One of the reasons many believers do not understand the battle they have with their flesh is they do not understand, and are not willing to walk in, Grace. Understanding grace is a dilemma to most believers because they have never been taught the grace of God. Truly, most have heard about it but few there be that have been taught it from their youth up.
This means that they have no scriptural foundation for understanding grace and can only commingle it with some gospel other than Paul's. To be able to walk in the spirit of Christ there must be a firm foundation of grace. True Grace cannot be added to anything. Let us look at the next verse in Galatians dealing The cross.
The cross and our crucifixion, Galatians 5:24–25. The only crucifixion described in the Bible happened at Calvary. Besides the two thieves there was Jesus in all humanity crucified with Him. The key line in this verse is, "they that are Christ's have crucified the flesh." There are at least two other times the Scriptures speak of our crucifixion: our old man is crucified, Romans 6:6 and I am crucified with Christ, Galatians 2:20.
To be crucified means to be killed out or executed. These are awesome thoughts, because most believers still have a battle with themselves, their flesh. Theologians have had a hard time analyzing such Scriptures because they do not have good a foundation in grace.
Those who commingle truths will never understand their crucifixion. Law keeping will prevent it. In Galatians 5:24–25, Paul is saying that the flesh has been executed.
While this may be very slow in coming to the mind the most believers and not at all to most believers, it still has happened. It happened at the cross. The believers who still have problems with their flesh simply do not know what happened to them at the cross. When Christ was crucified, our flesh was crucified to.
The problem we still have with our flesh is we have not learned to reckon ourselves dead, Romans 6:11. This means our minds has never become renewed to the events that happened to us at the cross, and most of all, we still have little or no understanding of grace. We continue to operate as normal, unregenerate humans even though we died when Christ died, we were in him and he now lives in us. As one writer said the average believer is like a chicken with its head cut off, the flesh has been dealt a deathblow but it continues to flop around the barnyard on earth until the last nerve is stilled. But now the flesh is defeated forever and we can live in the Christ that reins over us.
Believers must enter a new way of life once they are saved. The cross has accomplish this. So Paul says walk in the Spirit, in Christ's Spirit, worthy of the Christ in us, Colossians 1:10, 2:6–7, Ephesians 4:1, first Thessalonians 2:12. How can we ever be worthy? Simply look at the cross and see that His death is our death. We are as dead to the flesh as He was dead at the cross.
This means that they have no scriptural foundation for understanding grace and can only commingle it with some gospel other than Paul's. To be able to walk in the spirit of Christ there must be a firm foundation of grace. True Grace cannot be added to anything. Let us look at the next verse in Galatians dealing The cross.
The cross and our crucifixion, Galatians 5:24–25. The only crucifixion described in the Bible happened at Calvary. Besides the two thieves there was Jesus in all humanity crucified with Him. The key line in this verse is, "they that are Christ's have crucified the flesh." There are at least two other times the Scriptures speak of our crucifixion: our old man is crucified, Romans 6:6 and I am crucified with Christ, Galatians 2:20.
To be crucified means to be killed out or executed. These are awesome thoughts, because most believers still have a battle with themselves, their flesh. Theologians have had a hard time analyzing such Scriptures because they do not have good a foundation in grace.
Those who commingle truths will never understand their crucifixion. Law keeping will prevent it. In Galatians 5:24–25, Paul is saying that the flesh has been executed.
While this may be very slow in coming to the mind the most believers and not at all to most believers, it still has happened. It happened at the cross. The believers who still have problems with their flesh simply do not know what happened to them at the cross. When Christ was crucified, our flesh was crucified to.
The problem we still have with our flesh is we have not learned to reckon ourselves dead, Romans 6:11. This means our minds has never become renewed to the events that happened to us at the cross, and most of all, we still have little or no understanding of grace. We continue to operate as normal, unregenerate humans even though we died when Christ died, we were in him and he now lives in us. As one writer said the average believer is like a chicken with its head cut off, the flesh has been dealt a deathblow but it continues to flop around the barnyard on earth until the last nerve is stilled. But now the flesh is defeated forever and we can live in the Christ that reins over us.
Believers must enter a new way of life once they are saved. The cross has accomplish this. So Paul says walk in the Spirit, in Christ's Spirit, worthy of the Christ in us, Colossians 1:10, 2:6–7, Ephesians 4:1, first Thessalonians 2:12. How can we ever be worthy? Simply look at the cross and see that His death is our death. We are as dead to the flesh as He was dead at the cross.
