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The Believer’s Battlefield: Flesh and Spirit (Galatians 5:17) · Reformed Thinking

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  Welcome back to the show. We are doing something a little
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  different today. Usually we are looking at tech
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  or history or, you know, some big sociological trend.
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  But today, today we are looking under the hood of the human
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  engine. We are looking at, well, us, and
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  specifically we are calling this reformed thinking.
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  It is good to be here, and we should probably clarify right
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  off the bat who we are in this context.
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  We are approaching this deep dive as 2 Protestant Christians.
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  Right. We are coming at this from a
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  very specific angle. We hold to the Westminster
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  Confession of faith. We love theology.
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  But more than that, we're eager to see how that theology
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  actually hits the pavement of real life.
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  Because if it just stays in the books, it doesn't help anyone.
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  Spot on. We are not here to just discuss
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  abstract ideas or you know, move pieces around on a chess board.
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  We are looking at the mechanics of the soul.
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  And the specific mechanic we were looking at today is the
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  internal battlefield. The topic is Galatians 5, verse
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  17. Which reads For the desires of
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  the flesh are against the spirit, and the desires of the
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  spirit are against the flesh. It is the paradox of the
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  Christian experience, isn't it? I mean, here is the hook for you
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  listening. If we are redeemed people, if we
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  are new creations, why is it still so hard?
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  Why do we still struggle with sin?
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  Why isn't Holiness just automatic?
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  That is the big question, and sadly a lot of modern answers to
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  that are just shallow pragmatism.
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  They offer life hacks, but our mission today is to examine the
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  anatomy of this war. We want to move beyond just
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  trying to do better and get to a robust biblical understanding of
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  sanctification. I think everyone listening can
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  relate to that frustration. You think, OK, I am a Christian
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  now, I shouldn't want to do these things anymore, but the
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  want is still there. It is.
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  And that gap between what we know we should be and what we
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  actually are, That is where despair sets in for a lot of
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  people. They start questioning if they
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  are even saved. They think if I were really a
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  Christian, I wouldn't have snapped at my wife or I would
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  have had that thought. Well, they go the other way and
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  just redefine sin so they don't feel bad about it, yeah.
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  Right. They lower the bar so they can
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  jump over it. But Paul doesn't let us do
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  either of those things. He forces us to look at the
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  reality of the conflict. So let's unpack this.
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  We have a lot of material here, specifically drawing from 2
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  heavy hitting sources, the Believers Battlefield and the
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  War Within. We are going to break this down
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  systematically. We are, and to do that properly,
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  we have to start with context. We cannot just parachute into
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  verse 17. I feel like we always say that
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  context is king, but why here? Why focus on this specific
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  verse? I mean the Bible is a massive
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  book, why stop the car here? It is a fair question.
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  One of our sources uses a methodology called the Five
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  Anchor Questions. It is a way of ensuring we
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  aren't just making things up. The first question is always
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  what does the text say? But the second is crucial.
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  Why is it here? What is the author's intent?
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  And then the others are How does it testify to Christ?
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  What must we believe or do, and how do we say it clearly?
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  Precisely. Those keep us grounded.
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  So regarding that second question, authorial intent, what
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  is Paul's intent in Galatians? Because when I read Galatians,
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  honestly, Paul sounds angry. He sounds really upset.
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  He is upset. You have to look at the literary
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  context. Paul is writing a defense of
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  justification by faith alone. The churches in Galatia were
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  under attack by a group called the Judaizers.
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  The legalists. Right.
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  These were false teachers who were saying, yes, believe in
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  Jesus, but that is not enough. You also need to add the works
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  of the law. You need to be circumcised.
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  You need to follow the Mosaic code to be truly accepted.
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  They were adding a plus sign to the Gospel Faith Plus works.
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  It is like a subscription model where you get the free trial of
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  Jesus, but to keep the service you have to pay with your own
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  effort. That is a brilliant way to put
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  it, and Paul sees this as a lethal threat.
