There are some today who argue that a devout person
who believes in Jesus and who exhibits the qualities
of Galatians 5:22,23 should be viewed and accepted
as a Christian regardless of what they have or
haven’t done to become a Christian. In their book
“Down In The River To Pray”, John Mark Hicks and
Greg Taylor write, “When people confess faith in
Christ, seek God with their whole heart and exhibit
transformed lives, we recognize the fruit of the
Spirit in them. God is glorified in their lives
because they reflect the transformation that is
God’s goal. We cannot judge the heart, but we can
see the fruits. God is more interested in the
process and goal of transformation than in technical
obedience to one of his prescribed rituals” (pages
193,194). Thus the reasoning goes that such people
are producing the “fruit of the Spirit” in their
lives and therefore must of necessity have the
Spirit within them. If they have the Spirit within
them, they must therefore be saved. But this
reasoning is seriously flawed. There is a difference
between the fruit of the Spirit and the fruit of
morality and ethics. The moral and ethical man may
be loving, joyful, peaceful, patient, kind, good,
faithful, gentle and self-controlled. But he may
also be Jewish or Hindu. Is he saved? It’s said that
Gandhi carried with him a copy of the Sermon on the
Mount. He thought that if everyone practiced its
ethics the world would be a better place. He was
right. But the world would still be lost. God’s
message through Jesus to mankind was not “Behave!”
but “Be saved!” Morality and ethics do not save you
nor do they testify that you were converted to
Christ. The Bible says that Cornelius was devout,
God-fearing, generous, prayerful, upright and had a
good reputation (Acts 10,11). Oh, one more thing—he
was lost!
The context of Galatians 5:16-26 reveals
that Paul is not testing whether they were genuinely
saved but rather by whom they were being led. Were
they being led by the flesh (“I’ll do what I want”)
or being led by the Spirit (“I’ll do what God
wants”). When a believer’s life is characterized by
“sexual immorality, impurity,
sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife,
jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions,
divisions, envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things
like these” they are being led by the flesh.
The text is making no attempt to answer the question
of whether a person is genuinely saved. The
unbeliever will spend eternity in hell because of
his unbelief (John 8:24). The flesh-led believer
will spend eternity in hell because of his
lifestyle. Paul wrote, “I warn you,
as I warned you before, that those who do such
things will not inherit the kingdom of God,”
(Galatians 5:21). The lifestyle is the fruit of
the leading. When you are led by the flesh your life
is rotten garbage. When you are led by the Spirit
your life is a sweet aroma to God and man.
How can we tell, then who is a child of
God and who is not? Is there some point before which
a person was lost and after which that person is
saved? Is there an entrance, a threshold, a
watershed moment, pun intended, where and when we
know a person has been saved and therefore become a
child of God? Why, yes there is, as a matter of
fact. The apostle writes, “for in
Christ Jesus you are all sons of God, through faith.
For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have
put on Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, there
is neither slave nor free, there is neither male nor
female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. And if
you are Christ’s, then you are Abraham’s offspring,
heirs according to promise” (Galatians
3:26-29). Does that sound to you like “technical
obedience to a prescribed ritual” or the process
itself of putting on Christ?
I want to claim every man as a brother
and every woman as a sister that God claims as a
child. But I do no one a favor by claiming anyone as
family who, according to the Bible, is still outside
of Christ.
God bless you,
Brad Fry
