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The Warfare of the Soul: Walking by the Spirit (Galatians 5:16-26) · Reformed Thinking

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Imagine looking at a a pristine upward trending chart of human
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progress. You see the line for education
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going up, you know, technology improving, medical breakthroughs
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happening pretty much every day, and it all looks so clean.
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Society points at that graph and confidently claims that while
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humanity is fixing itself, that we are marching inevitably
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towards some utopian perfection. Oh yeah, that is definitely the
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narrative. But then you look inside your
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own mind. You look at your own daily
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reactions, your selfish impulses, and instead of a clean
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upward chart, you find a brutal, unrelenting war zone.
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Welcome to Reformed thinking. You are joining us today for a
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custom tailored deep dive into an extensive theological
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analysis of Galatians chapter 5, verses 16 through 26.
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We are looking at the Apostle Paul's definitive answer to this
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agonizing warfare raging within every Christian soul.
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That tension between secular optimism and, well, biblical
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reality is a really great place to start the sources we're
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analyzing today. They did not pull any punches
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about the state of human nature. No, they don't.
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They point us straight to the doctrine of total depravity.
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They specifically referenced the Westminster Confession of Faith
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chapter 6, which is pretty stark.
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The conclusion there is that human faculties are completely
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defiled by the fall into sin. Completely defiled.
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Yeah, man in his natural state is entirely incapable of
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pleasing God. The will is just bound.
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So when the Holy Spirit regenerates A spiritually dead
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person, when someone is born again by sovereign grace, a
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brand new nature is implanted. But the old corrupt nature does
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not just pack its bags and move out.
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Right. It's these right there.
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He's right there in the house, and that initiates A fierce
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daily conflict. Our mission today is to dissect
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Paul's text, verse by verse for you.
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We're going to look at the historical context, the original
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Greek language, and the practical application to figure
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out how a Christian actually survives this battle.
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And before we get into the text itself, we should probably
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establish what this passage is not saying.
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The source material operates from a really firm theological
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stance, making clear that Paul is not teaching perfectionism
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here. Yeah, that's a big
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misconception. It is.
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This is not some secret formula to stop sinning entirely in this
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lifetime, and furthermore, this is not a manual for charismatic
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experiences. The text approaches this from a
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cessationist framework. Which means what for those
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listening. Meaning the miraculous sign
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gifts like speaking in tongues or ecstatic prophecies.
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Those ceased when the Apostolic era ended in the Canon of
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Scripture closed. So the Holy Spirit's primary
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work today is illuminating the written Word, magnifying Christ,
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and producing genuine, steady holiness.
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So to understand the specific commands Paul is giving, we have
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to know who he was talking to and what kind of pressure they
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were under. Set the scene for us.
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What was happening in the background when Paul wrote this
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letter? Well, the historical setting is
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vital here. Paul wrote this epistle very
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early in his ministry, likely around AD 48 or 49, right after
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his first missionary tour. OK.
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So very early on, yeah. Very early, he is addressing the
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region of South Galatia, which includes cities like Antiocha,
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Pasidia, Iconium, Lystra and Derby.
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And the believers in these newly planted churches were almost
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entirely Gentile converts. Meaning they were coming out of
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it an intensely Pagan background.
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Complete immersion in paganism. The Roman Galician world was
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just saturated with civic religion.
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This was not a private spiritual preference.
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It dictated every single aspect of public life.
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You had public feast dedicated to household gods, massive
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temple structures, idol worship, and, you know, rampant sexual
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immorality tied directly to religious rituals.
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So for a Gentile to become a Christian meant severing ties
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with their families, traditions, their local economy, and really
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their entire social safety net. It was a staggering cultural
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break. I picture these new believers as
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people caught in a crossfire. On one side you have the old
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wild Pagan gang. They are standing there saying,
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you know, come back to the feasts, come back to the temple
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orgies, come back to the way we have always done things right?
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The pressure to return to that gross idolatry must have been
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immense. Oh, absolutely.
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But then there's a second threat coming from the opposite
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direction, from inside the religious house.
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Right, the Judaizers. These were false teachers who
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slipped into the Galatian congregations with a very
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destructive message. They told these Gentile converts
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that believing in Christ was, well, a good start, but it was
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not enough for true justification before God.
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Right. Adding to the gospel, yeah.
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They demanded that the Gentile man submit to physical
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circumcision and that the entire church adheres rigidly to the
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dietary and ceremonial restrictions of the Mosaic Law.
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I want to push back on that for a second because I think a lot
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of people might look at that situation and feel confused.
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If I'm a new Christian and I'm terrified of going back to my
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wild Pagan, destructive lifestyle, a strict set of
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religious rules sounds pretty good.