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  He argues that if you add anything to Christ, you lose
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  Christ completely. But, and here's the twist, when
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  you preach radical freedom in Christ, when you say it is not
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  about your works, another danger pops up on the other side.
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  Antinomianism. Yes, the idea that I am free so
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  I can do whatever I want, it is using freedom as a license for
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  sin. So Paul is walking this razor's
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  edge. He has to crush the legalists
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  who want to enslave you to the law, but he also has to crush
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  the idea that grace means you can just live in sin.
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  So he is fighting A2 front war. On one side he has the guys with
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  the clipboards checking off rules.
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  On the other side, he has the guys who think rules don't exist
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  at all. Precisely.
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  And that brings us to the logic of the word for in the Greek it
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  is the word gar. Verse 17 starts with gar for the
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  desires of the flesh. It is a small word, but our
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  sources point out it is doing heavy lifting.
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  It connects the thought back to what he just said.
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  It is the hinge. Verse 16 gives the command walk
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  by the Spirit and you will not gratify the desires of the
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  flesh. Verse 17 starts with four four
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  because it explains why you have to walk by the Spirit.
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  It explains why the Christian life cannot be lived on
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  autopilot. Because there is a war on.
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  Because there is of opposition. If there were no resistance, you
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  wouldn't need a command to walk or fight.
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  You would just drift into holiness.
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  But Paul is saying no, you must actively rely on the Spirit,
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  because for the flesh is actively fighting you.
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  I like that image of drifting. We tend to think that if we just
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  leave things alone, they will get better.
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  But in a fallen world, if you leave a garden alone, you don't
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  get roses, you get weeds. Entropy applies to the soul as
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  much as it applies to physics. If you are passive, the flesh
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  takes over. That is the default setting of
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  our remaining corruption. So this isn't just a random
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  proverb, it is part of a complete unit or a pericope as
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  the scholars say. Galatians 5.16 through 18.
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  That is right, you have the contrast.
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  Legalism on one side, license on the other, and in the middle is
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  spirit LED Liberty and clarification is needed here.
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  This isn't just about behaving better, it is about the sphere
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  of existence. You are either operating in the
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  sphere of the law, the sphere of the flesh, or the sphere of the
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  spirit. It is like atmosphere.
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  If you were in the flesh, you are breathing toxic fumes.
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  If you are in the spirit, you are breathing oxygen.
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  That is a good analogy and Paul is saying you cannot hold your
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  breath. You are breathing one or the
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  other. OK, so we have set the stage.
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  We know why we are here. Now let's look at the
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  combatants. We have the flesh versus the
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  spirit. Let's start with the flesh.
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  And I have to ask, when normal people hear flesh, they think of
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  skin or meat, or maybe like sensual stuff?
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  This is where we have to be very careful with our definitions.
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  In Greek the word is sarks, and the misconception is that sarks
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  just means your physical body, like your literal skin and
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  bones. Right, like the body is bad and
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  The Ghost Inside is good. That is a Greek dualism idea
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  that the spiritual is good and physical matter is evil.
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  That is not what Paul means at all.
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  When Paul uses sarks here, he is talking about the active,
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  malignant, totally depraved human nature that remains in the
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  believer. So it is not just about sensual
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  sins like lust or gluttony. No, and that is a critical
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  point. The flesh certainly includes
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  those things, but it also includes religious sins, pride,
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  self righteousness, reliance on the law.
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  When a Judaizer tries to earn God's favor by getting
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  circumcised, Paul says that is flesh.
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  That is fascinating. So you can be sitting in church
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  looking very pious, trying to earn your way to heaven, and you
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  are operating in the flesh just as much as the guy out partying.
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  You nailed it. It is a radical redefinition
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  compared to the Stoic philosophy of the time.
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  The Stoics thought the flesh was just the body, Paul says.
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  No, it is the rebellion in your heart.
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  It is the eye that wants to be God.
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  Yes, it is the desire for autonomy.
