The Law and Sowing to the Flesh

I’ve addressed the matter of the Christian and the Law in a previous series of posts. The Christian and the Law part 1 I would like to add a thought on this topic. Weekly I sit in a friend’s Bible study on Galatians, which is a key book on the Christian and the law. Recently he reached 6:8 where Paul warns the Galatians that the one who sows to the flesh reaps corruption and the one sowing to the Spirit reaps eternal life. Upon reading this text we sometimes forget what Paul has been saying all throughout this letter and therefore, we miss his point. We might claim Paul is addressing what a person does to become a Christian, or how a Christian should financially give to ministries, or it’s a good reminder of the consequences of sin. None of these are Paul’s point.

Part of our problem with Galatians is that we think this letter is about how an unbeliever becomes saved and the problem of people imposing law on unbelievers.  However, Galatians is about how Christians are to live: by the faith or by law, by the Spirit or by flesh (Gal. 3:1-3). Living by faith is to live by the Spirit. Living by law is to live by one’s flesh. Paul wrote to the Galatians to remind them that they are not under law, cannot mature under law, and cannot successfully minister under law.

God will not be mocked (Gal. 6:7). He has set a means by which we as Christians can live, can mature and can serve. He has planned that we do this by means of the Spirit as we set our minds to who He says we are in Christ. We recognize promises in Christ and live in light of those promises. When we deviate from God’s plan, no matter how ernest we may be, God will not accomplish His work through us. Teaching that God will accept service done under law mocks God.

Sowing to the flesh and reaping corruption is not ultimately about contracting a disease from immorality, bruises due to our being contentious and angry, or a bad liver because we drink excessively. Sowing to the flesh in Galatians is about trying to live by law. Paul established in chapter three that if we live by law, we live by the flesh. God will not be mocked. We cannot come to God and say, “But I can do it. I can keep law and do it the right way.” It won’t work and attempting to live to God’s glory by a means (the Law), which He has tabled, mocks Him. Reaping corruption means that when we choose to live by law, since we choose to live by the flesh, those works, no matter how noble they may appear to others, are worthless and corrupt from God’s point of view. His point of view is the only one that matters.

Sowing to the Spirit is living by the Spirit, living in freedom in Christ, walking by the Spirit as we follow His lead to our life in Christ Jesus (5:25; 2:4, 5:1, 16, 18; Rom. 8:1). We approach service to others not out of a legal duty, but because we are together with them in Christ. We serve as those freed (5:13). The Spirit leads us to freedom in Christ. He does not lead us to slavery either to the flesh or to live under law. The result of sowing to the Spirit is reaping eternal life (6:8). We do not get eternal life. Eternal life is given to us by our Shepherd Jesus Christ the moment we believe (Jh. 10:10, 28; Jh. 3:15). Reaping eternal life is about using eternal life (cp 1 Tim. 6:12). Eternal life is experientially knowing God the Father and Jesus Christ whom He sent (Jh. 17:3). We can use eternal life only as the Son used it in His humanity, which is why Jesus identified Himself as “Jesus Christ whom you have sent” in John 17:3. We do not use eternal life to the extent that God uses it, because we are and will always be only human, not god. Eternal life is the life to live to God’s glory, therefore, we know we have passed out of death (separation from God) into life (union with God) because we love the brothers (1 Jh. 3:14). Reaping eternal life is not about getting eternal life. Reaping eternal life is making use of it. It is reaping what God intended for it to produce. We only reap eternal life when we live by faith. We reap eternal life when we live by the Spirit in us. It does not happen when we live by law.