Latest / Reformed Thinking / Gospel Freedom and the Fruit of the Spirit: How Grace Produces Holiness (Galatians 5:22–23)

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Gospel Freedom and the Fruit of the Spirit: How Grace Produces Holiness (Galatians 5:22–23) · Reformed Thinking

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Welcome to Reformed thinking. We are, we are absolutely
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thrilled that you are joining us today.
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Our mission in this specific deep dive is to unpack a text of
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Scripture that is quite familiar yet frequently misunderstood,
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and we're going to look at it through the strict, precise lens
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of Reformed theology. We are going into Galatians
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chapter 5, verses 22 and 23 to understand how sovereign grace
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produces true organic holiness in the life of the believer.
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To help us accomplish this, we are drawing from 2 very thorough
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theological texts analyzing the Apostle Paul's letter to the
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Galatians. The first source is titled
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Gospel Freedom in the Fruit of the Spirit, and the second is
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titled The Sovereign Harvest. Both of these documents lay out
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the undeniable reality that true Christian liberty never results
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in lawlessness. Instead, it yields a
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supernatural conformity to the character of Christ.
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OK, let's infect this. We have to ask the core question
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right up front, and I want you, the listener, to really consider
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this. In your own daily life.
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How does a person actually grow in godliness?
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Do you do it by sheer willpower? Do you achieve holiness by
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setting a strict schedule, gritting your peeth, and trying
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your hardest to be a better person?
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Or is there another way entirely?
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Because if we are honest, the willpower method is exhausting.
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It usually ends in either crushing despair when we fail,
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or blinding pride when we think we have succeeded.
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Yeah, that is the crucial question we are aiming to answer
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today, and the scope of our conversation is going to be
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quite vast. We'll begin by examining the
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ancient crisis in the region of Galatia, because understanding
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the historical and theological warfare happening in that
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specific church is the only way to grasp what Paul is writing.
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We will look at the two deadly heirs threatening the church
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back then, which which are the same heirs threatening the
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church today. That is legalism on one hand,
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and antinomianism or license on the other.
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From there we will look at the stark, absolute contrast Paul
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sets up between the flesh and the Spirit.
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We will define those terms biblically.
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Then we will walk through the specific ninefold character of
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Christ that the Holy Spirit produces in the believer.
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We will look at each facet of that singular fruit.
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Finally, and perhaps most crucially for our doctrinal
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clarity, we will connect all of this to the teachings of the
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Westminster Confession of Faith. We will specifically look at the
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absolute distinction between justification as a once for all
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forensic declaration and sanctification as an ongoing
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progressive, monarchistic work of God and the believer.
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Our goal is to demonstrate that the Holy Spirit sovereignly
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produces a unified Christ like character in the justified
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Sinner. I know that everyone listening
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to this right now feels that daily struggle.
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You feel the constant tension between your good desires to
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obey God and the bad habits and fleshly reactions that seem to
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spring up out of nowhere. I know I do.
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I can memorize a catechism on Sunday, but the moment someone
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cuts me off in Monday morning traffic, my flesh is right there
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in the driver's seat, ready to retaliate.
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You feel the exhaustion trying to manage your own sin.
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This deep dive is going to provide the biblical remedy for
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that exhaustion. It is a remedy that does not
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rely on your own strength, but on the grace of God.
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So let us look at the historical context first.
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The apostle Paul is writing to a group of churches in Galatia
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that are literally tearing themselves apart.
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The Gospel of Grace, the very core of the Christian faith, is
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under severe attack. But I have to ask, why are they
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tearing themselves apart? What happened after Paul planted
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these churches that threw them into such chaos?
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Right. To understand the intensity of
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Paul's letter to the Galatians, you have to picture a church in
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absolute crisis. The apostle Paul had preached
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the gospel of free grace to these Gentile believers.
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They had received the Holy Spirit by faith alone.
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But after Paul left, false teachers arrived.
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These teachers are typically referred to as the Judaizers.
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They were telling the Galatian believers that faith in Jesus
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Christ was a good start, but it was not sufficient for full
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standing in God's covenant family.
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They argued that to be truly accepted by God, these Gentile
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converts had to add works of the law to their faith.
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Specifically, they were demanding physical circumcision
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and adherence to the ceremonial boundary markers of the Mosaic
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covenant. They were altering the terms of
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salvation. They were turning the law of God
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into a ladder for the human conscience to climb.
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They made acceptance with God something that had to be earned,
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maintained and proven by religious performance.
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This is the essence of legalism. Wait, let me push back on that
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for a second. If I am a new believer in
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Galatia and these respected teachers come into town with
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open Bibles quoting the Old Testament telling me that I need
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to obey God's law, that sounds pretty reasonable.
