Galatians 5:16-24 – The Flesh-Defeating, Fruit-Producing Gospel (Part 1)

© Eric M Schumacher – Preached May 29, 2011 at Northbrook Baptist Church, Cedar Rapids, Iowa. Audio available here.

Tomorrow is Memorial Day, a United States federal holiday commemorating men and women who died while in military service to the United States. (I encourage to you to, and hope you will, visit a cemetery and Memorial Day service to honor those who have died to provide and protect the freedoms we enjoy.)

Memorial Day is a reminder to a nation’s citizens that freedom is neither cheap nor easy—either to provide or to maintain. Neither the provision nor the protection of freedom are without war, battle, conflict and struggle. Just as blood had to be shed to set us free, we are all too aware that battles must be continuously fought against those who would destroy our freedom.

Memorial Day then stands as a parable and an illustration of the Christian life. In his letter to the Galatians, Paul has been reminding his readers of their freedom and how it came to them. It was through the God-man, Jesus the King, who lived a perfect life, died under God’s curse for our sins, and rose from the dead that we who trust in him have been set free from the tyranny of the law and its curse, from the burden of our sins, from the dominion of Satan and from the bonds of death. Our freedom came through the death of Christ and is ours by faith alone.

But, this does not mean that the Christian life is without conflict or that the protection of those freedoms is easy. There are enemies of the cross who, in the name of Christ but empowered by Satan, want believers to abandon their freedom and submit again to yokes of slavery. There is the pull of the world that wants us to forsake the freedom of sonship for the bondage of the weak and worthless elementary principles of the world. And, there is our old flesh, always seeking an opportunity to see its desires gratified.

The Christian is called to stand firm against all of these. In the previous verses, Paul has warned us against letting the flesh co-opt freedom. Rather, the freedom that comes through faith in Christ should issue in love that serves others. He encouraged this by pointing out the consequences of each course. Allowing the flesh to high-jack freedom results in the destruction of the church. Their use of their words to bite and devour other believers will result in them being consumed by one another. However, letting freedom through faith spill over into self-sacrificing love is the fulfillment of the law.

How Should We Then Live?

We don’t want to be devoured! We want to fulfill the law! So, the question is: How should we then live? There is only one command in this paragraph: “Walk by the Spirit.” “Walk,” here, refers to one’s manner of life, how you live. 

We prayed this morning, worshiping God for his holiness. Holiness is single-minded devotion to God’s purposes, as they are defined in his covenant instruction. God is supremely holy, since he is absolutely, unswervingly, single-mindedly, consistently and eternally devoted to his own purposes.

We often speak and read of “sanctification”—which means to make something holy. When God saved us in Christ, he sanctified us. He set us apart for single-minded devotion to his purposes, which Christ defined in his New Covenant instruction—“You shall love one another as I have loved you.”

The on-going experience of the Christian life is also one of “sanctification”—as we have been chosen for it, so we are, by God’s Spirit, having every aspect of ourselves progressively brought into single-minded devotion to God’s purposes.

And so, we might ask: How does one grow in holiness? How can we tell if we are? Those are some of the questions that Paul is address in Galatians, particularly so in these verses. We look at the “How do we think?” foundation this week and move on to the “What do we do?” in next week’s sermon.

Three Main Points

This morning, I want us to observe three main points:

1. There is a battle raging in the believer between the flesh and the Spirit.

2. However, we should be optimistic: since the war is won, the battles may be too.

3. The battle is won when we “walk by the Spirit.”

1) There is a battle raging in the believer between the flesh and the Spirit.

Verse 17 is the reason why we must “walk by the Spirit”—namely, there is a battle raging within us between the flesh and the Spirit.

The Christian life isn’t easy. Trusting in Jesus, the freedom and forgiveness of sins that comes through trusting in him, does not mean all our struggles go away—particularly our struggles with sin.

Paul speaks of “the desires of the flesh.” He is acknowledging, in these verses, that Christians struggle and have sinful desires. “The desires of the flesh” still exist for the Christian!

