CRUCIFYING THE FLESH

And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. Galatians 5:24

When challenged with this verse of Scripture, several Christians I’ve encountered over the years tend to see crucifying the flesh as something akin to self-denial: a willful, and sometimes reluctant, yet dutiful, abstinence of something they would actually rather be doing. Self-denial is not the same thing as denying self (Luke 9:23). Today’s devotional thought is something of a continuation from yesterday’s devotional. So what does it mean to crucify the flesh with its passions and lusts? By the Holy Spirit, we must go to Christ’s crucifixion, through faith. With the spiritual eye, we must see God’s holy wrath poured out upon the Lord Jesus Christ. The holy Son received God’s unbridled anger for sins He did not commit— for sins of the flesh we committed, do commit, and sorry to say, will commit because of the weakness of our flesh. He bore our sins and never once denied them— being holy and perfect, innocent and knew intimacy with the Father like no other man, yet, Jesus bore the immense weight of our sin, guilt and shame as if they were His, though He was sinless. He expired upon the tree— alone, destitute, devastated and destroyed— dying in our stead. Christ’s precious blood was shed from His pierced side so we might have forgiveness of sin (Heb 9:22).

Once we’ve be carried by the Spirit to get a true glimpse of the cost of the cross, we may now crucify the flesh. Because Christ suffered God’s fiery judgment for our sins in the flesh, we must judge those fleshly lusts with holy anger. These are those idolatrous passions which sent our Lord to the tree to suffer so cursedly. As Jesus bore the weight of our sins, we must cast them off and be loosed from them. As Jesus paid the penalty for our sins with His life, we must treat those fleshly desires as dead to us because they killed our Lord and shed His blood. Jesus endured the cross and despised the shame for the joy set before Him (Heb 12:2). Likewise, when we crucify the flesh (Rom 8:13), God’s joy and gladness await us (Isa 51:3).

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Today's M'Cheyne Reading Schedule: 3/19 - Ex 30; John 9; Prov 6; Gal 5

If you don’t have one, get a free PDF copy of Robert Murray M’Cheyne’s “Daily Bread” Bible Reading Calendar by Clicking Here.

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