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Sure, yeah. Why would boundaries be a
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threat? Don't religions usually rely on
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heavy rules to keep people in line and out of trouble?
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That is a very natural assumption and it is the exact
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psychological trap that Judaizers were using.
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But the theological analysis we are looking at points out that
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relying on the law for justification completely
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nullifies Christ. Nullifies Christ entirely.
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Right, because if you can achieve righteousness through a
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human effort by, you know, getting circumcised, avoiding
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pork, or observing certain lunar festivals, then the cross was a
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massive mistake. Jesus died for nothing.
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Taking divine grace and adding human effort creates a false
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gospel. The sources connect this ancient
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problem to modern groups, right? Yes, they do.
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The text points out that groups functioning today, such as
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Jehovah's Witnesses or Mormonism, operate on the same
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legalistic paradigm. They take grace and mix it with
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required human works. Right.
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It's that mixture, yeah. The analysis also contrasts the
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biblical view of justification by faith alone with a Roman
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Catholic framework, which similarly blends grace with
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human merit. So the Galatians are being told
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they have to follow the old rules, and Paul is stepping in
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to say those rules belong to a completely different.
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Era, A different era, and a completely different covenant.
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The source material outlines a clear distinction here between
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national Israel and the New Testament church.
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Israel operated under a specific national contract given at Mount
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Sinai, complete with territorial boundaries, earthly promises,
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and a future Kingdom. The church, however, is a
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distinct heavenly body. It is completely free from the
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requirements of that old cynetic contract.
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The Judaacers were trying to drag free people backward into
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an obsolete system. OK, so if Paul is telling these
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people they are totally free from the old religious laws, how
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does he stop them from just turning around and running right
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back to the Pagan temples? To understand that, we need to
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look at the literary structure of his letter.
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How does he build his argument? Galatians is a masterpiece of
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logical construction. In the first two chapters, Paul
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vigorously defends his Apostolic authority.
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He proves his message came directly from Jesus, not from a
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committee in Jerusalem. Right, he had to establish that
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first. Yeah.
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Then once his authority is established, chapters 3 and four
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form his massive theological defense of justification by
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faith alone. He goes all the way back to
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Genesis to show that Abraham was counted righteous because he
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believed long before the law of loses even existed.
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The law was just a temporary tutor.
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OK, then, after building all that theology, he makes an
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abrupt shift in chapters 5 and 6 to practical daily ethics.
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I think of this structure like building a custom house.
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Chapters one through 4 are where Paul brings in the cement trucks
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and pours a massive, immovable concrete base.
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That base is justification by faith alone.
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It is heavy. It is solid doctrine.
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That's a great way to put. It and then chapters 5 and 6 are
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where he actually frames out the living space.
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How you treat your neighbors, how you handle your desires.
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If you try to build the living space without pouring the
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concrete base first, you are building on mud and the whole
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house will just collapse under its own weight.
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That visual makes the danger of moralism very clear.
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The ethical commands in chapter 5 only work because of the
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finished work of Christ. In chapters one through 4, the
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source specifically points to Galatians 3 verse 3, where Paul
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mocks the absolute foolishness of trying to reverse this
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process. He asked the Galatians.
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Having begun by the Spirit, are you now being perfected by the
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flesh? It makes no sense to start with
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a supernatural rescue operation and then try to finish the job
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using your own frail willpower. The hinge of this entire letter
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is right at the beginning of chapter 5.
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Verse one says for freedom Christ has set us free.
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But then verse 13 brings the necessary warning.
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Do you not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh?
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Yes, you are free from the law, but that does not mean you have
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a license to indulge your corrupt nature.
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And that brings us from the broad architecture down into the
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specific verses. Verse 16 contains the main
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command that anchors this entire section.
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Paul writes, Walk in the Spirit and you shall not fulfill the
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lust of the flesh. Let's look at the Greek behind
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that phrase. Walk in the spirit.
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What is the actual demand there? Well, the word translated as
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walk is peripatite. Grammatically, it is a present
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active imperative. This means it is a command for
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continuous, habitual, ongoing. Action.
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Ongoing action. Yeah, it literally means to walk
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around, to conduct your entire life step by step within a
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certain sphere. I think of the difference
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between breathing and holding your breath.
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A lot of people treat fighting sin like holding their breath.
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I remember trying to stick to a miserable diet once.
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I was white knuckling it, counting every single calorie,
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obsessing over what I could not eat.
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Oh, I've been there. Yeah, I was holding my breath
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and eventually I had to gasp for air and I just raided the
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pantry. Holding your breath is a
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singular, agonizing effort, but per Petite, walking in the
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spirit is like developing a new metabolism.
