02.16. ESSAY NO. 16

ESSAY NO. 16 The sins in the church at Corinth included partyism, fornication, litigation, idolatry, and drunkenness. Ap­parently, the Galatians were guilty of like sins, but Paul saw another sin in them that disturbed him far more deeply. They were forsaking God’s house, built on the rock, for one of their own building on the sand. After having begun in the Spirit, they were turning back to the flesh; denying a full redemption in the Spirit, they were looking for a supplement in their own natural strength and ability to work out for themselves perfected righteousness. In effect, according to Paul, this made void the grace of God, the cross of Christ, the power of the Spirit, and destroyed the house the triune God built to its deepest foundation. Thus, their religion became all of the flesh.

Inasmuch as the Galatians did not know "the deep things of Satan" (Revelation 2:24), they did not see the doc­trinal implications of their legalism. There is no better evidence of Satan’s deep malice and demonic sagacity than his perverting the law, which God intended to convict men of sin, to humble them, and to lead them to Christ, into a powerful instrument to make men proud and self-righteous. He is deep and wicked enough to turn Christians into blind, Pharisaic hypo­crites.

Doubtless, the Galatians continued to preach bap­tism "into the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit" for the remission of sins, observe the Lord’s Supper, and meet other requirements, yet, all unknown to themselves, they were "fallen away from grace." Christians today should not think that because they do not observe the carnal ordinances of Moses, they are immune to the legal principle. They should realize that, in infinite wisdom and goodness, God in Christianity, without any help from man except his absolute surrender, assumes all responsibility, no matter what Satan knows and does, for enabling and perfecting Christians who really trust him and coop­erate with him. This kind of faith would have saved the Galatians from legalism with its truly terrible con­sequences, as it will save Christians today from legal-ism with its truly terrible consequences.

"Works of the Flesh" A cursory examination of these "works" shows a catalogue of fifteen items (ASV), all related to the Mosaic Code. The first three items ("fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness") remind us of, "Thou shalt not commit adultery." The next two ("idolatry, sor­cery") of, "Thou shalt have no other gods before me." Then follow eight items ("enmities, strife, jealousies, wraths, factions, divisions, parties, envyings"), which violate, "Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself." "Where love is thin, faults are thick." The last two ("drunkenness, revellings") are beastly self-gratifica­tion, which are always beneath human dignity. With authoritative finality that admits no argument, Paul follows this list with: "I forewarn you, even as I did forewarn you, that they who practice such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God." Let us read the list again; it was written for us too.

Sorcery, or witchcraft, which is superhuman knowl­edge and power acquired by compact with evil spirits and traffic with the dead, is a biblical subject. God gives warning against it in the Old Testament: "There shall not be found with thee any one that useth divina­tion ... or a sorcerer ... or a consulter with a familiar spirit, or a wizard, or a necromancer (one who com­municates with the dead) . . . For whosoever doth these things is an abomination unto Jehovah" (Deuteronomy 18:10; Deuteronomy 18:12). Immediately following this scripture, God promises to send Christ in lieu of such leaders. In 1 Samuel 28:1-25, is found the story of King Saul and the witch of Endor. Saul’s epitaph reads: "So Saul died for his trespass . . . and also for that he asked counsel of one that had a familiar spirit" (1 Chronicles 10:13). In the New Testament, we meet sorcery often, al­ways opposing Christianity. Simon the sorcerer (Acts 8:1-40); "Elymas the sorcerer" (Acts 13:1-52); and the maid with "a spirit of divination" (Acts 16:1-40) are well-known figures. Sorcery was very prevalent in Ephesus (Acts 19:1-41). Satan, "the god of this world," opposed Christian­ity, especially in new places with sorcery. In Galatians 5:20, written some twenty-five years after Pentecost, Paul brackets it with idolatry, with which it is allied and coeval. At a time yet to come, all sorcerers of all time shall have their part "in the lake that burneth with fire and brimstone" (Revelation 21:8). The two leading features of sorcery, reading destiny and commerce with the dead, are prevalent today. Doubtless, there is much humbuggery, based as all idolatry is, on greed, superstition and religious ignor­ance, yet, according to the Bible, a core of reality ex­ists. The road to Endor, for men like Saul, is still open. For Christians, however, as for the ancient Jews, it is a closed road of disobedience and ruin. They cannot honor Christ as Mediator in some dark room seeking guidance from a "medium." This and all such like is of the flesh.

"Fruit of the Spirit"

"The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, long-suffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, meekness, self-control." The Spirit in this verse is a tree bearing a cluster of ninefold heavenly fruit. Because of its re­lationship to the rest of the cluster, love comes first. Without love, none of the fruit is sound and whole­some. The joy, the longsuffering, the meekness and all the rest, if they have not love, are rotten at the core and worthless. Magic love is living, contagious, creative, and imparts these qualities to the entire clus­ter. "The greatest of these is love." Love, joy, peace! What more would you have? Long after the shallow wells of the flesh have run dry, from the perpetual fountain of the Spirit down deep within the human spirit continue to "flow rivers of living water" for "refreshing from the presence of the Lord." "A well of water springing up unto eternal life." "Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty" and fruit. The Holy Spirit is the only tree that produces "the fruit of the Spirit." Since such fruit is not native to earth, the flesh does not, and cannot produce it. "The flesh lusteth against the Spirit." All Paul knows to do with the flesh is to crucify it "with the passions and lusts thereof." God does not expect men in the flesh to produce spiritual fruit and live his life until he gives them his Spirit, and they "become partakers of the divine nature." As without changing gravity a magnet counteracts it, so without changing the flesh, the Holy Spirit counterworks it, and keeps it in subjection so that it cannot "bite and devour" and destroy. It never becomes spiritual, any more than foolishness becomes wisdom. It is a tiger which only the Spirit can even chain.