Faith, Grace and Life by the Spirit

The letter to the Galatians part 1

The apostle Paul writes a letter to the believers in Galatia, a region in the center of present-day Turkey. A false gospel was intruding, which he earnestly warns against. He clearly sets forth the way of the true gospel and at the same time he denounces the false teaching. On the one hand, it is about the believer's spiritual life. But on the other hand, it is about the threats because every believer still has the flesh, sin, in him.
We chopped it into two pieces and this first blog is about God's Gospel for the Galatians and for us. The next blog will be about the threats of the flesh in us, which can cause us to lose our way.

• The purpose of God
• The foundation: justified and living by faith
• God's promise: the Spirit of His Son!
• Walking by the Spirit
• The fruit: becoming like the Lord Jesus
• The Cross of Christ

The purpose of God

God's purpose with the Gospel is presented right at the beginning of the letter.

"(...) our Lord Jesus Christ, Who gave Himself for our sins, that He might snatch us from the present evil world, according to the will of our God and Father."

Galatians 1:3-4

This is the point: that it is the will, the desire of God, that people would be torn out of the world - the "present evil world" - so that they would no longer be part of it. For this world is lost and under the judgment of God.

In itself, this is an important beginning in all respects, and we will also see the world's principles - the "fundamentals of the world¹ - still encounter as a threat to spiritual life.

We can say that in a few sentences and we are used to it. But let us realize that this is unimaginably great: God saving people by allowing His own Son to become man to bring reconciliation through His death. To all eternity we will honor God the Father and His Son, our Lord Jesus Christ for that!

The foundation: justified and living by faith

That Christ gave Himself for our sins must be made very personal to you as a human being so that you can agree with the following verses.

“And we too have come to believe in Christ Jesus, that we might be justified by the faith of Christ and not by works of the law."

“For I died to the law by the law, that I might live to God. I have been crucified with Christ; and no longer I live, but Christ lives in me; and inasmuch as I now live in the flesh, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself up for me.”

Galatians 2:16 and 2:19-20

Because you believe in Christ, His perfection is imputed to you and you are, as it is called, "justified" in God's sight. God now sees me as a "justifier². A righteous person is one who by faith and obedience stands in right relationship to God, not on the basis of his own merit, but by God's grace³. He says that in His Word and I have to believe that, even though if you look at yourself you may doubt that.
By faith you are justified and so you may "live for God" (2:19). You then no longer live for the world, for you have been released from it by faith, but you live for God.

Moreover, you no longer live for yourself, for "I have been crucified with Christ and no longer I live" (2:20). Christ died for you and you have been crucified with Him. That means you can no longer live for yourself. Of course you have your ordinary obligations just like any human being. That is what Paul calls "living in the flesh" (2:20) but that is no longer the highest thing in your life; that is no longer what drives you most deeply. What now drives you in your life is that the Lord Jesus Christ has become most important to your heart: 'Christ lives in me'!

The Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, gave Himself up for you because He loved you! That is an incomprehensible miracle, that He, the eternal Son of God, loved you and me - very personally - and gave Himself up out of love. It was personal love for each of us that drove Him. That miracle cannot help but bring out in our hearts re-love for Him, so that we bring Him our offerings of praise and thanks! (For more on that see here).

 God's promise: the Spirit of His Son!

But how then can we be sure that we will endure in faith and reach the end of our life's journey preserved? For that, God gives an amazing promise to anyone who has the same faith - that is also: faith trust - as Abraham. By that faith we are sons⁴ of God and we have also received the promise of the Spirit.

"(...) that we might receive the promise of the Spirit by faith."
"For you are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus."

Galatians 3:14 and 3:26

This is already special, but it becomes even more special when you read the following:

"But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, that we might have adoption as children [sons] would receive. Now, because you are children, God has the Spirit of His Son sent forth into your hearts, Who cries, Abba, Father!”

Galatians 4:4-6

We were previously slaves of the law but through Christ's work we have been adopted as sons. And as if that were not enough - or perhaps because of it - God has sent "the Spirit of His Son" into our hearts.
How incredibly great that is: the same Spirit who was in the Lord Jesus, the Son of God, has also been sent into our hearts.

It is the Spirit of His Son within us that cries out, Abba, Father! That Spirit makes us know God as our Father, so that we thank and honor Him, know Him better and learn to trust Him in everything of life. It is what Paul also taught the Romans: "(...) but you have the Spirit of adoption into children [sons] Received, through Whom we cry out: Abba, Father!" (Romans 8:15).

Walking by the Spirit

When we survey all these good gifts of God - all that He has given us in grace - the obvious thing to do is to let ourselves be guided in life by the Spirit of the Son of God sent into hearts. Paul therefore makes the call to "walk by the Spirit

"But I say, Walk by the Spirit "
"If we live by the Spirit, let us also walk by the Spirit."

