NOW THOSE WHO BELONG TO
CHRIST JESUS HAVE CRUCIFIED THE FLESH WITH ITS PASSIONS AND DESIRES: oi
de tou Christou [Iesou] ten sarka estaurosan (3PAAI) sun tois pathemasin
kai tais epithumiais:
(Gal 3:29; Romans 8:9; 1Cor 3:23; 15:23; 2Cor 10:7)
(Crucified - Gal 5:16, 17, 18, 19 ,20; 6:14; Ro 6:6; 8:13; 13:14;
1Peter 2:11)
TO WHOM DO
YOU BELONG?
Now those who belong to Christ
Jesus - A long phrase which is a great description of every believer
= one who belongs
to Jesus! How have you done this past week? Living as if you belong to
Him or as one who thinks they you are still your own, and can still live
"independent" of your Master and Owner? This phrase also implies that a costly price (His precious
blood) has been paid to redeem us as His very own possession.
Matthew Henry says these
are...
those who are Christians indeed,
not only in show and profession, but in sincerity and truth
Paul refers to belong in
Romans 8 explaining that...
you are not in the flesh but
in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you. But if
anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Him.
(See note
Romans 8:9)
I wonder if we truly live with the
profound thought in mind that we are those who belong to Christ?
As Paul asked the Corinthians...
Do you not know that your body
is a temple of the Holy Spirit Who is in you, Whom you have from God,
and that you are not your own? For (term
of explanation
- always pause and ponder. Ask what is being explained. How? Why? etc -
Upshot is that you are learning the powerful neglected discipline of
Biblical Meditation) you have been bought with a
price: therefore glorify (doxazo) God in your body. (1Cor 6:19-note ,
1Cor 6:20-note)
Paul expressed this same idea
of the "divine possession" of believers
in several other passages...
And if (since) you belong to
Christ, then you are Abraham's offspring, heirs according to promise.
(Galatians 3:29)
(Christ) gave Himself for (in
our place = substitution, the doctrine of substitutionary atonement) us, that He might redeem (lutroo
= paid the price of
His precious blood to set slaves free from bondage to sin) us from every
lawless deed and purify (katharizo) for Himself a people for His own possession
(periousios),
zealous for
Good Deeds. (Titus
2:14-note)
For if we live, we live for the
Lord; and if we die, we die for the Lord. Therefore, whether we live or
die, we are the Lord’s (Ro 14:8-note).
And you belong to Christ, and
Christ belongs to God (1Cor 3:23)
But each in his own turn:
Christ, the firstfruits; then, when He comes, those who belong to
Him. (1Cor 15:23, NIV)
Eadie comments on the phrase
those who belong to Christ Jesus speaks of possession...
they belong to Him as bought by Him,
delivered by Him, and possessed by Him, through His Spirit producing
such fruit. “Christ liveth in me.” They who are Christ's cannot but be
characterized by the fruit of the Spirit, for they crucified the flesh
(Eadie,
John: Epistle of St Paul to the Galatians)
Lightfoot has an interesting
aside on this verse noting that...
Several of the Greek fathers
strangely connected the Christ with the flesh, ‘these persons have
crucified the flesh of Christ,’ explaining it in various ways...
(St. Paul's Epistle to the Galatians) (Comment: This is clearly
not the correct rendering of the passage, but is mentioned lest we rely
too heavily on human interpretation, including the so-called Early
Church Fathers--they may have been "early" but they were not always
"right"!)
Have crucified the flesh -
There are two ways that this verse has been interpreted and there are
excellent expositors and commentators on both sides: (1)
believers have been crucified (past tense) with Christ and are in union
with and identified with Christ; (2) believers are to
(effectively) "crucify" or mortify the flesh which, although crucified
in the past when we died with Christ, is still active in every believer.
(1) speaks of a believer's
position in Christ, while (2) speaks of the the believer's
experience made possible because of our position in Christ. To a
degree both interpretations are reasonable, and are like two inseparable
sides of a coin. However, if one examines the context closely,
interpretation (1) which speaks of our position in Christ
is followed immediately by a verse that speaks of our experience
in Christ and exhorts us to live out that experience by keeping in step
with the Spirit (our experience), something that would not be possible
if we had not been crucified with Christ (our position).
With this brief introduction the
following analysis will present both sides of the coin as seen by a
number of respected Christian preachers and expositors. You will notice
that some of the interpretations subtly merge or overlap into an
"amalgamation" of interpretations (1) and (2).
THE FIRST INTERPRETATION OF
"HAVE CRUCIFIED THE FLESH"
This interpretation holds that if you
are a Christian, you have already died. Crucified is therefore
the believer's present position, possession, power and potential
to live as more than a conqueror over
Sin,
the
flesh
and the devil. Crucifixion is something God does, not us. It happened
when we were crucified with Christ (Ro 6:6-note). Have crucified is past
tense and for all who are true followers of Christ, this is what has happened
to us. Our flesh—that old rebellious, unbelieving, self-centered person
we were apart from Christ—was crucified. When? This occurred when we put
our faith in Christ and were united to Him so that what He experienced,
we experienced (Ro 6:5-note).
His death became our death, so that His life might become our life. To
reiterate, when we died with Christ, the old unregenerate totally
depraved person we were before salvation died. It was reckoned as true
in us ("placed on our spiritual account") when we by grace through
faith received Jesus' as Savior and Lord. The decisive blow against the
enemy of our lives was struck and the victory was secured in Christ.
Kenneth Wuest explains that
when we first believed, it was at that moment we...
received the actual benefits of
our identification with Christ in His death on the Cross, which benefits
were only potential at the time He was crucified. The Christian’s
identification with Christ in His death, resulted in the breaking of the
power of the sinful nature over the life. This victory over sin which
the Lord Jesus procured for us at the Cross, is made actual and
operative in our lives as we yield to the Holy Spirit and trust
Him for that victory. It is the Holy Spirit’s ministry that applies
the salvation from the power of the sinful nature which God the Son
procured at the Cross for us (Ed note: cp Gal 5:16-note).
Thus the Holy Spirit has a two-fold ministry in the saint, that of
making actually operative in the life of the Christian, the victory over
sin which the Lord Jesus procured for us at the Cross, and that of
producing in the Christian’s experience, His fruit (cp Gal 5:22-note;
Gal 5:23-note;
Ro 7:4-note).
But this He is only able to do in a full and rich measure as the saint
puts himself definitely under subjection to the Spirit. This initial act
of faith in the Lord Jesus which resulted in the crucifixion (putting to
death) of the affections and lusts of the totally depraved nature, is
followed during the life of that Christian, by the free action of his
liberated will in counting himself as having died to (having been
separated from the power of) the evil nature with the result that he
says NO to sin and stops yielding himself and his members to sin (Ed:
But be careful here -- believers in their own strength do not have the
power to say "no" to the fallen flesh. However as they walk by the
Spirit and are empowered by the Spirit, they are able to say "no" to the
lusts of the fallen flesh. But don't turn Gal 5:16-note
around for you will be frustrated and will fail to have victory of
whatever temptation with which the flesh was assaulting you!)
In other passages Paul refers to the
believer's crucifixion...
knowing this, that our
old
self
was crucified with Him, that our body of sin might be done away
with, that we should no longer be slaves to sin (Ro 6:6-note)
Even so consider yourselves to
be dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus. (Ro 6:11-note)
I have been crucified
with (verb is
sustauroo
= combination of sun = with +
stauroo
= crucify) Christ; and it is no
longer I who live, but Christ lives in me (How? His Spirit - see Ro 8:9-note); and the life which I now live
in the flesh (my mortal, physical body) I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me, and
delivered Himself up for me. (Gal 2:20-note)
Comment: In short, because of Paul's crucifixion with Christ, he
was positionally dead to the Law (that was a historical fact). His life
was no longer that of self-effort to keep the law, but was a life
empowered by the indwelling Spirit of Christ.
