How To Live The Christian Life

LETTER TO THE GALATIANS

HOW TO LIVE THE CHRISTIAN LIFE APART FROM THE LAW—
IN THE POWER OF THE SPIRIT OF CHRIST! (5:13-6:10)
Part Three

SPECIFIC WORKS OF THE SPIRIT

An Introductory Word About the Life of the Spirit

The purpose of this study is to focus on Galatians; however, Galatians being written for a specific audience is not going to cover every detail in the area it addresses. I do, though, want to point out 2 areas of the life of Spirit which Paul doesn’t address here but which he and the NT address elsewhere. Because these 2 areas characterize the life produced by the Spirit of Christ, these areas, therefore, characterize the life of the sons and daughters of God.

1. The role of the Word in the life of God's Sons and Daughters.

The Spirit leads us to His Word. I’ve seen that the most spiritual people in the world, those who are close to the Spirit, are people of the Word. When a person becomes a Christian, he is probably closer to the Spirit than at any other time in his life. The night my son was saved, I was a little nervous about the genuineness of his salvation because he was only 7 at that time. I asked the Lord for some reassurance. That night after he had made his profession of faith in Christ, I looked into his room. That little 7-year-old boy was lying on his bed reading his Bible. Neither his mom or I had asked him to; he just did it naturally—because the Spirit who was working so powerfully in his heart was naturally leading him to His Word.
It is uncanny that Eph. 5:18-6:9 and Col. 3:16-4:1 are parallel passages; for all practical purposes, they say almost the same thing--how to live the Christian life. Eph. 5:18ff. says that this is the life produced by the Spirit; Col. 3:16ff. claims that this same life is produced by God's Word dwelling in a person’s heart. The 2 passages don’t contradict each other. Rather, they are showing us that the Spirit AND the Word produce the same life, the Spirit-led life which is the same as the Word-led life. Why do the Word and the Spirit produce the same kind of life? Because the Spirit is the One who gave us the Word.
Too often those who claim to be Spirit-filled confuse their feelings with the movement of the Spirit. When I was at seminary, I would hear of young ministers claiming that God told them to leave their spouses for another woman. How could you tell that person he was wrong when he claimed he was under the leadership of the Spirit? Simple. What he did contradicted the very Word which the Spirit produced. 2 Pet. 1:21 explicitly states that the Spirit Himself moved upon the authors of the Bible to produce the Bible. Since the Spirit/God is not bipolar, He will not command us one thing in the Word and then command us to do something later which contradicts that Word.

Because the Spirit is so closely tied to His Word, we are to be people of the Word; we are to interact with that Word. There are several ways a person can interact with God's Word

HEAR God's Word. When John claims that those who hear God's Word are blessed (Rev. 1:3), he is referring to those who hear God's Word at church. They not only hear God's Word read, they hear it interpreted by the pastor/teacher.
READ God's Word. In your daily devotionals. God may be saying something specifically to you.
STUDY God's Word. You may be studying for a Sunday School lesson or a Beth Moore Bible study. No matter the specific context, studying God's Word is beneficial.
MEMORIZE God's Word. David writes: "Thy word I have treasured in my heart that I may not sin against Thee" (Ps. 119:11). I can't treasure that Word unless I have memorized it. (We memorize everything else: notes for a test at school, our driver's license #, our Social Security #, baseball stats, list of academy award winners, etc. We memorize things which are so insignificant but refuse to memorize God's Word. That does NOT make sense.)
MEDITATE upon God's Word. Process that Word. Understand how it applies specifically to YOUR life. Your concern is NOT to determine how to applies to everybody else, just how it applies to YOU!

The key to all this, though, is OBEDIENCE! I can read, meditate, study, memorize, and hear God's Word all day long; however, until I obey it, I am wasting my time. Knowing God's Word is not sufficient--Satan is proof of that. Rather, knowing AND obeying God's Word are what are essential.

2. The life of God's sons and daughters: adventure produced by the Spirit-led/faith-filled life.

Too often we fail to understand the wonderful life produced by the Spirit. We look at Galatians 5:21-22 and are kind of put off by all the gushiness of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, etc. Two things here. First, the person who experiences love, joy, etc. doesn’t think that they are all that gushy. Second, this is not all the Spirit produces in the individual. He also produces a life, a real life, a life worthy of the sacrifice of Christ. Jesus didn’t say, “I came to make you smarter.” He claimed, “I came that they might have life and might have it abundantly” (John 10:10).

There are 2 great surveys of the OT in the NT (Acts 7 and Heb. 11). Too often we think that the OT saints lived under the Law of Moses, while we live in faith. That’s simply not true. Hebrews 11 without one mention of the Law in its survey of the OT claims that the great men and women of the OT were people of faith. And look at the adventures they experienced! Abel offered to God a better sacrifice than Cain! Enoch walked with God to such an extent that God snatched him up before he died! Noah saved the world by building the ark. Abraham walked with God and received the covenant of the blessing. Moses delivered the children of Israel from Egypt, etc., etc. “And what more shall I say, for time will fail me if I tell of Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah, David, and Samuel and the prophets who by faith conquered kingdoms, performed acts of righteousness . . .” (Heb. 11:32). According to the author of Hebrews, all the great people of the OT were people of faith—which meant a life of real adventure.

For this reason we understand now why C.S. Lewis emphasizes adventure in his children’s stories. He is trying to impress upon us this aspect of the Christian life. Unfortunately we have reduced Christianity to just a set of rules. .That is not the reason Christ died for us, so that we might start living by a set of rules. He came to give us life and give it abundantly.

Why is it that most of us don't experience this life of adventure? First, it is because we are more concerned about our comfort and security than we are about the life Christ died to give us. We are so busy saying, "No!" to everything life asks of us that we miss out on that life. Start saying, "Yes!" Yes to requests from the pastor, yes to requests from your children and spouse, yes to friends and acquaintances. Get off the couch, stop watching TV and start experiencing the life Christ died to give you!

Second, most of us have been led to believe by spiritual leaders that the sum total of the Christian life is going to church and tithing. Now both of those are important. But why would church leaders emphasize these 2 aspects of the Christian life to the exclusion of the life of adventure? Mainly because going to church and tithing affects them personally; so it is natural for them to emphasize these 2 aspects of the Christian life. HOWEVER, if you were to read the Bible analytically, you would find very few passages which speak about going to church or to the synagogue. Yes, God's people have always honored worship; however, the Bible is primarily about the story--the story of the kind of life only God can give you. What specific life God has in store for you I don't know, but it is NOT one of mediocrity or just attending worship!