The Means of the Spiritual Life

All right, we are, come in, there's plenty of room. We are continuing on in Galatians chapter five. And last week we covered verse 17. And then this week on the schedule we had verses 17 and 18. And now you can see I've titled the lesson 16 through 18.

I don't think that'll be correct. It's really important to look at those verses as kind of a chunk there. So we're going to, and I've titled this The Means of the Spiritual Life. Maybe I'll return to that purpose for calling it that towards the end. That really is kind of Paul's topic here in this section. So let's just read verses 16 through 18 of Galatians chapter five. I don't have it on the screen at this point. They'll come up later, but let's just read together, follow along in your own translation.

Paul says, but I say, walk by the spirit and you will not carry out the desire of the flesh. For the flesh sets its desire against the spirit and the spirit against the flesh, for these are in opposition to one another, so that you may not do whatever you desire. But if you are led by the spirit, you are not under the law. I changed the translation there in verse 17, according to some of the things we talked about last week, but that's the section we're gonna look at tomorrow. Now last week's lesson was called The Flesh and the Spirit in Opposition.

And we can think in terms of two sovereigns, two sovereigns seeking to have total control over us. We talked about the fact that it can really only be one or the other at any given point in time, right? They can't have kind of dual control. You're either operating according to one or the other. That's why I say both sovereigns. That's why he chose that word, seeking to have total control. Really, we could call this two sources of life. What are they? They are the, in the text there, the flesh and the spirit. These are the two sovereigns seeking to have total control in our lives.

They each function according to a controlling principle. What do we call those principles? The principle of? The principle of self or the principle of law, which is kind of Paul's theme, right? Principle of law and the principle of grace. Okay, so the flesh operates according to the principle of law and the spirit operates always according to the principle of grace. So last week's lesson was called The Flesh and the Spirit in Opposition.

Is this true of the unbeliever or only the Christian? Why or why not? These two sovereigns. So is this something that's true of? Okay, why is that? Okay, okay, everyone got that? So what we're talking about here is only true of the Christian. And not the unbeliever, because the unbeliever doesn't have the indwelling Holy Spirit. That would mean for the unbeliever, even all the good that he does is nothing.

That is really, really key. Thank you for bringing that up. Very, very important. For the unbeliever, everything is sourced in the flesh and out of, you know, under that principle of law. Very good. So, I wanted to bring up Romans 8, 9 through 10, okay, because this is very related.

And it kind of answers that, that question there, that this is only true for the Christian. It says, however, you are not in the flesh, but in the spirit, if indeed, and that is the Greek word apeir, which is assumed true. So we could insert there since, okay? However, you're not in the flesh, but in the spirit since the spirit of God dwells in you.

But if anyone does not have the spirit of Christ, he does not belong to him. If Christ is in you, though the body is dead because of sin, yet the spirit is alive because of righteousness." So in other words, if you were a believer, you have the spirit. If you do not have the spirit, then you're not a believer, okay? Now just note here while we're on this verse, these phrases, if indeed the spirit of God, here, but if anyone does not have the spirit of Christ, I'm trying to underline, not cross out, okay, if Christ is in you, okay, just connect those three thoughts, okay, and we're gonna come back to that a little bit later on. If the spirit and the flesh are totally contrary to one another, okay, verse 17, there, So if they're vying for control in us, we can say, who's winning? What are the mechanics of this? How does this work out? Let's look at verse 18.

It says there, but if you are led by the spirit, you are not under law. Now, that shouldn't really be the law. In the Greek, it's an articular. So this isn't any particular law. This is just law as a principle. And that verse, it's very brief, really. It's just a propositional truth claim. It's a statement of fact, and it's written in the if-then structure. Are we or aren't we? That's kind of the question here. The condition for being not under the law is to be led by the spirit. So the important question is, what does it mean to be led by the spirit? Okay. Anyone want to answer that?

I'm going to try at this. It's the truth of the Word of God portrayed in the new life we have in Christ Jesus. It's a manifestation of the principle of grace, day in and day out. And I think we can get tangential here and really be analyzing everything we do. I don't think that's the walk by the Spirit. The Spirit-led life is one where the walk is consistent with the truth of the Word of God being manifested in the new creatures we are in Christ Jesus. Okay, awesome. You've summarized the rest of the lesson, so let's carry on through it. That's good.

