Galatians 3: Living by the Spirit, Moving Forward and Walking Together

Introduction

"A God who moves mountains is without a doubt a God who will also move our hearts this morning, and he will do it through his Word." With these words, Rubén Gramaje, pastor of the Iglesia Evangélica Bautista El Buen Pastor in Madrid, continues his series on the letter to the Galatians, titled after Galatians 4:19: "until Christ is formed in you."

He compares the series to a staircase. First step: seeking God's approval rather than that of people (Galatians 1). Second step: "it is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me" (Galatians 2). The third step, a more complex one, is living by the Spirit, like those believers who live everything, whatever happens to them, in a "one hundred percent spiritual" way.

The challenge he sets is simple: is this life in the Spirit within reach, or reserved for a privileged few? His answer draws on the beginning and the end of Galatians 3 (verses 1 to 5, then 26 to 28), and on the story of the disciples on the road to Emmaus in Luke 24.

Outline of the message

1. Living by the Spirit, a privilege offered to everyone

The first piece of good news: we have the Spirit. We have been sealed by the Holy Spirit, and the staircase is there for everyone. You can decide to climb it, and "maybe there is a better view" at the top.
This privilege comes with great responsibilities. Paul gives several imperatives: do not quench the Spirit, do not grieve the Spirit, walk by the Spirit (Galatians 5:16).
The pastor admits that the Spirit is hard to define, since he acts in so many different ways in the Scriptures. It is also a subject on which "the Church has often hurt itself," getting into controversies that led nowhere.
Galatians 3:5 gives the foundation: the one who supplies you with the Spirit and works miracles among you does so by faith, not by the works of the law. The Spirit was received by faith in the heart of the believer.

2. "Foolish Galatians": a heart slow to understand

The chapter opens almost with an insult: "Foolish Galatians, who has bewitched you?" Paul is more than worried, he is angry: the Church has gone after another gospel.
The context: Judaizers were pushing believers to submit again to circumcision and to the legalisms of the time. Paul urges them, but "in the only way one can urge": with brotherly love, because he wants them to change.
The word he uses also suggests a hard, rigid heart. And what is rigid breaks easily.
He links this word to Luke 24, where Jesus speaks of two disciples whose heart is "slow": a numbed heart, spiritually asleep, that struggles to understand. Proverbs speaks constantly of the fool, for example the one who is quick to anger (Proverbs 12:16).
Application: if your spiritual heart is slow, you never interpret what happens to you in a spiritual way, and you are always looking for other answers.

3. The disciples on the road to Emmaus: veiled eyes

In Luke 24, two men are walking to Emmaus, discussing everything that has happened. The risen Jesus comes near and walks with them, "but their eyes were kept from recognizing him."
The contrast is striking: to the Galatians, Jesus Christ had been portrayed so clearly, right before their eyes, and yet they turn away.
The disciples were expecting a military and political liberator: "But we were hoping that it was he who would redeem Israel." That is why they had not understood.
Jesus says to them: "Foolish men, and slow of heart to believe in all that the prophets have spoken!" It is the same word as in Galatians.
The Galatians are going through the same thing, but almost in reverse: they knew the gospel and want to go back; the disciples on the road to Emmaus had not connected the prophecies with Christ. The point of balance, says the pastor, is the Spirit who speaks to people, who removes the veil and the blindfold so that they understand what God is doing.

4. Do not look back: begin and finish with the Spirit

"If you are a child of God, it makes no sense to look back." Jesus said so when speaking about the cost of following him: no one who puts a hand to the plow and looks back is fit for the kingdom of God (Luke 9:62).
Paul says it to the Philippians: forgetting what is behind and reaching out to what is ahead (Philippians 3:13).
In the wilderness, the people said, "Let's go back to Egypt," remembering what they used to eat there (Numbers 11:5; 14:4). The pastor answers: "Don't you remember that in Egypt you were oppressed, that you were a slave?" The spies had talked about giants, and the people thought: better the Egypt we know than a promised land yet to be discovered.
This is often our attitude. We know that the Spirit works miracles, but to perform a miracle he will work on our faith, break our heart, shape us and touch things in our life. "Of course I want miracles, but I must be ready to pay the price."
Paul speaks of agitators who "bewitched" the Church, in the sense of hypnotizing or beguiling it. The pastor calls the 21st-century Church to let itself be carried forward by the wind of the Spirit, without being blown about by every wind of doctrine (Ephesians 4:14).
"Having begun in the Spirit, are you now completed in the flesh?" (Galatians 3:3). "What matters is finishing well, finishing consistently. You began with the Spirit, so stay spiritual."
It is God who brings the work to completion: he carries out a spiritual process in each one of us.
It is incompatible to have tasted the Spirit and then go back to the legalism of the past, to want a genuine relationship with Christ and then live "a purely empty religion, a purely empty activism."
"Being spiritual does not mean being a perfectionist; it means letting yourself be guided by the Spirit and by the Word of God."
The image of captivity: the pastor loves wildlife documentaries and cannot stand seeing animals in cages. Raised in captivity, some develop harmful behaviors: they pace in circles, and small rodents gnaw the bars. It is the same sadness when believers do not enjoy Christian freedom and think everything comes down to their four walls, to "a faith that we have sometimes built to our own measure."