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Yes, precisely. It is the ordinary, everyday
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rhythm of life. You just breathe.
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You do it step by step, constantly relying on the spirit
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rather than straining your own willpower until you break.
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And Paul attaches an ironclad guarantee to that command, he
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says. And you will not gratify the
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desires of the flesh. In the original coin Greek, he
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uses a double negative construction.
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Oh me. Meaning ye shall not.
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Yeah, it is the strongest possible negation available in
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that language. It emphatically guarantees that
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if the Spirit is leading your daily walk, the flesh is
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completely neutralized. The cause and effect are
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absolute. Then in verse 18 he says, but if
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you are led by the Spirit you are not under the law.
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Notice the passive phrasing there you are LED.
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The believer is the one being LED, which means the Holy Spirit
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is the one doing the act of leading.
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This reality frees the Christian from being under law as a system
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of condemnation. Right now, the moral will of God
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still functions as a guide for grateful obedience, but the law
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can no longer pronounce a death sentence over the believer.
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This sounds amazing on paper. If I walk by the Spirit, I have
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a total guarantee of victory and I am free from the law's
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condemnation. But I have to stop and ask the
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obvious question. If I am so free and the victory
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is guaranteed, why do I wake up on a Tuesday morning feeling
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angry, anxious and tempted to scream at the person who just
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cut me off in traffic? That's the $1,000,000 question.
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Why does this feel so agonizing? That is the exact question for
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17 answers. Paul uses the Greek causal
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conjunction gar, which translates to for.
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To explain why this command is so necessary, he details the
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mutual antagonism inside the believer.
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The flesh and the spirit are an active, hostile opposition to
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one another. When I hear the word flesh, I
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just think of my physical body, my skin and bones.
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Is Paul saying that physical matter is inherently bad?
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Let's define the Greek word sarks.
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The physical body itself is not the problem.
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Secular writers from that era, like the historian Plutarch,
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would use the word sarcs in a completely neutral way to
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describe the meat you would buy in a market.
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Oh. Interesting.
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But Paul takes that common word and loads it with massive
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theological weight in his writings.
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The flesh is the fallen, unredeemed human nature.
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It is the total corruption of the mind, the desires and the
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will that remains even after a person is saved.
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It is utterly hostile to God. And it is actively warring
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against the pneuma, the Spirit. You have the third person of the
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Trinity living inside you, and you have this corrupted nature
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trying to claw its way back to the.
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Throne. Exactly.
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I mean spot on. Let me ask a question that
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haunts a lot of people in the pews.
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If someone feels a constant, agonizing pull towards sin, if
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their flesh is screaming at them every single day to do the wrong
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thing, does that mean they are failing?
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Or worse, does it mean they are not even a real Christian?
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Theological analysis provides immense pastoral comfort for
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that exact fear. The conflict itself is the
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evidence of regeneration. Dead men do not fight.
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A prisoner who loves his cell does not rattle the bars.
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They just go with the flow of their desires.
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There is no friction because there is no resistance.
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That's right, the fact that a believer is groaning, fighting,
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and feeling torn apart inside is proof that the Holy Spirit has
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set up a resistance movement against the old nature.
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The Spirit actively opposes the flesh so that you do not simply
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carry out every wicked desire unchecked.
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The pain of the battle is proof of life.
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This internal war produces visible external evidence that
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leads us into verses 19 through 23 where we see the hideous
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works contracted with the singular harvest.
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Let's look at the works of the flesh first.
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Paul is 15 specific sins, and the text groups them into 4
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distinct categories. What are we looking at here?
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Well, Paul starts by saying these works are evident.
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People might try to hide their sin behind a respectable
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suburban facade, but it's true character is completely obvious
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before God. The first category is sexual
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immorality, which covers fornication, impurity and
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sensuality. OK.
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The second is false worship, which includes idolatry and
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sorcery. The third category is relational
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destruction, and this is actually the longest list
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enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries,
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dissensions, divisions, and envy.
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And the final category involves sins of excess like drunkenness
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and orgies. I am fascinated by that third
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category, relational destruction.
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Paul puts jealousy, fits of anger and church divisions right
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next to idolatry and orgies. It's pretty shocking.
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It is so easy for a modern congregation to feel superior
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because they don't have a Pagan temple down the street, while
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completely missing the fact that their internal gossip and
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factionalism are classified as the exact same kind of fleshly
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rot. The analysis highlights how the
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Galatian churches were in danger of devouring one another.
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What makes relational sins so insidious is that they often
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masquerade as spiritual seriousness.
