14. Walk inside of Spirit

Covering Galatians Chapters 5-6:

To walk inside of Spirit CANNOT BE an obligation of performance, but only the Joy of faith in what is already the only thing True. Faith connects with what is already True. Yet “get in the Spirit, brother,” was always presented as a weight of obligation. I heard the exhortation once, “It’s easy to walk in the Spirit, just stop walking in the flesh.” You see, I trusted that the man preaching knew how to do that, even though I always failed. I did not yet know he was bluffing, saying things that “sound true,” but that no one knows how.

Yet every word I heard out from that way of thinking was only a straight-out refusal – God is NOT telling us the Truth. And the Promise that was meant to be Joy became for us only one more link in our chains.

In Freedom. • 1 In freedom, Christ has made us free; stand firm, therefore, and do not ensnare yourselves again under the weight of slavery. 2 …If you become circumcised, Christ will benefit you nothing. • 3 …every man who becomes circumcised… is a debtor to do ALL the law. 4 You are severed and separated from Christ, if you are trying to be made justly innocent inside of law [that is, human performance]; you have fallen away from grace.

Either God is busy saving us, that is, Grace, or we are busy saving ourselves, that is, death and slavery. The action of trying to save ourselves, in any way, is the very action of driving Jesus away with whips. Nicene “penance” and human “will-power” are the story of those who buy and sell atonement, driving Jesus away with whips.

A Stark Choice. Even the words “fallen from grace” have come to mean the image of an “above-you” God punishing those who do not obey His imperious requirements. That is, blaming God for what we ourselves are doing to Jesus. The choice between two is a choice between the horror of humans driving Jesus away, blaming God for their own perfidy and living inside of Jesus. The choice must be stark.

Ruling Verse 7: Stand upon FIRM. Our confidence in Jesus is based on the foundation that God has already done all. Freedom is inside of Jesus and in the presence of the Spirit.

Definition: Either God is actively saving us, that is, Grace, or we are driving Jesus away in the deluded slavery of “saving ourselves.” The difference must be stark.

Welcome In – Flowing Through. 5 Indeed, out from faith we eagerly welcome the Spirit, the hope of just approval and innocence. • 6 For inside of Christ Jesus, neither circumcision nor not circumcision has any ability or meaning, but only faith energeoing all the way through love.

Where do we place the meanings in these words? Welcoming the Spirit. Faith energeoing through Love inside of Jesus. Ruling Verse 3 is a flow through. Drink of Me – Rivers of Spirit flow out. Yet Paul will never read John’s Gospel, nor know any part of what John will write.  Paul has just written, however, “the aroma of His knowledge going out from us into every place,” and he is about to write, “the Love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Devoted Spirit given to us.”

The Flow of Spirit. Paul is describing causation, that Galatians 2:20, union with Christ protected by an absolute Cross, is the cause of Spirit welcomed in and Spirit as Love flowing out. It is only Spirit as Love flowing out, then, that causes any and all good fruit in the Christian life. Muck up that cause with “self-improvement” and you have the meaning of “the flesh.”

Ruling Verse 3: Inside of full and intimate union with Christ, protected by an absolute Cross (Ruling Verse 5), we eagerly welcome (faith) the Spirit flowing into us (Drink of Me), not as “coming” but as continuous forever. Then, through that same faith (Jesus sharing Himself with us), that same Spirit flows on out from us as Love shed abroad (see Romans 5:5), producing through us every fruit of Life (see Revelation 22:1-2).

Ruling Verse 10: We put the Lord Jesus Christ upon ourselves with zero thought concerning the flesh, one way or the other.

The Fulfillment. 13 For you… were called on the basis of freedom; only not freedom into an opportunity to the flesh. • Rather, through love serve one another reciprocally. 14 For all law is fulfilled inside of one word: “You will love your neighbor as yourself.”

We are CALLED to love one another, that is, to be the Church, standing firmly on the foundation of freedom, that is, the continuous welcoming of the Spirit. Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom (2 Corinthians 3:17). Spirit-in is just innocence; Spirit-out is love one another. The presence of the Spirit inside is Freedom. Spirit is consciousness, the knowing of ourselves, inside of which we iterate our story of self. Love is All-Fulfillment.

The Only Source of Love. Freedom is the absence of violence and its compulsion of fear. Fixing one’s self, including hacking at the flesh (circumcision) is violence. It forces hostility against Jesus, and then exercises itself even more fervently to fix the problems it has created. The Spirit of God stays far away from the violence of self-control, wherein Jesus is not acknowledged as LORD. The Spirit flows through the Joy of speaking Christ in the acknowledgement that God is telling us the Truth, and in the giving of thanks, the Eucharist, the return to the Father.

