We are just talked in the break about the struggle that it is in the Christian life not to fall into antinominalism or legalism as we seek to live out the work of Christ in our lives and on behalf of us. It is so easy to separate those two worlds and to say, I live by faith, I live by grace and then to fall into antinominalism or legalism rather than into the grow in the fruit of the work of the Lord. So we are going to move forward into the problem of the indicative and the imperative. There is already in Galatians a certain tension established and acknowledged between living a godly life and being in battle against sinful nature. So what we see as Paul the pastor, as Paul the apostle deals with the Galatian churches, he conceits that there is a challenge out there to live out. The three usages of the law, especially the second and the third, to see that the law drives you towards Christ and to see that a life dependent upon Christ leads to godliness. In those two contrasting statements are in 524 following and 513 following, let's say contrast or a better tension. So we are establishing and we are following the argument of Paul to the Galatians. You do not live by keeping the law you live by grace alone and living by grace alone will lead to godliness and that godliness will conform with the laws of God but you will have a struggle. It won't be this straight road, it won't be like you may think it is when you read Galatians 525. What does it say there? You could really press somebody in your wrong counseling and say look what the word of God says, Galatians 525. What does it say? I'm going to start with verse 24 actually, let's say 24 to 25. Now somebody who is really struggling to live a godly life you could really do injustice just to drive home this one verse and say those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the sinful nature with its passions and desires since we live by the spirit, let us keep in step with the spirit. Now if you just read that one thing and hammer especially have crucified the sinful nature and if you then add your possible Greek knowledge and say you know what, this is in the arist tense, it's a concluded fixed action, your dead, your dead as a mouse trapped. Nothing more of your sinful nature, there is nothing happening, you're only now living for god, you're only now bearing fruit, you're only in the full cores of the third use of the law which is not legalistic or antinomian but you're compelled to live for god, you would really do injustice, yes that is true. That is the one side of the equation, that is the one aspect that Paul presents to the Galatians, live in step with the spirit, conform to the work that the spirit is moving you in your heart, do not resist that, but there's the other side. And the other side is in Galatians 5, 13 and 16 Galatians 5, 13 says, you my brothers were called to be free, listen to that, to be free, see second use of the law leads to the freedom, you were called to be free but do not use your freedom to indulge the sinful nature. Rather serve one another in love, you see it is still possible to indulge the sinful nature, you have received the gospel, you have received grace, you have been renewed by the spirit of god and you can still indulge. The Reformers use the term that you are now by the work of Christ, able not to sin, before you live with Christ you're not able not to sin, non-posse non-picare, now you're able not to sin, posse non-picare, that is an important point. But you know there is the concession here in this verse, that you can still indulge the sinful nature, you can still indulge that fallenness, you can still indulge that which opposes god and his purposes and his power. And the other verse that we briefly wanted to look at is verse 16, so I say live by the spirit and you will not gratify the desires of the sinful nature. Again here just as in verse 13, there is the concession that as you grow as Galatian Christians, as you grow as 20th century Christians, you are still capable of indulging the flesh or in verse 16, you are still capable of gratifying the desires of the sinful nature. That is still alive, that is still possible, so you have both, you are crucified, you are dead, your sinfulness is finished and you're still able to indulge. And so the reformers I believe said it right, that you are simul at the same time used to justified at peccato and sin, at the same time justified righteous and sinner, at the same time righteous and sinner. Now there is a lot of discussion on this, I would say the focus in Galatians is live by the spirit, let the work of god take over your life, let it win, do not play into the possibility of sinning. You are free, you are enabled to, you are able not to sin, you have the power to do so, don't play into it, move in that direction but it does concede that this is a reality, it's not just an illusion, it's not just a faint possibility. And in fact, as you said back in the corner there that sometimes this peccato or seems to be much more prominent than the fruit of god's life in our hearts. But as we wrestle with that, we must maintain the basic truth of the gospel and see that's even harder when you see that both of these are so much at work and that you are embarrassed in the church. When this shows its ugly head and so you're trying to suppress that, you're trying to hide that, you're trying to get away from that and so you're right into the legalistic style. That you know that while Paul makes this concession, while Paul acknowledges that struggle of the Galatians, he says you are saved by grace and that grace needs to be maintained as you wrestle with this. And so his whole advice here at the end is lean into the spirit, that the spirit of god win in your heart, use the suffering you have in your life, the discipline that god works into your life as instruments to be yielded to the work of god. So it is all in the course of letting god take over in your life like he has accepted you in Christ as he has justified you as he has sanctified you as he has regenerated you so let him also work the fruit out in your lives. That you can, as I've said, play into the sinfulness and indulge in that and that is burdening your whole process and that is a great challenge