15 How to Pursue Holiness Without Living Under Law

Krisan Marotta: Welcome to Wednesday in the Word. I'm Krisan Marotta, and this is my podcast about what the Bible means and how we know. Today is the last episode, the 15th episode in a companion series to my book, Start Strong: A New Believer's Guide to Christianity. To finish off this series, we will study Galatians chapter 5, verses 13 through 24, which is one of the book See for Yourself passages from chapter 15. Have you ever wondered, if I'm no longer under the law, what's actually going to keep me from slipping backwards? Maybe you know God's grace is real, but part of you still fears that without the rules or the right technique, you'll never really change. This episode speaks right into that tension and shows you how God's gift of the Spirit changes everything. Thank you for listening today. Well, today we're going to close out our series on Start Strong a New Believers Podcast, a companion to my book, with a passage from the book of Galatians. First, let's start with some background on Galatians. Paul wrote this letter to the churches in the region of Galatia, and they were in danger of losing their way. Some in those churches had come to believe that faith in Jesus was not enough. They had been taught by the Judaizers that they must also keep the law. And Paul is writing to correct that view. In the first two chapters, Paul defended his authority as an apostle. He argued that his authority as an apostle and his gospel are completely trustworthy, and they should not listen to the Judaizers. In chapters three and four, Paul made a series of five arguments for why we are justified by faith and faith alone. All five arguments made the point no one will receive eternal life because they kept the law, and only those who have faith in Jesus will receive eternal life. Then in chapters five and six, he begins his final exhortation. And in this final section, basically from 513 to the end, Paul gives a series of four exhortations, and we're looking at the first one. One of the ways to refute a charge that's been leveled against you is to do the very thing you're accused of not doing. So in this case, Paul's critics claim that Paul's gospel is wrong because he doesn't teach people to pursue goodness. So here, Paul exhorts his readers to pursue goodness. He explains how we should live in light of the gospel, and that involves the pursuit of goodness. So Paul's opponents are saying, well, in order to be saved, Gentiles must become Jews and keep the law. Believing in Jesus, that's a good start, but it's not enough. If Gentiles don't keep the law, then they're going to backslide. They'll go right back to their pagan ways and pursue all kinds of debauchery. And of course, we know God doesn't want that. He wants everyone to keep the law. So the Gentiles need to keep the law. That's what will keep them safe and keep them in God's favor. And, you know, Paul just left that part out. Well, in the section we're looking at today, Paul counters that claim directly. He says, the law isn't the thing that keeps you from pursuing evil. It's not even the best thing. You don't need the Mosaic covenant to tell you not to pursue sin because as a believer, you've got something better. There's a new voice in your life teaching you not to pursue evil, but it's not the voice of the law, it's the voice of the Spirit of God. So, yes, you're free from the Old Covenant in the sense that you are not obligated to keep the Old Testament law to gain salvation, but you're not free from the work of the Holy Spirit. And the Holy Spirit is what you really need to keep you from pursuing a lifestyle of sin. As he argued, before the Messiah came, the Old Covenant was like a drill sergeant or a taskmaster that yelled at you and barked at you and kept you on the right path. But with the coming of the Messiah, that changed. So think of it this way: think of a child who only behaves when mom is standing in the doorway watching. He doesn't grab the cookie and he doesn't hit his sister because mom is watching. That kind of obedience is external. It restrains him, but it doesn't change him. What mom really wants is for her child to become the kind of person who shares and acts kindly because he has learned to love what is good. Well, that's the difference between the law and the spirit. The law stands over you like mom in the doorway and says, Behave, but only the spirit can change you so that slowly but surely you begin to want to do what pleases God. If you're still pursuing sin and using your freedom from keeping the law in order to pursue that sin, then it calls into question whether you're saved at all. And that's Paul's argument in a nutshell. I'm going to read the whole passage and then we'll go back and walk through it. This is Galatians chapter 5, verses 13 through 24. For you were called to freedom, brothers, only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another. For the whole law is fulfilled in one word. You shall love your neighbor as yourself. But if you bite and devour one another, watch out that you are not consumed by one another. But I say, walk by the spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. For the desires of the flesh are against the spirit, and the desires of the spirit are against the flesh. For these are opposed to each other, to keep you from doing the things you want to do. But if you are led by the spirit, you are not under the law. Now the