No Law for the Fruit of the Spirit

Yes, that is right, there is no law as it goes to live by the fruit of the Spirit.

“²²But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, ²³gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law.” – Galatians 5:22-23 (ESV)

Look a the list from God’s Word above of the fruit of the Spirit. There are no laws banning or regulating those actions. The world is free to take all of them and there is none out there telling us what we can or cannot do as relates to any of them. Those are written on our heart by God and everyone, no matter your origin, knows of them and can live them without direction.

All things under the flesh are subject to law of some kind. There are entities, whether person or other that have created rules and regulations of those things under the flesh.

“¹⁹Now the works of the flesh are evident: sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, ²⁰idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, ²¹envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these. I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who doe such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.” – Galatians 5:19-21 (ESV)

Again, review the list above and see all the things that are identified as under the flesh and also find that there are rules, regulations, laws against them where entities control what you can and cannot do. Take drunkenness as an example. There is no law against drunkenness, except that you have to be of age, cannot drive while drunk, can be cut off from drinking in public, and I am sure there are others that escape me at this moment. All of those are restricted by some sort of law.

“¹⁸But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law.” – Galatians 5:18 (ESV)

But as for the fruit of the Spirit, I again come back to no restrictions. You want to exhibit joy, do so. You want to be kind, go ahead. Patience, please do. No law, no restriction, no rules, as the old Nike slogan would say, “Just Do It”. There is no law for living by the fruit of the Spirit.

What is the restrictions in your actions? Do you find that there are things you cannot do based on rules and restrictions and laws against those things? What If you were to live by the fruit of the Spirit, there are no laws against those?

How to Apply the Law

It is interesting that we look at the law as some restrictive thing. The real thing is that we are free under the Law of God and His law keeps us in line with the law of man. I know, we are to align ourselves with the Law of God and not concern ourselves too much with the law of man, but when we are following the Law of God, we will follow man’s law.

“¹³For you were called to freedom, brothers. Only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another. ¹⁴For the whole law is fulfilled in one word: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’” – Galatians 5:13-14 (ESV)

And there it is, how we apply the law. We are to love our neighbors just as we love ourselves. We care for them and don’t take their stuff.

“³⁷And he said to him, ‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. ³⁸This is the great and first commandment. ³⁹And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. ⁴⁰On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets.’” – Matthew 22:37-40 (ESV)

The second most important thing we can do to fulfill the Law of God is to love our neighbors and not take their stuff. This is not just actions that we take they are in fulfillment of the law, see Leviticus 19:9-18 where it is outlined what it is to “Love Your Neighbor as Yourself” (title of the passage in my ESV Bible). Here we see how we treat our neighbors and get along with them.

So, here it is. We are to apply the Law of God in our everyday lives by loving Him and those around us. In doing so, we fulfill the Law of God and by extension we are fulfilling the law of man at the same time. Our focus is on God and lifting Him up, not ourselves and lifting us up. As we devote to Him and our neighbors and we will be in position to fulfill the Law of God in all that we do.

How are you applying the law? Are you focused on yourself and staying right with man? What if you were to instead devote yourself to God and your neighbors to fulfill the Law of God?

Free From the Law

We are free from the law. Yes, I said it, we are free from the law.

Now, I am not speaking to the consequences of not obeying the law, I am speaking of freedom from being ruled by it. We are free from the law ruling our movement and actions. We are not paralyzed in work by the need to follow the law.

“³I testify again to every man who accepts circumcision that he is obligated to keep the whole law. ⁴You are severed from Christ, you who would be justified by the law; you have fallen away from grace.” – Galatians 5:3-4 (ESV)

Yes, if you are adhering to the principle of circumcision then you must adhere to the whole law and are a slave to it. Of course, I am speaking of adhering to the principle for the purpose of adhering to the law and not just for medical or traditional reasoning. Yes, reasoning and the order of actions does matter.

You see, the order in which we do things matter in the display of our freedom. We are justified by faith, not by works. We accept the grace of Jesus Christ and the love of God and as such receive freedom from the law. As we are now free from the law, we do the work assigned by God to glorify Him and not to gain favor with Him. Now that we have been saved, we do through obedience and are not obedient to be saved, lest we are slaves to the law.

How are you slave to the law? Are you following the law as a means to gain freedom? What if you were to do so, not for freedom, but because of it?

