Are You Living the LIfe You've Always Wanted? Galatians 5

Life by the Spirit

13 You, my brothers and sisters, were called to be free. But do not use your freedom to indulge the flesh[a]; rather, serve one another humbly in love. 14 For the entire law is fulfilled in keeping this one command: “Love your neighbor as yourself.”[b] 15 If you bite and devour each other, watch out or you will be destroyed by each other.

After establishing how futile it would be for the Galatians to go back to trying to earn their salvation by the works of the law, he now addresses the other side of their error.  Once they had understood the freedom Christ gave them from the law, they used it to indulge the flesh/sinful nature. You can see in verses below 19-21 what he is talking about.  Think of the dark sides of Hollywood, Las Vegas and Amsterdam all rolled into one.  The bottom line is, "Jesus didn't give you freedom from the law so you could sin some more.  He gave it to you so you could live according to your God ordained design and purpose."    If God made us don't you think he would have a good idea of the type of life that would be meaningful. 

16 So I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. 17 For the flesh desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the flesh. They are in conflict with each other, so that you are not to do whatever[c] you want. 18 But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law.

So what is the solution?  All of us have tried to be good people and tried to get rid of our bad habits and character defects, yet we always fall short.  What gives?  How can we live this life God has called us to?  Answer:  Live in power of the Holy Spirit.  Paul basically says unless you operate your life in the power of the Holy Spirit, you will continued to be ruled by the sinful nature. It's a losing cause in your own power alone.  But IF you are led by the Spirit, you don't even need the law. It is not that the law doesn't apply, but the Holy Spirit will empower and guide you to live a life that you could never imagine or put into practice in your own power.  What your flesh desires/demands is diametrically opposed to what the Spirit desires.  The flesh wants you to "just do it" and the Spirit says, "only do it if it is right and part of God's plan for your life".  

Since the Holy Spirit is every bit as much God, as God the Father and God the Son, you can't at the same time live by the Spirit and operate in your sinful nature.  Since God can't sin, the Holy Spirit would never lead you to sin.  Basically Paul is saying, "The only power you have to live a life of freedom God desires for you, is by the same power God gave to  His Son, Jesus".  It is not an accident that when John the Baptist baptized Jesus in the Jordan River, the Spirit descended on him like a dove and came upon him. This began Jesus' public ministry. When you see all of what Jesus said and did, you can see what a life led by the Spirit looks like.  Its the same life God wants for us and is possible through fuel the Holy Spirit.  

19 The acts of the flesh are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery; 20 idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions 21 and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like. I warn you, as I did before, that those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God.

Paul identifies what a life according to the flesh looks like.  While you may not see all of these sins active in your life notice also sins like selfish ambition, discord, and envy.  Also realize idolatry can represent a lot of different things like addiction to shopping or self vanity.  The bottom line is when one's life is characterized by the fruits of the sinful nature, you will never inherit the kingdom of God.  This I don't believe is about "losing one's salvation", it is about living a life as a son or daughter of God the way it is supposed to be lived now.  Or as Dallas Willard calls it, "the eternal kind of life".  

If we are honest, on any given day, we might not be living according to the Holy Spirit, but that doesn't mean I've lost my salvation.  When I am driving down the freeway and cursing at other drivers (and not praying for them), I am not living according to the Spirit.   But what will happen is that the Holy Spirit will convict me of my un-Christ like behavior and I can either turn from it or continue to indulge in it.  If I continue to indulge in it with other drivers on the freeway, or bring that spirit into work, I am no longer living in freedom of the Spirit.  I am living in the bondage of the flesh. But there is a much better way to live life under the Spirit's influence. 

22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law. 24 Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. 25 Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit. 26 Let us not become conceited, provoking and envying each other.

In these final verses, Paul gives us a glimpse of what our Christian lives can and should look like.  When we are living according to the Holy Spirit here is what Christian freedom looks like.  He gives 9 characteristics of the FRUIT of the Holy Spirit.  Notice most people say "the fruit(S) of the Spirit" but the word used here is "fruit".  

Why is this at all important?  Because the 9 fruits come as package deal.  It is not as if you get them one at a time.  They come together and are related.  For instance when you are patient and treat someone with kindness not anger, you are exhibiting the fruit of love.  You will have peace knowing that you honored God by not treating them poorly, and it will probably give you joy when you see how you built them up rather than tearing them down.  When you keep your promise and are faithful, it will give you peace and show love to those who are counting on you.   

So we have seen both "sin lists" which list all the charateristics of our sinful nature.  And we have seen what the FRUIT of the Holy Spirit looks like in our lives.  The question is how do you want to live your life and by what power?  Before you were a Christian and didn't have the Holy Spirit, you may have lived moments in time where you were loving, faithful and in self control; but your life in total was probably looked more like the other list.  

But here is the really important part, by living according to the Holy Spirit we can actually live the life we've always wanted.  Though we will continue to fight our sinful nature and fall, we will have moments when we are living in step with God's will for our lives and it will be like heaven on earth.  We will have moments when we overflow with love, joy and peace.   When we love like Jesus, we will feel as if we are living according to the design God gave us.  It will give us a glimpse of what heaven is like!

Would you characterize your life on most days as living according to the sinful nature or according to the Spirit?  What are the contributing factors that help determine it?  I.e. starting your day in prayer or other spiritual disciplines.  The type of people you hang out with.  What are you doing with your body?  Who are you honest with or really knows you?  

The greatest gift God has given us in addition to faith and salvation is the gift of the Holy Spirit.  When we come to believe in Jesus, the Holy Spirit lives inside of us and is a down payment of our future inheritance.  But the Holy Spirit is available to us today.  As we submit to the Holy Spirit's guidance in our lives, we will live the life we always wanted which will also glorify God in heaven!