What does a changed life look like?

In Galatians 5:16-26, the Apostle Paul describes what God’s Spirit produces in a believer’s life — the “fruit of the Spirit.” In this study, Dr. Toby Holt explains how this fruit grows, and why it matters.

Our good works do not save us, but they do show that we have been saved. Paul contrasts two kinds of life: the “works of the flesh,” such as anger, jealousy, and selfishness, and the “fruit of the Spirit,” such as love, joy, and peace. The key word is “practice.” There is a difference between a person whose life is defined by sin and a believer who still stumbles but is grieved by it and turns away. As Holt puts it, bad, dead fruit points to bad, dead roots. When God changes the heart, new fruit grows — but it takes intention, not autopilot.

Questions this study answers:

1. What is the “fruit of the Spirit”? It is the character that God’s Spirit grows in a believer: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.

2. If works don’t save us, why do they matter? Because they are the evidence of real faith. A changed life does not earn salvation, but it shows that God has truly changed the heart.

3. Can you tell a true believer by their fruit? Over time, yes. Paul says a life more and more marked by the Spirit’s fruit reflects a heart that God has made new.

“But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. Against such there is no law.” — Galatians 5:22-23 (NKJV)

Speaker: Dr. Toby Holt is the President of New Geneva Theological Seminary, a Reformed seminary in Colorado Springs. He is known for clear, down-to-earth Bible teaching, and his sermons have been downloaded more than 1.9 million times on SermonAudio.

Listen and go deeper: This is Part 9 of the ten-part Galatians study. Find the whole series, along with verse-by-verse studies of other books of the Bible, at newgeneva.org. To support this teaching ministry, visit newgeneva.org/give.

[gentle music] In Galatians 5, Paul wrote about the fruit of the Spirit. In other words, Paul told the Galatians that there are certain fruits or behaviors that Spirit-filled Christians are supposed to have. Just like an apple tree is supposed to bear apples, you and I are to bear fruits that match up with our new nature.

This past week, this past month, you probably had a lot of great intentions to accomplish a great many things. We're early enough in the year where we're not that far removed from having New Year's resolutions and the like, and as we started the year, as we started this past month, as we started this past week, we might have thought, "Hey, this is going to be my year. This is going to be my week or my month." We might have had a lot of great motivation intentions to get things done, and yet here we are. For most of us, if we're introspective and we look back at the past few months, past month, past week, we didn't get as much done as we thought we might. We didn't accomplish as many things as we hoped that we would. There was things that we'd hoped we would progress in times forward, and we're not there yet. Now, why is that? Why have we not been as effective, perhaps, as we've hoped to be? Well, for some of us, maybe it was some villain that rose up on our radar. Maybe someone came on the scene and thwarted our efforts. Maybe for some of us, it was a circumstance. Something happened. I think COVID counts, but maybe something happened that threw our world a curveball, and maybe that's the reason that we fell short. I think that's possible for many of us, but I'll tell you this. Across the many years that most of us have been alive, the main reason we haven't got done all the things that we felt called to do and led to do and driven by the Spirit to do, the main reason we haven't done a lot of that stuff, the main reason we're not as accomplished as we'd hoped to be is not because of some villain, and it's not because of some circumstance. It's largely because of us. It's largely because of the one that we see in the mirror every day. [lip smack] We are capable of more self-sabotage than I think we're aware. Now, why is that? Presuming that we have more to gain from our own efforts than anyone else does, how can we be prone to being our own greatest enemy? How is that even possible? Well, scripture and today's passage, it not only tells us that it's possible, it tells us that it's likely, even for we as believers. That the greatest challenge we're going to have is not going to be the challenge of some external enemy, but the challenge with the flesh, the challenge that is within. Today's passage in Galatians, Paul's writing to the Galatians to address all those concerns that we laid out earlier this morning. But he's also calling them to tell them to gird themselves up for the battle because it's not going to become easy in the days yet to come. And he says one of the ways to gird yourself up is this, to deal with the war that's already going on inside your flesh. He's going to say the flesh, your fallen humanity, lusts against the spirit and the spirit against the flesh. And these things are contrary to one another so that you do not do the things that you wish. You want to know why you haven't gotten done all the things that you hoped to do across all the years you've had to do them? It's primarily because of this. Because what you've wanted, even what you felt called to do, even what you felt prompted by the Spirit to do, there's a constant battle between that

and a battle with your fallen humanity, a battle with the flesh. Oftentimes, the spirit is willing, but the flesh is what?