Paul's point is that the Christian
life is not primarily a set of rules and regulations to be obeyed
(legalism), but is a Person living His life in and through the believer.
This is what Paul meant in Colossians writing that this supernatural
life is...
Christ in you, the hope of glory (Col
1:27-note)
and...
Christ...is our life (Col 3:4-note)
John echoes this tremendous
truth of Christ our life writing...
but these have been written that
you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that
believing you may have life in His name. (John 20:31)
Comment:
Where is our life? In His name - His name is all that Christ is and it
is He Alone in Whom we can now experience supernatural life. The Person
of Christ is our life. Think about our new name "Christian". What
happens when we remove Christ from that name? On the other hand,
take the letter "a" and move it to the front [I realize this a
bit forced, but it does make the point] - "A Christ in"!
And the witness is this, that
God has given us eternal life, and this life is in His Son. He
who has the Son has the life; he who does not have the Son of
God does not have the life. (1John 5:11,12)
Observe Paul's desire for the
believers in Galatians 4...
My children, with whom I am
again in labor until Christ is formed in you (Galatians 4:19)
Comment:
The verb formed is morphoo which describes the shaping of
one's outward expression which proceeds from and is truly representative
of one’s inward character and nature, which in Col 1:27-note
is "Christ in you".
Paul desires that the lives of these
believers [and of each of us dear reader] may be so surrendered to the
Lord Jesus, that He may give outward expression of His own glorious
Person in our thoughts, words, and deeds. What we are on the outside is
to be continually becoming more representative of what we truly are on
the inside. For example, is not the "fruit of the Spirit" in a
believer's life in its essence a manifestation of Christ's character
being "formed" in us? Fruit in our life is clear evidence that we are
walking by the Spirit and that the life of Christ is being manifested in
and though our mortal flesh.
Compare...
(We believers are) always carrying
about in the body the dying of Jesus, that the life of Jesus also may
be manifested in our body (the "Christ life"). For we who live are
constantly being delivered over to death for Jesus' sake, that the
life of Jesus also may be manifested in our mortal flesh. (2Corinthians 4:10,11)
John MacArthur agrees with
this interpretation writing...
In each of those three passages,
“crucified” is simply a vivid and dramatic way to say “killed,” or
“executed.” In the first two passages Paul is teaching that at
salvation his old, sinful, unregenerate self was executed and he was
born a new man in Christ Jesus. In the third passage he is saying that
the world has been executed and is now dead to him, so that it is no
longer his master, holding him in bondage. He is therefore now free to
serve the Lord.
Obviously, in none of those
passages does Paul mean to imply that the crucifixion analogy carries
the idea of total death, in which all influence ceases. Sin was still a
reality in his life, and so was the temptation of the world. But there
was a sense in which the power of the old self and of the world was
broken. Those influences no longer dominated him.
In the text of Galatians 5:24,
Paul is saying that the flesh has been executed. But how could that be
in light of what he has just said in this chapter about believers having
a constant war with the ever-present flesh? In what sense is the flesh
killed at conversion?
It cannot be in the actual,
complete, present sense or it would contradict the reality of the
continual spiritual conflict with the flesh indicated here and in
Romans 7:14-25. And it cannot be that Paul has some future sense in
mind or he would have used a future verb form, saying, “shall crucify
the flesh,” referring to the time of glorification.
The best understanding is to see
have crucified as an allusion to the cross of Jesus Christ, which, as a
past event, fits the aorist tense used here by Paul. It looks back to
the cross, the time at which the death of the flesh was actually
accomplished. Yet, because we are still alive on the earth and still
possess our humanness, we have not yet entered into the future fullness
of that past event.
Meanwhile, the flesh with its
passions (or affections) and desires is dead in the sense of no longer
reigning over us or of holding us in inescapable bondage. Like a chicken
with its head cut off, the flesh has been dealt a death blow, although
it continues to flop around the barnyard of earth until the last nerve
is stilled.
Because the flesh is defeated
forever, and we now live in the realm where Christ reigns over us by His
Spirit, we should live according to the Spirit and not the flesh. (MacArthur,
J. Galatians. Chicago: Moody Press
or
Logos)
A T Robertson interprets
have crucified as...
Definite event, first aorist
active indicative of stauroō as in Gal 2:19 (mystical union with
Christ). Paul uses sarx (flesh) here in the same sense as in verses 16,
17, 19, “the force in men that makes for evil” (Burton). With sun =
“Together with,” emphasizing “the completeness of the extermination of
this evil force” and the guarantee of victory over one’s passions and
dispositions toward evil. (Comment: Robertson uses the word
"extermination" might lead some to think the flesh no longer had power,
which Paul has already taught is clearly not the case.)
Vincent writes...
The line of thought as regards
death to sin is the same as in Ro 6:2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 11; as regards death to the
law, the same as in Ro 7:1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6.
UBS Handbook writes that
have crucified...
is, of course, a figurative
expression, suggesting a connection between this action of the believer
and the death of Jesus Christ on the cross. The verb is in the aorist
tense, suggesting either that the action took place in the past (at
conversion...) or that the action resulted in a complete and decisive
change...this action is presently reflected in the experience of every
believer... (The
United Bible Societies' New Testament Handbook Series
or
Logos)
John Piper has an interesting
way of explaining crucifixion of the flesh...
Picture your flesh—that old ego
with the mentality of merit and craving for power and reputation and
self-reliance—picture it as a dragon living in some cave of your soul.
Then you hear the gospel, and in it Jesus Christ comes to you and says,
“I will make you mine and take possession of the cave and slay the
dragon. Will you yield to my possession? It will mean a whole new way of
thinking and feeling and acting.” You say: “But that dragon is me. I
will die.” He says, “And you will rise to newness of life, for I will
take its plan; I will make my mind and my will and my heart your own.”
You say, “What must I do?” He answers, “Trust me and do as I say. As
long as you trust me, we cannot lose.” Overcome by the beauty and power
of Christ you bow and swear eternal loyalty and trust. And as you rise,
he puts a great sword in your hand and says, “Follow me.” He leads you
to the mouth of the cave and says, “Go in, slay the dragon.” But you
look at him bewildered, “I cannot. Not without you.” He smiles. “Well
said. You learn quickly. Never forget: my commands for you to do
something are never commands to do it alone.” Then you enter the cave
together. A horrible battle follows and you feel Christ’s hand on yours.
At last the dragon lies limp. You ask, “Is it dead?” His answer is this:
“I have come to give you new life. This you received when you yielded to
my possession and swore faith and loyalty to me. And now with my sword
and my hand you have felled the dragon of the flesh. It is a mortal
wound. It will die. That is certain. But it has not yet bled to death,
and it may yet revive with violent convulsions and do much harm. So you
must treat it as dead and seal the cave as a tomb. The Lord of darkness
may cause earthquakes in your soul to shake the stones loose, but you
build them up again. And have this confidence: with my sword and my hand
on yours this dragon’s doom is sure, he is finished, and your new life
is secure.”