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Oh wow, yes. People disguise their jealousy
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or anger as a passion for the truth, but it just breeds
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suspicion and tears a community apart.
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Where you find false worship, where people are essentially
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acting as their own gods, you will always find relational
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destruction. If I am the center of the
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universe, every other person is just a competitor or a tool.
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That makes perfect sense. The mechanism of idolatry
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guarantees division. Another thing that stands out is
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under that second category of false worship.
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The English word is sorcery, but the Greek word is pharmakeia.
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Yes, which is where we get the word pharmacy in the ancient
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Near East. Pharmakeia was not about pulling
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a rabbit out of a hat. It referred directly to
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idolatrous drug infused Pagan worship.
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Right, the manipulation of substances.
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Yeah, it was the practice of manipulating substances, drugs,
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potions, poisons to alter consciousness, commune with
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demonic forces or escape reality.
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Paul follows this grim list with a terrifying warning.
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He says those who do such things will not inherit the Kingdom of
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God. When I read that, it sounds like
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if I lose my temper or feel jealous I am going to hell.
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What is the grammar actually doing there?
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The Greek phrasing is very specific.
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Here Paul uses the present participle prasantis, which
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denotes A continual habitual practice.
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He's describing A settled pattern of life.
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So there are usually 2 ditches people fall into when they read
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a warning like this. One ditch says if I stumble and
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mess up, God kicks me out of the family.
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The other ditch says God's grace covers everything, so I can live
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however I want and my behavior does not matter at all.
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And Paul rejects both of those errors completely.
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The source material highlights that true believers cannot lose
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their salvation based on a momentary failure of the flesh.
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Thank goodness. Yeah.
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However, it also completely rejects the idea that sovereign
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grace permits ongoing, unrepentant rebellion.
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If a person's life is characterized by the unbroken,
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habitual practice of these fleshly works, with no
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repentance and no fight, it is infallible proof that their
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heart has never been regenerated.
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They will not inherit the Kingdom.
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That is a necessary shock to the system for anyone playing
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religious games. But then in verse 22, the text
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makes a sharp pivot. Paul uses the Greek conjunction
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day, which means but we shift away from the dark works of the
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flesh and move to the fruit of the Spirit.
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There is a brilliant linguistic contrast here between the words
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works and fruit works, which is erga in Greek is plural, but
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fruit, kurpose is singular. That singular neon is the key to
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understanding how the Spirit operates.
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I picture the flesh like a chaotic broken factory.
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It spits out random toxic parts on a conveyor belt.
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A little bit of jealousy over here, an outburst of anger over
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there, maybe some impurity mixed in.
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It is all disjointed and mechanical.
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Right, a factory is sin. But the spirit is like a living
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Orcher growing a single cohesive crop.
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A machine produces disparate works, but a living Organism
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produces unified fruit. The Holy Spirit produces A9 fold
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cluster virtues in every single regenerate heart.
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Lovejoy, Peace, Patience, kindness, goodness,
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faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.
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And because it is singular, sanctification is not a
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cafeteria. Plan.
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You don't get to grab a tray and say I'll take some joy today,
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but I'm going to pass on the patience and I definitely don't
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want the self-control. No, you get the whole cluster.
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The spirit does not give one believer love and another
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believer peace, while leaving out the rest.
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He cultivates all of them simultaneously.
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That's a beautiful. Thought it really is, love is
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listed first because it fulfills the entirety of the moral law.
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Joy and peace are the internal realities that flow from being
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reconciled to God. Patience and kindness govern how
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we react to the people who aggravate us.
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Goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control
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regulate our internal desires and our customer actions.
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It is a complete behavioral profile of Jesus Christ
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reproduced in the believer. So we have the toxic factory on
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one side and the living orchard on the other.
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How does a Christian actually shut down the factory and
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cultivate the orchard? How do we defeat these hideous
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works? The text moves to the
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theological root of the issue in verses 24 through 26.
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Verse 24 contains the pinnacle of the theology in this passage,
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It states, And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified
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the flesh with its passions and desires.
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This points directly backward to the historical reality of
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Christ's death on the cross. The theological term for this is
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definitive sanctification. For anyone unfamiliar with the
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mechanics of the cross, let's breakdown what actually happened
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there regarding penal substitution.
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Penal substitution simply means that Jesus took the legal
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penalty that we deserve. He stood in our place, but he
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did more than just pay a fine. When Jesus died on the cross, he
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sovereignly broke the reigning grip of sin over his people.
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Because believers are united to Christ by faith, what happened
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to him happened to them. The old corrupt self was dealt A
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lethal blow. The flesh has been legally
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sentenced and functionally dethroned.
