Live in the Spirit

Let's, as usual, take a look at where we were last week. So we tried to make a strong case that the fruit of the Holy Spirit is not a list of attributes, but it's a life of the Lord Jesus Christ which is lit out in the believer. And ultimately, I think examples of love, joy, peace, long-suffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control can be given in Scripture. We can find examples of this from our Savior and also from some of the apostles and disciples throughout Scripture. But how do we respond to that?

And I think Miles said it beautifully yesterday in None But the Hungry Heart. He said, our Father is going to teach us mainly through personal failure that the life we live is the life of our Lord Jesus alone. The Christian life is not our living a life like Christ or our trying to be Christ-like, nor is Christ giving us the power to live a life like this and like his, but it is Christ himself living his own life through us and no longer I but Christ. So that's kind of interesting because so often none but the hungry heart really relates to kind of the topic we're addressing here in the class.

So that's kind of a brief succinct summary of last week and I don't know that we really need to read the verses but let's just not read the entire text but let's read maybe verses 22 down to the end. So Galatians 5, 22 to the end of the chapter. But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, gladness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control, and against such there is no law. And those who are Christ have crucified the flesh with the passions and desires. If we live in the spirit, let us also walk in the spirit. Let us not become conceited, provoking one another, or envying one another. So that's the text for us today. All right.

Galatians 5.24. And those who are Christ have crucified the flesh with his passions and desires. Really? Have we, believers, crucified the flesh as passions and desires? Remember the long list. We didn't go back and read the list today. I think Andrew put up a list of hundreds of shortcomings that relate to the flesh, right? So did we, in fact, crucify The flesh? I don't think so.

So let's look first of all at the passions, which is panthema, which is a propensity, a fleshly kind of behavior, and it's considered in scripture as passive. So these passions are things that exist as part of the flesh. But those things that are listed here as desires is a term called epithyma, which is a more active, you know, action to gratify the passions that exist within each one of us. which is kind of interesting, passions and desires in terms of the tense in which they're reflected in scripture is passive and then active. So this comes up and I think relates to everything that's a part of the flesh. The passions that are part of the flesh and the desires to act on them, which is a more present and active path that we all unfortunately choose too often.

But I thought it was the Lord Jesus Christ who did this. What's this issue about we, in fact, and those who are Christ have crucified the flesh. Did we do that on our own? Well, not really. But the verb crucified is aorist, active, indicative. What do we make of that?

Isn't he pointing back to one of my favorite verses in chapter 6 of Romans? It says, knowing this, their old self was crucified with him, and so on. The body's sin might be... It seems like that's almost a parallel verse to this statement. Well, I think Roger's on the right track. How could we reconcile this dilemma about that we, in fact, have crucified the flesh? Well, it's all based on positional truth. And Roger hit the nail on the head. This is all Romans 6 truth. In fact, we're in Romans 7 now in the auditorium. But nevertheless, let's look at how true this really is.

Lord, do you not know that many of us were baptized that the Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? Therefore, we were buried with him through baptism unto death, and that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life. For if we've been united together in the likeness of his death, certainly we also shall be in the likeness of his resurrection. Knowing this, that our old man was crucified with him, that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves of sin, for he who has died has been freed from sin.

So that's all positional truth. And as I so often remind myself and to you in my teaching, Lord willing, is that the position is where our condition follows. And you know, Paul's already addressed this with the Galatians, hasn't he? Galatians 2, 19 and 20, for I through the law am dead to the law, that I might live to God. And I've been crucified with Christ. It's no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And that life which I live, I now live in the flesh. I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me. I think verse 19 we often kind of ignore, and Margaret's favorite verse is 21. What's verse 21? Anybody want to read 221? Does somebody know it? Margaret, do you have it memorized? I can read it.

I do not nullify the grace of God, for if righteousness comes through the law, then Christ died needless. Is that not the theme of the whole book, Thanks Father? That's really the theme, is it not? If Christ died, you know, because of the law, then he's just, you know, Justify the law that he died in vain his death was empty and not worth anything all right, so Now we get into some of the challenging aspects of the next couple of verses particularly verse this first But also the next one if we live in the spirit Let us also walk in the spirit you know almost every translation has if But sense is so much more accurate scripturally here, and the NIV, not a version I usually read, has sense.