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  It is the part of us that says I know better than God or I can
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  save myself. That is all sarks.
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  OK, so that is the antagonist. It is a monster.
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  Who is the protagonist? The spirit Numa.
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  And we must be clear, this is not the human spirit.
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  This is not team spirit or a good attitude.
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  This is the Holy Spirit, the third person of the Trinity.
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  A sovereign antagonist to the flesh.
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  Yes, this is evidence of the new age invading the old age.
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  The believer has the very presence of God living inside
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  them. That blows my mind when I stop
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  to think about it. We aren't just people who have a
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  new instruction manual, we have a new engine.
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  Better than an engine, we have a new person.
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  The Holy Spirit is a person, not a force, and He has desires, He
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  has a will, and His will is diametrically opposed to our
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  flesh. Now let's look at the action in
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  the text. It says they desire against each
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  other. The Greek word is epithumae.
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  And the syntax matters here. It is in the present tense that
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  indicates continuous unyielding warfare.
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  This isn't a one time skirmish you had when you got converted,
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  It is a constant state. And the word desire or lust, it
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  sounds intense. It is.
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  It means a driving over mastering passion.
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  The flesh isn't just mildly annoyed by the spirit, it hates
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  the spirit. It hunts the spirit, and the
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  spirit targets the flesh with equal intensity.
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  There's reciprocity here. So the spirit isn't just a
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  passive observer just sitting back and watching us struggle.
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  Not at all. The Spirit is aggressive against
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  sin. When you feel that conviction,
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  that sharp pain when you do something wrong, that is the
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  Spirit at war. That is him attacking the
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  cancer. Our sources point out another
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  Greek term here, anti kaitai, opposed to one another.
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  That is military language. It means lined up in battle
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  array like 2 armies entrenched in a trench warfare situation.
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  And here is where it gets incredibly interesting.
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  I was waiting for. That the verb is in the middle
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  voice in Greek grammar that suggests that these two forces
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  are intrinsically, by their very nature, enemies.
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  They cannot negotiate. There is no truce possible.
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  You cannot sit the flesh and the spirit down at a table and work
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  out a compromise. They are matter and antimatter.
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  That explains so much of the frustration we feel because we
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  want a truce. We want to be able to say, OK
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  God, I will give you Sunday morning, but let me have my
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  Friday night. Exactly.
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  Or sorry, Precisely. We want a coalition government,
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  but the spirit and the flesh are both totalitarian.
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  They both want 100% of the territory.
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  They will not share the throne. Which leads us right into the
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  next part, the result clause. The text says so that you may
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  not do the things that you please.
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  This is the outcome of the battle, and again, the grammar
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  helps us. It is a subjunctive mood with an
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  indefinite construction. It basically translates to
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  whatever you. It sounds like a restriction.
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  It is a double sided restriction.
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  Think of it this way. On one side, the spirit prevents
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  the believer from indulging the flesh to the fullest extent.
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  So even when we sin, we aren't sinning as bad as we could
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  because the Spirit is pulling us back.
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  That is it. He acts as a restraint.
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  You might want to punch someone in the face, but the spirit
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  restrains you to just a harsh word that is grace, even though
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  it is still sin. But on the other side, and this
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  is the hard pill to swallow, the flesh prevents the believer from
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  obeying God perfectly. We can't be as holy as we want
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  to be. Right.
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  We want to pray with pure focus, but our mind wanders.
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  We want to love our neighbors selflessly, but a little spike
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  of pride comes in. This is the hindrance of
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  righteousness. This really destroys the myth of
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  free will and sanctification doesn't.
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  It it does, the believer's will is contested territory.
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  Wanting does not automatically lead to doing.
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  You wake up and say I want to be patient today.
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  That is the want, but the doing that has to go through the
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  battlefield of the flesh. It brings to mind Romans 7.
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  For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is
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  what I keep on doing. Precisely, Galatians 5.17 is the
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  theological explanation for the groan of Romans 7.
