Crucifying the Flesh

Not giving in to sinful desires is hard. Paul called this crucifying the flesh. This daily devotional looks at how the Holy Spirit uses fruits of the Spirit to change and reward us so that we can be totally submitted to God.

Nuggets

  • The fruits of the Spirit are a measure of our growth.
  • Being crucified with Christ is the evidence of our walking in the Spirit.
  • We must totally submit to God.

Devotions in the Never Alone: The Holy Spirit in Our Lives series

We’ve talked about the fruits of the Spirit being the rewards of living godly lives. They are also the elements of that godly life.

Unfortunately, living a godly life isn’t always easy. Satan wants to try to get us to give into our sinful desires.

Fortunately, we have the Holy Spirit walking with us to guide us to where God wants us to be. Let’s take a look at what Paul said here.

Let's Put It into Context #1

Here is a running list of nuggets for the series.

Let's Put It into Context #2

We have looked at this passage of verses a couple of times – and in depth.

To read a related devotion, click the appropriate button below.

Fruits of the Spirit

“But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law” (Gal. 5: 22-23 ESV)

The fruits of the Spirit are a measure of our growth.

Bayley argued that it may not be as easy to see the fruit of the Spirit as it is the works of the flesh. I can see that.

Remember, we’ve talked about how the Scriptures are just an introduction to God. God doesn’t reveal Himself totally to those who are not His children. He reveals Himself to us after we ABCD.

Resource

Glossary

The fruits of the Spirit come from the Holy Spirit. I know. It is in the name. Duh.

We usually see the fruits of the Spirit as rewards for being righteous. And they are.

But also, they are the character traits that we need to work on to be more like God. Why do I say this?

Bayley told us that these characteristics must be present in every disciple. Yeah, we may differ in what there is within us, but we each have to have love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control within us.

How can we be a child of God if we have no faithfulness within us? Or love? Or self-control?

These fruits are important. Washburn wrote, “He tells us here what a spiritual life in Christ means, a life that has its ripe fruit in these real virtues of the man. It is no exact classification of the religious graces, but we may find an inward harmony, as if he thought of them as following a law of personal growth.”

Resource

The fruits of the Spirit show us that God is working within us.

The fruits of the Spirit show us that God is working within us.

Crucifying the Flesh

“And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires” (Gal. 5: 24 ESV)

Being crucified with Christ is the evidence of our walking in the Spirit.

Being crucified with Christ can be difficult for some to understand. Really, it is an easy concept.

We are crucified with Christ when we are successful at overcoming sinful desires. We commit to that at conversion. We consider ourselves dead to sin.

No, that isn’t easy. It is only through the grace of God that we can do that.

Unfortunately, sin isn’t kicked out entirely upon conversion. We still commit internal and external sins.

The end goal of regeneration is mortify our sins. It is going to be a gradual process to fully accomplish that. This process is called sanctification.

Regeneration is being changed from spiritually dead to spiritually alive and the internal new birth and requickening that God brings about through the work of the Holy Spirit to give us new character.
Mortify means to place a death penalty on our sins.
Sanctification is the transformation of mind, body, and soul, which begins with regeneration; gradually changes our nature and morals through the promptings of the Holy Spirit; and ends with perfected state of spiritual wholeness or completeness. 

  • Spiritual death is the separation from God that occurred as a consequence of Adam and Eve’s original sin.
    • The spiritually alive are those who have ABCDed, so they are no longer separated from God.
  • Perfection means we reach a state of maturity because the combination of the spiritual graces form, when all are present, spiritual wholeness or completeness — holy, sanctified, and righteous.
    • Spiritual graces are worldly morals that have been submitted to God to further His kingdom instead of enhancing this world.
    • Sanctified means to be set free from sin.
    • Righteous means we are free from sin because we are following God’s moral laws.

The ABCDs of Salvation

If you have not become a believer in Christ, please read through the
Plan of Salvation and prayerfully consider what God is asking you to do.

A – admit our sins
B – believe His Son Jesus is our Redeemer
C – confess God as Sovereign Lord

D – demonstrate that commitment by making any changes needed in our lives to
live the way in which God has called us

The Disciple’s Job Description

Glossary

Yes, we are to sentence our sins to the death penalty. But not a humane execution like we do these days.

We are to violently kill them.

