Now those who belong to Christ Jesus - A long phrase which describes a believer as one who belongs to Jesus! This phrase also implies that a costly price (His precious blood) has been paid to redeem us as His very own possession.

Matthew Henry says these are...

those who are Christians indeed, not only in show and profession, but in sincerity and truth

Paul refers to belong in Romans 8 explaining that...

you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you. But if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Him. (See note Romans 8:9)

I wonder if we truly live with the profound thought in mind that we are those who belong to Christ? As Paul asked the Corinthians...

Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit Who is in you, Whom you have from God, and that you are not your own? 20 For you have been bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body. (1 Corinthians 6:19-20)

Paul expressed this same idea in several other passages...

And if (since) you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham's offspring, heirs according to promise. (Galatians 3:29)

(Christ) gave Himself for (in our place = substitution) us, that He might redeem (paid the price of His precious blood to set slaves free from bondage to sin) us from every lawless deed and purify for Himself a people for His own possession, zealous for good deeds. (See note Titus 2:14)

For if we live, we live for the Lord; and if we die, we die for the Lord. Therefore, whether we live or die, we are the Lord’s (see note Romans 14:8).

And you belong to Christ, and Christ belongs to God (1 Corinthians 3:23)

But each in his own turn: Christ, the firstfruits; then, when He comes, those who belong to Him. (1 Corinthians 15:23, NIV)

Eadie comments on the phrase those who belong to Christ Jesus speaks of possession...

they belong to Him as bought by Him, delivered by Him, and possessed by Him, through His Spirit producing such fruit. “Christ liveth in me.” They who are Christ's cannot but be characterized by the fruit of the Spirit, for they crucified the flesh  (Eadie, John: Epistle of St Paul to the Galatians)

Lightfoot has an interesting aside on this verse noting that...

Several of the Greek fathers strangely connected the Christ with the flesh, ‘these persons have crucified the flesh of Christ,’ explaining it in various ways... (St. Paul's Epistle to the Galatians) (Comment: This is clearly not the correct rendering of the passage, but is mentioned lest we rely too heavily on human interpretation, including the so-called Early Church Fathers--they may have been "early" but they were not always "right"!)

Have crucified the flesh - There are two ways that this verse has been interpreted and there are excellent expositors and commentators on both sides: (1) believers have been crucified (past tense) with Christ and are in union with and identified with Christ; (2) believers are to (effectively) "crucify" or mortify the flesh which, although crucified in the past when we died with Christ, is still active in every believer. 

(1) speaks of a believer's position in Christ, while (2) speaks of the the believer's experience made possible because of our position in Christ. To a degree both interpretations are reasonable, and are like two inseparable sides of a coin. However, if one examines the context closely, interpretation (1) which speaks of our position in Christ is followed immediately by a verse that speaks of our experience in Christ and exhorts us to live out that experience by keeping in step with the Spirit (our experience), something that would not be possible if we had not been crucified with Christ (our position).

With this brief introduction the following analysis will present both sides of the coin as seen by a number of respected Christian preachers and expositors. You will notice that some of the interpretations subtly merge or overlap into an "amalgamation" of interpretations (1) and (2).

THE FIRST INTERPRETATION OF
"HAVE CRUCIFIED THE FLESH"

This interpretation holds that if you are a Christian, you have already died. Crucified is therefore the believer's present position, possession, power and potential to live as more than a conqueror over Sin,  the flesh and the devil. Crucifixion is something God does, not us. It happened when we were crucified with Christ. Have crucified is past tense and for all who are true Christians, this is what has happened to us. Our flesh—that old rebellious, unbelieving, self-centered person we were apart from Christ—was crucified. When? This occurred when we put our faith in Christ and were united to Him so that what He experienced, we experienced (see note Romans 6:5). His death became our death so that His life might become our life. To reiterate, when we died with Christ, the old unregenerate totally depraved person we were before salvation died. It was reckoned as true in us ("placed on our spiritual account")  when we by grace through faith received Jesus' as Savior and Lord. The decisive blow against the enemy of our lives was struck and the victory was secured in Christ.

