Galatians 5:24
24 And [de] they that are [ho] Christ's [Christos] have
crucified [stauroo] the flesh [sarx] with [sun] the affections [pathema] and [kai] lusts [epithumia]. KJV-Interlinear
24 Now those who belong to Christ
Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. NASB
The single thought, ‘Father, I believe in Jesus
Christ,’ is how you are saved, and simultaneously entered into the family of
God. Belonging to Christ, is a phrase
that identifies all Christians, or all people who have believed in Christ.
At the very moment that you believed, your entire life
was transformed as many, many things occurred in your favor. Even though you did not realize it at the
time, and probably still do not fully understand all of the changes, God in His
infinite wisdom and power and plan, caused changes, in and for you, that will
never be taken away from you.
And here is one of those changes.
The flesh, or the power of the carnal life, or as
it is more often called, the sin nature, which had total and complete control
over your life as an unbeliever, no longer has that control.
The destiny of the sin nature is eternal
condemnation. That destiny, in Christ,
is now gone, cancelled, removed forever from you, and now you have eternal
life, or life with God in heaven forever.
The crucifixion of the flesh is a phrase that means
that you are now free from the chains with which it once had hold over you.
As an unbeliever, you are unsaved and lost to the
Lake of Fire forever, which is a life separated from God and therefore
separated from the only one who can hold life and all that exists,
together. You as a person cannot hold
anything together, and certainly not this planet or this universe. Only God can do that. And when you are turned loose in the
hereafter, without God, then you will be totally on your own and alone and
helpless and powerless, and terror, extreme terror and worse, will be your only
companion.
But as a believer in Christ, that fearful future is
no longer a threat. Eternal life with
God in heaven where all things are really good and better, is far more
preferable.
But there is much, much more to this.
The flesh or the sin nature, is the environment of
living your life outside of Gods will.
The spirit, or the spiritual life, is the
environment of living your life inside of Gods will.
In the sin nature you gain nothing. In the spirit, you gain everything and more.
The affections and lusts, refer to all of the passions
and desires and drives of the sin nature, but more than that, it speaks of the
ultimate outcome of those drives, which is a failed life.
This does not mean that you cannot turn back to
this lifestyle and ruin your own life.
For you certainly can do that.
That is where confession and your daily study and the development of your
spiritual life, or lack of it, come into play.
But, what you cannot do, is destroy your salvation,
or undo it as though it never occurred.
Once saved, always saved. And no matter how much of a worthless person
you try to be in life, your salvation will always be there.
Jesus Christ went to the Cross to pay the penalty
of sin and death, and that has been accomplished. Paid in full.
No one and nothing can re-issue a debt or another debt for sin. It was paid off.
And so too, when you believed in Christ, then you
in effect received a receipt for that paid debt and now you are no longer
obligated for the repercussions of sin and death. You in effect crucified, or obliterated, that
debt with regard to your life through your faith in Christ.
So, do not live under the rules of the sin nature,
but live under the rules of the spirit, because the sin nature gives you
nothing, while the spirit gives you everything.
And living under the rules of the spirit is very
simple. Confess to obtain the fellowship
sphere of life and study and learn and use doctrine every moment of every day
of your life.
