Becoming What God Intended Devotional

The challenge is not to crucify the flesh (that’s been done), but to live by the Spirit.

When we believed the gospel we did something incredible. We nullified the flesh within us or as Paul put it, we have crucified the flesh.

²⁴ Now those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.

 ²⁵ If we live by the Spirit, let us also walk by the Spirit—(Gal 5:24-25).

How can that be? For many Christians the flesh seems alive and well. Let me explain it this way. If I gave you a car and the keys to the car, and you did not know how to drive, having the car does you no good. When I gave you the car, I told you that you no longer needed to walk. But if you did not learn how to drive the car you will end up walking anyway. In this illustration, walking is crucified or nullified, and you possess the car, but without knowing how to drive the car, owning it is useless. So indeed, how did we crucify the flesh? We did it by our faith in the gospel. As soon as we believed the gospel, we were given the ability to live our lives by the power of the Holy Spirit. But if we do not know how to cooperate with the Spirit by a living relationship to God the Father through Jesus Christ, in effect we lost the real key to the car and we have to walk. So the challenge is not to crucify the flesh (that’s been done), but to live by the Spirit.