Ruling Verse 8: Love is the fulfillment of God-with-us. There is no Love apart from Spirit flowing through, energeoing all, and there is no Spirit flowing through except inside the intimacy of union with Christ, protected by the finished Cross. Loving one another is the fruit of the Christian Life.

Walk as Jesus Walked. • 16 I say to you, walk by Spirit and you will not be bringing the desire of flesh [that is, “will-power”] to completion. 17 For flesh desires against Spirit and Spirit [Trust] against the flesh; for these are opposed to one another so that you do not do the things you might wish. 18 BUT – since you are led by Spirit, you are not under law.

“Will power” is of the flesh; faith in Jesus within, that He accomplishes all, is of the Spirit, only one or the other.

From these verses, we want two things, “walk by Spirit” and “you are led by Spirit.” Both of these are Ruling Verse 7. In fact, verse 18 draws immediately out from 2 Corinthians 2:14, which Paul had just written three months before. These thoughts also correspond with 1 John 2:6, “Walk just as Jesus walked,” that is, in Spirit-Trust in God.

To Walk by Spirit. Paul is bringing in faith so much through Galatians that we need to continue building definitions of faith. In fact, speaking Christ through faith is the Rule of our Confidence.

Definition: Flesh uses law in its desire to get self “under control,” yet in doing so creates the story of self that is always opposed to faith and to God. Faith is a quality of the Spirit of God, now part of us, that speaks the knowledge of Jesus within, in utter Trust, to accomplish what human inward might and outward power can only oppose (see Zechariah 4:6).

Ruling Verse 7: God always leads us, and He always leads us in the celebration of all Victory already All, inside the energeoing flow of the Spirit. To walk in Spirit, to walk as Jesus walked, is to walk in utter Trust that God-Is, that Love flowing through is the only thing we are. All power, then, is only of God.

The Fruit of the Spirit. • 22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness, orderliness; against such things there is no law. 24 More than that, those who are of Christ Jesus have already crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. 25 If we live by Spirit, by Spirit also we are committed to walk.

Now, anything that is the outflow of the Spirit is shaped in our knowing by Ruling Verse 3, and, in this case, Ruling Verse 4 as well. And thus we see that Paul, in placing us utterly into the Spirit, has also turned us around. Yes, “already crucified” references Galatians 2:20, but in this part of Galatians, Paul is hinting at God through us now, which he already fully established in 2 Corinthians 5. These four, Corinthians, Galatians, and Romans are all written within one year’s time, and thus are fully bound together inside of Paul’s urgency.

God-Doing. Paul is once again hinting at the Christian Life as living turned around, God through us now into our world. The fruit of the Spirit is not us doing, but God-doing. And when God is released to do, He flows out by His Spirit into All-Provision and All-Protection.

Ruling Verse 3: The fruit of the Spirit is the direct result of God flowing through us now into our world. It is the fruit of the Tree of Life (see Revelation 22:1-2). Because we live by Spirit, we are committed to a walk shared with God in every step, and out from our shared walk, the Spirit flows to all.

Ruling Verse 4: The Cross that protects us as we live freely inside of Jesus then becomes the same protection flowing out from us for the sake of others, beginning with all our brethren.

Restore Such a One. • 1 Brothers and sisters, if a man or woman should be caught in some offense or error, you who are spiritual RESTORE such a one inside of the Spirit of gentleness, considering yourself, lest you also be tempted. • 2 Carry one another’s great weight of value, and thus you shall complete the law of Christ to full measure.

And now we come to the exact same thing that is 2 Corinthians 5:19-20. There, it was God through us into our world –Be reconciled to God. But here, Paul is bringing that flow again into God through us towards one another – Restore such a one who is worth so very, very much. The power of the Spirit is gentleness, and it comes through the humility of Christ. True ministries of Christ serve the Lord Jesus as He is now their brother and sister.

Great Weight of Value. The value of anything is determined only by the price paid for it. The Blood of Jesus is a metaphor of His LIFE, which He gave freely in order to have this “obnoxious and foolish” person with Himself inside of the Father. When we value one another as Jesus Values, God is coming Home.

Ruling Verse 8: To Love is to place the highest Value upon another. To Jesus, you and I are worth more than His own Life, which He gives freely in trade for us. In the same way, this one who made such a stupid mistake is more valuable to us than our own life and honor, for we love one another.