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  It explains why the Christian life feels like a struggle,
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  because it is a literal struggle.
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  I think a lot of people feel like that struggle means they
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  are failing. Like if I am struggling I must
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  be doing it wrong. That is a lie of the enemy.
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  The struggle doesn't mean you are failing, it means you are
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  fighting. If you weren't struggling, that
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  would mean you had surrendered. That is a huge comfort.
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  So what does this mean for our doctrine?
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  Let's move to our next segment, theological synthesis.
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  We said we are standing on the Westminster Confession.
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  How does this connect? Well, first it connects to the
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  covenant of grace, but specifically look at Westminster
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  Confession chapter 13 on sanctification.
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  It says that remnants of corruption abide in every part.
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  Remnants of corruption. That is a great phrase.
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  It sounds almost like something from a fantasy novel.
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  It does. It means the dominion of sin is
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  destroyed. Sin is no longer our king, but
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  the presence of sin remains. It is like an occupying army
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  that has been defeated but is still hiding in the hills
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  launching guerrilla attacks. So the true king is on the
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  throne, but there are rebels in the woods.
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  Yes, and they are dangerous. They can still hurt you, they
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  can still cause chaos, but they cannot retake the throne.
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  That is the difference between a believer and an unbeliever.
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  The unbeliever has sin on the throne.
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  The believer has Christ on the throne, but sin in the
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  territory. And this brings up the
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  distinction between definitive and progressive sanctification.
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  Can we break that down? Sure, definitive sanctification
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  is a one time event. It is our union with Christ.
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  Galatians 5.24 says we have crucified the flesh.
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  Past tense. Our legal status has changed.
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  We are no longer slaves. That is the IT is finished part
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  of the equation, yes. But then there is progressive
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  sanctification. That is the ongoing war
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  described in verse 17. That is the daily reality.
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  We live in a two age overlap. We are citizens of the new age,
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  the spirit, but we are still dragging around the corpse of
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  the old age, the flesh. We're already in the Not yet.
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  That is the concept. We are already saved, but we are
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  not yet glorified. We are already wholly in status,
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  but not yet completely wholly in practice.
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  And this also touches on the third use of the law in the
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  reformed tradition. It does.
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  Could you lay out those uses for us?
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  Of course. The first use is to restrain
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  evil in society. It is like a muzzle.
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  It keeps people from destroying each other.
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  The second use is to show us our sin and drive us to Christ.
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  It acts as a mirror. And the third use.
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  The third use is for the believer.
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  It guides us to grateful obedience.
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  It is a light to our path. In this context, the law exposes
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  the flesh. It shows us, hey, that thing you
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  are doing, that is the flesh. But the law can't fix it, no?
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  That is the law, gospel distinction.
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  The Law demands what it cannot produce.
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  The Spirit provides the strength to do what the law demands.
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  The gospel provides the remedy, Christ's victory, and the Spirit
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  applies that victory to fight the war.
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  So we need the law to show us the standard, but we need the
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  spirit to give us the ability to meet it.
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  Yes. If you just have law, you have
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  despair. If you just have spirit without
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  law, you have unguided and mysticism.
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  You need both. Now this brings us to polemics.
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  Polemics just means we are fighting against errors.
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  We are drawing some lines in the sand.
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  Right. Truth is defined by what it
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  opposes, and this text opposes several major errors out there.
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  First up, perfectionism. The Wesleyan or Armenian view.
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  This text is the death knell for the idea of sinless perfection
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  or entire sanctification in this life.
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  If the flesh always opposes the Spirit, and if that opposition
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  prevents us from doing perfectly what we please, then claiming
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  you don't sin anymore is, well, it is a lie.
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  It contradicts the Holy Spirit Himself.
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  It does. It actually redefines sin to
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  make it attainable. Usually perfectionists have to
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  lower the standard of God's law to say they are keeping it.
