Flesh and Spirit: A Meditation on Galatians 5

This I say then, Walk in the Spirit,

and ye shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh.

For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit,

and the Spirit against the flesh:

and these are contrary the one to the other:

so that ye cannot do the things that ye would.

But if ye be led of the Spirit, ye are not under the law.

Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these;

Adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness,

Idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations,

wrath, strife, seditions, heresies, envyings, murders,

drunkenness, revelings, and such like: of the which I tell

you before, as I have also told you in time past, that they

which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God.

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace,

longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith,

Meekness, temperance: against such there is no law.

And they that are Christ’s have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts.

If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit.

Let us not be desirous of vain glory,

provoking one another, envying one another.

This distinction between flesh and spirit, which St. Paul addresses here in Galatians, can be a tricky business.  Gnostics both ancient and recent have fallen into the error that a person’s flesh is evil and his spirit good—so that they press forward in a life myopically focused on internal  or spiritual things to the neglect of the physical world.  Legalists both ancient and recent have fallen into the error of thinking that a person is primarily a summation of her actions, myopically focused on the works of people to the exclusion of their deeper spiritual reality.  St. Paul is not trying to turn his readers into checklist Legalists nor antinomian Gnostics.  On the contrary, by the Holy Spirit working through him, he is trying to teach the Christians in Galatia what it means to live in Christ.

The term “walk” used by St. Paul here is a common euphemism for living.  While the letter itself is a coherent whole, this particular section begins with the distinction of walking or living in the spirit versus walking or living in the flesh.  The listener can easily discern from St. Paul that he has a choice of two paths—one that is of the flesh and marked by its evil fruit, and another that is of the spirit and marked by its good fruit.  Living or walking according to the flesh is a death sentence before God, as all evil is eventually consigned to hell.  Living or walking according to His Spirit is life and salvation, both in this world and the next.  The trouble for the honest reader of St. Paul’s very direct language here is not in understanding the difference between good and evil, life and death, heaven and hell; the trouble, rather, is in keeping straight just how one ends up on either side of that ledger.

To re-read the entire letter (a 20 minute exercise, which will immeasurably bless anyone who does so) will remind him that St. Paul’s primary objective in writing to the Christians of Galatia is the doctrine of Justification or Salvation by grace through faith in Christ alone.  Some have noted, and I would agree, that while Paul’s letter to the Christians at Rome is often seen as his theological magnum opus, his letter to the Christians at Galatia is an excellent summary of the same fundamental doctrines, driving home the crucial points of the Christians faith with great clarity and precision.  He makes it clear that anyone who thinks they can save themselves by their works of the Law is condemned, cut off from Christ, and fallen from grace, since no one can keep the Law perfectly enough to be saved by it.  The Law, holy and good and proceeding from the very mouth of God, is a bludgeon and a curb to our sinful and fallen flesh, a mirror which shows us the depths of our depravity before God’s immaculate righteousness, and a guide to the Christian as to the works of love and mercy which God values above all humanly contrived piety.  St. Paul, as a previous Pharisee and vigorous student of the Law, knows that the Law cannot save anyone, because that is not the purpose of the Law.  The only salvation which comes to a fallen humanity, is the grace of God through Jesus Christ, crucified and risen again for the justification of sinners.  This Gospel of grace—the Vicarious Atonement—is alone what saves mankind.  And because such grace can only be a gift, it can only be received by faith in that same Jesus and His saving promise of redemption through His Gospel.  St. Paul calls the Christians at Galatia to hold on to the Gospel of grace by faith, receiving the forgiveness of their sins, eternal life, and salvation thereby.  In so doing, he does not remove from them the good of God’s Law, but reminds them that they are not under the Law to be saved by it—rather they are under grace.

