Walk in the Spirit, and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh (Galatians 5:16).

"I am learning to walk in the Spirit." "Just follow the leading of the Spirit, brother." "That does not bear witness with my spirit." These expressions are common today, particularly in Charismatic and Pentecostal circles of fellowship. However, are the underlying implications of these expressions in line with Scripture? What did the Apostle Paul really mean when he exhorted the Galatians, and us, to "walk in the Spirit"?

The Dispensational mindset of many Christians today erects a false dichotomy between the New and Old Testaments, and between grace and law. While the Jews of ancient Israel are viewed as being under the yoke of manifold commandments, laws, and ordinances, Christians are supposedly freed from all such rules and regulations. However, Scripture itself does not bear this idea out. According to Malachi 3:6, our God does not change. He does not have one standard of behavior for one group of people, and a completely different standard for yet another group of people. The behavior that displeased Him in the Old Testament, will likewise displease Him in the New.

But has not the coming of Christ abrogated the demands of the Law, replacing them with the "new law" of loving one another? In Matthew 5:17-19, Jesus Himself denied that even "One jot or tittle" of the Law would be diminished in its significance and authority. Furthermore, the command to "love your neighbor as yourself" is certainly nothing new, being as it is the underlying focus of the Mosaic Law itself (Leviticus 19:18). In the words of the Apostle John:

"Brethren, I write no new command to you, but an old commandment which you have had from the beginning. The old commandment is the word which you heard from the beginning" (1 John 2:7).

Clearly, the "word" which John's audience had "heard from the beginning" was the entire Old Testament canon, complete with its commandments. If John actually viewed these commandments as having somehow become obsolete, he had ample opportunity in the above passage to say so. The fact is that he did not. Indeed, it is in John's epistle that we find the Bible's clearest definition of sin:

"Whosoever committeth sin transgresseth the Law: for sin is the transgression of the Law" (1 John 3:4).

In chapter 2, verse one of the same epistle, John stated that his very purpose for writing was "that you may not sin." In other words, it was John's pressing concern that his readers not sin by disobeying the Law of God. There is no amount of equivocation and rationalizing of the text that will diminish the import of these words. Let us now return to the Apostle Paul to see if he would agree with this thesis. Romans 8:13-14, for the most part, is a parallel passage to his words in Galatians, which we have quoted above:

"Therefore, brethren, we are debtors- not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh. For if you live according to the flesh you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live. For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God." (Romans 8:13-14).

Does Paul here refer to some mystical inward promptings or some "still small voice" that whispers in our heart? Certainly not! As an orthodox Jew and a learned Pharisee, Paul would no doubt have understood Jeremiah's intention when he wrote that "the heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked" (Jeremiah 17:9). He went so far as to withhold judgment on himself because he knew very well that the heart cannot be trusted (1 Corinthians 4:3-4). What arrogance it is to think that we are somehow "more spiritual" than the great Apostle, and will always be able to tell the difference between some mystical "leading of the Spirit" and the delusions of our own minds! Without an external standard, we simply cannot. This is evident by the fact that "spiritual Christians" everywhere have conflicting ideas of what constitutes right and wrong, and disagree amongst themselves quite frequently on matters of ethical importance. Surely, the same Spirit is not constantly contradicting Himself, for "God is not the author of confusion" (1 Corinthians 14:33).

To which reference point, then, should we look for our guidance when being "led by the Spirit" if not to an inner "witness"? In verse 7, Paul pointed out that the unregenerate man "is not subject to the Law of God, nor indeed can be." What then of the regenerate man? Our answer is found in verses 3-4:

"For what the Law could not do in that it was weak through the flesh, God did by sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, on account of sin: He condemned sin in the flesh, that the righteous requirement of the Law might be fulfilled in us who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit."

