There
is one line running right through this letter to the
Galatians which seems to reveal perhaps the main factor
in spiritual growth: the place and work of the Holy
Spirit. We should do well if we were to follow that line
through at this time. There are some thirteen references
to the Holy Spirit in the letter. We shall not refer to
them all, but confine ourselves to several quite distinct
features or factors connected therewith.
It is
quite clear from this letter, and, of course, from other
parts of the Word, that the Holy Spirit is essential and
basic to the realising of all the purposes of God in the
individual believer and in the church. It may help us to
come to quite a simple presentation of that truth as it
is unfolded in this letter.
The
Receiving of the Spirit
In
this connection read chapter 3:1-2: “O foolish
Galatians, who did bewitch you, before whose eyes Jesus
Christ was openly set forth crucified? This only would I
learn from you, Received ye the Spirit by the works of
the law, or by the hearing of faith?”
Those
words in verse 2 touch the matter right at the beginning
in the simplest, most elementary form. They have to do
with the receiving of the Spirit. We must pause for a
moment to recollect the connection between this
interrogation and the whole purpose of the letter. It
would seem that the apostle is doing something like this.
He is saying, “Now you Galatians responded to the
message of the gospel, and in doing so you made a
tremendous move from one realm to another. You came right
out of that whole pagan realm with its externalities of
religious observance, all its practices. You forsook all,
and you took the position of simple, definite faith in
the Lord Jesus. When you did so, the seal of your
acceptance, the seal upon your faith attitude, the mark
which God gave that you were a new creation in Christ,
was that you received the Holy Spirit; and you received
the Holy Spirit from God, that all God’s purpose in
you should be realised, now that you had come into a
living relationship with Him in His Son, Jesus Christ.
That receiving of the Holy Spirit was basic and
all-inclusive. It was the seal, the earnest, the
guarantee. With the Holy Spirit you had the assurance of
everything, you had the dynamic of everything; there was
nothing more to be anxious about. Receiving the Spirit,
the inheritance is secured unto you, you are sealed. It
was a tremendous thing for you to receive the Holy
Spirit, because it meant that God had started His work
and had got the ground in you for carrying His work right
through to completion. Yes, the Holy Spirit was
everything for the purposes of God.”
“How
then did you receive the Spirit? You know quite well that
you did not receive the Spirit by all your religious
observances in paganism; they never got you through to
that. It was when, upon hearing the message of the gospel
concerning God’s Son, you stepped out of that whole
system of religious activities by a definite act of
faith, and reposed your trust in the Lord Jesus. It was
then that you received the Holy Spirit, ‘not by
works of law’.” (You must drop out the article
there. The margin corrects it. It is, “by works of
law”. There was the pagan law, just as there was the
Mosaic law.) “It was not by works of law in your
pagan religion that you received the Spirit, but by
hearing the message of faith. It was a tremendous thing
for you to receive the Holy Spirit; everything was
included”.
“Here
are these Judaisers, coming along and telling you that
you must observe the Mosaic law; that you must come back,
not to your pagan law, but to Jewish law. To give heed to
them is to be in danger of going back behind the Holy
Spirit, back behind the gift of the Holy Spirit, back on
to a ground which never issued in your receiving the
Spirit”.
Now
that is the connection of the question. You can see how
big a question it is, how much is involved. Thus the
simple fact is the point for the moment. The receiving of
the Holy Spirit includes all that God intends as to
purpose, and power to realise that purpose; and all the
light, and the guidance, and the knowledge, and the
understanding, and everything that will bring about
spiritual maturity unto God’s end, is with the Holy
Spirit. Receive the Spirit and you have all that in Him.
It has to be worked out, but there it is. There is no
work or effort of any kind whatsoever on our part bound
up with our receiving the Holy Spirit. That is basic. We
receive the Holy Spirit on exactly the same ground and
basis as we receive justification, as we receive
forgiveness, and that is by faith in the Lord Jesus, the
hearing of faith, the message of faith. How did we
receive forgiveness? We know that we never got
forgiveness by struggling after it, or by working for it.