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It can still harass you, but it can no longer dictate your final
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destiny. And because of that historical
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fact, we are given an ongoing obligation in verses 25 and 26.
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This is classic Pauline logic. He gives you the indicative
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reality. You have life in the Spirit.
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Then he gives you the imperative command.
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Keep in step with the Spirit. Since you have been given a new
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life, align your daily conduct with that new reality.
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Your behavior must match your new nature.
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The sources draw some very sharp contemporary applications from
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this theology, first looking at our own internal lives.
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They referenced the famous Puritan writer John Owen who
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said be killing sin or it will be killing you.
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Such a great quote. It is.
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You cannot make peace treaties with the flesh.
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You have to actively starve those sinful desires.
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But the source material also applies this biblical text to
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modern sociological frameworks. We need to look at how the
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source applies this text to modern social frameworks.
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The author explicitly names critical race theory and Marxist
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rooted tenets, arguing that these ideologies attempt to
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redefine sin in purely sociological and structural
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terms, entirely bypassing the biblical doctrine of the corrupt
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human flesh. To be clear to you listening, we
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are reporting the author's argument here rather than
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endorsing these specific political viewpoints.
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The author's point is that a biblical view locates the root
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of societal strife, the very works of the flesh, within human
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corruption, and rejects secular psychology or sociological
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reform as the ultimate solution. The author's argument is
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fundamentally about diagnosis and cure.
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If the root cause of societal enmity, racial division, and
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class strife is the corrupted human heart, then making
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structural adjustments or political changes cannot cure
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the disease. Those things might offer
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temporary social restraint, but they cannot fix the underlying
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spiritual rot. Only the regenerating work of
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the Holy Spirit can replace that deep seated hostility with
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genuine love and peace. The sources also turn this
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critique toward modern church practices.
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They heavily criticized the seeker sensitive model of doing
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church. The argument is that trying to
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attract people and grow a congregation through worldly
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entertainment, marketing gimmicks, or diluting the
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message is fundamentally A fleshly tactic.
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You are trying to use the tools of the flesh to produce
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spiritual results, which bypasses the cross completely.
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Because the flesh cannot cure the flesh, producing outward
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conformity or creating a culturally respectable gathering
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is not the fruit God requires. If the method appeals to the
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unredeemed nature, the result will only be more works of the
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flesh. Finally, the author presents a
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strong defense of believers, baptism by immersion,
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contrasting it with paedo baptism or infant baptism.
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Why does the physical act of immersion matter so much in the
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context of Galatians 5? Because immersion vividly acts
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out the theology of verse 24, going completely under the water
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physically portrays the crucifixion and burial of the
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old flesh, and then coming up out of the water portrays the
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resurrection to a new life empowered by the Spirit.
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The author argues this ordinance should only be administered to
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those who can demonstrate they actually possess saving faith
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and are engaged in the spiritual battle.
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It is a physical reenactment of the internal war we've been
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talking about. Let's bring this all together.
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The text presents an absolute dichotomy.
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There is no middle ground. You cannot feed your worldly
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desires and follow Christ at the same.
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Time No, you cannot serve 2 masters.
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The final victory is entirely secure for the Christian because
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the dominion of the flesh was shattered to Calvary.
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But the daily March requires deliberate, conscious submission
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to the Scriptures and reliance on the Holy Spirit.
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Before we sign off, leave us with a final thought to Mull
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over something that builds on this dynamic of living by the
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Spirit rather than living under a list of rules.
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We'll look closely at the very end of the list of the fruit of
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the Spirit. Paul has a fascinating phrase
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against such things. There is no law.
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Consider the implications of that.
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The law was designed to constrain human wickedness.
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It's a boundary line to stop us from destroying each other.
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Yeah, to keep us in check. But what happens to a community
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when its members are wholly governed by Lovejoy, peace,
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patience, and kindness? They step entirely off the map
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of legal constraint. They enter a completely
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different operational reality. Think about your own life.
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What would your Tuesday morning look like if you stopped
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focusing your energy on trying to avoid breaking rules and
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instead focused entirely on cultivating a reality where
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rules are completely obsolete? That is a staggering paradigm
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shift. If you are entirely governed by
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love and kindness, you do not need a rule posted on the wall
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telling you not to steal from your neighbor because you are
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already actively seeking your neighbor's good.
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It changes the entire landscape from that muddy, exhausting
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attempt at self improvement. We talked about the beginning
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into a clear, vibrant picture of Christ formed in you.
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Thank you for joining us for this deep dive into the Word.
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Keep your eyes fixed on the glorious future hope of Christ's
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return, Maranatha.