The New Life: Galatians 5:24-25
“24) Now those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. 25) If we live by the Spirit, let us also walk by the Spirit.” Galatians 5:24-25
Verse 24 often gets skipped over because it is attached to the end of the list of the fruit of the Spirit. Paul states that “those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.”
This sounds a lot like Galatians 2:20 where Paul said “I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life that I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me, and delivered Himself up for me.”
We now discover that the word “flesh” has two meanings. The first in Galatians 2:20 relates to living in a physical body. The second in Galatians 5:24 relates to our sin nature or the power sin has over our lives.
Paul was saying that those who belong to Christ have been freed from the power of sin. Christians are no longer slaves to sin. Our daily experience needs to catch up with this truth of theology.
The battle is real. Practical victory in our lives is only possible as we learn to walk by grace, by faith and by the Holy Spirit. This is the only way to die to our fleshly passions and desires.
Those four rhetorical questions from Galatians 3:2-5 suddenly become very relevant to this discussion. You cannot lean on your flesh to carry you through the vally of temptation. It is the Holy Spirit who gives strength for the battle. Your flesh will fail you when temptation presses in like a flood.
Walking by the Spirit is not optional. If you want to embrace your fulness “in Christ”, you better embrace the ministry of the Holy Spirit. You will never win the inner war apart from His intervention in your life. Verse 25 says, “If we live by the Spirit, let us also walk by the Spirit.” Our new life “in Christ” is based on the ministry of the Holy Spirit.
Daily Bible Commentary By Terry Baxter: Cofounder of GoServ Global
