Trinity 14 2020
Galatians 5:16-24
September 13, 2020
Zion Lutheran Church + Nampa, ID
We are at war. There is a struggle going on and it does no good to pretend otherwise. I’m not talking about the social unrest in our country, nor the politics, nor what to do about COVID. No, the war that I’m referring to isn’t one that is being waged out there, but the one that is being raged in here. In the Epistle, St. Paul shows the great battlefield of the soul, where the Kingdom of the Spirit and the kingdom of the flesh, the Kingdom of Grace and the ungodly kingdom of sin are locked in battle. Two opposing forces are active and doing battle, and as a Christian, you are caught up in that struggle.
St. Paul describes the flesh as distinct from the Spirit who guides us Christians. The flesh is our human nature, which is ours by natural birth. The spirit is the Spirit of God, which is our by the birth of holy baptism. Paul writes, "But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not carry out the desire of the flesh. For the flesh sets its desire against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; for these are in opposition to one another, so that you may not do the things that you please. But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the Law." Paul says we cannot simply do as we please. On the one hand, we are not free to do evil, because we are the adopted children of the Holy One. Evil is contrary to who we are. On the other hand, because the sinful man still clings to us, we are not able freely to follow what is holy, because our flesh resists and fights us every inch of the way.
One of the ways the Apostle distinguishes between the two is to refer to the "works" of the flesh in contrast to the "fruit" of the Spirit. Paul here encourages us toward good works and bearing the fruits of faith. God seriously wants Christians to avoid the desires of the flesh, if we want to remain in the Spirit. This also shows where Christians obtain strength so that we can resist the desires of the flesh. We have received the Spirit through faith and know we have a gracious God.
Resist and do not follow the desires of the flesh so that you do not provoke God to anger. You want what is evil, and you know what is good. Your behavior represents a decided break from the non-Christian, flesh-driven worldliness. Avoid these evil things that are listed here in our text. Keep away from them. Don’t play around with this stuff, guard your soul. They are not befitting of a Christian, nor of the sanctified life in which the Spirit works.
Every Christian is like a tree planted by the Holy Spirit to bear good fruit. When your Lord Jesus baptized you, His word was sown like a seed. That seed shall root, nourished by the Word and Sacrament, to produce the fruit of faith. The Holy Spirit grows this seed.
But we also see the opposition. The Christian life is not easy. Walking by the Spirit has its difficulties, its challenges, and temptations to sin come. What the flesh desires is opposed to the Spirit to prevent you from doing what you want, that is what you want to do according to the Spirit. As a Christian, you still sin but you will not live your lives looking back to the desires of the flesh. The Christian walk is always directed forward, under the shadow of the cross, and facing the dawning of the new creation at the return of Christ. Even though you may still feel weakness in this struggle, the Law cannot condemn you because through faith you are and remain in Christ.
As a Christian you have a power available to you in your ongoing personal struggle that is not accessible through observing the Law, but is one by grace given in the Spirit. God’s Spirit neutralizes the flesh’s attack. Paul does not envision walking by the Spirit as an act of your willpower. This fruit of the Spirit grows from Jesus, but it is first and foremost fruits by Jesus. He perfectly does the good and rejects the evil. The solution isn’t just for you to “stop it.” That is just piling up more Law for us to try to do in order to be good. The solution is that Christ has put a stop to it. He died upon the cross to put an end to such things. That happens only through repentance and faith in Christ. By the blood of Jesus, enmity, division between God and man is reconciled. Because of that, enmity between one another is as well. For Jesus’ sake, we are freed from the burdens of jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, division, envy and the like. Because you, who have been baptized, belong to Christ. You have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. Baptism entails a daily crucifixion, a daily putting to death of the sinful flesh so that we have peace with God and with one another.
Foster a love for the fruit of the Spirit. Taste its sweetness in your lives, the love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. Pursue these things, for they are the work of Christ in your lives, the fruit of His Spirit working upon you and through You by His means of grace. He works love, because God is love. The joy arises from knowing your redemption, your salvation, the promises of God which are a fulfilled in Christ. Peace comes from a right relationship with God, forgiven of our sins, reconciled to the Father through His Son. We have patience because we know the outcome of this war, that we have victory in Christ and so we wait for the final consummation of all things. While we wait, kindness and goodness are shared with our neighbor because God is kind and gracious and good. He is so good that we overflow with His goodness when He dwells within us. God is faithful and just, and so, when the Spirit works faith in us, He also works faithfulness in our lives. The gentleness and self-control flow out of all the things that the Spirit works in us. We are gentle and controlled because we have nothing to be violent about. God is in charge. God in Christ has, and will provide.
Walk by the Spirit, or in other words, through faith in Jesus live your lives by the Holy Spirit’s power and leading. Do not gratify the desires of your flesh, but reap the sweet harvest of Christ’s work in your lives as beloved children of God, crucified with Him, forgiven, strengthened, and preserved unto live everlasting. The good work of God that he has begun at your baptism, may He bring to completion on the day of our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.