I think that is the meaning of
Gal 5:24, “Those who belong to Christ have crucified the flesh with its
passions and desires.” Christ has taken possession of our soul. Our old
self has been dealt a mortal wound and stripped of its power to have
dominion. The Christian life, the fruit of the Spirit, is a constant
reckoning of the flesh as dead (piling stones on its tomb) and a
constant relying on the present Spirit of Christ to produce love, joy,
and peace within. The difference between the Christian life and popular
American morality is that Christians will not take one step unless the
hand of Christ holds the hand that wields the sword of righteousness.
(Read Dr Piper's full sermon on
Galatians 5:19-26: Walk by the Spirit)
Matthew Poole writes that...
They that are Christ’s
- those who are engrafted into Christ by faith, united to Him,
and so His members; have crucified the flesh by virtue of
a power derived from the cross of Christ, have got their unregenerate
part in a great measure mortified; with the affections and lusts
with the inordinate desires, affections, and passions of it: not that
they have wholly put off these, (they are men still), but the
inordinateness of them is corrected, mortified, and subdued. (Matthew
Poole. Matthew Poole's Commentary on the New Testament)
Jameison, Fausset, Brown
explain that...
They nailed it to the cross once
for all when they became Christ’s, on believing and being baptized (Ro
6:3, 4): they keep it now in a state of crucifixion (Ro 6:6): so that
the Spirit can produce in them, comparatively uninterrupted by it, “the
fruit of the Spirit” (Gal 5:22). “Man, by faith, is dead to the former
standing point of a sinful life, and rises to a new life (Gal 5:25) of
communion with Christ (Col 3:3). The act by which they have crucified
the flesh with its lust, is already accomplished ideally in principle.
But the practice, or outward conformation of the life, must harmonize
with the tendency given to the inward life” (Gal 5:25) [Neander]. We are
to be executioners, dealing cruelly with the body of sin, which has
caused the acting of all cruelties on Christ’s body. (Commentary)
John Calvin...
The word crucified is employed to
point out that the mortification of the flesh is the effect of the cross
of Christ. This work does not belong to man. By the grace of Christ “we
have been planted together in the likeness of his death” (Romans 6:5,)
that we no longer might live unto ourselves. If we are buried with
Christ, by true self-denial, and by the destruction of the old man, we
shall then enjoy the privilege of the sons of God. The flesh is not yet
indeed entirely destroyed; but it has no right to exercise dominion, and
ought to yield to the Spirit.
The flesh itself is the
depravity of corrupt nature, from which all evil actions proceed.
(Matthew 15:19; Mark 7:21.) Hence it follows, that the members of
Christ have cause to complain, if they are still held to be in bondage
to the law, from which all who have been regenerated by his Spirit are
set free.
(Commentary)
Beet...
Notice three crucifixions in
this Epistle; of Paul, of the flesh and its desires, and of the world.
Each of these implies the others. In each case crucified denotes death
in virtue of Christ’s death on the cross and by union with the
Crucified: (Beet, J. A. Beet's Commentaries: Galatians
AGES Software)
Constable...
The Christian has crucified the
flesh in the sense that when he or she trusted Christ God broke the
domination of his or her sinful nature. While we still have a sinful
human nature, it does not control us as it did before we trusted in
Christ (cf. Ro 6:6–7). Paul said we, not God, have crucified it. We did
this when we trusted in Jesus Christ as our Savior (cf. Gal 2:20).
Therefore it is inconsistent for us to return to the flesh. “Passions”
(Gr. pathemata, cf. Ro 7:5) are the outward expression of inner
“desires” (Gr. epithumiai, cf. Gal 5:16). In another sense we need to
continually crucify the flesh by choosing to yield to the Spirit (Gal 5:16, 18, 25; Ro 8:13; Col. 3:5). (Galatians)
Longenecker...
those who belong to Christ Jesus have
crucified the flesh with its passions and desires,” and so cannot live
in a libertine fashion; the second (cast inhortatory form) in v 25, that
“since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit,” so
high lighting the Christian life as one lived by the Spirit’s direction
and enablement... For Paul, to claim identification with Christ in his
crucifixion means that one cannot espouse a lifestyle that expresses
either a legalistic or a libertine orientation. For in being crucified
with Christ both the demands of the law and the impulses of the flesh
have been crucified as well (cf. notes
Romans 7:1;
7:2;
7:3;
7:4;
7:5;
7:6;
Colossians 2:13;
14;
15).
(Longenecker, R. N. . Vol. 41: Word Biblical Commentary : Galatians.
Word Biblical Commentary. Page 264. Dallas: Word, Incorporated)
F F Bruce
explains that...
It is because they are
Christ’s in the sense of being members of Christ, incorporated in
Christ, that they have ‘crucified the flesh’. The aorist probably
indicates their participation in Christ’s historical crucifixion. When
Paul said earlier (he was crucified with Christ) (Galatians
2:20),
he meant that the cross of Christ severed his relation to the law. Here
he says that the cross of Christ severs believers’ relation to the
‘flesh’. For Paul, as we have seen already, the law and the flesh belong
to the same pre-Christian order. But the cross of Christ severed Paul’s
relation to the law only as he himself was ‘crucified with Christ’,
thus becoming ‘dead to the law’ that he might live to God; so
also the cross severs the relation of believers in general to the flesh
only as they reckon themselves to have been crucified in the historical
crucifixion of Christ. The crucifixion of the former self-centred ego,
that it may be replaced by the new Christ-centred mind—’it is no longer
I who live, but Christ lives in me’ (Gal 2:20 -note)—is
not materially different from the crucifixion of the flesh, that it may
be replaced b a Spirit-imparted life and a Spirit-directed conduct. Cf.
Ro 8:13
(note).
‘if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will
live’.
Those who belong to Christ,
then, those who acknowledge his lordship in no merely formal way (cf.
Ro 14:8-note),
have made a clean break with what they formerly were (cf. Ro 6:6-note);
they have been delivered from the ‘present evil age’ (Gal 1:4) and have
become members of the new creation (Gal 6:15). It is the cross of Christ
that makes this clean break. As truly as law and flesh are bound up for
Paul with the present evil age, so truly is the indwelling Spirit the
witness that the age to come has already broken in through the
Christ-event.
‘Ideally, we must understand,
this crucifixion of the flesh is involved in Christ’s crucifixion;
really, it is effected by it. Whoever sees into the secret of Calvary…is
conscious that the doom of sin is in it; to take it as real, and to
stand in any real relation to it, is death to the flesh with its
passions and desires’ (J. Denney, The Death of Christ, 162).
Alongside such a historical
statement as this, in the indicative, stands the hortatory counterpart,
in the imperative, as in Ro 6:11
(note)
(‘reckon yourselves to be dead to sin but alive to God in Christ
Jesus’); Col 3:5
(note)
(‘put to death therefore your members that are on earth…’). What has
been effected once for all by the cross of Christ must be worked out in
practice. (Bruce, F. F. The Epistle to the Galatians: A commentary
on the Greek Text. Grand Rapids, Mich: W. B. Eerdmans. 1982)
KJV Bible Commentary
commenting on has been crucified notes that...
This is a settled matter (Gal 2:20 -
note),
but the very fact that the flesh and the Spirit are in constant conflict
shows that the flesh is very active. When one puts his trust in Christ,
he receives the actual benefits of identification with Christ, resulting
in breaking the power of cancelled sin and in setting the prisoner free.
The Christian is to daily give outward expression of his inward
experience and in order to do this, he must constantly reckon (Ed
note:
present imperative)
himself “to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through our Lord
Jesus Christ” (Ro 6:11-note).
(Dobson,
E G, Charles Feinberg, E Hindson, Woodrow Kroll, H L. Wilmington: KJV
Bible Commentary: Nelson
or
Logos)
Dr Grant Richison
explains that...
