The Spirit and the Christian Life | Galatians 5:13-25; 6:8-16
Phil Krause | May 11, 2025
We’re continuing in our series on the Holy Spirit; today we’re looking at the Spirit and the Christian life. You and I have the awesome privilege, right now, of examining some of what it means for the great God who made all things to work in you, to work in me, to change us from the inside out. I say some because there’s a lot more to how the Holy Spirit works in us than we could cover in just a half hour or so. So please pray for me as I talk and let me pray for myself as well.
Holy Spirit, all of us, not just I, all of us, we don’t want this to be primarily about us. This is about you. It is about your transforming work in us, yes, but for the glory of Jesus Christ. So it is about you. May it produce in us profound gratitude. In your name, amen.
Now, I would invite you to open your Bible to Galatians 5.
Have you ever felt what I call the sin struggle? Actually, you don’t have to answer that, because I know you have. I have too. It might sound something like this: “I know what I should do, but I feel like I can’t.” Or, “I know what’s right, but sometimes I would just rather not. I’m stuck. Sin feels like it’s dragging me down.” Like Paul, who said, “Oh wretched man that I am,” I don’t do the things I want to do, I do do the things I don’t want to do. “Who’s going to deliver me from this body of death?”
It might be something like, “I snapped at my kids today, I snapped at my spouse today, or I gossiped at work, or I went back to that old addiction when I promised God and myself and others that I wouldn’t. I am sick of resisting.”
That’s how it might show itself, this struggle with sin. I’m worn down. I’m ready to give up.
I think we can all relate to those frustrations of remaining sin. Even though we’re children of God, adopted into his family, even though we’ve turned to him in faith and repentance, we turned away from sin, even though we believe that his death paid for all our sins, we still make choices we know aren’t right.
So what’s the solution to this? What’s the secret, the answer to this really maddening problem? Well, I want to submit to you today that the key to growth, the key to becoming more and more like Jesus and gaining victory over sin, the key lies in this concept of walking by the Spirit.
Our passage in Galatians will address and respond to that frustration, but before I read it, let me just say a word about the letter to the Galatians in general. Paul wrote this letter to his friends in the Roman province of Galatia, in Asia Minor, and he urgently warned them not to fall for what he called another gospel. See, false teachers had slipped in and were telling people that in order to be real Christians, they had certain things they needed to do, other aspects of the law of Moses that they needed to observe. Paul wrote to warn them, “It’s like someone has put a spell on you. Who’s bewitched you? Jesus set you free. Don’t go back to the slavery of having to do or having to be a certain way in order to earn favor with God. By the works of the law,” he says, “no one will be justified.”
Like in many of his letters, Paul turns to the practical implications of the truth of that freedom in Christ that we have because of grace, and that’s the background of Galatians.
So with that, let’s look at Galatians 5:13. Now hear the word of the Lord.
“For you were called to freedom, brothers. Only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another. For the whole law is fulfilled in one word: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ But if you bite and devour one another, watch out that you are not consumed by one another.
“But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. For the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh, for these are opposed to each other, to keep you from doing the things you want to do. But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law. Now the works of the flesh are evident: sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these. I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things [or you could translate this “those who make a practice of doing such things”] will not inherit the kingdom of God. But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law. And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.
“If we live by the Spirit, let us also keep in step with the Spirit. Let us not become conceited, provoking one another, envying one another.”
And then Galatians 6:8: “For the one who sows to his own flesh will from the flesh reap corruption, but the one who sows to the Spirit will from the Spirit reap eternal life.”
And then Galatians 6:15: “For neither circumcision counts for anything, nor uncircumcision, but a new creation. And as for all who walk by this rule, peace and mercy be upon them, and upon the Israel of God.”
This is God’s Word.
It’s all in there—the battle, the desires, the Spirit’s part in changing us, and the results or the fruit of his transforming work.
Did you notice the phrases related to the Spirit? It’s all through there. Just in those verses I read, Paul says things like
walk by the Spirit
the desires of the Spirit
be led by the Spirit
the fruit of the Spirit
live by the Spirit
keep in step with the Spirit
sowing to the Spirit
reaping to the Spirit
So today I’m going to use just a few of those phrases, those concepts, as our framework for considering, again, some of what the Holy Spirit does in our lives as true believers, true followers of Christ. Those concepts are walking by the Spirit, being led by the Spirit or keeping in step with the Spirit, and the fruit of the Spirit. Based on those, we’re going to kind of make three statements, three main truths about the Holy Spirit and the Christian life.