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Aren't works a good thing? Why is Paul so incredibly angry
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about them adding circumcision? It seems like a small ritual to
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adopt if it makes everyone happy and unifies the Jewish and
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Gentile believers. It sounds perfectly reasonable
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to the natural human mind, which is precisely why it was so
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incredibly dangerous. The natural human mind loves a
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checklist. It loves a mechanism where it
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can earn its own standing. But Paul is furious because this
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is not a minor disagreement over cultural practices.
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This is a battle for the soul of the gospel itself.
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When you turn the law into a ladder, it looks very pious on
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the outside, but inside it is a deadly rejection of the
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sufficiency of Christ's cross. When you add anything to Christ
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as the basis for your righteousness, you completely
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nullify grace. If righteousness can be obtained
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through law keeping, then as Paul says elsewhere in the
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letter, Christ died for nothing. The Judaizers were taking the
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focus off of what Christ accomplished and putting it back
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onto what the individual could perform.
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They're telling the Galatians Jesus opened the door, but you
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have to walk the rest of the way on your own merit.
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And Paul says no. If you take that path, you are
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severed from Christ entirely. OK, that makes sense.
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That is the first error and it is a trap of anxiety and
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performance. You never quite know if you've
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done enough. But the Judaizers were not the
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only problem in this ancient church.
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You also have the opposite error, which is just as deadly.
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Some people in the ancient world, and plenty of people
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today hear the word grace and they think it means a license to
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indulge their fallen desires. They assume that because Christ
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paid for their sins, God has loosened his grip on their moral
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lives. They think Christian freedom
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means absolute autonomy. This is the error of
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antinomianism, which literally means anti law.
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They think that since they are forgiven, it does not matter how
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they live. I imagine this was just as
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appealing to the Gentile believers who are coming out of
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Pagan backgrounds. Absolutely.
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The antinomian error inevitably leads to moral chaos.
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It takes the beautiful concept of Christian freedom and twists
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it into a new form of slavery. And the logic goes like this.
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If I am saved by grace and not by works, then my works do not
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matter. I can live however I please,
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indulge my appetites, and God will forgive me because that is
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His job. But true freedom in the biblical
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sense is never autonomy. It is never the right to do
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whatever you want. If you simply follow your fallen
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desires, you are not free. You are a slave to your own
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appetites. The flesh is a tyrant that
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promises satisfaction but only delivers corruption.
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License destroys a church just as quickly as legalism does.
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It produces relational devouring, selfishness and a
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complete lack of holiness. So you have these two massive
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errors attacking the Galatians. One side says rules will save
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you, the other side says rules do not matter.
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And Paul steps into this conflict to demolish both of
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these falsehoods simultaneously. He really does demolish them.
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Paul's solution is so distinct from human religion.
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He shows that freedom is liberation from an old cruel
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master so that you can gladly and joyfully belong to a new,
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loving master. You are set free from the
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condemnation of the law, and you are set free from the dominion
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of sin so that you can become a slave to righteousness.
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But to really grasp this, we need to bring in some heavy
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theological definitions. How does this connect to our
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Reformed understanding of justification?
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This is where we must align our understanding with robust
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Reformed doctrine, specifically the Westminster Confession of
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Faith, Chapter 11, which deals with justification.
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The Confession makes it entirely clear that justification is an
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act of God's free grace. Is a forensic courtroom
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declaration? Think of forensic like a
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courtroom setting. The judge does not wave a magic
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wand and physically alter the criminals DNA to make them an
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inherently good person. The judge slams the gavel and
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declares their legal record clean.
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That is justification. God pardons all our sins and
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accepts us as righteous in His sight.
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And why does he do this? Only for the perfect obedience
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and full satisfaction of Christ, which is imputed to us and
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received by faith alone. It is a once for all event.
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You cannot become more justified or less justified.
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Adding your own works, your own law keeping, or your own moral
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performance to Christ's finished work is an insult to the gospel.
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That forensic distinction is so vital, it removes all the
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pressure of trying to earn our standing.
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But how does the confession deal with the antinomian side?
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If I am legally declared righteous in the courtroom, why
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shouldn't I just go back out and live like a criminal?
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That is the necessary balance. The confession strikes.
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This free grace never, ever leads to lawless living.
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The faith that justifies is never alone in the person
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justified. It is always accompanied by all
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other saving graces and is no dead faith, but works by love.
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Paul refuses the false choice between grace and holiness.
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He insists that the same gospel that frees you from condemnation
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also frees you from the tyranny of your own sin.