Kenneth Wuest explains that when we first believed, it was at that moment we...

received the actual benefits of our identification with Christ in His death on the Cross, which benefits were only potential at the time He was crucified. The Christian’s identification with Christ in His death, resulted in the breaking of the power of the sinful nature over the life. This victory over sin which the Lord Jesus procured for us at the Cross, is made actual and operative in our lives as we yield to the Holy Spirit and trust Him for that victory. It is the Holy Spirit’s ministry that applies the salvation from the power of the sinful nature which God the Son procured at the Cross for us (Ed note: cp note Galatians 5:16). Thus the Holy Spirit has a two-fold ministry in the saint, that of making actually operative in the life of the Christian, the victory over sin which the Lord Jesus procured for us at the Cross, and that of producing in the Christian’s experience, His fruit (cp notes Galatians 5:22;  23). But this He is only able to do in a full and rich measure as the saint puts himself definitely under subjection to the Spirit. This initial act of faith in the Lord Jesus which resulted in the crucifixion (putting to death) of the affections and lusts of the totally depraved nature, is followed during the life of that Christian, by the free action of his liberated will in counting himself as having died to (having been separated from the power of) the evil nature with the result that he says NO to sin and stops yielding himself and his members to sin.

In other passages Paul refers to the believer's crucifixion...

knowing this, that our old self was crucified with Him, that our body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves to sin (see note Romans 6:6)

Even so consider yourselves to be dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus. (see note Romans 6:11)

I have been crucified with (verb is sustauroo = combination of sun = with + stauroo = crucify) Christ; and 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 delivered Himself up for me. (see note Galatians 2:20) (Comment: In short, because of Paul's crucifixion with Christ, he was positionally dead to the Law. His life was no longer that of self-effort to keep the law, but was a life empowered by the indwelling Spirit of Christ.)

Paul's point is that the Christian life is not primarily a set of rules and regulations to be obeyed (legalism), but is a Person living His life in and through the believer. This is what Paul meant in Colossians writing that this supernatural life is...

Christ in you, the hope of glory (see note Colossians 1:27)  n

and...

Christ...is our life (see note Colossians 3:4)

John echoes this tremendous truth of Christ our life writing...

but these have been written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing you may have life in His name. (John 20:31) (Comment: Where is our life? In His name - His name is all that Christ is and it is He Alone in Whom we can now experience supernatural life. The Person of Christ is our life. Think about our new name "Christian". What happens when we remove Christ from that name? On the other hand, take the letter "a" and move it to the front [I realize this a bit forced, but it does make the point] - "A Christ in"!)

And the witness is this, that God has given us eternal life, and this life is in His Son. He who has the Son has the life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have the life. (1 John 5:11,12)

Observe Paul's desire for the believers in Galatians 4...

My children, with whom I am again in labor until Christ is formed in you (Galatians 4:19) (Comment: The verb formed is morphoo which describes the shaping of one's outward expression which proceeds from and is truly representative of one’s inward character and nature, which in Colossians 1:27 is "Christ in you". Paul desires that the lives of these believers [and of each of us dear reading saint] may be so surrendered to the Lord Jesus, that He may give outward expression of His own glorious Person in our thoughts, words, and deeds. What we are on the outside is to be continually becoming more representative of what we truly are on the inside. For example, is not the "fruit of the Spirit" in a believer's life in its essence a manifestation of Christ's character being "formed" in us? Fruit in our life is clear evidence that we are walking by the Spirit and that the life of Christ is being manifested in and though our mortal flesh.)

Compare...

(We believers are) always carrying about in the body the dying of Jesus, that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our body (the "Christ life"). For we who live are constantly being delivered over to death for Jesus' sake, that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our mortal flesh. (2 Corinthians 4:10,11)

John MacArthur agrees with this interpretation writing...

In each of those three passages, “crucified” is simply a vivid and dramatic way to say “killed,” or “executed.” In the first two passages Paul is teaching that at salvation his old, sinful, unregenerate self was executed and he was born a new man in Christ Jesus. In the third passage he is saying that the world has been executed and is now dead to him, so that it is no longer his master, holding him in bondage. He is therefore now free to serve the Lord.

