Light Brings Salt
Volume 3, Issue 03 January 18, 2005
Dedicated to the Systematic Exposition of the Word of God
The Holy Spirit in the Daily Life
Part 1
If you think back
to our study of Eph. 5:18 and the
exhortation there as we noted of being filled by the Holy Spirit with Christ,
have you really thought through what this means related to living the Christian
life in the wider sense?
In Galatians
5:16-25 the Apostle Paul explains the significance of the Holy Spirit in the
believer's spiritual advance in life. With perhaps the exception of Romans
chapter eight, no other chapter of Scripture is as significant in explaining
this link. That is between Christ, the
Holy Spirit, and the life of the believer!
How it all fits together.
In the development
of his argument to the Galatians, Paul first establishes the nature of the
Gospel in chapters one and two by making clear that justification is by faith
alone in Christ alone. One result of justification by faith is the immediate indwelling of God the
Holy Spirit.
In Galatians 3:2 he
asks a penetrating question: This is
the only thing I want to find out from you: did you receive the Spirit by the
works of the Law, or by hearing with faith? The expected answer is the hearing with faith
(cf., Galatians 2:16b; Romans
This obedience to
the Law included both the moral law and the ceremonial law. Paul counters by
teaching that observance of moral and ceremonial precepts can never provide any
sinner with the quality of righteousness necessary for justification before God
(Gal. 3:10-12, 21; 2 Cor.
The Epistle to the
Galatians, the first of Paul's letters, centers the attention of the reader on
two dominant themes: (1) the justification of the believer in the Lord Jesus
Christ apart from legal works, and (2) the ministry of the Holy Spirit as the
indwelling energizer of the spiritual life in Christ." All this so that we could realize the freedom
that is ours in Christ!
Paul then shifts
his subject from justification to sanctification with another very pointed
rhetorical question: Are you so foolish? Having begun by the
Spirit, are you now being perfected by the flesh (Gal. 3:3)?
He establishes two
important contrasts, two antitheses: begun/ perfected and Spirit/ flesh.
The next place
these concepts are addressed is in Galatians 5:16-25, where Paul explains the
dynamic of how the Spirit is instrumental in the believer's life resulting in
growth and advancement in the spiritual life.
What is that growth in? The Word
being filled with Christ!
The first phrase, having begun by the Spirit,
reminds them of the mechanics of salvation: a new life in Christ created
through regeneration by God the Holy Spirit which occurred at the instant of
faith alone in Christ alone. At the time of Paul's writing to them, the Holy
Spirit had already regenerated these Galatians. No one is able to regenerate
himself, only God can do this (John
For this reason
salvation is by means of faith, not because of faith. When an individual exhales faith alone in
Christ alone, the Holy Spirit instantly regenerates him and simultaneously
imputes God's perfect righteousness to the new creation in Christ. This new life in Christ is eternal in nature
in contrast to the first birth.
This imputed
righteousness is the cause of salvation. At that same instant, God the Father
looks upon the believer's possession of imputed perfect righteousness and
declares him justified. [very quick after faith in
Christ] Thus the logical conclusion is
that ceremonial and moral acts are inconsequential to justification.
The believer has
received a new life from the Holy Spirit, a life that the Spirit must now
nourish and develop. Rem: That faith is the means, not the cause
of salvation.
Just as human
morality, law performance living, is inconsequential to salvation, Paul will
argue that ethical obedience, law performance living is neither the means nor the cause of
spiritual growth and living, though
moral living within the will of God is an effect or consequence of spiritual growth. Not a
means but a result of!
The contrast being perfected (Galatians 3:3) is an unfortunate
translation for the Greek verb, epiteleo (epiteleo) This word
is an intensification of the verb found in Galatians 5:16, teleiow,
describing the result of walking by the Spirit. [you will not
carry out the desires of the flesh]
Epiteleo means, "to
perform," "to establish," "to finish," or "to
bring to completion."
The Galatian believers began their Christian life through a
work of the Holy Spirit, but they were now attempting to grow and advance
spiritually, to live the Christian life through dependence on their own
ability and works, not in dependence on the Word and the indwelling Holy
Spirit.