The Promise, The Law, Faith

The progression of righteousness for man was just that, a promise then the law and then faith. Isn’t it something when you think about it.

“¹⁶Now the promises were made to Abraham and to his offspring. It does not say, ‘And to offsprings,’ referring to many, but referring to one, ‘And to your offspring,’ who is Christ.” – Galatians 3:16 (ESV)

“¹⁹Why then the law? It was added because of transgressions, until the offspring should come to whom the promise had been made, and it was put in place through angels by an intermediary.” – Galatians 3:19 (ESV)

“²⁵But now that faith has come, we are no longer under a guardian, ²⁶for in Christ Jesus you are all sons of God, through faith.” – Galatians 3:25-26 (ESV)

We have been taken through it in order that we might find righteousness. It started with Abraham and the promise which gave way to the law and now by faith. We were never able to find it on our own. Something would have to be fulfilled for us to find righteousness.

There is something else to keep in mind here. Read the verses above again. The promise of God is still in place and has not been broken. The law was added because we needed guidance. Finally, God sent Jesus to end the law and get back to the promise.

“²⁹And if you are Christ’s, then you are Abraham’s offspring, heirs according to promise.” – Galatians 3:29 (ESV)

We can now rely on Jesus as our brother and we are now back to the place in the promise that we are heirs with Him.

How are you getting to righteousness? Are you getting there by following the law and being good under it? What if you were to believe in, trust, and rely on Jesus to reach heaven as heir according to the promise?

Where Does the Law End

Have you ever wondered where the law ends. Think about it, there is law after law after law and even those that seem to be silly in their application, however we are held accountable to them. You can’t honk your horn near a sandwich shop, you can’t put an animal in the back seat of an open car, and the list goes on. Even in the Levitical law, your tassels must be just so long. Where does it all end. Where do we find the relief from the law. IN CHRIST.

“¹⁰For all who rely on works of the law are under a curse; for it is written, ‘Cursed be everyone who does not abide by all things written in the Book of the Law, and do them.’” “¹³Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us—for it is written, ‘Cursed is everyone who is hanged on a tree’—“ — Galatians 3:10 & 13 (ESV)

As Paul writes and quotes the book of the law, we are held captive by all of the law. We are having to continue looking to see if we are doing things according to the law and as such are not free to just live our lives. Until Jesus. When Jesus came, He freed us from the law by taking our place as relates to the curse of the law. He took on the curse to allow us to live according to His love and redemption. Jesus provided relief from the law.

Yes, we are still held to account. We are free, yes, but not free to just run wild. We are now under the law of the LORD and not the law according to man. We are guided by the Holy Spirit and will find ourselves not concerned with the law according to man in that it does not run our daily actions in the world. We are free once again as were Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden before the fall. We are free to follow and rely on the LORD for all and not man. We have reached the end of the law of man and are able to live according to Christ.

Where is the end of the law for you? Are you held to the idea that we have to know and comply with every law or rule without exception? What if we just focused on the Law of the LORD as written on our heart to be free?

The Law Doesn’t Do It

The law doesn’t do what, justify. We do not find our justification through the upholding of the law. And by law I am speaking primarily of the law of man, but also the law of God. I have written that even those who do not know God and the gospel still have His law written on their hearts. Where that is true, I have also written that they still have not arrived and are still accountable to their sins.

This morning I am again for the umpteenth time in Galatians at the passage titled in my ESV Bible, “Justified by Faith”, and that could not be more true to me where I am in my study of the word “law”. You see, we are aware of the law and we know that we are to keep it. But, we are incapable of keeping the law perfectly. As such, we cannot be justified by the law. The law is there to guide us by providing a living standard.

“¹⁵We ourselves are Jews by birth and not Gentile sinners; ¹⁶yet we know that a person is not justified by works of the law but through faith in Jesus Christ, so we also have believed in Christ Jesus, in order to be justified by faith in Christ and not by works of the law, because by works of the law no one will be justified.” – Galatians 2:15-16 (ESV)

We need Jesus Christ to be justified. Our faith in His coming and taking on the consequences of our sin, even as He had no sin. We turn to Him to be our salvation and not the works of the law, as keeping the law does nothing for us.