By “flesh,” in this verse, Paul does not mean the physical body. Paul does not believe that the “physical” is evil and the “immaterial” is good. The flesh refers to our residual sinful nature which rejects dependence upon God in Christ alone, pursues its own glory, and is hostile to the purposes of God. It is the part of us that wants to sin and dishonor God and seek our own good at the expense of others and God’s glory.

But the flesh is not the only desire-producing reality in the life of a believer. Paul also speaks of “the desires of the Spirit.” 

“The Spirit” is the Holy Spirit. He is the Spirit of God who indwells everyone who trusts in Jesus. Paul said earlier (4:6): “God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, ‘Abba! Father!’” The promised gift of the last days, the end-times presence of God, has become a present reality in us through the Holy Spirit.

Both the flesh and the Spirit have desires. And, these desires are “against” one another. Paul says that they are “opposed to each other.” Each is working in the opposite direction of the other, for the destruction of the other, to frustrate the other.

What is ironic is that Paul does not say, “to keep the other from doing what it wants to do.” Instead he writes, “they are opposed to each other, to keep you from doing the things you want to do.” What does Paul mean by that?

I don’t think he means that believers are left incapable of doing what the Holy Spirit urges them to do, so that the Christian life is merely one of constant frustration. Nor do I think it means that the flesh or the Spirit is rendered powerless by the other. Nor do I think it means that there is a stalemate between flesh and Spirit.

This is a statement of purpose, not effect. The purpose of each desires it to keep you from carrying out another desire. I think Paul means this: when the flesh produces a desire in you, it actually becomes your desire. Likewise, when the Spirit produces a desire in you, it is actually your desire. 

Therefore, the flesh has desires that it works in you, so that you desire something. The Spirit wages war against the flesh by producing a counter desire in you, so that you don’t do what you desire—that is, what the flesh desires. And the opposite: the Spirit produces desires in you, so that you desire them. The flesh opposes the Spirit by seeking to produce desires that will prevent the out-working of the Spirit’s desires.

The life of the Christian is one of battle between two warring desire-sources! Perhaps you feel it this morning! Perhaps you feel a strong battle within you between desiring what reflects and images forth the glory of God and desiring to serve yourself, to mistreat others and to fight against God. If so, take heart!

The desire to sin is not good. But feeling that tension is! It is a sign that you belong to Christ! In fact, in many ways, the battle against sin becomes more apparent when you become a Christian. There is no battle against sin beforehand. You were dead in your transgressions and sin in which you once walked. But by grace through faith, you have been made alive—and now, and only now, is there a battle against sin.

As believers, we live in the tension of what is “already” and what is “not yet.” The end-time gift of the Spirit already indwells us. We have been transferred from the domain of darkness into the kingdom of God’s beloved Son. However, as Paul wrote in chapter 1, Christ delivers us from “the present evil age.” We belong to the “new age” of the kingdom. And yet, we live in this “present evil age.”

So, there are two positions that should be ruled out by this passage:

First, we should reject the idea that the Christian will ever be free of his struggle against sin in this life. Paul can say that “those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires”—it has already happened. And yet, he speaks, to believers who belong to Jesus, and assumes that they have “the desires of the flesh” (otherwise, there is no need to command the to “walk by the Spirit”). We are torn between two worlds at war within us.

This battle will continue until the day we die. The flesh will always assail us until the day we go to be with the Lord or he returns for us. In fact, Paul’s assumption is that the flesh and its desires exist! He gives us instructions on how to prevent the believer from “fulfilling” the desires of the flesh. 

(That word translated “gratify” is the same word used when Paul says “the whole law is fulfilled.” The flesh has an outcome it aims to bring to fullness in us, just as the law was pointing toward an opposite reality. We’ve been set free to “fulfill” the law—by faith working through love—and not to “fulfill” what the flesh desires.)

Second, we should reject a defeatist, pessimistic view of the Christian life. Some might read verse 17 and conclude, “Well, I guess the only thing we can do is sin. It’s a stalemate between the flesh and the Spirit. We’re just stuck until Jesus comes again.”

