LECTURE VIII.

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GALATIANS V. 16, 17.

Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lusts of the flesh.  For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; and these are contrary the one to the other, so that ye cannot do the things that ye would.

“We cannot do the things that we would.”  These are words of familiar and common use; this is the language in which we are all apt to excuse, whether to ourselves or to others, the various faults of our conduct.  We should be glad to do better, so we say and think, but the power to do so fails us.  And so far it may seem that we are but echoing the apostle’s language; for he says the very same thing, “Ye cannot do the things that ye would.”  Yet the words as we use them, and as the apostle used them, have the most opposite meaning in the world.  We use them as a reason why we should be satisfied, the apostle as a reason why we should be alarmed; we intend them to be an excuse, the apostle meant them to be a certain sign of condemnation.

The reasons of this difference may be understood very easily.  We, in the common course of justice, should think it hard to punish a man for not doing what he cannot do.  We think, therefore, that if we say that we cannot do well, we establish also our own claim to escape from punishment.  But God declares that a state of sin is and must be a state of misery; and that if we cannot escape the sin, we cannot escape the misery.  According to God’s meaning, then, the words, “Ye cannot do the things which ye would,” mean no other than this:  “Ye cannot escape from hell; ye cannot be redeemed from the power of death and of Satan; the power is wanting in you, however much you may wish it:  death has got you, and it will keep you for ever.”  So that, in this way, sickness or weakness of the soul is very like sickness or weakness of the body.  We cannot help being ill or weak in many cases:  is that any reason why, according to the laws of God’s providence, we should not suffer the pain of illness?  Or is it not, rather, clear that we suffer it just because we have not the power to get rid of it; if we had the power to be well, we should be well.  A man’s evils are not gone because he wishes them away; it is not he who would fain see his chains broken, that escapes from his bondage; but he who has the strength to rend them asunder.

Thus, then, in St. Paul’s language, “Ye cannot do the things that ye would,” means exactly, “Ye are not redeemed, but in bondage; ye are not saved, but lost.”  But he goes on to the reason why we cannot do the things which we would, which is, “because the flesh and the Spirit are contrary to one another,” and pull us, as it were, different ways.  Just as we might say of a man in illness, that the reason why he is not well, as he wishes to be, is because his healthy nature and