Chapter 6 A Viable Pattern of Living or A New Life Living Viably

Gal 5 must not be seen as Paul's "law" for Christians in this chapter we see why.

If Fee is correct in holding that our new identity is "the indwelling Spirit of the living God Himself" , it can scarcely be described as a leap into the dark of non-reflective mysticism to suggest that the real me is Christ [2:20]. If so, the Christian life can be distilled to "Christ expressing His life in and through me for the benefit of others". Consequently, it may be misleading to view "love" as being the "first of the Spirit's fruit in the life of the believer and the believing community" . It may be more accurate to suggest that love is the root rather than a "fruit" and that Galatians 5:22 is Paul's way of articulating Jesus' vine/branch relationship which He enjoys with the believer [Jn. 15:1-6]. He knows that the branch has no independent nature and can only produce the fruit of the tree. So, rather than a list of attainable and desirable virtues, Paul is simply sampling the "produce" of the believer's union with the indwelling Christ.

Certainly, Paul's metaphors of vessels [Rom. 9:22-23; 2 Cor. 4:7], temples [1 Cor. 8:10], wives [Eph. 5:25] and body [Eph. 1:22-23; 1 Cor. 12:27] might point us in that general direction. The believer does not imitate Christ's life. The believer participates in it, being a container in providing a conduit for the life of Christ and being a fruit-bearing branch which is the product of abiding in the vine [Jn. 15:5].

In John's Gospel, the contrast is between the true and false vines [Jn. 15:1]. In Galatians, it is the Galatians' respective produce that is under the microscope. The works of the flesh that Paul describes as the fruit unto death [Rom. 7:5] or the fruit of the Spirit [5:22-23] is a harvest of self-righteousness or Christ-righteousness respectively. Having previously been by nature "children of wrath" [Eph. 2:3], we are, by reason of the new birth, partakers of the divine nature [2 Pet. 1:3] which is God's essential nature - love. As believers, we come to express this nature which radiates from us to others [Jn. 13:35].

The mystery of the New Covenant [Col. 1:27] has suffered such neglect that it might better be described as being the "forgotten covenant". Thus, we see that the Spirit's role is to guide us into all truth [Jn. 16:13]. However, the central truth which we still seem to be unable to bear is that "Christ is our life" [Col. 3:4] where the life we live is Christ living His life through us [1 Cor. 1:30; Gal. 2:20; 1 Jn. 4:15]. It is a fatal error to see the Christian life as Christ enabling me to live for Him. It is can only ever be Him living His life through me. Without a consciousness of union [Jn. 17:23; 1 Cor. 6:19], there can be no "abundant life" [Jn. 10:10b] nor can there be freedom from condemnation [Rom. 8:1]. Instead, the believer is consigned to an impoverished sub-Christian life, unaware that all the time the believer is "Christ" in human form [1 Jn. 4:17].

Fee suggests that Paul sees "behaviour" as "faith expressing itself in love" [5:6] and refers to the Spirit as the "empowering life" . Having set forth the nature of Christ as effecting righteousness [2:15-4:31], Fee suggests that Paul concludes by offering a "viable pattern of living" and as such, Galatians 5:13-6:10 become "in some ways, the crux for understanding Galatians as a whole" . In the author's view, Galatians 2:20 is the seminal statement in Paul's Epistle to the Galatians and explains the subject Galatian passage which contrasts the inexorable outcomes of the life lived on either plane, namely, in the flesh or in the Spirit.

Therefore, Paul's "works of the flesh" menu in Galatians 5:19-21, rather than being the "filthy fifteen" vice cuisines, becomes potentially much more explosive if Paul had maintained the interchangeability of his usage of flesh/law. The truth is that the flesh wants to serve God just as much as the Spirit. However, as Cain discovered, motivation is what counts with God.

The author suggests that Paul offers no new legislation. Instead, he simply diffuses the mystery of the Gospel - "Christ in me" [Col. 1:27] - which is Christ living viably "as" me. Hence, it is submitted that Bruce's conclusion is too cautious where he opined that the fruit of the Spirit is "the love command with all its attendant graces [which] is fostered in those who live by the Spirit" . The author submits that, rather than "fostered", love has actually become the essential nature of the Christian.

Matera found "little agreement about how this material functions with the whole of Galatians" . The author suggests that this is because most interpreters view the subject Galatian passage as "reflecting a major shift in [Paul's] letter" instead of seeing it simply as the "development and conclusion of [Paul's] earlier arguments" . Other solutions seem to clutch at evangelical straws in an effort to rationalize or perhaps, intellectualise a most basic spiritual truth. O'Neill's interpolation thesis, for example, can be heard groaning under the weight of Paul's concluding remarks [6:11 ff ]. Dibelius fathoms whimsical depths by suggesting that such a crucial section of scripture is not related to the overall letter. Betz's view is dubious where his suggestion that "flagrant misconduct" was a major problem in Galatia is unproven, as is Jewett's description of this section of scripture being Paul's rearguard against the rise of "libertine tendencies" . There is no obvious textual evidence of an antinomian party at Galatia and only an oblique reference to any moral lapse is found in Galatians 2:17. The author is also suspicious of the suggestion that Galatians 5:13-6:10 is "a blue print for daily conduct" or an "ethical exhortation to a call to love" . Having considered various evangelical authorities, the author found little to recommend any of the explanations as to how the subject Galatian passage functions.

