By the Spirit

The contrasting lists of “deeds of the flesh” and “fruits of the Spirit” in Galatians 5:16-25 are arranged in a chiastic inversion: 

a. Walk by Spirit

b. Flesh and Spirit at war

c. Deeds of the flesh

d. No inheritance for flesh

c’. Fruits of the Spirit

b’. Crucifixion of the flesh

a’. Walk by Spirit

A few insights emerge from this arrangement. First, the whole discussion of the specifics of Christian living is framed by references to the Spirit. For Paul, the Spirit is the power that enables us to become Christlike. We don’t have power to form Christ in ourselves by ourselves. The whole of the Christian life is a charismatic life, reliant on and trusting in the Spirit.

This is reinforced by the contrast in terminology. The flesh is not fruitful, but acts; those who live by the Spirit do not work but bear fruit. The emphasis on the deeds of the flesh suggests that it is a path of works. Fruit, by contrast, is not produced by the effort of the tree as by the combination of water, soil, and sun. Will and discipline recede into the background: No tree wills to produce its fruit? Christ is formed in us not through our own frantic efforts but through trust in and reliance on the Spirit of Christ. (Elsewhere, of course, Paul makes it clear that we do “work out our salvation” but this is precisely because “God works in us.” Our efforts are enclosed within the work of the Spirit.

By the Spirit, we become fruitful trees, like the righteous man of Psalm 1. The Spirit produces “trees of life” (Proverbs 3:18; 11:30; 15:4), a renewed Eden. 

Chiasms normally focus on the central statement, and here, the central statement has to do with inheriting the kingdom. Those who live according to the flesh do not inherit the kingdom, and the implied contrast is that those who live by the Spirit do inherit the kingdom

By this time in Galatians, Paul already has talked a good bit about inheritance. One of the key issues in Galatians is the question, “Who is the son of Abraham?” which is the same question as “Who are the heirs of the promises to Abraham?” For the Judaizers, the answer is, whoever is circumcised and keeps the law. For Paul, the answer is, whoever is in Christ is Abraham’s seed, and “heirs according to the promise” (3:29).

In chapter 5, Paul says that those who do the deeds of the flesh do not inherit the kingdom. Those who do the deeds of the flesh are not the seed of Abraham, not the true Israel. The true Israel, the true seed of Abraham, are those who keep in step with the Spirit, who not only begin with the Spirit but walk in the Spirit throughout their lives. 

In the context of the argument of Galatians, this claim has a sharp polemical point. Those who “walk according to the flesh” are precisely those who insist that Gentiles believers must receive the cut in the flesh, those who claim that fleshly descent from Abraham means something. Paul argues, on the contrary, that those who seek the Abrahamic inheritance by Abrahamic descent will be disinherited. Those who seek the Abrahamic inheritance by clinging to the Son and walking in the Spirit will inherit the earth.

One final note, on the “b” sections: The war of Spirit and flesh is chiastically matched to the crucifixion of the flesh. What older theologians called mortification can be described as a work of the Spirit or as a crucifixion. These describe the same reality because believers kill the flesh by participating by the Spirit in the crucifixion of Christ. We share in the virtue of Christ’s death, in the “cutting off” of the flesh, the “circumcision of Christ,” through the Spirit. And so are made the true circumcision.