So sometimes, depending on your background, and I don't know exactly, for myself anyway, sometimes I might veer away a little bit from this phrase, led by the Spirit, because of certain kind of charismatic ideas or kind of charismatic theology. behind this that tends to look at being led by the Spirit is really what I would call nothing more than overwrought emotions, right? A lot of kind of confusing my feelings with the Spirit's leading. I do believe that the Holy Spirit can and does give personal direction to believers. We've probably all prayed for the Lord's direction in some situation or some circumstance, but is this verse talking about that kind of direction from the Lord in a particular circumstance, and why or why not? And that's really important to see because I think when we see led by the spirit, we might kind of jump into thinking this is about leading in a particular circumstance or some situation that we find ourselves in. The grammar tells us that this is the first class conditional clause, which means that this is assumed true. If it's sense, right? Right. Yeah, we could translate it as sense. I mean, strict grammarians don't like that.

They would say something like, but if, and you are led by the spirit, I mean, what's the difference between that and sins? Anyway, it's assumed true for the sake of argument, but it assumes that the believer is led by the spirit. It's in the present tense, which tells us this is a continuous action. This is actually true of all believers all the time.

You may not have you know, direction. The way we typically use lead of the spirit, you might not have direction in your particular circumstance right now. Anyone have any big unknowns in their life right now? Right? Something that you're, you know, you like the Lord's specific direction about? Often the Lord, you know, wants us to be able to trust him in unknowns, in the dark, so to speak. And sometimes, as a believer, we're not even seeking the Lord's direction as well.

So if we're thinking of led by the Spirit in that sense, we're going to be off track because that's not always happening, so to speak. But that's not the kind of leading that Paul is referring to here. Notice that our freedom from the law rests on the fact that we are led by the Spirit, and it's not a fluctuating thing, an on-again, off-again thing. So Paul's not talking about this maybe you have it, maybe you don't kind of a leading. So what is this leading? You know, Paul has already made it really clear in Galatians that you are not under law as a believer, right?

We've got Galatians 2.19, which says, for through the law, I died to the law so that I might live to God, which is a fact for all believers.

And then we have Galatians 5.1, which says it was for freedom that Christ set us free.

Therefore, keep standing firm. Stand firm in the fact that you are free from the law and do not be subject again to yoke of slavery. So Paul's not giving us a condition that we have to meet in order to be free from the law. He's telling us about the provision that God has given so that we are free from the law as a fact, okay? And we call this a positional truth, right? This is true of you that because you were led by the spirit, you are free from law. Now, does this mean that we always live as if we're free from law? No, right? But we are. And we are free to operate on that basis. Okay? So... So, Myles... Yes?

What does faith have to do with this? Ah, we're getting there. We're getting there. Thank you, yes. So, but first, what does it mean to be led by the Spirit? Coming back to this question. Okay, so as we said, this is a fact. This is... You know, this is something that every believer has continuously because we have the indwelling Holy Spirit, but what does it mean? What does it mean to be led by the Spirit in this context? What's Paul talking about? We know that it's assumed true, but what does it mean?

So it's important that we connect verse 18 with verse 16. And that's why I back up to there this morning. Because in verse 16, Paul says, I say, walk by the Spirit. or by means of the spirit. And that's an imperative mood command. And you'll notice that the result is that you will not carry out the desire of the flesh. So that's the result of walking by the spirit.

And now, in verse 18, we see that there is a leading of the Spirit. Okay? So, we're to walk by the Spirit, and if we were to ask the question, well, where are we walking? It would be where the Holy Spirit is leading, right? Okay, so the walk by the Spirit is connected to the leading of the Spirit. You know, Miles, it's kind of interesting because Strong's really translates lead there as impelled.

Okay, that's very good. I think that really ties in well. I mean, so that really reflects the first class conditional, does it not? Yeah, yeah, absolutely. For sure. And that word, led, is ago, which is to lead, to guide, to direct, so a bunch of synonyms.

But it also has the idea to personally accompany someone to a destination. So, what we have here is a spirit indwells you in order to personally bring you along, to accompany you to a destination. So, the spirit is leading you to a goal, we could say. Leading you somewhere.

Really, we could say to someone, perhaps. St. Miles? Yeah. To understand what it means to walk by the spirit, it might be better to understand what's meant by walk by the flesh. If we're walking by the flesh, that's easy for us to understand. That means we're doing things of our own accord. Yes. And walking by the Spirit is letting the Spirit of God do everything. Yeah. That's right.