However, the divine truth which permeates both the Law and the Gospel cannot be removed from one another, anymore than God Himself can be divided.  The Law reveals what is holy, while the Gospel reveals the grace of God to forgive sinners.  Living, or walking, according to the sinful and fallen flesh, pursuing its dark desires and gratifying its perverse lusts, will fall under the condemnation of the Law.  To the person who chooses to live unrepentantly and unfaithfully according to their lusts and passions, comes the frightening curse:  that they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God.  Such commitment to this way of living declares before heaven and earth that there is no faith in such a person to abide in the Word of the Lord, nor to abide in His goodness, mercy, love, or grace.  The one who chooses to live according to his sinful flesh, chooses to remain at war with God, rejecting both Him and His saving Word.  For such a one there is no hope, because the only Word of God to Him will be the Law which he rejected, and which will judge him rightly to eternal perdition.

The life of the spirit, however, is different.  It is not a human contrivance, nor is it propped up on the efforts of man.  For the person born from above by Water and the Holy Spirit, they have a new spiritual life which can, by God’s grace, hear God’s Word, love Him, believe Him, trust Him, and abide in Him by faith.  This living in the spirit is not simply an introversion of living in one’s own thoughts and feelings, but a present reality that the Christian is grafted into the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ, indwelt by His Spirit working through His Word.  The Christian therefore lives by this grace through faith in Christ alone, where the Holy Spirit gives life to the Christian’s spirit, and both live together in the harmony of Christ’s saving Word.  In such a life, the Law loses its terror because it is no longer seen as a way of salvation; rather it is the means by which our loving Savior brings us to repentance for our daily sins and the sinful nature we know still courses through our fleshly veins.  Enlivened by His Gospel of grace and clinging to it by faith, the Christian is now led by Christ’s Spirit to live in accordance with His Law of love for both God and neighbor.  Such a life of faith holds the blessed promise of eternal salvation for Christ’s sake, making the Christian an adopted child of God and heir with Christ to His Kingdom.

The trouble with this text, therefore, isn’t the text—it’s us.  We still live as a unity of flesh and spirit, but even as born again Christians, we struggle against the sin which still clings to our fallen flesh.  We still have thoughts, words, and deeds—things we do, and things we leave undone—which the Law rightly condemns.  And yet we have a new life, a new and resurrected spirit (which anticipates our future resurrected bodies,) which by the power of the Holy Spirit strives to love God and abide in His Word.  What are we to do, who find ourselves constantly at war within our very persons, our fallen flesh resisting the Spirit of the Living God, until we finally are laid low in the grave?  We are to live in faith and repentance before Christ and His Word, which is the only way we walk in His Spirit.  In such blunt and direct language as St. Paul uses under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, there is never any comfort in sin, never any reassurance that evil is winked at or ignored.  But there is every consolation, every hope, and every comfort to the repentant sinner who clings by faith to the mercy of God in Jesus Christ.

Where do you find yourself today?  If you are walking in your sinful flesh to satisfy its lusts, hear the stern and terrifying warning God speaks to you today—repent!  If you are walking according to the Law, and thinking that by it you will be justified, hear the shattering warning God speaks to you by His Word—repent!  If you find yourself broken and contrite over your sin, knowing your own destitution before a holy and almighty God, hear His tender and loving Word of Gospel for you—turn from your sins, trust in Jesus to save you by His grace won for you through His Cross, and live in His Spirit, forever forgiven and free.  Hear the Word of the Lord wherever it meets you this day, that you may repent, believe, and live in Him forever.  Amen.

Surrounded by Enemies: A Meditation on Psalm 3, for the 5th Sunday after Pentecost

LORD, how are they increased that trouble me!

many are they that rise up against me.

Many there be which say of my soul,

There is no help for him in God. Selah.

But thou, O LORD, art a shield for me;

my glory, and the lifter up of mine head.

I cried unto the LORD with my voice,

and he heard me out of his holy hill. Selah.

I laid me down and slept; I awaked; for the LORD sustained me.

I will not be afraid of ten thousands of people,

that have set themselves against me round about.

Arise, O LORD; save me, O my God:

for thou hast smitten all mine enemies upon the cheek bone;

thou hast broken the teeth of the ungodly.

Salvation belongeth unto the LORD:

thy blessing is upon thy people. Selah.

