Galatians 5:17,18 - If you are led by the Spirit

5:17

The flesh and the Spirit are opposed to each other. As mentioned in my comments on 5:13, the flesh is referring not just to overtly sinful desires. Our whole human nature is opposed to the Spirit. Living by the flesh means making ourselves king or lord, and whatever desires and aims we may claim to have, may even truly believe that we do have, we will end up opposing God, opposing the Spirit. And if we seek to live by Law we are making ourselves lord, for we are saying I can do what is right, I can live righteously by my own efforts. We cannot. The flesh will subtly, and sometimes not so subtly, lead us to do the opposite of what God wants. “There is a way that seems right to man, but it leads only to death” (Prov 14:12).

5:18

If we live by law we will find that it is our flesh that is in control, our flesh is corrupted and even though we might want to do what is right we will inevitably end up going against God. Instead we need to be “led by the Spirit”. If we led by the Spirit then we are not “under the law”. Now this does not mean that the Law is wrong nor that it does not matter, for it expresses the heart of God, it tells us much of what is right and wrong. It means that we are not living by the principle of being under the Law. Ie here are the rules, now go and get on with it. We are not able to “get on with it”, we need the Holy Spirit.