Latest / Reformed Thinking / The Believer’s Battlefield: Walking by the Spirit in a World of Flesh (Galatians 5:16-17)

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The Believer’s Battlefield: Walking by the Spirit in a World of Flesh (Galatians 5:16-17) · Reformed Thinking

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Welcome to Reformed Thinking. I want to start by asking you a
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question. Have you ever noticed that the
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very moment you decided to take your faith seriously, your
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internal life just became an absolute chaotic war zone?
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Oh yeah. That is such a common
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experience. Right.
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It is this strange paradox. I mean, you might assume that
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coming to faith brings immediate tranquility, but the reality for
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so many of you listening right now is that you suddenly find
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yourself locked in this daily agonizing conflict.
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It really catches people off guard.
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It totally does. And so today we are doing a
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thorough deep dive into some extensive theological
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manuscripts and expositions that look at Galatians chapter 5,
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verses 16 and 17. Our mission for this deep dive
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is to dissect this brutal, lifelong civil war between the
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flesh and the Spirit. And we really need to dismantle
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the therapeutic, legalistic and antinomian myths that just cloud
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our understanding of this. Yeah, exactly.
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We want to show you how to actively fight sin using the
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tools God actually provides. You know, looking at the modern
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evangelical expectation of peace, it often feels like
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people are sold this idea of a frictionless life.
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Oh absolutely, the prosperity gospel mindset.
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Yeah, they were promised that everything just gets easier.
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It is almost like like you signed up for a relaxing spa
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day. You expect soft music and
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cucumber water, but the moment you walk through the door you
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are dropped out of a helicopter straight onto an active
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battlefield. That is a great visual.
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You just have incoming artillery fire everywhere and you are
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standing there in a bathrobe while explosions go off all
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around you. Just wondering what on earth
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just happened the. Spa day analogy is spot on.
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It captures the absolute shock many believers experience.
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I mean, the sheer disorientation is staggering.
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It really is. We really need to critically
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examine the modern misdiagnosis of this internal spiritual
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conflict because, you know, the world offers a very different
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explanation for what you are feeling inside.
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Like what? How does the world explain it?
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Well, if you take this agonizing struggle to secular psychology,
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they will tell you that your internal tension is just a
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byproduct of evolutionary biology.
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Or they might say it is an unresolved childhood trauma that
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needs to be affirmed or managed or maybe medicated away.
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Right. The culture insists that any
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internal friction is just a sign of unhealthiness.
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Yes. But the biblical view presents a
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starkly different reality. The Scriptures teach that the
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moment a person is sovereignly regenerated by the Holy Spirit,
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which is the moment that dead, unresponsive heart is given new
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life, they are plunged headlong into a vicious, unyielding
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conflict. Wow plunged right in.
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Exactly. We have this striking quote from
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Charles Haddon Spurgeon in our sources today.
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He noted quote. The old nature is very active
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and loses no opportunity of plying its deadly weapons.
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But the Holy Spirit is the great combatant.
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End Quote. That is heavy.
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It is because the core theological truth here is that a
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dead man does not fight. A corpse has no struggle
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whatsoever. So if you feel no conflict, if
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there is 0 war within your affections, that means the flesh
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is raining unopposed. That is terrifying, honestly.
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It should be the very presence of this agonizing struggle.
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The fact that you hate the sin you still commit is the absolute
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proof of your regeneration. OK, let us unpack this right
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away, because that raises a massive question for anyone
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listening. If the Gospel is all about peace
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with God, why is the internal, everyday experience of the
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believer characterized by such violent antagonism?
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That is the $1,000,000 question. Yeah, I mean, how do we
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distinguish between normal human anxiety or just general stress
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about life and this specific theological war you are
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describing? Because if I am justified, if I
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have peace with the Creator of the universe, why am I sweating
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and shaking, trying not to yell at my kids or fighting a
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physical gravitation pull toward looking at something I should
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not on my phone? That is a crucial distinction we
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have to clarify. So justification brings
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objective peace with God. The wrath of God is completely
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satisfied by Christ's sacrifice. Right, the legal issue is
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settled. Yes, the legal enmity between
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God and the Sinner is permanently abolished.
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You were declared righteous in the courtroom of heaven.
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But that definitive legal declaration does not eradicate
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the corrupted human nature inherited from Adam, and the
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apostle Paul calls that the flesh.
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OK, so justification changes your legal status, but
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sanctification is the process of changing your actual condition.
