Understanding Galatians 5:15-26 in relation to the power our old Adamic nature, the flesh, has upon each of us, helps us conduct spiritual warfare within ourselves, and have victory over the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life. (1 John 2:15-17) These 12 verses explain the ongoing battle between our unredeemable “flesh” and our redeemed new man. We must remember that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God (1 Corinthians 15:50), because the kingdom of God is spiritual. Romans 14:17: For the kingdom of God is not meat and drink; but righteousness, and peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost. Our new man has crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts (Galatians 5:24), but the flesh – the old man never relinquishes its craving for the works of the flesh. Our natural, unregenerate heart cannot inherit the kingdom of God, because it is flesh. Jeremiah 17:9-10: The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it? I the LORD search the heart, I try the reins, even to give every man according to his ways, and according to the fruit of his doings. Matthew 15:19-20: For out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, blasphemies: These are the things which defile a man: but to eat with unwashen hands defileth not a man. As stated last week, what pleases the Lord is not a “work”, but a “fruit” that only the Holy Spirit can produce. Galatians 5:22-23 lists nine manifestations of the singular fruit of a life submitted to the Holy Spirit. The lost world knows nothing of walking in the Spirit. They are still in their sins! Enjoy the video of our discussion concerning these verses.
