Galatians 5:24
“Those who belong to Christ Jesus have nailed the passions and desires of their sinful nature to his cross and crucified them there.”
We’ve just wrapped up our exploration of the fruit of the Spirit and we are almost finished with Galatians 5!
Just a little review of what we’ve covered so far: Jesus came so that we could live a free life in the Spirit, not just in heaven but right here and now. Rules are a total set up for failure, and our earthly desires will always get in the way. The work of the Spirit is directly opposed to those earthly desires and these two forces battle in our hearts and minds. If we want to access supernatural love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control, we must connect with the very nature of God who possesses all these things. When we receive these things from him we can embody them through the Spirit as well.
In today’s verse we once again go beyond rules into the very core of our beings. Here’s the definition of a Christian: one who has killed his own flesh. Following Jesus means following him all the way onto a cross. I find it interesting that those who belong to Christ have done this already. The verse doesn’t say that Christians are working on this. It says you belong to Christ if you have already nailed your flesh to a cross and crucified it. I also find it interesting that in doing this I am both the person being crucified and the one performing the crucifixion.
How can it be that I am doing both the killing and the dying? Here we are confronted with the reality that we are both physical and spiritual beings. The only way we can crucify our flesh is by connecting with the Spirit to do it. We know that the flesh and the Spirit are in opposition to one another. Now we know why… our spirit, supernaturally given over to the Holy Spirit, must violently crucify our earthly desires.
Here’s your freedom for today: putting your earthly desires to death is easy when you realize they are the very things destroying you. I have no problem killing pests that encroach upon my home. I don’t feel bad, it is not hard. If I need to call an exterminator, I do not hesitate. There is no inner struggle or debate, I want to get rid of them before they make my life even worse. And when we realize that our earthly desires are slowly killing our spirit, we will have no problem exterminating them in whatever ways we can.