I mean, and as we've seen in Romans, as we've been studying through, you know, the last part of chapter 6, Paul puts it all into the language of slave and master. You know, which is not a, okay, I've got to, I've got to work this out, but you are under a master or a leader that is impelling you or controlling you, you could say.

It's either the flesh leading you in the direction of your selfish desires or it's the spirit. So we can say the Holy Spirit leads us to walk according to His desire and not the desire of the flesh, just as Bob was saying there. So in other words, if the spirit is leading us to walk according to his desire, right, then it's the opposite direction that the flesh would take us. Like we said last week in verse 17, these are contrary, totally opposite directions. It's like trying to go north and south at the same time, right? You can't do as one or the other. And it's his desire as opposed to our desire. Yes, Ray.

I'm just, a passing thought here is, what is God's motivation in sending it up this way, that he gave us the Holy Spirit to lead us? Is it not that he loves us so much that he would do that? Because he knows what's best for us, and only he can lead. Yeah, great point. Great point. Yeah, he does. He loves us. He has a very, very wonderful design for what he's doing. And that love began while we were still singers.

Yeah. Amen. Well, Miles, you know, actually, when I taught this, the first in 16, it occurred to me that I went back to John 16, where Christ talks, you know, talking about His love. He said, I'm going to go away, but I'm going to send you another, like myself, who will guide you or lead you into all the truth, which is just exactly what we're talking about. Yeah. That's awesome. The focus is always on the other members of the Trinity. Exactly. Not on Himself. Yeah, so that's exactly what we're getting to here.

What is the desire of the Holy Spirit? As we got on the screen here, it leads us to walk according to his desire. Well, what is his desire? As we talked about last week and it was just brought up, his desire is to glorify the Son. Desire of the Spirit is to glorify the Son. So how does the Holy Spirit glorify the Son in you and I? What is he gonna do in order to glorify the son? Not put our life on display, but put Christ's life on display in you and I. So there's a manifestation of the life of Christ through us.

And what's the very next thing that Paul goes into at the end of chapter five here? He talks about the deeds of the flesh and the fruit of the spirit. Right? Two, we can say visible manifestations. One is the manifestation of the flesh, and the other, called the fruit of the spirit, is really a manifestation of the life of Christ. So these are put into a bunch of terms, two lists, are really a description of the desires of the flesh and the desires of the spirit. And it's so important that we understand that the fruit of the spirit is not a list for us to try to live up to. It's the thing that the Spirit desires, which is the life of Christ, in order to glorify the Lord Jesus Christ, not for you to try to crank out. Because what you can crank out is the deeds of the flesh. What the Lord can produce by His Spirit is the life of Christ, the fruit of the Spirit. I know this is getting into, I think, who's up next? Andrew? You're right, yeah. The deeds of the flesh. I just wanted to comment on it, one quick thing.

We look at that, and we look at the words that Paul chose there, it's like, ooh, that's ugly. That's pretty gross. What's interesting is when we find ourselves in some situation, how naturally do we gravitate towards those things? We don't use those words.

We'll say, well, I wasn't engaging in immorality or drunkenness or carousing. I just had to let my hair down a little bit. I had to blow off a little steam. I had to have a little bit of fun. And we would never say, well, I was disputing or envying or causing dissension. We'd say, well, I had a right to defend myself. After all, it was his fault. So the list looks ugly, but it describes us to a T. It's the way we naturally respond to things.

But Miles, you made a great point because the fruit of the spirit, one can put a law to that. Absolutely. Absolutely, yeah. It happens. I can't tell you how many times I've heard the fruit of the spirit taught as, okay, which area do you need to work on? Well, the other thing, Miles, that was amazing is it's singular fruit. Yeah. So you have them all or nothing. So you've got to be doing them all. Exactly. Good luck on that. Yeah, good luck. So much pressure.

So the fruit of the spirit is not, I only kind of got into that a little bit, not to get into Andrew's lesson, but because just to point out that the fruit of the spirit is not the way I naturally respond. It's the kind of life that is totally contrary to my natural desires and my natural response. So it's a description of a kind of life that the Holy Spirit desires to produce in us and is leading us into. That's connecting it with verse 18. That's what the spirit is leading us into. So, we're left with a big question at this point. I see that I have two different desires at work in me. I see that I naturally produce the deeds of the flesh and not the fruit of the spirit. And we said that this fruit of the Spirit is not a list for us to work on. So how are we going to get it? How are we going to get that fruit?

