Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.
Summary: When God enters, our lives become a battlefield between the Spirit and the flesh. With God’s help, we can choose life in the Spirit and crucify the flesh.
In case you didn’t know, we are in a war. We call it a “spiritual war,” but what we mean is a war between the Spirit and the flesh. As Paul points out earlier in his letter:
“For the flesh desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the flesh. They are in conflict with each other …” (Galatians 5:17)
When God’s Spirit enters our lives, the flesh is not happy about it. Until the moment God enters, the flesh is in charge. When that moment comes when God is present, a choice has to be made.
What makes this difficult to understand is the concept of “self.” Are we the flesh? Are we spirits? Are we something else? Who or what decides who will be in charge? Who decides whether to obey the Spirit or the flesh?
When Jesus describes the Greatest Commandment, he says we are to “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind” (Matthew 22:37). He could have simply said, “Love the Lord your God with everything you have,” but he didn’t. He divides us into three parts: heart, soul, and mind.
Notice that he did not include the “body” or any reference to the “flesh.”
Looking at the Greek words Matthew used, I get the impression that Jesus was talking about how we think of ourselves. Our innermost being is where we keep our deepest hopes and dreams. This is our heart.
The soul is that part of us that survives the death of the body. It is the spirit that animates us, even before we are born again into God’s family.
The mind, then, is the part of us where we do our thinking. It is the mind that decides between flesh and Spirit. It is the mind that chooses to “crucify” the flesh.
This is not something the mind can do on its own. If we could choose to be righteous by our own power, we would not need the Spirit of God to help us.
But we do.
We need help.
This is why God offered his Son, Jesus, as a living sacrifice. This is why Jesus sent us the Holy Spirit. It is God’s Word and his Spirit that convey his love for us—a love that brings untold joy and peace that passes all understanding. It is God’s kindness, goodness, faithfulness, and gentleness that guide us gently and lovingly. Ultimately, it is God’s Spirit who makes it possible for us to exercise self-control.
By the power of God, we can choose life. Since we cannot serve two masters, we must turn our backs on the “passions and desires” of the flesh. Ultimately, with God’s help, we must nail them to a cross.
Application: Choose life in the Spirit!
Food for Thought: What does it feel like when, with the Spirit’s help, we crucify the flesh?
I think that is a complicated question, with an answer that is hard to put into words.
I would have to start out with stating that crucifying the flesh is not a one-time decision, but occurs daily (if not hour by hour, moment by moment).
1 Corinthians 15:31 I protest, brothers, by my pride in you, which I have in Christ Jesus our Lord, I die every day!
Crucifying the flesh is not a personal decision “to be better.” Crucifying the flesh is being led to the truth by the Holy Spirit and then choosing to deny self in obedience to God, out of love for God. In denying our flesh, we are forsaking sin, choosing Christ, and confessing Him as Lord through our life.
John 16: 13-14 When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth, for he will not speak on his own authority, but whatever he hears he will speak, and he will declare to you the things that are to come. He will glorify me, for he will take what is mine and declare it to you.
Crucifying the flesh means being raised up again through Christ.
Romans 8:11 If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit who dwells in you.
What does it feel like when, with the Spirit’s help, we crucify the flesh?
Empowered.
That may seem like an odd choice of words, and it is not the only feeling I have when I think about crucifying the flesh, but it one that encapsulates the gratitude for the redeeming power that Christ has brought into my life through His Spirit, and the loss of shame that came with sin. The thought of crucifixion is a horrible one, but the thought of crucifying the flesh seems joyful to one who understands that in doing so, we can be in the Presence of the Spirit.
I feel empowered to make a decision, with full knowledge of the truth. I feel the empowerment of Christ within me, the peace that comes with knowing that my decision pleases Him. Strengthened, built up, held up, loved.
Thank you, Chris!
I agree that crucifying the flesh is a process that continues throughout our lives.
