Walk by the Spirit

When I say "walk by the Spirit" (Galatians 5:16), the word I use is the plain one for putting one foot in front of the other — the ordinary business of a day, step after step. It is not a mountaintop feeling but a manner of living, a road you keep to. And "the desires of the flesh" — the flesh there is not merely the body, but the whole self curved in on itself, apart from God. When I say "the works of the flesh" against "the fruit of the Spirit" (Galatians 5:19, 22), hear the difference in those two words: works are what you manufacture, many and scattered; fruit is what grows out of a living thing rooted in good soil. You do not screw fruit onto a branch. It comes because the tree is alive.

I take up this same warfare within a man when I groan over it at length — the doing of the very thing I hate, and no rescue but Christ (Romans 7:15–25), and then the freedom the Spirit gives to those who walk not according to the flesh (Romans 8:1–13). I press it on the Colossians as putting off the old garment and putting on the new (Colossians 3:5–14). And I plead it with the Ephesians in the same terms — put off the old self, be renewed, put on the new (Ephesians 4:22–24).

Men had come into the churches of Galatia telling those dear believers that faith in Christ was not enough — that they must be circumcised and take up the law of Moses to be truly counted in. I was beside myself over it (Galatians 1:6), for it emptied the cross. But then a shrewd objection arises: if you cast off the law, what fence is left against sin? Will not grace let men run wild? So I answer here — the law was never what restrained the flesh; the Spirit does that, and does it from within. As for me, I write as one who once kept the law blamelessly and found it could not make me new; only Christ did.

Here is the honest difficulty: if the Spirit does the growing, why must I be commanded to walk, to keep in step (Galatians 5:16, 25)? Is it God's work or mine? I will not smooth this away. Look at the text — both are there, side by side, and I did not apologize for it. The fruit is the Spirit's; the walking is yours. You cannot make the tree grow, but you can refuse to feed the flesh (Galatians 5:24 — those who belong to Christ have crucified it, a thing done, yet daily reckoned true). Do not resolve the tension by dropping one half. Abide, and obey, and let God be the one who gives the increase.