Scripture Reading: Gal. 1:13-15a, Gal. 1:16a; Gal. 2:19-20; 3:2, 5, 26-27; 4:6, 19, 29; 5:16, 18, 22-23; 6:18
In the book of Galatians God’s two economies, His Old Testament economy and His New Testament economy, are dealt with in a full way. Concerning each of these economies, the Bible uses a particular word. The word for God’s economy in the Old Testament is law, and the word for His economy in the New Testament is Christ. Which do you prefer, law or Christ? In contrast to the Jews, who love the law, we who believe in Christ would all say that we prefer Christ to the law. Yes, on the one hand, we do love Christ, but, on the other hand, we may still embrace the law. In actual experience, we may embrace the law more than we embrace Christ.
Most Christians who love the Lord and have a heart to seek Him have a hidden love for the law. When some hear such a word, they may argue and say, “We don’t want the law. We love Christ and want only Him.” This may be the situation on the surface, but deep within, subconsciously, most Christians still love the law. Although they may not realize it, there is some kind of law hidden within them, like a cancer growing on a person’s vital inward organs. Such a person may appear healthy on the surface, but he has a serious disease within him. Only when surgery is performed does the extent of this disease become known. We may be good Christians who love the Lord and seek Him; however, we may not be conscious of the fact that we still keep the law hidden within us.
Not many Christians have their daily walk according to Christ. Can you say that you have been walking according to Christ today? During times of prayer we may have our living and our being according to Christ. But after we pray we may have our living and our being according to something other than Christ. Whenever we do not live according to Christ, we live according to law. This is my reason for saying that although we love Christ, we still hold to the law.
Our situation can be compared to that of Abraham, who loved Sarah, his wife, but who also became involved with Hagar, a concubine, who signifies the law. In 4:24 and 25 Paul identifies Hagar with Mount Sinai, the place where the law was given. In typology Hagar, the maidservant, signifies the law. In a very real sense, Hagar, the law, is within us, and we love her. This law may not be the law of Moses. Instead, it may be some type of self-made law.
As seeking Christians, we may walk day by day according to the law hidden within us, not according to Christ. Suppose, for example, that a sister is subject to many irritations, but she does not become angry and lose her temper. Her behavior is very good. However, we need to ask why she does not lose her temper. Is it because she is living according to Christ, or because she is walking according to certain rules and regulations? Let us suppose, as another example, that whenever a certain brother is tempted to tell a lie, he exercises himself to speak the truth. But why does he tell the truth instead of a lie? Does he speak the truth according to Christ or according to some kind of rule or regulation? In other words, in the matter of telling the truth, does he live according to Christ or according to the law? It is very possible in matters such as this to live not according to Christ, but according to the law.
From my experience I have learned that it is easy for Christians to live according to various kinds of laws instead of according to Christ. We may live by ethical teachings we have assimilated from our culture, or according to biblical principles learned from studying the Scriptures. Moreover, we may live according to the laws we ourselves have made. How easy it is for us to make laws for ourselves! Although we make laws easily, it is difficult for us to change them. In addition to living by ethical teachings, principles, and our self-made laws, we may also live according to what may be called “the law of the inner life.” When we live by this law, we may try without Christ to deal with the flesh or deny the self. Instead of living according to Christ, we may live according to these four different kinds of law — the laws of social ethics, biblical ethical principles, self-made laws, and the inner life law.
Recently, I have been enlightened of the Lord and also rebuked by Him concerning how little I actually live Christ day by day. I have had to confess to the Lord that only a small part of my time each day has been spent in living Christ. Most of the time I unconsciously and automatically live according to ethics, some kind of law, or certain habits I have built up. Instead of having Christ as the unique constituent of my daily walk, I have ethics, principles, self-made laws, and even the law of the inner life as my constituent. As a result, much of the time I live by natural ethics, biblical ethics, self-made laws, or the inner life law instead of according to Christ.
Living by these four kinds of laws does not require that we pray, trust in the Lord, or depend on Him. Our attitude may be that the Lord may sit on the throne in heaven, but we do not need Him to help us live on earth. We may think that we ourselves are quite capable of living in a proper way. We can be ethical and even “spiritual” without Christ and without the spirit. We may even succeed to “bear the cross” and “crucify” ourselves, also without Christ. Nevertheless, in doing all these things, we are not living according to Christ, but according to certain of the laws I have mentioned.
Before you were saved, you might have paid little attention even to your self-made laws. But after you were saved and especially after you began to seek the Lord in the church life, your self-made laws began to exert a very strong influence on your daily living. You can say truly that you love the Lord and seek Him, but can you honestly say that you live Christ day by day? Instead of living Christ, you may live your kind of law. When you break one of your self-made laws, you repent and make confession to the Lord. But have you ever repented and confessed for not living Christ? I do not believe that many Christians have made this kind of confession.