I also like your word, “empowered.” That is a great word to describe the power of the Holy Spirit in our lives.
What does it feel like when, with the Spirit’s help, we crucify the flesh?
I was 33 years old, living my life doing everything I wanted to please my flesh. Other people were only of value to the degree they could add to my pursuit of a fully self indulgent life.
I will never forget the moment I received Christ, and I become a new creation! I recall my experience as being thrilling, exciting, exhilarating, being filled with never before felt feelings of happy excitement and elation beyond anything experienced in my life. For a period of time, I walked several feet off the ground with silly grin on my face.
I became physically separated from this world and in the beginning, except for work, lived a life of peace with God as in isolation, I studied His word, “fed my spirit”. As time past God began to give me work with the people around me and I began to see ways I could serve them. Submitting to the Holy Spirit, being the conduit through which He reaches out to others, is my one great service in this life.
Crucifying my flesh has been a lifelong journey, it does not go quietly, is incredibly knowledgable, crafty, has great endurance and endless approaches. In time I learned, it is very simple. If it is not of God, it is of the flesh, the world and “Turn Away.”
Today I am an eternal, spiritual child of God, temporarily confined to an 80 year old body enjoying this time provided to me by God as I serve Him on earth. He meets all my physical needs provides food, shelter, clothing, and my spiritual needs through fellowship with other believers and of course is the source of my daily strength in all things. The Holy Spirit of God is my constant companion and teacher.
Thank you, Ron.
Beautifully said!
I like your summation: “If it is not of God, it is of the flesh.” Clean and simple!
I disagree with your summary. Paul ising flesh as a metaphor not a literal killing of the body, not a neglect of the physical body we inhabit. Flesh is our sinful nature, what we in our sinful bodies naturally desire to do. The spirit that is good is the holy Spirit, in fact I don’t think our spirit would desire what is right without intervention either.
While the Matthew passage you mention does not include strength, it is in fact in the other gospels of the same situation. All of your mind, strength, spirit, and heart are the four inchanged in the same phrase throughout new and old testament. God doesn’t tell us to live him with everything except our body, he wants us to live and serve with everything in us. Depending on where in history, people have different understandings of the uses of these pieces of imagery, but all together it should be clear, everything you are capable of, everything you think, everything you desire, needs to be in unity and love the Lord your God. I wish people would stop trying to separate what God puts together.
So, when or how is the flesh crucified? It is every time we choose God over sin. Yes, the mind must choose, but the body must follow through, the tongue must be tamed, the spirit humbled and the soul refreshed by truth. What does it feel like? So many things! It feels great when you first choose God for salvation, it feels terrible when someone you love challenges it, it is heartwrenching when you feel like you have to choose faith or a relationship with a person. It feels impossible when a habitual sin or just a harmful habit has to be addressed with repeatedly choosing God, or the agony of choosing God with only half of yourself and the rest that did what you did not want to do. It’s bliss when you see the blessings of making the hard choices, it’s the pure and honest joy of serving and helping because you told jealousy and envy it has no place. It feels freeing when you have no regrets because you chose God.
What does it feel like when, with the Spirit’s help, we crucify the flesh?
It feels like so many things, because it is in every single choice we make.
Angela,
Thank you for sharing your thoughts!
As I read through your comments I found myself agreeing with you again and again. If I am understanding you correctly, you heard me say that somehow we are supposed to divorce ourselves from our bodies.
This leads me to the question: “Is there a difference between the ‘flesh’ and the ‘body’?”
In my mind there is a difference. So I am in agreement with you that we are to use the body for serving God’s will on earth.
The Greek word “sarx” is translated as “flesh.” While this word can mean the skin and meat of the body, it also can refer to our human nature. It is my understanding that Paul is using this word to point us to the “passions and desires” of our human nature.
I really liked your description of what it feels like to “crucify the flesh.” I especially like your final sentence:
“It feels like so many things, because it is in every single choice we make.”