In his letter to the Galatians, Paul is dealing specifically with Jewish believers who had been lured back into a legalistic lifestyle. A legalistic lifestyle is one in which you are guided by rules and regulations. Legalism is the view that your status with God is earned by keeping his law. God did not give his people the law to earn his favour. He gave them the law to show them what a godly life looks like and how far short they fell. But a godly life cannot be achieved just by following the law. It is a little like playing music. You cannot learn to play music just by mimicking the gestures of musicians. Nor can you play music just by pressing the right notes. To learn music you must become musical. When you become musical the technical part is simply what facilitates the expression of your musicality. Like music, a godly life comes from the heart. You must become godly by having your heart cleansed and filled with the Spirit of God. A right life flows out from a heart that is reconciled with God and flows out in worship to God. That is why Paul says in this letter that we should live by the Spirit, not the law. God’s law sets the standard for right living. But mechanically obeying the rules will not enable you to meet that standard. Only the Spirit of God can empower us to be who God wants us to be.
Think about all that these verses say about God’s Spirit and how this should change the way we live.
Read Galatians 1:1-9 and Romans 8:1-17