Let's think a little bit more about that. This is so important that I turned to artificial intelligence to help me answer it. Yeah, it's come to that. So anyway, let's see what AI said. The original Greek text uses the word ei, which translates if. Many translations interpret it as if, suggesting a conditional statement. Some verses may imply since, indicating a more definitive statement. if aligns with the idea of living by the spirit as a choice. The debate highlights the nuances of translation and interpretation in biblical text. Ultimately both interpretations can convey important theological implications and I'm going to suggest that the NIB is correct that sense is by far the most accurate and reflects the positional truth by which the walk follows.

It's a life not a choice. So let's look at this a little bit. We live in the spirit, present active indicative. We are living right now. This is a fact and therefore support since. We live in the spirit because we're positioned in the spirit. Are we not? Those who are saved have the Holy Spirit. So since we live in the spirit, rather than if.

You know, if we use an if, we question our position. And that's all. If you use if, then it kind of goes back to question everything. Well, really, are we saved? Am I saved? Or am I really positionally where I should be? Or I mean, gosh, that could change your whole view of being saved. Other thoughts?

This is a first-class conditional, I think, unequivocally. And why most versions have if, I don't know, but they do. Yes, Jim. I question that, because the Greek is very specific, and Paul wasn't writing it as a question, as a conditional. It's like Burns says, If this is true and it is true, then it's a logical reasoning thing. I would call this a logical imperative. That's it. In context, it's a logical imperative.

You can change it to sense if you want, but that's not what the Greek is really actually saying. So you're thinking it's conditional? It's not conditional. It's Paul's ideological argument here. He says, like Vern says, it's a logical imperative. If this is true, then this is true. And it is true. He's talking to Christians here. He's not talking to non-Christians. He's doing this by the Spirit. He's not questioning that.

So why wouldn't you then accept sense as a better translation? Because it's not accurate to the Greek. I want to stay accurate to the Greek. You just have to understand that Paul is just using a logical argument. He's not questioning whether you're doing it in the Spirit or not. He's using a logical reasoning argument here. But it can cause problems. If you want to go the easy route, sense is accurate. But it is not accurate to the Greek. You understand what Paul is saying here. And to really convey what Paul is saying here, sense is more accurate. But if you want to stay true to the Greek, if is more accurate.

Well, the tense is subjunctive, which can be interpreted either way, and I think this comes up a lot in terms of interpretation of if, whether since is better or whether if is better. I think, from what you're saying, you're supporting if as the translation, but you agree with the concept since. Yes, exactly.

Okay, we can leave it at that. So, because we live, we have the Holy Spirit indwelling us, then we should walk as if the Holy Spirit is in fact and he is part of our lives. So once saved, the Holy Spirit may have the ability to walk in someone by faith. By the way, this is an act of faith.

We're not saying that this is a set of rules. We've already dismissed the set of rules. We've already said the fruit of the Spirit is Christ's life, right? We're not looking at the various attributes of what the fruit looks like. We're looking at the life. So since we're alive in the Spirit, we need to walk. And so that raises the question, what does it mean to walk in the Spirit? Say Bob? Yes, Bob. I was hoping you'd say something. I'm very reluctant.

Is there a difference between being indwelt by the Spirit and walking by the Spirit? I think this first would suggest there is, yes. It sounds to me like we've been talking about the two are identical. No, they're not. At least that would be what scripture tells us. I think I'm going to evolve that here. Being indwelt by the Spirit isn't necessarily walking by the Spirit. Boy, we could show multiple examples of that. I think the verses themselves reflect on that.

Isn't that more like a position? You know, you're indwelt and then walking the Spirit is the condition? Isn't indwelling permanent and walking, that's ongoing? Right, Heidi, it gets back to that very basic question which, you know, some of the neo-evangelical people kind of, the reform theology is that you can lose your salvation, right?

There are some people with that opinion. And we don't believe the scripture teaches that. So once you're indwelt by the Spirit, we live in the Spirit. We have a life that has the Spirit as part of that life. Now, walking in the Spirit is conditional. We're going to get to that now. Other thoughts? Indwelling is definitely positional. It is. But walking is more conditional. Thank you. Perfect.