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Spot on. The anxiety the world
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experiences is often a fear of circumstances, or a dread of
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man, or just a reaction to the physical breakdown of a fallen
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world. But the theological war of
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Galatians 5 is entirely different, so it is an ethical
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and spiritual collision. It is the agonizing grief you
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feel when you desire to glorify God, yet you find a competing,
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hostile gravitation pull within you, dragging you toward
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selfishness, pride, or lust. Because the world does not mourn
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over. Pride.
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Exactly. The world celebrates pride.
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The regenerate believer weeps over it.
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When you feel that hot flash of anger and you consciously have
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to cry out for the Spirit to help you hold your tongue, you
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are experiencing the war. So if this internal war is the
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baseline Christian experience, why did Paul feel the deed to
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write an entirely hyper furious letter about it to this specific
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group of people? Context is everything here.
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Yeah, what was happening on the ground in Galatia that made this
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so urgent? Because it seems like there was
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a massive crisis forcing his hand.
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Oh, the crisis was severe. We are looking at a historical
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timeline around AD 48 or 49. Paul had previously preached the
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gospel of grace to the churches in southern Galatia.
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Those are places like Antioch, a Pasidia, Iconium, Lystra and
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Derby, right? Correct.
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He established these congregations on the bedrocked
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truth of faith in Christ alone. But shortly after he left, a
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group of antagonists arrived. These false teachers, known as
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the Judaizers, infiltrated the churches.
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And what were they teaching? They started teaching that faith
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in Christ was insufficient on its own.
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They insisted that to be truly right with God, these Gentile
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believers also needed to follow the ceremonial law of Moses,
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specifically the requirement of circumcision.
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Wow, so they were adding human effort to the finished work of
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Christ? Yes, and there was a massive
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socio political pressure driving this false teaching too.
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Right, because in the Greco Roman world, religion, religion
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and state were entirely intertwined.
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I read in the sources that aligning yourself with
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traditional Judaism offered serious physical protection.
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It really did. Yeah, Judaism was recognized as
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religio licita, which means a legal, permitted religion under
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Roman law. If you were a Jew, the Romans
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generally left you alone. But if you stood on Christ
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alone, completely separate from Jewish ceremonies, you lost that
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legal protection. You were totally exposed.
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You were suddenly part of an illegal, unrecognized sect, and
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that meant facing immediate, severe persecution from both the
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Roman state and the religious establishment.
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So the Judaizers were essentially offering a
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theological compromise that also functioned as a physical safety
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net. That context makes Paul's
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absolute fury in this letter make total sense.
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I mean, the pressure on these early believers to conform was
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astronomical. It must have been terrifying.
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It was, and to grasp the stakes, we have to recognize the sharp
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distinction between national Israel and the New Testament
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church. The Mosaic Law was given as a
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temporary tutor. It was an external boundary
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meant to govern Israel until Christ the promised seed
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arrived. But the church operates under a
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completely different paradigm, which is the dispensation of
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grace. The Judaizers were trying to
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drag Gentile believers backward in redemptive history.
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They were trying to pull them out from under Grace and shove
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them back under the heavy yoke of the cyanatic covenant.
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That makes a lot of sense when you look at the structure of the
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letter, When you trace the literary flow of the entire book
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of Galatians, you see a masterful progression.
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You really do. Chapters one through 4 are
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intensely doctrinal, right? Paul establishes justification
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by faith alone. Solified and solidifies the
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believer's identity in Christ. That is the indicative.
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It declares who you are by God's sovereign decree.
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Yes, and then when he reaches chapter 5, he pivots to the
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imperative, which is how you must live.
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This is an unbreakable rule of biblical interpretation.
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Duty always rests upon doctrine. You cannot divorce the commands
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of chapter 5 from the grace established in the 1st 4
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chapters. Absolutely not.
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If you do divorce them, you end up with blatant moralism.
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You start thinking the commands are a ladder you climb to reach
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God, rather than the natural obedient result of God already
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reaching down to you. It makes me think about how
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sneaky the flesh really is. Oh, it is incredibly deceptive.
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We usually associate the flesh with obvious immorality, like,
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you know, drunkenness, theft, or outright rebellion against
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society. But based on what the Judaizers
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were doing, the flesh can easily disguise itself in very
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respectable religious clothing. That is a brilliant observation.
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The flesh does not just sneak out the gutter, it also loves to
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sit in a Pew and establish its own righteousness through
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checklists, rule keeping, and looking down on others.