How did we come into the blessed place of the justified?
Never by any works of ours, but by faith in the grace of
God. Not until we came to that position of simple,
positive and definite faith in the grace of God in Jesus
Christ did we receive forgiveness and justification. In
exactly the same way we receive the Holy Spirit. That
makes the beginning of this thing very simple: too simple
for a great many people; too simple for this active,
practical disposition of ours.
We do
so often find ourselves in the attitude and position and
state of mind that we must somehow do something in order
to receive the Holy Spirit. Well, let us give heed to the
apostle’s challenge. The Holy Spirit is basic and
all-inclusive for the purpose of God, you can have
nothing greater. With the Holy Spirit you have
everything, and all that on the simple, definite act of
faith in the grace of God. We must remember that just as
eternal life is spoken of as the gift of God to faith, so
the Holy Spirit is also spoken of as the gift of God to
faith. When you had forgiveness through the exercise of
definite faith, did God give you instantly the witness
that you had forgiveness, that you were a new creation?
Were you not put to the test as to whether it was really
faith or feeling? Were you not compelled to stand your
ground very often without a sensation? “God for
Christ’s sake has forgiven you your sin, has
justified you, has imputed unto you Christ’s
righteousness, has accepted you”. Against a good
deal of challenging you had to hold that ground. You
found everything rising up to deny it, but faith called
into operation became the ground of the ultimate
assurance and the life which has issued therefrom, that
you today know you are the Lord’s. In exactly the
same way the Holy Spirit is received, not in sensation,
not in feeling, but in faith.
That
is very elementary, but that is where the letter begins
in this matter of the Holy Spirit, and you see what a lot
is bound up with it. We have spent all this time in these
meditations stressing the tremendous issue involved in
that. How far-reaching this matter is! How heaven and
hell are locked in a terrific conflict in relation to
these souls, in relation to God’s full purpose, and
how the soul of the apostle is in travail because of the
issues involved! Now right at the outset all that is
brought to hang upon the simple yet definite receiving of
the Holy Spirit. If you have truly recognised the ground
upon which God gives the Holy Spirit you can never return
to law, the law of carnal commandments contained in
ordinances; you can never return to any ground of works;
you can never return to any place where the externals of
religion become the ground of your acceptance with God.
It begins in faith, and it goes on in faith.
Let us
recognise that everything begins with its beginning,
everything hangs upon the first thing, and perhaps it is
often necessary even for veterans in Christ to return to
their beginnings. I am not sure that the next point does
not find us out.
Continuing
in the Spirit
“Are
ye so foolish? having begun in the Spirit, are ye now
perfected in the flesh?” (verse 3).
The
margin renders it thus: “Do you now make an end in
the flesh?” Having begun in the Spirit are you going
to reach the end in the flesh? The apostle says quite
clearly that the whole life has to be sustained and
maintained by the Holy Spirit through faith, just as the
beginning had to be made through faith in the Holy
Spirit. The fact is that we do not change our position
from one of abject need to one of personal ability when
we become children of God. Having received the Spirit by
faith, and having become the children of God, we are no
more competent in ourselves to go on than we were to make
a start. It is no more possible for us to reach the end
now in ourselves than it was for us to make the beginning
in ourselves. To change the basis at a subsequent point
of time to the beginning will prove fatal. That is what
happened here. The word to us, therefore, is that just as
we made the beginning by the Spirit through faith, so
shall we reach the end, and only so shall we reach the
end; by the Spirit through faith. The Spirit has to do
every bit of it, and we cannot do one fragment. Our only
position is one of abiding faith in the Holy Spirit to
carry it through to an end. But, seeing that, that is how
it is done. There is not a fragment that God presents to
us relative to all His full purpose but what the Holy
Spirit given to us, is given for the purpose of making
that real and actual, and not one fragment of it all can
ever become real and actual apart from the Holy Spirit.
Now
what is presented to you? A standard that is too high?
