From the “Fruits of the Spirit”… to the “Works of the Flesh”: Part I. From the Law’s “yoke of bondage” to the freedom of life in the Spirit born out of our co-crucifixion with the Lover of our souls

[Reading Time: 8 minutes]

Introduction

Given a recent post on the nature of the plague of locusts together with the second post on reconciliation which examined the “change” that occurs in man when God “gives him over” to his passions (Rom 1:18-32), it seemed appropriate to spend a moment on what Paul in his letters terms the “works of the flesh” (ta érga tēs sarkos). The reason being is that while we may be well aware of his listing in that same passage of the “fruits of the Spirit” (love, joy, peace, etc.), we may be less familiar with the particular details of the first list he gives us in Galatians 5.

Can you, for instance, right now off the top of your head, list any of the “works” in Paul’s catalogue?

(For he gives us 17…so, hopefully, we should be able to remember at least one or two…).

In the paragraphs below, we will look examine the four categories of carnal works the Apostle reveals to us. But, as is the case, we will begin with a background to set the context squarely in Scripture (rather than in our meandering theological projections).

The background of Galatians 5: From liberty back into the bondage of self-justification

To place this catalogue in the proper context, we will move back from verse 19, where the list is first presented, to the beginning of chapter 5, attempting to offer a brief review. Paul starts this section with a two-pronged command:

Stand fast therefore in the liberty by which Christ has made us free

[The word order in the Greek is:

“In the liberty in which Christ has made us free, stand firm, therefore]

And do not be entangled again with a yoke of bondage (Gal 5:1).

He then immediately moves into the controversy over circumcision (a major theme, as we well know, of the Letter), stating at the outset,

Indeed I, Paul, say to you that if you become circumcised, Christ will profit you nothing. And I testify again to every man who becomes circumcised that he is a debtor to keep the whole law (5:2-3).

“Christ will profit you nothing,” if you depend on circumcision as the means to your sanctification. If this is your pathway, then

Christ has become of no effect to you.

Why? Because

you attempt to be justified by the law (5:4a)

And, therefore, have clearly demonstrated that you

have fallen from grace (5:4b).

The life of the Spirit: Faith that works by love

Paul then proceeds to speak of what happens when God’s people live by the Spirit, waiting upon Him in faith.

For we through the Spirit eagerly wait (apekdechomai: From apó + ek + déchomai: ‘To accept fully from [God]’ that which allows us to ‘wait’) for the hope of righteousness by faith.

He sums all of this up with a quite extraordinary statement, first on the human pathways:

For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision avails anything

Then the divine path:

But faith which works through love (5:6).

Quite amazing!

The outward conformity to the law or lack thereof has utterly no significance. Everything is rooted in faith that operates through love! Without this inner, spiritual core of faith and love, our outward adherence to the law has no power to exert genuine change.

The true vs false leaven

Yet Paul continues with another question:

You ran well. Who hindered you from obeying the truth? (5:7)

And he immediately answers, revealing from where this mentality of self-justifying, legal conformity comes:

This persuasion (peismonḗ: From the root verb, peíthō, meaning “to persuade’) does not come from Him who calls you (5:8).

Then his diagnosis:

A little leaven leavens the whole lump (5:9).

That is to say, leaven (which, as you remember, was examined in a series of word studies) is a force for spiritual corruption in the life of a believer. The Apostle had used this exact phrase in I Cor 5:6 where he commanded us to

purge out the old leaven (i.e. that which is puffing us up in prideful, spiritual conceit, I Cor 5:7a)

Because we need to be “leavened” with a different “leaven.” And for this to occur, we must purge out the leaven of This Fallen Age, which hypocritically parades itself as true religion and works in our communities to counteract the operations of the Spirit.

And so, the step forward is that we must be first be purged to the degree that we become truly unleavened.

We must become like the Israelites of old—centuries-long slaves in a kingdom of darkness with absolutely nothing to our name except a God Who delivers in His way at His time. And His deliverance comes not through the leaven of fallen human power but though the “Feast of Unleavened Bread” wherein the “Passover Lamb” is sacrificed (Ex 12:17-23).