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Yes, the flesh loves a good checklist.
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It is like a person who has just been pardoned and freed from a
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maximum security prison. As they are walking out the
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gates into the sunlight, someone convinces them to unhinge their
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old heavy iron cell door and drag around with them everywhere
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they go. That is a vivid picture.
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The false teacher convinces them that carrying this massive
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crushing weight is the only way to prove they are actually free.
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That image perfectly captures the absurdity of legalism.
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Dragging that iron door will exhaust you, but it will never
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make you holy. It will just give you calluses
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and a false sense of pride because you are working so hard.
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Exactly. Since Paul completely destroys
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the idea of going back to the law for sanctification, he has
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to answer the obvious question. How does the believer actually
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live? How do we pursue holiness
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without falling back into rule, keeping on one side or lawless
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rebellion on the other? Right.
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What is the actual mechanism? This moves us to the core
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mechanism in verse 16. Let us break down the Greek
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syntax because it is remarkably precise.
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We'll just hear it. Paul writes quote.
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But I say walk by the Spirit and you will not gratify the desires
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of the flesh. The word translated walk is the
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Greek word peripetite peripetitis.
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This is a present active imperative in Greek grammar.
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This tense denotes continuous, habitual, ongoing action.
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So it's not a one time thing. No, not at all.
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He is not talking about taking a single dramatic step at a
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revival meeting. He is commanding A continuous
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grinding daily lifestyle. I am looking at the phrase by
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the spirit in that verse. What does that actually mean
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mechanically in the original original language?
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Because in English the word by can mean a lot of things.
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That is true. It can mean location, like
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sitting by the river, or it can mean agency, like a book written
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by an author. How does the Greek text define
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our relationship to the Holy Spirit in this daily walk?
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The original language is brilliantly specific.
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Here. The phrase by the Spirit
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utilizes what grammarians call a dative of rule or a dative of
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means. Break that down for us.
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Think of a massive freight train.
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The track it runs on provides the governing direction, which
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is the rule. The engine provides the
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locomotion, which is the means. Oh, I see.
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The Holy Spirit is both the governing authority dictating
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the direction of your life and the supplying mechanism
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providing the fuel to actually move forward.
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You are governed by His rule and equipped by His means.
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That is incredible. It is, and then we hit the
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promise, which is an incredible piece of grammar.
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The phrase you will not gratify utilizes the strongest negative
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construction available in the Greek language.
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Yes, it is a double negative, you me combined with an aorist
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subjunctive verb. It is an absolute ironclad
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denial of future possibility. Paul's effectively saying that
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if you are walking by the Spirit, there is absolutely zero
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possibility that you will bring the desires of the flesh to
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completion. Wow, that ironclad guarantee
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sounds amazing, but it also sounds a bit terrifying.
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We have to clarify what this means, against the backdrop of
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some common teachings in the broader.
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Church. Yes, we do.
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Because I have heard people preach that you just need a
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second blessing, you know, spontaneous baptism of fire, and
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then this struggle with sin just vanishes.
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They teach a sort of let go and let God passivity.
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Does this verse support that kind of mystical approach to the
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Christian life? Emphatically no.
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The continuous nature of the command totally refutes the
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mystical frameworks you find in Kazakh theology or certain
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Pentecostal traditions. OK, those traditions often
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suggest you just need a one time ecstatic experience to elevate
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you above the struggle entirely. But Paul is not teaching a
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passive mysticism. He is commanding A rugged, daily
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persevering dependence. That makes more sense of the
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daily reality. Furthermore, we must thoroughly
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understand what it means that the flesh will not be gratified
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or brought to completion. Because it does not mean the
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desire goes away, right? Precisely.
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The text does not promise that the sinful desire will never
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arise in your mind. The temptation will absolutely
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appear. The desire might solicit you,
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scream at you, and demand your immediate attention.
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Yeah, we all experience. That, but the promise is that
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when you are actively relying on the spirits means that desire
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will not achieve master status, it will not be fulfilled, and
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its ultimate destructive goal, the temptation, will hit the
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firewall of the spirit and die before it becomes an action.
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Wait, let me play devil's advocate here, because I can
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hear someone listening right now throwing their hands up.