for us as Christians that we know that that is a real possibility and it's a strong possibility and it is still a power. Now if you ask me to give a psychology of this, where is the righteousness and where is the sinfulness, where do I locate that, how do I describe that, it would be like the centipede who suddenly asks, how do my legs go? And when that animal thinks about that gets all crumbled up and I can't walk anymore, so I cannot give that to you. Somebody may be able to give you the psychology of this. I just know that people go awfully wrong when they say, for instance, that our spirit is already pure and it's just our mind or our body that is still in need of growth that's absolutely wrong. So I'm not going to move into the psychology and the location of that but I do acknowledge that there are two elements operating in my life and I'm being moved to conform to the purposes of God on the basis of salvation alone. So you see even though I describe it in such feeble terms, there's an enormous platform established with Galatians and enormous significance and consequence for the total Christian life that then leads to further points of application. In some ways it's a basic pattern, a basic structure that is established here in Galatians and we must return to Galatians over and over and over again to drink from the fountain of the basic gospel because we can't graduate from that. We are never at the point where we are not in need of Galatian gospel where we have graduated and where we have mastered not to fall into these traps, where we are leaning into the spirit and we are never falling back into a sinfulness where we are never tempted to move out. But we need to return to these basic truths, established in Galatians, dealing with our human nature, dealing with the sense of expectation of God's word and how we can actually grow towards that which God desires and that is a godliness. Where does the responsibility lie or how do we handle that responsibility of leaning into the spirit and living from the spirit rather than playing into our sinfulness or indulging our sinfulness. That's an important point from the final analysis I would say Philippians 1, 6 is the answer. God has begun a good work in you and he will complete it but that doesn't mean that you just sit in your rocking chair and say, you know, if I'm just playing into sin today that's just God is not taking over today, he's taking a day of vacation. So you can kind of wash your hands but I believe that God is moving to implant in our hearts through the gospel the conviction of His great work on our behalf and the outgrowth of that that His love towards us increases in hitting us. And that was one thing that I noticed with some people that I was rubbing shoulders with in Austria that there was a very, very minute understanding of God's love and therefore great problems in life. That the work of God would become more and more prominent on our behalf and therefore we would be more inclined, more disposed to yield. I believe that there's a strong sense of God's work on our behalf that that is actually freeing us to following His ways. Where you have a little appreciation of God's work, you have a great struggle. He who has been forgiven much loves much. Well, we have all been forgiven enormously but I struggle with loving so it follows that I have a rather small appreciation of what I have been forgiven. And I would say that's the pattern, rather than duty, rather than you ought to, you must. If you're a Christian, that's where you're going, you know, that kind of duty bound to be compelled but the goal is godliness. God seeks a people onto his own heart. And I think it is very good for us and that is not legalism to read the instructions of God, to read the Ten Commandments and let it sink in. I remember reading 800 page book on the ramifications of the decalogue of the Ten Commandments for life. It was exciting. It was wonderful to see that God is looking for the weak, looking out for the weak. The laws are not respective, they're protective. There's a wonderful learning of God's character in that but always on that gospel basis. Otherwise, we fall off into the verse 15 is a question here. There is the instruction. Do not use your freedom to indulge your sinful nature, rather serve one another, love one another as fulfillment of the law and then the warning. If you keep on biting and devouring each other watch out or you will be destroyed by each other, that is not a final consequence of losing salvation or any of that sort. But if you yield to sin, there's a destructive element. There's a destructive element, for instance, exemplified in Corinthians that suddenly Christians go to the public court. And say that person has done this and they have legal proceedings against each other. So there is a sense of yielding to sin, producing absolute destruction and rift within the church. And that is, I believe, infinity. So there is a warning because there's consequence of sinful action. It is painful to see that we reap in some ways what we sow. And that is why it's God's grace and God's kindness to compel us to live godly lives so we do not have to bear the fruit of ungodliness. Yes, the reference in Galatians 5.17 for the sinful nature desires what is contrary to the spirit and the spirit what is contrary to sinful nature. They are in conflict with each other so that you do not do what you want to do. This anticipates Roman 7. You remember the large chapter of doing that which you do not want and wanting that which you do not do, that whole conflict. Here, the antithesis is already described. You cannot have it both ways. There is a clear animosity between these two. While you have this Latin et and here, they don't peacefully coexist. There is a battle. Because the purpose of the spirit is God's tenderness and this purpose of flesh is self-centeredness. And you can't have it both ways. So that's clearly anticipated here. And the only way out of this, you do not do what you want is to yield to the power of the spirit. To yield to the greatness of the work in your life of God in your life and to see that grow and bloom. So Romans 8, 7 and 8 are expanded of this expansions of this verse both in regard to the struggle and regard