Crucified is not
self-crucifixion but our positional crucifixion in Christ. This is
something that God does, not us. When Christ died on the cross, He died
there for our sins. God identifies Christians with Christ’s death and
resurrection. Our part is to apply that work of Christ to sin in
our lives. We do this by placing faith in Christ initially at salvation
and progressively through confessing sins by faith.
Flesh is that force that
makes us violate a holy God. Jesus crucified the flesh. The grammar here
(aorist indicative) indicates a definite and decisive act. This does not
say that this is something that we must do. He did not say, “Those who
are Christ’s should crucify the flesh.” The reality of
crucifixion took place when we put our faith in the finished work of
Christ on the cross.
Jesus settled the issue of our
sins on the cross and we believed Him. When we recognize this as an
ongoing fact, we make victory actual in our experience. Christ
made the positional truth of a crucified flesh actual on the
cross. We make it real to ourselves by faith.
Neither does this mean that
Christ eradicated the present active function of our sin capacity on the
cross. It simply means that God judged our sins by Christ’s death on the
cross in a judicial or positional sense...
It is vital that we
recognize that Christ crucified the flesh, that it was His work on the
cross that did this. Jesus settled the issue there. This means Christ’s
crucifixion is our crucifixion. We do not try to do what is already
done; we do not crucify ourselves. We believe that Christ crucified us.
When we appeal to the cross by
faith, we draw on the finished work of Christ to live the Christian
life. Faith takes hold of God’s facts and appropriates them to
experience. When we lay hold on the naked Word of God, we honour God’s
promises.
We do not have to pray about
being crucified; we are crucified with Christ. This is the crux of how
we get victory in the Christian life. If we do not know our position in
Christ, we do not know how to live the Christian life. Many sincere
Christians try to crucify themselves but they always end in frustration.
It is oh so unnecessary because it is already an accomplished fact. (Galatians 5:24)
J Vernon McGee
asks...
When was the flesh crucified? When
they reckon that when Christ died, they died, they will yield themselves
on that basis. In Ro 6:13
(note)
Paul says, “Neither yield ye your members as instruments of
unrighteousness unto sin: but yield yourselves unto God, as those that
are alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of
righteousness unto God.”
“For ye are dead, and your life is
hid with Christ in God” (see note
Colossians 3:3).
“I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ
liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the
faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me” (see
note
Galatians 2:20).
In all of these passages the thought is that when Christ was crucified,
the believer was crucified at the same time. The believer is now joined
to the living Christ, and the victory is not by struggling but by
surrendering to Christ. The scriptural word is yield; it
is an act of the will. (McGee,
J V: Thru the Bible Commentary: Thomas Nelson
or
Logos)
C Norman Bartlett explains
that...
Positionally we died to sin with
Christ on the Cross
I am crucified with Christ:
nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life
which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who
loved me, and gave himself for me" (Galatians 2:20)
A STIMULUS
NOT A SEDATIVE
FOR HOLY LIVING
Is this great truth of identification
with Jesus in His death a mighty pulsating dynamic in our lives? It
should prove a stimulant and not a sedative for holy living.
(C.
Norman Bartlett: Galatians and You: Studies in the Epistle of Paul to
the Galatians, 1948)
C H
Spurgeon expresses an
interpretation that is essentially a combination of interpretations
(1) and (2). The following are selections from his sermon on
Galatians 5:24: Doctrine of
Justification by Faith
(read the entire sermon).
Now, try to catch the following
thought. — When you believe, you accept Christ as standing instead of
you, and profess that what he did he did for you, but what did Christ do
upon the tree? He was crucified and died. Follow the thought, and note
well that by faith you regard yourself as dead with Him — crucified with
Him. You have not really grasped what faith means unless you have
grasped this. With Him you suffered the wrath of God, for He suffered in
your stead: you are now in Him — crucified with Him, dead with Him,
buried with Him, risen with Him, and gone into the glory with Him —
because He represents you, and your faith has accepted the
representation. Do you see, then, that you did, in the moment when you
believed in Christ, register a declaration that you were henceforth dead
unto sin. Who shall say that our gospel teaches men to live in sin, when
the faith which is essential to salvation involves an avowal of death to
it? The convert begins with agreeing to be regarded as dead with Christ
to sin: have we not here the foundation stone of holiness?...
I shall now state my own experience
when I believed in Jesus; and while I am doing so I rejoice to remember
that there are hundreds, if not thousands in this place who have
experienced the same, and millions in this world, and millions more in
heaven, who know the truth of what I declare. When I believed that Jesus
was the Christ, and rested my soul in him, I felt in my heart from that
moment an intense hatred to sin of every kind. I had loved sin before,
some sins particularly, but those sins became from that moment the most
obnoxious to me, and, though the propensity to them was still there, yet
the love of them was clean gone; and when I at any time transgressed I
felt an inward grief and horror at myself for doing the things which
aforetime I had allowed and even enjoyed. My relish for sin was gone.
The things I once loved I abhorred, and blushed to think of...
CRUCIFY THE FLESH
When a man believes in Jesus the
first point that helps him to crucify the flesh is that he has
seen the evil of sin, inasmuch as he has seen Jesus, his Lord, die
because of it. Men think that sin is nothing; but what will sin do?
What will it not do? The virus of sin, what wilt it poison? Ay, what
will it not poison? Its influence has been baleful upon the largest
conceivable scale. Sin has flooded the world with blood and tears
through red-handed war; sin has covered the world with oppression, and
so has crushed the manhood of many, and broken the hearts of myriads;
sin begat slavery, and tyranny, and priestcraft, and rebellion, and
slander, and persecution; sin has been at the bottom of all human
sorrows; but the crowning culminating point of sin’s villainy was when
God himself came down to earth in human form — pure, perfect, intent on
an errand of love — came to work miracles of mercy, and redemption. Then
sinful man could never rest till he had crucified his incarnate God.
They coined a word when the Parliamentary party executed the king in
England, and called the king’s destroyers “regicides,” and now we must
make a word to describe sin: sin is a deicide. Every sinner, if he
could, would kill God, for he says in his heart, “No God.” He means he
wishes there were none. He would be rejoiced indeed if he could learn
for certain that there was no God. In fact, that is the bugbear of his
life, that there is a God, and a just God, Who will bring him into
judgment. His secret wish is that there were no religion and no God, for
he might then live as he pleased.
Now, when a man is made to see that
sin in its essence is the murderer of Emmanuel, God with us, his heart
being renewed (Ed note: Having been crucified with Christ, etc),
he hates sin from that very moment. “No,” he says, “I cannot continue
in such evil. If that be the true meaning of every offense against the
law of God — that it would put God Himself out of His own world if it
could — I cannot bear it.” His spirit recoils with horror, as he feels
—
“My sins have pulled the
vengeance down
Upon his guiltless head:
Break, break, my heart, oh burst mine eyes!
And let my sorrows bleed.
Strike, mighty Groom my flinty soul,
Till melting waters flow,
And deep repentance drown mine eyes
In undissembled (genuine) woe.”
Then the believer has also seen in
the death of Christ an amazing instance of the great grace of God; for
if sin be an attempt to murder God — and it is all that — then how
wonderful it is that the creatures who committed this sin were not
destroyed at once. How remarkable that God should consider it worth His
while to devise a plan for their restoration; and yet He did, with
matchless skill, contrive a way which involved the giving up of His
only-begotten and well-beloved Son. Though this was an expense
unequalled, yet He did not withdraw from it. He “so loved the world,
that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him
might not perish, but have everlasting life:” and this for a race of
men who were the enemies of their good and gracious God. “Henceforth,”
saw the believer in Christ, “I can have nothing to do with sin, since
it does despite to so gracious a God. O, thou accursed sin, to drive thy
dagger at the heart of him who was all grace and mercy! This makes sin
to be exceedingly sinful.”...
