Crucified With Christ

CRUCIFIED WITH JESUS

MAIN TEXT: GALATIANS 5:24

“And they that are Christ’s have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts”.

GALATIANS 2:20

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.

Now those who belong to Christ have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. Matthew 16:24 says, “Then Jesus said to His disciples, if anyone wishes to come after me, he must deny himself, and take up his cross and follow me”.

The flesh wages war against the spirit, while the spirit is against the flesh. We must crucify the flesh or die spiritually; the two cannot work together. We must be spiritually minded, thereby crucifying the desires, and passions of the flesh. Christians are like spiritual gladiators who must fight the sinful nature till their death.

Dying to self, or crucifying the flesh, or sinful nature, entails not being controlled by the flesh and its desires. The flesh will always go contrary to the spirit. What the flesh desires will always go against the spirit. The spirit will desire to do the works of God to please God e.g. pray, fast, do works of righteousness, while the flesh will want to please the worldly desires and its passion. When we allow the spirit of God to control our lives in every ramification, we will not be controlled by the flesh, thereby crucifying the flesh and living for the spirit to please God.

LIVE TO PLEASE GOD BY CRUCIFYING THE FLESH TODAY.

SCRIPTURAL REFERENCES: ROMANS 6:5-14, MATTHEW 16:24.