So what does it mean to walk in the Spirit? Well, let us and walk are present active subjunctive. Now it's interesting because ultimately the subjunctive tense is how we talked about being indwelt with the spirit or we're living by the spirit. But the life by the spirit is a title that Roger gave us for this lesson but the life by the spirit is the fact that we're all indwelt by the spirit. Now the walk is we're called to walk by the spirit, but that is very conditional. This subjunctive I would be, Jim, interpreted if, as a true if. Now is that a choice or a life? I think we could debate that. I don't like choice.

I like a life because the fruit is a life. So we make decisions based on lots of things. I mean, God gives us an intellect. So the decision process that we make, in fact, is one in which the consequences of our decision we weigh, at least most of the time, we weigh before we make a choice. But the life of the Lord Jesus Christ really is something different than simply making a, quote, righteous choice. It's a life, in fact, where Those things that are glorifying to God show up in our lives that we don't account. It's a life.

It's not choosing to do right things. But we can't choose to not walk by the Spirit. Well, James says a lot about that. We're tempted all the time to fall short, are we not? So in a sense, a choice is involved. The subjunctive is, maybe you will, maybe you won't.

But I'm saying the Spirit-led life walks confidently in that life that's enlightened by the Holy Spirit. And the Holy Spirit allows us to, if you want to, make choices. But the life, in fact, shows up because we're magnified in our walk by the Spirit. That's what walking in the Spirit's all about.

But at the root of this, isn't it faith? I mean, choice maybe clouds the issue, but we came to the Lord by faith, and we're to walk by faith. So faith is the operation that Scripture talks about. So maybe it's better to say, It's a faith operation. You're walking by the Spirit by faith. So that way, choice isn't... I'm not sure choice is the best word either, but we can walk by faith in the Spirit or not walk by faith in the Spirit. By faith we can do something else. But faith is a key aspect of the Christian life, right? We come to the Lord by faith and we live our life by faith. So it's all a faith operation. The other words for that, you know, abiding, trusting, things like that.

That's helped me at least. I would agree with all of that, but we also need to recognize that by choice we can quench or grieve the Holy Spirit. Yeah, well the choice we make in the flesh is always that, but keep in mind, I mean, Miles is teaching about the Roman 7 experience. It's a certain non-righteous, I mean, we all fall back into the temptations that relate to the passions, if you will, of the flesh.

And that's the self-will that gets involved there. Okay, Bob? Yes, Roy? Just looking at the comparison of the Greek that Jim was talking about here, the second half here is spirit and walk, and the and in between there could easily be also, not just a conjunction of and, but also we live by the spirit, by the Spirit also we may, because it's subjunction, we may walk.

Right. That's a pretty literal rendering, I think, of the text. Right. Yeah. Yeah, Roy, the New American Standard has also, in this text, let us also walk by the Spirit. Well, it's more of a potential than it is a claim. Yeah, I hear you. That's good. We don't like the idea that we must do it like a command.

No, it's a, we now are free to be led by the Spirit now. Well, I like the idea that we covered earlier, earlier verses, that the Spirit is leading us and we're walking. It's a joint operation. He's leading us. Right. He's constantly leading and we're walking. Right, there's a following there, isn't there? Exactly, exactly.

So the question I'm asking here is that to walk in the Spirit, we may or may not be walking in the Spirit. But we live in the Spirit because we're positionally placed and have the Holy Spirit. The logical conclusion is that since we're alive, let us walk in the Spirit. That's the thing here. So the term walking comes from the Greek term stokio which means to walk in a straight line or conduct your life rightly and in context spiritually and walk it kind of comes from a military term in terms of a very kind of, if you will, rigid life, but I hope we're not all thinking of our lives as rigidly controlled, because that has kind of a legal implication.

The Holy Spirit leads us by belief into a life that reflects the Lord Jesus Christ. I also saw a translation, it says orderly, walk orderly, which I like. Or fellowship, uh-huh. Yeah, fellowship, that's good. We don't walk haphazardly, you know, so to speak. Well, we walk by faith. We walk by faith, exactly.