The passive voice
of the verb indicates the believer does not bring himself to maturation, but,
by walking by the Spirit,
that is, being responsive
to the Word heard, applying it, the result is there will be growth in Christ.
[must be in fellowship]
Moral though the
Galatians efforts might have been, such attempts were
illegitimate. Morality or law performance living is never sufficient to control
and deal with the sin nature. [Paul in Rom 7:15f points that out] Spiritual growth and the advance in the spiritual
life only comes by dependence on or
fellowship with the Holy Spirit. Must
not be grieved or quenched.
Any and all
activity accomplished not in dependence on the Holy Spirit, that activity, the human good derives
from the flesh. Paul wants the Galatians to understand that everything in life
derives from either one or the other, Spirit or flesh. We need to remember that having began by faith we must also walk by
faith Col. 2:6.
The main point of
Paul's rhetorical question here, however, has to do with the incongruity of
beginning one's Christian life on one basis ("with the Spirit") and
then shifting somewhere in living life to another basis ("by human
effort/works" from the area of strength of the sin nature).
What
Paul wants these believers to see is that the Christian life is one that
starts, is maintained, and comes to culmination only through dependence on the
ministry of God's Spirit and His Word.
Paul clearly
emphasizes the antithesis between the production of the Spirit and the work of
the flesh, the sin nature. Paul clearly
uses "flesh" (sarx) with an ethical
dimension beginning in Galatians 3:3. Referring to the sin nature.
A Christian can
clearly live an ethical, [Mosaic] moral law abiding life, yet the results are
at best human good from the sin nature.
Isaiah emphasized that it is our righteous deeds (human good) not our unrighteous
deeds that are like a filthy garment from God's viewpoint (Isaiah 64:6). [as does Paul in
Titus 3:5]
Failure to take
into account the reality that the sin
nature can produce morality (human good) has led to much confusion and
distortion in teaching about the spiritual life.
Have you ever
wondered how it is that many unbelievers you know are
very nice people who often live very strong moral lives. Better often than many
believers?
In Romans chapter six, Paul makes it clear that everything the unbeliever
does comes from the sin nature. The unbeliever is born enslaved to this sin
nature. It is only after salvation that the believer is able to make a choice
not to live enslaved to the sin nature.
Therefore, all that
the unbeliever does good, bad, moral, and
immoral-proceeds out from a fallen sinful nature. Paul in
A life that
emphasizes Law and works (i.e., simple human morality, as the means to
spiritual growth) is in fact in slavery to the sin nature. Paul reminds the Galatians that since they
did not receive their new life because of obedience to ceremonial or moral law,
the growth of their new life in Christ is also not because they observed
ceremonial or moral law.
Both our spiritual life
and growth in that life, the apostle bases on the vastly superior ministry of
the Holy Spirit. This does not exclude morality, but recognizes that morality
is not automatically synonymous with spiritual growth. If it were, then the Galatians would have
demonstrated spiritual advance by their own legalistic attempts.
Instead, the result
was calamitous. As the apostle Paul had discovered in his own life, an emphasis
on legal obedience and morality generates arrogance, covetousness, and numerous
other mental and emotional sins.
These sins then
culminate in overt sins. Morality alone
is never sufficient to control the lust of the sin nature because that same
fallen nature produces the human morality.
Only obedience to the precepts of Scripture,
applying its truths in dependence on God
the Holy Spirit has value for spiritual growth.
The argument Paul uses (in
1) Everything the
unbeliever does derives from his position in bondage to the sin nature and
proceeds from the sin nature (Isaiah 64:6; Romans 6:6, 17, 18; Titus 3:5);
2) The unbeliever
can live a moral, ethical life; therefore,
3) Simple human
morality can be the product of the sin nature.
Conclusion: A supernatural means is necessary to produce the virtues
and Christ-like character unique to the Christian life.
Since it is not
enough simply to do the right thing, or live a moral life, the believer must
have some gauge or criterion to determine whether his morality derives from the
production of the flesh, does it flow from the sin nature as did the Galatians'
morality.
Since moral reformation
can be self-induced through an act of the will, how can the believer discern
the difference between morality and spiritual growth?
Paul answers this
through the imperative to walk by means of the Spirit which we will examine
next time.