Right? The only imperative in 6 through 18 is this walk by the Spirit. Okay? Now where'd my mouse go? Whatever, I was going to, there we go. The walk by the Spirit is the imperative in these verses. But what does that actually mean, right? And we've got some questions and discussion about that already, but is it Nike's slogan, just do it? How do we walk by the spirit? Is it, as I've sometimes heard walk by the spirit sort of explain, is it your responsibility to find out what God desires, find out what his word says, and then actively choose to live that way?

That's turning that into a law, as we talked about, right? That's a principle of law. You know, my chooser, we could say, is broken. Okay, so the mind and will. Yes, Ron? Yeah, just to add something about in missions, I've heard it said so many times, find out what God is doing and just get on board with Him. In a sense, that's putting us under a law. in the same way, right? Yeah, how am I going to get on board? I shared out with a few people, if anyone else wants a copy, a letter by Hudson Taylor, speaking of missions, and it was a letter written to his sister. And it was contained in his biography, written by his son.

And he describes this, he puts it into terms I couldn't really elaborate on here or explain, but he says, I know I'm in the vine, but how do I get the sap out of the vine, kind of a thing. How do I, you know, I'm... Trying I've been struggling at trying to get this and this was after years in missions in China very successful missionary up to this point But he found it all really a struggle to try to you know to try to produce this and and finally he discovered The answer to it. So anyway, if you want a copy of that, let me know after about But You know When you're put into certain circumstances, difficult circumstances, let's say, that's usually where this really becomes quite evident, my chooser, as I said, always responds according to what I think is best for me. That's the way I will always respond in this situation and it's going to wind up in that deeds of the flesh category.

So what are we to do? Now, this is going to be, this came up a little bit on Tuesday in the men's study. So if you're not a man or you weren't, so it may be more controversial for some than others, but I want to talk about this expression, let go and let God. Okay. Now, have you, anyone familiar with that phrase? Okay. You want to, no, we won't. Okay.

I think this is worth talking about. because there's positive and negative connotations. I think, depending on how you take it, and maybe that's the issue, there might be different ways to respond. Think about this in terms of being born again. What did we have to do to be born again? Give me your answer to that. Let's do that. What did we have to do to be born again?

Trust and belief. Exercise faith. Trust, exercise faith. Okay. Now, at the risk of breaking this up, time in sequence, which is probably not totally correct because I think this kind of happens simultaneously, but is there anything that you had to let go of? No. Think about it. What did we have to... Up until that point, what were we... You were trusting self. Okay. That's what we did before. Yes. And so then you have to pivot. Okay.

And trust the Lord and not yourself. But is this something you physically do? Or is it a result of putting your faith in Christ? And that's why I say there's a simultaneous, you know, you can't do one and then the other. Yeah, 1 Corinthians 15 doesn't say we have to give up anything.

We have to believe. Right, believe. Faith. Right. And so your faith is going from you know, everything other than God, everything that I am, right? And so we had to let go, I could say, of any hope of ever gaining God's acceptance on the basis of our own works. Is that right?

Miles, we keep talking about the fruit. Yes. And we talked about the vines. Yeah. When you go out and look at an apple tree, Do you see that tree working hard to make that fruit? No. No. No. All that source comes from the ground. Right. And the tree's just there, and it just happens. Yeah. Yeah. No, exactly. So... Miles? Yeah.

To answer that question, though, what are we letting go of is implying that we're holding on to something in order to get God's blessing or whatever working through us, versus what the scripture says is simply being ready to answer when asked about the faith that we have.

So the people are coming to us to ask, what makes you so happy in those circumstances you have? What is your strength? Where is it coming from? Our exhortation is to be led by the Spirit, be walking in a responsive way, like Christ did, to the events that He experienced. That's walking and being led by the Spirit. It's a response to this fruit of the Spirit being manifest. I don't know how to say it other than we are to use the sword of the spirit offensively, and our faith is a defense, and every other part of our armor is a defense.

We're just to be ready at that moment to use the word, right? Thanks, Wright. So, in terms of the new birth in terms of, you know, and I'm just kind of backing away from the question of walking by the spirit at this point, right, to talk about a principle. And I brought this up on purpose because I knew that there, you know, it would cause us all to think and to really wrestle with this. because it's a somewhat controversial statement.

