Hey everybody, it's Matt. This is the 10 Minute Bible Hour Podcast, and we're still working on this concept in Galatians 5 of life by the spirit as opposed to life by the flesh. We've been thinking about this for quite a while, but it's important, and I'm trying to make sense of it for myself better than it's ever made sense to me before. So we're in the process of a few days of conversation where we're dipping back into some stuff from the Gospels and from Jesus and triangulating all of this out before we move forward here in a little bit. So I will have my dear close personal friend Jeffrey Foote play some music for us, and then we'll pick up where we left off yesterday. So this is what I see. The first part of the book is gonna be easy if you're a very analytical person. You're gonna look at that. You might have to slow down a little bit here and there in some of the trickier passages. Maybe you'll struggle a little bit and have to really grind through the analogy about Abraham and Sarah and Hagar that you get toward the end of chapter four. Maybe you're gonna have to pump the brakes a little bit in the middle of chapter three and be like, okay, all right, how does the law work? What are we saying about the law? What parts of the Old Testament are we referencing here? Okay, okay, I get it. But if you're an analytical person, you're gonna be able to navigate the first four chapters and change of Galatians pretty clearly. Paul lays out his thesis, he is unhappy. Paul goes through his own resume and history to make it clear that he is credible to be speaking to this. You are talking with an expert here, commissioned by God, to be speaking to this. He addresses some relational tension that might undermine his credibility, and then he pivots deftly from that right into the heart of his argument, which is a theological one about, in the grand abstract sense, how anyone is made right with God. Then he gives a personal appeal to say, you should thank what I'm telling you because it's a true and it's the message we were handed, and that's that. People who skew very analytic are going to be able to handle the first two-thirds of Galatians better than the last two chapters of Galatians. Because when Paul gets into the stuff about your day-in, day out life as a Christian, he is making the point that there is a degree of dependence that goes beyond pure logic and pure reason, and gets more into that stuff that we see back in the teachings of Jesus that involves pure trust, pure dependence, not just on God for salvation one time, but on God, on the presence of the Holy Spirit to walk in that spirit and navigate the complexities and difficulties of the battlefield, the raging, perilous battlefield that is life. The first two-thirds of Galatians could cause a reader like you and me. And let's be honest, probably most of you, just given the way I talk and how this program works, probably most of you skew a little bit analytic. I'm an emotional creature, but I get there usually through rational stuff first, or at least I've learned how to mask it and make it feel like that. I mean, aren't we all emotional creatures? It's just that some of us are quicker to go and craft the rationale to justify the emotion than others. But for the most part, my guess would be that most of you listening skew the same way I do, which means that most of us who are in this conversation are going to be more challenged and less comfortable by the idea of dependence and walking by the spirit and not gratifying the desires of the flesh that we see in the last two-thirds, because my hands are a little more off the wheel in this part. This is the part where the rubber meets the road, and I have to actually trust day in and day out that God is actually present in my life, that the spirit is actually here. It's not a simple paint by numbers or a thing where I just assent to a list of ten propositions, and if I think all of those right things, then I'm on the right side of this issue. This is the part where you actually step out onto the raging battlefield as the laser blasts are flying hither and tither, and as the TIE fighters are circling overhead, and as the giant Imperial walkers with the blasters are stomping around, then you go out into the fray and you actually live by the spirit. You actually assume this posture of dependence and life by the spirit. Yeah, it's tough. Okay, cool. I'm willing to admit that, but we shouldn't let the fact that it's tough, or I should try not to let the fact that this is tough and maybe a little intimidating. I shouldn't let that skew how I read the text, because what I'm seeing here is a very rational guy, the Apostle Paul, taking you and me, the reader, into a place where he's saying, All right, well, this is where we take the big step. This is where we really figure out how committed we are to this thing. Because that harsh master that is the law, that master might frustrate us, that master might be pretty tough on us, but it's safe and it's familiar, and there's a clear list of things to do. But life by the Spirit, that's the big, bold, kingdom-oriented risk way of life. It's sanctification. This is the place where the consequences of the grace of Christ and the presence of God in our lives, the presence of the Spirit, really becomes evident. Because now you can take those big swings and that massive risk to go out and live a life that you could not live by the power of your own body and the power of your own decision making alone. It is life by the Spirit. It's challenging stuff, but it's beautiful stuff and it's necessary stuff. And it clearly, what Paul is talking about here at the end of Galatians, this has always been the end game. This has always been the ultimate thing. Look at what's happening here. God isn't living in a temple anymore, like we get in the Old Testament, and there are certain mediators who can go into the presence of God very briefly if they do everything right. Now you, my friend, you, a son or daughter of the king listening to this, if you are in Christ, you are a new creation, the old is gone, the new is come, and you are indwelt by the Holy Spirit. You kind of function like the temple now. Not like God. You're not God, I'm not God. But the Spirit of God now occupies Christians, not a building. Well, one of the limitations of the temple is that it was not particularly mobile, even when it was temporary and it was in a tent. It still wasn't particularly mobile, it's inanimate. One of the biggest advantages of how things are now, now that we have the spirit, now that Christ has come and done what he did, is that we are terribly mobile, massively mobile. The temple and the whole relationship there with the presence of God is scattered out into the world with every single person who is a Christian. It's massive opportunity. Okay, I think I've got one more episode's worth of processing that I need to do here before we move on to the next stuff, Galatians 5, 19, and on to the end of the chapter. So I'm gonna hit pause here. I just want to say thanks real quick. Uh a handful of people jumped in to support the program. That was awesome of you. Thank you so much. We are already printing up our Galatians achievement unlocked stickers that we're gonna mail out as soon as we're done with Galatians to commemorate this season in life and the stuff we're processing through together right now. So uh thank you. I just wanted you to know that I saw that you signed up for that. Really means a lot. I appreciate it. Also, no one ever has to do that. It is so above and beyond and not expected or demanded. It it still just kind of surprises me every time somebody's like, yeah, I want to kick in on this thing. So thank you. Also, don't feel weird obligation on that front. I appreciate all you. I'm Matt. This is the 10 Minute Bible Hour Podcast. Let's do this again soon.