Oh, that is far too high a standard, that is an ideal to
which we can never attain, it is a life beyond us! It is
all very wonderful, but it is not for simple folk like
ourselves! Is that how you talk? Do you realise what you
are doing? You are guilty, on the one hand, of unbelief,
and you are setting at naught the Spirit of God. If God
has set before us any goal, no matter how high, how
great, how wonderful, then the gift of the Holy Spirit is
to the end that we should reach that goal and not fail in
one fragment of all the divine will and purpose. So our
attitude should not be: “It is not too much for me;
it is not too high, too great, too wonderful”; our
attitude should be: “I have the Spirit, He can do
it; I trust the Spirit implicitly to make it all
good”. We start in the Spirit and we go on in the
Spirit; we cannot reach the end in the flesh. We can no
more maintain our life than we can start it. It is with
the Spirit.
The
Spirit and Power for Service
“He
therefore that supplieth to you the Spirit, and worketh
miracles among you, doeth he it by the works of the law,
or by the hearing of faith?” (Gal. 3:5).
The
Revised Version margin says, “…doeth he it by
works of law, or by the message of faith?” Here we
come beyond the beginning of the Christian life, and
beyond the question of the maintenance of the Christian
life, to that of service, and of power for service. What
is the basis? I think there is no more helpful way in
which this could be put than the way in which it is put
here: “He therefore that supplieth to you the
Spirit, and worketh… among you”. This, of
course, refers to the Lord. The Lord supplies the Spirit
to you, and works among you. It is the working power of
the Holy Spirit in you and amongst you, that work of God,
which is the evidence of His presence in service. He
supplieth the Spirit: and in what way? How are we to find
power for service? In what way shall we receive it? By
nothing whatever that we can do. Oh, how many people are
doing something to get power for service; doing lots of
things very energetically, very patiently, with all the
strength of their mind, in order that there may be the
manifestation of God’s power. They are making a
tremendously strenuous business of it, and that is always
a very dangerous thing to do. Here the apostle says that
power in service is on exactly the same basis as the two
previous questions we have dealt with, namely, that of
the Holy Spirit as the seal of our acceptance, and of the
Holy Spirit as the means of our maintenance. The Lord
does not supply the Spirit in response to any energetic
exercises of ours; He supplies the Spirit in response to
faith, the same kind of faith as we exercised for our
salvation, and as we are called upon to exercise in
relation to reaching God’s end.
The
workings of the Spirit amongst us are gifts, and the
Spirit is supplied through faith. Do you realise that? It
will save us a lot of trouble, a lot of stress, and it
may save us from a good many deceptions; for if there is
one thing patent it is this, that a terrific soul-stress,
soul-projecting, soul-concentration upon receiving power
for service, is responded to by other powers, whose very
vehicle of expression is our soul. We get the psychical
in service, psychical powers and manifestations by other
spirits, through this tremendous outgoing of soul-force
in relation to power for service. It is a very dangerous
thing. Perhaps we have touched something with which we
should not go further, but it is a matter of much
exercise of our hearts in these days to see how Satan is
governing the world along that line. If you want the
explanation of dictatorships it cannot be found in the
natural realm. They are not men who are naturally capable
of doing what they are doing. Their early life finds them
as nonentities, something at a discount, and here they
have come to be world factors with marvellous powers and
phenomenal influence over the masses, so that they
literally control and hold nations as slaves in their own
hand. You look at their history and you find that it is
the history of a projecting with unspeakable intensity of
their own soul-force, providing the very platform upon
which the powers of evil alight to carry out the work of
Satan.
Now
that is in the wide range, but you find this in what are
called spiritual realms too. People begin to concentrate
or project their souls upon spiritual things, and you get
a manifestation of a false Holy Spirit, signs and
wonders. It is psychical, and satanic through the
psychical. The question of power is much simpler than
that. “He that supplieth the Spirit and worketh
miracles among you, doeth he it by the works of law, or
by the hearing of faith?” Is your exercise and
effort on the basis of what you do, or on the basis of
faith? Power for service is on the basis of faith. It
brings faith into a place of tremendous prominence and
importance, but it shows that it is the Holy Spirit
keeping things in His hands, and not putting them into
our hands, not letting go to us. It is His work, not
ours.
