Galatians 5:1,13-25
This morning, we are looking to Paul’s letter to the Galatians to show the two ways we can live our lives: self-directed living, or God directed living, which Paul calls living by the Spirit.
First, let’s play a little word association game. If someone were to say the word ‘God’ to you, what would be the first word that would come into your mind? Your first thought?
Would it be an old man with a long flowing beard? Would it be a judge? Would it be a distant father who never seems to visit or care for us? Would it be guilt?
Perhaps though, it would be the word, ‘Grace.’ So, let’s look at these two different ways of living through the prism of grace. Grace means the unmerited and unearned favour that God shows towards us constantly in Jesus as a sheer gift.
We can’t make God love us anymore than he does. How good do we have to be? What say we’re good some of the time, is that enough? How good do we have to be? As good as Mother Theresa? What is the measure of this?
The truly good news is that just as there is nothing we can do to make God love us more, equally there is nothing we can do to make God love us less. The love of God cannot be striven for by effort, but just received, accepted, and cherished.
Even when we do something we know is not the right thing, God does not ever love us any less. That is not in his nature.
It is through faith that we are saved by this grace alone, and not by any works that we do, or amount of money we give, or bible verses we can memorise.
We receive Grace as a gift; a present. If we try to pay for this present through our striving to be good, it would be like asking the person who gives us a Christmas present how much it cost and then giving them the money for it.
It is no longer a gift but a mere purchase. None of us has enough of anything to pay the cost of Grace.
The cost of God’s grace is seen fully and perfectly in the cross of Jesus Christ at Calvary. Jesus paid the unpayable for us, because he is one with the Father and has the Father’s heart for us – pure self- sacrificing love.
Which is why many church services begin or end with the words, ‘The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with us all evermore.’
This is the very nature of God, and even though we can’t see God, we can know of his nature, which can be seen in his children in the fellowship of the Holy Spirit. When we believe and are baptised, we rise through the waters of death, just as Jesus rose from the dead, and are baptised into the name of the Father, into the name of the Son, and into the name of the Holy Spirit.
Because of this and through this grace, we now live by faith, or by the Spirit, not by the efforts of our own self or flesh.
We tend to think of “desires of the flesh” in terms of indulging bodily desires, and certainly some of the “works of the flesh” listed in 5:19-21 fit this category.
But the other “works of the flesh” Paul lists are more about matters of heart, mind, and speech as these affect our relationships with God and one another.
Eight of them have to do with divisiveness within the community: enmities, strife, jealousy, anger, quarrels, dissensions, factions, and envy. These less visible or obvious “works of the flesh” are every bit, as destructive, if not more so, as the more salacious ones.
By contrast, the “fruit of the Spirit” is love with all the qualities that flow from it: “joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity (goodness), faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. There is no law against such things,” Paul adds (5:22-23).
The Spirit, not the law, produces this fruit, which more than fulfills what the law requires; to love our neighbour as ourselves.
“Those who belong to Christ have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires,” Paul continues (5:24; cf. 2:19-20). Christ has freed us from slavery to sin and self-indulgence and has given us his Spirit.
Verse 25 is a condition of fact: “If we live by the Spirit (and we do), let us also be guided by the Spirit.”
Because we now dwell in Christ, we become partakers of God’s nature! It is the nature of God himself that flows out from us. It is this fruit of the Spirit that draws people to the Church.
Another way to view this is that people are attracted by our Grace, which reflects and glorifies our Father in heaven.
This is why Jesus calls us to love our enemies; because God does. He offers peace and utter love to those who are near to God, that is us; and he also offers peace and love to those who are far away from him, that is those who are hostile towards God.
So, the fellowship of the Holy Spirit is God’s children displaying the fruit of the Holy Spirit, the very nature of God, that causes the church to grow. And here, there is no law, or anything else in all creation, that will ever be able to prevail against it. Amen.