Galatians 5:24 - Printer Friendly

ESV: And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.

NIV: Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.

NASB: Now those who belong to Christ Jesus crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.

CSB: Now those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.

NLT: Those who belong to Christ Jesus have nailed the passions and desires of their sinful nature to his cross and crucified them there.

KJV: And they that are Christ's have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts.

NKJV: And those who are Christ’s have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.

Paul has strongly argued that we are saved by faith alone, and that our works are helpless in obtaining salvation (Galatians 3:22–29). Paul not only taught that this meant we were saved solely on the basis of faith, but that true salvation could not be lost due to our works, either (Ephesians 4:30; Romans 8:38–39). Those who disagreed with Paul's teaching that in Christ, we are fully forgiven and justified by God, often raised an objection: Without the threat of punishment by God, why would anyone avoid sin? Why would people choose to do what is right?

Paul's answer, in part, is found here. Those who truly understand what it means to trust in Christ's death on the cross to pay for their sins understand how destructive their sins truly are. After all, our sins were the reason we stood condemned to die by the curse of the law. That's why Paul writes that those who belong to Christ gave up trying to defeat their sin on their own. Instead, with gratitude, we performed a kind an execution of our sinful desires when we trusted Christ to die for them. We gave up the right to keep holding on to our sin and indulging in it and enjoying it.

There's a fine line here, though. In most cases, those who trust in Christ do not immediately and completely lose our desire or instinct to do sinful things. The "want" to sin is not entirely gone. Paul has written, though, that two significant things do change when we are saved. First, by definition, we recognize that sin is eternally fatal. By trusting in Christ, we reject sin as a path leading to death. Second, God gives us the power in His Spirit to win the battle against our sinful desires (Galatians 5:16–17).

We may sometimes still give in to our desire to sin, but Christians are no longer people controlled by our sin. We have agreed sin is worthless, and we have declared, in Christ, our intention to move, with Him, away from sin using God's power.

Galatians 5:16–26 focuses on how God's Spirit gives those in Christ the power to serve others in love. We must allow the Holy Spirit to lead, however. When we don't, our selfishness will lead us into all kinds of sinful lifestyles. When we live by the Spirit, on the other hand, we gain more than just being able not to live in sin. What comes out of us are a collection of powerful, positive characteristics.

Those who trust in Christ have been set free. Paul's readers were in danger of wasting that freedom, by veering off in one of two directions. On the one hand, false teachers were pressuring them into circumcision in order to be sure of being right with God. On the other hand, freedom can also be squandered on serving only our sinful desires instead of investing it through serving others in love. God's Spirit gives us the power to do that when we let Him lead us. Life in the Spirit bears powerful and positive fruit in a Christian's life.

Galatians 3—4 focused on theology. Galatians 5—6 focus on how Christians should live in response to those truths. In short, we must resist being dragged away from the freedom we have in Christ to follow the law. We must also resist wasting our freedom on serving our sinful desires instead of serving others in love. We can do this by the power of God's Spirit with us. When we give Him the lead, powerful, positive characteristics show up in us. Galatians 6 will show how to use those characteristics to serve each other.

Galatians is sometimes called “a short Romans” for its similar themes of justification and sanctification through faith. A group of Christians known as “Judaizers” were preaching a gospel of legalism, rather than grace. Paul’s main purpose in writing the letter to the Galatians was to reiterate the true nature of the gospel: we are justified (made righteous) and sanctified (made more Christlike) through our faith in Jesus Christ alone. This letter was probably written shortly before the church elders in Jerusalem issued their official refutation of the Judaizers, commonly called the Jerusalem Council.