Weak.

Weak. This is true, and it is founded and based on what we see here in Galatians 5. All right, I'm going to read now verses 16 through 18 from Galatians 5, then we'll just kind of work our way through the balance. We're going to try to understand what Paul was saying to the church in Galatia, what he is saying to us as well. Verses 16 through 18. "I say then, walk in the Spirit, and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh. For the flesh lusts against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; and these are contrary to one another, so that you do not do the things that you wish. But if you're led by the Spirit, you are not under the law," or the curse of the law, might be another way to read that. All right. Before we go any further in Galatians 5, let's step back for a moment. This is week nine of a 10-week study. Let's consider for a moment what we've seen across the space of the past number of weeks. Why did Paul write to the Galatians? You never want to look at any one text apart from the surrounding context. You'll never understand it quite right if you do. Now, over the past number of weeks, we've seen that the Apostle Paul was writing to the Galatians in order to remind them of the true gospel. As we said before, the Judaizers had come in, they had taught and preached a different gospel than Paul had, specifically where Paul had taught salvation through faith alone and grace alone and Christ alone. They had said, "Well, that's all nice and that's all well and that's all good, but it's really faith plus something else," specifically circumcision and elements of the ceremonial law and the like. They had added Jewish ceremonial laws and precepts on top of faith as the means to salvation. And so Paul is writing them and saying, "Uh, uh, uh. That's not the way that this works." He says your salvation does not hinge on what you do. Your salvation hinges on what you believe.

So Paul had taught the Galatians this. Others had come in and taught something different. Paul is writing in order to stress to them the truth. Now, in our Reformed Presbyterian Church this morning, we've probably already figured out times past that we're not saved by the things that we do. It's one of the basics in our denomination and within Reformed theology. We already know that our works don't save us. But the question remains then, if works don't save us, if that's not the means by which God is ultimately pleased and bumps me into the kingdom, if my works don't save me, then what good do they do? What is the point of my works? The short answer is this. Our works don't save us, but they do demonstrate that we have been saved.

This morning, if you were singing, if you were praising God, worshiping GodThis is a function of loving God. It's a work that you do because God has sown the seed of faith in your heart, and that is a response that comes out of that saved condition. That's one small example. Our works don't save us, but they demonstrate the fruit of that salvation. Works are like fruits on a tree, which is the analogy Paul is going to use here in a moment. They help identify the nature and health of the tree itself. Now, with that said, even after a man has been saved, even after God has reached into a man's heart, changed the heart of stone to a heart of flesh, even after this has happened, even after man has been reconciled and justified and adopted, and all the things we've seen over the past eight weeks, even after this has occurred and he has a new spirit within him, the problem that he has and you and I have is this. That spirit still resides in a fallen body of flesh. That spirit still resides in the same fallen members that we had before. A fleshly body that's still given to sinful temptations and desires and appetites. Even as Christians, we can be tempted, inclined towards things that are not necessarily good for us or healthy for us. Have you experienced that? I know the answer in asking the question. Whatever the case, this is what Paul's addressing in verse 17. He's saying, "I know the way this works." Paul was a man of flesh and blood, too. He understood what it was like to be tempted and to have appetites that warred against what he knew to be right and what he knew to be true. So he says, "I know how that works. You know how it works." He says, "I'm just going to bring this out in the open and tell us what we already know, that the reason we mess up and do so much of the things that we don't want to do or that we know we shouldn't do is because there's a legitimate war going on in our members, and oftentimes we side with the flesh." Oftentimes, we choose that which our flesh desires and wants more so than what we hold intellectually to be true,

