Thursday, February 27, 2014

Galatians 5:18

Copyright Ó 2014 J. Neely
Galatians 5:18

18 But [de] if [ei] ye be led [ago] of the Spirit [pneuma], ye are [este] not [ou] under [hupo] the law [nomos].  KJV-Interlinear

18 But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the Law.  NASB

There are two and only two spheres of influence that run or control your life.  The first is the sin nature by which your carnal life functions, and the second is the Holy Spirit under which your spiritual life is guided and controlled and functions.

You are under the control of one or the other, never both at the same time.

When you, as a believer, confess your sins, God forgives you those sins and restores you back into fellowship, 1 Jn. 1:9.

When you commit a sin, then you are of course knocked out of fellowship.

When you are out of fellowship, you are ruled by the sin nature within you.

When you are in fellowship, then you are ruled by the Holy Spirit.

You cannot feel or detect, or measure the presence or affect that either has on you.  You cannot sense the sin nature, nor can you sense the Holy Spirit.  Despite what some holy-rollers try to fake.

When you were saved, then at that very moment of your initial belief in Christ, all three members of the trinity came into and dwell in you.  They will remain in you forever.  You cannot feel their presence.  You cannot measure their presence.  You cannot detect their presence.

Even before you were saved, you were born into this world with the sin nature in you.  And again, you cannot feel it, measure it, or detect it in any way.  But the sin nature is the mechanism that brings deterioration and corruption into your body and life.

But unlike the spiritual side of life, the sin nature is restricted to your physical body, and will leave you, when you die.  The body remains behind to disintegrate back into the dust of the earth.   The soul, on the other hand, goes off to heaven and will one day be united with a new permanent body, your resurrection body, which will not have the sin nature in it.

But while you are alive in this world, you have to live with what you have, and learn to control which sphere in which you will live your life.  That control is through confession.

In the carnal life, your sin nature has control of your life.  You never really ever have any self-control while living out of fellowship.

When you confess your sins, then your life is within the boundaries of the spiritual life within which the Holy Spirit exercises control.  But the Holy Spirit’s control is in making clear the spiritual things of life and forming the various attributes of your soul using doctrine as the primary building ingredient.  You still have to believe the doctrine learned and utilize it before it becomes efficacious in your life.

But using the Holy Spirit as your chief communicator and builder, gives you far greater freedoms and control over your life, than you would have under the sin nature.

The sin nature takes your life away.  The Holy Spirit promotes greater life opportunities for you.

And remember, by definition, each sphere is separate from the other.  You are either in one, or the other, never both simultaneously.  So, by that standard and your conscious use of confession, you can know when your life is functioning in the spiritual sphere, or the carnal sphere.