Each day seems to bring with it new reports of violence and attacks against Christ, His Church, and of western civilization as a whole.  The rising tide of Islamic extremism in nominally secular Turkey has erupted as Islamic prayers at the historic Christian church of Hagia Sophia during Ramadan, while Christians are told to hide themselves and their prayers from the public view, lest they be physically attacked by mobs.  Islamic birds of a feather have slaughtered hundreds of thousands of Christians in their historic homelands (Iraq, Syria, Egypt, and others) and brought their barbaric terrorism into western lands, massacring thousands in places of worship, business, recreation, and travel.  Through mass immigration, and with the imprimatur of the Muslim Brotherhood’s grand plan, they have colonized large swaths of western nations, declared Sharia Law for their new colonial neighborhoods, terrorized the local population into submission, and threatened others (including legitimate law enforcement) against entry or influence.  The brand of Islam which follows their founder’s lead in murdering and conquest of not just Christianity but every other form of political or religious system on the planet since the 7^th century, continues its bloody rampage of demonic destruction against a now ethically, socially, and intellectually weak West.

Horrific and dangerous as it is to western civilization, Islam is not the only enemy gathering at our gates and infiltrating our lands.  Atheistic Humanism has largely swallowed the halls of most civic institutions from government to education, causing many historic church fellowships to capitulate to their secularist agenda.  Forgetting the devastation wrought by atheist regimes in the 20^th century, whose most notorious leaders (Stalin, Hitler, Mao, and others) slaughtered or subjugated hundreds of millions of people through their unhinged Darwinist morality and Nietzschean will to power, Western nations have been reforming their communities into amoral dysfunctional cesspools.  Children and adults who have no conviction of their human dignity created in the image of God, treat their neighbors with ever greater hostility and indignity, rioting and polluting the land with murder, rape, theft, abuse, and debauchery.  Never content to coexist with the absolute truth of Christian divine revelation in Holy Scripture, these atheists use their positions of power to attack Christian churches which will not bow to their demands, from the Roman Catholic Little Sisters of the Poor, to Christian business owners who resist supporting or facilitating evil.  Whatever light remains in Western Civilization, born of Christian truth regarding the nature, dignity, and accountability of man before his Maker, and graven into the founding constitutions and preambles of their respective republics, the demonic fire of Atheistic Humanism struggles tirelessly to expunge.

If terrorist Islam and militant Atheism weren’t enough of a threat, there is also the mounting pressure of compromised and apostate churches, which seem to side with Islam and Atheists against confessional, traditional Christians.  Not content to corrupt and persecute the faithful within their own fellowships, these churches often file for legal solidarity against orthodox Christians, provoking and prodding secular government to choke out the free expression and exercise of their faith.  In case after case, in public statements galore, these apostate churches urge the persecution of Christians who won’t support same sex marriages, infanticide, and other noxious residue of the 1960’s Sexual Revolution.  They further attempt to add their false piety as justification for secular or Islamic oppression—not just against pastors in their pulpits whom they seek to gag from critical speech, but against the average orthodox Christian living out his vocation in the world.  The demonic fires of apostasy continue burning away the structure and relevance of these fallen churches, and like a wild fire on the open prairie, is always hungry to devour every adjoining acre.

Of course, many more enemies of Christ, His Church, and Western Civilization could be noted, from the rise of neo-paganism and witchcraft (Wiccan priests are now on the payroll of the US government as chaplains) with its attending diabolical consequences in the lives of its victims, to a nearly infinite spectrum of dangerous philosophies of man and his civic institutions, it is easy to weep with David as he does in Psalm 3 regarding the multitudes of enemies risen up against us.  As in David’s time, many are they that rise up to persecute, torment, and destroy the light of Christ in the world today.  Each of these enemies touts their apparent power or influence, their supremacy in their time in history, and the lack of hope any Biblical Christian should have in their God to save them.  They rise up all around, consuming as many as they can, and menace the People of God so as to break their will, their institutions, and their faith.  The devil and his evil angels peer out through the eyes of those human tools they have corrupted to their use, and with great clamor and hubris declare their irresistible victory over every good and wholesome reflection of God in His world.