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  They say, well I didn't intentionally sin so it doesn't
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  count. But the Bible Bible says even
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  our unintentional sins are sins. Yes, the standard is God's
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  perfection, not our good intentions.
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  What about the other side? The modern evangelical
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  landscape? The seeker sensitive movement.
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  This text critiques the therapeutic Christianity that is
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  so popular today, the kind that treats sin as just a mistake or
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  a bad habit or brokenness. You hear that a lot.
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  I'm just a little messy or I have some struggles, right?
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  Galatians 5.17 doesn't say you are messy.
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  It says you have a malignant, hostile monster living inside
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  you called the Flesh. It refutes the idea that we just
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  need some sychological hacks or better branding to fix our
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  lives. We need a savior and we need the
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  Sirits operation within us, not just a life coach.
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  It seems like we're scared to use the word sin anymore.
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  We want to soften. It we do, because sin is
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  offensive. But you can't cure a disease if
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  you misdiagnose it. If you have cancer and the
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  doctor tells you it is just a rash, he is killing you.
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  Paul is the honest doctor. He says it is terminal flesh.
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  You need the chemo of the Spirit.
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  Then there is antinomianism. We touched on this, but let's
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  hit it harder. The Free Grace theology.
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  The let go and let God crowd or the one saved always saved.
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  So it doesn't matter what I do crowd.
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  This text says the Spirit opposes the flesh.
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  He doesn't coddle it. If you are comfortable with your
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  sin, if you are not fighting, you are not walking by the
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  Spirit. So if you are sitting on the
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  couch eating spiritual potato chips, engaging in sin, and you
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  feel fine about it. That is a terrible sign that
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  suggests the Spirit might not be there to oppose you at all.
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  Our sources also bring up secular frameworks like critical
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  race theory and liberal theology, and we are just
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  reporting what the sources say here.
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  We aren't taking political sides, but how does this text
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  interact with those ideas? The sources point out that it
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  comes down to where you locate the problem.
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  Secular ideologies almost always locate the problem of humanity
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  in external structures, in society systems, education,
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  economics. They suggest that if we just fix
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  the system, man will be good. It is the Rousseau idea.
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  Man is Born Free, but everywhere he is in chains.
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  Right, but Paul says the chains are inside.
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  Paul locates the war inside the human chest.
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  The problem isn't just a lack of education or a bad environment.
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  The problem is the depraved nature.
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  You can put a man in a perfect society like Adam and Eden, and
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  his flesh will still rebel. So we cannot just legislate our
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  way to righteousness. We can restrain evil with laws,
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  but we cannot create goodness. Only the Spirit can do that.
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  So the solution the Bible offers isn't just structural change, it
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  is regeneration and sanctification.
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  That is a heavy reality, yeah. So let's pivot to application.
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  What do we do with this? How does this hit our head,
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  heart and hands? Let's start with the head
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  doctrine. We have to acknowledge the total
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  depravity of the remaining flesh.
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  We have to stop being surprised when we sin or when we see sin
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  in the Church. We act so shocked when a pastor
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  falls or a leader messes up. We shouldn't be.
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  We should be grieved, but not shocked.
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  The flesh is capable of absolutely anything.
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  And there is comfort there, right?
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  Huge comfort. As we said, the struggle is
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  actually a sign of life. Dead men don't fight.
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  If you are grieving over your sin, if you feel this internal
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  war, that is proof that the Spirit is there fighting back.
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  The unbeliever doesn't feel this specific conflict because they
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  are just in the flesh. They are going with the current.
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  So if you are exhausted from the fight, take heart.
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  The fight means you are alive. That is the message.
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  Now the heart affections. This doctrine should cultivate 2
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  things, mortification and vivification.
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  Big theological words break them down for us.
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  Mortification means killing sin, cultivating a holy hatred for
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  the flesh. You don't play with a pet Viper,
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  you kill it. You starve it.
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  How do you starve it practically?
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  You cut off the supply lines if you struggle with lust.
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  You don't watch certain movies if you struggle with greed.