“¹⁹For through the law I died to the law, so that I might live to God.” – Galatians 2:19 (ESV)

Keeping the law is a reaction to our new found justification. We keep the law as we are guided to do so by the Holy Spirit who resides in us thanks to our justification. We know that the LORD sent Jesus to die for our sin and that I deserved to die for those sins. With our justification comes a desire to be more like Jesus and it is the law that provides the guardrails as to our actions. But again, this is a result of our justification and it does not get us there, that comes from our faith. The law doesn’t do it.

What is your approach to justification? Are you of the view that following the law will somehow give you the high ground? What if it is a result of justification that you follow the law and you were to find justification through faith in Jesus Christ?

Escape the Power of Sin

Oh that we would do just that, escape the power of sin. Well we can.

“⁵⁶The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law.” – 1 Corinthians 15:56 (ESV)

You see, the power of sin is the law. The law points out what is prohibited and that prohibition is what drives us to sin. Paul said that he did not know covetousness if the law had not said not to covet. Eve did not desire the fruit of the tree had the serpent not pointed out the restriction.

“⁷What then shall we say? That the law is sin? By no means! Yet if it had not been for the law, I would not have known sin. For I would not have known what it is to covet if the law had not said, “You shall not covet.” – Romans 7:7 (ESV)

“¹Now the serpent was more crafty than any other beast of the field that the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, ‘Did God actually say, “You shall not eat of any tree in the garden”?’” – Genesis 3:1 (ESV)

Without the law, we would not know of sin and therefor would not consciously sin. Now, yes, sin is sin and we are held to account for our sin, but the thing here is that we are not ruled by sin when we do not know of that sin.

The great thing is that we do have an escape from sin. We have an escape from the law. That escape is in the grace and person of Jesus Christ.

“⁵⁷But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.” – 1 Corinthians 15:57 (ESV)

I do not want to be ruled by sin and as such, I have accepted the gift of salvation from Christ. I have been freed from the burden of that sin. I have been given victory over sin. I am able to overcome the temptation of conscious sin thanks to the guidance from the Holy Spirit who dwells within me. I have escaped the power of sin.

How are you escaping? Are you out there just trying to not break the law? What if you accept that the law has power over you and your escape from that power is to accept salvation from Christ?

Meet Others Where They Are

As I read and study this morning I again can see how there is confusion with what comes from God’s Word. If we are to be true to the LORD and trust Him, how then are going to spread the gospel if as we do so we are calling out their sin. Are we not to judge others. Well, we are NOT judging for simply pointing out that which is contrary to the Law of the LORD.

“¹⁹For though I am free from all, I have made myself a servant to all, that I might win more of them. ²⁰To the Jews I became as a Jew, in order to win Jews. To those under the law I became as one under the law (though not being myself under the law) that I might win those under the law. ²¹To those outside the law I became as one outside the law (not being outside the law of God but under the law of Christ) that I might win those outside the law. ²²To the weak I became weak, that I might win the weak. I have become all things to all people, that by all means I might save some. ²³I do it all for the sake of the gospel, that I may share with them in its blessings.” – 1 Corinthians 9:19-23 (ESV)

In 1 Corinthians, Paul speaks to the church and points out that we have to become like those we are meeting to guide us in reaching them. When reading this it seems to indicate, if you are just taking the words as they are, that we are to act like other to get in with them and then pretend to be something like them in order to reach them. Where that may be what it is on the surface, we have to look deeper into what is meant by being “as” them and what we are in those times.

I remember seeing a video of an inner city youth outreach guy. He was out in the community playing basketball and chatting up the kids of the neighborhoods. There were those who were wondering how he was going to reach those kids when he was acting like them in order to reach them. His response was something to the effect that he was being like them on the surface to get in with them to show them that we all are not so different in the eyes of God. He did not abandon his love for and devotion to the LORD, he only changed his approach to those in the neighborhood to be as them so they would listen.

This is the approach that Paul is speaking of in the above verses. Notice the parenthesized notes in the verses. Paul never lost sight of his identity in Christ. He was always true to God, he only appeared to be the same as those He was working with to reach them and then show them that God and His law were for all, not just a select group.

We have to be similar in our approach. We cannot be hesitant to meet others where they are. We will make more ground with our spread of the Gospel when we take the Gospel to others where they are as opposed to forcing others to come to us. We have to show, not just speak of God being for all. We have take the LORD to those and demonstrate that God does indeed love all and wants nothing but the best for all, not just a certain set of people.