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God does not just justify you in the courtroom and leave you
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alone. He adopts you into His family
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and gives you His Spirit to actually begin renewing you from
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the inside out. So we have painted this
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incredible picture of the theological battlefield in
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Galatia. But that leaves us with a
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massive practical question. How on earth does this actually
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play out in a normal person's day-to-day life?
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We are looking at Galatians chapter 5, verses 16 through 18.
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Paul sets up a total opposition between walking by the Spirit
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and gratifying the desires of the flesh.
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Before we go any further, I have to ask you to define a specific
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term. What does Paul mean when he uses
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the word flesh in the original text?
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I know the Greek word is sarx. A lot of people hear the word
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flesh and they assume it just means the physical human body,
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as if our skin and bones and physical matter are inherently
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evil. Does Paul hate the human body?
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That is a very common misunderstanding rooted more in
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ancient Greek philosophy than a biblical theology.
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The ancient Greeks believed that the physical realm was bad and
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the spiritual realm was good. But when Paul uses the word sarx
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or flesh in this context, he's not talking about your physical
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body. God created the physical world
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and he called it good. The flesh in Paul's theological
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vocabulary refers to fallen human nature and Adam.
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It is humanity is corrupted, inherently self-centered, and
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naturally resistant to the things of God.
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The flesh is that operative principle of rebellion inside us
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that wants what God forbids and hates what God commands is an
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entirely self absorbed orientation of the heart.
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It is the part of you that insists on being its own God.
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I think we need to point out to the listener that the flesh can
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actually be incredibly respectable.
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We often think of the flesh only in terms of coarse, scandalous
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things like theft or substance agents or obvious immorality.
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But the flesh is perfectly capable of wearing a suit and
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tie, sitting in the front Pew of a church, and looking very
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pious. The flesh can fast twice a week.
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The flesh can memorize scripture to win an argument.
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The flesh can build an entire identity on moral rule keeping
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while remaining entirely 100% hostile to God.
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The flesh loves to boast in its own discipline just as much as
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it loves to indulge in base desires.
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That is spot on. The flesh love, self
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justification above all else. Whether it's just out of itself
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by saying I'm free to do what I want or by saying I am better
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than you because I keep the rules, it is still the flesh
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operating. And this leads us to the lived
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experience of the Christian. In verse 17, Paul unveils the
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reality of the internal conflict.
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He writes for the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit and
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the desires of the spirit are against the flesh.
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For these are opposed to each other to keep you from doing the
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things you want to do. This clash is not superficial.
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It reaches down into your deepest affections and loves.
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The Christian problem is not just that we commit sinful
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actions, it is that we have sinful loves.
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This verse is so comforting honestly, because we all feel
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that clash. But there is a massive comfort
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hidden in this verse. There is an old theological
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saying. Dead men do not wrestle.
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If you are feeling this intense conflict in your soul, if you
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are agonizing over your sin and desiring to please God, that
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conflict is actual evidence that you have been given new life.
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An unregenerate person does not have the Holy Spirit fighting
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against their flesh. They might might have a guilty
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conscience or a fear of consequences, but they do not
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have the Spirit's holy desires warring within them.
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That is true. But while this conflict is
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evidence of life, it also means the flesh must be actively
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resisted. You cannot domesticate the
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flesh. You cannot negotiate with it or
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train it to be good. It must be put to death.
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It is an absolute war. Speaking of that war, I want to
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read verse 18 because it is one of those sentences that can
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really trip people up if they do not have their theological
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category straight. Paul says.
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But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the
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law. No, wait, hold on.
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If I am listening to this right now, that sounds incredibly
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dangerous. If I am not under the law, why
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shouldn't I just throw out the 10 commandments and do whatever
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I feel like? How does Paul keep this from
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turning into total anarchy? We have to unpack that phrase.
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Not under the law with extreme care.
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That is the natural question, and it is precisely what the
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false teachers were accusing Paul of doing.
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They thought he was preaching anarchy.
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But Paul is absolutely not saying that God has no moral
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direction for His people. He is not declaring the believer
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to be lawless. He is locating the believer's
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sanctification under a completely new system of
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governance. To be under the law in the book
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of Galatians specifically means to be under the law as a
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covenant of works. It means being under the law's
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condemnation, its curse, and its demands as a way of securing
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your own righteousness. So it means treating the law as
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a ladder. Precisely.
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The law is a perfect reflection of God's holy character.
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It can command you to be holy. You can expose your sin when you
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fail, and it can rightly condemn you for that failure.
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But the law cannot. Give you the Holy Spirit.
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It cannot heal your corrupt heart, and it cannot produce the
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actual obedience it demands. This was the.