more than what we might believe. Now, one of the ways that you could paraphrase all that is to say that within us as believers even, as Christians, on this side of glory, you constantly have two things going on. Number one, you have this. You have a sense of inner peace,

and number two, you have a sense of inner war. Now, as for inner peace, remember Paul when he was writing to the Philippians. He said, "May the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus." In other words, he was saying, "Look, all the anxieties and doubts and depression and things you were given to before, you no longer have to have now. You can have a sense of peace and fulfillment and contentedness in your relationship with the God of all creation. You can have a sense of inner peace," is what he told the Philippians. Inner peace, it's good. It's biblical. You should have it. You should want it. With that said, the concept of inner war is every bit as biblical,

every bit as necessary for you and I. Now, what is inner war? Well, inner war is that battle that all Christians have to overcome the sin and temptation that remains in our fallen flesh even after we've been saved. Just because God has saved you from what you might say is sin's condemnation, just because God has saved you from His own wrath being poured upon you as the function of your sinfulness, just because you've been saved from sin's condemnation does not mean on this side of glory that you're saved from its pollution.

See the distinction?

Right now, if you're a professing believer in Jesus Christ, if your heart's been changed, if the Spirit dwells in you, the good news is this. You are absolutely 100%, 1,000% saved from God's wrath and His condemnation, and that will never change. Never, ever, ever. That's the good news. The bad news is that on this side of glory, sin's pollution and corruption still remains, still exists, and that's what we sense when we're tempted to do things that we ought not do. We know in our hearts what is right and what is wrong. We know in Scripture what is right and what is wrong. The reason we so often do that which is wrong in spite of what we know is right is because we are polluted in the flesh. We are inclined to lust after that which we ought not have. Now, Paul was trying to get people to be honest with this in Galatians. Saying some of the reason you're doing the things, oh, foolish Galatians, that you ought not do is because of this. Paul would write the Galatians. He would write in Romans the things along these lines. Peter says the same thing. Peter talks about inner war when he said this. He said on 1 Peter 2, "Beloved, I beg you, as soldiers and pilgrims, to abstain from fleshly lusts which war against the soul."

Peter, Paul, Jesus, they were all honest about the problems we will continue to have even after we have been saved. Now, let me ask you a question.

As a believer,

is there a sense of this inner war going on in your own life?

Are you actively striving and sweating and contending against the sin in your flesh? We call this process mortification. Mortification is taking sin, realizing it's within us, and putting it to death. John Owen put it this way. He said, "You will either be killing sin, or it would be killing you." That's a simple paraphrase of something that Paul is expressing throughout Galatians 5. The question is: How do you and I relate to this text? Do our own efforts to deal with the sin that's going on in your life and mine cause us to sweat and to strain as if we've been in a battle of some kind? Now, for some of us, the answer is yes, because we have looked sin in the eye. We understand it for what it is. We understand it for what it has cost us, and we don't desire to give into it any longer.

And so through prayer and intentional efforts and reading the Scripture and the like, we're putting it away, locking it away, fighting and contending against it. Some of us know what it's like to address problem areas in our lives.

If you don't know what the problem area in your life is, ask your spouse. They'll tell youSome of us know what it's like to be contending against the problem areas in our lives. But sometimes,

especially less mature Christians, can fail to have a stomach for that battle.

That's how one of the worst phrases in all of Christendom ever got coined. The worst phrase in all of Christendom is this, carnal Christian. Why? Because it doesn't exist. A mentality came about that said, I can be a Christian and have all the things of the world, and indulge the flesh and the like. I can believe and trust and profess and do all the things that Paul said. After all, he said I'm saved by faith, right?

I can believe and be saved and have everything else, too.

All of that we're going to see in the verses that are going to follow in just a moment are going to be over against that and say, "No, that's not the way that it looks." Let's take a look at verses 19 through 21. "Now the works of the flesh are evident," and he's going to give a lengthy list, but it's not a comprehensive list. He says this, "The works of the flesh are evident, which are adultery, fornication, uncleanliness, lewdness, idolatry, sorcery, hatred, contentions, jealousies, outbursts of wrath, selfish ambitions, dissensions, heresies, envy, murders, drunkenness, revelries, and the like. All of which I tell you beforehand, just as I told you in times past, those who practice such things will not inherit the Kingdom of God."