Galatians 5:16 and 25

You may wonder what exactly that is. Many in Christendom interpret this as something you have to experience above all else. You get messages and experiences from the unseen world and then believe that this is the work of the Spirit of God. But I fear they are misled in this.

When Paul tells us to walk by the Spirit, based on what we have already seen above, we are saying that we are walking by the Spirit of the Son of God. It is the same Spirit who also guided Christ in His life here on earth.

We can safely assume that the Lord Jesus was constantly and in everything led by the Spirit. There are many texts that tell us something about this, but not all of them mention the Spirit separately.

In John 8 there is a conversation of the Lord with the Jews. They ask Him who He really is and then He answers as follows:

"What I say to you from the beginning. I have much to say and to judge you, but He Who sent Me is true, and What I have heard from Him, I speak to the world. They did not understand that He was speaking to them about the Father. Jesus then said to them, When ye shall have exalted the Son of man, ye shall see that it is I, and that from Myself I do nothing, but That I speak these things as My Father has taught Me. And He Who sent Me is with Me. The Father has not left Me alone, because I always do what is pleasing to Him.”

John 8:25-29

God the Father spoke to the Lord Jesus and what He heard He passed on. There was that perfect communication through the Spirit who was in Him.
Yet at the same time He was the perfect man, who also needed to be taught. This began already in the temple where, as a 12-year-old boy, He stayed in the temple to learn and be engaged in the things of His Father. Thus He grew in wisdom, in size and in grace with God and men (see Luke 2:46-52).

By the way, in this way Enoch, Noah and the Old Testament believers also "walked with God. They knew the hidden dealings with the Lord.

Read about that also on these pages:
— https://goddienen.nu/het-geloof-van-de-ouden/
— https://goddienen.nu/wandelen-naar-de-geest/ of
— https://goddienen.nu/god-dienen/wandelen-naar-de-geest/

The fruit: becoming like the Lord Jesus

The first characteristic of walking by the Spirit is that it is called "hiking. That simply means that it is not a jar of running. It is a process that takes time because it is spiritual growth and that takes time. Just as it takes time for a baby to begin to look a little grown up.

We must conclude with the result of this walking by the Spirit. That is the fruit of the Spirit:

"The fruit of the Spirit, however, is: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faith, gentleness, self-control."

Galatians 5:22

This fruit is what the Spirit will work in us, and just see how these are all characteristics of our Lord Jesus Christ. Only in this way and in this way will we show more of Him in this world. These are things we cannot obtain by keeping laws or regulations: 'The law does not address that' says Galatians 5:23.

When we try to have more love for the Lord, experience more joy or become more patient - and all those other things mentioned in the text - we will not succeed.
The only one who can and will bring that about is the Spirit of the Son of God who is within us. It is as Paul says elsewhere:

“Now the Lord is the Spirit; and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. All of us now, who with uncovered face behold the glory of the Lord as in a mirror, are changed in form according to the same image, from glory to glory, as this is wrought by the Spirit of the Lord."

2 Corinthians 3:17-18

The Cross of Christ

One might ask what is the most important thing in the life of the Lord Jesus. Paul gives the answer at the end of the letter: the cross. For the Lord Jesus had come to go to the cross to accomplish the work of redemption.

“(...) to give Himself for our sins, that He might snatch us from the present evil world according to the will of our God and Father”

Galatians 1:4

This completes the circle: the life of a Christian begins with the cross, and that cross - the work of Christ - remains the most important thing in the life of faith even after that.

When we are led by the Spirit of the Son of God, we become more like the Lord Jesus and boast only of the cross of Christ. Then it becomes apparent that we are a new creation:

"But I will by no means boast of anything but the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through Whom the world was crucified for me, and I for the world. For in Christ Jesus, not being circumcised has any power, nor being uncircumcised, but that we are a new creation."

Galatians 6:14-15

We are then people who, although still living in this world, do not belong to it. We are different because we are - a little? - like the Lord Jesus and thus something of this new creation has become visible.

Paul ends the letter with the following sentence: "The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit, brothers! Amen" (Galatians 6:18). Why we need this grace we will discuss in the next section, which deals with the threats that can hinder this way of the Spirit and lead us astray.

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Footnotes

1. See Galatians 4:3,9 ↩︎
2. In the letter of Romans, you will find extensive teaching from Paul on justification by faith, the law, the flesh and life by the Spirit. Basic teaching that you also find in the Galatians letter. See here a Dutch summary of the Romans letter. ↩︎
3. In the Bible, it means when God gives a person just mentions, that that person is in a right relationship with Him. This includes living in faith, obedience and dependence on God. Righteousness is not the same as sinlessness, but refers to an attitude of sincerity and trust in God, as with Abraham, who "believed in God, and it was counted to him for righteousness" (Genesis 15:6). ↩︎
4. Many translations say "children. ↩︎