Galatians 5:16-18 - Homiletics

The life and warfare of the Spirit in the soul.

This important passage suggests a comprehensive view of the Spirit's work in the believer's life.

I. THE WORK Or THE SPIRIT IN THE BELIEVER .

1 . "Walk in the Spirit." Nothing could be more descriptive of the natural effect of the spiritual change produced in regeneration. The new-born child soon discovers symptoms of activity. The language of the passage reminds us:

2 . Led by the Spirit. This implies an entire surrender of ourselves to the authority and guidance of the Spirit. The traveller in a strange land must follow his guide. So the believer is led by the Spirit with the Word, which is the chart of his journey through life. The term implies, not an isolated act of the Spirit, but a continuous help provided through all parts of a believer's life.

II. THE REASONS BY WHICH WE ARE HERE URGED TO MAINTAIN OUR DEPENDENCE UPON THE SPIRIT .

1 . There wilt be no fulfilling the lusts of the flesh. This is self-evident. The Spirit's guidance will keep us apart from all sinful indulgences, from all earthliness, from all the sins and purposes of the merely natural man. The Spirit and the flesh exclude one another. We shall not trust in our own strength, and so we shall be kept; we shall consult his will supremely, and he will deliver us from the perversities and delusions of our own will.

2 . The warfare between the flesh and the Spirit demands extreme care on our part to be always in the Spirit 's complete disposal.

3 . The Spirit 's guidance exempts us from the Law. "If ye be led by the Spirit, ye are not under the Law." The Galatians were for putting themselves again in subjection to Law and forgetting the free rule of the Spirit. "Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty." It was necessary to remind them that they were now "dead to that in which they were held" ( Romans 7:4 ). It was no longer to them "a Law of sin and death." "The law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus ' made them free from it. How, then, does the Spirit's guidance set them apart from the Law?