1. The Spirit Provides for the Believer’s Walk
Number one, the Spirit provides for the believer’s walk. “Walk by the Spirit,” Paul says, “and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh.” Walk by the Spirit.
All through the Old Testament and New Testament—all through the Scriptures—“walk” is a metaphor for life. The progression of life is compared to a journey that we’re on, a hike. There’s a path to stay on and a way to go. As you go through life, you’re going to come to forks in the road. “Do I do this or this? Which way should I go?”
You might think of Psalm 1, where it says, “Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the wicked.” Often, God spoke of walking in his ways, not walking like the pagan nations around them.
Maybe you’re familiar with Micah 6:8. “He has told you, oh man, what is good, and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice and to love kindness and to walk humbly with your God.”
You can tell a lot about a person based on his walk. That’s even true in a literal, physical, nonmetaphorical sense. Did you know that each person’s walking pattern, according to scientists, is unique? It’s true. Just like your fingerprint or the pattern of the iris in your eyes, your gait, your walk is yours and yours alone.
There was a scene in an action adventure film some years back where the good guys had to upload the correct walk profile into the computer system so that they could infiltrate the bad guys’ operation. There was this tense moment where he had to get past the security and the gait analysis machine. And all of that is based, at least theoretically, in science.
So if it’s true that your literal walk identifies you, how much more true is that in your spiritual walk? Again, you can tell a lot about someone by their walk.
Here, Paul is saying, “Walk by the Spirit.” Let’s talk about walking just for a moment.
First of all, walking implies activity. In the case of our relationship with God and in our lives, it’s cooperation on our part. We cooperate with the Holy Spirit. Paul’s not saying, “Look, you just let go and let God.” No; there’s effort on our part. He says, “Through love serve one another.” That’s how you’re going to fulfill the whole law.
If you’re thinking, “Wait a minute, isn’t that legalism? That sounds kind of like work salvation. What about grace?” Well, I would just remind you of something Dallas Willard was known for saying: “Grace is not opposed to effort, it’s opposed to earning.” I think that’s a helpful distinction. We do what’s right not in order to earn God’s favor or somehow purchase eternal life; no, Jesus did that for us. But we obey because our hearts have been changed. So, yes, walking in the Spirit does imply we’re going to be living lives that honor him and out of gratitude to him.
Second, walking implies a journey. You start out at point A, and after walking for a while, you’re no longer at point A. There’s progress involved. You might think of John Bunyan’s classic allegory The Pilgrim’s Progress. Actually, the whole title is The Pilgrim’s Progress from This World to That Which Is to Come. It’s about the journey of one man, Christian, as he goes from the City of Destruction to the Celestial City, and all the choices he makes along the way. Sometimes he’s getting off the right path, and he runs into all these different people, the conversations he has—everything that happens to him along the way. Bunyan knew that the Christian life is a journey we take step by step by step. We’re in it for the long haul. There are dangers along the way, too, things to watch out for.
The Spirit provides what we need, little by little. As it says in 2 Corinthians 3:18, he does it from “one degree of glory to another.”
Third, walking implies motivation. Right? You need to want to go on this walk or you’re not going to do it. Paul acknowledges this when he sets it all in the context here of desires, competing desires. He says in verse 17, “the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh, for these are opposed to each other.”
So when you’re on a journey, you have choices to make, and our choices are motivated, according to this, by what we desire to do. So walking is gradually moving toward a goal motivated by right desires.
But back to our main point here, the Spirit provides for the believer’s walk. What does the Spirit give us on this walk?
(1) First of all, he gives guidance. He shows which direction, which way we should go. The Christian walk is a walk of faith. We see that in 2 Corinthians 5, where Paul says, “We walk by faith, not by sight.” Earlier in Galatians, in Galatians 3 and 5, he connects the Christian’s relationship with the Spirit to faith. So look at Galatians 5:5. “For through the Spirit, by faith, we ourselves eagerly wait for the hope of righteousness.”
So, walking by the Spirit means we trust him. He is setting the direction for our walk of faith. We’re going to look more in just a moment about what it means to follow him and trust him in this. But he gives guidance.
