God’s Word for You
Galatians 5:24-26 in step with the Spirit
by Pastor Timothy Smith on Monday, August 12, 2024
24 And those who belong to Christ have crucified the sinful flesh with its passions and desires.
When did you and I crucify our sinful nature? People have interpreted this verse in different ways over the last two millennia. Certainly, Christ was crucified to save us. This is absolutely true, but actually doesn’t quite fit the context of the verse, and so we need to dig deeper. What is crucifixion? Literally, it is an execution by nailing to a cross. It involves a great deal of pain. Does it hurt to put down our sinful nature? Well, yes it does. It isn’t easy to say no to sin. It is also true that our own sinful flesh is the worst criminal in each of our lives.
But for each Christian, the crucifying death of the Old Adam happened first when we were first brought to faith; when each of us was converted to Christianity from the pagan, God-hating, disbelieving life we led before that. For many people, that happened when we were still tiny infants, just a handful of days old, at our baptism. At that moment, the sinful nature ceased to be our master and the Holy Spirit entered into our hearts. From that moment, the Bible tells us, we are reborn. Being born again is a term that gets abused today, but that is what we are talking about. We are made into new beings through the means of grace, the means by which God declares us to be not guilty of our sins.
But at the same time, we are talking not only about our conversion, but also the life we keep living after that. This passage is really focusing on the life of love we lead for our Lord. Christ lives in us, and rules us by faith, giving us a whole different attitude toward the desires of the flesh that we once had. They are no longer fun or just “the way we are,” since our conscience pricks at us because of them and we fight against that Old Adam. Keep up the fight! We belong to Jesus. He will never forsake you. Remember to thank him for that, too.
25 If we live by the Spirit, let us also walk in step with the Spirit.
The action that naturally follows crucifying our sinful nature is the way in which we conduct our lives. This is now the manner in which we live: in step with the Spirit. The picture Paul paints is of soldiers marching in step. Left, right, left, right. We are going to the same place, at the same pace, walking each step together. Left, right, left, right. Paul is like a sergeant (such as my dad was in the army) walking along beside us, calling out encouragement. “Come on!” he shouts, “you can do it now! Keep in step together. Look at the Spirit! Look at his perfect steps! Keep in step—that’s it—he’ll help you keep up!” This is the new way we have of living our lives, not because we’re conscripts; not because we have to or have no choice, but because Jesus died for us. We live a life of thanks, a life of love for our living Lord.
My Father-in-law, Rev. John Meyer, said: “You have God’s Spirit living in you today. And he will be there tomorrow and every day in the future. Listen to him and follow him. He won’t lead you astray. Instead he will help you to be a power for good wherever you are: at home, among friends, at school, at work, anywhere. Then your life will be a blessing to everyone who knows you and associates with you, and you in return will be richly blessed yourself.”
26 Let us not become conceited, competing against and envying each other.
What happens when one Christian’s struggle against the Old Adam seems to go better than someone else’s struggle? People tend to compare. “Look at Otto,” we say, “he’s such a better Christian than Frank.” Paul keeps urging us forward like a drill sergeant. He warns us not to urge one another by saying “Look at me!” or even “Look at him or her!” Our model can only be Jesus. Don’t bother to envy another human being: they carry burdens we can’t fully understand since they aren’t our own. We all have special challenges in life and special opportunities which God has prepared for each of us specifically. Has someone asked you for help? That’s an opportunity. People actually ask one another for help so infrequently today, that when it actually happens, we can sometimes be startled. A good way to understand a “Let us not” or a “Thou shalt not” passage of the Bible is to rephrase it in a positive way. To put Paul’s words in a positive way, “Let’s be humble, urging and building each other up.”
In Christ,
Pastor Timothy Smith
Pastor Smith serves St. Paul’s Lutheran Church in New Ulm, Minnesota. To receive God’s Word for You via e-mail, please visit the St. Paul’s Lutheran Church website.