works of the flesh are evident sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these. I warn you as I warned you before, that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God. But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. Against such things there is no law. And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. Okay, first let's define some terms. One of the key things we have to understand is what does Paul mean by flesh in this context? The Greek word literally means meat or flesh, just like we think of in English, human flesh. Paul tends to use this word one of three ways. Sometimes he means the literal human body. For example, in Romans 2.28, he speaks of physical circumcision in the flesh, meaning the mark on the physical body. Sometimes he uses this phrase according to the flesh to mean from a human point of view. So he says in Romans 1.3, for example, Jesus is a descendant of David according to the flesh. So from a human standpoint, Jesus is a descendant of David. The third way he uses this word is a moral ethical sense. And I think this is the most common usage we see in Paul, and it's the one we see here in Galatians. Most often when Paul speaks of the flesh, he means everything we are apart from God. So it's the moral condition of fallen humanity apart from any work of God. So you think of it as unredeemed humanity, the natural state of humanity without God having intervened in any way. So flesh is the entire fallen human being, everything we are, body, soul, spirit, mind, apart from God. And what do we know about the flesh? We know that it is sinful through and through. It is rebellious to God and it will choose selfishness and evil every chance it gets. When my husband was teaching Sunday school, he used to explain to the second graders that we had broken choosers, the thing inside us that makes us choose what we choose. So the thing that makes us like ice cream and not like broccoli also makes us choose wrong over right and choose selfishness over generosity. We can't just decide to choose what's right because our chooser is broken. And a broken chooser cannot fix itself. It can't just choose to fix itself because it's broken. We need God to fix it. To extend our metaphor, you could say our flesh is our broken choosers. It is everything we are apart from God before he intervenes. So to walk by the flesh, as Paul uses it, means pursuing life and goodness on my own resources, with my own self-effort. To walk in the flesh is to pursue holiness through self-reliance, through myself, through my own resources, to live my life according to the will and dictates of my broken chooser. So the Pharisee who walks in the flesh may have impeccable credentials and a perfect religious pedigree, but he is pursuing God through self-reliance. He's trusting his own efforts to gain God's favor. He believes that holiness is there inside himself somewhere, and he only needs to keep the law the right way to dredge it out. So legalism is to pursue holiness and godliness through the flesh or through self-reliance. By contrast, the person who walks by the Spirit realizes his chooser is broken. There is no holiness inside to dredge up. Therefore, we have to look outside ourselves to find holiness, and the place we need to go is to place our trust in God, because we don't have what it takes to be holy. So Paul makes his first exhortation in this verse, and then he explains it. Let's look at that. For you were called to freedom, brothers, only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another. So his first exhortation is don't use the fact that you no longer have to keep the law as an excuse to pursue evil, as an excuse to indulge your flesh, to indulge your self-reliance and your pursuit of sinfulness. Don't let it be an excuse to pursue what your broken chooser wants to choose. You were called to freedom from the Mosaic Covenant. So having come to faith in Christ, you are free from the restrictions of the old covenant and keeping the law in the sense that that is no longer required to please God, but don't use that freedom as an opportunity to pursue sin. Just because you don't face the punishment of the law anymore doesn't give you an excuse to indulge in evil. You may recall, if you've read my book or listened to many of my podcasts, that one of the four convictions of saving faith is longing to be free from sin and longing to be made holy as God is holy. Part of the gift of saving faith itself is wanting to be free from sin. If I use not being under the law as an excuse to gleefully pursue sin, that suggests, well, I still love sin and calls into question whether or not I have faith at all. But once God fixes my broken chooser, at some level, my chooser wants to choose what's good and right. Now, I don't choose perfectly yet, but now when I fail, I repent because at some level I recognize my choice was wrong and I want to be free from sin. So Paul says, Don't use your freedom as an excuse for pursuing sin. Instead, serve one another through love. Let me read 13 and 14 again. For you are called to freedom, brothers, only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another, for the whole law is fulfilled in one word, you shall love your neighbor as yourself. If we could truly love our neighbors and applied that in every situation, we would go a long way toward actually fulfilling the requirements of the law. Coming to faith involves this monumental worldview shift