We saw in the first part of this series that in this passage the Apostle Paul is seeking to teach believers what it means to walk in the Spirit. He accomplishes this task by first showing them what a life lived in the flesh looks like. In verse 16 Paul tells his readers that if they live by the Spirit, then they will not gratify the desires of the flesh. Why? He answers that in the next verse when he writes, “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, in order to keep you from doing what you want to do (v. 17 ESV).” Paul makes it very clear that a life lived by the Spirit and a life lived by the flesh are antithetical to each other. He acknowledges that the desires we have sometimes arise out of our flesh, and that we need the Spirit to restrain us from doing what we want to do. Because the desires of the Spirit and those of the flesh are against or opposed to each other, the Spirit is able to achieve this task. In this verse Paul reminds us of the weakness of our own flesh. In our own pride as humans, we frequently think that we are stronger than we really are. We think that we have conquered particular sins in our lives, and that we no longer need to rely on the Spirit’s help. It is in these prideful moments that we experience relapses and fall back into sins we thought we had defeated in our past. For this reason, we must never think that we have moved beyond the need of the Spirit’s help. We must continually return to the foot of the cross and plead for grace and mercy to continue walking in a way that relies on the Spirit and glorifies God.
Before describing what a life lived by the flesh looks like, Paul encourages believers by stating, “But a life lived by the Spirit is not under the law (v. 18).” Here he reminds believers that they are no longer under the curse of the law. They no longer have to fear the wrath and condemnation that comes from transgressing the law of God. He knows that at times Christians will fail, will sin, and will struggle with accepting forgiveness. By reminding them that they are free from the law, he gives them the ability to reject the guilt that comes from the law, and to confront their sin with a godly sorrow. Christian, what is your response to your own sin? Do you respond with a sense of overwhelming guilt, feeling like you have failed God and that he could never forgive you? Or do you respond like David in Psalm 51, crying out to God for forgiveness and deliverance, greeting deeply over your sin. If we are going to deal properly with the sin in our lives, then we must begin by having godly sorrow and not godless guilt. Godless guilt robs us of the joy of our salvation, driving us to self-pity and deeper sin. While, godly sorrow rejoices in a God who has steadfast love, and drives us to the cross in repentance and faith.
Then Paul begins to describe for his readers what a life lived in the flesh looks like. He says in verse 19b, “Now the works of the flesh are evident,” and then goes on to give an extensive list of actions that characterize a life life by the flesh (vv. 19b-21a). The list includes everything from extreme sexual immorality to attitudes of the heart. He makes it clear that the desires of the flesh corrupt every area of a person’s being. A person is helpless to escape the influence of the flesh. For this reason, when we present the gospel, we must make it clear that people cannot get their lives right before coming to God. I think that we all have had those evangelistic encounters where a person says that he could not come to God because of his current lifestyle. He then goes on to say that once he has cleaned up his life, then he will come to church and be a Christian. We must be relentless in defeating and destroying this type of thinking. We must be clear that no one will ever clean up his life, and they people are always in need of the gospel. We must remind people that those who Christ ministered to were the outcast and the sinners. We must remind people that the Apostle Paul, who called himself the chief of sinners, did not clean up his life before coming to Christ. Instead, Christ met him as he was going to persecute Christians. And we as Christians must be aware of all the areas that the enemy will attempt to attack us. Although we are new creations, we have not escaped the effects of the fall. We can all struggle in these areas that Paul mentions. We must relentlessly seek to put to death these sinful desires in our hearts.
At the end of this section Paul reminds the Galatians of something he has already told them. He says, “I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things will not inherit the Kingdom of God. Paul does not mean that anyone who ever does one of these things, or any Christian who falls and commits one of these sins, cannot inherit the Kingdom of God. He is telling his readers that people whose lives are characterized by these sins will not inherit the Kingdom of God. Paul is calling the Galatians, and therefore us, to examine their lives to make sure that sins like these are not controlling our thoughts, actions, and emotions. He wants them to live as though they have been set free from the sin that held them in bondage. He wants them to remember that it is no longer they who live, but Christ who lives in them. He then continues in the next section to tell them what it looks like to live a life by the Spirit.