Spirit or Law???

[James B. Angus, Jr., M.Div.]

GALATIANS 5:19-21

THE ACTS OF FLESH ARE OBVIOUS:

o SEXUAL IMMORALITY

o IMPURITY

o DEBAUCHERY

o IDOLATRY

o WITCHCRAFT

o HATRED

o DISCORD

o JEALOUSY

o FITS OF RAGE

o SELFISH AMBITION

o DISSENTIONS

o FACTIONS

o ENVY

o DRUNKENESS

o ORGIES

o THINGS LIKE THESES

People that practice these things will not inherit the Kingdom of God. In other words no matter how righteous, religious, or so called spiritual you may feel God is not leading your life; if these are the result of your desires. With these results, it is indicative that the god of a person who lives like this is
Satan. Such as in John 8: 42-47 people that do not hear God and fight against his spirit are children of Satan, and like their Father are an adversary against God. They then lie to themselves, because just as their Father is a liar they begin to do the practices of their father.

GALATIANS 5: 22-23

FRUIT OF THE SPIRIT:

o LOVE

o JOY

o PEACE

o PATIENCE

o KINDNESS

o GOODNESS

o FAITHFULNESS

o GENTLENESS

o SELF-CONTROL

There is no LAW or RULE against things such as these. Through our own endeavors, also know as FLESH, we forsake these things in search of something better in the rules or laws we make up for the church. The problem is that our wisdom has always led us down a road that is fleshly and filled with despair. NO matter
how good or wise the things we make up they can never curb the desire of the FLESH within us. This is why Paul was able to say in Col. 2: 20-23

“20Since you died with Christ to the basic principles of this world, why, as though you
still belonged to it, do you submit to its rules: 21"Do not handle! Do not
taste! Do not touch!"? 22These are all destined to perish with use,
because they are based on human commands and teachings. 23Such regulations
indeed have an appearance of wisdom, with their self-imposed worship, their
false humility and their harsh treatment of the body, but they lack any value
in restraining sensual indulgence.” (NIV)

And again in Gal. 3:1-5,

“1You foolish Galatians! Who has bewitched you? Before your very eyes Jesus Christ
was clearly portrayed as crucified. 2I would like to learn just one thing from
you: Did you receive the Spirit by observing the law, or by believing what you
heard? 3, Are you so foolish? After beginning with the Spirit, are you now trying
to attain your goal by human effort? 4Have you suffered so much for nothing—if
it really was for nothing? 5Does God give you his Spirit and work miracles
among you because you observe the law, or because you believe what you heard?”
(NIV)

Much on the same level, the people in Galatia and Colosse were having problems on how this new bond with Jews worked. Paul said that belief in the resurrected Christ was enough. Others from Jerusalem came preaching that they needed to be circumcised and follow law in order to become Christian. Paul preached a gospel of sola fide or faith alone and the others came back with a premise of Christ plus Law of Moses and its practices.

The problem we find here is an issue of identity. Today in our society we have a big problem of people stealing others identities and going around pretending to be someone they are not and running up bills and purchasing things that are sometimes not in the means of the identity they have taken. Then it leaves the person who has become a victim in a bad position with charges and purchases in cities across the world they have never visited before. I say that to say this that in Paul’s day there was an issue of identity theft occurring in the church in a way. I say identity theft, because as Paul begins the Galatian letter he
starts out speaking against any one even an angel from heaven preaching a gospel different than what he first delivered to the Galatians let it be cursed. Paul had found out that another sect of Christians had begun to preach from a “Jesus Plus” platform. In the case of these two congregations and more than likely Rome too that this new gospel of “Jesus Plus” was filling the airwaves of his day.

The danger of a “Jesus Plus” gospel is that it finds the work of Jesus inadequate in taking care of the saints therefore other things must be put in place to control the populous of the church. A “Jesus Plus” gospel replaces Jesus ultimately, and this why I liken it to identity theft, because you can take the name, but then what is behind the name becomes very different from the actual person. The Law undermines the freedom that is given in Christ. When most people hear freedom or grace they mistakenly take it as saying, “Oh now we can do what ever we want, we have no restraints.” Neither Paul, nor I am saying such a thing; in fact, you have restraints within your newfound freedom in Christ Jesus. Gal. 5:1 states, “It was for freedom that Christ set us free; therefore keep standing firm and do not be subject again to a yoke of slavery.”(NASB) The yoke of slavery here Paul speaks of is the Law. Through Christ, the obligations of the Law of Moses have been fulfilled and are no longer needed to guide the people of God, because God’s people now walk in the Spirit of Christ in God. Paul continues to make the idea of Jesus plus nothing as lucid as possible, because the “Jesus Plus” platform gives nothing sound to stand on. He states,