Many and terrible though our enemies be, however, they are already defeated—and they know it.  The human puppets enslaved to their demonic masters may not understand the state of the war which rages around them, but the People of God and the kingdom of darkness know it well.  The devil knows that Christ defeated Him through His Holy Cross, undoing the Fall of mankind into sin, death, and hell, and restoring the relationship between all who would repent and believe in Jesus’ Gospel.  David looked forward to this victory like all the Old Testament Prophets, clinging in faith and hope to God’s promise of salvation by grace through His Son.  The New Testament Church looks back upon this victory in faith and hope, knowing that what Jesus began through His life, death, and resurrection, He will bring to completion on the Last Day when He returns to judge the living and the dead.  From the time of Adam down to our own day, and even unto the end of the world, God’s People cling to Jesus and His Gospel Promise, knowing that what God has promised, He is both able and sure to accomplish.

What does that make of our terrible enemies?  Among other things, it reminds us that this same diabolical host has been harassing and tormenting the people of God since the world began… and it is no closer to wiping out God’s people or the light of His testimony than when they started.  Through the primordial history leading to Noah and his time, the enemy raged, and God preserved His remnant.  Through chaos leading to the time of Abraham and the Patriarchs, God preserved His remnant.  Through the bondage of His people in Egypt and their liberation through Moses, God preserved His remnant.  Through the conquest of Joshua and the turbulent centuries of the Judges, God preserved His remnant.  Through the time of the Kings, the Assyrian and Babylonian captivities, God preserved His remnant.  Through the return of His people from exile, the Maccabean liberation, and the surrender to Rome, God preserved His remnant.  Through the fall of Jerusalem, the persecution of Roman emperors, and the fall of Rome itself, God preserved His remnant.  Through the controversies and intrigues which emerged as the Great Schism of 1054 between the Eastern and Western churches, or the Reformation which shattered the corrupted Western church, God preserved His remnant.  Through the political and social revolutions of the Enlightenment, Rationalism, Existentialism, and Post-Modernism, God preserved His remnant.

For over 5000 years of recorded history, God has been preserving His people from all their bloviating enemies, and He will do the same in our age.  Terrible as they seem, they are defeated, and despite the amount of damage they have been able to do across the globe, they cannot ultimately succeed in wiping out the People of God.  Their influence may wax or wane in any given century, and we are right to point them out and resist their demonic influence upon our societies, but we know that Christ has already appointed them their place in the fires which burn forever.  The enemies of God and His People are destined for an eternity of suffering and separation from the God whom they have hated and rejected, forever removed from any ability to harm or harass His People ever again.  Each soul which is born from above by water and Spirit, given the new life which only Jesus can give by grace through faith in His Vicarious Atonement, is a soul which reigns victorious through Jesus over every enemy of God and His People.  Even as these souls pass from this world to the next, they leave the battles and wounds of this Church Militant, to live forever in the presence of Christ their Victorious Savior in the Church Triumphant.  Knowing this, the faithful Christian presses on by faith and repentance in the Word of Christ his Savior, knowing that He is surrounded by an innumerable cloud of witnesses who have fought this fight before him, and into whose presence he will one day step.

Have the ravages and the howling of your enemies tempted you to fear, timidity, or cold hearted indifference?  Take courage, dear Christian—for the enemies which hound your heels in this world shall have no more dominion over you than the great People of God who have gone before you, who like you live by grace through faith in Christ alone.  Christ has given you His life, His victory, His hope, and His promise; and just as Christ has kept His Word to the ancient Patriarchs, Judges, Kings, Prophets, Apostles, Saints, and Martyrs, so too will He keep His saving Word to you.  Take heart, be of good cheer, and stand boldly as a child of God in this your time and place—for yours is the battle, the victory, and the salvation, now and forever, in Jesus Christ our Lord.  Amen.

What Saving Faith Looks Like: A Meditation on Luke 7

And he turned to the woman, and said unto Simon,

Seest thou this woman? I entered into thine house, thou

gavest me no water for my feet: but she hath washed my

feet with tears, and wiped them with the hairs of her head.