(2) Secondly, he gives power. By this I mean ability, strength, the ability to—listen, apart from the Spirit’s enabling work, you and I would never choose the right path. This power from the Holy Spirit—I mean, think of it like the food you need to eat in order to do this walk. It’s your trail mix for the hike or whatever. It's your fuel. The Spirit energizes us to walk rightly. Paul says, walk how? By the Spirit.
The key to this is the whole idea (we see that in verse 24) of crucifying the flesh with its passions and desires. Here’s how it works on a practical level.
I’m walking along in life, I come to a fork in the road, and this could be a huge monumental choice like, “Where do I go to school or who do I marry,” things like that. Or it could be just an instantaneous, seemingly insignificant decision I’ve got to make. But it’s a fork. I know that I could go this way or I could go that way. One way is the way of the flesh and one way is the way of the Spirit.
Let me pause and just say, you understand that when Paul talks about the flesh, he doesn’t mean the muscles and the organs and skin hanging on our bones. He’s talking about the leftover habits from your old sin nature. This is the pull toward wrong, toward sin.
So, here you are. You’re at the fork in the road, deciding what to do. It could happen in an instant. So right now, if that’s the case, where it’s just a quick thing, we’re having to slow things down like a super slow motion thing here just so we can analyze it, right? But the battle of desires fires up. Part of me wants to go down the path of the flesh, but I have the Holy Spirit in me, and he’s quickening or sensitizing my conscience and saying, “Don’t do it. It would be wrong. Don’t go that way. This way is better.”
Now, at that moment, here’s what it looks like to crucify the flesh with its passions and desires. Remember, crucifixion is gory, hard, grueling. It is not pretty. So I like to picture myself actually nailing my flesh to a cross. But as I do, I’m saying things like, “Jesus, you died for sins like that.” Boom. It’s like a nail goes in; a blow of the hammer. “I’m crucified with you.” Another blow of the hammer. “Therefore, I no longer live. You live in me by your Spirit. And the life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God.” Another nail. “Who loved me and gave himself for me. Holy Spirit, yes, in my flesh, I do want to go down that way. But you say that with you there is fullness of joy. At your right hand there are pleasures forevermore.” And that nail, you’re just crucifying the flesh. If, in those moments, if that is your heartfelt prayer, you will say no to your fleshly desire, that sinful desire, and you’ll say yes to the Spirit. The two can’t coexist. You’re going to say yes to the one or the other.
So the Spirit provides the ability to crucify your flesh. The late J.I. Packer said it this way:
“The root of holiness is co-crucifixion and co-resurrection with Jesus Christ.”
Now this is talking about our union with Christ. As a believer, we’re crucified with him.
“We need to realize and remember that the believer’s holiness is a matter of learning to be in action what he already is in the heart.”
In other words, it’s a matter of living out the life and expressing the disposition and instinct, that is, the new nature, that God wrought in him by creating him anew in Christ.
“In pursuing holiness by obeying God, the Christian follows the deepest urge of his own renewed being.”
We could call it his Christ nature or his Christ instinct. He says,
“True holiness is the Christian’s true fulfillment, for it is the doing of that which deep down he now most wants to do according to the urging of his new dominant instincts in Christ.”
So that’s the connection. That’s where the desires flow from. It’s a journey. This walking by the Spirit is a journey motivated by new desires, right desires.
What is the result? The result is great hope. In fact, I think Galatians 5:16 is one of the most hopeful verses in the Bible. I don’t think it actually is the most hopeful verse in the Bible, but in our battle against sin, this verse is way up there. “Walk by the Spirit and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh.”
Wow. Let that sink in. Can you feel the hope? Not just on a theoretical, abstract, or academic level, but viscerally in the core of your being. Walk by the Spirit; you will not gratify the desires of the flesh.
Now, scholars have pointed out that some of the emotion and the strength of that statement gets lost in translation. Here’s how pastor and author Todd Wilson explains it.
“Now this is an amazing promise, victory over the flesh in the warfare of daily life. Indeed, the original Greek is even stronger than the English. What Paul, in effect, wants to say is this: ‘If you walk by the Spirit, you will in no way, not a chance, absolutely not fulfill the desires of the flesh.’ In our fight against the flesh, Paul’s confidence in the Spirit is boundless.”