“Behold I, Paul, say to you that if you receive circumcision, Christ will be of no
benefit to you. And I testify again to every man who receives circumcision,
that he is under obligation to keep the whole Law. You have been severed from
Christ, you who are seeking to be justified by law; you have fallen from grace.
For we through the Spirit, by faith, are waiting for the hope of righteousness.
For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision means anything, but
faith working through love.” (Gal. 5:2-6, NASB)

Paul uses the word severed to show how real this threat is in the lives of Christians. In our present day, we see many churches and people attempting to do the same thing. Of course the issue today is not circumcision since most male children in the western hemisphere are circumcised from birth not for a
religious reason, but more on the lines of health reasons. I would ask the question how are we to use this in 2010? Well it is very easy lets look at practices modern churches have taken on that have “Jesus Plus” platforms.

Churches in the past 2000 years have made steps to organize the church so that things will be decent and in order, but I believe that this move has caused most churches to cross a line into another gospel. This can be called traditionalism in most cases, because sometimes we do things in church and we really do not know why we do it, what purpose it serves, but out of obligation to the faith of our fathers and mothers we blindly continue some unhealthy practices and call it church. Like some churches like to dip into the old covenant they will say we have to observe the Sabbath, or tithes. Now Paul says above, “I testify again that every man who receives circumcision that he is under obligation to keep the WHOLE LAW.” (Gal. 5:3) Now if churches start to dip they do not realize thatthe little dip has just immersed them in the old covenant and they are obligated to keep the WHOLE LAW not just, what they want to observe. They as Paul has said have been severed from the grace of God. James states,

“For whoever keeps the whole law and yet stumbles in one point, he has become guilty
of all. For He who said, "DO NOT COMMIT ADULTERY," also said,
"DO NOT COMMIT MURDER." Now if you do not commit adultery, but do
commit murder, you have become a transgressor of the law. So speak and so act
as those who are to be judged by the law of liberty.” (James 2:10-12, NASB)

It appears that James and Paul are actually speaking on the terms of freedom in Christ apart from the Law of Moses. Subsequently both are say the same that if a person desires to keep the law they must take all or nothing. The Law is 100% not 99% or 1% it is all or nothing. Therefore, as Paul is saying who has tricked the church into believing they can only take part of the law and leave the rest, but more so why are they choosing to be enslaved again after they have been freed through faith in Christ. Furthermore, as Christians we cannot preach a gospel of the Jesus Plus the Law because in Christ we are in the Spirit. Spirit and Law, the two are in opposition to one another.(Gal. 5:14-18) The Law to a Christian is a curse, (Gal. 3:10-12), because Christians do not live by law for we live by faith guided in Spirit. The thing is we have to choose who will be our spirit guide do we want Laws or Spirit to guide us. There is no way to have both Law and Spirit.

An easier way to understand this is looking at something Jesus said in John 3 to Nicodemus. Jesus and Nicodemus were conversing at night because, Nicodemus being a teacher of the people it would not have been good for him to be seen with a man such as Jesus, he would have been labeled a heretic immediately and kicked out of the synagogue. An action no one in his day or in ours would like to have happen to them. Well in this conversation, Jesus began to speak to Nicodemus in ways that appear to make no sense at all. He speaks of another birth and wind.Well in John’s writings, he can be very ambiguous and in this passage, he was exactly that. He uses the Greek word anothen, which means again or from above, when speaking of the new birth both meanings seem to work in the context to the conversation. In addition, he uses the Greek word pnuema, which means spirit or wind, and in this case, both fit contextually to this conversation. I want to focus on the anothen at this point to bring this all into perspective. Jesus says,

“3Jesus answered and said to him, "Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born
again he cannot see the kingdom of God." 4Nicodemus said to Him, "How
can a man be born when he is old? He cannot enter a second time into his
mother's womb and be born, can he?" 5Jesus answered, "Truly, truly, I
say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit he cannot enter into the
kingdom of God. 6"That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which
is born of the Spirit is spirit. 7"Do not be amazed that I said to you,
'You must be born again.'” (John 3:3-6, NASB)"American Typewriter""">

Born again or born from above, that is the question. Which is it? The Greek word is ambiguous in meaning and thisis something that happens frequently in John’s writing. I believe both functionally work, because as a Christian being born again is an example of being born of the Spirit, which is from above. Unlike Adam, God’s first man, we are born from flesh and we continue to have desires derived from our flesh. Look at the big point in the this text where Jesus says in vv. 5-6,

“5Jesus answered, "Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit he cannot enter
into the kingdom of God. 6"Thatwhich is born of the flesh is flesh, and
that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.”

