Sunday, July 7, 2013
In this reading, did you find
anything confusing or challenging? We
have spent six weeks in Galatians, the letter the first century Christ-follower
Paul wrote to churches he planted in Asia Minor. Paul was in a battle for the hearts of the
people. Other teachers had insisted that
the whole letter of the Law of Moses be kept in order for one to be among the
people of God whether that one was Jew or Gentile. Paul responded that God had come in Jesus,
and in that coming the law was fulfilled.
Its purposes were achieved. To be
among God’s people, one had to follow Jesus, not worry about the law.
Now, toward the end of his argument,
Paul lists the works of the flesh. He
ends the catalogue of damning behavior when he says, “Those who do such things
will not inherit the Kingdom of God” (v.21).
Does it sound like Paul established a new law? He spent the entire letter hammering the
Galatians for being tempted to go back to the Law of Moses. Now in the end, he lists forbidden behaviors:
jealously, anger, dissentions, drunkenness and the like. He also lists expected behaviors, what we
call the “Fruit of the Spirit.” These
include joy, kindness, patience, gentleness, self-control, and others.
Between the “don’t do” and the “must do” lists,
the apostle says those who do what is on the “don’t do” list will not inherit
the kingdom of God. Is a legalist just
like those he attacks only with a different set of rules?
It comes down to grace. Do we live on our own power or do we live on
the power of God? That statement, that
life in the flesh will not inherit the kingdom, is at the heart of this reading
and the heart of the Gospel. We must crucify
the flesh as Paul says in verse 24. We
crucify the flesh and live in the spirit.
We die to self and in Christ are born again. How?
In one sense, we there is nothing we can do to make it happen. However, in a moment, I will offer some
thoughts that can set us up, orient us, for receiving the Spirit.
I said that the question comes down to
grace. It also comes down to
markers. The contest in Galatians is not
only salvation by faith verses salvation by works. It was about who is in and who is out. Jews did not think they were saved by keeping
the law. They didn’t need to be
saved. They were already God’s chosen
people by virtue of being Jews. The
teachers rivaling Paul in Galatians believed to be God’s people one needed to
be Jewish. To be Jewish, one had to keep
the law and be circumcised. Circumcision
and law were markers. Paul rejects these
and instead says the markers of God’s people are baptism and Spirit.
His entire point is that without the Holy
Spirit, all people will fall into the sinful nature, another ways of saying the
work of the flesh. Without the Spirit,
we cannot help but impurity, enmity, strife, and everything else he lists. The reason he says “those who do such things
will not inherit the Kingdom” is they don’t have the Spirit. The expressions of the sinful nature listed
in Galatians 5:19-21 are signs that someone has not received Jesus and is not
filled with the Holy Spirit. Only those
filled with the Holy Spirit can enter God’s Kingdom.
The two lists, the works of the flesh and the
fruit of the Spirit, are not qualifiers.
These are indicators. John
William MacGorman notes that the works of the flesh are the evidence of the
ungraced life (Broadman Bible Commentary,
1971, p. 118). We cannot earn our
way to God. Salvation is a gift of
grace. I strongly believe God holds this
gift out to all humans and some refuse to receive it. Those who do are in ungraced lives and this
will be evident in what their lives produce.
As our six-week series on grace is now in the final
message, my hope is we will live out the grace we have been given. God’s work in our lives should dramatically
change us. This is the second pillar of
our church’s foundation. We believe God
has created us to be a safe community where people meet Jesus, become new
creations in Him, and are sent out into the world to share his Gospel:
Safe-New-Sent. The second part of that,
New, means we become new beings in Christ.
We are born again.
Along these lines, we may look at Galatians 5,
and especially the Fruit of the Spirit list, and we may say, “OK, I need to do
these things. I need to look at my life
and figure out how I can love and be joyful and make peace and have patience
and exercise generosity.” We determine
that we will take our scripture and work really hard at love, joy, peace,
patience, kindness, etc. But what such
an effort accomplish? I don’t know for
sure, but if it involves me reading the Bible and then putting forth max
effort, what will be produced will not be the fruit of the Spirit. It will be the fruit of Rob. And I already know that the fruit of Rob
might have some love in it, but there is a lot that other stuff, the works of
the flesh.
Working hard at love and peace and patience and
the other manifestations of the fruit is good.
It is fine to do that. But that
is not where the graced life starts.
Remember the works of the flesh indicate who I am. If I am of the flesh, then I am living on my
own, apart from God. Hell is spending
eternity on my own, apart from God.
The fruit of the Spirit is an indicator that the
person is full of the Holy Spirit of God.