Aren’t you thankful that the Holy Spirit helps us with both the direction and the ability to walk? What a blessing and what a hope! What hope it gives.
2. The Spirit Presides over the Believer’s Walk
So, the Spirit provides for the believer’s walk; and next we see number two, the Spirit presides over the believer’s walk. We see this in the phrases “being led by the Spirit” in verse 18 and “keep in step with the Spirit” in verse 25. Let me read those verses again.
Verse 18. “But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law.” Now keep in mind, the bigger picture of Galatians, the context here, false teachers were saying you actually need to keep the law to be saved; and Paul is saying, no, that’s not the gospel. The whole law is fulfilled by simply loving people. We saw that in verse 14. And when you’re led by the Spirit, you’re not under the law. You’re free, free to follow a new leader.
Verse 25 is an interesting verse to me. Paul says, “If we live by the Spirit, let us also keep in step with the Spirit.”
Your Bible translation might actually say, “let us also walk by the Spirit.” That would not be wrong. Earlier, Paul had said “walk by the Spirit” in verse 16, but here he’s using a different Greek word. It still means walk, but this word, stoicheo, carries with it the idea of walking in line. It’s a military term that has a connotation of walking according to a rule. That’s why the English Standard Version translates it “keep in step with the Spirit.” It’s like, “Fall in. Line yourself up under his leadership. Submit yourself to him. Yield to his orders. Do what he says.”
Here’s how I want to illustrate this. This is a way to understand this word stoicheo.
This is a photo of our dog, Scout. There’s Scout, standing in a field of dandelions that might possibly double as our yard. Scout has a lot of hound dog in him. He’s a great dog, but when we go on walks in the neighborhood, he instinctively pulls on the leash. He wants to be out front, he wants to be sniffing for the scent of some exciting rodent to chase.
A while back, it was so bad that we found ourselves not really enjoying walks because Scout was pulling so hard. So a couple of years ago, we had a dog trainer come give us some lessons and she was super helpful. Scout has shown a lot of improvement since then.
But something Patty, the dog trainer, said was, “In Scout’s world, sorry to tell you this, but you’re basically irrelevant. It’s almost as if you didn’t exist. In fact, you’re just kind of in the way of what he really wants. He’s like a toddler. He is the center of his own universe, and what he needs to do, part of the whole training process, is teaching him to learn to notice you and care about you and what you’re doing.”
So she showed us how to watch for certain cues and reward the dog when he does notice us, and so forth. Dog training is part dog training and mostly owner training, I think. But at her suggestion, something I have done quite a bit in the days since then, is that I sometimes tie Scout’s leash to my belt or around my waist as I work around the house or the yard or out in the garage or whatever. I'm just doing my life, what I need to do, and he’s tagging along with me. Well, he has to learn to keep in step with me; otherwise, we have chaos. He might get hurt if I step on him or we get tangled up and we trip over each other.
It’s kind of like our relationship to the Holy Spirit. He’s in charge. We are tethered to him, not by the heavy choke chain of the law, the oppressive chain that strangles us as we strain against it, but by the leash of love.
So the Spirit presides over our walk. I chose to say “presides over,” well, partly to fit into the alliteration of P words—he provides for, he presides over, and he produces—but think about it in terms of the U.S. political system. What do we call the one who presides? The President. That’s right. He’s the one in charge. He’s the commander-in-chief, the CEO, if you will, of the country, the chief executive officer. So when we say that the Spirit presides over the believer’s walk, we’re saying he’s not just a helpful resource to draw on and use, he's also a kind ruler to follow.
So the obvious question, then, is, is the Spirit the commander-in-chief of your life, of your heart? Is he your CEO? Now, human presidents, human CEOs, let us down. They make mistakes. They make wrong choices. But the Holy Spirit is God, so he’s the perfect president. Keep in step with him.
The result will be that following him requires and results in great humility and harmony, both in our relationship with God and with others. Did you notice the warnings in this passage about pride and conflict and conceit? We see them in Galatians 5:15 and 26. In fact, these warnings kind of bracket the whole passage. For you Greek nerds in the room, tit’s a loose chiastic structure. At the center, we have the lists of the works of the flesh and the fruit of the Spirit, but these admonitions to not tear each other up are like bookends on this passage. Verse 15: “If you bite and devour one another, watch out that you are not consumed by one another.”