Obviously, in none of those passages does Paul mean to imply that the crucifixion analogy carries the idea of total death, in which all influence ceases. Sin was still a reality in his life, and so was the temptation of the world. But there was a sense in which the power of the old self and of the world was broken. Those influences no longer dominated him.

In the text of Galatians 5:24, Paul is saying that the flesh has been executed. But how could that be in light of what he has just said in this chapter about believers having a constant war with the ever-present flesh? In what sense is the flesh killed at conversion?

It cannot be in the actual, complete, present sense or it would contradict the reality of the continual spiritual conflict with the flesh indicated here and in Romans 7:14-25. And it cannot be that Paul has some future sense in mind or he would have used a future verb form, saying, “shall crucify the flesh,” referring to the time of glorification.

The best understanding is to see have crucified as an allusion to the cross of Jesus Christ, which, as a past event, fits the aorist tense used here by Paul. It looks back to the cross, the time at which the death of the flesh was actually accomplished. Yet, because we are still alive on the earth and still possess our humanness, we have not yet entered into the future fullness of that past event.

Meanwhile, the flesh with its passions (or affections) and desires is dead in the sense of no longer reigning over us or of holding us in inescapable bondage. Like a chicken with its head cut off, the flesh has been dealt a death blow, although it continues to flop around the barnyard of earth until the last nerve is stilled.

Because the flesh is defeated forever, and we now live in the realm where Christ reigns over us by His Spirit, we should live according to the Spirit and not the flesh. (MacArthur, J. Galatians. Chicago: Moody Press or Logos)

A T Robertson interprets have crucified as...

Definite event, first aorist active indicative of stauroō as in Gal 2:19 (mystical union with Christ). Paul uses sarx (flesh) here in the same sense as in verses 16, 17, 19, “the force in men that makes for evil” (Burton). With sun = “Together with,” emphasizing “the completeness of the extermination of this evil force” and the guarantee of victory over one’s passions and dispositions toward evil. (Comment: Robertson uses the word "extermination" might lead some to think the flesh no longer had power, which Paul has already taught is clearly not the case.)

Vincent writes...

The line of thought as regards death to sin is the same as in Ro 6:2–7, 11; as regards death to the law, the same as in Ro 7:1–6.

UBS Handbook writes that have crucified...

is, of course, a figurative expression, suggesting a connection between this action of the believer and the death of Jesus Christ on the cross. The verb is in the aorist tense, suggesting either that the action took place in the past (at conversion...) or that the action resulted in a complete and decisive change...this action is presently reflected in the experience of every believer... (The United Bible Societies' New Testament Handbook Series or Logos)

John Piper has an interesting way of explaining crucifixion of the flesh...

Picture your flesh—that old ego with the mentality of merit and craving for power and reputation and self-reliance—picture it as a dragon living in some cave of your soul. Then you hear the gospel, and in it Jesus Christ comes to you and says, “I will make you mine and take possession of the cave and slay the dragon. Will you yield to my possession? It will mean a whole new way of thinking and feeling and acting.” You say: “But that dragon is me. I will die.” He says, “And you will rise to newness of life, for I will take its plan; I will make my mind and my will and my heart your own.” You say, “What must I do?” He answers, “Trust me and do as I say. As long as you trust me, we cannot lose.” Overcome by the beauty and power of Christ you bow and swear eternal loyalty and trust. And as you rise, he puts a great sword in your hand and says, “Follow me.” He leads you to the mouth of the cave and says, “Go in, slay the dragon.” But you look at him bewildered, “I cannot. Not without you.” He smiles. “Well said. You learn quickly. Never forget: my commands for you to do something are never commands to do it alone.” Then you enter the cave together. A horrible battle follows and you feel Christ’s hand on yours. At last the dragon lies limp. You ask, “Is it dead?” His answer is this: “I have come to give you new life. This you received when you yielded to my possession and swore faith and loyalty to me. And now with my sword and my hand you have felled the dragon of the flesh. It is a mortal wound. It will die. That is certain. But it has not yet bled to death, and it may yet revive with violent convulsions and do much harm. So you must treat it as dead and seal the cave as a tomb. The Lord of darkness may cause earthquakes in your soul to shake the stones loose, but you build them up again. And have this confidence: with my sword and my hand on yours this dragon’s doom is sure, he is finished, and your new life is secure.”