Now, that was a comprehensive list. I don't know the hearts of every person in this room, but I do know this, every person in this room is guilty of some measure of the list that we just saw. Maybe not every item, not every item equally, and yet, if we look at this list, we can say, uh-oh. Uh-oh. I've done such a thing. I've had outbursts of wrath or selfish ambition or dissension or what have you. I've done such a thing. So what does that mean for me? Well, let me ask you a question. Let me take one of the items that I hope none of us are guilty of. Let me ask this. Do you think an unrepentant murderer can get into heaven? Well, not if you believe verses 19 through 21. But what about a repentant murderer? Can a repentant murderer get into heaven?

I should hope so. Otherwise, David's in for a tough time. Saul, Paul is in for a tough time. The question is not whether you've ever done anything wrong or broken one or all the items on the list. We're all guilty to some measure of what is called out in these verses. The question is not whether we've ever been selfish or lewd or drunk or what have you. The question is whether those bad dead fruits came about because of bad dead roots. So in other words, do our sins flow out of a deadened condition or in spite of a regenerated one?

This is a significant distinction. Now, the operative word, in order to understand how we fit in this, in verses 19 through 21, is the word practice. Specifically, verse 21 says that those who practice such things will not inherit the Kingdom of God. Why is that word so important? And as a side note, the ESV translates the Greek here as the phrase, those who do these sorts of things. Well, do, that's insufficient. It's one of the reasons I don't like the ESV compared to the New King James. But the phrase implies those who practice such things. That's closer to the original text because it implies one's motivations, not just one's actions. Implies one's motivations. You see, our actions will often be bad. If we all had all the actions of this past week put on a giant screen for everybody to watch, we'd go, eee. Because our actions haven't always been good. We may have done some bad things amidst the good ones. But here's one of the differences. As Christians, usually, we recognize that badness, and we feel some measure of guilt over it. We feel some measure of conviction. David was a murderer. Remember what he had to do with Bathsheba's previous husband. Put him on the front lines, ensured that he died. He was a murderer, and yet David felt incredible remorse and guilt. Why? Because his heart was changed, and even though he sinned, the Spirit compelled him towards repentance. However, other men practice such sins in such a way that they never really care or notice any guilt or conviction over having practiced them. There are those who engage in heresy and lewdness and selfishness and drunkenness and envy and other things here, who practice such things and repeat such things, and they're integral parts of their character. They even identify with the sin in which they're engaged in. One whose heart is changed won't, generally speaking. A man who lies is not automatically discounted from God's kingdom. A liar, one whose identity and character and nature is interwoven with that sin, that's a different story. The verb lies speaks to one's action, but the noun liar speaks to his identity. In any case, for our purposes this morning, Paul's reminding the Galatians that bad dead fruit indicates bad dead roots. Let's look at verse 22 and 23 now. "But the fruit of the Spirit..." So he's drawing a contrast here. He's saying, this is the bad kind of fruit, and this is the good kind of fruit. "The fruit of the Spirit," the fruit of those who've been saved, "is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, gentleness, goodness, faithfulness, self-control. Against such as these, there is no law. Against such as these, you are not under the curse of the law because the Spirit indwells you." Let's say that you have a man. You have a man, and he goes out, and let's say there's a cherry tree sitting by a major intersection of the road or what have you. And he looks at the cherry tree, and he takes a bunch of figs,

and he throws the figs down on the ground at the base of the cherry tree. Now, is it possible that some folks will drive by that tree, look at the figs, and assume it's a fig tree?

Yeah. Absolutely. Some might be fooled by a quick cursory look. They look at some fruit there sitting on the ground, they say, "Well, that must be a fig tree." Not necessarily.