Verse 26. “Let us not become conceited, provoking one another, envying one another.”
Now look down at Galatians 6:16. “And as for all who walk by this rule,” there’s that same word stoicheo again, to walk in a line. For all who walk by this rule, “peace and mercy be upon them and upon the Israel of God.”
So Paul is closing his letter; he’s pronouncing a blessing on them, but it’s all a result of the Spirit’s work in their lives and their submission to and their cooperation with him.
3. The Spirit Produces Fruit in the Believer’s Life
Point number three: the Spirit produces fruit in the believer’s life. Paul has two lists in this passage. They’re opposites. There are the works of the flesh in Galatians 5:19-21 and the fruit of the Spirit in Galatians 5:22-23.
Now remember, he’s already said that the desires of the flesh are opposed to the desires of the Spirit. Well, how does this all work? Desires give birth to actions, actions give birth to habits, and habits form the basis of character. So the fruit or the results of desires are the behaviors and character qualities that flow from acting on those desires. That works for good or for bad.
In that list of the works of the flesh, Paul uses this term “evident.” He says the works of the flesh are evident. It means it’s not hard to see them. They’re obvious. Time doesn’t allow us this morning to go through each one item by item, and same thing with the fruits of the Spirit here. That’s a helpful study, and I encourage you to do that. But I do want to make a few general observations here.
First, notice that both lists are not exhaustive. In the works of the flesh, Paul ends this rapid-fire list, and he says, “and things like these.” So in other words, there’s more. Don’t turn this into just a checklist of, “Yeah, I’m okay there, I’m okay there.” No.
At the end of the fruit of the Spirit, Paul says, “Against such things there is no law.” So in both lists, he's not trying to cover every possible sin or every possible virtue. He just wants his readers to have a feel for the kind of thing that he’s talking about.
Second observation: don’t miss the fact that many of the things in both the works of the flesh and the fruit of the Spirit have to do with how we treat one another and how we respond to the way people treat us. The context here in this whole passage is one of community life.
I was discussing this with Pastor Brad, and he drew my attention to the fact that Paul here is very focused on preserving unity, preventing divisiveness, avoiding prideful and vengeful actions. When people read Paul’s list of the works of the flesh, this can be the way we sometimes do this, right, in our minds. We say, “Let’s see…sexual immorality…impurity, sensuality. Mm-hmm. Oh, yeah. That’s terrible; rebuke. Idolatry, sorcery, okay. Skip, skip, skip, skip, skip. Drunkenness, orgies—oh, yeah, that's right. We can’t have those.” But then we also see in this same list the more respectable sins that Paul lists here: divisiveness, anger, boasting, envy. Paul treats those like they’re just as serious as the others. Brad said, “I wonder if we think of them the same way in the church.”
By the same token, the fruit of the Spirit emphasizes relationships, interactions with others. We have love, joy, peace, patience. The King James version says “longsuffering.” Do you suffer long? Kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. All of those are lived out and learned and practiced in the context of Christian community.
The mindset nowadays tends to be more like, “You know, if you really want to grow into your fullness, don’t waste your time with people who are difficult or who take effort, they drain you, they might offend you, they require you to lay down your priorities, and so on. Get away from them and do your own thing.”
Now, I will say this. There is a place for rest and withdrawal and what is sometimes called self-care. I’m not saying never do that. Even Jesus took the disciples away for breaks from time to time. But much of our fruitfulness comes as a result of bumping into each other in life and God using that friction to polish off the rough edges. So don’t shy away from getting involved, investing yourself, and yes, even allowing others into the more uncomfortable places of your life.
I just have a few observations about fruit. First of all, it’s natural. A fruitful tree doesn’t try hard to bear fruit; it just happens when the conditions are right.
Secondly, it’s gradual. You don’t plant an apple seed on a Tuesday and expect to get applesauce from that same tree on Wednesday. No. It happens little by little, and it takes time.
Third, fruit is evidence of life. Remember what Jesus said in John 15: “I am the vine, you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing.”
