Scripture Reading: Gal. 5:16, 25; 6:15-16
Ⅰ
God's New Testament economy is not only to make us sons of God but also to make us the Israel of God—Eph. 1:5; Heb. 2:10; Rom. 8:14, 19; Gal. 3:26; 4:6-7; 6:16:
A
Today we need to be such an Israel, a prince, to execute God's government; the real Israel, the spiritual Israel, is the church—Matt. 6:9-10; 16:18.
B
The apostle Paul considered the many individual believers in Christ collectively the Israel of God—Gal. 6:16:
１
The Israel of God is the real Israel, including all the Gentile and Jewish believers in Christ, who are the true sons of Abraham, who are the house-hold of the faith, and who are those in the new creation—Rom. 9:6b; 2:28-29; Phil. 3:3; Gal. 3:7, 29; 6:10, 15-16.
２
In God's New Testament economy we have been made both the sons of God and the Israel of God; our destiny is to be sons of God expressing God and also kings reigning in the kingdom of God—3:26; 6:16; Rev. 21:7; 22:5b; 12:5a.
３
Paul's word about the Israel of God implies that we need to live in a kingly way with a kingly walk—Rom. 5:17, 21.
C
As the Israel of God, we represent God, exercise His authority, and carry out His administration on earth for the fulfillment of His purpose—Gen. 1:26, 28; Luke 10:19; Rev. 12:5, 7-11:
１
God wants His creature man to deal with His creature Satan in order to bring the earth back to God—Psa. 149:7-9.
２
God needs man to do the work of God—to reign over His creation, to pro-claim His triumph, and to cause Satan to suffer loss—Gen. 1:26.
３
If we would be the Israel of God, we need to experience the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob—Exo. 3:6, 15-16; Gal. 1:1, 3; 4:6.
Ⅱ
According to the Bible, every believer in Christ should have two kinds of walk by the Spirit—Gal. 5:16, 25:
A
Because God is purposeful and seeks to reach His goal, He charges us to have two kinds of walk by the Spirit: the walk that builds up a proper daily living and the walk in line with the divine rules and principles to reach the goal established by God and to fulfill His purpose—vv. 16, 25.
B
The Greek word for walk in Galatians 5:16, peripateo, denotes the daily, ordi-nary, regular walk; it means to move, to deport oneself, to act in ordinary daily life, implying a common, habitual daily walk—Rom. 6:4; 8:4; Phil. 3:17-18:
１
The first kind of walk by the Spirit is a walk in which we are one spirit with the Lord—1 Cor. 6:17.
２
To walk by the Spirit in Galatians 5:16 equals to live by the Spirit in verse 25.
３
In the first kind of walk by the Spirit, we take the Spirit as the essence of our life; this means that our essence is the Triune God as our constituent—v. 16.
４
If we would be sons of God in reality and practicality, we must walk by the Spirit and not by the flesh—3:26; 4:6; Rom. 8:14:
ａ
Because we are sons, God wants us to walk by the Spirit as His sons; we must stand on the ground of being God's sons, not on the ground of being God's creatures—Gal. 4:6.
ｂ
Because we are God's sons and because the processed Triune God is work-ing within us toward the goal of sonship, we should walk by the Spirit— 3:26; 5:16.
C
The Greek word for walk in Galatians 5:25, stoicheo, denotes an official walk, a walk to carry out a certain commission; it means to walk according to rules— to walk in line, to march in military rank, to keep in step, and, thus, to walk in an orderly manner—6:16; Rom. 4:12; Phil. 3:16:
１
If we would have the second kind of walk by the Spirit—the walk for the fulfillment of God's purpose—we need to learn to walk by the Spirit as our way, rule, and principle—Gal. 5:25.
２
The unique pathway toward God's goal is the processed Triune God as the life-giving Spirit; He alone should be the principle, the rule, the path, accord-ing to which we should walk.
３
The second kind of walk by the Spirit is intimately related to the new crea-tion—6:15-16:
ａ
The rule by which we should walk is the rule of being a new creation— 2 Cor. 5:17; Gal. 5:25; 6:15-16.
ｂ
In Galatians 5:25 to walk by the Spirit is to walk in the new creation:
⑴
We need to walk by the rule that is the Triune God to be our life and our living; to live in this way by the new creation is our rule.
⑵
We should walk by the principle of the new creation; this is to walk by the divine life and divine nature as a governing principle—2:20; 6:15-16; John 6:57.
⑶
We must do everything with the element of the Triune God and in oneness with Him—15:4-5; 1 Cor. 6:17.
⑷
If we "walk by this rule," we will live a new creation as sons of God— Gal. 3:26; 4:6; 6:15-16.