I think that is the meaning of verse 24, “Those who belong to Christ have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.” Christ has taken possession of our soul. Our old self has been dealt a mortal wound and stripped of its power to have dominion. The Christian life, the fruit of the Spirit, is a constant reckoning of the flesh as dead (piling stones on its tomb) and a constant relying on the present Spirit of Christ to produce love, joy, and peace within. The difference between the Christian life and popular American morality is that Christians will not take one step unless the hand of Christ holds the hand that wields the sword of righteousness. (Read Dr Piper's full sermon on Galatians 5:19-26: Walk by the Spirit)

Matthew Poole writes that...

They that are Christ’s - those who are engrafted into Christ by faith, united to Him, and so His members; have crucified the flesh by virtue of a power derived from the cross of Christ, have got their unregenerate part in a great measure mortified; with the affections and lusts with the inordinate desires, affections, and passions of it: not that they have wholly put off these, (they are men still), but the inordinateness of them is corrected, mortified, and subdued. (Matthew Poole. Matthew Poole's Commentary on the New Testament)

Jameison, Fausset, Brown explain that...

They nailed it to the cross once for all when they became Christ’s, on believing and being baptized (Ro 6:3, 4): they keep it now in a state of crucifixion (Ro 6:6): so that the Spirit can produce in them, comparatively uninterrupted by it, “the fruit of the Spirit” (Gal 5:22). “Man, by faith, is dead to the former standing point of a sinful life, and rises to a new life (Gal 5:25) of communion with Christ (Col 3:3). The act by which they have crucified the flesh with its lust, is already accomplished ideally in principle. But the practice, or outward conformation of the life, must harmonize with the tendency given to the inward life” (Gal 5:25) [Neander]. We are to be executioners, dealing cruelly with the body of sin, which has caused the acting of all cruelties on Christ’s body. (Commentary)

John Calvin...

The word crucified is employed to point out that the mortification of the flesh is the effect of the cross of Christ. This work does not belong to man. By the grace of Christ “we have been planted together in the likeness of his death” (Romans 6:5,) that we no longer might live unto ourselves. If we are buried with Christ, by true self-denial, and by the destruction of the old man, we shall then enjoy the privilege of the sons of God. The flesh is not yet indeed entirely destroyed; but it has no right to exercise dominion, and ought to yield to the Spirit.

The flesh itself is the depravity of corrupt nature, from which all evil actions proceed. (Matthew 15:19; Mark 7:21.) Hence it follows, that the members of Christ have cause to complain, if they are still held to be in bondage to the law, from which all who have been regenerated by his Spirit are set free. (Commentary)

Beet...

Notice three crucifixions in this Epistle; of Paul, of the flesh and its desires, and of the world. Each of these implies the others. In each case crucified denotes death in virtue of Christ’s death on the cross and by union with the Crucified:  (Beet, J. A. Beet's Commentaries: Galatians AGES Software)

Constable...

The Christian has crucified the flesh in the sense that when he or she trusted Christ God broke the domination of his or her sinful nature. While we still have a sinful human nature, it does not control us as it did before we trusted in Christ (cf. Ro 6:6–7). Paul said we, not God, have crucified it. We did this when we trusted in Jesus Christ as our Savior (cf. Gal 2:20). Therefore it is inconsistent for us to return to the flesh. “Passions” (Gr. pathemata, cf. Ro 7:5) are the outward expression of inner “desires” (Gr. epithymiai, cf. v. 16). In another sense we need to continually crucify the flesh by choosing to yield to the Spirit (vv. 16, 18, 25; Rom. 8:13; Col. 3:5). (Galatians)

Longenecker...

those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires,” and so cannot live in a libertine fashion; the second (cast inhortatory form) in v 25, that “since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit,” so high lighting the Christian life as one lived by the Spirit’s direction and enablement... For Paul, to claim identification with Christ in his crucifixion means that one cannot espouse a lifestyle that expresses either a legalistic or a libertine orientation. For in being crucified with Christ both the demands of the law and the impulses of the flesh have been crucified as well (cf. notes Romans 7:1; 7:2; 7:3; 7:4; 7:5; 7:6; Colossians 2:13; 14; 15). (Longenecker, R. N. . Vol. 41: Word Biblical Commentary : Galatians. Word Biblical Commentary. Page 264. Dallas: Word, Incorporated)

F F Bruce explains that...

