EXPLANATION OF GAL. V. 16-23.

"This I say then, Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil 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, revellings, and such like: of the which I tell you before, as I have also told you in time past, that they that do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God. But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, long-suffuring, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance: against such there is no law."

THE main use that, by a large portion of the Church, is made of this passage, one of the most important, when rightly understood, in the whole New Testament, is to sustain, by an application of Verse 17, a certain doctrine, the doctrine of the continued conscious sinfulness of all believers in this life. The conflict between the flesh and Spirit is of such a nature we are here taught, it is affirmed, that the believer cannot do the things that he would, that is, render the obedience which he purposes to render, or avoid "fulfilling the lust of the flesh," as he desires and attempts to do. This exposition imputes to the apostle, and to the Spirit of Inspiration in him, the most palpable contradiction and absurdity conceivable. His avowed object in this verse is, to verify, and the right exposition of it will verify, the proposition laid down in Verse 16, namely, "Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh." "For," that is, this proposition is, and must be true, because of the nature of the antagonism between the flesh and the Spirit. What is the logic of the apostle according to the construction under consideration of Verse 17? It is this: The proposition, "Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh," must be true, because there is such a conflict going on within you between the flesh and Spirit as to render it impossible for you to "walk in the Spirit," on the one hand, or to avoid "fulfilling the lusts of the flesh," should you desire and determine to do it, on the other. A construction which imputes to the Spirit of God such logic as that cannot accord with "the mind of the Spirit." The error and absurdity of this exposition will become still more manifest as we proceed. As preparatory to a correct exposition of these two verses, with those that follow, let us first of all identify--

The Parties at Issue in the Conflict here described.

The exposition above referred to assumes that the parties designated in this passage, as in conflict against each other, are the flesh on the one hand, and our own spirits on the other. This, as the whole context evinces, and Meyer most abundantly proves, is a great mistake. We are never required in the Scriptures to walk in our own spirits, but to "abide in Christ," to "walk in the light "(of God), and to "walk in the Spirit" (of God), to "walk after the Spirit." Throughout this epistle the flesh and the Spirit are set over against each other, and the term "the Spirit" invariably represents, as all commentators agree, the Spirit of God. The parties here represented, then, as in conflict, are, without a question, the flesh, or our sinful propensities, on the one hand, and the Spirit of God on the other. The case here presented is very different from that presented in Romans vii. 5-25, particularly in Verse 23--"But I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members." In this case the conflict is between "the flesh," the sinful propensities, and the conscience, "the law of the mind," the former impelling to sin, and the latter to obedience, while "the flesh" is always victorious. In other words, in this case the warfare is between two opposite principles of our own nature--our sinful propensities, and the conscience, with the former, as we said, always in the ascendant. The case presented in the passage under consideration (Gal. v. 17), on the one hand, is a conflict between the flesh, or sinful propensities, and the Spirit of God, and the believer may obey the latter. The error of the construction of Verse 17, the construction which we have already refuted, now becomes more palpable than it was before. This construction represents "the flesh" as in conflict, not with the spirit of man, but with the Spirit of God, and as so omnipotent, even against the latter, as to render it impossible for the Eternal Spirit Himself to enable the believer, when he desires and endeavours in the strength of God to do it, to avoid "fulfilling the lust of the flesh." Keeping distinctly in mind the great truth, that the parties revealed, in this passage, as in conflict the one against the other, are "the flesh" on the one hand, and "the Spirit of God" on the other, we now proceed to an exposition of the passage itself.

Verse 16.

To "walk in the Spirit" is the same thing as (Verse 18) to be "led by the Spirit." "As ye have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord," says the apostle, "so walk ye in Him." When we received Christ, we accepted of Him, as our "prophet, priest, and king," committing all your powers and interest to His guidance, control, and keeping. We walk in Christ when we do not "cast away our confidence," but continue to trust Him as we did at the beginning. The Spirit is given to us to us to "abide with us for ever," to "lead us into all truth," to "reveal the Son of God in us," to sanctify us "in soul, body, and spirit," to "keep us from falling," to endue us with "power for every good word and work," to show us "the glory of the Lord," so that "we shall be changed into the same image from glory to glory," and to perfect and perpetuate "our fellowship with the Father and with His Son Jesus Christ." We "walk in the Spirit" when we constantly yield ourselves up to His guidance. The revealed result of our doing this is, that we "shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh."