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Fatal flaw of the Judaacers. They treated the law as the
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engine of holiness. Paul is telling the Galatians
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and us that the defining marker belonging to God is not
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submitting to mosaic boundary markers, but being led by the.
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Spirit. The engine of Your Holiness is
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not external legal compulsion, but internal spiritual renewal.
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If you are trying to grow in godliness by just staring at a
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list of rules and trying to force yourself to obey them out
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of fear, you are missing the entire mechanism of Christian
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growth. The law can restrain your
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outward behavior for a little while out of fear of punishment
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or desire for praise, but it cannot bear fruit because it
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cannot heal the root of the tree, which is a perfect segue.
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Paul tells us that the outputs reveal the root.
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You can tell what governance a life is under by what it
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consistently produces. Galatians 5 verses 19 through 23
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lace this out plainly. Let us look at the works of the
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flesh first. The word here for works is
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plural. Why is that significant?
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The plurality of that word is very deliberate.
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The flesh operates like a restless factory is chaotic.
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It is constantly manufacturing sin in a multitude of forms,
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mass producing cheap broken goods that eventually tear a
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person apart. The text says.
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Now the works of the flesh are evident, and it lists them out.
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We can break this grim catalog into a few categories.
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First you have sexual sin, sexual immorality, impurity,
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sensuality. This was rampant in the Pagan
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world of Galatia, and it is rampant today.
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Then you have religious rebellion, idolatry, and
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sorcery. Sorcery here comes from a word
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that often involves the use of drugs or potions and Pagan
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rituals. Then you have an enormous
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category of relational breakdown, enmity, strife,
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jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions,
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divisions, and envy. And finally you have the loss of
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self mastery, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these.
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When the flesh rules, it yields A predictable chaotic crop.
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I want you to notice how many of those works of the flesh are
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communal and relational. Enmity, strife, rivalries,
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divisions. We often individualize sin, but
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the flesh tears communities apart.
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The Judaizers bringing in their legalism did not produce a
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loving holy church. It produced intense factions and
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pride. People were measuring themselves
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against each other. On the other hand, the
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antinomians claiming license did not produce peace.
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They produce biting and devouring.
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The flesh always place itself at the absolute center, views the
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neighbor as a competitor to be defeated, and views God as an
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obstacle to be avoided. You see this today in online
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theological debates. People can be arguing for
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correct reformed theology, but doing it with absolute entity
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strife and fits of anger. That is the flesh at work, plain
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and simple. That is a very sobering reality.
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You can hold orthodox doctrine while operating entirely in the
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flesh. The flesh uses whatever tools
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are available, even theological exactness, to elevate the self
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and crush the neighbor. That is the dark backdrop Paul
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paints. But then we reach what might be
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the most glorious contrast in the New Testament.
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Paul introduces the grammar of grace with the Word.
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But he says, But the fruit of the Spirit is.
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Here's where it gets really interesting and I want you to
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pay close attention to the grammar here.
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The word fruit is singular. Paul contrast the plural chaotic
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works with the singular fruit. He does not say the fruits of
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the spirit. He is not presenting a buffet
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line where you can walk up with your tray and say, I think I
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will take a little bit of joy and some patience today, but I'm
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going to pass on the self-control.
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It is just not my personality type.
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Why does Paul insist on the singular?
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Singular nature of the word fruit is a massive safeguard for
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the church. It guards us against a very
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common, very subtle deception. We all have natural personality
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traits. Some people are naturally calm,
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so they assume they have the spiritual fruit of peace.
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Some people are naturally outgoing and helpful, so they
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assume they have the spiritual fruit of kindness.
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And we prefer to excel in one or two socially admired virtues
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while completely excusing A glaring deficiency.
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Somewhere else a man might say, well, I am very faithful and
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committed to truth, so it does not matter that I have a harsh,
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angry temper. I'm just a truth teller.
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Paul's singular use of the word fruit destroys that illusion.
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The Holy Spirit does not produce patchwork morality.
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He produces A unified, integrated character.
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You cannot have the Spirit's gentleness without the Spirit
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self-control. You cannot have the Spirit's joy
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without the Spirit's peace. They all grow together as the
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aroma of a single new life. Let us think about the analogy
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Paul is using here. Works versus fruit.
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Works sound like construction. The flesh operates like a
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factory pumping out cheap mass produced works that eventually
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breakdown. It requires human effort, sweat,
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and striving. But the spirit operates like an
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orchard. Fruit sounds like organic living
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growth. You do not build an apple with a
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hammer and nails. You grow an apple.