We says, here we have the free will of the Christian and is responsible to live the highest type of Christian life and the grace of God which will make that possible. I mean that's very succinct. And this grace is manifested by the Holy Spirit in the new life we have in Christ Jesus. And that gets back to the fruit of the Spirit. This is a life, not a list of things that we're ultimately achieving as we work harder at them. Galatians 516, I say then walk in the spirit and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh. So we walk by faith.

And ultimately I think there are other people who say something about this. J.F. and B. say that life by or for or in the spirit is not an occasional influence of the spirit but an abiding state where we are continually alive though sometimes sleeping and inactive.

I thought that was kind of an interesting... real-time parallel of this verse's interpretation. What do you think he means by sleepy Norden actors? I think that's when we're not walking in the spirit. I think that's jargon. That's a metaphor that may be argued with. Would that mean that we're walking by our own flesh?

I think so. I think he's being very polite and using flowery language. He uses flower in the verse, or in the statement, but anyway. That's a learned thing, isn't it? That comes from the trials in our life. He teaches us. If we're sleeping, probably there's going to be another trial that comes along and wakes us up, don't you think? Miles just said that yesterday. We grow by trials, don't we? That's part of the walk in faith that we all have. We can all share personally what those trials have been, and they're so individualistic. But to think to come to be saved and you have a walk in glory and nothing negative happens from an earthly experience is wrong.

That's a gnosis and epi-gnosis type of thing, isn't it? A true knowledge. The most involved that we can be in terms of the impact of the Lord Jesus Christ. Meyer says, as Jesus is more and more formed in us, the new flower and fruitage of the risen life will appear, while the corrupt works of the flesh will shrink and drop away.

I think there's some truth to that too. So all these commentators have reflected on the same thing. I think the walk can be variable, can be very conditional, and relates to the old nature that we all have. And then I turn to Romans 8, 2 and 4, which talks about the Holy Spirit, and I'm sure in the weeks to come we're going to be getting into Romans 8. Let me read this.

For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and death. For what the law could not do, and that it was weak through the flesh, God did by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, on account of sin. He condemned sin in the flesh, that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the spirit.

May scripture says it beautifully. And all our commentation could be falling short. from what scripture itself says to really support the fact that the walk is by faith. All right, so the last verse in chapter 5, let us not become conceited, provoking one another and envying one another.

Why do you think Paul brings this up here? I mean, he lifts us up and talks about the fact that we have the law behind us, we have the fruit of the Spirit manifesting the life of the Lord Jesus Christ, and we're challenged and called to walk by faith in the Spirit. Now he brings up these negatives. Why?

Isn't this verse what all of chapter 6 is going to be all about? Well, yes. I think it illustrates the opposite of grace. It has everything to do with us trying to do it ourselves. Yeah, Bob, you're right on. I think I'm going to close the lesson with that thought. Let's go ahead and finish.

The lesson though, let us not become as a present middle or passive deponent. Don't get confused. That's mostly active. Let us not. We're actively engaged in this. We can be or we are not to be conceded. It's possibly we could be conceded. But in fact, we at times can be conceded. What does become conceded mean?

Well, it's also defined in the Greek as the, I think this is what Strong says, it's desires of vain glory. What's vain glory? Yeah, prideful. Yeah, being prideful, look at me. It basically could be defined as pride, couldn't it? No, Margaret, look at me. I'd rather look at Margaret, thank you. You've got to get that straight there, Bob. All right. And so let us cease trying to bring vainglory onto ourselves.

I mean, the thing is, what does the world reward? I mean, God reminds me of this a lot. asked to go to Barcelona to give a talk. I mean, should I get conceited about that? No. I mean, God has me operating in a particular environment worldwide where in fact that's part of my world responsibility. But the life of Christ goes with me. I mean, the point is that, but anyway, you got to not take too much of yourself. And I'm reminded of that all the time. So it's something that the flesh likes to do, doesn't it? Likes to be rewarded and uplifted. And Paul cautions us about that. Roy, go ahead.

Well, I think we're sort of talking personal here, and I agree with that. But the Greek actually has we. And if you put that in your emphasis, which is what's here, along with the allos, one another of the same kind, then we're talking about we as a group and other groups of the same kind being conceited and provoking group to group. and envy group to group. Don't we do that in our denominations and in our churches as a group? We do that. We get conceited.

