Glorious Struggle
A couple years ago, I went on a house tour of the Heyward-Washington House in downtown Charleston, SC. It housed George Washington for a week following the Revolutionary war. The tour guide explained how Washington came in person to thank the people of Charleston for their bravery in the war. On that visit, however, British soldiers invaded the house and scooped Thomas Heyward Jr. and five others out of the “withdrawing” room and into prison for months! The British did not want to give this new colony its freedom. It’s a part of our story as Americans—we fought for freedom to rule ourselves. While there was bravery and sacrifice in that fight for political freedom, there is a different, a deeper freedom of which St. Paul speaks in Galatians. Spiritual freedom is not one where we rule ourselves. Spiritual freedom is a promise made to slaves.
The irony is that I’m an Anglican pastor. It was probably church-going British Anglicans who imprisoned the rowdy Anglican colonialists! Our flesh is so insipid it infects all our thoughts. We justify all our actions, often baptizing them as Christian. Think of the Christians on both sides of political parties now. The church in Galatia was full of divisions between Christians. Thank goodness the Spirit is not from us, our logic. It is a gift from outside us. The Spirit humbles all of us—on both sides of the battle field, and gathers all of us around Jesus and his cross.
St. Paul calls our self-rule “the flesh” in Galatians. This is what comes naturally to us. We might like to think of ourselves as neutral human beings with the capacity to choose either good or bad, but this is not biblical (see Sean’s post). We were free in the Garden of Eden. We enjoyed God and one another and took care of his world. But with the first bite of the apple, then the second we said to the Lord of freedom, we can rule ourselves, thank you very much (Genesis 3). From that moment freedom, love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control gave way to finger pointing, biting and devouring one another. We are not free under our own rule. We are slaves to our sin.
In the Galatian church, the division, rivalry, jealousy, and anger showed it. I wish we could say we’ve moved past that in the church. We haven’t. And yet, the Lord of Freedom himself did not come for perfect people. He came for fleshy sinners. He crucified the flesh once and for all. With his resurrection he raised us all to freedom. Freedom is Jesus’ promise to all of us sinners. He promises:
You are forgiven.
You are washed white as snow.
You are mine. I have known you all along. I love you. I won’t abandon you.
Here is my Spirit to remind you of me, to make my promises ring in your mind and settle deep down in your soul that I will keep them.
Now that the battle with sin is won, and we are safe, it can actually begin in our hearts. The Spirit applies this promise over and over every day of our life. “Walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh” (Galatians 5:16). The Spirit is the agent enabling you to walk. He leads you (5:18). He is the source of your life (5:25). He will do what you can’t: oppose your flesh. He will lead you out of isolation and into his family of other forgiven sinners (probably ones who have sinned as you do and know his redemption).
Praise God for the struggle. We all have it. It means you are actually alive. We are slaves to our desires and passions until we meet Jesus. Once we do, he at once cleanses us from all sin past, present, and future and gives us his righteousness in exchange. Now is when the struggle with sin begins. Martin Luther describes these two natures in his Commentary on the Galatians:
“In respect to the flesh, then, we are sinners: but in respect of the spirit, we are righteous. Yea, our righteousness is much more plentiful than our sin, because the holiness and righteousness of Christ our mediator doth far exceed the sin of the whole world: and the forgiveness of sins, which we have through Him, is so great, so infinite, that it easily swallows up all sins, so that we walk according to the spirit” (332).
Jesus is not fussed by our sin. He knows it more than we do. That is why he gave us his own Spirit.
The life of the Spirit is impossible for us. We cannot will it. It is opposed to our flesh. You can command yourself all you want, but it won’t change anything. It is the flesh talking, not the Spirit. The Spirit is opposed to our knee-jerk reactions we have been nursing since birth to help us cope with this world. The Spirit is hell-bent on freedom and will not stop acting upon us no matter what age we are. Every life stage will rocket loss at you. (It will also overwhelm you with gifts.) Change exposes different sides of ourselves. The flesh will always surge. But the Spirit will too. The Spirit always wins because of God’s promise: “And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires” (Galatians 5:24). Regardless of your addictions, your wipe-outs, your besetting sins, Jesus has laid hold of you and won’t let you go. He has won you. Full freedom in heaven awaits. Here, there is a glorious struggle because you are finally awake and desire his freedom. Welcome to the life of grace.
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