“This I say then, walk in the Spirit and you will not fulfill the lust of the flesh.” – Galatians 5:16

“We ought to mark the word fulfill; by which he means, that, though the sons of God, so long as they groan under the burden of flesh, are liable to commit sin, they are not its subjects or slaves, but make habitual opposition to its power.”

John Calvin
Commentary On The Epistle To The Galatians – pg.162

It is imperative to note that the Apostle writes this letter to a group of Christians. It is Christians who must be warned to not fulfill the ‘lust of the flesh.’ This reminds us that our eschatology must always retain a flavor of the ‘not yet’ about it. It is true that we are not what we once were but it also remains true that this necessity of contending against the lust of the flesh reminds us that we are not yet what we will one day be. While here, we have only entered heaven’s vestibule and so must continue to seek to press in to the inner sanctum.

Christians thus are a people who are torn. On one hand they are citizens of the heavenly Kingdom already having been conveyed to the Kingdom of God’s dear Son and yet there resides in the heart of these Kingdom citizens a fifth column that gnashes against this better home. The solution that the Holy Spirit inspired Apostle offers is the necessity to ‘walk in the Spirit.’

This is a recurring theme in Paul but particularly so in Galatians 5 where several times in just a few verses he refers to the necessity of ‘walking in the spirit,’ ‘living in the spirit,’ or being ‘led by the Spirit.’ Obviously the solution for the lust of the flesh that remains a smoldering coal that retains the potential of creating a motivating flame in the heart of God’s people is Spirit centered.

Christians are God’s people and have been given the Spirit as a deposit guaranteeing that which is to come. By the Spirit of Christ we have been united to Christ so that we are dead to sin but alive to Christ. The Apostle’s inspired counsel here in Galatians 5 to these Christians is to become what they are. They belong to Christ and as such they are to be animated by the Spirit of Christ and not the Spirit of anti-Christ.

Note though that the empowerment that is theirs results in their being led, and living and walking in such a way that they increasingly though never perfectly conform to an established standard. That standard is the one of love as seen in Galatians 5:13. Yet, this gold standard of love, as a motivating factor that can only be accomplished by being led by the Spirit, is not something that is defined by warm feelings or good intentions. This gold standard of love for God and others that is opposed to the lust of the flesh – a lust that is characterized by a carnal short-sighted love of self – is informed by God’s law.

This is important to articulate because in vs. 18 the Apostle can say something that sounds like the law has nothing to do with ‘being led by the Spirit’ or ‘walking in the Spirit’ or ‘living in the Spirit.’ In vs. 18 we read,

But if you are being led by the Spirit you are not under law.

First vs. 14 clearly indicates, despite the efforts of much of Evangelicalism, that the law in vs. 18 is not being thrown overboard so that Christians no longer have any relationship to the law – a action which yields the unhappy consequence that Christians end up defining love independently of God’s law – rather the whole thrust of the obedience that the Apostle is looking for from the Galatians is a fulfilling of the law (see. vs. 14).

The opposition that the Apostle is making between ‘being led by the Spirit’ and ‘not being under the law’ is a opposition of contrary empowerments not a opposition of contrary standards. The law required but gave no strength. Now being justified freely by Grace and so being led by the Spirit we are empowered to make a beginning at fulfilling what the law requires (14). As Christians we are not under the law in its condemning capacity. As Christians we are not under the law as a system whereby we curry righteousness. As Christians we are not under law as a means of being empowered. But as Christians we still measure our behavior by the standard of God’s law. As Christians we still are aiming at fulfilling the whole law (14).

The fact that the law retains its place as the standard by which Christians must adjudicate what ‘love’ looks like is seen in the rest of Galatians 5. The inspired Apostle gives two antithetical lists. One gives behavior that is the result of the lust of the flesh. The other records behavior that is the fruit of the Spirit. But the thing to note here is that both lists need God’s law as a standard to identify these behaviors. If God’s law were not still operative as a definitional standard for the Christian then the Christian could easily fulfill the lust of the flesh all the while insisting those behaviors were really in point of fact ‘fruit of the Spirit.’ It is only by God’s law that we know the difference between behavior that is characterized as ‘fruit of the Spirit’ versus behavior that is characterized as ‘lust of the flesh.’

So the law cannot provide empowerment to bear the fruit of the Spirit. The law cannot bring relief to consciences that have violated its demands. The law cannot serve as a ladder by which we climb into the presence of God. The attempt to keep the law cannot be a means by which we augment our justification. Because of the advent of Christ the law, in its ceremonial expression, cannot have a role in the living of the Christian life. All these things the law cannot do and so in reference to what it cannot do Christians are not under the law.

BUT the God’s law still remains the definitional standard by which we know what it means and what it looks like to love God with all our heart, soul, mind and strength, and to love our neighbor as ourselves. God’s law still provides the parameters in which we know what the fruit of the Spirit looks like.

The problem that we have when we get rid of God’s law as a definitional standard by which we know what it means and looks like to love God and man is that we diminish both the value of the work of Christ and any sense of ongoing gratitude for that work. When we teach that Christians are under grace and not law the way that the Church often teaches that we Christians no longer see our sin and so we no longer continue to repair to Christ and we no longer have a sense of gratitude that despite the sin that still clings to us and besots the best of our fruit we are, because of Christ’s finished work on the Cross, owned as God’s people. When the law, as God’s definitional standard, is preempted for the fuzzy standard of an undefined ‘love’ what results is the replacement of God’s standard for what love looks like (as found in His law) for man’s standard for what love looks like.