 It is because they are Christ’s in the sense of being members of Christ, incorporated in Christ, that they have ‘crucified the flesh’. The aorist probably indicates their participation in Christ’s historical crucifixion. When Paul said earlier (he was crucified with Christ) (Galatians 2:20), he meant that the cross of Christ severed his relation to the law. Here he says that the cross of Christ severs believers’ relation to the ‘flesh’. For Paul, as we have seen already, the law and the flesh belong to the same pre-Christian order. But the cross of Christ severed Paul’s relation to the law only as he himself was ‘crucified with Christ’, thus becoming ‘dead to the law’ that he might live to God; so also the cross severs the relation of believers in general to the flesh only as they reckon themselves to have been crucified in the historical crucifixion of Christ. The crucifixion of the former self-centred ego, that it may be replaced by the new Christ-centred mind—’it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me’ (see note Galatians 2:20)—is not materially different from the crucifixion of the flesh, that it may be replaced b a Spirit-imparted life and a Spirit-directed conduct. Cf. Romans 8:13 (note). ‘if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live’.

Those who belong to Christ, then, those who acknowledge his lordship in no merely formal way (cf. note Romans 14:8), have made a clean break with what they formerly were (cf. note Romans 6:6); they have been delivered from the ‘present evil age’ (Gal 1:4) and have become members of the new creation (Gal 6:15). It is the cross of Christ that makes this clean break. As truly as law and flesh are bound up for Paul with the present evil age, so truly is the indwelling Spirit the witness that the age to come has already broken in through the Christ-event.

‘Ideally, we must understand, this crucifixion of the flesh is involved in Christ’s crucifixion; really, it is effected by it. Whoever sees into the secret of Calvary…is conscious that the doom of sin is in it; to take it as real, and to stand in any real relation to it, is death to the flesh with its passions and desires’ (J. Denney, The Death of Christ, 162).

Alongside such a historical statement as this, in the indicative, stands the hortatory counterpart, in the imperative, as in Romans 6:11 (note) (‘reckon yourselves to be dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus’); Colossians 3:5 (note) (‘put to death therefore your members that are on earth…’). What has been effected once for all by the cross of Christ must be worked out in practice. (Bruce, F. F. The Epistle to the Galatians: A commentary on the Greek Text. Grand Rapids, Mich: W. B. Eerdmans. 1982)

KJV Bible Commentary commenting on has been crucified notes that...

This is a settled matter (see note Galatians 2:20), but the very fact that the flesh and the Spirit are in constant conflict shows that the flesh is very active. When one puts his trust in Christ, he receives the actual benefits of identification with Christ, resulting in breaking the power of cancelled sin and in setting the prisoner free. The Christian is to daily give outward expression of his inward experience and in order to do this, he must constantly reckon (Ed note: present imperative) himself “to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through our Lord Jesus Christ” (see note Romans 6:11). (Dobson, E G, Charles Feinberg, E Hindson, Woodrow Kroll, H L. Wilmington: KJV Bible Commentary: Nelson or Logos)

Dr Grant Richison explains that...

Crucified is not self-crucifixion but our positional crucifixion in Christ. This is something that God does, not us. When Christ died on the cross, He died there for our sins. God identifies Christians with Christ’s death and resurrection. Our part is to apply that work of Christ to sin in our lives. We do this by placing faith in Christ initially at salvation and progressively through confessing sins by faith.

Flesh is that force that makes us violate a holy God. Jesus crucified the flesh. The grammar here (aorist indicative) indicates a definite and decisive act. This does not say that this is something that we must do. He did not say, “Those who are Christ’s should crucify the flesh.” The reality of crucifixion took place when we put our faith in the finished work of Christ on the cross.