If one looks closely, not just at fruit gathered on the groundIf one looks closely at the tree, you'll never be fooled. If you look at the nature of the branches, the flowers, and the fruit as it's growing, as it's expanding, as it's developing, you'll recognize the tree for what it is. You'll recognize the nature of the tree if you look to the actual flowers and the branches and the fruit as it grows. Ever wonder why sometimes bad people can appear to do good things? It's the equivalent of figs thrown to the floor of a cherry tree. But what you and I are to look for is increasing fruit, increasing flowers upon the branches. Look to the nature of the tree itself. Look to the fruit as it is growing, as it's thriving. This is one of the ways that we understand a dead tree from a live tree. Now, at one point, we were all the equivalent of dead trees. At one point, we were all the equivalent of dead trees. Left to our own devices, we've said this in other sermons. Left to our own devices, we came into this world as haters of God, haters of man. We were impatient, we were unfaithful, unloving wretches. Paul said this in his letter to Titus. He said, "We were once foolish and disobedient and led astray as slaves of various passions and pleasures, passing our days in malice and envy, hated by others and hating one another." That's the bad fruit. And Paul said to Titus, "Look, at one point, we were dead trees. We all bore this sort of fruit." At one point, that was us. At one point, that's who we were. There might've been some figs scattered around that might've fooled a few people to think that we were something other than that, but this is who we were. This is who we were. But in God's time, He changed the nature of the tree. In God's time, He took that which is dead and gave it new life. In times past, God took the heart of stone and made it the heart of flesh. He changed us from what we once were. Much like a fig tree that now bears cherries, God has changed our nature. We bear new fruits, different fruits than we used to. These fruits include love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, faithfulness, and self-control. Now, as we said, an unsaved person can appear to produce some of these same fruits. You'll find some of them sitting at the base of the tree, so to speak. But that doesn't mean that the tree is really any different than it previously was. You don't look, as we said before, at the fruit on the ground to figure out a tree's nature. You look at the branches to see that which is growing and thriving. Okay, let's look at verses 24 to 26. "And those who are Christ's have crucified the flesh with its passions and its desires." This speaks to that picture of inner warfare, deliberate, intentional, proactive efforts to put sin to death. "Those who are Christ's have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit." Again, an intentional term that says you and I need to do something on the basis of that which we believe. "Let us not become conceited, provoking one another or envying one another." A number of years back, my family, we lived in Virginia from about 2000 to 2004. Virginia, as is the case with most of the Eastern Seaboard, has a lot of history. There's a restaurant. This is an area called Chantilly, Virginia. There's a restaurant there, and it had a number of paintings on the wall. And in fact, on one of the walls, it had a mural that went the whole length of the restaurant. Just this incredible mural. It featured the revolutionaries, the civil wars. It featured battle scenes across the balance of this restaurant. Now, these paintings were really impressive. They gave a sense for the history of the area. They were very impressive. It gave one a sense of the scope of the battlefields of times past, far more so than a single small picture ever could. To see it on this huge mural, eight feet tall, 40 feet wide, it gives someone a scope that you might not otherwise have seen. Now, because we lived in the area, we had a number of opportunities to check out this restaurant and have meals there. So I had more than one occasion to look at the mural and to study these paintings. You know what I noticed? There's all sorts of soldiers from different battles on these murals. You know what I noticed about the soldiers? None of them, as you looked out at what they were doing in this mural, none of them

were sleeping. None of them were laying down. None of them were folding their hands. None of them were playing cards. They were doing what you would expect soldiers to do on the battlefield. They were at war. They were contending against an enemy. They were doing exactly what you would expect. The protagonists in this scene were not acting as if they had peace in Zion. They understood the dangers of the enemies, and so they were all depicted as fighting, as striving, as contending. Let me ask you a question. If someone were to draw a mural of your days, a mural of your Christian life, a mural of your walk. If someone was to draw a painting of your spiritual life, what would you be doing in that painting?

If someone was to draw a mural of your spiritual life, what would you be doing

in that mural?

Would you be resting?

Would you be playing cards? Would you be sleeping, taking a cat nap in the battlefield? Or would you be contending against the very real enemies of sin, temptation, and the like?

