“And those who are Christ’s have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit.”
Galatians 5:24–25

This is a challenging statement. It is a statement of position, yet it also challenges us to put that position into practice in our daily lives—to live it out. This is an extremely important truth of God’s Word to grasp.

In all but four places in the New Testament where crucifixion is mentioned, it refers to the death of the Lord Jesus Christ on the cross. However, these four exceptions are strategic in helping us understand how the fruit of the Spirit is displayed in our lives.

First, Romans 6:6 tells us: “Knowing this, that our old man was crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves of sin.” This is the position of every true believer: we are seen as having died with Christ.

Then, in Galatians 2:20, we read: “I have been crucified with Christ; 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 for me.” This statement is made in connection with the law, as Paul says in verse 19: “For I through the law died to the law that I might live to God.”

In Galatians 6:14, Paul further states: “But God forbid that I should boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world.”

These three passages, in which the believer is seen as crucified, speak of our death in Christ: death to the old man, death to the law, death to the world, and now, in our present verse, death to the flesh.

There should be nothing in the life of one who identifies with Christ’s death, burial, and resurrection that holds them in bondage. We are now free to serve the Lord. There is now liberty for the Spirit of God to produce within us—and then through us—His fruit: “love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. Against such there is no law.”

It is then that we are able to live by the Spirit, under His control, as those who are filled with the Spirit (Eph. 5:18), neither grieving Him nor quenching Him (Eph. 4:30; 1 Thess. 5:19), but walking in the Spirit.

Paul brings these two thoughts of walking and bearing fruit together when he says: “That you may walk worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing Him, being fruitful in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God” (Col. 1:10).

Anchor For Today:
Are you practically walking in the reality that the flesh has been crucified? Are you walking in step with the Spirit and bearing fruit?