At times people want to tie baptism on to this text way too early and hitch it on to the, “born of water” statement. I do not believe that baptism is what is meant by that saying; looking at the context Jesus goes on to say that what is born of flesh is flesh and what is born of spirit is spirit. Every man or woman in the world living has to have been born of the water first, and this is not baptism. When we are born, our mothers water has to be broken naturally or manually for us to come into the world also know as being born of water. When we are born of the Spirit once again water has to be broken in baptism for us to come forth into the world a new creation in Christ Jesus. Therefore, Jesus is telling Nicodemus that he must now be reborn of the Spirit so that he can walk in the Spirit and not in the FLESH. What the spirit gives birth too is not subjected to the FLESHly ideals, but functions on the spiritual level where Jesus is working. Had Nicodemus been in Spirit this would not be so foreign to him, but when one is led by FLESH these words fall on ignorant ears, such is the case here.[1]

[1] In this case, most scholars, preachers, elders, and overall leaders might
represent Nicodemus in this passage. For at times, they depend and draw on
confidence in the FLESH to understand, teach, and lead. Therefore as
Nicodemus is not an ignorant man in scriptural Law he does not comprehend
the Spiritual aspect of what Jesus is saying. Such is the case
today when we confuse Law with Spirit.

Jesus moves on to speak ofthe pnuema, and here is a key point in my exposition. Jesus says, “The wind[1] blows where it wishes and you hear the sound of it, but do not know where it comes from and where it is going; so is everyone who is born of the Spirit." (John 3:8, NASB) According to Jesus the pnuema (Spirit) moves where it desires to go. We can hear it but we are helpless in controlling its directions and we do not know where it is coming from or where it is going. Some people react just as Nicodemus did and ask, “How can these things be?”

[1] “Pnuema” Read and put the word Spirit in at 
this point.

Now you maybe asking how does this have to do with what we started with? It has everything to do with what we started with because the issue here is SPIRIT! We all started with the Spirit, but now we have the proclivity to attempt to finish this race according to the flesh. It is just that simple. I have grown up in a church and around Christians that live a live in what they believe to be spirit just to come to the end of their lives and ask this question, am I really saved? I never understood after seeing what I saw and then reading about the Apostle Paul in 1 Timothy. I could not for the life of me grasp why Paul could be so happy and sure while facing Nero’s chopping block; how Steven could boldly stand and preach, in Acts 7 without fear of death, and how Peter, John, James and many more could live while being persecuted relentlessly. Paul, Steven, and the rest had figured out something or better yet knew something we
have long forgot or over looked. That Christ grace is sufficient! The resurrected Christ is enough to get us through the trials and tribulations of this life.

At times in churches we have erected creeds, catch phrases, rules, by-laws, and all sorts of things to keep us close to God, but the truth to the matter is they have not done the job of taking care of our fleshy desires. Therefore, they lack any value in our churches, but we blindly put our faith in catechisms, creeds, manuals, and the sort. We depend on them to get us into the new creation. Let the truth be told in the words of Paul in a way that should catch our ear in words we can understand,

“You foolish Christians! Who has bewitched you? Before your very eyes Jesus Christ
was clearly portrayed as crucified. I would like to learn just one thing from
you: Did you receive the Spirit by observing the law, (creeds, manuals,
by-laws, rules, new statutes you erected, your own wisdom), or by believing
what you heard? 3Are you so foolish? After beginning with the Spirit, are you
now trying to attain your goal by human effort, (your own works, your rules,
your laws, your gospel, your own wisdom?) 4Have you suffered so much for
nothing—if it really was for nothing? 5Does God give you his Spirit and work
miracles among you because you observe the law, creeds, manuals, by-laws, newly
erected rules, your own wisdom, or because you believe what you heard?” (NIV)

Now the response of Nicodemus is warranted. Why? If I have correctly placed my words and thoughts we should see that we have blindly been following the wrong thing. At times churches have said we follow the bible, we follow Jesus, but in reality if we look close enough we have followed our own fleshly motives, we
may have preached “Jesus Plus” in our churches, and we may be in need of repentance a changing of the way we have been thinking about Jesus and his church. As a child I heard many sermons on many things, but the one thing that stuck out to me the most in the fore front of all these sermons was the emphasis was placed on the church 95% of the time which only left 5% for Jesus and the Spirit to divide up. The sermons were not about love, they were not about grace, but most of the time it was only about what made us different from other so-called Christians, as we would affectionately describe them. What places us in the saved category by things that we are doing, but not who we needed to become. I heard about the command to give, the command to do the Lord’s Supper, and the command for this, the command for that, the command on top of commands. With all these new commands we fail to remember the one that should dictate everything we do, “Love as I have Loved you!”