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This analogy points us directly to the Reformed doctrine of
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monarchistic sanctification. That is a heavy term, but let us
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break it down. Monergism means that God alone
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is the one working to produce this new life at the root level.
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Yes, we are called to walk and obey, but the life giving energy
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comes entirely from the Spirit. You do not get an apple tree to
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produce fruit by standing next to it and yelling the demands of
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the law at it. You do not threaten the dead
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branches into bearing fruit. You get fruit because the
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branches organically, vitally united to the vine which is
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Jesus Christ. The Holy Spirit animates the
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Deadwood. The law can prune the tree, but
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he cannot give life to it. When Paul says this is the fruit
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of the Spirit, he's declaring the gospel.
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Holiness is supernatural in its origin.
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You do not manufacture it, you bear it because you belong to
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Christ. So we have this unified singular
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fruit growing organically. Let us look at the specific
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details of what this fruit looks like.
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Paul gives us a nine fold description of what the Spirit
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produces. The very first one, the crowning
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virtue that leads the list, is love.
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Now in our modern culture, love just means I feel warm fuzzies
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for you or I will affirm whatever you want to do.
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I have to imagine Paul is using a much heavier concept here.
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He absolutely is. The placement of love at the
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front of the list is not accidental.
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Love is the great Christian virtue because it most perfectly
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reflects God's own self giving heart.
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The word here is agape. Modern culture has completely
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ruined the word love, turning it into a chief, fleeting emotion
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or mere sentimentality. Biblically, agape is sovereign,
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sacrificial, covenantal devotion.
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It is an action of the will as much as an affection of the
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heart. It is the exact opposite of the
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flesh's natural habit, which is to use people for personal gain,
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resent people when they are inconvenient, or compete with
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people for status. Where the Holy Spirit reigns.
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This self giving love begins to govern a person's motives, their
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speech and how they spend their time.
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It seeks the absolute best for the other person, even at great
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cost to the self. Flowing right out of that love,
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we see two massive internal realities, joy and peace.
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I want to point out that these are not psychological states you
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can just manifest. You cannot manufacture this joy
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by listening to upbeat music, getting enough sleep, or
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thinking positive thoughts. How do we differentiate
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spiritual joy and peace from just having a good day?
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Worldly joy is dependent entirely on external
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circumstances. If things are going well, if
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your bank account is full and your health is good, you are
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happy. If things are going poorly, you
20:50
are miserable. But the joy produced by the Holy
20:53
Spirit rises from the objective reality of your reconciliation
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with God. It is the gladness of knowing
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that your sins are forgiven, that you were justified in
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Christ, and that your future is secure because it is rooted in
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something that cannot be taken away by circumstances.
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This spiritual joy can actually coexist with immense sorrow and
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tears. You can be grieving a loss while
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simultaneously experiencing deep joy in the Lord.
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And peace works the same way, right?
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It is not just avoiding arguments, right?
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Biblical peace is not just having a quiet, introverted
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personality, and it is not just the absence of conflict.
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It's a settled, robust wholeness that comes from being adopted by
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God. You have peace with the Judge of
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the universe. The war between you and God is
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over, and therefore you can maintain a peacemaking posture
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toward the people around you even in difficult circumstances.
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You do not have to fight for your own vindication constantly
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because you know God is your vindicator.
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The next three virtues move us out of the internal realm and
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right into the relational rough and tumble of everyday life,
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especially church life. We have patience, kindness, and
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goodness. Let us be honest, When you put a
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bunch of justified sinners into a local congregation, things get
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messy. People offend each other.
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People have different opinions. The Spirit produces the exact
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grace is needed for that specific environment.
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Let's break these down. How does patience play out when
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someone in the church is just driving you crazy?
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Patience, or long-suffering, is the Spirit's conquest over your
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natural reflex to retaliate when you are wronged.
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It is the supernatural ability to endure provocation without
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returning evil for evil. It is bearing with annoying
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people without secretly despising them in your heart.
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In a culture that demands instant gratification and quick
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vengeance, patience is remarkably countercultural.
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Then you have kindness. Kindness is love, showing its
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gentle face in daily life. It is a readiness to do good, to
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interpret the actions of others charitably rather than assuming
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the worst motives, and to help without demanding recognition.
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But kindness without goodness can sometimes just turn into
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being a pushy enabler, right? People think being kind means
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never telling someone they are wrong.
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That is a brilliant distinction. That is why goodness follows
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kindness. Goodness adds real moral
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substance to that kindness. Goodness is not just being nice
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and avoiding hard conversations. True goodness is a principled
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integrity that pursues what is right before God, even when it
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costs you something and even when it requires confronting
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sin. Jesus was perfectly kind, but he
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was also perfectly good, which meant he sometimes flipped
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tables and rebuked Pharisees. These three relational graces,
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patience, kindness and goodness, are the exact antidote to the
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enmity, jealousy and fits of anger produced by the flesh.