Let us
cherish that little fragment, “He that ministereth
(or, He that supplieth) the Spirit”. It is the Lord
who does it, and He does so in response to faith.
The
Spirit and the Inheritance
“Christ
redeemed us from the curse of the law, having become a
curse for us: for it is written, Cursed is every one that
hangeth on a tree: that upon the Gentiles might come the
blessing of Abraham in Christ Jesus; that we might
receive the promise of the Spirit through faith”.
(verses 13-14).
This
is a very wonderful statement. The blessing of Abraham in
Christ is for us. It is a tremendous thing that we who
are Gentiles should receive in Christ this blessing. This
promise has two parts to its fulfilment: firstly, They
that are of faith are Abraham’s seed. Christ is
Abraham’s seed. “He saith not, And to seeds, as
of many; but as of one. And to thy seed, which is
Christ.” Thus faith makes us one with Christ as
Abraham’s seed to receive the covenant promise. The
second part to its fulfilment is, “That we might
receive the promise of the Spirit…” So that the
Holy Spirit in the fullest sense is secured unto us in
Abraham through faith. The receiving of the Spirit
embraces all the promises in Christ; for, “How many
soever be the promises of God, in him is the yea:
wherefore also through him is the amen, unto the glory of
God by us.” How far-reaching this promise to Abraham
was is hinted at in Romans 4:13: “For not through
the law was the promise to Abraham or to his seed, that
he should be heir of the world, but through the
righteousness of faith”.
How is
the promise that he should be heir of the world to be
fulfilled? In Christ. By what means? By the Holy Spirit.
Thus in Christ, by the Holy Spirit, we come into that
which was first promised to Abraham, namely, the
possession of the world. It is a wonderful thing. We are
getting the purpose in view through the Holy Spirit. We
are moving from beginnings, step by step. The
progressiveness of things in this letter is remarkable.
Here we come right in full view of the purpose:
“heir of the world”. The covenant was with
Abraham; the covenant was fulfilled in Christ; the means
by which the covenant is made good is the Holy Spirit,
and we are the receivers of the Spirit. What, then, do we
receive? The promise of heirship to the world,
inheritance in the ages to come. Elsewhere the apostle
speaks of the Holy Spirit as the earnest of our
inheritance. “That he should be heir of the
world”! How great a promise that is, and we are
partakers of it.
How
are we going to inherit the world? God has called us to
that. How are we going to enter into it? By works of law,
by efforts of our own, by our external activities of a
religious kind? No, we must come back again to the simple
foundation of faith. The Holy Spirit has come to bring us
into that inheritance. The inhabited earth to come shall
be placed under man according to God’s mind, and
that is the issue of the work of the Holy Spirit.
Oh,
Lord, it is a great thought, too wonderful for us, that
we should inherit the world, that we should reign over
the earth, that we should be in governmental union with
Christ in world dominion in the ages to come. Can it be?
The Lord answers, I have given you the Holy Spirit, and
He is the earnest of it. You put faith in Him, and He
will bring it to pass.
World
dominion is not such a strenuous thing, after all, as it
is made out to be. It is a question of faith in the Holy
Spirit. The Holy Spirit is the sum of all the promises,
and all the blessings made and promised to Abraham.
The
Witness of the Spirit
“And
because ye are sons, God sent forth the Spirit of his Son
into our hearts, crying, Abba, Father”. (Galatians
4:6).
Here
is the progressiveness in view again. We have seen the
end, the inheritance. Who are they that inherit? Heirs.
Who are heirs? Sons, firstborn sons. How are we
constituted sons, and therefore heirs? He has sent forth
His Spirit into our hearts, the Spirit of His Son who is
the heir of all things. When the Holy Spirit constitutes
that cry in our hearts, “Father”, that very
expression, as born in us of the Holy Spirit relates to
the inheritance. It not only signifies that we are in the
family, it relates to the inheritance. It is the Spirit
of sonship. This is not the sonship of regeneration, but
it is the sonship of full union with Christ and all that
this means.