There is a wrong type of triumphalism that we want to avoid in the Christian life—the type of attitude that sees the Christian life as a bowl full of cherries, all gumdrops and rainbows, every day with Jesus just getting better and better with no struggle.

But it also inappropriate to adopt a defeatist, pessimistic view toward sin and the flesh. Such an attitude does not rightly interpret this verse, because it ignores the context! This brings us to our second point:

2) We should be optimistic: since the war is won, the battles may be too.

What is the war? The war that has been won is the work of Jesus. He, like David marching out to face Goliath on behalf of Israel, fought and won the battle on our behalf, without any assistance from us. He lived a perfect, holy life—resisting the temptations of the world and Satan. He died on the cross, bearing the curse of sin, and thus rendering it powerless. He rose from the dead, demonstrating his final victory over sin, death, and the devil.

When a person repents of their sin and trusts in Jesus, they die too. They are “crucified with Christ.” His death has become their death. His life becomes their life. His Spirit has changed their heart and comes to dwell within them. They no longer live, but Christ lives in them. And the life that they now live, they live by faith in Jesus. That breeds optimism.

Verse 17 is book-ended by verses of hope and victory. Look at verse 16. Paul does not give two commands here, but a command followed by a promise. The command: “But I say, walk by the Spirit.” The promised result: “and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh.” That’s a big promise: It won’t happen. You will not fulfill the desires of the flesh. That is optimistic.

Look at verse 18. Paul gives a condition and a result. Condition: “if you are led by the Spirit…” Result: “…you are not under the law.”

Notice the parallel between those two verses: Both begin with following the Spirit (walk by or are led by). You would expect Paul to say, “If you are led by the Spirit, you will not gratify the desire of the flesh,” to repeat himself. Instead, he says, “you are not under the law.” 

Why the change? Because as we have seen in Galatians, for Paul, to be “under the law” is to be imprisoned under sin, enslaved to elementary principles, and in need of redemption (with the exception of Jesus—the exception that proves the rule). In Paul’s theology, sin seizes its opportunity through the commandment. And, apart from the law, sin lies dead (Rom 7:8). And believers now live, apart from the law.

To be “under the law” is to belong to the old age or “this present evil age,” where the desires of the flesh reign. But believers are no longer “under the law.” Rather, they are “in Christ” and “in the Spirit.” Therefore, the old Adam has died. He cannot reign. The new Adam dwells in us, a life-giving spirit. “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come” (2 Cor 5:16).

A strong emphasis on our “freedom from the law” must be matched by a strong emphasis on our freedom from the dominion of sin, freedom to no longer “fulfill the desires of the flesh.” Consider how this shows up in Paul’s theology in Romans:

Romans 6:12-14 Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, to make you obey its passions. Do not present your members to sin as instruments for unrighteousness, but present yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life, and your members to God as instruments for righteousness. For sin will have no dominion over you, since you are not under law but under grace.

Sin does not have dominion over you—it does not control you—because you’re not under the law but under grace! He continues:

Romans 6:17-19 But thanks be to God, that you who were once slaves of sin have become obedient from the heart to the standard of teaching to which you were committed, and, having been set free from sin, have become slaves of righteousness. I am speaking in human terms, because of your natural limitations. For just as you once presented your members as slaves to impurity and to lawlessness leading to more lawlessness, so now present your members as slaves to righteousness leading to sanctification.

Having been set free from their slavery to sin, they have become “obedient from the heart.” And Paul encourages them to continue on this path by presenting their members as slave to righteousness, which leads to sanctification.

And in Romans 8:

Romans 8:6-9 For to set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace. For the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God, for it does not submit to God's law; indeed, it cannot. Those who are in the flesh cannot please God. You, however, are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if in fact the Spirit of God dwells in you. Anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to him.

Every believer belongs to Christ. Therefore, every believer is spiritual (he has the Spirit of God dwelling in him). Therefore, every believer is “in the Spirit” and therefore not “in the flesh.” Thus, they do not belong to the category of people who are incapable of doing the things that God desires. And so, Paul’s exhortation (as here in Galatians) is to set one’s mind on the Spirit and its desires and not on the flesh and its desires.