In recent months my confession to the Lord has mainly been related to my failures in living Christ. In the morning I may have an excellent time to pray and enjoy the Lord. During my prayer, I am one spirit with the Lord and live Him. But afterward I may go to the breakfast table, begin to eat, and completely forget about Christ and living Him. Sometime later I may suddenly realize what has happened and come back to Christ and say, “O Lord, forgive me. Lord, I want to be one spirit with You.” For a few minutes, I may again be with the Lord. However, I soon become occupied with something else and forget Him again. Is this not your experience also? We cannot say that we live Christ. Instead of living Him, we live our laws, culture, religion, and tradition.
We have pointed out that the book of Galatians covers God’s two economies. His first economy, the economy in the Old Testament, involves law, our ethical laws as well as the God-given law. Whenever a person is regenerated, he continues to live according to the ethical laws he has assimilated from his culture. Very few, if any, live Christ. Even though we may seek Christ, we still live our own cultural laws and, thereby, in our actual experience, keep ourselves in God’s first economy.
The second economy of God, His New Testament economy, is wholly related to Christ. Before Paul was converted, he was altogether in God’s first economy. In 1:14 Paul tells us that he “advanced in Judaism beyond many contemporaries in my race, being more exceedingly zealous of the traditions of my fathers.” So zealous was he for the Jewish religion that he resolved to persecute all those who were living in God’s second economy. For this reason, he “persecuted the church of God excessively and ravaged it” (1:13). We are all familiar with the fact that when Paul was on the road to Damascus, the Lord intervened and revealed Himself to Paul, causing him to fall to the ground. Paul experienced a genuine conversion, a real turn from God’s old economy of the law to His new economy of Christ. He refers to this turn in 1:15 and 16, where he tells us that it pleased God “to reveal His Son in me.”
Christ was revealed not only to Paul, but also into him. When Paul was a leading religionist, a “top dog” in Judaism, the Son of God entered into him. This was the reason Paul says in 1:16 that the Son of God was revealed in him, not merely to him. Because he had such a revelation of Christ, Paul could testify to the believers, “Dear saints, I want to tell you that I have the living Person of the Son of God within me. There is utterly no comparison between this Person and the law. The law is good, but it is inferior to this living Person. For years, I tried to keep the law. But one day the living Person of the Son of God was revealed into me. What a wonder! What a miracle! Even now as I am writing to you, this living Person is one with me. When I write, He writes, for He writes in my writing.”
What we see in chapter one of Galatians is a change of economy, a shift from the old economy to the new in which the Old Testament economy is replaced by the New Testament economy. This change is not a matter of theory, philosophy, or culture. It is an actual shift related to the economy of God. Formerly, Paul was absolutely given to God’s Old Testament economy. But after Christ was revealed into him, he was wholly in God’s new economy.
In 2:19 Paul says, “For I through law have died to law that I might live to God.” Paul wanted the Galatians to realize that he was dead to the law. No matter how good the law may be, Paul had died to it and had nothing more to do with it. Death had separated him from the law. This made it possible for him to live to God.
In 2:20 Paul goes on to say, “I have been crucified with Christ, and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live in faith, the faith of the Son of God, Who loved me and gave Himself for me.” Here we see that the very Christ who had been revealed into Paul now lived in him. The two, Christ and Paul, had one life and one living.
This oneness of life and living can be illustrated by the grafting of a branch from one tree into another tree. The tree and the branch which has been grafted into it share one life and have one living. Paul and Christ lived such a wonderful grafted life. What we have here is not an exchanged life, the exchange of the human life for the divine life, but a grafted life, the grafting of the human life into the divine life. In this grafted life we and Christ are one. How marvelous! There are no words adequate to describe it. This grafted life is the life and living which are according to God’s New Testament economy.
In 3:2 Paul asks the Galatian believers, “Did you receive the Spirit by the works of law or by the hearing of faith?” In chapter one Paul speaks of the Son of God revealed in him and in chapter two, of Christ living in him. But now he suddenly changes the term and refers to the receiving of the Spirit. This indicates that the very Son of God revealed in us and Christ who lives in us is the Spirit we have received by the hearing of faith. Do not make the mistake of considering the Son of God, Christ, as separate from the Spirit. According to the traditional theology of the Trinity, the Father, the Son, and the Spirit are three separate Persons. When we teach from the Scriptures that Christ is the Spirit, we are condemned and charged with heresy.
We cannot adequately explain the Trinity in a doctrinal way. But from our experience we know that the Son of God is Christ and that Christ is the Spirit. Whenever we say, “Lord Jesus,” the One we receive is the Spirit. The fact that the Spirit comes whenever we call on the name of the Lord Jesus indicates that Christ and the Spirit are one. For this reason, when we call on the name of the Lord Jesus, we receive the Spirit. This proves that the Spirit is the very Person of Jesus Christ. Just as when we call on the name of a certain person, the person, not the name, responds, so when we call on the name of the Lord Jesus, the Spirit comes. We know from our experience that there never has been a time that we have called, “O Lord Jesus,” when Jesus responded and the Spirit did not respond. Without exception, whenever we called on the name of the Lord Jesus, it was the Spirit who came.