When we once are filled with love to
thee, O Jesus, sin becomes the dragon against which we wage a lifelong
warfare; holiness becomes our noblest aspiration, and we seek after it
with all our heart and soul and strength. If candid minds will but
honestly consider the religion of Jesus Christ, they will see that
Christian men must hate sin if they are sincere in their faith.
Spurgeon in the
Christian Illustrator wrote the following on Crucifixion of the
flesh...
Crucifixion of the flesh: — Men
who believe in Jesus become purer, holier, better. They are saved from
living as they used to live — saved from licentiousness, dishonesty,
drunkenness, selfishness, and any other sin they may have lived in. They
are different men. There is a change in their heart and soul, conduct
and conversation.
I. THE RECEPTION OF JESUS CHRIST
BY FAITH IS, IN ITSELF, AN AVOWAL THAT WE HAVE CRUCIFIED THE FLESH, WITH
THE AFFECTIONS AND LUSTS.
Christ died in our room and
stead. By faith we regard ourselves as dead with Him.
II. AS A MATTER OF FACT, THE
RECEPTION OF CHRIST IS ATTENDED WITH THE CRUCIFIXION OF SIN.
Every truly converted man is a
proof of this.
III. THE RECEPTION OF JESUS
CHRIST INTO THE HEART BY SIMPLE FAITH IS CALCULATED TO CRUCIFY THE
FLESH.
1. The believer has seen the
evil of sin. It is a deicide — a killing of God.
2. He has seen in the death of
Christ an amazing instance of the great grace of God.
3. He has had a view of the
justice of God.
4. He has seen the amazing love
of Jesus. How, then, can he go on grieving and offending Him?
IV. THE HOLY SPIRIT IS WITH THE
GOSPEL, AND WHERE HE IS HOLINESS MUST BE PROMOTED.
Wherever Jesus Christ is
preached, there is present One sublime in rank and high in degree — the
ever-blessed Spirit of God. He takes of the things of Christ, and shows
them unto men. His power changes the current of men’s desires, making
them crucify the flesh and its affections, and love things holy, just,
and true.
Matthew Henry writes that
although Paul...
...here only mentions the
crucifying of the flesh with the affections and lusts,
as the care and character of real Christians, yet, no doubt, it is also
implied that, on the other hand, we should show forth those fruit of the
Spirit which he had just before been specifying; this is no less our
duty than that, nor is it less necessary to evidence our sincerity in
religion. It is not enough that we cease to do evil, but we must learn
to do well. Our Christianity obliges us not only to die unto sin, but to
live unto righteousness; not only to oppose the works of the flesh, but
to bring forth the fruits of the Spirit too. If therefore we would make
it appear that we do indeed belong to Christ, this must be our sincere
care and endeavour as well as the other; and that it was the design of
the apostle to represent both the one and the other of these as our
duty, and as necessary to support our character as Christians, may be
gathered from what follows where he adds, If we live in the
Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit; that is, "If we profess to
have received the Spirit of Christ, or that we are renewed in the Spirit
of Christ, or that we are renewed in the spirit of our minds, and endued
with a principle of spiritual life, let us make it appear by the proper
fruits of the Spirit in our lives"...
Our conversation (walk,
behavior) will always be answerable to the principle which we are under
the guidance and government of -- as those that are after the flesh do
mind the things of the flesh, so those that are after the Spirit do mind
the things of the Spirit, Ro 8:5
(note).
If therefore we would have it appear that we are Christ’s, and that we
are partakers of His Spirit, it must be by our walking not after the
flesh, but after the spirit. We must set ourselves in good earnest both
to mortify the deeds of the body, and to walk in newness of life.
Kistemaker writes...
Let them therefore be what they
are. Let them be in practice what they are in principle, for in
principle they had crucified their old human nature, together with its
sinful yearnings, whether these be viewed more passively as passions
(probably the evil promptings working within their subconsciousness) or
actively as desires (the wicked cravings which they consciously support
and enliven). Because of the supreme importance of living a consistent
Christian life, that is, of being in practice what one is already in
principle, this thought is now rephrased as (Galatians 5:25) (Hendriksen,
W., & Kistemaker, S. J. NT Commentary Set. Exposition of Galatians Baker
Book or
Logos)
Norman Harrison
adds...
What a portrait of a Christian! In
His crucifixion for me Christ included my flesh-life -- not merely the
sins but the sin principle (Ed: Virtually every mention of the
word "sin" in Romans 6 and Romans 7 refers to the "sin principle" - see
Sin principle).
This is true of every believer. "Knowing this, that our old man is
crucified with" Christ (Ro 6:6). Insert the word "jointly" to get the
full force of the Greek. Our old self-life was on the Cross with
Christ, jointly dealt with in His death to sin. To His Cross He took my
temper, my passions, my tendency to evil. Thus Christ accomplished a
victory for me over every moving, every prompting of my flesh-life.
This is simply wonderful. But if I say on Our Side of the cross the
flesh still lives and appeals. Failing to enter into His victory I must
do the best the "I" can. But life on His Side of the cross is totally
different. Here the Spirit is constantly checking out for me the values
of this accomplished victory of self-crucifixion. I'm not doing it; He
is doing it. My responsibility, since I "live in the Spirit," is to
"also walk in the Spirit" (Gal 5:25). If I give expression to Him
momentarily He will momentarily see to it that I do not "fulfill the
lust of the flesh." CHRIST's victory for me is now the Spirit's victory
in me. (Galatians 5:16ff Spirit versus Flesh)
Wycliffe Bible Commentary
merges the two interpretations of
Galatians 5:24 writing that......
Those who are truly Christ’s
must be like Him in that they participate in His cross. They have
crucified the flesh. Ideally, this points to their identification with
Christ in His death (Gal 2:20). Practically, it emphasizes, the need of
carrying the Cross principle into the redeemed life, since the flesh,
with its affections and desires is still an ever present reality (cf.
Gal 5:16, 17). (Pfeiffer,
C F: Wycliffe Bible Commentary. 1981. Moody
or
Logos)
THE SECOND INTERPRETATION OF
"HAVE CRUCIFIED THE FLESH"
The second interpretation (which I
personally do not favor) calls for
believer to work out their salvation by denying self and taking up their
cross as the practical outworking of the fact that the flesh of
believers has been crucified. Below are several authors who favor this
interpretation.
The highly respected expositor
John Stott interprets Galatians 5:24 to mean that
We must crucify the flesh...This
verse is frequently misunderstood. Please notice that the ‘crucifixion’
of the flesh described here is something that is done not to us
but by us. It is we ourselves who are said to ‘have crucified the
flesh’.
Perhaps I can best expose the
popular misconception by saying that Galatians 5:24 does not teach the
same truth as Galatians 2:20 or Romans 6:6. In those verses we are told
that by faith-union with Christ we have been crucified with Him.
But here it is we who have taken action. We ‘have crucified’ our old
nature. It is not now a ‘dying’ which we have experienced through
union with Christ; it is rather a deliberate ‘putting to death’.