The Form for God through Jesus: To restore is to place a brother or sister back into Galatians 2:20, into intimate union with Christ. Yet to restore is the Father through us, clothed in humility, that He might have a Home in which to dwell.

Sowing and Reaping. • 7 Do not be misled; God is not sneered at; whatever indeed a man might sow, that also he will reap. 8 For the one who sows into his flesh will reap decay and rottenness; the one, however, who sows into the Spirit, out from Spirit will reap age-unfolding life. • 9 And we should not grow weary in doing good; for in the right season, not having given up, we will reap a harvest.

We have completely mis-defined the negative meaning of “the flesh” as Paul is using it in Galatians – and in Romans, written just two or three months later. We have defined “the flesh” by the works coming out of it and not by what it is. The Galatians were not into “the works of the flesh,” they were into self in control of self by the application of the law. “Flesh” in the negative sense, means “will-power.”

The Words We Speak. When you reduce the “how” of Calvinism down to its essence, you find “will-power.” When you reduce the “how” of New Age-ism, down to its essence, you find “will-power.” In both instances, the “HOW” is just FAKE, and thus control is always turning from self to the exercise of control over others. Circumcision is violence; the result is chaos, not peace.

The Flow of the Spirit of God is something completely different. It’s not “the opposite”; it exists in an entirely different realm. Yet in the mighty Flow of the Spirit, Spirit and Word are always together. The seed that is sown is the words that we speak. Read Matthew 12:33-37, for it fits here entirely. Here is the last line paraphrased. “For by your words, you will know Me inside yourself, and by your words, you will drive Me away.”

Reaping the Harvest. To sow to the Spirit is to speak Christ made personal through Faith. To sow to the flesh is to speak “get it right – do it yourself” that is, “will-power,” through the firm belief that God cannot be True until you, by your own effort, make Him True, that is, through unbelief. Then I see that “reaping the harvest” fits Ruling Verse 9 best.

Speak Christ: To sow to the Spirit is to speak Christ made personal as us in the full TRUST that the Spirit causes us to be just like the Lord Jesus Christ.

Ruling Verse 9: Yet we also sow to the Spirit towards others, as we speak Christ into them, in utter Trust that the Spirit of God does that which is Fruit through us for their sakes. To reap the harvest is to know many coming into the same Life of Christ, even as we share with Jesus in all.

Back to Galatians 2:20. 13 Yet these who circumcise themselves do not guard or watch over the law; rather, they want you to be circumcised so that they can boast in [their victory over] your flesh. • 14 For me, however, never may it be that I should boast except inside of the cross of our Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom the world-cosmos has already been crucified to me and I to the world-cosmos. 15 Neither is circumcision nor uncircumcision anything, but a New Creation.

I can see now that Paul is bringing us fully back into Galatians 2:20 in his conclusion. This is the third time. Yet we now finally understand Galatians. In 2 Corinthians, Paul establishes the glory of human weakness, that God is the Treasure filling our weakness with Himself. Circumcision is ACTIVELY opposed to God; it is hacking at the flesh.

The Purpose of “Circumcision.” Circumcision is representative of every human effort to get the flesh under control, self subduing self, bringing human weakness under subjection to human intent towards God. The Spirit accomplishes all over time, as the flow of Rivers, through causing people to know, bit by bit, the meaning of Jesus Sent into them. The flesh seeks to accomplish all right now, through compulsion, with no thought of Jesus within.

Christianity turned from the Gospel with the very first “Church father” after John, by seeking to curtail the flesh of Christians. In my own experience, the move of God turned from the Life preached by Sam Fife because of “the need to get the flesh under control.” Circumcision represents the violence of driving Jesus away.

Life out from Union. Nonetheless, Paul is placing the same New Creation Life, our full union with Jesus, into the protection of the cross, once again, Galatians 2:20. He has now expressed that ruling thought three times in the letter to the Galatians. Consider the “wall” of the Cross, in this case protecting us from all the lying falseness of the world and of worldly relationships and identities. When we are young in Christ, we are “inside” its safety. But as we go on to know the Lord, we discover that the STUFF the Cross is protecting us from is very small, and we now live inside of a very large God.

Ruling Verse 5: The Gospel is not about “will-power” or “human control.” The Gospel is Jesus inside of us in Person, sharing all with us, and causing us to LIVE by the wondrous Flow of His Spirit, free from the false stories of the world.