The author's evaluation is that the passage at issue is neither a parenthesis nor a postscript but rather, it appears to be the culmination of a response provoked by the Agitators. If we have followed Paul's thinking throughout Galatians, especially with reference to the revealing of the identity of Christ as the indwelling source of life, then Galatians 5:13-6:10 is rather predictable instead of being enigmatic or problematic. The author submits that by admitting "love is not simply a human virtue [but] the fruit of the Spirit" , Matera is bound to accept the possibility that if love is not simply a human virtue, then neither is lust (adultery) simply a human vice. In the subject Galatian passage, Paul merely defines the "fruit" or logical outcome of Christ living His life in us.

Whilst academics remain peevish about the Deeper Life and Union Life movements, the contribution of these movements should not be overlooked . What distinguishes these mystics from their skeptics is that they have made what Norman Grubb called the "crisis leap into Galatians" [2:20]. In the Union Life view, the "self" cannot be improved. Christ's offer is of a replacement life [2 Cor. 5:17], not a repaired old one.

Grubb's remarks are representative of the Union Life movement when, commenting on Galatians 2:20, he says:

"[Paul] starts by saying that Christ died for us, then he speaks of the Lord with us and then, goes on to his special revelation of Christ in us; but he ends up, when he gives his personal witness, by saying that Christ is the real I. "I live," he says in Galatians 2:20. "No," he corrects himself. It is not I but Christ living in me. Christ not with, not in, but replacing Paul, Christ in Paul's form. And Christ in your and my form."

This Union Life position seems more unfettered rather than unsophisticated and certainly, is to be preferred to Murphy-O'Connor's alternative of an ossifying world of legalism:

"Paul was not so na ve as to believe that the ingrained habits of a lifetime were automatically eradicated by the act of conversion. Much more than nominal membership was necessary. Thus, he warns the Galatians that if the victory of "the desires of the Spirit over the desires of the flesh" [5:17] is only a victory in principle, then their freedom will exist only in theory. Only those who have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires belong to Christ [5:24]. In other words, the Galatians have only been "set free for freedom" [5:1]. A possibility has been offered them. It is up to them to make it real."

If Christ is our life (and He is), it is not incumbent upon the believer to produce divine life [Jn. 10:10b]. The reproduction of divine life is organic - the sap, that is, the Zo life of God manifests His life in us. Both regeneration and reproduction are a work of God for man and not a work of man for God. It is for this reason that Paul is concerned that "Christ be fully formed in us" [4:19]. The believer participates in, and not impersonates, Christ's life. When the veil of the Law is lifted [2 Cor. 3:16], the believer is enabled to see through the eyes of the Spirit - the " you ought's " of Scripture permanently become the " you are's ". It is then that the " if's " (such as "If we walk ." and the like) become " since ". In the New Covenant, the Bible becomes a declaration that "YOU ARE". It is also then that the " you shall's " of the Old Testament (such as in Lev. 19) become fulfilled promises rather than threats. They are the Sword of the Spirit rather than the Sword of Damocles. The journey from " if " to " since " [5:18] is the process of recognition which the author calls sanctification. Sanctification is thus not primarily a progressive rectification of one's behaviour. It is a progressive and ever expanding awareness of our new identity [Col. 3:10].

Fee, p. 427.

Fee, p. xxi.

Fee, p. 429.

John's description of God as love suggests that "love" is a noun rather than a verb. Love is a Person [1 Jn. 4:8]. John states that "God is love", not that He loves but that He is love. In his book, Lifetime Guarantee (Harvest House, 1993), p. 219, Bill Gillham notes, "The word 'sin' appears forty-one times in Romans 5-8. Forty times it appears as a noun while only once does it appear as a verb [Rom. 5:12]". There is a view that suggests that "sin" is not something a person does but it is something that a person is or in the case of the Christian, is no longer.

Fee, p. 421.

Fee, p. 422.

Fee, p. 421.

Fee, p. 420.

F F Bruce, New International Greek Testament Commentary on Galatians (Grand Rapids: Michigan, 1982), p. 239.

Matera, p. 194.

Fee, p. 420.

Barclay, p. 213.

Betz, p. 273.

R Jewitt, The Agitators and the Galatian Congregation (NTS 17, 1970), pp. 198-212.

Dunn, The Epistle to the Galatians , p. 285.

James D Dunn, The Theology of Paul's Letters to the Galatians (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1993), p. 103.

Matera, p. 194.

The writings of mystics such as Jacob Boehme, William Law, Jeanne Guyon, Ruth Paxson, Norman Grubb, Gene Edwards and others offer a credible alternative and exciting challenge to mainstream evangelical scholarship.

Norman Grubb, Yes, I Am (Pennsylvania: Christian Literature Crusade, 1982), p. 90.

Norman Grubb, Who Am I? (Pennsylvania: Christian Literature Crusade, 1988), p. 56.

Jerome Murphy-O'Connor, Paul, A Critical Life (Oxford University Press, 1996), p. 209.