Thou gavest me no kiss: but this woman since the

time I came in hath not ceased to kiss my feet.

My head with oil thou didst not anoint: but this woman hath

anointed my feet with ointment.  Wherefore I say

unto thee, Her sins, which are many, are forgiven; for she

loved much: but to whom little is forgiven, the same loveth little.

And he said unto her, Thy sins are forgiven.

And they that sat at meat with him began to say within themselves,

Who is this that forgiveth sins also?

And he said to the woman,

Thy faith hath saved thee; go in peace.

As Reformation Christians, a question often lurks behind what we declare as the doctrinal bedrock upon which Christ built His Church:  that a sinner is justified freely by grace through faith in Christ alone, apart from the works of the Law.  Our old theologians who stood upon this conviction during the Reformation era, drawing their theological confession from Scripture alone, also observed with those same Scriptures and the Church which carried them for centuries before, that saving faith cannot co-exist with mortal sin; i.e., that fruits of faith as a reflection of divine love would arise from newly resurrected hearts, so that a saving faith would always be working in love.  When such a person found himself guilty before the Law of sinning against God and his neighbor, such saving faith would always lead to repentance, which in turn would receive anew the forgiveness of sins, life, and salvation.  Thus saving faith, as the Reformers understood it from Holy Scripture, is a faith which is always working in love and repenting of sins.  Any person who claimed to have saving faith without love and repentance showed himself to be a liar, and as St. John and St. James would say in their epistles, their faith was useless.

In the Gospel text for this 4^th Sunday after Pentecost, Jesus presents this dichotomy to teach us what saving faith really looks like.  Rather than leaving us to concoct some new formulations which seem to endlessly clutter the book store shelves with programs and diagnostics of human devise, Jesus offers a simple picture of this relationship by His eternal Word, and sets it between two very different people:  a male Pharisee, and a female “sinner.”

Simon, the Pharisee, had all the outward appearances of a holy man.  He wore the right clothes which reflected his office and his station, and he invited Jesus to dine with him where he could show Jesus just how pious he was.  Simon’s focus was on the feast and the image he was presenting, so much that he overlooked (either intentionally or by accident) offering to his guest the standard courtesies of the day.  He did not offer Jesus water so that His feet might be cleaned from the dirt of ancient Palestinian roads.  He did not offer Jesus fragrant oil to anoint His head, to freshen Him from the odors of life in a rural world.  He did not even offer Jesus the standard greeting of peace and welcome with a kiss, to show Him honor among his guests.  This Pharisee was focused on himself and his image, and his lack of love or regard for Jesus showed up in how he treated Him.  The Pharisee showed no humility, no love, and no inclination toward repentance.  Jesus, seeing Simon’s desperately lost state despite his trappings of holiness, offered to Simon what He really needed:  to see what saving faith actually looked like.

While there were certainly many pious guests at this dinner party, Jesus chose a different kind of example than many people might gravitate toward.  Passing up the wealthy, the well dressed, the well connected, the well educated, and the politicians of both secular and ecclesiastical bent, Jesus drew Simon’s attention to the destitute woman weeping at His feet—a woman who our text tells us Simon disdained as a sinner, and who inspired Simon to mock Jesus’ credentials, if only silently in his mind.  In this context, referring to the woman as a “sinner” was likely a euphemism for a prostitute, and no one at this dinner party would hold her in any regard at all.  She was a used and abused human being, who obviously had some access to this Pharisee’s house, though she certainly didn’t receive any of the Pharisee’s compassion.  This woman wept so bitterly and constantly that she washed the dirt of the road off of Jesus’ feet by her tears.  Having no towel to remove the muddy sludge, she used her own hair to clear them.  Unwilling to lift herself from the floor to anoint Jesus’ head, of her own meager abundance she poured fragrant, soothing oil upon His feet.  Perceiving her unworthiness to give Jesus the kiss of peace and welcome upon His face, she remained bowed down before Him, kissing His feet.  This woman arrived with no pretense or pride, humbled herself before Jesus, unwilling to honor or promote herself in any way.  This is the woman Jesus used to teach the Pharisee and his guests what true, saving faith looked like.  It was not a well coifed pretender experiencing his best life now upon an over lit stage, but a broken prostitute lying on the floor weeping for her sins.

