Galatians 5: 22-26

Thursday, September 19, 2013  Galatians 5: 22-26

I noted in the previous meditation, that the Apostle Paul 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. Paul sees these two ways of living as being completely opposite of each other, like forces constantly fighting each other. In the previous passage, Paul listed some of the characteristics of living in the flesh. Here he helps us understand what it is like for us when we are living the Life in Christ, or living by the Spirit: “love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control” (Galatians 5:22-23).

We all know it is better for us to live by the Spirit instead of the flesh. I’m sure if we put that up for a vote it would pass. How can the Spirit-life ascend and the flesh life descend in our life? In verse 24, Paul says “Those who belong to Christ Jesus have nailed the passions and desires of their sinful nature to his cross and crucified them there.”  How in the world do we do that? Actually, God has already done the heavy lifting for us. Paul is showing us that when we came to God by faith in Christ Jesus our old life was crucified with Christ, and God has now given us new life in Christ. This old life/new life is a gift of God’s grace. Now that we are alive to God in Christ, we get to choose how we want to live our life. We are finite creatures; that is, we have a limited amount of consciousness. We get to choose with what we will fill our lives.

Think of Paul’s two lists, the characteristics of the flesh-life (v. 19-21), and the characteristics of the life in Christ (v. 22-23) as items on the buffet line of life. It is an AYCE buffet, but you can only choose nine items. Which do you choose?

Do you see how new life in Christ works? If you consciously choose to fill your life with the qualities of the Christ-life, there is no room left for the flesh life.

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.  In addition to this BLOG they are distributed on the Constant Contact email server. You may subscribe to this email service by sending an email to: amkrom812@gmail.com. The BLOG is also available on Amazon Kindle, by subscription.

Publications by Alex M. Knight:

·        Seeking the Life in Christ, Meditations on the New Testament and Psalms has been published and is now available at Amazon.com in paperback and Kindle.

·        The second edition of  First Think – Then Pray is available on Amazon Kindle.

·        Meditations on The Story of My Life as told by Jesus Christ has been released as an e-book on Amazon Kindle.