CRUCIFYING THE FLESH
Gal. 5:24 Now those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified their lower corrupt nature with its passions and appetites.
(Rom 8:13) For if you live after the flesh, you shall die: but if you through the Spirit do mortify(put to death) the deeds of the body, you shall live.
"They that are of Christ Jesus"; they that belong to Christ Jesus; being "led by (His) Spirit"
(Gal. 5:18). have crucified the flesh-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)(Gal. 2:20) 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)
We are to be executioners, dealing cruelly with the body of sin, which has caused the acting of all cruelties on Christ's body. with the affections-"with its passions." Thus they are dead to the law's condemning power, which is only for the fleshly, and their lusts (Gal. 5:23).
*Reckon (makeup your minds)yourselves dead to sin and alive to Christ. Rom. 6:11
*Stop responding to what you see: lust of the eye, lust of the flesh, pride of life.
*Make no provision to gratify lust: Romans 13:14 says, "But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to fulfill its lusts." If we make just a small provision for the lust, it will rule over our body (Romans 6:12). If we don't make the provision, sin is less likely to occur.
*Acknowledge God's ownership of your body: God paid a high price for you. He sent His own Son to die in your place. We are obligated to live according to God's desires and not sin's desires. *Let Christ live and reign in your body. 1 Corinthians 6:13
*It takes time.(1 Peter 4:1-2 ). Crucifixion is a slow, painful death. When we crucify our sinful desires; IT IS A PROCESS.
*Get your mind off yourself. Use your freedom to serve others in love. Serving others in love IS (becoming a living sacrifice)
*The solution to the flesh problem, is not trying not to sin. But rather living in service. Christianity is not about trying not to commit sin, but rather about becoming a living sacrifice. Paul talks about this in Romans 7. Whenever he tried not to covet, that activated the law of his members (the flesh) and caused him to do exactly what he intended not to. Trying not to sin activates the flesh, perhaps because it puts the focus on ourselves. Trying to serve others deactivates the flesh, perhaps because it takes the emphasis away from ourselves.
*Quit seeing yourself as a sinner, but the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus; become more righteousness conscious instead of sin conscious.
Romans 6:6 knowing this, that our old self was crucified with Him, in order that our body of sin might be done away with, so that we would no longer be slaves to sin;
Galatians 2:20 "I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself up for me.
Galatians 3:26 For you are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus.
Galatians 5:16 But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not carry out the desire of the flesh.
Galatians 6:14 But may it never be that I would boast, except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world.
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