What does it mean? Paul borrows
the image of crucifixion, of course, from Christ Himself who said:
If any man would come after Me,
let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow Me (Mk. 8:34)
To ‘take up the cross’
was our Lord’s vivid figure of speech for self-denial. Every follower of
Christ is to behave like a condemned criminal and carry his cross to the
place of execution. Now Paul takes the metaphor to its logical
conclusion. We must not only take up our cross and walk with it, but
actually see that the execution takes place. We are actually to take the
flesh, our willful and wayward self, and (metaphorically speaking) nail
it to the cross. This is Paul’s graphic description of repentance, of
turning our back on the old life of selfishness and sin, repudiating it
finally and utterly...
The Greek verb is in the
aorist tense,
indicating that this is something we did decisively at the moment of
conversion. When we came to Jesus Christ, we repented. We ‘crucified’
everything we knew to be wrong. We took our old self-centred nature,
with all its sinful passions and desires, and nailed it to the cross.
And this repentance of ours was decisive, as decisive as a crucifixion.
So, Paul says, if we crucified the flesh, we must leave it there to die.
We must renew every day this attitude towards sin of ruthless and
uncompromising rejection. In the language of Jesus, as Luke records it,
every Christian must take up his cross daily (Luke 9:23).
(Stott, J. R. W. The Message of Galatians: Only one way. Leicester,
England; Downer's Grove, Ill., U.S.A.: Inter-Varsity Press)
George explains that
Galatians 5:24...
and the one that follows it
serve as a dual conclusion to Paul’s two catalogs of vices and virtues.
If the Christian life is a continuous tug-of-war between the flesh and
the Spirit, are not believers consigned to a spiritually meager
existence of perpetual defeat and minimal growth? In these verses Paul
asserted the sufficiency of the Spirit to deal with the flesh by
pointing the way to Christian victory. That way is the path of
sanctification Paul described here in terms of the dual process of
mortification, daily dying to the flesh, and vivification, continuous
growth in grace through the new life of the Spirit.
Many commentators interpret
these verses in terms of Paul’s earlier testimony of having been
crucified with Christ and made alive through faith (2:20). The language
in these two passages is strikingly similar, but there is a noticeable
difference in meaning. In Gal 2:20 the verb is passive, “I have been
crucified with Christ.” This refers to a past act, a fait accompli,
something done to the Christian and for the Christian by someone else.
We have been crucified with Christ in that he died in our place on the
cross and on the basis of which we are declared righteous by God through
faith. In 5:24, however, the passive voice has given way to an active
construction. Crucifixion of the flesh is described here not as
something done to us but rather something done by us. Believers
themselves are the agents of this crucifixion. Paul was here describing
the process of mortification, the daily putting to death of the flesh
through the disciplines of prayer, fasting, repentance, and
self-control.
The basic demand of Christian
discipleship is that we take up our cross daily and follow Christ (Luke
9:23). Paul stretched this metaphor further by saying that “we must not
only take up our cross and walk with it, but actually see that the
execution takes place.” The mortifying work of self-crucifixion is a
continuous, lifelong process, for this side of heaven we dwell in mortal
bodies and are bound by inordinate desires. J. Brown describes the
continual putting to death of the flesh with all its sinful passions and
desires in this way:
“Crucifixion … produced death
not suddenly but gradually. … True Christians do not succeed in
completely destroying it (that is the flesh) while here below; but they
have fixed it to the cross and they are determined to keep it there till
it expires.”
This verse tells us that there
is no shortcut to spiritual victory in the life of the Christian. No
second blessing, or rededication, or spiritual quick-fix can take the
place of consistent, obedient, vigilant renunciation of the world and
mortification of the flesh. (George, T. Galatians: The New American
Commentary. Nashville: Broadman & Holman Publishers)
Guzik explains that
crucifixion in this context
...is not, the sovereign,
“unilateral” work of God. It is something that the believer does,
being directed and empowered by the Spirit of God.
The
Old Man,
the self inherited from Adam, is crucified with Jesus as the sovereign
work of God when we are born again.
Romans 6:6
says, Knowing this, that our old man was crucified with Him. We are
simply told to reckon, or account, the old man as dead (see note
Romans 6:11),
we are not told to put him to death. But the flesh is another matter. We
are called to choose to work with God to do to the flesh exactly what
God did all by Himself to the old man: crucify the flesh.
When Christ came in the flesh,
we crucified him; when he comes into our hearts, he crucifies us.
(Trapp)
James Montgomery Boice
explains that in Galatians 5:24 Paul...
reminds his readers that when
they came to Christ, they repented fully of the works of the flesh and
indeed turned their backs on them forever. This act they must sustain.
In speaking of this radical repentance, Paul uses the vivid image of
crucifixion. This is an image he has used in other places; it was a
favorite with him. But here he uses it in a slightly different way from
the way he used it in Romans 6:6 or Galatians 2:20, for example. In
these other instances, the verb is in the
passive voice
("was crucified," "have been crucified"), and the reference is to what
has been done for the believer as a result of Christ's death.
But in this passage the verb is
in the
active voice
("have crucified") and points rather to what the believer has himself
done and must continue to regard as being done. The proper term to
describe this act is repentance. Thus the believer in Christ has already
repented of his former way of life to the degree of actually having
executed the old nature. This does not mean that the battle is thereby
over forever. As in an actual crucifixion, life lingers even though the
criminal has been nailed to the cross. Nevertheless, the believer is to
regard the decisive act as having been done. He is not to seek to remove
from the cross what has once been nailed there. (Gaebelein,
F, Editor: Expositor's Bible Commentary 6-Volume New Testament.
Zondervan Publishing)
Burton agrees writing
that crucifixion in this verse...
suggests that it is the death of
Jesus on the cross which has impelled us to slay the power within us
that makes for unrighteousness. Cf. Ro 6:6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11 and Galatians 2:20, where,
however, a somewhat different use is made of the figure of crucifixion.
(Burton, E. D. W. A Critical and Exegetical Commentary on the Epistle to
the Galatians. Page 320. New York: C. Scribner's Sons. 1920)
Barton addresses the
question of how a believer "crucifies" the flesh...
1. Belong to Christ. The process
begins when we recognize our old self as crucified with Christ in the
historical sacrifice at Calvary. We personalize Christ’s death: If he
died for sinners, then He died for me. He is Lord of my life. I belong
to Him.
2. Crucify our sinful desires.
We treat our self-centered ego as dead and unresponsive to sin, while at
the same time we foster our new life of fellowship with Christ (see note
Colossians 3:3).
We have exchanged a self-centered life for a Christ-centered life. We
restrain our sinful desires by relying on the words of Christ, example
of Christ, and love of Christ.
3. Live by the Spirit. As we
have been joined with Christ in his death, we have risen with him to a
new life (Galatians 2:20, 21). We have the Holy Spirit’s power to live
each day as he produces His fruit in us.
4. Keep in step with the Spirit.
We don’t have to keep recrucifying the old self. That was done once for
all when we trusted Christ (Romans 6:3, 4, 5, 6). But we must restrain our
sinful desires (Ed note: And this is possible only in the power
of the Spirit and the grace in which we stand! Just try to pull this off
in your own strength!). We must continuously
harmonize our life with the Spirit’s guidance and actively pursue His
interests.
Like a real crucifixion, the
death of our sinful human desires is slow and painful…and lifelong. In
many ways, our sinful human desires may need to be “recrucified” daily (Ed:
I'm not sure I agree with this -- it sounds like too much of what "I"
must do and not enough of what "He" has already done! Very subtle!).