Walking
by the Spirit
“But
I say, Walk by the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the
lust of the flesh”. (Gal. 5:16).
You
see how all this is linked with spiritual maturity, full
growth. Here is the whole secret of sanctification. I
say, Face your besetments manfully, and wrestle with them
courageously, and set yourself not to be beaten by them,
but to master them! What poor advice, what tragedy is
linked with such a course. It is much simpler than that.
“Walk by the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the
lust of the flesh”. Oh, to give men something
stronger! Yes, all right, here is something stronger:
“For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the
Spirit against the flesh; for these are contrary the one
to the other; that ye may not do the things that ye
would.” (verse 17). It just amounts to the question
of who is the stronger, the Spirit of God or the flesh.
Yes, the flesh lusteth against the Spirit. Is that a
hopeful prospect for the flesh? No, for the Spirit is
dead-set against the flesh, and working against it.
How
does this work out to victory? The Spirit lusts against
the flesh. You walk in the Spirit. What is it to walk in
the Spirit? You take sides with the Holy Spirit, you
cooperate with the Spirit, you let your exercise be in
relation to the Holy Spirit, and you shall not fulfil the
lusts of the flesh. The Spirit will get the upper hand of
the lusts of the flesh as you take sides with Him; not as
you struggle and fight against the lusts of the flesh,
but as you cooperate with Him. It is only when you and I
lean towards the flesh and take sides with it that we
fail. There is present an energy and a power, and if we
will deliberately take our place with that energy, that
power, that person, there will be deliverance. It would
be a hopeless thing otherwise, but that is the secret of
sanctification, and that is the way of spiritual
full-growth. The bringing in of the Holy Spirit there
makes such a big difference. “For the flesh lusteth
against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the
flesh…” I have an idea that instead of
“and” the word should be “but”. If
that is true it makes a lot of difference. It puts hope
into the whole. Whether the word is there like that or
not, the fact remains.
The
Fruit of the Spirit
“But
the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace,
longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness,
meekness, self-control: against such there is no
law”. (Gal. 5:22-23).
The
peculiar form of those words must be noted. “The
fruit (that is singular) of the Spirit is (then you get
plurality) …” The correct grammatical form
would be, The fruits of the Spirit are — The fruit
of the Spirit is love, and love comprehends all the rest,
and all the rest are love in expression in different
forms. You can test that. If you really have the love of
God in your heart, what do you have? You have joy, love
exulting; peace, love trusting; longsuffering, love
enduring; gentleness, the refinement of love; meekness,
love, as someone has said, with a bowed head; goodness,
love in action; temperance, love in restraint; faith,
love confiding.
All
these things are included in love. The fruit of the
Spirit is love. If you want to know what love is, it is
all there. This is the outworking of the Holy Spirit. Has
this anything to do with maturity, faith, growth? Of
course it has. Spiritual maturity comes by the Holy
Spirit bearing His fruit in us. The fruit of love working
out in joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, meekness,
goodness, temperance, faith.
Persevering
in the Spirit
“If
we live by the Spirit, by the Spirit let us also
walk”. (Gal. 5:25).
This
is our voluntary and continual relationship with the
Spirit actively. If we live by the Spirit — and from
beginning to end it is all by the Spirit — then let
us also walk by the Spirit. It is a voluntary handing
over to the Holy Spirit and going on with Him
continually. After all, we have everything by the Spirit
from start to finish. Seeing that it is so, let us go on
with the Spirit. But notice, it is not a passive life, it
is an active life, an exercised walk. The point is the
Spirit seeks that we shall be of moral and spiritual
character. It is not a question of His taking it all out
of our hands, doing it all apart from us, so that we
simply recline and say, “Well, we have the Spirit
and we need not do or think anything about it, it is all
going to be done for us”. Everything truly is by the
Spirit in our life, but let us be active, not passive;
let us walk by the Spirit. He is seeking to produce
spiritual character, and that can only be through
exercise, and our exercise must be towards the Holy
Spirit, and as that is so we shall come to God’s
end, full growth.