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The final cluster of virtues highlights the durability and
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stability that the Spirit produces over a lifetime.
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We are looking at faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.
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Let's look at faithfulness first.
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In a world where people flake out on promises constantly, this
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stands out. Faithfulness means reliability,
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steadfastness, and dependability.
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The Spirit makes a Christian's promises weighty and their
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character consistent. You can trust them.
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They show up. They do what they say they will
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do, even when it hurts. Then we have gentleness, which
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is very often misunderstood. People think gentleness means
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weakness or timidity. They think it means you are a
24:05
doormat. Biblically, gentleness is
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strength under control. Think of a powerful War Horse
24:11
that responds to the slightest touch of the rider.
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It is having the physical or intellectual advantage to crush
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someone in an argument, but choosing humility instead.
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It is offering correction without delighting in the
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humiliation of the other person. And finally, self-control crowns
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the list. This is the triumph of the
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Spirit over enslaving desires. It is placing your desires under
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strict obedience to Christ. I want to apply that idea of
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self-control directly to you living in the modern era.
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We live in a culture that is hyper sexualized, driven by
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instant gratification, and addicted to digital outrage.
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People think that venting their anger online is actually a
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virtue. They call it being authentic.
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They think yielding to every physical impulse is true
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freedom. But the Spirit creates sober
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freedom. True self-control means you are
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finally free to want what God commands, rather than being
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dragged around by your phone, your appetites, or your temper.
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That modern application is entirely relevant.
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The flesh wants to consume. The Spirit wants to control.
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And when you look at this complete ninefold list, Lovejoy,
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peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness,
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gentleness, and self-control, you are not looking at a list of
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abstract philosophical ideas. You're actually looking at the
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precise psychological and moral profile of Jesus Christ himself.
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Jesus is the perfect embodiment of this fruit.
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He demonstrated absolute love on the cross, perfect joy in doing
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the Father's will, and sovereign peace during his trials, who was
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patient with his bumbling disciples, kind of the outcast
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and good in the zeal for the temple.
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He was faithful to the end, gentle with a broken hearted and
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exercise perfect self-control in the wilderness temptations.
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The central theological reality of this text is that the Holy
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Spirit sovereignly produces this exact unified Christ like
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character in the justified Sinner.
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You're being conformed to the image of the sun.
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That brings us to a sentence that is incredibly easy to
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misunderstand. At the end of verse 23, after
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listing the fruit, Paul writes against such things.
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There is no law now. Wait.
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If we are not careful, we might misread this.
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Is Paul saying the law does not matter anymore?
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Or, on the flip side, is this a brand new virtue checklist,
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turning the fruit of the Spirit into the New Testament
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equivalent of the 10 commandments that we have to
26:19
keep to earn salvation? What is Paul actually doing
26:22
here? What's fascinating here is the
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theological punch Paul is throwing at the Judaizers.
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The false teachers were obsessed with the Law.
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They believe the law was the only way to measure holiness and
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the only way to be acceptable to God.
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Paul lists out the beautiful character of Christ produced by
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the Spirit and he says, in effect, bring your law and
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examine this life. Bring all your strict
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requirements and lay them next to this fruit.
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The law has no charge to bring, no case to prosecute, and no
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condemnation to pronounce against Lovejoy, peace and
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self-control. The law condemns sin.
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It does not condemn righteousness.
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When the Spirit bears this fruit in your life, your life actually
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aligns with what God approves. This connects Florida State to
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the Westminster Confession of Faith, Chapter 19, which
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outlines the three uses of the moral law.
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We need to explain this to listener because it clears up so
27:09
much confusion. If we are not under the law as a
27:12
covenant of works, what do we do with the law?
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The Reformed tradition recognizes 3 distinct functions
27:18
of the moral law. The first use is pedagogical.
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The law acts as a mirror to expose our sin and our total
27:25
inability to save ourselves. When you look into the perfect
27:28
law of God, you see how far short you fall, which drives you
27:32
in desperations of the cross of Christ for justification.
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The second use is civil. The law restrains the extreme
27:39
evil of unregenerate society through the threat of
27:41
punishment. The civil magistrate uses the
27:44
law to keep society from destroying itself.
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But the third use of the law is for the justified believer.
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The believer is completely free from the law as a covenant of
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works, meaning the law can no longer condemn them to hell.
