The believer hopes that through our faith in Jesus we have been saved and will one day be with God in Heaven for eternity. Wrongs will be made right. We have been adopted into God's family and set free from death.
So why isn’t life easy? What do we get out of Salvation now? If we follow God, we get the blessings of walking in the spirit instead of the curse of walking in the flesh.
Galatians 5:16-21 "But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. 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, to keep you from doing the things you want to do. But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law. Now the works of the flesh are evident: sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these. I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God."
Such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.
These sins are not the law. They are sins. The spirit is opposed to them.
The author of Psalm 119:151-152 in his time of struggle goes to the law ”But you are near, O Lord, and all your commandments are true. Long have I known from your testimonies that you have founded them forever.” In times of trial, God does not change to fit what is popular. The psalmist knows the Bible is God's word, and we can put our faith in it.
Galatians 5:22-24 "But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law. And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires."
Fruits of the Spirit are not against or opposed to the law. Walking in the Spirit means gaining the Fruits of the Spirit instead of what the flesh produces through sin. The desires that go against God’s law, passion, and desires have been crucified. Christians are no longer under the law because they don’t want to sin but want to do what pleases God. The law points out what sin is.
Wham! You get a new heart and you want to do what God wants.
Young parents let their kids run around the home, jumping on furniture, getting food for themselves at any time, or repeatedly running in and out of the house. Come to our house and start jumping on the furniture is a no. The kids will have a tough time until they begin to behave. Eventually, they want to behave because they like being at our house. They don’t have to think about it anymore. The rule doesn’t even apply to them any longer, they do it because they want to please us. Their hearts have been changed.
The law points out sin– Jesus set us free from being in the flesh, and he breaks our chains.
1 John 5:1-5 “Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ has been born of God, and everyone who loves the Father loves whoever has been born of him. By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God and obey his commandments. For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments. And his commandments are not burdensome. For everyone who has been born of God overcomes the world. And this is the victory that has overcome the world—our faith. Who is it that overcomes the world except the one who believes that Jesus is the Son of God?”
We are keeping God’s commandments, which are not burdensome because we want to do them. We gain blessings from the fruits of the spirit instead of sins and death. We are no longer disobedient children in our sins.
The Holy Spirit convicts the flesh through the law. Once sinful behavior is put off, and righteous behavior is put on there is no law that the Christian is under. This is not burdensome, this is agreeing with scripture and overcoming the world.
All problems have a spiritual element.
Answers to all spiritual problems are in the Bible. All problems have a spiritual element.
Addiction, health issues, financial issues, anger, work environment.
Walk in the flesh or the spirit, they are opposed to each other.
The law points out sin, and Jesus sets us free from sin, breaks our chains of bondage to it, and we can live as God intended.
Does it mean we never sin? No. Those kids who wanted to be at our house might get caught up in playing and forget they want to please us, but then the rule applies. Only when we live to please God are we walking in the Spirit. This is having faith in God, the way to be with God forever.
Jesus talks about this as recorded in Luke 10:25-28 “And behold, a lawyer stood up to put him to the test, saying, ‘Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?’ He said to him, ‘What is written in the Law? How do you read it?’ And he answered, ‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind, and your neighbor as yourself.’ And he said to him, ‘You have answered correctly; do this, and you will live.’”
So how does walking in the spirit apply practically to following the law? We know the category must be: love God and love neighbor; honoring your neighbor who was made in God’s image is loving God. Is walking in the spirit mean praying about your problems and they go away? No, it is about getting the flesh out. Apply this to scripture.
Exodus 20:1-6
1 And God spoke all these words, saying,
2 “I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery.
3 “You shall have no other gods before me.
Love God with heart, soul, and mind. How do you spend your time? Is Netflix, TickTock, Work, or your relaxing time, is it done to glorify God? Walking in the spirit or the flesh?
4 “You shall not make for yourself a carved image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. 5 You shall not bow down to them or serve them, for I the Lord your God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and the fourth generation of those who hate me, 6 but showing steadfast love to thousands of those who love me and keep my commandments.