But the picture conveyed by this “crucifixion of the flesh” shows us
that God has broken the power of sin at work in our body. That remains a
fact even when it may not feel that way to us. We need no longer live
under sin’s power or control. God does not take us out of the world or
make us robots; we will still experience the temptation to sin, and
sometimes we will sin. Before we were saved, we were slaves to our
sinful desires, but now we can freely choose to live for Christ (see
also Col 2:11; Col 3:9). (The
Life Application Bible Commentary New Testament)
Martin Luther also favors
the second view writing...
True believers are no
hypocrites. Therefore, let no man deceive himself; for whoever belongs
to Christ has crucified the flesh with all the vices and lusts thereof.
For the saints are inclined to sin, and do neither fear nor love God so
perfectly as they ought to do. They are provoked to anger, to envy, to
impatience, to carnal lust, and such emotions, but they do not yield to
them because they crucify the flesh with all the passions and
vices thereof. (Ed: How can frail men "crucify" the flesh?) They do this... when they walk according to the Spirit;
that is, when they, being armed with the Word of God, with faith and
with prayer, do not obey the lusts of the flesh.
When they resist the flesh, they nail
it to the Cross with the affections and desires thereof, so that
although the flesh is yet alive, yet can it not perform that which it
would do, forasmuch as it is bound both hand and foot, and fast nailed
to the Cross. The faithful then so long as they live here crucify the
flesh; that is to say, they feel the lusts thereof, but they obey
them not (Ed: Empowered by the Spirit!). (Luther,
M.. Commentary on Galatians)
Crucified
(4717)
(stauroo
from stauros = cross, an instrument of capital punishment; an
upright pointed stake often intersected by a crossbeam) according to
Thayer has 2 primary literal meanings (1) to stake or drive down stakes
or (2) to fortify with driven stakes. It means to nail or otherwise fix
or fasten someone to a cross and so to crucify them. See study of
related verb
sustauroo.
Stauroo is used figuratively in this verse in Galatians as well
as in Galatians 6:14. In these figurative uses, stauroo speaks of
the destruction of the flesh nature by virtue of the believer's
co-crucifixion with Christ.
TDNT writes that...
The Persians seem to have
invented this form of execution. Alexander the Great and his successors
use it, and then the Romans, although not officially for citizens.
Josephus mentions mass crucifixions of rebels in Judea.
The condemned person carries the
cross-beam to the place of execution, is fastened to it with ropes or
nails, and is then hoisted on the stake, which is already erected. About
the middle of the post a wooden block supports the suspended body. The
height of the cross varies. A tablet hung around the victim states the
cause of execution, and this is then affixed to the cross. Scourging
often precedes crucifixion and the victim is exposed to mockery.
Crucifixion takes place publicly, and the body may be left to rot on the
cross. The death is extremely slow and agonizing. Constantine ends this
form of punishment.
Jewish law does not impose crucifixion. Persons stoned are hanged on
trees to show that they die accursed by God. Judaism applies this
principle to those who are crucified. (Kittel,
G., Friedrich, G., & Bromiley, G. W. Theological Dictionary of the New
Testament. Eerdmans)
For more discussion of the history
of crucifixion the reader is referred to the dictionary articles on
(1)
Crucifixion
or (2)
Cross
or (3)
Cross, Crucifixion in Baker's Evangelical
Dictionary of Biblical Theology
Stauroo is used 44 times in
the NT and twice in the Septuagint...
Esther 7:9 Then Harbonah,
one of the eunuchs who were before the king said, "Behold indeed, the
gallows standing at Haman's house fifty cubits high, which Haman made
for Mordecai who spoke good on behalf of the king!" And the king said, "Hang
him on it." (also in Esther 8:12).
Matthew 20:19 and will
deliver Him to the Gentiles to mock and scourge and crucify Him,
and on the third day He will be raised up."
Matthew 23:34 "Therefore,
behold, I am sending you prophets and wise men and scribes; some of them
you will kill and crucify, and some of them you will scourge in
your synagogues, and persecute from city to city,
Matthew 26:2 "You know
that after two days the Passover is coming, and the Son of Man is to be
delivered up for crucifixion."
Matthew 27:22 Pilate said
to them, "Then what shall I do with Jesus who is called Christ?" They
all said, "Let Him be crucified!"
Matthew 27:23 And he
said, "Why, what evil has He done?" But they kept shouting all the more,
saying, "Let Him be crucified!"
Matthew 27:26 Then he
released Barabbas for them; but after having Jesus scourged, he
delivered Him to be crucified.
Matthew 27:31 And after
they had mocked Him, they took His robe off and put His garments on Him,
and led Him away to crucify Him.
Matthew 27:35 And when
they had crucified Him, they divided up His garments among
themselves, casting lots;
Matthew 27:38 At that
time two robbers were crucified with Him, one on the right and one on
the left.
Matthew 28:5 And the
angel answered and said to the women, "Do not be afraid; for I know that
you are looking for Jesus who has been crucified.
Mark 15:13 And they
shouted back, "Crucify Him!"
Mark 15:14 But Pilate was
saying to them, "Why, what evil has He done?" But they shouted all the
more, "Crucify Him!"
Mark 15:15 And wishing to
satisfy the multitude, Pilate released Barabbas for them, and after
having Jesus scourged, he delivered Him to be crucified.
Mark 15:20 And after they
had mocked Him, they took the purple off Him, and put His garments on
Him. And they led Him out to crucify Him.
Mark 15:24 And they
crucified Him, and divided up His garments among themselves, casting
lots for them, to decide what each should take.
Mark 15:25 And it was the
third hour when they crucified Him.
Mark 15:27 And they
crucified two robbers with Him, one on His right and one on His
left.
Mark 16:6 And he said to
them, "Do not be amazed; you are looking for Jesus the Nazarene, who has
been crucified. He has risen; He is not here; behold, here is the
place where they laid Him.
Luke 23:21 but they kept
on calling out, saying, "Crucify, crucify Him!"
Luke 23:23 But they were
insistent, with loud voices asking that He be crucified. And
their voices began to prevail.
Luke 23:33 And when they
came to the place called The Skull, there they crucified Him and
the criminals, one on the right and the other on the left.
Luke 24:7 saying that the
Son of Man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men, and be
crucified, and the third day rise again."
Luke 24:20 and how the
chief priests and our rulers delivered Him up to the sentence of death,
and crucified Him.
John 19:6 When therefore
the chief priests and the officers saw Him, they cried out, saying, "Crucify,
crucify!" Pilate said to them, "Take Him yourselves, and
crucify Him, for I find no guilt in Him."
John 19:10 Pilate
therefore said to Him, "You do not speak to me? Do You not know that I
have authority to release You, and I have authority to crucify
You?"
John 19:15 They therefore
cried out, "Away with Him, away with Him, crucify Him!" Pilate said to
them, "Shall I crucify your King?" The chief priests answered,
"We have no king but Caesar."
John 19:16 So he then
delivered Him to them to be crucified.
John 19:18 There they
crucified Him, and with Him two other men, one on either side, and
Jesus in between.
John 19:20 Therefore this
inscription many of the Jews read, for the place where Jesus was
crucified was near the city; and it was written in Hebrew, Latin,
and in Greek.
John 19:23 The soldiers
therefore, when they had crucified Jesus, took His outer garments
and made four parts, a part to every soldier and also the tunic; now the
tunic was seamless, woven in one piece.
John 19:41 Now in the
place where He was crucified there was a garden; and in the
garden a new tomb, in which no one had yet been laid.
Acts 2:36 "Therefore let
all the house of Israel know for certain that God has made Him both Lord
and Christ-- this Jesus whom you crucified."
Acts 4:10 let it be known
to all of you, and to all the people of Israel, that by the name of
Jesus Christ the Nazarene, Whom you crucified, whom God raised
from the dead-- by this name this man stands here before you in good
health.