where I realize I am not the center of the universe and my needs do not take precedence over everyone else's. Instead, God is the center of the universe, and all of us human beings are equal before Him. And that means I am no better than anyone else and no worse than anyone else. So when I look at my neighbor, there's a profound sense in which it's like I'm looking in a mirror. My neighbor is someone just like me, someone who is equally made in God's image. We have the same problem with sin, we need the same solution to that problem, and if we both have faith, we have the same Lord, same Savior, and same spirit. In any given situation, when I'm trying to figure out what the right thing to do is, I can go a long way toward figuring that out by asking myself, if the situation were reversed, how would I want to be treated? And then do that. So I don't love my neighbor because I have to, because I'm under the law. I love my neighbor because I believe it is the right thing to do, because I recognize God is the center of the universe and we are equal before Him, and God has changed my chooser such that I want to choose what is right. So Paul is contrasting two different responses to freedom from the law. On the one hand, I could take my freedom from the law as an opportunity to be selfish and live my life indulging my selfish nature and putting myself first in every situation. And that would be wrong. That's not the kind of person God wants me to be. Or I can enjoy my freedom and express it by loving my neighbors and treating them as I would want to be treated. I am free to love others because I am secure in the fact that God is taking care of me. I'm free to love others because I no longer see myself as more important. I am free to be forgiving and forbearing because I know how much I myself have been forgiven. And I have security and the hope of the gospel, knowing that God is at work in my life, and I don't have to put myself first in an effort to take care of myself. So Paul is exhorting them. How will you act if you live in light of my gospel? Well, you won't use your freedom from the law to pursue sin. You will use your freedom from the law to pursue holiness. He goes on in 15 and 16, but if you bite and devour one another, watch out that you are not consumed by one another. But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. Paul uses this image of animals snapping and biting at each other. Biting and devouring is a very descriptive picture of our sinful natures. Instead of loving and nurturing each other, we bite and devour each other. Instead of treating each other as we would want to be treated, we cut each other into little pieces. And I think Paul may be speaking to their specific situation here. Their insistence on law-keeping in their churches has probably led to a kind of competition where they're biting and devouring each other over who's keeping the law properly and who isn't. So instead of loving and encouraging each other, they rebuke and belittle each other for their law-keeping or their lack of law-keeping. That shouldn't surprise us because we are all inclined to exalt ourselves at the expense of others, to trample others so we can get ahead, to grab for and take what we want without regard for who else might get hurt in the process. Until God intervenes in our lives, that's the kind of thing we do. And what's the end result of that? We hurt and destroy each other. So the Judaizers think that if you walk by the old covenant, that is, if you strive to keep the laws of the Old Testament, you won't walk by the flesh. That living under the rules of the law, that will keep you from indulging in such selfish behavior. The covenant put a curb or a guardrail on your natural selfish inclinations. But here Paul's saying, actually, striving to keep the law promotes strife because we all start competing for who's the best lawkeeper and we start judging each other over who is and who isn't keeping the law properly. Now he's going to go on to say there is something that curbs those natural inclinations toward evil, and that is the work of the spirit. If you walk by the spirit, you will not gratify the desires of your selfish nature. The law could do nothing to fix your broken chooser, but the spirit can. The spirit inside you begins this process of fixing your chooser so that you stop choosing the desires of the flesh. Now, when we see this phrase walk by the spirit, we're often inclined to start thinking we need to channel the spirit in some way. We start thinking that we need to use the spirit, say the way Luke Skywalker used the force. We just have to figure out how and learn the secret to tapping into that power, like we might learn to play the piano. And I would argue that's not how the spirit works. Walking by the spirit is not some kind of mystical channeling experience like using the Star Wars force. Instead, it's more like the wind. In fact, when Jesus explains this to Nicodemus in John chapter 3, that's the analogy he uses. He says you must be born again, and then he compares the spirit to the wind. Think about your experience with the wind. When you sit outside and everything is quiet and still, there's no sound or movement, then all of a sudden you hear a rushing sound and all the tree branches begin to sway and dance. You know it's windy. You can't see the wind, but you can see the branches swaying. You can't see what's making the sound, but you can hear the leaves rustling. You