Jesus settled the issue of our sins on the cross and we believed Him. When we recognize this as an ongoing fact, we make victory actual in our experience. Christ made the positional truth of a crucified flesh actual on the cross. We make it real to ourselves by faith.

Neither does this mean that Christ eradicated the present active function of our sin capacity on the cross. It simply means that God judged our sins by Christ’s death on the cross in a judicial or positional sense...

 It is vital that we recognize that Christ crucified the flesh, that it was His work on the cross that did this. Jesus settled the issue there. This means Christ’s crucifixion is our crucifixion. We do not try to do what is already done; we do not crucify ourselves. We believe that Christ crucified us.

When we appeal to the cross by faith, we draw on the finished work of Christ to live the Christian life. Faith takes hold of God’s facts and appropriates them to experience. When we lay hold on the naked Word of God, we honour God’s promises.

We do not have to pray about being crucified; we are crucified with Christ. This is the crux of how we get victory in the Christian life. If we do not know our position in Christ, we do not know how to live the Christian life. Many sincere Christians try to crucify themselves but they always end in frustration. It is oh so unnecessary because it is already an accomplished fact. (Galatians 5:24)

J Vernon McGee asks...

When was the flesh crucified? When they reckon that when Christ died, they died, they will yield themselves on that basis. In Romans 6:13 (note) Paul says, “Neither yield ye your members as instruments of unrighteousness unto sin: but yield yourselves unto God, as those that are alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness unto God.”

“For ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God” (see note Colossians 3:3). “I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me” (see note Galatians 2:20). In all of these passages the thought is that when Christ was crucified, the believer was crucified at the same time. The believer is now joined to the living Christ, and the victory is not by struggling but by surrendering to Christ. The scriptural word is yield; it is an act of the will. (McGee, J V: Thru the Bible Commentary:  Thomas Nelson or Logos)

I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me" (Galatians 2:20)

A STIMULUS
NOT A SEDATIVE
FOR HOLY LIVING

Is this great truth of identification with Jesus in His death a mighty pulsating dynamic in our lives? It should prove a stimulant and not a sedative for holy living. (C. Norman Bartlett: Galatians and You: Studies in the Epistle of Paul to the Galatians, 1948)

C H Spurgeon expresses an interpretation that is essentially a combination of interpretations (1) and (2). The following are selections from his sermon on Galatians 5:24: Doctrine of Justification by Faith (read the entire sermon).

Now, try to catch the following thought. — When you believe, you accept Christ as standing instead of you, and profess that what he did he did for you, but what did Christ do upon the tree? He was crucified and died. Follow the thought, and note well that by faith you regard yourself as dead with Him — crucified with Him. You have not really grasped what faith means unless you have grasped this. With Him you suffered the wrath of God, for He suffered in your stead: you are now in Him — crucified with Him, dead with Him, buried with Him, risen with Him, and gone into the glory with Him — because He represents you, and your faith has accepted the representation. Do you see, then, that you did, in the moment when you believed in Christ, register a declaration that you were henceforth dead unto sin. Who shall say that our gospel teaches men to live in sin, when the faith which is essential to salvation involves an avowal of death to it? The convert begins with agreeing to be regarded as dead with Christ to sin: have we not here the foundation stone of holiness?...

I shall now state my own experience when I believed in Jesus; and while I am doing so I rejoice to remember that there are hundreds, if not thousands in this place who have experienced the same, and millions in this world, and millions more in heaven, who know the truth of what I declare. When I believed that Jesus was the Christ, and rested my soul in him, I felt in my heart from that moment an intense hatred to sin of every kind. I had loved sin before, some sins particularly, but those sins became from that moment the most obnoxious to me, and, though the propensity to them was still there, yet the love of them was clean gone; and when I at any time transgressed I felt an inward grief and horror at myself for doing the things which aforetime I had allowed and even enjoyed. My relish for sin was gone. The things I once loved I abhorred, and blushed to think of...

