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No.4. A Study in Galatians.
"Flesh versus Spirit."
pp. 121 - 124
We have followed the Apostle in his battle for `liberty' and have appreciated that
liberty the better by the contrasted theme `bondage'. We have learned that `bondage' and
works of law go together, and that `liberty' and faith go together. We now come to the
third of these Galatian antonyms, and enter, as it were, into the atmosphere in which these
contrasted movements are conducted.
Flesh versus Spirit.
There can be no question that these are antonyms, for the Apostle says:
"The flesh lusteth against the spirit, and the spirit against the flesh: and these are
contrary the one to the other: so that ye cannot do . . . . . that ye would" (Gal. 5: 17).
"Contrary" is antikeimai `to lie over against', and in five passages is translated
`adversary'. While there are eighteen occurrences of sarx `flesh' and eighteen
occurrences of pneuma `spirit' in Galatians, there are six passages in which the Apostle
places `flesh' over against `spirit' in his actual wording, while a number of other
references are opposed by the very nature of their teaching. It is very difficult to decide
whether `spirit' should be rendered with a capital "S", meaning the Holy Spirit, or with a
small "s", referring to the new nature which He gives to the believer. Possibly both
meanings are included.
Let us see the actual antonyms first:
(1) The first set of contrasts.
"O foolish Galatians, who hath bewitched you, that ye should not obey the truth, before whose
eyes Jesus Christ hath been evidently set forth, crucified among you? This only would I learn
from you, received ye the spirit by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith? Are ye so
foolish? Having begun in the spirit, are ye now made perfect by the flesh?" (Gal. 3: 1-3).
(2) The second set of contrasts.
"But as then he that was born after the flesh persecuted him that was born after the Spirit, even
so it is now" (4: 29).
(3) The third set of contrasts.
"This I say then, walk in the spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh" (5: 16).
(4, 5) The fourth and fifth set of contrasts.
"For the flesh lusteth against the spirit, and the spirit against the flesh: and these are contrary
the one to the other: so that ye cannot do the things that ye would" (5: 17).