Statues or pictures. There is a difference between being reminded of an idea (Jesus carrying a lamb or holding hands with a child) and feeling the picture is looking down on you or blessing you. I am not sure how Catholics ignore or rationalize this one.
Note in v6 this is the same thing John quotes Jesus as saying in John 14:15-17,
“15 “If you love me, you will keep my commandments. 16 And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Helper, to be with you forever, 17 even the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, for he dwells with you and will be in you.”
This is exactly what this post is about, keeping God’s commands by living by the spirit.
Exodus 20:7-21
7 “You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain, for the Lord will not hold him guiltless who takes his name in vain.
In the Complete Jewish Bible translation it says to use the name lightly. Love God. Fear God, the creator of the universe, and show belief in who he is. Using it lightly is against the spirit and for the flesh. You shouldn’t want to use His name lightly.
8 “Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. 9 Six days you shall labor, and do all your work, 10 but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God. On it you shall not do any work, you, or your son, or your daughter, your male servant, or your female servant, or your livestock, or the sojourner who is within your gates. 11 For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested on the seventh day. Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy.
When was this changed, is keeping it on Sunday OK? Now when we apply the things in scripture as a foreshadowing of things to come how does this command sit? The Sabbath day is to be remembered and it was made Holy because God blessed it. Is it less Holy now, or is it inconvenient to rest on the Sabbath? Following a man-made tradition is following the flesh.
12 “Honor your father and your mother, that your days may be long in the land that the Lord your God is giving you.
This doesn’t mean you are under your parents' control as adults. Do you help your parents when they need it? Do you ignore them or discredit them? By honoring your parents you honor your neighbor and you honor God.
13 “You shall not murder.
This might seem easy for us. If we follow it because of the rule, we are not getting it. This is legalistic. There was a Christian family of in-laws that I knew. Their young daughter was taken advantage of by her father. The man’s in-laws sat around their dinner table, making plans to kill him. How many of us would be in agreement sitting around that dinner table? Following the command is how we show love for God.
14 “You shall not commit adultery.
Religious leaders are always in the news for infidelity, and Christian marriages fail because of this. Why? When temptation comes, it is treated as a rule, a burden, and are not living in the spirit. This is why Christ said his people shouldn’t be thinking about it.
15 “You shall not steal.
16 “You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.
17 “You shall not covet your neighbor's house; you shall not covet your neighbor's wife, or his male servant, or his female servant, or his ox, or his donkey, or anything that is your neighbor's.”
18 Now when all the people saw the thunder and the flashes of lightning and the sound of the trumpet and the mountain smoking, the people were afraid[d] and trembled, and they stood far off 19 and said to Moses, “You speak to us, and we will listen; but do not let God speak to us, lest we die.” 20 Moses said to the people, “Do not fear, for God has come to test you, that the fear of him may be before you, that you may not sin.” 21 The people stood far off, while Moses drew near to the thick darkness where God was.
The people of Israel feared God (which was good) and understood their need for a mediator. Our mediator is Christ. When we find God’s commands that we want to dismiss as irrelevant, that is our flesh talking which is in opposition to the spirit.
Whatever we do should glorify God. Living by the spirit leads to good fruit; we live the law because the Holy Spirit is inside us. Fruits of the Spirit are an incredible blessing. Living in the flesh is miserable.
If you love God, keep his commandments by living in the spirit. Pray for discernment and read about his commandments in the Bible so the flesh can be pointed out and crucified.
Let's grow to be more like Christ as we go into the world. Let us pray Psalm 86: 11-13,
“Teach me your way, O Lord,
that I may walk in your truth;
unite my heart to fear your name.
I give thanks to you, O Lord my God, with my whole heart,
and I will glorify your name forever.
For great is your steadfast love toward me;
you have delivered my soul from the depths of Sheol.”
AMEN
The Lord bless you and keep you; the Lord make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you; the Lord lift his countenance upon you and give you peace.
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