And whether or not we use these words or not, you may choose to, you may not, but in terms of coming to faith in Jesus Christ, which is the necessary, the thing that is necessary to be born again is to put our faith in Jesus Christ and his work on the cross, right? We had to let go of any hope of gaining God's acceptance on our own grounds, on our own basis, and we had to allow God to declare us righteous simply by grace and through faith, right?

But we couldn't hang on to some hope of earning God's favor We don't let go of anything. We don't do that. It just happens. Yes, but it's the two sides of the same coin, right? By receiving by faith, God's grace is a letting go of everything else as a means. But to come to salvation from being unborn to being born again does not require any understanding of this. No. But by his grace and time, like the tree that Bob refers to, it takes time to allow these principles to be indwelled.

And I want to be careful about this. I don't want to confuse the conversation between birth and what we're talking about in Galatians here. When I say let it go, I'm not talking about, you know, giving up all your bad habits. I mean, you'll hear so many gospel presentations like that.

Well, if you quit smoking, drinking, and dancing, you know, and accept the Lord, then you can have salvation. It's not at all what I mean. Okay? But you come to the cross and realize, I will never have peace with God. on the basis of anything but God's grace.

And so if we think of, and we talked about repentance, was that two weeks ago in the main service, that repentance is a change of mind, not a turning away from doing all these things and start doing all these things, but it's letting go of any other means or any other hope of gaining God's acceptance, none of which will ever be effective or effectual. and receiving from God what He has offered freely by grace. In that sense, You know, I think we can use the phrase, let go and let God, in terms of our being born again. Are we clear on that, or have I totally muddied the waters? I think one of the criticisms about this statement is the let go and let God thing is really not an act of faith.

We have a responsibility to live by faith. Despite this platform of grace, which is infinite in nature, We need to respond to that platform by living by faith. And this let go, let God, looks like we're robots. That suddenly God just takes control of us and we have no responsibilities.

I think that's why this could be criticized. Sure. It probably is a phrase that allows too much misunderstanding into the conversation. Because when I say, you know, now if we switch from talking about being born again to talking about the Christian life, and if I say let go, that sounds like, well, Do whatever you want. Have at it. It's free for all. Grace, do whatever you want. Right, Grace? Yeah. Which is not the case as well.

But it's still something you're doing. Awesome. Just as Bob said, when we're talking about the mechanics of not only getting saved, but also living the Christian life, it all has to come down to living by faith. And I would even include resting in faith. Yes.

Yeah, so are you resting when you're turning the conversation back now to the walking by the spirit in our Galatians context here and thinking kind of in terms of the same principle. What I'm really trying to talk about is the principle of grace, the grace principle.

Are you resting when you have not let go of your ability to produce a life pleasing to God. You haven't, right? And so, in that sense, the let go is, again, the two sides of the same coin wrapped into the same idea of, by faith, allowing God or letting God, allowing God to live a life that you cannot. Well, that's where that rest and the peace of God comes from, is it not?

Yeah, absolutely. And that was my conclusion to the letter by Hudson Taylor to his sister. He has now a rest that he never had before. Yeah, never busier, but never more at rest. Yes, Roy? Yeah, the verses that sort of sum up what you're saying are 25 and 26 here.

If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit. And then the next verse, let us not be desirous of vainglory, provoking one another and envying one another. In other words, there is a turning from what our natural human desires are, to be self-deceived and loved. But instead, we're walking in the Spirit of love and self-control. And it's natural in the new nature that we have in Christ to do that. And so the verse Colossians 2, 6, I think we're all fairly familiar with it. Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in him. In other words, on the basis of the same principle.

Now if this phrase, let go and let God, is troublesome for you and brings in too much confusion, just let it go. It's hard intended. But, and think in terms of grace. Think in terms of the principle of grace. And so, you know, if we want to use this phrase, it's not a carelessness, right?

It is releasing or letting go of my ability to live the Christian life. and receiving from God as a gift of grace the life that only He can live in me, to submit, to allow Him or to let Him do it for me or through me. Really, what I'm trying to get at here is coming to that Romans 7, wretched man that I am place, where we are ready to give up on ever living the Christian life out of the old man, and place that responsibility where it belongs, into the Lord's hands. Fact or verses, how does this work? How is the fruit of the spirit ever going to be produced in me?

