Grace For Your Day September 4

We are in Galatians 5:13-26 again this week for part 2 of learning what it means to “Walk in or by the Spirit”.

Galatians is written to a group of churches in an area called Galatia (modern-day Turkey) that were in transition.

The transition from living under the Mosaic law to living under the new covenant. Jew and Gentile alike were turning to Christ, acknowledging that He was the Messiah, confessing sin, and being saved. But the “Judaizers”, also known as “the circumcision”, were a group of Jews that were teaching that these Gentiles had to be circumcised first before they could be saved.

The book is written to this group of churches to remedy that situation. To confront that false teaching. To remind them that if they returned to relying on circumcision, they would have to go back to obeying the whole law. That they would have corrupted the one true gospel by going to a “different gospel”, one that is really not a gospel at all. They would be severed from Christ.

This letter from Paul, like Romans, reminds us that we are saved by grace, through faith in Christ alone. Period.

He combats this false gospel by calling the churches back to this basic teaching and reminds them that it was for freedom from the striving to be justified by the law that Christ set them free. But he also identifies the conflict that this teaching has spawned. He cautions the Galatians that if they bite and devour one another, they need to take care that they are not consumed by one another.

Satan is constantly trying to get us to dishonour God by how we live personally and how we interact corporately. He is the deceiver and the accuser. He is looking for ammunition to come before God and accuse the people of God.

No church will be free of conflict. But how we manage that conflict is the key.
Paul reminds us that the reality is that even though we are saved, we still deal with the residual flesh this side of glory. “The flesh” that is the summation of the desires of the natural inner man, apart from knowing God.

He says that “The flesh sets its desire against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh, for these are in opposition to one another so that you may not do the things that you please” Galatians 5:17

So, there is a battle between our flesh, and God’s Spirit that indwells us. It’s a battle for influence, and which side is winning in the moment shows up in our intentions, motivations and ultimately behavior.

Paul says the remedy is to walk in the Spirit, and we will not carry out the desire of the flesh.

It’s a simple equation, the more we renew our mind, the more we “put on” the things of God that occupy our thoughts, the more the world is squeezed out.

This week we will see that we can also “put off” our flesh. As Christians, God calls us to crucify our flesh with its passions and desires, that is we put the flesh to death. We do that by starving it. Cutting out anything that feeds the flesh.

If you couldn’t be with us last week, I would recommend that you listen to last week’s sermon as a basis for this week. But this week we want to examine Gal 5:19-26 with two goals:  I want to examine the deeds of the flesh, that is, what a life looks like when one is NOT walking in the Spirit, compared with the fruit of the Spirit, the fruit of one’s life in Christ, when one IS walking in the Spirit.

I’m convinced that this is where the battle is. This is where faith shows up.
In the day-to-day.

Our faith shows up, and is proved to be authentic, in the moments that make up this battle.
Please join us Sunday as we gather to worship at Grace Fellowship.

Quentin Smith