1 Corinthians 1:13 Has
Christ been divided? Paul was not crucified for you, was he? Or
were you baptized in the name of Paul?
1 Corinthians 1:23 but we
preach Christ crucified, to Jews a stumbling block, and to
Gentiles foolishness,
1 Corinthians 2:2 For I
determined to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ, and Him
crucified.
1 Corinthians 2:8 the
wisdom which none of the rulers of this age has understood; for if they
had understood it, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory;
2 Corinthians 13:4 For
indeed He was crucified because of weakness, yet He lives because
of the power of God. For we also are weak in Him, yet we shall live with
Him because of the power of God directed toward you.
Galatians 3:1 You foolish
Galatians, who has bewitched you, before whose eyes Jesus Christ was
publicly portrayed as crucified?
Galatians 5:24
Now those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh
with its passions and desires.
Galatians 6:14 But may it
never be that I should boast, except in the cross of our Lord Jesus
Christ, through which the world has been crucified (perfect
tense
= happened at a point in time in the past - when Paul was crucified with
Christ and that was appropriated by faith. But the perfect tense means
that Paul [and every believer] stands permanently crucified with Christ
and this will be our status before God eternally) to me, and I to the
world. 15 For (explains how he now can boast only in the Cross) neither
is circumcision anything, nor uncircumcision, but a new creation (this
is why he can boast only in the Cross - he is a new creation in Christ.
In a sense Paul doesn’t live anymore. Christ lives through him as he
describes in
Galatians 2:20 [note])
Comment:
When something is crucified it is despised and scorned, and that in
essence is what happened to the world in Paul's mind when he met Christ
by grace through faith.
The believer by virtue of his or her
inseparable union to the Lord Jesus has died on the Cross and has no
regard for the kind of life that belongs to this world. This does not
mean that Christians are free of the influence of the world, but it does
mean that believers are no longer subject to bondage to the world
system. Practically speaking, the greater the cross looks to us as
believers, the less the world can lure us and seduce us. Beloved, let us
meditate deeply on the old rugged Cross, so that we might enjoy
experientially the freedom from the world system that we have
positionally.
I think Grant Richison (ref)
is correct when he says that "When our soul feeds on the cross, it
closes down our heart for the world. The more our heart feeds on the
world, the less our hearts care about the cross."
John Piper explains that "What the
world meant to Paul before meeting Christ died on that day. And the Paul
that loved the world more than Christ died on that day. A new
Paul—believing Christ, trusting Christ, loving Christ, treasuring
Christ, honoring Christ—was born (or created) on that day.
That is what it means to become a Christian." see his sermon
Class, Culture and Ethnic Identity in
Christ)
(C H Spurgeon's 3 sermons on Galatians 6:14 - [1]
Three Crosses - Pdf;
[2]
The Cross our Glory - Pdf;
[3]
Grand Glorying)
Revelation 11:8 (note)
And their dead bodies will lie in the street of the great city which
mystically is called Sodom and Egypt, where also their Lord was
crucified.
Flesh
(4561)
(sarx)
literally refers to the physical body ("flesh and blood") but Paul's use
here in Galatians 5 is figurative (as are most of his uses) and refers to a moral outlook which
is orientated toward self, is
prone to commit sin, is opposed to God and which incessantly
seeks its own ends. Flesh
is the urge within us toward total autonomy (self-directing freedom
and especially moral independence). Flesh is our unredeemed humanness
which is still even a part of every believer and which will remain with us until we
receive our glorified body.
The flesh with its passions and
desires - It is as though these passions and desires were
dead for believers, and have no power over us, unless we choose to walk
according to the flesh and thereby "energize" them! Therefore, spiritual
conflict is a certainty, spiritual perfection an impossibility,
spiritual victory a reality (which we can enter into by keeping in set
with the Spirit).
Passions
(3804)
(pathema)
describes what happens to a
person and must be endured, here referring not to suffering as in most
NT uses (14/16 = suffering) but to impulses as those strong inward
inflamed, aroused emotions that drive an individual. Passions are intense, driving, or
overmastering feelings that compel one to action. Passions are emotions
which are deeply stirring and/or ungovernable (or barely controllable).
The essence of both passions
and desires (of fleshly origin) is that both seek self
gratification independent of God.
Lightfoot comments that...
The two words are chiefly
distinguished as presenting vice on its passive and its active side
respectively. (St. Paul's Epistle to the Galatians)
Eadie agrees writing that
passions...
are mental states more passive in
character, and epithumia are desires more active in
pursuit (Eadie,
John: Epistle of St Paul to the Galatians)
Desires (1939)
(epithumia
from
epi = at, toward {the
preposition "epi-" in the compound is directive conveying the picture of
"having one’s passion toward" } + thumos = passion. The root verb
epithumeo = set heart upon) is a neutral term denoting the
presence of strong desires or impulses, longings or passionate craving
(whether it is good or evil is determined by the
context) directed toward an object. (Click
article in ISBE)
Desires (lusts - epithumia)
have several very instructive epithets...
Evil
desire (Col 3:5-note)
- their character
Fleshy
lusts (1Pe 2:11-note)
- their source
Lusts of
deceit (Ep 4:22-note)
- there subtlety
Corruption...by
lust (Lit. "desire of corruption" - 2Pe 1:4-note)
- their effect
Desires
occur in our mind and are not physical actions per se although they may
(and frequently do) lead to physical actions. Thus James warns us of the
evil character of desires (he refers to them as lusts) writing
that
each one
is tempted when he is carried away and enticed by his own lust.
Then when lust has conceived, it gives birth to sin and
when sin is accomplished, it brings forth death. (James
1:14-15)
Desires
denote the varied cravings of fallen human nature pursued in the
interest of self in self-sufficient independence of God. Oswald Chambers
wrote that
"Love can wait and worship
endlessly; lust says, "I must have it at once."
Steve Zeisler adds that...
What Paul is saying, finally, is,
"Despite the reality of the conflict, despite the fact that every day
the flesh wants to overthrow us while the Spirit woos us to follow
him--and we need to be disciplined and thorough in following
him--despite all that the fight is not fair. The outcome has been
determined already. If you truly belong to Christ you cannot lose this
fight. If you belong to Christ Jesus, 'the flesh has been crucified with
its passions and desires.'" The great, powerful hooks by which the flesh
holds us-- the strong passions, the ownership it once exerted over
us--has been crucified. We are no longer, essentially, in the inner man,
fleshly. We are new creatures in Christ. Our destiny is not an open
question.
Our destiny is to be with the Lord. If we belong to him, the magnificent
sacrifice of Jesus Christ is ours as well. The flesh has been crucified;
the war has been won. But it is still a fight, a fight that is going to
last all our lives because, although the flesh has been crucified, it
has not been eradicated; and it will not be eradicated until we are
given new bodies, new histories to begin.
So the fight remains. We are called on to take this conflict seriously:
to learn to follow the Spirit, to serve one another through love, to lay
down our lives for love's sake for each other, to walk by the Spirit day
in and day out in the little things as well as the big things, to be
ruthless in our estimations of what is happening. Is the flesh producing
its death or is the Spirit producing its fruit? Having said all that, we
live with confidence. The victory over evil was accomplished on the
Cross. The Lord died for us and He was raised again to life, and those
who belong to Jesus have crucified the flesh. We are now free to fight
the good fight, to get on about the business of living with the
conflict, not foolishly, but filled with hope, in serious and wise
concern for each other. (See his entire sermon
Fight
the Good Fight)