Driving the point home, Jesus turned to the woman, telling her that her sins were forgiven and that her faith had saved her, then sending her away in peace.  The other guests were aghast that Jesus could or would offer such a person so great a gift, sitting in judgment upon them both from the heights of their pomposity.  What they apparently could not see was that the woman received by authentic faith and repentance what the Pharisees strived for by their own empty faith in their own empty works:  she received the Gospel of salvation by grace through faith in Jesus apart from the works of the Law, while the Pharisees received condemnation by the works of the Law apart from the Gospel of grace by faith in Jesus.  The woman left that dinner party with a repentant faith which received salvation, while the Pharisees left with an unrepentant faith which saved no one.

The same holds true today, in every geography under heaven.  There are always those who show forth a kind of righteousness which really only reflects their own hypocrisy, pride, and trust in themselves.  Such people may wear fine clothing, wrap themselves in the fruits of luxury, ascend to the highest seats of power in church and state, or present a polished face to the world of personal perfection.  These people have placed their faith in themselves, their friends, their churches, their nations, their businesses, their associations, or their ability to manipulate any given system in which they abide.  Having faith in themselves and the certificates on their walls, they rise up in judgment over the world, condemning those who have not risen to their heights of education or social standing, while fawning and placating others who have risen higher than themselves, so as to receive ever more baubles and trinkets of human esteem.  To such people, Jesus gives a dire warning that whatever honors and prestige they might heap upon themselves, they are really broken, lost, dying, and headed for eternal perdition.  Apart from His grace, all their trophies and finery will burn away at the final judgment, revealing their wicked hearts for what they are.  Apart from Jesus’ saving grace, not one of these self-justified hypocrites will be saved through the Law, for by the Law they will come only to know the depths of their depravity and sin.  The Law which they think will promote them above their peers, will lay them low like a great scythe at harvest time.  For all the masks and illusions men present to themselves for their own honor, God is not deceived, seeing the heart and the reality of a person to their core.  No human pomp will dazzle the eyes of Almighty God.

But to every prideful, pompous, self-righteous braggart throughout the world, Jesus offers up more than the Law which rightly condemns them:  He also offers the salvation they—and every one of us—so desperately needs.  While we cannot justify ourselves, Jesus takes our wretchedness upon Himself, so that He might be our Justification before the Father.  While we cannot honor ourselves, He takes our dishonor upon Himself, that He might give us the glory He has shared with the Father and the Spirit before the world began.  While we cannot save ourselves from sin, death, hell, and the devil, Jesus takes the fullness of our divine wrath through His Cross, that He might offer to us His forgiveness, life, and salvation.  What we are unable to do at our best, and make mockeries of at our worst, Jesus accomplishes and gives to His people freely by grace, so that no one may boast in His presence.  To us, Jesus gives the example of the humble and broken woman, to whom He gave authentic and saving faith and repentance, which received His grace and salvation and peace.  To us He gives His life, His hope, His love.

Where do you find yourself today?  Have the baubles, distortions, and hubris of our age enticed you into thinking that you are good enough to stand before God and above your neighbor according to His Holy Law by merit of your works?  Hear Him speak to you His warning, as He breathes faith and repentance into your heart by His Spirit, that you might see your wretched and lost estate, and cling to Him for forgiveness by faith alone.  Are you broken by the knowledge of your sin, unable to even lift your eyes toward heaven, for the weight of your shame and dishonor?  Hear Him speak to you His blessing, as He breathes faith and repentance into your heart which embraces His Gospel of forgiveness, and which raises you up to a new life of love for God and every neighbor.  Are you found kneeling before Jesus in Godly sorrow for your sins, as others who presume more piety and honor than you mock your simple penitence?  Hear Him speak to you His blessed Word which healed the soul of that poor woman so many years ago, and which He desires to speak into every faithful and contrite heart:  Your sins are forgiven—your faith have saved you—go in peace.  Amen.