can't stop the wind, you can't make it go where you want, but you can experience the changes it makes and you see the results. You know the wind is there because you experience the effects of it. You see the branches moving and you feel it on your face and in your hair. I think what's essential to the analogy Jesus is using when he compares the spirit to the wind is that the spirit is this invisible force that we cannot control. The wind is invisible to us and beyond our control, but we experience its effects, and that's how we know it's there. And the same is true of the spirit. And it's a really clever analogy because wind and spirit are the same word in Greek. The spirit of God at work in a person is like the wind. We don't control him. Instead, the spirit does what God tells him to do. We can't see the spirit, but we can see the changes he makes in our lives. So as I understand what Jesus is saying there in John 3, Christianity is not done by technique. We don't bring it about. It's brought about by the Spirit of God. We have broken choosers, and no technique is going to fix them. Only the Spirit of God can fix them, and he does that based on God's plan and timing. So to walk by the Spirit is simply to live my life, trusting that God is in control and that he will bring about the changes he wants to bring about through the spirit working in my life. It's not a technique I learn, it's a fundamental attitude of heart. It's part of my worldview. Now, Paul goes on in verses 17 and 18, for the desires of the flesh are against the spirit, and the desires of the spirit are against the flesh, for these are opposed to each other to keep you from doing the things you want to do. But if you are led by the spirit, you are not under the law. So what he's saying here is the natural inclination of our broken choosers and the direction of the spirit, they're opposites. They're opposed to each other. If the spirit is truly at work in you, you will be going one direction. And if the spirit is not at work in you, then you're going a different direction. So if you're pursuing goodness, you're not pursuing goodness because the threat of the law is hanging over your head. You're pursuing goodness because the spirit of God is at work in you, making you the kind of person who wants to be good. If we are walking by the Spirit, then to use Paul's metaphor, we are not free to just do whatever we want. That doesn't give us a license to sin because the law is no longer a threat. Why? Because the spirit is teaching us. To flee from sin, and we are running 180 degrees in the opposite direction because now the spirit is teaching us to seek the things of God. So if we're led by the Spirit, we resist the pull of our broken choosers for an entirely different reason than law keeping. Our motivation is not to avoid getting caught breaking the rules, our motivation comes from an entirely new worldview. The Spirit has changed us, cleansed us of our rebellion to God, and turned our deepest desires toward following Him. And now we get to the lists Paul gives us of each of the works of the flesh and the spirit. Let's look at 519 through 21. Now the works of the flesh are evident: sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these. I warn you as I warned you before, that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God. Now, sadly, that is not an exhaustive list. Paul has to add, and things like these, meaning there's more. And if we sat down and thought about it, we could probably add to the list. We do see things like drunkenness and sorcery on the list, but notice the vast majority of the things Paul picks are relational, divisions, factions, jealousies, rivalries, infighting. I think he's giving us a clue as to what's going on in the Galatian churches. The teaching of the Judaizers has not produced unity and harmony. Instead, there are these factions and divisions. And he's saying it's obvious where the flesh is at work in your church because this is what it looks like. Look around you and you'll see all this enmity, strife, jealousy, and anger. This is a result of your legalism. Now, it would be instructive probably to go through each of those items on the list and think through why it's on the list and what makes it wrong and what makes it abhorrent to God. And we could spend a whole series on it. I think Paul gives us a clue as to what we'd learn by telling us in 5.14, for the whole law is fulfilled in this one word, you shall love your neighbor as yourself. I think at the root of each of the items on the list is this idea of putting ourselves first and at the center of the universe and not loving our neighbor as ourselves. But I'm not going to go into that to take all the time to do that. I think in the context here, what we really need to understand is what he says in 521. I warn you as I warned you before, that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God. Now, at first glance, that's a really terrifying statement because who among us cannot say we've ever been jealous or had some kind of rivalry or division? And now he says there's some sense in which that means we're not going to inherit the kingdom of God. And that's a pretty terrifying claim. But remember the context. The context is what kind of life am I living? The question on the table is: if I'm free from the law, does that give me a license to pursue all the sin that I want? And Paul has been arguing that being free from the law is not