There are real enemies out to get you and out to get your kids. There really are. This is not just hyperbole. You don't have to be a charismatic to believe this. There really are enemies out there. There are spiritual enemies in high places. There are those who have you and your loved ones in the bullseye and who are actively contending against you. You're at war even if you don't realize you're at war. The question is, how are you responding to that reality? How are you responding? Are you actively in the Word? Do you actively wield the sword of the Word? Do you have the breastplate of faith and righteousness? What are you doing to contend against the sin in your own flesh? Those things that perhaps only you know, maybe you and a few loved ones know, what are you doing?

If someone was to draw a mural, are you laying down? Are you contending? Verse 24, Paul says this, "Those who are Christ's are actively crucifying the flesh with its passions and desires." Those who have Christ have crucified the flesh, put it to death.Be killing sin or be killing you. Those who are Christ, do this. Those who aren't, don't, because they don't see the distinction. They don't see the problem. Do you?

Do you see what's at stake? Do you see your life in the context of a great spiritual battle that's been going on a lot longer than since you've been around? And do you see your part in the infantry on the front lines, and are you actively wielding the sword and taking up the shield?

Are you committed

to this?

For most of us,

there have been seasons in our life where we have not been committed to this.

Most of us can relate to seasons, maybe in the past, maybe in the present, where we've done a Lord Chamberlain. What we've done is we've appeased sin.

We've appeased the enemies. We haven't taken them on full on. We've allowed them to gain control of a little territory. We said, "Well, that's all right. That was probably inevitable anyway." We've appeased our sin in some areas, and maybe we kind of, sort of want to do better someday, but we lack the desire to do better today.

In other words, for some of us, the problem is not that we don't know the right thing to do and that we don't sort of want to do the right thing.

The problem is that the spirit is willing,

but the flesh is weak.

The problem is that we're shanghaied, we're sabotaged

by our flesh,

and we indulge that flesh far too often. Is that statement true of you this morning? Do you find that you're spiritually willing, that you nod your head to what Paul and Jesus and Peter and the others say, that you're spiritually willing to do these things, that you really kind of, sort of want to make progress in key areas of your life, only to find that week in and week out, that you are sabotaged by your own flesh, by the person you see in the mirror?

Well, if that's you, know this, the problem isn't going to fix itself by osmosis. Do you understand the distinction between justification and sanctification? Justification is God looking down upon you, and even while you are sinners, even while you're strayed a thousand miles away from Him and His Word, Him determining to place His saving love upon you, changing your heart, reconciling you to Himself, adopting you in His family. God does all that by Himself, His volition, His choice. That's what God does. But there's something that you do have responsibility for. There's something that we do in concert with God, and that is our sanctification. Sanctification is the process by which we go from this dirty, filthy pot into something clean and useful in the economy and the kingdom of God. Now, God's committed to that. Are you? We have a role to play in our sanctification. We have a role to play. That's the implication of verses 24 through 26. "Those who are Christ crucify the flesh with its passions and desires." What would that look like if you crucified one thing

this week, this month? What would that look like? Unless you're intentional, it won't happen. Unless you can name it, identify it, wield the sword, and go at it, it won't happen.

This isn't about osmosis. Did you know that there was a lot of men and women in the Bible, people you will see in the kingdom of heaven in the time to come, who did not finish well here on Earth?

Don't presume you will.

It has to have some intentionality on your part,

lest you become like a Solomon, who absolutely tanked in his later years, a Samson who tanked, a Gideon who made bad decisions, and the like. Don't presume you're automatically going to finish strong just on the basis that you're a Christian. You will cross the finish line on the basis that God has saved you, and yet He calls you even now to run the race and to see it as a race and to see yourself as a runner and see there to be a finish line. Paul elsewhere in 1 Corinthians 9, he says this, "Don't you know that those who are in a race, they all run, but one receives the prize? Run in such a way that you may obtain it."

Make choices today to put sin to death. Make choices today to bear better fruit than you did last week or last year in the times past. Make choices today, intentional, proactive choices, to work out the salvation that God has worked in you, to bear a brighter light, a brighter testimony, not only to glorify God, but to point others to Him in the time yet to come. Let's pray.