Paul is arguing here in Galatians that every believer has the Spirit, and the Spirit’s work is to produce a new kind of life—what Paul calls “the fruit of the Spirit” (22-23).

So, are we saying that the believer becomes sinlessly perfect? No, if we were sinlessly perfect, there would be no desires of the flesh to have to worry about! No, if we were sinlessly perfect, there would be no possibly of a brother “caught in transgression,” in need or restoration (or of the need for a warning to beware, lest we be tempted). If we were sinlessly perfect, there would be no need of Paul’s letter to these believers.

But the fact that we are not perfect does not mean that we see no progress. Paul saw progress in their response to him (and now laments their backward steps), just as he did in his letter to the Romans. As Tom Schreiner writes, “Believers enjoy substantial, significant, observable victory in new life in Christ.” And, as we saw in our “Sanctification” Sunday School class: We are not at a crisis moment whisked up to a higher-life where we no longer willfully sin. But, neither are we flat-lined like a dead man. We are made alive and walk in newness of life—even if that “walk” looks like the stock market graph, with plenty of ups and downs.

Where then does this victory over the flesh come from and how does it happen? Point three:

3) The battle is won when we “walk by the Spirit.”

This is Paul’s central, practical command for not fulfilling the desires of the flesh—“walk by the Spirit.” What does it mean to “walk by the Spirit” and how do we do it? 

“Walk” denotes a person’s way of life. We are to “walk” (live) by the means of the Spirit. 

Led. Similarly, Paul can say, “If you are “led” by the Spirit. “Led” means to be guided or brought along. When Paul speaks here of being “led by the Spirit,” he is not speaking so much of specific guidance in daily decisions, such as what clothes to wear, where to have a picnic, what job to take, who to marry, how to school your children, what to eat for lunch, or what church or college to attend. 

Paul is speaking about the Spirit producing desires within us that move and motivate us in a particular devotion. Paul is not saying that the Spirit will lead us to attend UNI over the University of Iowa or to be a member of this church versus that church. (The Spirit could lead us like that! But, that is not what Paul is saying here.) The Spirit is moving us to live in certain broad, virtuous ways: “love, joy, peace, patience, gentleness, self-control” and other “such things.” These are opposed to “sexual immoralilty, impurity, sensuality…division, dissension…drunkenness” and being “conceited, provoking one another, envying one another” and other such “evident” vices.

To be led by the Spirit means to yield to the Spirit’s desires, which results in not yielding to the flesh’s desires.

How do we do that? We do that by faith, by worship. We live out of our satisfaction in who God is for us in Jesus.

It is a life lived by faith in the Gospel. Where do I get that from this passage? I get that from the broader context of the book. 

Faith is the central means through which the Spirit operates in the life of the believer. (For more on these observations, see John Piper, "The War Within: Flesh vs. Spirit.")

First, in 5:6, it is faith produces love, but in 5:22 it is a fruit of the Spirit. I take that to mean that the Spirit bears this fruit (love) by working through our faith. Our “decision” to following the “desires” of the Spirit is the outworking of faith—our trust in Jesus.

Second, in 5:5, Paul says that “through the Spirit, by faith, we ourselves eagerly wait for the hope of righteousness.” Our confident wait happens “through the Spirit, by faith.” Again, the Spirit is working “by faith”—our confidence in who God is for us in Christ.

In 5:18, as we saw, being “led by the Spirit” removes us from the realm of the law. But back in 3:23, Paul said that we were under law “until faith came.”

In 3:5, Paul asked, “Does he who supplies the Spirit to you and works miracles among you do so by works of law or by hearing with faith…?” Now what is interesting here is that Paul is definitely not speaking of their initial justification. He is speaking of the reception of the Spirit and the on-going  work of God in believers lives. God continues to work the same way that he began his work—by hearing the Gospel with faith. 

The “Spirit,” by whom we are to walk, is given to us by hearing the Gospel and believing it. (That is how one walks by the Spirit—by hearing the Gospel with faith!)