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Go for it. If the promise is an absolute
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ironclad denial of future possibility, I mean if there is
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zero chance of gratifying the flesh when I walk by the Spirit,
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does this mean if I just try hard enough I can achieve
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sinless perfection in this life? I can see how someone gets
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there. Yeah, because it sounds like if
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I just get my act together and exert enough focus to walk
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perfectly, I will never sin again.
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That is a very natural deduction, but we must fiercely
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repudiate any notion of perfectionism.
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The idea that you can achieve a state of sinless perfection on
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this side of glory is a catastrophic misunderstanding of
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the text and of the human condition.
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It ignores a lot of other scripture too.
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Yes, it completely denies the ongoing reality of total
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depravity. The reason perfection is
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impossible in this life is explicitly detailed in the very
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next verse. The promise of verse 16 is
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immediately followed by the martial conflict of verse 17,
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right? So let us look at verse 17.
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Let us examine the word flesh, which is sarks in the Greek.
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We must reject the Pagan, Gnostic or Epicurean dualism
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that permeated the ancient world.
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That was the philosophy claiming the physical body itself is
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inherently evil and the immaterial spirit is inherently
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good, right? Exactly.
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That is not what Paul means at all.
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God created the physical body and he called it good.
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When Paul uses Sark's here, he is using it as an ethical term.
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He's describing the rebellious fallen nature we all inherited
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from Adam. This is the localized corruption
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that remains active even in the regenerate person.
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Let us talk about how that act of corruption operates, because
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verse 17 describes what happens when the Holy Spirit moves into
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a person who still possesses that fleshly nature.
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It is explosive. The text uses the verb anti
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katai translated as opposed, and this is not a mild disagreement
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over dinner. The sources indicate this is a
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compound martial term. Yes, it is very aggressive.
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It literally paints the picture of two heavily armed adversarial
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armies arrayed against each other, locked.
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An absolute, irreconcilable enmity.
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There's no diplomacy here. There are no peace treaties to
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be signed. But earlier you mentioned that
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the flesh was definitively judged and condemned at the
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cross. If Christ already defeated the
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flesh, why is it still heavily armed?
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Why is it still winning battles in my mind?
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How do those two realities coexist?
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You are hitting on the fundamental already and not yet
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tension of the Christian life. OK, unpack that.
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At the cross, the dominion of sin was broken definitively.
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The flesh lost its legal right to condemn you, and it lost its
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absolute tyrannical power to rule you.
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But while it is a defeated enemy, it is not yet an
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eradicated enemy. So it is defeated but still
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dangerous, yes. Think of a hostile occupying
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army that has officially lost the war because their capital
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city was captured. The treaty is signed, the war is
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legally over, but there are still heavily armed guerrilla
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factions hiding in the mountains launching brutal insurgent
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attacks. Oh, that is a really helpful way
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to look at. It your remaining flesh is that
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guerrilla faction. It knows it is doomed, but it is
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going to cause as much destruction as possible on its
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way out. Wow.
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And then we have this fascinating Haina clause at the
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end of the verse translated to keep you from doing the the
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things you want to do. I really want to spend some time
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on that phrase because it feels like the key to understanding
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our daily frustration to keep you from doing the things you
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want to do. What exactly is happening in the
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believers will at that moment? That Haina clause is heavily
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debated in theological circles. I can imagine, if you take an
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Armenian view, you might argue that this internal conflict
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tragically thwarts ultimate human autonomy.
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They treat it as if preserving man's absolute free will is
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God's chief concern. But the Reformed exegesis, which
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reads this text in perfect harmony with Romans Chapter 7,
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reveals something far more comforting regarding the
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sovereignty of God. The Spirit restrains the
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believer from total apostasy. So he holds us back from
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destruction. Exactly.
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Left to your flesh, you would completely abandoned Christ.
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You would hurl yourself headlong into destruction and apostatize.
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Today, the Holy Spirit actively prevents that.
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That is a massive country. It is, but conversely, the flesh
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hinders the believer from perfect, sinless obedience.
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You want to love God with all your heart, soul, mind and
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strength, but the flesh drags you down, tainting even your
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best works with lingering imperfection.
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It is a mutual antagonism. So they're constantly pushing
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against each other. Yes, the flesh desires against
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the Spirit, and the spirit desires against the flesh.
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It makes me think of the structural tension in a massive
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suspension bridge. You have gravity pulling the
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entire structure downward toward the water, which represents the
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flesh dragging us toward ruin. I like.
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That. But then you have these massive
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high tension steel cables pulling backward and upward,
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anchoring the bridge to the towers, which represents the
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spirit. The opposing forces actually
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keep the bridge suspended in midair, that is.
