This week I began a series on how we as Christians are supposed to relate to God’s Law. In the last three posts we learned that the forgiveness we have in Jesus Christ frees us so that we can live a life of love; a love grounded in God that gladly overflows into a love of our neighbors. Today we are going to start looking at the goal for this love that the Holy Spirit births in our hearts. That goal is personal holiness.
In Galatians 5:13-25, Paul tells us the goal of the freedom we have been given in Christ.
13You, my brothers, were called to be free. But do not use your freedom to indulge the sinful nature; rather, serve one another in love. 14The entire law is summed up in a single command: “Love your neighbor as yourself.” 15If you keep on biting and devouring each other, watch out or you will be destroyed by each other.
16So I say, live by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the sinful nature. 17For the sinful nature desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the sinful nature. They are in conflict with each other, so that you do not do what you want. 18But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under law.
19The acts of the sinful nature are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery; 20idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions 21and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like. I warn you, as I did before, that those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God.
22But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law. 24Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the sinful nature with its passions and desires. 25Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit.
Verses 13-14 reinforce the message that we were freed by Christ to live a life of love. We have been freed to love our neighbor as ourselves. But notice that Paul realizes that it is also possible to abuse this freedom. Some people might confuse freedom for license, and so justify any kind of behavior they want. The definition of license, when you are using the word in this moral sense, is doing whatever you want for whatever reason you want to do it. The definition of freedom, however, is being able to act out of love without external restraint. Forgiveness does not bring license. Forgiveness brings freedom, and abusing this freedom is sin.
Verse 17 says the Spirit and the flesh are in direct opposition to each other. For the sinful nature desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the sinful nature. They are in conflict with each other, so that you do not do what you want. That’s our experience isn’t it? We come to church and sing great music, and hear a great sermon, and make great commitments and promises, and then not five minutes out the door, something in us starts to fight against the commitments and promises we just made! For some reason, we have a hard time letting go of the sinful, selfish part of ourselves.
The fruits of the sinful nature are second nature to us. We don’t need taught how to be angry, selfish, jealous, or the like. If you’re a parent you know what I’m talking about. Before your kids could talk they were already experts at producing the acts of the sinful nature! Consistently producing the fruits of the Spirit takes being in God’s presence and being submitted to the work of the Holy Spirit within you.
Which leads right to Paul’s third point; in verse 24 where he says that we need to remember that being in Christ means that our sinful nature was crucified with Christ.
In the movie, The Man in the Iron Mask, Leonardo DiCaprio plays Philippe, the twin brother of Louis, the king of France. Louis was wicked and hungry for power so he had his brother Philippe thrown into prison and locked into an iron mask so no one could see his face.
Six years long years pass. Then Philippe is rescued by the Three Musketeers who plan to restore him to the throne in place of his brother. When they removed his mask, it was the first time he was able to see and feel his face in six years. He was, as you would expect, very happy and relieved to be out of prison and even more so, to be free of the mask.
But that night you see him walking in his room wearing the mask again. When one of the Musketeers, Athos, asks him why he is wearing the mask, Philippe responds, “I’ve worn it so long, I don’t feel secure without it.”
Philippe was free of the mask. Its lock was broken. It could no longer hold him, it could no longer hide his true identity, but he still put it on anyway.
We need to remember that those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the sinful nature with its passions and desires. The sinful nature is no longer part of us. It no longer imprisons us. We are free to give it up. In fact, we need to give it up. That is the purpose of our freedom in Christ; to let go of our sinful nature, and take hold of Christ who gives us new life through the Holy Spirit.
So Paul concludes in verse 25, since we live by the Spirit of Christ, it should show in our thoughts, words, and actions. Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit. The freedom we have in Jesus Christ is both a freed from and a freed for. God’s freedom is not an open ticket to act however we want. It is a freedom to become someone that we could not have become on our own.
Learning To Be Full Of Grace And Truth. 