AUGUST 23, 2025 – WALK BY THE SPIRIT

READ: Gal. 5:13–18: … For the flesh lusts against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh … you are not under the law.

The gratitude of being a free child of God by grace in Christ certainly does not mean that the law no longer has a role. The law still has a very important function, but very different from its role in the life of someone still under the law and outside the grace of Christ. In the freedom of Christ and through the gift of His Spirit, God’s law is not a path to salvation but a guide for gratitude for the redemption Christ gives.

The Holy Spirit wants to work that gratitude in us. Through Him, we put on the new self. However, we must remember that even a believer is not free from the flesh, the old self. There remains a struggle—not just as an antithesis against those who live under the law, like the Judaizers—but also against our own sinful flesh still within us.

The old self brings sinful desires that go against God’s good law, and we all too easily give in to them. By nature, we resist the love of God and our neighbor.

But thanks be to God, faith in Christ causes Him to give His Spirit, so that—even though it remains tainted with sin—we follow and allow the Spirit to work in us.

These are not minor issues. God gives faith precisely so that we may walk by the Spirit, using the law as our guideline to please Him and to love our neighbor whom He created.

We are children of the light, after all!

Our expressions of gratitude are reasons to rejoice: they are proof of our faith in Christ and of the indwelling of the Spirit in us.

At the same time, our gratitude brings struggle. But as long as we live from the forgiveness of our sins through the blood of Christ and pray for the power of the Holy Spirit, there will be peace in our lives.

Then we need not fear, for we are not under the law (v.18).

How do we recognize the old self in ourselves?

Sing: Ps. 25:4,5