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Brilliant. You as the believer are that
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contested bridge. Every thought, every
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conversation, every mundane decision at the grocery store,
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in a boardroom occurs inside that high tension reality.
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You are never in neutral territory.
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The flesh is always trying to reclaim ground, and the Spirit
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is relentlessly pulling upward, establishing His holy reign.
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Recognizing this brutal, uncompromising reality gives us
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an incredible window into Paul's pastoral heart.
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It really changes how you read the letter.
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He did not write this to crush the Galatians under an
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impossible standard. He wrote this to save them from
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a false gospel. Precisely, we have to consider
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Paul's pastoral intentions for his original audience, which
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apply directly to you today. He had specific calculated
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effects he wanted to produce in the churches of Galatia.
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Let us go through those effects. First, he intended to utterly
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destroy legalism by exposing the absolute depravity of the flesh
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and the sheer sovereign might of the Spirit.
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He was humbling anyone who thought they could perfect in
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the flesh what God began in the Spirit.
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You cannot conquer this massive internal guerrilla army by
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making a list of dietary rules or getting circumcised.
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No, you cannot. The weapons of the flesh cannot
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defeat the flesh. Second, he aimed to crush
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Antinomie, which is the idea that grace gives you a license
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to sin by describing the flesh as a deadly adversary plotting
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your ruin. He wanted to strike a holy fear
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into anyone using their Christian liberty as an excuse
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for indulgence. That is a necessary warning.
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But thirdly, and perhaps most beautifully.
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He intended to comfort the bewildered believer who feels
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overwhelmed by their own corruption.
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That comfort is so crucial for the listener.
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When a new believer suddenly realizes how dark their own
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thoughts can be, the enemy immediately whispers you are a
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fraud. A real Christian would not have
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those thoughts. A real Christian would not
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struggle with this addiction. The accuser loves to say that.
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But Paul is saying no. The fact that you were fighting,
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the fact that you feel sick to your stomach over that dark
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thought proves the Spirit is inside you waging war more.
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It flips the script entirely. It really does.
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The struggle is evidence of life and we have to realize this
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battle does not just stay locked inside your own head.
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The sources highlight a major corporate aspect of this.
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Paul warns the Galatians against biting and devouring one
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another. Yes, he explicitly commands them
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to stop that. If we think about it, we often
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treat sin as a purely private individual struggle.
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Like it only affects me in my prayer closet.
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How does this internal flesh versus spirit war inevitably
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spill out into the congregation, affecting church board meetings,
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fueling gossip, and creating massive division?
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The internal war always bleeds into the external community.
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You cannot compartmentalize total depravity.
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If you surrender to legalism in your internal struggle, it
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inevitably breeds pride, suspicion, and a judgmental
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superiority toward your fellow church members.
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You start policing everyone else.
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Yes, you start assessing everyone else's rule keeping you
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look at how they dress, how they parent, or what media they
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consume and you use that to elevate yourself.
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And what if you surrender to the other side?
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If you surrender to antinomianism, it breeds selfish
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indulgence where you consume others for your own pleasure or
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convenience. You just use people.
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This is awful. Both of these fleshly responses
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destroy love and fracture congregations.
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When believers are governed by the flesh, they view each other
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as rivals to be defeated, rather than brothers to love and
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uplift. They bite and devour.
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So that is why Paul firmly links the internal walk of the Spirit
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with the external command to love your neighbor as yourself.
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Exactly. The two are inseparable.
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But this brings us to a terrifying reality check.
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If the law cannot save us, if our own willpower is thoroughly
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corrupted by the flesh, and if relying on ourselves just
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destroys our churches, where does our victory actually come
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from? That is the core issue.
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We have established that the resources for this war cannot be
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found within our natural selves. The victory must come from
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outside ourselves. That shifts our focus to the
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absolute core of this entire discussion, which is the Christ
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connection and the Trinitarian engine driving our
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sanctification. OK, let us get into that.
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When we talk about the Holy Spirit, we are not talking about
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some generic abstract force like gravity.
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Scripture is incredibly specific about his identity.
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Romans chapter 8 verse 9 calls him the Spirit of Christ.
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Galatians chapter 4 verse 6 calls him the Spirit of his Son.
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So he is deeply personal. Yes, the presence of the Holy
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Spirit in your life right now is the direct purchase result of
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Jesus Christ's active and passive obedience.