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However, the moral law remains the perfect standard of God's
27:58
character. Therefore, it acts as a guide
28:01
for grateful obedience. OK, so it shows us what pleases
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the Father we now belong to. Precisely.
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The Holy Spirit inside the believer produces the very
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righteousness that the law has always pointed toward.
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The law says do not murder and the spear produces a love that
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seeks the neighbors absolute good.
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The law says do not commit adultery and the spirit produces
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self-control. Impurity.
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The law says do not bear false witness, and the Spirit produces
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faithfulness and truth. This completely silences the
28:30
legalism of the Judaizers. I love the logic shift here.
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The Judaizer approaches the Christian life and says law
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first, then holiness. They think you apply the
28:38
pressure of the rules, threaten people with punishment, and
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holiness will eventually pop out.
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Paul reverses that entirely. He says spirit first received by
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faith alone and then holiness. The law is fantastic at pointing
28:50
out what love looks like, but the law cannot pour love into a
28:53
cold dead heart. Only the Spirit can do that.
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If there is no law in such things, it logically follows
28:58
that the law is not the mechanism generating such
29:01
things. The law can instruct you, and it
29:03
can threaten you, but it cannot animate you.
29:05
The law can demand self-control, but it cannot break the chains
29:09
of your enslaving desires. This is why returning to the Law
29:12
as your master, as your source of strength, is a fool's errand.
29:16
The gospel supplies the Spirit, and the Spirit supplies the
29:19
fruit. So we have painted this
29:21
incredible picture of what the fruit looks like, this unified
29:24
character of Christ. But that leaves us with a
29:26
massive practical question. How on earth does this actually
29:29
grow in a normal person's day-to-day life?
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Paul does not just leave this beautiful description hanging in
29:35
the air as a motivational poster.
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He gives us concrete direction in verses 24 through 26.
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Verse 24 is a definitive identity statement, Paul writes.
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And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh
29:47
with its passions and desires. Do I need to physically harm
29:50
myself? What does it mean to crucify my
29:52
flesh? We must pay close attention to
29:54
the verb tense there. He does not say you need to
29:57
crucify your flesh so that you can belong to Christ.
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That would be works righteousness.
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He says those who belong to Christ have crucified the flesh.
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This is a declaration of covenantal ownership.
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If you are a Christian, Christ is your Lord, and because he is
30:11
your Lord, your flesh has been decisively sentenced to death at
30:14
the cross. The cross is not just the place
30:17
where your guilt was forgiven, it is the place where sins right
30:20
to rule over you was completely broken.
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This brings us to the classic Reformed doctrine of
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mortification, which theologians like John Owen wrote about so
30:28
extensively. Mortification means putting sin
30:30
to death. Paul is not telling us to adopt
30:33
severe monastic practices to earn favor.
30:35
He's telling us to renounce the flesh as a condemned intruder.
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Mortification means looking at your sinful passions and desires
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and saying by faith, you do not own me anymore, Christ owns me.
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It is a lifelong execution of the flesh.
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The flesh will still fight, but it fights as a defeated,
30:52
condemned enemy, not as your rightful master.
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You do not pamper the flesh, you do not negotiate with it, and
30:58
you certainly do not feed it. You put it to death daily by the
31:01
energy of the Spirit. When jealousy rises up, you name
31:05
it, you confess it, and you bring it to the cross.
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And that leads right into verse 25.
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If we live by the Spirit, let us also keep in step with the
31:12
Spirit. Notice the logic there again, if
31:15
we live by the Spirit is not a hypothetical scenario for super
31:18
Christians. It is the definition of what
31:21
makes a person a Christian. The Spirit gave you life, but
31:24
Paul refuses to let the Christian life become a passive
31:27
let go and let God experience. The same Spirit who grants life
31:30
must govern the daily steps of that life.
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The phrase keep in step is military marching language.
31:35
It demands steady, ordered, persistent conformity to the
31:38
Spirit's direction. I think this is where we need to
31:40
guard against two very modern errors, mysticism and
31:44
pragmatism. Keeping in step of the Spirit
31:47
does not mean sitting in a dark room waiting to hear a mystical
31:49
inner voice telling you what color shirt to wear or who to
31:52
marry. And on the flip side, it does
31:54
not mean relying on church growth techniques, emotional
31:57
manipulation or seeker sensitive entertainment to produce a
32:01
feeling of joy in the congregation.
32:03
We are so prone to looking for a silver bullet.
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That is right. Keeping in step means a
32:08
disciplined, ongoing obedience shaped entirely by the Spirit's
32:12
appointed means. In Reformed theology, we call
32:15
these the ordinary means of grace.
