Chapter 4 The Role of the Spirit

The Person and work of the Holy Spirit is greatly misunderstood. The Spirit neither "helps" or "empowers" the Christian live the Christian life. The function of the Spirit is to introduce the Christian to Jesus who is the Christian's life.

Having demolished the case for Torah observance by the unceremonious demonstration of its inadequacy, Paul cannot now "rebuild what [he has] torn down" [2:18] and it is incumbent upon him as "a good teacher to give the other side of the coin" . Paul's alternative is to prove the Spirit's sufficiency to sustain life without Torah . Watchman Nee's explanation is typically concise:

"The cross has been given to produce salvation for us; the Holy Spirit has been given to produce salvation in us."

Traditionally, the Spirit's role is perceived as the antidote to the Law. However, in reality, the Spirit is Paul's antithetical alternative as evidenced in the two laws circumscribed in Romans: (1) the law of sin and death and (2) the law of the Spirit of life [Rom. 8:2]. Torah, the law of sin and death, is a "ministry of condemnation" [2 Cor. 3:9]. The letter kills but the Spirit gives life [2 Cor. 3:6b]. Torah can never vivify and the Spirit can never mortify.

For salvation, Torah requires good works which its adherents are powerless to produce whereas the Spirit makes no such requirement and yet, Spirit-led believers bear "fruit" [Rom. 7:5; Rom. 8:2]. Paul speaks in terms of two "types" of persons: (1) those "in the flesh" and (2) those "in the Spirit". Paul says that believers are not in the flesh but in the Spirit [Rom. 8:9].

"Where the Spirit is, there is freedom" [2 Cor. 3:17] and Torah must be prevented from re-entering the community in the guise of the Spirit. The modern over-emphasis on the Spirit in some circles is in danger of shifting our focus from the indwelling Christ as our life [2:20; 1 Cor. 1:30; Col. 3:4] to viewing the Spirit as our empowering Helper. The primary concern of the Spirit is not to empower the believer to live the Christian life himself but the Spirit's function is to be the Agency who reproduces the life of Christ in the believer. In the subject Galatian passage, the life of Christ is evidenced in terms of "the fruit of the Spirit" which is the manifestation of the life of Christ in us . The primary role of the Spirit in the New Covenant environment is to establish the believer in Christ as the very object and source of His life.

Having considered Paul's treatment of the Law earlier , we now consider his treatment of the Spirit. Paul makes a number of contrasting observations:

.  Walking by the Spirit obviates the desires of the flesh [5:16];

.  One who is led by the Spirit is not under the Law [5:18];

.  The fruit that the Spirit bears is the nature of the indwelling Christ [5:22,23];

.  The Spirit is both a positional and an experiential realm [5:25].

Life in the Spirit has a practical outworking in the form of other-centred living (in direct contrast to self-centred living). Those who are spiritual provoke one another to good works, carry one another's burdens, restore and build others up [6:1-3].

Paul's "walk in the Spirit" imperative ensures that two things will occur - firstly, the Spirit pulls us away from flesh and secondly, that pulling away lifts us out from under the Law. Ironically, "by walking in the Spirit deliberately, one fulfils the Law accidentally" . Yet, even here, it is important to note that whilst the initial phases of the life in the Spirit is a conscious thing, the Spirit eventually functions at a more subliminal, even at an unconscious, level within the believer.

Galatians 5
 
Verse 16
 Verse 18
 
If you walk by the Spirit, you will not fulfill the desires of the flesh .
 If you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the Law , i.e. the tyranny of the flesh. 
 

Having turned to Christ and the veil lifted [2 Cor. 3:15], the believer is able to realize that through their identification with Christ, they have fulfilled the requirements of Torah [Rom. 10:4]. The abolition and obsolescence of Torah [Eph. 2:15; Col. 2:14; Heb. 8:13] effected our liberation into the unseen realm of the Spirit [3:2-5; 3:14; 4:6; 4:29; 5:16-23; 5:25; 6:1; 6:8], a paradigm which is not governed by appearances [2 Cor. 5:16].

In this new dimension where the believer now "lives" [5:25], Paul issues the imperative - "Walk in the Spirit" - a term whilst peculiar to Paul, is a familiar theme in his writings [5:16; Eph. 5:2,8 and 15; Col. 2:6; 1 Thes. 4:1]. For Paul, the equation is as irreducible as it is irresistible. "Walk in the Spirit and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh." Moreover, the opposite was equally true [5:17]. The flesh and the Spirit are diametrically-opposed irreconcilable opposites. And crucially, "the fight with the flesh is not ours but the Holy Spirit's, for these are contrary the one to the other, and it is He, not we, who meets and deals with it."

Imperative
  Walk in the Spirit
  Walk in the flesh
 
  ?
  ?
 
Promise
  You will not gratify

the desires of the flesh
  You will not gratify

the desires of the Spirit