April '26

As we’ve spent the last nine weeks trawling our way through the list of vices found in Galatians 5, a thought rings true:

“I see this too much in my life.”

We are sinners. If we are honest, we probably have spent a lot of time thinking “I do that too much” or “When you put it like that, I am guilty of this much more than I thought I was”.

If we measure ourselves up against this list of vices, or any of the others found in the New Testament and listed in the table below, we can conclude that there is no way we could be considered holy before God.

Reading all of these lists can be a bummer. The immediate thought is that we aren’t good enough. There’s some good truth in that though.

We aren’t.

We aren’t good enough. We aren’t holy enough. We aren’t righteous enough.

Hopefully that hasn’t been your only conclusion from this sermon series. While pointing out where we consistently and so often fall short, there is also hope in those first couple of verses of this section of Galatians 5. 

Verses 16 to 18 says this:

[16] But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. [17] For the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh, for these are opposed to each other, to keep you from doing the things you want to do. [18] But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law. (ESV)

There is a war going on in the life of the believer. Paul gives the promise that walking by the Spirit will cause us to not give in to the desires of our flesh. If you’ve been doing the christian life for longer than a moment, you’ll have already started to see this take place. Not everything on those lists are as evident as they once were in the believer. How? 

By the Spirit. 

The Spirit is at war for us, and if we continue to keep in step with the Spirit, we will not gratify the desires of the flesh.

Even still there is more hope to be found.

While the continual transformation of the Spirit is a great blessing for us strugglers, we will never be clear of this list.

But the promise of verse 18 is true! If you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law.

As Christians, we are not under the law!

The accuser has nothing on you, if you are covered by Christ’s blood, walking by the Spirit.

How great is it, to not be under the law. To know that no matter how much you trip up, and fall flat (although you will do it less and less as your walk with God continues), the Holy God, creator of heaven and earth, the only righteous one, the only one who has perfectly kept the law, does not hold you under that law in His final judgement.This is what Jesus has bought for the believer. When the Judgement Day comes, he sees Jesus, the one who perfectly kept the law. 

As we head into nine weeks in the Fruit of the Spirit, the opposite thought may ring true:

“I don’t see enough of this in my life!” or “I don’t practice this enough.”

Again the hope is the same. Where sin abounded, grace abounded much more.

Ultimately, if you are in Christ, the father sees Christ’s fruit in your place. However, we are still called to be fruitful. One thing to note is that these aren’t the fruit of me or the fruit of you. They're the fruit of the Spirit.

It’s not by your own strength that the fruit comes about, but by the work of the Spirit. As we continue to walk by the Spirit, we will see sin decrease and fruit increase.

There is still effort to be put into our walk with God, we will stumble, and we will never attain pure righteousness on this side of death, but something that should spur us on during life is the fact that 2000 years ago, the verdict was made final. Sin was paid for, and we could be reconciled to God.

If we live by the Spirit, let us also keep in step with the Spirit.

Ps Brandon Hill