We said it's walking by the spirit, which means giving up my ability to produce the fruit and allowing him to do the living, which is really just another way of saying faith. It's by faith. And which is simply putting your trust in another. Taking the trust from myself and placing it in another. So Miles, could I add, living by faith, We are saved by faith, but we have to have faith in something.

We don't have faith in nothing. So to be saved by faith is faith in the finished work of Christ on the cross. But faith in our daily living as a Christian comes from having faith in the Word of God. And if we're not in the Word of God, we're not going to grow. Yes. And what specific What specific scriptural truths do we need to place our faith in in order for this life to manifest?

We wanna, this is the key verse of Galatians, Galatians 2.20, where Paul puts all of this in one verse. And we're talking about this, and we see it here, kind of fleshed out, but it's all right here, right? And we sometimes disconnect verse 19, but for through the law, I died to the law, so that I might live to God.

I have been crucified with Christ. The specific content, to Bob's point, very, very important. Faith is never just a, you know, amorphous kind of a thing. Faith is specific, is trust in specific content. And in order for the life of Christ to be lived through us so that I might live to God, we have to put our faith in the content that I died on the cross. I was crucified with Christ. in order to put me out of business, so to speak, to take me offline, so it is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. If we don't have faith in that specific content, you will consistently run back to seeking to live the Christian life on basis of self, out of your own resources.

So, that's, That's it. You know, I would say that it's complicated for me. Sure. And that's easy to confuse me. You do. The process of walking by faith was discussed when Paul did that in one of his meetings. It seems like some of his disciples said, and you're saved, and you're born again, and all of this is given. Now what do we do? Paul says, well, you walk by faith just as you began. So today, walk just as you did then.

But that act of faith, if I understand what Paul's going through at all, or what I'm going through, is trusting in that it is done, that it is finished, that our position is rock solid. We can reckon it so. If we for one second drift away from the fact that it's already done, we're accepted just as we are. And each and every time we sin or do something that we know we ought not, to go back through the process of trying to get saved again and all of this, you know, what a wretched man we would be.

And that's exactly what I think Paul was saying. Just rest in it. Resting in a finished work, an accomplished work. It's the same principle at birth as it is for our walk. The content of that faith is different or additional, we could say. I have a good example of that.

I don't know. Somebody got the light switch right there? Turn that light switch off. Uh-oh. Out of faith. Out of righteousness. Lost again. Now turn it on. Boom. Boom. I'm back. That's not what He wants in our lives. That light is on forever. It will never go out. It's just in our minds that we let it go out. And that's why Paul wants us to renew our minds. Not to go get born again, or take care of sin again, all that. That's all finished. Now we're in the light. Thanks Daryl.

Bob? So Margaret always reminds me of verse 21 that follows 20 and that says, I do not frustrate the grace of God for if righteousness comes by the law, that Christ died in vain. Yeah. Yeah. That's my favorite verse. That's great. Thank you for sharing. And also here in that Romans 7 passage, Miles? Yes.

If we stop at, O wretched man that I am, But if we go on and read what God has revealed to us, who shall deliver me? Not what do I do, but who shall deliver me? I thank God it is through Jesus Christ, our Lord. The focus of the Holy Spirit is depend on the work of Christ, not on your wretchedness. Thanks, Roy.

And that's Romans 8, 9 through 10. The Spirit of God indwells us, which means that Christ indwells us by His Spirit so that His life can be lived out through us, so that He can live through us. So, Miles, I think it's important for, when we think about faith, we need to add one more word to it.

Faith, rest. That's very important. Yeah, faith is arresting. Faith is arresting in something, really someone, at what he has done, right? The finished work, in both cases. His crucifixion for our sins, so that we might be born again from the dead. our crucifixion with him on the cross so that we might be dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus. Our faith rests in that fact.

All right, we better pray. Heavenly Father, thank you for the opportunity to explore your word this morning. Perhaps I've confused some things with certain terminology and things, but Lord, I pray that you would use these things to really just cause us to wrestle with and grapple with what it is that you have for us in your son, the life that you have prepared and provided for us that we are free to rest in by faith. and that we would not depend on our own means or our own resources for the living of that life, that we would not depend on that, but that we would depend on you by your Spirit, the life that you've given us in your Son. Lord, we just pray that you would do your work in our hearts through your Word. In Jesus' name, amen.