CRUCIFY THE FLESH

When a man believes in Jesus the first point that helps him to crucify the flesh is that he has seen the evil of sin, inasmuch as he has seen Jesus, his Lord, die because of it. Men think that sin is nothing; but what will sin do? What will it not do? The virus of sin, what wilt it poison? Ay, what will it not poison? Its influence has been baleful upon the largest conceivable scale. Sin has flooded the world with blood and tears through red-handed war; sin has covered the world with oppression, and so has crushed the manhood of many, and broken the hearts of myriads; sin begat slavery, and tyranny, and priestcraft, and rebellion, and slander, and persecution; sin has been at the bottom of all human sorrows; but the crowning culminating point of sin’s villainy was when God himself came down to earth in human form — pure, perfect, intent on an errand of love — came to work miracles of mercy, and redemption. Then sinful man could never rest till he had crucified his incarnate God. They coined a word when the Parliamentary party executed the king in England, and called the king’s destroyers “regicides,” and now we must make a word to describe sin: sin is a deicide. Every sinner, if he could, would kill God, for he says in his heart, “No God.” He means he wishes there were none. He would be rejoiced indeed if he could learn for certain that there was no God. In fact, that is the bugbear of his life, that there is a God, and a just God, Who will bring him into judgment. His secret wish is that there were no religion and no God, for he might then live as he pleased.

Now, when a man is made to see that sin in its essence is the murderer of Emmanuel, God with us, his heart being renewed (Ed note: Having been crucified with Christ, etc), he hates sin from that very moment. “No,” he says, “I cannot continue in such evil. If that be the true meaning of every offense against the law of God — that it would put God Himself out of His own world if it could — I cannot bear it.” His spirit recoils with horror, as he feels —

“My sins have pulled the vengeance down
Upon his guiltless head:
Break, break, my heart, oh burst mine eyes!
And let my sorrows bleed.

Strike, mighty Groom my flinty soul,
Till melting waters flow,
And deep repentance drown mine eyes
In undissembled (genuine) woe.”

Then the believer has also seen in the death of Christ an amazing instance of the great grace of God; for if sin be an attempt to murder God — and it is all that — then how wonderful it is that the creatures who committed this sin were not destroyed at once. How remarkable that God should consider it worth His while to devise a plan for their restoration; and yet He did, with matchless skill, contrive a way which involved the giving up of His only-begotten and well-beloved Son. Though this was an expense unequalled, yet He did not withdraw from it. He “so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him might not perish, but have everlasting life:” and this for a race of men who were the enemies of their good and gracious God. “Henceforth,” saw the believer in Christ, “I can have nothing to do with sin, since it does despite to so gracious a God. O, thou accursed sin, to drive thy dagger at the heart of him who was all grace and mercy! This makes sin to be exceedingly sinful.”...

When we once are filled with love to thee, O Jesus, sin becomes the dragon against which we wage a lifelong warfare; holiness becomes our noblest aspiration, and we seek after it with all our heart and soul and strength. If candid minds will but honestly consider the religion of Jesus Christ, they will see that Christian men must hate sin if they are sincere in their faith.

Spurgeon in the Christian Illustrator wrote the following on Crucifixion of the flesh...

Crucifixion of the flesh: — Men who believe in Jesus become purer, holier, better. They are saved from living as they used to live — saved from licentiousness, dishonesty, drunkenness, selfishness, and any other sin they may have lived in. They are different men. There is a change in their heart and soul, conduct and conversation.

I. THE RECEPTION OF JESUS CHRIST BY FAITH IS, IN ITSELF, AN AVOWAL THAT WE HAVE CRUCIFIED THE FLESH, WITH THE AFFECTIONS AND LUSTS.

Christ died in our room and stead. By faith we regard ourselves as dead with Him.

II. AS A MATTER OF FACT, THE RECEPTION OF CHRIST IS ATTENDED WITH THE CRUCIFIXION OF SIN.

Every truly converted man is a proof of this.

III. THE RECEPTION OF JESUS CHRIST INTO THE HEART BY SIMPLE FAITH IS CALCULATED TO CRUCIFY THE FLESH.

1. The believer has seen the evil of sin. It is a deicide — a killing of God.