For indeed Christ, our Passover, was sacrificed for us (I Cor 5:7).

A warning

From the corrupting power of the leaven of this false age to the unleavened bread of the Passover Lamb Who is “sacrificed for us”, and Who purifies, renews, restores the depths of our person, Paul then applies the Word with a warning.

Yet, as a spiritual father, his warning begins with an encouragement:

I have confidence in you, in the Lord, that you will have no other mind/heart/soul/spirit/nous (phronéō, Gal 5:10)

Then he directs the matter (whatever it may have been) up to the Lord with a warning for those in the community whose actions, nevertheless, reject the unleavened bread of Christ:

But he who troubles you (tarássō: Lit. ‘stirring up in confusion and turmoil’) shall bear his judgment, whoever he is.

That is to say, you first follow Christ because, in the end, you must stand before Him. The other who sowing turmoil must do so as well.

He then goes on, focusing through a question:

And I, brothers, if I still preach circumcision, why do I yet suffer persecution (diōkomai)?

That is to say, if he is preaching adherence to the Mosaic Law (which he most certainly is), then why is the Church weaponizing against him for doing so? And to go back to the prior verse, we may ask, what mind/heart/soul/spirit/nous is operating in them as they do this?

To such a question Paul gives an absolutely extraordinary answer. Without defending himself in the least, the Apostle simply states,

Then is the offence (skándalon) of the cross ceased (Gal 5:11).

This is the key.

The “dark” and “guiding night” of the “scandal of the Cross”

The true application of the Law of Moses will undoubtedly, invariably, ultimately, lead us to the Cross.

Period.

There is no other path.

The “broad and easy way” will seek to bypass it altogether (that is how we actually know their true aim…As one dying physician recently told us literally on his dying bed, “Where is the blood? Where is the Cross in all this?

That is Paul’s question.

And while the circumcision party, the hyperorthodox, will, no doubt, use all the right evangelical words as they sidestep the Cross, our path on the “narrow and suffering way,” in total contradistinction, will wind through much affliction, through much painful and bitter stripping of our own fallen will (p. 14), to the hill of Golgotha.

And there the Cross will confront us, scandalize us.

There our will and flesh will be crucified.

So that what remains will be Christ. In the Apostle’s words:

For I through the law died to the law

That I might live to God.

I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me;

And the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God,

Who loved me and gave Himself for me (Gal 2:19-20).

For those who, nonetheless, walk this path still seeking to hold onto their own will, justifying themselves “through the law”, they will indeed experience a “dark night”—overwhelmingly dark with the shadows of eternal judgment.

Yet for those who are passing through it with Christ into the Kingdom (again, Acts 14:22, quoted above), it will be, in the words of the same poem, a “happy night.,.a guiding night.”

That light guided me

More surely than the noonday sun

To the place where He was waiting for me,

Whom I knew well,

And where none appeared.

O, guiding night;

O, night more lovely than the dawn;

O, night that hast united

The lover with His beloved,

And changed her into her love (IV-V).

The dark night that is the only means of stripping us of our own will shall lead us to the Cross where we will be united to the lover of our soul.

It, therefore, is truly “happy”, truly “blessed” if we will but receive it.

Closing word

And so we bring this first section to a close with the blessed life that comes to us as we walk down the “narrow and suffering path” to the hill of Golgatha, where we will be “crucified with Christ.” And yet, in the bitterness of the Cross—for it will be bitter—the seeds of true life in the Spirit will be planted. A life, A Hidden Life, therefore, will then begin to slowly grow up that is not our own (Thank God!).

A life that will operate not through the machinations of our self-justifying applications of the Law.

No.

But a life that will be lived in the Spirit by faith which works by love.

For you, brethren, have been called to liberty;

Only do not use liberty as an opportunity for the flesh,

But through love serve one another.

For all the law is fulfilled in one word, even in this: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself” (Gal 5:13-14)

Amen.

So may it be!