Of course, we are not to take the actions of others, we are only to present ourselves as them to show them that God is for everyone. We are to reach them with and through the love of God. We are to go to them and not ask them to come to us. We are meet them where they and bring the Christ to them.

What is your approach to reaching others? Are you asking everyone to come to you in your safe space? What if you were to meet others where they are and bring the Gospel to them to show that God is for everyone where they are?

Love to Fulfill the Law

I believe I have spoken about my wife’s former coworker that we just pour love on as opposed to beating him up to get to church and get right with God. This morning in my continued study of the word “law”, I was brought to the passage that brings that to life.

“¹⁰Love does no wrong to a neighbor; therefore love is the fulfilling of the law.” “⁸Owe no one anything, except to love each other, for the one who loves another has fulfilled the law.” – Romans 13:10 & 8 (ESV)

The title of the passage, in my ESV Bible, where these verses come from is “Fulfilling the Law Through Love”. You see, our approach should be one of love. We are called to fulfill the law through love, not through other means. Jesus was the shining example of this approach. He loved all, not just those who would be following Him. He loved the tax collector and the adulteress. He dined with all. He healed those who would come to Him. In all, He loved.

I want to be careful not to glaze over the idea of accountability to our sins. Yes, Jesus loved all without exception, just as He continues to do today with you and me. But, He did not condone all of the actions of those He loved. He dined with the tax collectors yet did not avoid conversation. He spoke truth to the adulteress at the well. In just these scenarios Jesus delivered accountability through truth yet displayed love and forgiveness.

“¹⁴The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all.” – 2 Corinthians 13:14 (ESV)

We fulfill the law of the LORD when we spread His love to all. Paul, even as he spoke truth to the Corinthian church, did so through love and as you can see above, ended his letter letting them know where the love came from.

Love is from the LORD. We are called to live as the LORD and be His example here in this world. We are then called to live a life of love. Loving others does not mean that we avoid the truth to keep things cordial. Loving others means that we bring the truth but do so to guide and direct to the LORD, not to condemn. We are not the judge of others, that is left to the LORD. We are however bringers of love to the people as Jesus did and in doing so, we work toward fulfilling the law.

What is your approach to fulfilling the law? Are you rigid in the keeping of the rules to be just in all your work? What if you were to simply bring love and truth to all and know that in doing so, you will be fulfilling the law as God intended?

Christ is Our Righteousness

How do we know that we have done something wrong? We compare our actions to the law or the rules. The same goes for our sin. We know that we have sinned when we compare our actions to the Law of the LORD written on our hearts.

“¹Brothers, my heart’s desire and prayer to God for them is that they may be saved.” – Romans 10:1 (ESV)

I recently saw a debate where one of the debaters asked a group of onlookers if they wanted everyone to go to heaven and there was 100% respondents of yes. Now, this was not exactly the subject of the debate, but the question was a valid one. You see, people are inherently good and want the best for others. Paul echos this in verse one above. He wants, no desires’ that everyone is saved.

“³For, being ignorant of the righteousness of God, and seeking to establish their own, they did not submit to God’s righteousness.” – Romans 10:3 (ESV)

Even as Paul and others want the best for us, there is truth in that people still follow their own desires and law as oppose to the Law of the LORD. There is a continued seeking of our own rules and laws to get us through. We want heaven, but we insist on getting there our own way and do not submit to the Law of the LORD which is written on our hearts.

“⁴For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes.” – Romans 10:4 (ESV)

Jesus is the where we find the path to righteousness and heaven. We know the Law of the LORD, we are just not submitting to it. We are aware of the path to heaven, we simply choose to take another path. We choose to do things our way, avoiding The Way because, “we know better”.

“⁶Jesus said to him, ‘I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.’” – John 14:6 (ESV)

Jesus told us that the way to righteousness is through Him, and that is the only way. We cannot get there on our own. We cannot reach heaven doing things our way. We cannot submit to Christ without finding Him. Christ is for our righteousness and the path to heaven, we only need to trust in and submit to Him.

What does your path look like? Are you intent on going your own way as you know better? What if you were to submit to and trust in Jesus as He is our path to righteousness?