I love the way author and theologian Michael Horton put it. He said,
“Through the centuries, many have emphasized the Christian life as the imitation of Christ. There are certainly calls to imitate Christ’s humility and service in the New Testament; however, even these imperatives are based on the indicative fact of union. In other words, Jesus Christ is not simply a great man, even a divine man, who calls us to become like him. The gospel proclaims something far more wonderful than the law of moral striving. It announces that all who are in Christ are actually co-heirs with him of his estate, members of his body. Grafted by the Spirit into the vine, we bear fruit that is not just like his own, as if he were merely a model to imitate, but is in fact the fruit that ripens from the sap of his own eschatological life, because he is our covenant head.”
I love that. In other words, it’s not just, “Bear fruit and be like Jesus.” No; he’s your life! He’s the sap that will help you, that actually gives you the life you need to bear the fruit.
Then the fourth thing is that fruit is evidence of your health. If you’re looking at your life and you are not seeing much fruit, well, first of all, check to make sure that you’re in the faith—make sure there’s life there—and then, concentrate on abiding in Jesus. Jesus said that’s how you’re going to bear much fruit. “You have to abide in me.” What does that mean? Stay in him, remain in him, draw your life from him. We often call these things the means of grace, these spiritual disciplines—like prayer. Talk to him. Talk to him about it. Say, “Lord, I want to grow. I want to stop doing these things.” Ask him. Meditate on his word. That’s like the water and the fertilizer for your heart. Do it daily. Position yourself for growth.
The result, with perseverance and faithfulness, will be a greater degree of holiness, a life honoring and pleasing to God, a life more and more transformed by the Spirit into what it’s meant to be.
So, we have a choice. The choice is death or life. Eternity is at stake here. Paul says in Galatians 5:21 that those who make a practice of doing such things will not inherit the kingdom of God. This is serious business.
Galatians 6:8: “For the one who sows to his own flesh will from the flesh reap corruption.” That’s putrid, defiling, life-threatening, devil-delighting rottenness. You don’t want corruption. “But,” he says, “the one who sows to the Spirit will from the Spirit reap eternal life.”
So there you are; you’re at the fork in the road. Look at it with eyes of faith. It takes faith to see one way as wrong and one way as right. In other words, our hearts are deceitful, and if we listen to ourselves, we’re going to say, “That way looks better than this way.” But no, the eyes of faith say, “No. That way goes to death and corruption. The other way goes to eternal life, fullness of joy.”
So what Paul’s saying here is, sow to the Spirit. Sow to the Spirit.
I’d like to conclude by reading again from Todd Wilson’s helpful commentary on Galatians. He says this:
“The sufficiency of the Spirit and not ourselves—this ought to be the best news in the world for all of us. It ought to be especially sweet music in the ear of a few folks. I’m thinking especially of tired legalists who are convinced that Christianity is all about coloring within the lines. And it ought to be good news to grumpy moralists, who deep down are really depressed by the fact that, despite their best efforts to live a good Christian life, they don’t seem to be able to do it very well, or perhaps not at all. And it ought to be good news to insecure hypocrites, those who know their life, especially their private life, doesn’t match their profession. They don’t walk the talk. So they’re insecure, hoping no one pulls back the curtain to discover who they really are. Through the gospel, God has done what needs to be done to put us in good standing in our warfare against the flesh. When we embrace Christ Jesus by faith, we are crucified together with him (Galatians 2:20), and thus our flesh with its passions and desires is crucified (verse 24). But not only are we put to death, we’re raised to newness of life by the Spirit. In fact, as Paul says, we live by the Spirit (Galatians 5:25). This simple statement summarizes the whole: the Spirit is sufficient for life. We live by the Spirit.”
Let’s pray.
Father, thank you. You have not left us as orphans. In your wisdom, you initiated a plan to bring us to you. You purchased us with the blood of your Son. You gave us the Spirit to lead us, to empower us, to convict us of sin, to produce fruit in us. Holy Spirit, thank you for being our kind commander-in-chief. Forgive us for the many times we choose to go the wrong way, we refuse to submit to you. Thank you for opening our eyes to how desperate we are apart from Christ. Help us to see sin as bad as it is and the gospel as beautiful as it is. Help us to abide in Christ and in his words, and may he abide in us. Be present with us as we celebrate communion at the table today. This is a way for us to tangibly experience the truth of what Jesus has done for us in his wrath-turning death and his victorious resurrection. It’s all for your glory. May Christ be magnified, and it is in his name that we pray. Amen.
Phil Krause