to the solution. So that's probably the most expansive commentary on this verse in Roman 7 and 8. Yes. Okay, can keeping the law help the sanctification? If you mean by keeping the law that it's not just sitting there reading God's instructions, say okay, now I have to do it. But if truly you say, this is what God is working into my life. That's what you mean by keeping the law. This is what God is working into my life. Thank you God for letting me know. Thank you God for giving me salvation that I'm fully accepted by you right now. And that you desire to work what I read here into my life. Then yes. Okay. So I think the big question is how do you treat the instructions of God for your life? Do you treat them as imperatives that you have to do them or do you treat them as the work of God that he is planning to do in your life? If you do it the second way and you'll always see that Christ is your hope not doing of these things, then I think you're on the right way. Then you are using the law in the way God intends us to use the third use of the law. Yes. With the basis of the gospel, Old Testament law instruction still has a function. Now just it would be mostly concerning the moral law because I've explained that the ceremonial law has a certain discontinuity and fulfillment in Christ. And the judiciary law, that's a question that we're not governed by a political structure at this point but by a church structure. So that would be that the moral law no question but you still had another question. Okay. So I think that's what we need to practice. How do we use or how do we take up the instructions of God? How do we read them? How do we bring them to our hearts? I think that's a very, very significant point at this junction. So that is the problem number four of the indicative and imperative. That is the challenge of how do we relate to the accomplished finished work of being crucified of having the sinful nature dead and still being in the struggle. That is implied in Galatians 5, 13 and 16. Here we have to find a way of sobriety. I'm rather cautious when I hear the gospel of victorious living because there is seems to be a sense that this is just really not so real anymore. If you live a decent life of prayer and of dedication, you should have a victorious life. You shouldn't struggle. You need to be careful because of Galatians, not because of what I'm saying. There's still this struggle that Paul is speaking about here. Conversely, if you have people saying to you, you know, we're all just faking it. We're basically still as lost as the next pig in the next farmer's stall. Then you're also in great trouble with Galatians. So both extremes here are kind of gospel teachings that do not really deal with the total of what we get in Galatians. So I would say again, there's a certain emphasis on this. This is really possible. This is where you're leaning. This is where you're encouraged to move. But this is still real. Yes. The indicative would be this here. The indicative says your sinful nature has been crucified statement of fact. The imperative is do not yield to the flesh but yield to the spirit to make it short. That's an instruction. That's a command. Thank you. I appreciate you saying that. So the indicative is reality. Simple nature crucified imperative is do not yield to the flesh but yield to the spirit. And there's a certain tension between that indicative and the imperative. But I think we need to conclude today I'm not going to go through the flow of thought that would be too long. Maybe I'm going to say one or two comments on that that we're really coming to a conclusion today. Philippians one six is a wonderful summary and conclusion to the Galatians, to the book of the Galatians. He who has begun a good work in you will bring it to conclusion will bring it to completion. So we begin with a work of Christ and we end with a work of Christ. This struggle here. The whole work of sanctification daily is the work of Christ. But we are therein instructed to yield. It's a mystery in the end. But it is good that we can remind ourselves that is God who is doing a work and we're just learning to align our minds and hearts to what God is doing. And that's what Paul did to write the Galatians to help them to conform to what God is doing to align themselves to what God is doing. Rather than to listen to the judisers who say you better straighten up or you're in trouble. Let me say two words regarding the flow of thought just as a little bit of a footnote. That's all I will do tonight. There's something interesting in the flow of thought, namely in the section 215, just note that 215 till 318 or 314. 215 till 314. And that is that Paul uses the literary style of contrasts. When he discusses the whole significance of the law and the gospel, the law and the promise to Abraham fulfilled in Christ he uses antithesis. I'll just give you a few justified by faith, not by observing the law, righteousness gains through Christ, not through the law, crucifies by Christ or in Christ, not living for yourselves, receiving the Spirit by believing not observing. So there's always this positive here antithesis there, contrasting you can't have it both ways. So the literary style of antithesis underlines and supports the argument of Paul that you cannot live in both worlds. You can either live in the world of under the law or in the world of under Christ, can't do it both. So the antithesis kind of exaggerates or emphasizes the content of what Paul is after, namely, to show that contrast. So I just wanted to mention that 215 till 314, the literary style of antithesis. It's moving from 1 to B, A to B all the time to say you can't have it both ways. So he's driving in a rhetorical style, driving the point home that you've got to know which side you're on and you can't move across all the time. So that would be a very interesting observation in terms of the flow of thought. I know this was a pretty strong tobacco, as we say in Germany, a lot to digest, but I hope you've seen that there is so much relevancy of what Paul gives to the Galatians as it relates to our own lives and as we wrestle with that every day. So an important part of the gospel truth has been plowed up as Paul brings the gospel to the Galatians.