh?
Paul uses the word “sarx” in the Greek to refer to our sinful
desires. This is what he means by the
“flesh.” Our sinful desires work against
the Holy Spirit as He sanctifies us and changes us to be more like Jesus. Do you notice what Paul says about the works
of the flesh in verse 17? They keep us
from doing the things that we want to do.
That means there has been a total transformation in desire. The things we want to do under the Gospel are
different than those things that we wanted to do without the Spirit. Our desires have changed because our
allegiance has changed.
Paul gives us two lists and it would be a benefit for
us to take a look at them. The works of
the flesh are sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery,
enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions,
envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these. This is not meant to be an exhaustive
list. If Paul were writing today he
might include, pornography, sexting, gossip, bullying, racism, bigotry, 3000-calorie
cheeseburgers, slothfulness in the church, slothfulness in the community,
arrogance….the list goes on and on.
Paul’s point is to use a few examples to show us that there is a battle
going on. This list is a great starting
place for us to hold up the mirror of the Law and examine our lives. The mirror helps us to see where the Holy
Spirit might be doing battle.
Paul does not leave us with a picture of the flesh
but instead encourages us with what a life in step with the Spirit looks
like. When the cycling pack is really
moving and in step with one another it is an amazing thing to be a part
of. You don’t have to pedal as hard (so
long as you aren’t the leader!), you can hear the rhythm of the bike cranks,
you move fast, you turn as one and there is an overall aspect of fun as you
pack on the miles. There is also great
conversation during recovery stretches.
There is laughter, joking, and teasing.
This is when the pack is locked into one another and looking out for one
another.
The Holy Spirit is not just looking out for us but is
doing battle for us and in us. And when
the Holy Spirit does battle He produces fruit.
Paul gives us the list: love,
joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and
self-control. Paul uses the analogy of
fruit so that he can relay a truth to us about Christian freedom.
First, fruit takes a long time to grow. You usually don’t have the time to watch
fruit grow and see the changes. But over
time, a seed becomes a tree, and a tree grows and bears fruit. The fruit of the Spirit in a Christian will
take time.
Second, if a person is a Christian, than the
certainty of the person bearing Christian fruit is 100 percent. This is highly encouraging to me because I
struggle with all of these aspects. I do
not love as much as I am called to love.
I do not show self-control, I get angry, and I could list the many ways
in which I still hope for fruit.
However, I am encouraged because the Holy Spirit is still doing a work
in me, just as He is in you. Be
encouraged, the fruit of the Holy Spirit’s work will grow.
Third, the fruit of the Spirit is an all or nothing
deal. Paul doesn’t use the word “fruits”
but rather the singular “fruit.”
Why? Because a Christian will
grow in all of these aspects of the one fruit.
You cannot love without self -control.
You cannot have joy without peace.
Each aspect of the fruit is tied
to the other. All of these aspects are
part of one greater fruit which is of the Spirit.
Paul does not leave us hanging with a bunch of
imperatives or commands. Otherwise we
would die trying to please God. He
shares with us exactly how the fruit will grow in our lives.
The fruit of the Spirit is first a result of us
belonging to Jesus. In verse 24 Paul
says that we “belong to Christ Jesus.”
All that is His has been credited to us.
This is our motivation for living a life of gratitude. Growing fruit is a worshipful response to
God.
Second, we must remember that our sinful nature was
crucified with Christ. Paul says to the
Galatians that the old sinful desires were nailed to the Cross. This is reiterated in Romans 6:1 when Paul
says, “Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase? By no means!
We died to sin, how can we live in it any longer?” This is an ongoing process of
crucifixion. John Piper likens this battle to killing
our sin. I remember hearing him preach a
sermon where he said, “You must be killing your sin or it will be killing you.” This is what Paul means when he says that our
sinful flesh is constantly crucified.
This killing of sin doesn’t happen at a symptomatic
level. In other words, you don’t just
“try harder” if you have an addiction to porn, drugs, or food. When you kill sin, you look for the root of
the problem. The Holy Spirit will lead
us there. Our addiction is linked to our
sinful flesh at the base of our identity.
We must look to kill the sin at the root cause and find our identity in
Jesus. Thoreau has been quoted as
saying, “For every 1000 people who strike at the leaves of evil, there is only
one striking at the root.” The Holy
Spirit takes us to the root of our sin, not just the symptoms, and kills
it.
Finally, the Fruit of the Spirit is developed in an
active process of claiming the promises of the Gospel, that we have been
crucified with Christ, and an ongoing death of our old self. Our old self must be identified and
eventually replaced with our new identity in Jesus Christ.
If you want to hear more about this you can download/watch/listen to the entire sermon here.
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