Verse 17.

The original word "gar," here rendered "for," has, according to the united testimony of all standard authorities, this fixed meaning--to wit, it implies that what follows contains the reason for what has been previously said or implied. In the verse before us, then, we have the inspired reason why those who "walk in the Spirit shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh." The reason is, that what the Spirit desires and impels us to do the flesh opposes; and what the flesh impels us to do the Spirit opposes, and the desires and efforts of each are opposed, repugnant, and contradictory to those of the other. The control of one must, consequently, exclude that of the other. As "they that are in the flesh (under its control) cannot please God," so they that "walk in" or are "led by" "the Spirit," cannot do what is contrary to the Spirit, that is, "fulfil the lust of the flesh" The meaning of the words, "so that ye cannot do the things that ye would," is obviously this: when under the control of the flesh ye cannot do what you would desire and will do if under the control of the Spirit; and, when under the control of the Spirit, ye cannot do what you would desire and will to do if under the control of the flesh. It follows, therefore, that if ye will walk in the Spirit, ye shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh. Thus explained, the whole argument of the apostle has perfect, logical consecutiveness, as well as great moral and spiritual significancy.

Verse 18.

In this verse the apostle opens to us the blessed freedom in which. we are, when "led by the Spirit," or "walking in the Spirit"--both forms of expression, as we have seen, meaning the same thing. We "are not under the law," that is, as Meyer very truly expresses the meaning of these words, we are then kept from doing anything on account of which "the law has power to censure, to condemn, or to punish us." "Against such" as bring forth "the fruit of the Spirit," the apostle affirms (Verse 23) "there is no law," no law by which "the fruit" they bring forth can be condemned. The same great truth is expressed by the apostle (Rom. viii. 1-4), " There is, therefore, now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk, not after the flesh, but after the Spirit." The specific reason assigned, all our past sins, as previously shown, being forgiven, is, that in our few relation to Christ, and new life and walk in the Spirit, we are kept from doing what would bring us into condemnation. In Christ and under the power of the Spirit, we are "made free from the law of sin and death," "sin in the flesh is condemned," that is, doomed to death, while "the righteousness of the law," the moral rectitude, which the law demands, "is fulfilled in us." "In Christ," and "walking, not after the flesh, but after the Spirit," that is, "walking in the Spirit," we are "kept," while this union continues, "by the power of God through faith," from doing what God, or his law, condemns. In other words still, when "in Christ," and "led by the Spirit," we "serve God unto all pleasing."

Creatures are under the law in different senses: for example, as a rule of moral action, in which sense all moral agents ever must be subject to, or under, the law--as a dispensation of law in distinction from a dispensation of grace, in which sense no believer is under the law--and as subject to the penalty of the law on account of sin, that is "under the curse of the law," a sense in which all. believers are not under the law, but are redeemed from the curse by the atonement of Christ. They are not at all under the law in this last sense whose sins are forgiven, and who are kept from doing that which brings them again under the penalty of the law. This is the revealed state of all who "are in Christ Jesus," and "walk after the Spirit." Their past sins are all forgiven, and they are kept from doing that which subjects them again to the curse of the law--that is, they that are led by the Spirit are not under the law, are kept from doing what subjects them to the penalty of the law.

Verses 19-23.

In these verses the apostle sets before us, in vivid and most impressive contrast, "the works of the flesh" on the one hand, and "the fruit of the Spirit" on the other--many of which works we shall do in fact and all in spirit "if we walk after the flesh," and "fruit" which we shall "bring forth unto God" if we "walk in" and are "led by the Spirit." "Living after the flesh we shall die." "Abiding in Christ," and "walking not after the flesh, but after the Spirit," we shall "have our fruit unto holiness and the end everlasting life"--"fruit" against those who bear which "there is no law." Such, unquestionably, is the real meaning of the whole passage under consideration, a passage every word of which, when rightly understood, is "like apples of gold in pictures of silver," but which, when misunderstood and misapplied (as it too long has been) "throws disastrous twilight over the face of the Sun of righteousness." We find ourselves in the unveiled presence of this dread alternative--to "resist the Holy Ghost," "live after the flesh," and die, or "through the Spirit, to mortify the deeds of the body," and live. While we must serve one or the other of them, "no man can serve these two masters."