Why did God give us his Holy Spirit? In this article on Galatians 5:16 the author looks at the Spirit giving us a new nature.

Source: Clarion, 2010. 2 pages.

Galatians 5:16 - The Need for Pentecost

So I say, live by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the sinful nature.

Galatians 5:16

Why did Christ send the Holy Spirit? What part does the Holy Spirit play in God’s work of salvation? If we’re ever going to see what Pentecost is really all about, if we’re ever going to begin to celebrate this great day the way we should, we need to know why the Lord Jesus had to send the Spirit.

When the Spirit fell on people in the book of Acts, they spoke in tongues. Paul speaks about the gift of tongues in 1 Corinthians 12-14. But is that how the Bible presents the meaning or the importance of the Spirit’s work? Is that why Christ sent us the Holy Spirit from heaven: to give us the special experience, the special feeling, that comes with speaking in tongues? Is that our great need?

Paul says a lot about the work of the Spirit in his letter to the Galatians and especially in the last part of chapter 5. In this last part of the chapter, he’s contrasting the work of the Spirit and the acts of the sinful nature or “the flesh.” And it’s in that contrast between the acts of the flesh and the fruit of the Spirit that we find the answer to our question of why Jesus sent us the Holy Spirit.

When Paul talks about the sinful nature, he’s saying that we’re born sinners. Sin in all of its forms is completely natural to us. It’s as natural and as automatic as breathing or feeling hunger or thirst or pain or pleasure. And it’s as close to us, as much a part of us, as our flesh is. When Paul says in Romans 7 that evil is right there with him and that he sees a law at work in his members, in his body, controlling his body and waging war against the law of his mind, he really means it.

And so we’re selfish. To use the expression, that’s the way we’re “wired,” or the way we’re “programmed.” So I look at the world only from my own point of view and it’s incredibly hard for me to see things from someone else’s point of view. And not so much because I can’t; it’s worse than that, it’s because I don’t want to! Because I feel like if I do, my interests will suffer, and I won’t get what I want, or what I think is best. That’s where the struggles in my family and my marriage come from. That’s where my disagreements with other people come from. And when I take that selfishness to extremes, when I let that run, then I come to things like slandering and lying and cheating other people, stealing and sexual immorality and even murder.

So when Paul speaks about “the flesh” or the sinful nature, then he’s saying, “This is why we need the Spirit. This is why we need Pentecost.” Because unless the Lord Jesus goes to his Father and receives all authority in heaven and on earth, and receives from his Father the freedom to use all authority and power and every means to do his work of salvation in us, we won’t be saved. Unless the Lord Jesus is able to give us the gift and the power of the Holy Spirit, unless He is able to pour Him out on us so that we’re born again and our bodies become His temple, we can’t be saved. Our need is so great and so deep, sin is so powerful and so natural to us, that we need a miracle that’s a million times more miraculous and wonderful than speaking in tongues. And this is why we have to celebrate today and rejoice. Because as remarkable as it was that the apostles could speak in tongues, as emotionally exhilarating as a person might claim it is to speak in tongues, the real glory and gospel of Pentecost is Christ’s gift of the Spirit, to come into my heart and to transform my mind, to make me a new person.

That’s what Paul is talking about in Galatians 5, that Christ has given you the Holy Spirit to give you a new nature. And that means a new way of looking at life. It means a new set of instincts, a new set of priorities and feelings and attitudes – toward God, toward your family, toward your work – that by the power and presence of the Holy Spirit are going to become natural and “automatic.”           

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