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Let us define those terms for the listener.
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By His active obedience, Christ lived the perfect law,
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fulfilling life that you and I could never live.
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He never yielded to the flesh. By His passive obedience, He
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willingly absorbed the wrath of God on the cross, dying the
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death we deserve for our failures.
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He took the penalty. He secured our redemption
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completely and as the triumphant resurrected king, He poured out
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his spirit upon his people. This is the fulfillment of
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massive Old Testament promises. Like what?
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Think of Ezekiel chapter 36 verse 27 where God says I will
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put my spirit within you and cause you to walk in my
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statutes. That Ezekiel prophecy is the
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absolute bedrock of the New Covenant.
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It really is. Under the Old Covenant, the law
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was written on tablets of stone. He told you what to do, but it
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gave you no power to do it. Under the New Covenant, God does
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not just give us a new updated set of rules.
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He gives us His very Spirit dwelling inside us to ensure our
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compliance. He changes our desires at the
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root level. This brings us to the glorious
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doctrine of junior cum Cristo, or union with Christ.
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Because you are united to Him by faith through the sovereign work
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of the Spirit. You fight your daily battles
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from a position of absolute acceptance, not to earn
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acceptance. That changes the whole
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motivation for fighting. It does.
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The flesh that tortures you today was definitively judged
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and condemned at the cross 2000 years ago.
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Furthermore, we see Christ's threefold office actively
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ministering to us in this present war.
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Prophet, priest and king. Exactly as our prophet, he
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teaches us the way of the Spirit through the illumination of His
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Word. As our priest, He continually
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intercedes for us before the Father when we inevitably
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stumble on the battlefield, and as our King, he actively rules
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our hearts, progressively subduing his enemies within us
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and bringing our rogue affections into line.
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If you try to preach Galatians 5 without making that explicit
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connection to the finished work of Christ, you are just
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delivering a self help lecture. You really are.
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It is nothing more than a synagogue lecture on basic
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morality. It is like handing a soldier a
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perfectly pressed uniform, giving him a firm handshake and
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dropping him onto the front lines with no weapons, no
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ammunition, no commanding officer and no air support.
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Just telling them do your best, try not to get shot.
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You are setting him up for a bloodbath.
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Because the victory is objectively secured by Christ,
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and because the spirit of the resurrected Christ lives inside
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us, we are actually equipped to engage in actionable, relentless
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warfare against sin. And that moves us from high
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theology down into the muddy trenches.
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How do we apply this? Application is where the
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theology meets the pavement of your daily life.
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We must bring in the great Puritan theologian John Owen,
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who spent his life analyzing this topic.
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He wrote volumes on this. He did, He famously summarizes
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entire dynamic with a chilling imperative.
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He said be killing sin or it will be killing you.
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That isn't there. Is no Demilitarized Zone in the
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Christian life. You are either actively
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mortifying the flesh, or the flesh is actively mortifying
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you. So where do we?
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1st, we must address anyone listening who does not know
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Christ. If you are outside of saving
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faith, your condition is dire. Even your ostensibly good works
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are polluted by selfish motives because they are not done for
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the glory of God. You are entirely in the flesh.
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You cannot fight this war because you are dead.
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You do not need behavior modification.
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You need a resurrection. You need the sovereign
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regeneration of the Spirit of God.
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And what? About the believer.
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Now to the believer, the command to walk by the Spirit demands
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that you stop making therapeutic excuses for your sin.
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We must violently reject the secular frameworks that coddle
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the flesh. Yes, society loves to coddle it.
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The surrounding culture desperately wants you to view
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yourself primarily as a victim of your circumstances, your
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biology, your upbringing or society at large.
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While those things cause genuine suffering and require profound
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compassion, the biblical text insists that your primary, most
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lethal enemy is internal. It is your own remaining
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corruption. So practically speaking, how do
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you actually execute this? If walking by the spirit is
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continuous, habitual action, what does it look like on a
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Tuesday morning when you are exhausted, the kids are
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screaming, and your boss just sent a passive aggressive
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e-mail? Right in the real world.
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Are you just supposed to empty your mind and wait for a
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mystical lightning bolt to strike you and make you patient
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while completely ignoring the basic everyday tools God has
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placed right in front of you? What is the actual mechanism for
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starving the flesh in real time? Emphatically no, you do not wait
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for a lightning bolt. The Spirit does not bypass the
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intellect or the will. He renews them so they function
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properly. To walk by the Spirit is to
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relentlessly utilize the ordinary appointed means of
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grace. The ordinary means of grace.