Galatians 1 and 2 are concerned with revelation and speak of the Son of God revealed in us and Christ living in us. But when we turn to experience, as seen in 3:2, we realize that the One we receive is the Spirit. The Spirit is the very Person of Christ, the Son of God.
Receiving the Spirit does not take place once for all. Like breathing, it is a lifelong matter. This is the reason that in 3:5 Paul uses the present tense, saying, “He therefore Who is supplying to you the Spirit and doing works of power among you, is it by the works of law or by the hearing of faith?” Here Paul does not say that God supplied the Spirit or that He shall supply the Spirit; he says that God is supplying the Spirit. Because God is continually supplying the Spirit, we need to receive the Spirit continually.
Galatians 3:27 says, “For as many as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ.” How wonderful! On the one hand, Christ has been revealed in us and is now living in us; on the other hand, Christ has been put upon us. We have Christ both within and without. He is our center and also our circumference, our inside as well as our outside. Inside, we have Christ, and outside we also have Christ. Christ is our inward content and also our outward expression. This Christ whom we experience in such a way is the Spirit.
In chapter four we see that Christ has redeemed us so that we may receive the sonship (v. 5). Moreover, because we are sons, “God sent forth the Spirit of His Son into our hearts, crying, Abba Father!” (v. 6). In a foregoing message we pointed out that we became sons of God through a process of conception and birth. The Spirit entered into us not like water poured into a bottle, but through a very real conception and birth. We have actually been born of the Spirit. The Spirit entered into us through a process of divine conception leading to a marvelous birth. Through this process of conception and birth, the Spirit has been wrought into our being organically. This organic union took place within us when we were regenerated. Now we have the Spirit in a way that is truly organic and subjective.
Because we have been joined to the Spirit organically, there is now no way to separate the Spirit from our spirit. For example, after the food we eat has been digested and assimilated metabolically, it can no longer be separated from us. In like manner, now that the Spirit has come into us organically, He cannot be separated from us nor we from Him. Praise the Lord that the Spirit of sonship has entered into us and that we have been born of the Spirit to become sons of God!
As sons of God, we now need Christ to be formed in us (4:19). For Christ to be formed in us requires that we forget our self-made laws and allow Christ to occupy us in full. The more Christ occupies us inwardly, the more He is formed within us.
In chapter five Paul charges us to walk by the Spirit. In verse 16 he says, “Walk by the Spirit and you shall by no means fulfill the lust of the flesh.” To walk by the Spirit here actually means to live Christ, to move, act, and have our being according to the indwelling Spirit. Our reason for not losing our temper or for not indulging in certain kinds of worldly entertainment should be that we are living according to the Spirit. Likewise, if we are calm or excited, the reason for our calmness or excitement should simply be that we are living according to the Spirit.
If we live Christ in this way, we shall spontaneously have a living which issues in the fruit of the Spirit (5:22-23). After naming various aspects of the fruit of the Spirit, Paul says that against “such things” there is no law. His use of the expression “such things” indicates that the fruit of the Spirit is not limited to the items mentioned in verses 22 and 23. All the items mentioned by Paul are virtues which are different aspects of Christ expressed. These virtues are not works; they are fruit. Hatred is a work of the flesh, whereas love is a fruit of the Spirit, the spontaneous issue of living Christ. A tree does not produce fruit by working. The fruit produced by a tree is an issue of the inner life of the tree. Likewise, love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, and all the other aspects of the fruit of the Spirit are not the result of our working; they are different aspects of the unique spiritual fruit which is produced out from the Christ who dwells within us and whom we live out.
In all the small matters of our daily life, we need to walk by the Spirit. For example, when a brother gets a haircut, he should not have his hair cut according to a certain way or standard, but according to the Spirit. Even in the matter of a haircut he should have fellowship with the Spirit. Likewise, the sisters need to dress according to the Spirit, not according to a certain way practiced in the local churches. To conform to a certain way of dressing common to those in the local churches may be a very good habit or practice, but it is not life. If the sisters dress according to a certain habit, the issue will not be life. But if they dress by the Spirit and according to the Spirit, the result will be life.
To walk by the Spirit and thereby to have every aspect of our daily walk in correspondence to the Spirit is altogether a matter of life. It is not a matter of habit, custom, or conformity. From the human point of view, it may be good for people to conform to certain standards and practices, for this will result in improved behavior. It may cause those who are crude and unruly to become kind and obedient. Although such an outward change is good, it has nothing to do with Christ or the Spirit. What God wants is not that we conform to certain customs and habits, even though such conformity may be very good in human eyes. God wants us to live Christ, who is realized as the Spirit. God’s New Testament economy is wholly a matter of walking by the Spirit to live Christ. The first kind of walk by the Spirit revealed in the book of Galatians is a walk in which we live Christ, expressing the various aspects of the fruit of the Spirit. Our daily life as Christians should be a life of walking by the Spirit to live Christ by expressing Him with all His excellent virtues.
