Galatians 5:17

17. For Reason for the need of so walking. We now have a passage similar to Romans 7:14-25, describing the struggle alike of a low religious life and a state of unregenerate conviction, from which a self-surrendry to the Spirit delivers us.

The Spirit against the flesh The verb lusteth does not bear to be repeated after Spirit; but some other verb, as stirreth, should be supplied.

And Greek, for.

So that More expressively, the Greek is, in order that. That is, the Spirit impels you one way in order that you may not do the evil you would, and the flesh impels you the other way in order that you may not do the good you would.

Ye cannot Greek, ye may not.

Ye would Your resolutions for good and your plans of sin are alike upset. You enjoy neither religion nor the world. The Lord does not allow you ease in sin, the world does not allow you enjoyment in God. You are a miserable whiffler both ways. What is the remedy? St. Paul has already given it.

Walk in the Spirit That Spirit is already doing all for you he can. By his aids you must do for yourself what he will not do for you. Your selfhood your self as a free agent must exert its energies and put forth the decisive act by which you commit yourself to the Spirit, and walk in the Spirit. It is this free selfhood that Calvinism ignores, and expects that the Spirit, by securing power, will fix the result, and thus it destroys the very foundations of free agency, probation, and responsibility. One man is saved because the Spirit secures his assent and salvation; another man is damned, because the Spirit does not secure his salvation. The present passage clearly shows that between the Spirit doing all he will, and the flesh doing all it can, it is the free agent, by aid of the Spirit, who decides his own destiny. The Spirit urges and enables, but does not secure.