5. Moving forward with a firm step, clothed with Christ

Galatians 3:26 makes life in the Spirit very concrete: "For you are all children of God, through faith in Christ Jesus." We have an eternal Father, as Isaiah says, who promised not to leave us orphans (John 14:18).
He is the merciful father of Luke 15: he waits on the road for the son who squandered everything, runs to meet him, moved with compassion, and then throws a great feast. "That is our God."
This Father prepares eternal dwellings. "We hear a lot about housing. I am not going to talk about housing, but I am going to talk to you about a home": "I am going to prepare a place for you" (John 14:2).
The symbols of the Spirit: the dove, the fire that purifies, the oil of consecration, the Comforter, the seal of belonging, and water, reflected in baptism, which says that we died and rose again in Christ. Jesus promised that rivers of living water would flow from the heart of the one who believes, and "he said this about the Spirit, which those believing in him were going to receive" (John 7:37-39).
To be clothed with Christ is to put on mercy and above all love, "which is the bond of perfection" (Colossians 3:12-14), after taking off the old self (Ephesians 4:22-24).
The image of a child's sock coming home from the park: it is caked stiff, it stands up on its own, and you wonder whether to wash it or throw it away. In the same way we must reject the old self, almost throw it away completely, in order to clothe ourselves spiritually with the Lord.

6. Walking together, a community of equals

Walking by the Spirit is not only going forward: "If one goes one way and another goes another way, we are not going together."
Galatians 3:28: there is no longer Jew or Greek, slave or free, male or female. In Christ there are no more social hierarchies, no more "those from here and those from over there," no more those who have more and those who have less. "It is no longer about groups, it is about being together."
In the church of Galatia, troublemakers were trying to divide the congregation. From now on, what matters is hearing with faith. The pastor points to the example of Onesimus in the letter to Philemon.
Unity is worked at in community, with eyes fixed on Christ and on the mission of the Church: a community without ethnic barriers or social hierarchies, where brothers and sisters receive the same grace, have the same Redeemer and the same Spirit.

7. From a slow heart to a burning heart

To introduce communion, the pastor returns to Emmaus. Beginning with Moses and all the prophets, Jesus explains to the two disciples what concerned him in all the Scriptures.
At the table, he takes the bread, blesses it, breaks it and gives it to them. "Their eyes were opened, and they recognized him; and he vanished out of their sight."
"Weren't our hearts burning within us, while he spoke to us along the way, and while he opened the Scriptures to us?" The journey goes from a slow heart to a burning heart, and the key is given: their hearts burned because they understood the Scriptures.
If you want to live by the Spirit and follow the Lord filled with the Holy Spirit, seek to have your heart burn spiritually.
The Bible gives the name of one of the two walkers, Cleopas, but not the other's. "Speculation aside, I like to think that the other one might be me." Put your own name in his place.

Key takeaways

Every believer has received the Spirit by faith: living by the Spirit is not reserved for an elite, but it is a privilege that carries responsibility.
A slow heart never interprets its life spiritually. It is the Spirit who removes the veil and helps us understand what God is doing.
Longing for "the Egypt we know" or going back to legalism makes no sense for someone who has tasted freedom in Christ.
Being spiritual does not mean being a perfectionist: it means letting yourself be guided by the Spirit and by the Word, clothed with Christ.
Walking by the Spirit is lived together, in a community of equals, and the heart burns when the Scriptures are opened.

Personal application

What experiences with the Lord can you remember today to help you move forward, as Israel should have remembered the parted sea?
In what area do you need the help of the eternal Father today to stay firm in faith?
How can we help one another, as a Church and a community of disciples, to follow the Lord together?
Is there a "known Egypt" or a form of empty religion that you are tempted to go back to?
What in your old self is still "stuck" and keeps you from clothing yourself with Christ?

Verses cited

Frequently asked questions

What does it mean to live by the Spirit according to Galatians 3?

For Rubén Gramaje, living by the Spirit is not the privilege of a few: every believer has received the Spirit by faith. Nor is it something ethereal. It means moving forward without looking back, walking with a firm step because you are clothed with Christ, and journeying together with the Church. "Being spiritual does not mean being a perfectionist; it means letting yourself be guided by the Spirit and by the Word of God."

Why does Paul call the Galatians foolish?

The Galatians had known freedom in Christ, and then agitators pushed them to go back to circumcision and legalism. Paul is angry, but he corrects them out of brotherly love, because he wants them to change. The word suggests a slow, numbed heart whose understanding is blocked when it comes to spiritual things.

What connection does the preacher make between Galatians 3 and the disciples on the road to Emmaus?

Jesus uses the same word, "foolish," with the two disciples on the road to Emmaus, whose hearts were slow to believe. Their journey takes them from a slow heart to a burning heart, because Jesus explains the Scriptures to them and makes himself known in the breaking of the bread. For Rubén Gramaje, this is the key: the Spirit removes the veil and helps us understand what God is doing.