For those of you following along with our morning services, you know we've been taking a deep look into the book of Galatians. Galatians was the first book the Apostle Paul wrote, and he did so to combat the all-to-common tendency of Christians to add works to the Gospel. Paul repeatedly calls this added requirement (in this case circumcision) a different Gospel. Jesus came to fulfill the Law and He did. He kept it perfectly in its entirety, fulfilling the onerous requirements of the law in our place, just as His death, burial, and resurrection were in our place. Our Salvation was earned by Jesus alone and is received by faith alone in Him. 

So, why is it, that having started by faith, so many of us want to carry out the Christian walk by the flesh? While most Christians would agree that keeping the Law of Moses is not required for salvation, all to frequently, they build up their own laws, formed with good intentions but altogether accomplished by the "strength" of the flesh. What is required of the Christian? Faith working through love. (Gal 5:6) In real terms, though, what does that look like? I can tell you it doesn't look like me following a set of rules and regulations designed to make me appear to be a "good Christian". Neither does it look like me running wildly towards the very sins Jesus died to save me from. Both sets of actions flow directly from the flesh. Either I'm fighting the flesh BY the flesh, or I'm surrendering TO the flesh. 

There is a better way. It is, in fact, the ONLY way. Paul calls it "walking in the Spirit". He says in Galatians 5:25 "If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit." His point is that we, as Christians, are born by faith into the Spirit of God, receiving at that moment the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. He is the down payment on the inheritance that is ours together with Christ. So, from the moment we are saved we are LIVING in the Spirit, but for the rest of our lives, we are learning to WALK in submission to the Spirit's leading. It would be easy, except the flesh battles against the Spirit in a daily war over our actions. Like a toddler, we take a few steps following the Spirit's leading, only to fall back into our old fleshly ways, either by falling into sin or by creating rules to follow instead of the Spirit. As we mature in the faith, we learn to walk in the steps of the Spirit more consistently. It is there where the FREEDOM Paul writes about is found. No need for rules or laws and no chains binding us to sin. Just the unbound freedom of following our Savior's leading daily wherever that takes us.