an excuse to sin. Because once God gives us his spirit, we have a different motivation to avoid sin. We have the teaching and guidance of the Spirit who is giving us a heart that loves God. If we don't see that kind of change in ourselves, if we don't see the desire to love God, but instead we see the very strong inclination to pursue sin, then that does call into question whether or not we have faith. Because these are the kinds of behaviors we would pursue if the Spirit of God was not working in our lives. Now he's not saying one strike and you're out. He's not saying if you ever got jealous or angry, you're out of the kingdom. Those things do not put you beyond the mercy of God. What he's saying is these are the kinds of behaviors that define our sinful nature, our broken chooser. If you want to know what kinds of things your broken chooser chooses left to itself, it's the things on this list. And if this is a trend in your life, if these are the things you really want at your innermost being, then wake up and smell the coffee because you need to repent. Now he gives us the opposite list. This is in 22 through 24. But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. Against such things there is no law, and those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. So if I'm a person who has saving faith and a person to whom God has given his spirit, what kind of changes will I see when I repent and begin listening to the teaching of the Spirit? These are the things I'll see: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. And that's a pretty great list. Again, we could spend time on each one of these and ask why it's on the list. And in fact, I have a whole series on that where I go through each one of them and answer just that question. I'm not going to do it now, but I'll put a link to it in the show notes. For now, we can see that the overall point he's making in context is the person controlled by the spirit is entirely different than the person without the spirit. They're polar opposites and they're heading opposite directions. Then in 23 and 24, against such things there is no law. And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. Against such things, there is no law. I think he's saying the law cannot produce this kind of fruit. With regards to such things, there is no law. The list is a much deeper level of righteousness than the Old Testament law can produce. We can find laws that tell us how to treat our neighbors and what justice requires and so forth, but following those laws won't make you joyful, peaceful, patient, or self-controlled because following the laws on the outside does nothing to change who we are on the inside. The law is like a thermometer. A thermometer tells me I have a problem, but it can't make me well. The law is the same way. It can teach me that I have a problem with sin, but it can't make me well and heal me from that sin. Only the Spirit of God can do that. When you decided to become a disciple of Jesus, you metaphorically crucified your broken chooser and all the things it desired. Part of repentance is crying out to God, I don't want to be that kind of person anymore. I agree with you that I am sinful and worthy of condemnation. I long to be holy and I ask that you make me holy. I recognize I can't fix the problem by myself. You don't owe me anything. You're not required to save me, but I ask for mercy and grace because of the blood of Jesus Christ. That's what saving faith is. To be crucified with Christ is a metaphor for repenting and making that kind of about face. And thanks be to God, He forgives us and gives us His spirit. And then the wonderful, amazing result is this new vision, this new worldview, and this deeper level of righteousness. So of course, those who belong to Jesus will not use their freedom as an excuse to sin. They have metaphorically crucified those desires. They've abandoned that kind of lifestyle and are now seeking the things of God. So what is it that keeps you on the straight and narrow? Not the threat of the law, it is faith in Jesus that keeps you on the straight and narrow. When we come to faith, we abandon the desires of our broken choosers and begin seeking the things of God. And that's a crucial part of what it means to come to faith. If you don't experience that kind of lifestyle change, then it's questionable whether you have faith, because faith always leads to a change to life. Thank you for listening to Wednesday in the Word, a podcast that explains not only what a passage means, but also shows you how to figure it out. You'll find the blog version of this episode at wednesdayintheword.com slash Start Strong Podcast 15. You can listen to the episodes in this series and find all the other series I've done at wednesdayintheword.com. There's no charge, no spam, and no ads. Just free, trustworthy resources to help you grow and understand scripture. If this podcast has blessed you, please follow it and leave a positive review wherever you listen. But most importantly, tell a friend what you learned and where you learned it. And if you've been reading along in my book Start Strong as you listen to this series, I would be most grateful if you would leave me a positive review on Amazon or Goodreads. Our theme music is graciously provided by Reggie Coates. You can hear Reggie's music at heartfeltmusic.org. Thank you for joining me today. I'm Krisan Marotta, and I'll see you next week at Wednesday in the Word.