32:17
How do you keep in step with the Spirit?
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You do it through the rigorous daily intake of the Word of God,
32:22
because the Spirit who inspired the Scriptures works through
32:25
those scriptures. You do it through unglamorous,
32:27
persistent prayer. You do it through the fellowship
32:29
of the Saints and honest repentance.
32:31
You do not get fruit by chasing spiritual adrenaline rushes or
32:34
fog machine hype. You get fruit by steady plotting
32:37
obedience to the Word. I want to bring worship
32:39
integration to this, specifically the sacraments.
32:42
When you gather with your local church and you participate in
32:45
the Lord's Supper, you are engaging in a massive, tangible
32:48
means of grace, Christ's broken body and shed blood which you
32:53
remember and spiritually feed upon at the table.
32:55
Purchase the very Holy Spirit who is right now working inside
32:58
of you to produce this harvest of fruit.
33:01
The grace that saves you at the cross is the same grace that
33:04
sanctifies you at the communion table.
33:06
You are being nourished by Christ Himself.
33:09
If we connect this to the bigger picture, Paul immediately
33:12
applies all of this theology directly to the corporate labor.
33:23
Brilliant theological unit by addressing community sins.
33:26
Because the local church is the Spirit's primary garden.
33:29
The Church is where the fruit of the Spirit is truly tested.
33:32
It is so easy to think you are a patient, loving person when you
33:36
are completely alone in your house.
33:38
Your patience is tested when you have to deal with difficult
33:40
people in your congregation. It is easy to be peaceful when
33:44
no one is contradicting you. Conceit or Vainglory is the
33:47
engine of church distortion. It's the desire to be seen as
33:51
superior. And when conceit rules the
33:54
heart, 2 twin sins immediately follow.
33:57
Provoking and envying. You provoke people when you
34:00
think you are above them. You belittle them, you compete
34:03
with them, you stir up conflict to prove you are right.
34:05
You envy people when you think they are above you.
34:07
You resent their gifts, their reputation, or their peace.
34:11
Both provoking and envying our forms of self worship.
34:14
They are the weeds of the flesh that will absolutely choke the
34:16
harvest of the Spirit if they are not mortified.
34:19
True holiness is not a private mystical feeling.
34:22
It is intensely public and relational.
34:24
As we rack up this massive deep dive, I want to summarize the
34:27
main ideas we have covered today.
34:29
The Christian life is not a legalistic demand.
34:31
Change yourself so that God will finally accept you.
34:34
But it is also not a lawless permission slip.
34:37
God accepts you, so changing your behavior is completely
34:40
optional. The biblical gospel is this God
34:43
accepts ungodly sinners solely based on the imputed
34:46
righteousness of Jesus Christ received by faith alone.
34:50
And because he accepts them, he permanently gives them his Holy
34:52
Spirit to make them a completely new creation.
34:55
The Spirit guarantees that the tree will bear fruit.
34:58
I want to address you, the listener, directly as we close.
35:01
We have talked a lot about the intense warfare between the
35:04
flesh and the Spirit and the high standard of Christ's
35:06
character. If you are feeling overwhelmed
35:09
by your own failures, I want to offer you true pastoral comfort
35:13
from these texts. The specific graces of the
35:15
Spirit, the love, the joy, the peace.
35:18
They're the proof of your sonship, not the price of it.
35:21
You do not manufacture this fruit to buy God's love.
35:24
You bear this fruit because God has already purchased you.
35:26
The same Spirit who exposes your flesh is the one supplying the
35:29
strength for you to repent and walk forward.
35:32
God will absolutely finish the good work He began in you.
35:35
Look to Christ the true Vine, and rest in His sufficient
35:38
grace. I want to leave you with one
35:39
final thought to Mull over as you go about your week.
35:42
We so often think of heaven simply as a physical location we
35:45
go to after we die. But consider this based on
35:48
everything we have studied in Galatians Chapter 5 today.
35:52
If the fruit of the Spirit is actually the very character of
35:55
Jesus Christ being grown in us over a lifetime, then heaven is
35:58
the final total blooming of the screw in an entire community of
36:02
redeemed sinners. Imagine a society, a physical
36:06
reality, where the flesh and all of its selfish desires are
36:09
entirely extinct. Imagine a world where Lovejoy
36:12
and peace are literally the only atmosphere you breathe, and
36:15
where patience, kindness, and goodness govern every single
36:18
interaction. That is what the Spirit is
36:20
preparing you for. Thank you so much for joining us
36:22
for this deep dive on Reformed thinking.
36:24
We invite you to return for our next study as we continue to
36:26
open the glorious truths of God's Word.