We have been given the Holy Spirit so that we might live according to the Law and to obey its precepts! It is the Law, as it is contained in the written Word, that is to be our ethical guide. Though the Law was powerless to produce obedience in the human heart apart from the indwelling Spirit, and therefore only condemned sinful man, such is not the case with the man who has been born-again. We have been "set free from the law of sin and death" (Romans 8:2), because we no longer stand under the Law's condemnation (Romans 8:1), but it does not follow that we have been set free from obedience to the great Law-Giver (Romans 6:15). Indeed, the fact that Jesus suffered and died for our transgression of the Law, should impress upon our minds that we may not continue to transgress that same Law after we have been redeemed.

Too many leaders in the Church are insistent that to view the Law of God as anything but an out-dated relic is to introduce an "anti-spiritual" legalism into the Body of Christ and to impose an unbearable yoke of bondage upon Christians. Part of the confusion here is a faulty definition of the biblical term "spiritual" as that which is inward and opposed to physical and external realities, rather than simply "of, or controlled by the Spirit." According to Paul, "the Law is spiritual... [and] to be spiritually minded is life and peace" (Romans 7:14, 8:6). Furthermore, the Law is described throughout the entire Bible as a "delight" (Psalm 1:2), "perfect... pure... true and righteous" (Psalm 19:7-9), a source of "liberty" (Psalm 119:45), "holy and just and good" (Romans 7:12), and its commandments are therefore "not burdensome" (1 John 5:3).

It should be remembered that it was the Spirit of God that gave us the Law- it had a spiritual origin and it holds forth a standard of spiritual behavior (obedience). Therefore, when we are exhorted to "walk according to the Spirit," Scripture is telling us to conform our lives to the Law of God, through the empowerment of the Spirit which lives in us. We are not to attempt to replace its holy demands with our own subjective standards of right and wrong, thereby "being ignorant of God's righteousness, and seeking to establish [our] own...." (Romans 10:3) The comments of John Calvin in this regard are instructive:

Those who, rejecting Scripture, imagine that they have some peculiar way of penetrating to God, are to be deemed not so much under the influence of error as madness. For certain giddy men have lately appeared, who, while they make a great display of the superiority of the Spirit, reject all reading of the Scriptures themselves, and deride the simplicity of those who only delight in what they call the dead and deadly letter. But I wish they would tell me what spirit it is whose inspiration raises them to such a sublime height that they dare despise the doctrine of Scripture as mean and childish. (1)

In today's "feel good Christianity," such a teaching is not popular, and, indeed, is vehemently opposed. Nevertheless, the Scripture tells us to "let God be true but every man a liar" (Romans 3:4). The issue that should concern the truly regenerate believer is not whether a doctrine is embraced enthusiastically by the masses- the issue is whether or not the Bible teaches it.

"Jesus is just all right with me," sang the Doobie Brothers in the 1970s. This seems to be the anthem of millions of professing believers today as well. Of course, Jesus "is just all right" as long as His demands are not in opposition to the will of the unregenerate flesh. People smile amiably when told the gushy "news" that "Jesus loves you and has a wonderful plan for your life." However, the smile more often than not will turn to an angry frown if the message is changed to "Jesus is Lord and you are obligated to obey Him." Today's "easy believer" does not want to hear of obedience and external standards of behavior, but these are nevertheless the biblical test of the inward state of one's heart. Either one "live[s] according to the flesh" (Romans 8:5), opposing God's Law in heart and/or action, or one "live[s] according to the Spirit" (Romans 8:12), and demonstrates his love for Christ by "keep[ing His] commandments" (John 14:15). The Apostle John's warning to the Antinomians of his day is equally applicable to those of our own:

"Now by this we know that we know Him, if we keep His commandments. He who says, "I know Him," and does not keep His commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him. But whoever keeps His word, truly the love of God is perfected in him. By this we know that we are in Him" (1 John 2:3-5).

Endnotes

1. John Calvin, Institutes of the Christian Religion, Book I, Chapter IX:1.