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It begins with the written word of God.
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Colossians chapter 3, verse 16 commands us to let the Word of
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Christ dwell ritually. The Spirit inspired the
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Scriptures, and he uses those specific words as a surgical
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sword to execute the flesh. It also involves fervent,
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desperate prayer, crying out for the very strength you lack in
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that moment. Furthermore, it requires active
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participation in the corporate life of the Church.
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This means gathering with the Saints on the Lord's Day,
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witnessing baptism where the old man is buried, and coming to the
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Lord's Supper to be spiritually nourished by Christ.
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Want to push back on that for a second, or at least clarify.
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Sure. How does sitting in a EW on a
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Sunday morning, singing hymns, and taking the Lord's Supper
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actively decaitate a specific sin I am struggling with on a
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Tuesday afternoon? It can sound like we are just
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prescribing church dependence as a magic pill.
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What is the link between the ordinary means of grace on
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Sunday and the battlefield on Tuesday?
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The link is faith working through the Spirit.
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When you sit under the faithful preaching of the Word on Sunday,
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the Spirit is recalibrating your affections.
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He is showing you the absolute majesty of Christ and the
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supreme ugliness of sin. So he's changing what you love.
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Yes, when you take the Lord's Supper, you are not just eating
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bread. The Spirit is actively feeding
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your soul with the realities of Christ's broken body and shed
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blood, fortifying your inner man.
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You are stockpiling ammunition. Oh, I see.
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So when Tuesday afternoon hits and the flesh demands
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gratification, your renewed mind recalls the glory of Christ you
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tasted on Sunday. The Spirit brings to mind the
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Word you read that morning. So those are the positive
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actions. Are there negative actions too?
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Alongside these positive actions, there is a fierce
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negative command. Romans chapter 13 verse 14 tells
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us to make no provision for the flesh to gratify its desires.
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Starving the flesh means ruthlessly cutting off its
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supply. Lines off the supply lines.
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If a specific relationship is dragging you into gossip, if a
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piece of technology is a gateway to lust, or if a media habit is
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feeding your anger, you must sever it.
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You cannot coddle an assassin in your own home and expect to
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live. That is such a vital point.
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You cannot invite the enemy into your camp, feed him at your
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table, give him the wifey password and then act surprised
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when he tries to worn down your house while you sleep.
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You have to cut the supply lines you.
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Really do. But let us be brutally honest
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for a moment. This relentless daily fighting,
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this constant agonizing vigilance over your own
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thoughts. It is utterly exhausting.
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Waking up every single day knowing you have to fight your
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own mind and your own desires can wear a person down to the
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bone. It is draining.
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It can make you feel like you were losing your mind.
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We need a perspective that lifts our eyes above the mud and the
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blood of the present struggle. We need an endpoint to look
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forward to. The endpoint is our glorious
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eschatological hope. We must constantly point our
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minds toward the horizon. While the battle is fierce and
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daily, the outcome is not in doubt.
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Because Christ already won. Exactly.
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We do not fight for victory, we fight from the victory already
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accomplished by Jesus Christ. The flesh is a defeated foe,
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thrashing in its death throes. We look forward with absolute
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certainty to the return of Christ and the promised
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glorification of our bodies. Glorification.
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That is the final step. In that ultimate resurrection,
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the corruptible body puts on incorruption the flesh.
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That treacherous rubble currently residing in your
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members will be entirely and permanently eradicated.
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I cannot even imagine that. There will be no more war, no
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more divided affections, no more agonizing choices between right
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and wrong. We will be perfectly Florida
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State conformed to the image of the sun.
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And we will finally rest. I want to leave you with a
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challenging thought to turn over in your mind long after you
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finish listening today. What if your greatest spiritual
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growth is happening precisely in the moments when you feel the
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most exhausted, the most beaten down, and the most defeated by
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this internal war? That is a great perspective.
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What if the sheer agonizing persistence of your daily
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struggle against sin is the exact instrument the Holy Spirit
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is using to completely strip away your pride, break yourself
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reliance, and force you to trust entirely, desperately in
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Christ's finished work? The struggle is not a sign of
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your failure. It might just be the very
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furnace forging your faith. Thank you for joining us for
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this deep dive. Keep your focus fixed firmly on
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the Word and we will see you next time on Reformed thinking.