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  You give money away until it hurts.
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  You do radical things to kill the desire.
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  And vivification. Vivification means coming alive
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  to the Spirit, cultivating a desperate dependence.
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  It is breathing in the oxygen. We should reject passive
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  mysticism, you know, just waiting for a ZAP from God and
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  embrace active warfare. It means praying Spirit help me
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  50 times a day. And hands practice.
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  How does this look on a random Tuesday morning?
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  For the individual, it means early resistance.
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  Don't wait for the sin to grow into a giant.
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  Kill the monster while it is little.
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  When you feel that first twinge of envy or lust, go to war right
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  then. Don't entertain it.
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  Don't invite it in for coffee. Slam the door.
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  What about for the family? Fathers need to lead by the
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  spirit, not by fleshly authoritarianism, anger,
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  bullying, that is flesh, leading with patience and love, that is
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  spirit. When a dad gets home from work
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  and he is tired, his flesh wants to just check out or snap at the
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  kids to be quiet. Guilty we all are but the
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  Spirit. It says serve them, love them.
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  That is the war on a Tuesday night.
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  And office bears pastors and elders.
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  Ministry must not be showy. The flesh loves to be on stage.
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  The flesh loves applause. True ministry is pastoral,
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  sacrificial. It is about replacing the works
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  of the flesh with the fruit of the Spirit.
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  A pastor operating in the flesh is a dangerous thing.
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  He uses people to build his platform.
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  A pastor in the Spirit uses his platform to build people.
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  Which brings us to the ultimate solution.
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  Well, the final solution I should say.
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  Christ centered proclamation. We can't just preach.
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  Fight harder. No, that would just be moralism.
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  We have to preach Christ. We have to look at Jesus as the
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  only man whoever walked this earth without a warring flesh.
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  He is the second Adam. He didn't have this internal
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  civil war. No, he was tempted externally by
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  Satan in the wilderness, but he had no internal traitor.
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  His heart was perfectly aligned with the Father, and the beauty
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  of the Gospel is that he took the penalty for our fleshly
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  rebellion. And this is where Union with
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  Christ comes back in to play. We fight not for victory, but
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  from victory. The indicative the fact that you
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  are in Christ, that you are dead to sins.
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  Dominion grounds the imperative, the command to walk by the
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  spirit. You are a soldier in an army
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  that has already won the war, even though the skirmishes are
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  still happening. That changes the whole mindset.
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  I'm not fighting to get God to like me.
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  I am fighting because I'm already His Son.
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  Yes. If you fight to own love, you
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  will burnout. If you fight because you're all
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  loved, you will endure. So as we wrap up, let's do our
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  outro. We always want to address 2
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  groups first. The person listening who might
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  not be a believer. If you are not in Christ, you
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  need to know this. You are not at war, you are in
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  the flesh. You are at peace with sin, even
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  if it is destroying your life and that path leads to death.
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  The call is to repentance and faith.
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  Flee to Christ. He is the only one who can
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  deliver you from this body of death.
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  You cannot win this war on your own.
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  You need a new nature entirely. And for the believer, the weary
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  St. who feels beat up by their own heart.
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  Look to the blessed hope Christ is returning.
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  This war is temporary. You will not have to fight your
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  flesh forever. There is a day coming when the
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  flesh will be gone and you will be free to love God, a neighbor,
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  perfectly. The victory is certain.
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  Hold the line. Walking by the Spirit is the
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  only path to true freedom. Freedom to love, that is what it
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  comes down to. Well, that is a massive amount
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  to chew on. Before we sign off, I want to
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  leave you with a final thought to Mull over.
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  We spent so much of our lives wishing for an end to the
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  internal conflict. We just want peace.
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  But what if the peace we crave in this life is actually the
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  very thing that would put our souls to sleep?
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  What if the war itself is the grace that keeps us awake and
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  clinging to Christ? That is something to think
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  about. Keep fighting.
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  See you next time.