Remember, it says crucify. That was a hard, shameful, painful death.

Oh, yeah. That will be painful.

Our motivation should be to live as Christ did. His motivation was to honor His Father.

So, that should be our motivation, too – to honor God.

Elaine-speak for something else Gisborne said. Our previous spiritual tests that showed our faith in Jesus have been drawn from whom we follow and our interactions with mankind. Yes, that is the two greatest commandments.

Glossary

We must have the greatest commandments as the foundation of our faith. From there, we determine the path of our unguided thoughts. Do we think of God or sinful desires?

This goes next to what Paul told the Philippians. “And this is my prayer: that your love may abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight, so that you may be able to discern what is best and may be pure and blameless for the day of Christ, filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ — to the glory and praise of God” (Phil. 1: 9-11 NIV).

  • Discernment means we can evaluate the situation and recognize right from wrong. 
  • Pure means not being sinful or having the stain of sin. 
  • Righteousness is the indwelling goodness that is the result of a solid relationship with God built by a sincere life of conscientious obedience to God’s laws and commandments and from which all virtues flow.
  • We glorify God when we use what we learn from seeking Him to change our words and actions in order to obey and praise Him.
  • Praise is our response to God, but it usually involves music.

This is what the Holy Spirit is promoting when we daily walk with Him. Yep, it is going to be hard for us to crucify the flesh, but we aren’t alone. The only One Who can help us be successful in accomplishing that is right there with us.

Living and Walking with the Spirit Must Match

“If we live by the Spirit, let us also keep in step with the Spirit” (Gal. 5: 25 ESV)

We must totally submit to God.

Oh, this is a scary thought. We can live by the Spirit but not be in step with the Spirit.

How can we do this?

We’ve already talked about becoming new creations by navigating the Sanctification Road.

Glossary

But what if we come forward for conversion, but we never start down the Sanctification Road? We don’t try to change our lifestyles. We consistently continue to make choices that do not reflect Christ within us. But yet we love our neighbors, are kind and generous to them, and strive to be a good person.

In other words, we buy the fire insurance to escape hell, but we think that gives us license to go on sinning.

That doesn’t work.

We must have a spiritual change. We must submit our whole lives to God.

crucifying-the-fleshFB

Making the Connections

Gisborne provided a list of all the different titles disciples of Christ are called – and titles used for non-believers. He wrote, “Thus those that are Christ’s are occasionally characterized as born of the Spirit; walking in the Spirit; the children of God; the elect of God; the doers of the law; the heirs of the kingdom of heaven. Those that are not Christ’s are described as walking in the flesh; fulfilling the lusts of the flesh; the children of this world; the unfruitful hearers of the law; the servants of Satan; the heirs of damnation.”

Resource

It is up to us to evaluate our walk to determine which title belongs to us.

If we a child of the flesh, what is the reason we are not a child of God? Gisborne gave us questions to think about here, too.

  • Do we believe Scriptures are not truly the Word of God?
  • Do we think God will not do what He says He will?
  • Do we think God or Jesus will make an exception for us and allow us into Heaven anyway?

It is, He will, and They won’t.

How Do We Apply This?

Gisborne asked the right questions. He wrote, “Have you therefore resolved, through the grace of God, to renounce the indulgence of sinful inclinations and practices? Have you thus taken the first step towards living unto Christ? What then is the second? ‘Cease to do evil’ saith the prophet. What is his next injunction? ‘Learn to do well.’”

Resource

  • Govern ourselves by adhering to the two greatest commandments.
  • Daily strive to mortify our sins.
  • Seek God daily.
  • Grow in faith in order to mortify our sins.
  • Grow all the spiritual graces.
  • Grow in grace to help us mortify our sins.
  • Avoid temptations.

Resource

Searching for and Seeking God

Hearing His Word (Rom. 10: 17).
Reading His Word (Rev. 1: 3).
Praying to Him (Heb. 4: 16).
Studying His Word (Ac. 17: 11).
Meditating on His Word (Ps. 1: 1-2).
Memorizing His Word (Ps. 119: 11).

Father God. We want to live godly lives. We want to possess Your character. Thank You for sending the Holy Spirit to guide us in crucifying our sins in order to gain godly character. Amen.

What do you think?

Leave me a comment below (about this or anything else) or head over to my Facebook group for some interactive discussion.

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