Love, joy, patience, gentleness, kindness – that is not the result of my
determined effort. Those things cannot
help but pour out when I full to the brim with the Spirit of the living
God. The key is to be full of the
Spirit.
This gets tricky because this is something we
cannot control. Similarly, in the
safe-new-sent construct, we cannot make ourselves new. We cannot renew ourselves. We cannot cause anyone to be born again. God does this. God has His own agenda. God sets the timing. We cannot push it or force it.
What then is the take-away of all the grace
talk? Do we end just hoping that we are
among those God deems to save? I don’t
think so. I think we have more to go on
than just the sense that God will save some and we might among those lucky
enough to receive grace.
I mentioned a moment ago that Paul says, “Those
who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and
desires” (Galatians 5:24). I offer a
process for how that can happen. What I
share here is based on Raymond Stamm’s comments in the volume on Galatians in
the old Interpreter’s Bible (1953,
p.570-571).
The first step is confession. We have to recognize that there is in us
either fornication or jealousy or quarrels or something else listed in
Galatians 5:19-21. I don’t think there
is a human alive that can claim innocence of all that is there. But if someone looks over it all and says, “I
am clean,” we quickly burst that bubble when we point out that this sin list is
representative. Similar lists are found
in 1 Corinthians 5:11; 1 Corinthians 6:9-10; 2 Timothy 3:2-5; and Titus
3:9. Don’t bother going through all of
them! To be filled with the Spirit, we
must confess that without Christ, we are damned in the works of the flesh.
The second step is to put ourselves under the
control of the love of Christ. We
voluntarily subjugate ourselves. The
lists are in these passages are useful when, as a part of our spiritual practice,
the items on the lists show us the boundaries.
We strive to stay in bounds. We
also put others first. Obedience and
sacrifice are tangible ways we can know we are under the control of Jesus’
love.
A third step is emptying. We give up harmful practices – drinking,
smoking, drug use. We stop watching junk
movies. We end toxic relationships. It doesn’t mean the other person cannot be
redeemed. It just means we recognize
that with that other person both and I are headed for trouble. So, as matter of presenting myself to Jesus,
I end certain friendships. Emptying
involves rooting out all the things in our lives that are antithetical to or
opposite of the Jesus. We cannot be
filled with Spirit until we are emptied of all other things.
Fourth, we fill life up with missional,
gospel-sharing, community-building, church-strengthening activities. VBS, mission trips, small groups, worship,
potluck suppers, Bible studies – these are all examples. Stamm writes that we become “so busy in the
service of others that all flesh works die of starvation.”
Fifth, we deal with our thoughts and actually
work to change our thoughts. This is a collaborative
effort. The individual Christian (you or
me), a spiritual mentor working through conversation and feedback, and the Holy
Spirit responding to prayer cooperate to help change the mind. Of course confession is cathartic. Love discovered in submitting one’s self to
Christ begins warming the heart.
Emptying is painful, but then freeing.
Missional service activity fills the days of the individual and we think
about what we are doing. The first four
steps help us to begin changing the mind.
Also, thought prayers throughout the day draw us to the one who
helps. As the sinful nature darkens our
hearts, we (in our minds and maybe out loud) shout, “lord, help me. Draw me to you.”
Finally, the last step in crucifying the flesh
is vision. We develop a vision for
society that is based on the world’s renewal that will come Christ returns and
the Kingdom is finally, fully inaugurated.
This essentially means we develop a Christ-centered, Gospel
worldview.
What part does each one of us play in crucifying
the flesh so that we will be filled with the spirit? We confess, submit ourselves to Christ, empty
ourselves ridding ourselves of all that is harmful, fill our time with
missional activity, change our thoughts, and develop a Christian
worldview. That is it. That’s all we can do. Then we have to trust that God will give us
His grace.
He will.
Recall that Paul began the letter saying “Grace and peace to you from
God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ who gave himself for our sins to set
us free from the present evil age, according to the will of our God and Father”
(1:3-4). Through Jesus, God is the giver
of grace who offers salvation to all who come to Him in repentance. The produce of grace, the fruit of the
Spirit, is the sign of an individual and of a people who are have been born
again.
Paul’s own journey ended with him under house
arrest in Rome. The Bible does not
record how things went after he arrived in Rome under guard, nor does the Bible
tells us about his death. But from his
writings we know he was as confident as anyone has ever been of anything when
he wrote about God’s grace and we can be too.
God’s plan was to save the world from sin and death through the
crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus.
God wants you to be part of that plan.
If you have not done so before now, turn to God in faith by confessing
your sin and receiving Jesus as your Lord.
If you have, then this week pray about these steps toward becoming
Spirit-filled so that when others look to your life they will see the Fruit of
the Spirit, the produce of Grace.
AMEN
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