And this is confirmed in 2:20, where Paul says, “It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me.” How is it that “Christ lives in us?” Paul tells us in Galatians 4:6, “God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, ‘Abba! Father!’” So, the way that Christ lives in me is through his Spirit. (This is exactly what we learned in our sermons in John’s Gospel.)

And how do I live when Christ lives in me? Paul continues, “And the life I now live in the flesh [Paul is using “flesh” there differently than in chapter 5, meaning “the physical body”] I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.” Paul is not referring to the beginning of our Christian lives (our justification), but to his on-going, every-day life in this present body. Christ—through the Spirit—dwells in him so that he lives by faith.

Faith is satisfaction in who God is for us in Jesus. This means our life is moved, led, instructed, motivated by the joy that we have in Christ. Worship transforms us. As we saw in 2 Corinthians 3, transformation happens as we gaze upon Jesus in faith.

Therefore, the crucifixion of the flesh is by faith. Just as the flesh with its passions and desires were crucified when we were united with Christ by faith. Day by day, we learn to live by putting the flesh to death through our faith in Jesus. We continue to do (work out) by faith what was decisively done at our conversion.

So, what does it look like practically? How do we know if that is happening?

That is the subject of our sermon next week. But for now, let me give you a 4-part outline of walking by the Spirit, which we will “walk through” next week:

1) Identify whether a desire is of the flesh or of the Spirit.

How do we identify its source? Paul says that whether one is yielding to the Spirit or the flesh is obvious. “Works of the flesh” are “evident.” And Paul can end his list of the “fruit of the Spirit” by referring to them as “such things.” Paul trusts that they can figure it out. We’ll discuss how to figure it out next week.

2) Destroy those that are contrary to the Gospel.

See how the desires of the flesh do not flow from satisfaction in Christ. In fact, they only work to keep you out of the Kingdom. Put them to death by countering their lies with the Truth.

3) Be satisfied with (savor) who you are and what you have in Christ.

Cultivate a satisfaction with who Jesus is and what he provides. Learn to “savor” Christ by prayerfully proclaiming and having proclaimed to you the excellencies of Christ. (This is why we do C-Groups—because we need brothers and sisters prayerfully extolling the beauty of Christ into the particulars of our individual situations—something that cannot happen in our large-group corporate gathering.)

4) Live out the desires of the Spirit by faith, in the power of the Spirit.

Trusting in Jesus, praying for the Spirit’s help, follow the Spirit’s desires as you walk. (This is also why we need personal fellowship in the body. This is hard! And we need people to encourage us in the particulars, day-by-day—not just generically on a Sunday morning or evening.)

All this means that we must:

1) Meditate on Christ in all of Scripture. We need to learn to see, not just good moral examples, but the beauty of Christ—who he is and what he provides—in all the Bible, so that we can constantly satisfy our souls on what is good—namely, Jesus.

2) We need to do this individually and corporately. We must be feasting on Christ, who is found in the Scripture, individually and in the context of other believers who can help us. This is why we want to encourage you to not just attend big gatherings like this one—which are necessary and biblical—but to gather day-by-day in one another’s homes and meditate on Jesus together.

3) Pray. In the end, this is not of the flesh! It is a miracle! We should earnestly gather together to seek God’s face, to plead with him to change our hearts to delight in him and to put to death what is earthly in us.

On the face of it, this seems overly simple: Learn to be satisfied in Jesus and live it out. On the other hand, it is incredibly difficult. The flesh isn’t rational. Spiritual growth cannot be manufactured. It is as messing and frustrating and painful as war. 

And so let me conclude with these encouraging words from Martin Luther:

“Anyone who would know this art well would deserve to be called a theologian. The fanatics of our day, who are always boasting about the Spirit, as well as their disciples, seem to themselves to know it superbly. But I and others like me hardly know the basic elements of this art, and yet we are studious pupils in the school where this art is being taught. It is indeed being taught, but so long as the flesh and sin remain, it cannot be learned thoroughly.”

The war has been won, brother and sisters. Jesus has conquered us. Therefore, let us fight the battles by faith in him through his Spirit.