Notes for
Galatians-5
Spirit Vs. Flesh
I. Review.
The book of Galatians, like most New Testament letters, was written to help you grow in your relationship with Jesus.
Jewish believers came to the non-Jewish believers and told them that to be saved, they had to be circumcised just like the Jews did in the Old Testament.
This book talks about one of the most foundational truths of the Bible: that there are two different ways to live life, God’s way and our way. The tree of life, or the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.
Deuteronomy 30:19 “This day I call the heavens and the earth as witnesses against you that I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses. Now choose life, so that you and your children may live”
Chapter two we talked about how to stay in the tree of life and not constantly be swinging between these two trees.
The key to staying in the tree of life is living a crucified life.
Chapter three we talked about the grace of God.
Chapter four we talked about how you are a son of God, not His slave. Which is super important because God doesn’t want a religion; He wants a relationship with you.
Today, we are in chapter five, and it has two major sections.
We’re going to go through them and talk about them, paul has alot to say in this single chapter and we’ll do our best to really tap into it.
Galatians 5:1-9, 13 It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery.
2Mark my words! I, Paul, tell you that if you let yourselves be circumcised, Christ will be of no value to you at all. 3Again I declare to every man who lets himself be circumcised that he is obligated to obey the whole law. 4You who are trying to be justified by the law have been alienated from Christ; you have fallen away from grace. 5For through the Spirit we eagerly await by faith the righteousness for which we hope. 6For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision has any value. The only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love.
7You were running a good race. Who cut in on you to keep you from obeying the truth? 8That kind of persuasion does not come from the one who calls you. 9“A little yeast works through the whole batch of dough.” You, my brothers and sisters, were called to be free. But do not use your freedom to indulge the flesh; rather, serve one another humbly in love.
Ephesians 2:8-9 “For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith- and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God- not by works, so that no one can boast.”
How is it that we were born with sinful passions and desires?
When we were born on this planet, we were born in Satan’s kingdom and our nature was a sinful one. Think about in Genesis when adam and eve hand over dominion of earth to satan, and again when he references that fact when tempting Jesus that he owns everything.
Ephesians 2:1-5 As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins, in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient. All of us also lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our flesh and following its desires and thoughts. Like the rest, we were by nature deserving of wrath. But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions—it is by grace you have been saved.
Romans 3:23
Romans 6:23
2 Corinthians 5:17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation: The old has gone, the new is here!
*What changed? Your body? (No! Still looks the same). Your mind? (No! you still remember your name and address). Your spirit on the inside changed.
Two things happen inside us when we receive Christ:
1. My spiritual nature on the inside changes.
2. And I have the ability to say “No” to sin and temptation.
Titus 2:11-12 For the grace of God has appeared that offers salvation to all people. It teaches us to say “No” to ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright and godly lives in this present age.
Galatians 5:1 It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery.
*Before Christ, I was a slave of sin- I couldn’t stop even if I wanted. But because of Christ in me, I can now say “No” to any sin or temptation.
Galatians 5:13 You, my brothers and sisters, were called to be free. But do not use your freedom to indulge the flesh; rather, serve one another humbly in love.
Galatians 5:16-25 For the flesh desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the flesh. They are in conflict with each other, so that you are not to do whatever you want. But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law.
The acts of the flesh are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery; idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions and 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.
But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law. Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit. Let us not become conceited, provoking and envying each other.
Now when the Bible talks about your flesh it obviously doesn’t refer to your skin, it refers to the sinful passions and desires that you were born with.
Galatians 5:24 Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.
What are the acts of the flesh? Because in reading it, it’s easy to think well I don’t do any of those things, but lets look at that list again.
Galatians 5:19-21 (NIV) The acts of the flesh are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery; idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions and 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.
Galatians 5:19-21 NLV The things your sinful old self wants to do are: sex sins, sinful desires, wild living, worshiping false gods, witchcraft, hating, fighting, being jealous, being angry, arguing, dividing into little groups and thinking the other groups are wrong, false teaching, wanting something someone else has, killing other people, using strong drink, wild parties, and all things like these. I told you before and I am telling you again that those who do these things will have no place in the kingdom of God.
Galatians 5:19-21 MSG It is obvious what kind of life develops out of trying to get your own way all the time: repetitive, loveless, cheap sex; a stinking accumulation of mental and emotional garbage; frenzied and joyless grabs for happiness; trinket gods; magic-show religion; paranoid loneliness; cutthroat competition; all-consuming-yet-never-satisfied wants; a brutal temper; an impotence to love or be loved; divided homes and divided lives; small-minded and lopsided pursuits; the vicious habit of depersonalizing everyone into a rival; uncontrolled and uncontrollable addictions; ugly parodies of community. (who remembers the church of beyonce in california or maybe you’ve heard of the church of satan) I could go on.
Two notes about the works of our flesh:
1. Some Christians blame any work of our flesh on the devil (the devil made me do it): demon of lust, demon of jealousy, demon of this demon of that.
You can’t cast out your flesh! You have to crucify it!
2. The works of the flesh is the fruit of living in the wrong tree, the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.
You can be a Christian and still have your thinking and actions twisted by the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.
One Thing to Know: There is another way to live: there is the tree of life and it gives us different fruit in our life.
Galatians 5:16 So I say, live by the Holy Spirit’s power. Then you will not do what your desires controlled by sin want you to do.
Now that you are in Christ, and God’s Spirit lives inside you, you now have the ability to live from a different list of actions. You are no longer bound to live by the works of your flesh. There is another list of actions that begins to operate inside you because of God’s Spirit being in you:
Galatians 5:22-23 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law.
Now, because of God’s Spirit inside me, I have a choice as to how I live. Notice, the Apostle Paul tells us that we are now free from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil and we can live in a different way, serving one another in love. Love is the fruit of the other tree.
I Peter 4:8 Above all, love each other deeply, because love covers over a multitude of sins.
Romans 12:19-21 Do not take revenge, my dear friends… On the contrary: “If your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him something to drink. In doing this, you will heap burning coals on his head.” Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.
How do we tap into the fruit of the Spirit?
Galatians 5:24-25 Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. Since we live by the Spirit, let us also walk by the Spirit.
Paul gives us two steps to having the fruit of the Spirit in our lives.
1. Step One: crucify the flesh daily.
The secret to crucifying your flesh is to go to God and ask Him to help you.
Galatians 2:20 I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God
When I wake up in the morning and start your day with God, that is living by faith, faith that God in me will rise up and help me to live by the Spirit.
2. Step Two: One Thing to Do: Spend time with God.
Galatians 2:25 Since we live by the Spirit, let us also walk by the Spirit.
John 15:4 Remain in me, as I also remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me.
The more time you spend in God’s presence, the more fruit of the Spirit will be in your life.
Acts 4:13 When they saw the courage of Peter and John and realized that they were unschooled, ordinary men, they were astonished and they took note that these men had been with Jesus.
Can people tell that you have spent any time with Jesus?
When we spend time with God, He rubs off on us.
when Adam and Eve lived by the tree of life, they walked with God every morning. You cannot live in the tree of life and not spend any time with God.
Fruit grows naturally, what that fruit is depends on the tree you’re connected to. Expand on
Deuteronomy 30:19 “This day I call the heavens and the earth as witnesses against you that I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses. Now choose life, so that you and your children may live”
