Galatians 5:24 :

Those who belong to Christ have crucified the flesh with its passions and lusts.

This is a very important topic for Christians today. Somehow, this message has not been very prominent in our churches and it is important that we reverse this trend for the sake of the purity of the church.

When Jesus died on the cross, He died for the sins of all mankind. Most of us who become Christians today understand this basic fact. Some don’t know this basic fact so it is still very important to communicate it. Jesus was a substitute for us when He took mankind’s punishment for sin. In this act, Jesus demonstrated the love of God. By this act, true change occured in the world. This was not all that happened on the cross that day. This verse tells us that we also died.

It’s important to hear the tense of the word “crucified.” It is in past tense. It doesn’t say “are crucifying.” I am concerned that most people read it with the wrong tense in mind. Paul was talking about a past event. That past event was the crucifixion of Jesus. How do we as Christians crucify the flesh? We don’t do it by killing ourselves, we do it by recognizing the truth. When Jesus died, so did we. That means that all that was from our original birth in Adam was destroyed. Now the final fulfillment of this fact has yet to take place, but now, by faith, the Holy Spirit can work supernatural miracles within us even today based on the accomplishment of Jesus on the cross that day.

So, let’s remember that when Jesus died on the cross, we did too and that means that only the Spirit’s life lives in us now. The lusts of our old life are dead. Does that mean we won’t ever sin again? Unfortunately, no. We will, but this faith is the thing that reminds us of the right path again.