We're better than you. Well, my next bullet point says, is this intended to be directed to the church? I think it probably is, mostly directed to we and us. That was the next point I was going to make Roy, so this is good. Do you think so or can it be personalized also? Well I think both are true, but you can't say we. If we are projecting that to non-believers, then that's the It is. What kind of a message is that?

It's not a good witness. No, it's not a good witness. But in context, as if it's within the body, then I think it has a lot of meaning to the Galatian Church, right? And I think if they were having problems with distinguishing grace from law, which is clearly a problem they were having, this could really be very applicable to the Galatian Church. So, do we always recognize this? I don't think so.

In James 1.4.16, but now you boasted in your ignorance, all such boasting is evil. So, I mean, whether it's in the body or even personally, as I reflected briefly, I think it's not a good thing.

First Corinthians 3.7, so then, whether he who plants is anything, nor he who waters, but God is the one who gives the increase. within the body or outside.

Provoking one another, again, if we think about the church that can occur within the body, can't it? Ultimately, again, both of these, by the way, are the only New Testament uses of these terms, being conceited or provoking. That's the only time these terms are used. And this is kind of an atmosphere of challenge here, combating one another within the church.

I think the beauty of Holly Hills is that we don't have any of this, really. I mean, we can try to dissect scripture, may have different ideas about how to best interpret it, but we don't have that kind of behavior here. And I think, praise the Lord for that. But if it's within the church, like it probably was in the church in Galatia, They get church splits and things like that, right? And here at Holly Hills, people will come and if they don't agree with us, they're out of here.

They don't hang around. It's best that way. Well, I think that's their decision for whatever reason. We hope the truth of the scripture is what turns them away. We would hope it didn't, but anyway. What we need to do is when we teach in love, truthing in love principle. And I think that when we teach the truth in arrogance and pride, even Christians get misled. We sit under pastors who teach that way.

My children have experienced it. they've expressed it to me it's god's way or no way uh... is the way that we come across and that's true but it's not truth in love well the hebrews verse i'm quoting says that roy it says that let us consider one another in order to stir up love and good works so well stated okay uh... envying one another well used now six times. It's interesting that the first two were used once only, but now envying one another is used six times. Why is this descriptor more common than the other two? You can postulate that all you want.

James 3.16, for where envy and self-seeking exist, confusion and every evil thing is also there. So this envying or thinking more of oneself or one's own opinion than someone else's is an issue. that comes up in the church and outside.

So I thought we were talking about life and walking the spear. Why does Paul bring up all these things in Acts of the Flesh? And I think we're addressing this. This is to be applied to us, we within the body, but also I think it does extend personally outside the body. And just to be reminded, I taught on this many, many weeks ago, that liberty lies between legalism and license. So the liberty we have to make decisions, if you will, is in fact one of the flesh and one of the spirit. And the spirit, by faith, leads us to things that neither could be described as legalistic or licensed to carry out other acts of the flesh. So as Bob pointed out very appropriately, this is my last bullet point.

This is an introduction to chapter 6. And here's what we says, the Galatian saints who have not been enticed away from grace by the wiles of the Judaizers, and who are therefore still living spirit-controlled lives, are exhorted to restore their brethren who have been led astray back to life under grace. And those are the first five verses of chapter 6. So, if you can imagine being in the Galatian church, Paul has given us all the doctrine, He's given us everything, and now he's saying, okay, you believers who are going along with me, here's how we need to treat those that are having a problem. So we have left the position now, and he's going to get right down to the practical aspects of how are we going to look at these people who are teaching the law, how do we act towards them? And all of Chapter 6 is going to be practical. And that relates to our elders, does it not? And all of us, actually, doesn't it? Yes.

So we can't kick... These guys that say you've got to live by the law, you just don't kick them out of the church. You bring them along with love. You don't smack them around? What did she say? Smack them around. You don't smack them around. Are we closing with that comment? Your choice. Alright, well that's the lesson today and let's close in prayer. Bob, would you close us please? Thank you, Father, for your grace. Everything that we have as believers has been provided by you. And as we consider the Galatians and even our lives in our church today, how we should treat one another, we ask this in Christ's name. Amen. Amen. Thank you.