When the Flesh is Tugging

Meditations on Galatians

November 17, 2021

When the Flesh is Tugging

For the whole law can be summed up in this one command: “Love your neighbor as yourself.”

Galatians 5:14

Read: Galatians 5: 13-21

Jesus Christ has set us free from the power of sin that separated us from God. Our New Covenant relationship with God has been won by, and secured by, Jesus for all eternity. Paul wants us to embrace our freedom, to rejoice in our freedom, and to choose to live each day in our freedom in Christ. In this passage, Paul begins to demonstrate how different our freedom in Christ is from the law. The law provides a list of dos and don’ts. Keep the law and you’ll be in a right-relationship with God. Of course, the problem we know all too well is that no one can faithfully keep the law.

Freedom does not provide a list of dos and don’ts. Freedom provides us with signposts pointing the way toward God, and then we have the freedom to choose which way we want to go.  The more we choose the ways of God, the more we train ourselves in the life of Christ. However, in keeping with the truth Paul has been teaching in this letter, choosing the right path is vitally important.

The apostle Paul was not too big on shades of gray. He saw things as black and white. You are either in Christ, or you are not. You are either living by grace, or you are living under the law. You are either living by the Spirit, or you are living by the flesh.

My Takeaway: Paul’s argument is quite simple. If your lifestyle resembles the characteristics of the flesh life in Galatians 5:19-21, you are making the wrong choices in life. Paul wants us to know we do not have to follow the desires of our sinful flesh. Through the power of Christ, we can choose to follow Christ in the ways of God. When we feel the tug of our flesh, let us always recall Paul’s words in Romans 7:24-25: “Oh, what a miserable person I am! Who will free me from this life that is dominated by sin and death? Thank God! The answer is in Jesus Christ our Lord.”

P.S. Also, hold on to the promise of Romans 8:1-2.

Sē’lah

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(Selah is a word that appears in the Book of Psalms that I often use as the Complimentary Closing in my correspondence. Its meaning, as I use the word, is to pause and think about these things.)

 

These meditations are written by Alex M. Knight as he seeks the life in Christ as his way of life.  The meditations are published on the BLOG, http://seekingthelifeinchrist.blogspot.com/ and they are also distributed on the Constant Contact email server. You may subscribe to this email service by sending an email to: amkrom812@gmail.com.

 

Copyright © 2021 by Alex M. Knight

 

Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture quotations are taken from the Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.