I believe that most Christians thoroughly misunderstand Galatians 5. Over the years, I’ve heard it taught as this idea that there’s a war raging inside of a Christian: on the one side there’s the flesh, or even worse, they’ll say the sinful nature; on the other side is the Spirit of God. But the actual text itself, within its context, certainly is not saying that.
1 Stand fast therefore in the liberty by which Christ has made us free, and do not be entangled again with a yoke of bondage. 2 Indeed I, Paul, say to you that if you become circumcised, Christ will profit you nothing. 3 And I testify again to every man who becomes circumcised that he is a debtor to keep the whole law.
We see several critical pieces here. First of all, the exhortation to stand fast therefore, what’s the “therefore” there for? It’s there based on everything else that’s already established in Galatians chapters 1, 2, 3, and 4, which make the abundant case that the believer is not under law but under grace. We do not conduct our Christian life by law, but rather by God’s Grace operating through the Holy Spirit within us. Galatians chapter 3 makes it abundantly clear that the way we get into the Christian life is the way we get through the Christian life:
3 Are you so foolish? Having begun in the Spirit, are you now being made perfect by the flesh?
The clear answer is no. We began in the Spirit of God, which is God Himself, and our life is brought to its completion not by means of the flesh, our humanity without God, but rather by means of God Himself through the person of the Holy Spirit within us.
This is the liberty spoken of in Galatians 5:1. I used to think that this verse was about the Christian being freed from sin and getting entangled once again in sin. But in this context, it’s referring to the liberty being freedom from the law and living the life of the Spirit, the new life as a new creation in Christ. The whole theme of Galatians is Paul warning the Galatian Christians: don’t get back into trying to pull off your Christian life by means of your flesh through the law, but rather by faith, relying upon God’s grace operating through the Holy Spirit.
Then in verse 3, it makes it clear that anyone who becomes circumcised is a debtor to keep the whole law. I’ve heard numerous Bible teachers make the point that the central issue of Galatians was Paul’s concern that they were getting all caught up in circumcision once again. There were those of the circumcision, the Jewish people, that were making incursions into the Galatian community, but the key point of the Galatian misunderstanding was not about circumcision, but about the role of the law in the Christian life. They were putting themselves back under law. That was Paul’s point. Circumcision is a part of the law. He’s making a point that if you adhere yourself to part of the law (like circumcision), then you are bound to keep the whole law.
Most Christians get this wrong. In fact, in verse 4, he makes an even more startling statement:
4 You have become estranged from Christ, you who attempt to be justified by law; you have fallen from grace.
It’s interesting how the religious world has taken this phrase, “fallen from grace,” and made it out to be someone falling into some terrible sin when in fact the only place in all of Scripture where this phrase appears, it refers to Christians who get themselves entangled again with the law and think that they are justified before God by keeping the law. They are those who have truly fallen from Grace!
Now here is the major point of what the Holy Spirit is establishing in Galatians chapter 5 and verse 16. It says this axiomatic statement:
16 I say then: Walk in the Spirit, and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh.
This is crucial to understand, and it’s not very complicated at all. We avoid fulfilling the lust of the flesh by simply walking in the Spirit. One does not get rid of the problem of lust and falling into lustful sins by trying to suppress lustful desires and other such fleshly means, but rather by walking in the Spirit. This is analogous to how darkness is removed from a room. We do not attempt to push out the darkness; rather, we turn on the light, and that light removes the darkness. So in like fashion, as we walk in the Spirit, the darkness of fleshly lust is driven out.
Remember, please, that the Spirit is a person, not a thing, not a force like electricity, but the person of God Himself, and when it says to walk in the Spirit, we’re walking in the realm of the Holy Spirit, meaning the Word of God, the Bible, and the operation of the Holy Spirit in the believer.
Now we get into another part of Galatians 5 that regrettably so much of the church gets terribly wrong, and that is verse 17:
17 For the flesh lusts against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; and these are contrary to one another, so that you do not do the things that you wish.
Incredibly, this one verse has been used to proof-text the atrocious notion that there is a “perpetual war” within the believer. The flesh — or they’ll even go so far as to say the “sinful nature” — is warring against the Spirit. Nothing could be further from the truth! That is absolutely not what verse 17 is saying, neither in the verse itself nor in the entire context.
This is an axiomatic statement about the fact that there are two different desires. That’s what this word translated lust means in the Greek, literally “a strong desire”. One is the flesh, our humanity, and its appetites. The second is the Spirit and His strong desire as well. What this verse is trying to point out is that the desires of the Spirit run contrary to the desires and lusts of the flesh, and that’s the secret. That’s not meant to be an excuse that we’re still in bondage to sin. Nothing could be further from the truth. Certainly not a “war” between the flesh and the Spirit. There is no word “war” here in verse 17. It does not exist. Rather, it is simply saying that the strong desire of the Holy Spirit is contrary to the strong desires of the flesh. This is actually an incredibly revolutionary key to victory, not a convenient excuse to go on sinning because we believe there’s this terrible war within and we say to ourselves, “Oh boy, sometimes I win the war and sometimes I don’t. Oh well, you win some and lose some!”
Verse 18 rounds this out with:
18 But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law.
There is much said about this in Romans 8:1-16. I urge you to read those verses carefully and prayerfully.
Then in Galatians 5, we see the sharp contrast between the works of the flesh versus the fruit of the Spirit:
19 Now the works of the flesh are evident, which are: adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lewdness, 20 idolatry, sorcery, hatred, contentions, jealousies, outbursts of wrath, selfish ambitions, dissensions, heresies, 21 envy, murders, drunkenness, revelries, and the like; of which I tell you beforehand, just as I also told you in time past, that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.
Notice that the key word here is “works”. The works of the flesh. That’s all the flesh can do: work, work, work, work, work. It’s human effort, human ability, human perception, human knowledge, human wisdom, all without God. No wonder it results in such sinful disaster!
On the other hand, we see the fruit of the Spirit. Now, before we get to this wonderful list, let’s remember what the Spirit is. Again, this isn’t some sort of power source like electricity. It isn’t like the Force of Star Wars. Those are all inanimate things. No, the Spirit refers to the Holy Spirit of God, who is God Himself. So the fruit is the evidence of God Himself through the person of the Holy Spirit producing fruit, just like an apple tree produces apple fruit, a pear tree produces pear fruit, and an orange tree produces orange fruit:
22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness, self-control. Against such there is no law.
“Against such there is no law”. Indeed! That is because this is the blessed operation of God Himself working in the believer through the person of the Holy Spirit, bringing forth this fruit that everyone loves, that no one would despise except the devil, and therefore there would be no law against such wonderful things. Do get a hold of this. This is what happens as God operates in and through you, child of God!
Then we see this:
24 And those who are Christ’s have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. 25 If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit.
Again, verse 24 is so misunderstood. People think that this is about the Christian crucifying their flesh, which is a silly notion. When was the last time that you saw somebody taking hammer and nailing themselves up on the cross of crucifixion? There is a deliberate reason why it says crucified here, and that’s not a figure of speech. It refers to the cross of Christ, and as the Spirit of God has already established in Galatians 2:20:
20 I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me.
The believer has not crucified themselves with Christ, but they have been, this is in the Greek passive tense, crucified with Him. Galatians 2:20 is another prime example of how the Christian life is meant to operate: not by the flesh, but by the Spirit of God, by the life of Christ within us!
For more on this and the crucial subject of sanctification, please see my series, “Living In The Reality of Perfect Sanctification”.