Out from the Ruling Definitions. So, Galatians. What an experience this has been. I truly experienced more than one moment when, in looking at things I did not quite know how to approach, I sank into Paul’s thinking in the knowing of the Spirit inside of me, and I saw how the Ruling Verses were all fully established inside of Paul, and most of what he wrote was simply bubbling up from those Gospel Definitions, onto the page.

More than that, we now see how the challenge spoken against Paul’s Gospel that inspired this partly angry letter to the Galatians, was in full opposition to the wondrous Truth of 2 Corinthians, that the Treasure of God is found inside the weakness of our human frame, that power might be of God. Let’s bring in just a few thoughts to sum up Galatians.

Seeing Paul’s Gospel. When I arrived at Galatians in writing The Jesus Secret I, most of what I could see was Paul’s gospel only as it related to the claims of the natural descendants of Jacob. God stopped me right there because I did not really know Paul’s gospel. Then, when I first translated Galatians into the JSV, Paul’s anger and sarcasm seemed to me to be the most visible thing.

As I wrote these three lessons on the Gospel Verses in Galatians, I realized that except by first knowing Paul’s Gospel, I would not be able to perceive Paul’s Gospel arising inside of large portions of this letter. In other words, we cannot find Paul’s Gospel unless we first know what it is. Then, in knowing Paul’s Gospel as our own lives, we see it underneath most of what Paul writes.

God’s “Spell.” Paul draws specifically from 1 Corinthians 2 and from 2 Corinthians 3, which he had just written, as he shapes how he responds to the challenge made against the gospel, specifically, the role of the Spirit as the Christian Life. Although Paul lays the two covenants against each other all the way through, that is not really his point. His point is the contest between the spell-caster imposing a gospel of self-improvement versus the Spirit as the Gospel, that is, as God’s “Spell,” that which causes the True knowing of God.

Then, out from the assumption that God alone saves us through the active initiation of union with us by the Lord Jesus, Paul presents three times this intimate union with Jesus inside the protection of the Cross.

A Gospel of Life. Finally, I had assumed that Paul wrote Romans in order to “fix” the kerfuffle that must come from his bold claims of “my gospel.” Through writing these lessons, I now see Romans more clearly. Romans comes out from Galatians. And as I write the Gospel Comments for Romans, I hope to draw regularly from Paul’s bold delineation of a Gospel of LIFE in Galatians.

The Gospel is a Gospel of Life, and we know Life only out from an intimate union with the Lord Jesus Christ inside of us, sharing the same divine Spirit, sharing the same human flesh, sharing sweet communion – forever. And it is in the weaving together of all the types of Gospel Verses that we see and know the essence and meaning of God.

Reading for Next Time. We are now heading into Romans. I hope to have Lesson 13, “Two Covenants,” finished and on the website early this week. At that point, you will have all of Galatians. I would suggest that you read/listen to all three lessons together in one flow, if you are able. We now understand Galatians as one whole for the first time. The first lesson for Romans, then, is titled “Made Justly Innocent,” covering Chapters 1-3. I hope to share that lesson in next week’s Zoom meeting. Romans is HUGE with Gospel Verses, but I hope to get it all into six lessons. We’ll see.

We now know Paul’s mind, and the burning thread from 1 Corinthians in March/April of AD 57 to Romans in January/February of 58. This power ties everything together.

Let’s Pray Together. “God, our Father, we thank You that You have caused us to know, by Your Spirit, our precious union with the Lord Jesus Christ inside of whom we live. We thank You, Father, that You have given us Your own Devoted Spirit to be part, even, of our humanity, Your Spirit flooding through our souls and shed abroad as Love in our hearts. It is Your Spirit that gives us Life, according to the Words that are the Lord Jesus.

“And Father, we thank You with hearts filled with gratefulness, that You have caused us to know this wondrous Flow of Gospel Word by which we know You and by which we live. Your Word, Oh God, is so beautiful to us, even as we watch it transform us into the image of Jesus.

“God, our Father, we would see this same wondrous Gospel Word now flow out into the knowing of all our brethren, Your entire Church upon this earth in this final hour. Let all obstacles to the Flow of Gospel Word be swept away by Your mighty angels. Let the hearts of millions open to knowing Jesus already SENT into them.

“Father, we have already enclothed ourselves with the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, we enclothe Your entire Church with Him as well. Our Devoted Spirit flows out from us together in the celebration of All-Victory, swallowing up death in the Abundance of Life. Father, we know that this great Victory is already ours, for You have given it to us inside of Jesus. We know that You always answer us.”