Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. Galatians 5:24
A man I knew once was sitting on a beach in some foreign holiday resort. I don’t think he was doing very much - perhaps reading a book or just snoozing. But suddenly he sat up with a jerk. Why? Because his wife, sitting next to him, had gone berserk. She was thrashing around like a mad woman, smashing her fist into the sand. He was completely nonplussed. What was going on? But a moment later he knew. His wife was sitting by their new baby - and she had just spotted a nasty-looking snake near the buggy.
The moment that mother saw what was happening she acted out of pure instinct to protect her child. She didn’t stop and think, “Mmm, there seems to be a snake near my child - I wonder if I should do something about it? Well, perhaps when I’ve finished this chapter...” No! It was - kill! kill! kill! And so... one dead snake.
Anything that threatens life needs to be ruthlessly destroyed. There can be no compromise. And that is why Paul speaks about “the flesh” being “crucified”. It’s hard to imagine a more ruthless way of killing someone than by nailing them to a cross - as we are being reminded in these days leading up to Good Friday.
When you become a Christian, Paul is saying, your whole attitude to life and your whole way of living changes radically. The “flesh” is no longer just a bit of a nuisance, or something to be vaguely indulged if you feel like it. No; it’s something that will destroy you if you let it, and it’s got to go.
There are two things about Paul’s words which are a little puzzling.
First: surely if God made our bodies - our physical flesh - then flesh must be good! All that God makes, after all, is good, indeed “very good” (Genesis 1:31). And Jesus himself, when he came to earth, came not as a ghost or a phantom, but in human flesh.
Yes, indeed. Which is why the Bible tells us to care for our bodies and to treat them with respect. But Paul here is using the word flesh to mean “our fallen, sinful nature”, for flesh, or our earthly humanity, is the way in which sin makes its destructive entry into our lives and ruins us. There is nothing wrong with the human body as such. But it so easily becomes a channel for corruption and sin.
Second: why does Paul here use the past tense - “Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh...” - as if it’s all finished and done with? Why “have crucified”? Shouldn’t he have said, “need to crucify” or “should crucify” or “are in the process of crucifying”? For any of those expressions would certainly be true.
He chooses to use the past tense because he wants to remind us that conversion to Christ brings about an actual change the moment it happens. We are “born again” (John 3:3) as new people; and birth is, after all, a once for all event. We become part of Christ - we are “in him” as he so often loves to say (for example, Romans 8:1). It follows, then, that if we are “in Christ”, and he has died once for all, then we too have died once for all.
So there is a paradox here, and in Colossians 3 Paul puts both parts of it together. In verse 3 he tells the Colossian Christians that “you died” (past tense) but then in verse 5 that they must “put to death whatever belongs to your earthly nature” (present tense).
A simple way to put it is this: in the Christian life there is an “already” and there is a “not yet”. The destruction of our sin through the cross is already an accomplished fact - which is why Jesus died with the triumphant cry on his lips “It is finished!” Praise God for that.
But it is not yet completed. And that is something for which we are responsible - we can’t just fold our arms and expect God to do it without us. Like that mother on the beach we must act decisively and ruthlessly.
Or you could put it like this. In principle our victory over sin is complete because of the cross. But in practice there is still a lot of hard work to do.
How are things with you and your “flesh”, your “fallen nature”? Have you become a little careless, a little indulgent, perhaps? Is Jesus calling you to take a hard look to see if there are certain things that still need to be crucified?
Let’s never forget: if we don’t destroy “the flesh”, it will destroy us. And let’s think of this as we watch Jesus being crucified this Friday...
Father God, thank you for Good Friday, and for Jesus’ final and complete victory over sin. Thank you that through faith in him I am already a new person. Now help me day by day to “put to death whatever belongs to my earthly nature” in whatever ways may be necessary. Amen.
A man I knew once was sitting on a beach in some foreign holiday resort. I don’t think he was doing very much - perhaps reading a book or just snoozing. But suddenly he sat up with a jerk. Why? Because his wife, sitting next to him, had gone berserk. She was thrashing around like a mad woman, smashing her fist into the sand. He was completely nonplussed. What was going on? But a moment later he knew. His wife was sitting by their new baby - and she had just spotted a nasty-looking snake near the buggy.
The moment that mother saw what was happening she acted out of pure instinct to protect her child. She didn’t stop and think, “Mmm, there seems to be a snake near my child - I wonder if I should do something about it? Well, perhaps when I’ve finished this chapter...” No! It was - kill! kill! kill! And so... one dead snake.
Anything that threatens life needs to be ruthlessly destroyed. There can be no compromise. And that is why Paul speaks about “the flesh” being “crucified”. It’s hard to imagine a more ruthless way of killing someone than by nailing them to a cross - as we are being reminded in these days leading up to Good Friday.
When you become a Christian, Paul is saying, your whole attitude to life and your whole way of living changes radically. The “flesh” is no longer just a bit of a nuisance, or something to be vaguely indulged if you feel like it. No; it’s something that will destroy you if you let it, and it’s got to go.
There are two things about Paul’s words which are a little puzzling.
First: surely if God made our bodies - our physical flesh - then flesh must be good! All that God makes, after all, is good, indeed “very good” (Genesis 1:31). And Jesus himself, when he came to earth, came not as a ghost or a phantom, but in human flesh.
Yes, indeed. Which is why the Bible tells us to care for our bodies and to treat them with respect. But Paul here is using the word flesh to mean “our fallen, sinful nature”, for flesh, or our earthly humanity, is the way in which sin makes its destructive entry into our lives and ruins us. There is nothing wrong with the human body as such. But it so easily becomes a channel for corruption and sin.
Second: why does Paul here use the past tense - “Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh...” - as if it’s all finished and done with? Why “have crucified”? Shouldn’t he have said, “need to crucify” or “should crucify” or “are in the process of crucifying”? For any of those expressions would certainly be true.
He chooses to use the past tense because he wants to remind us that conversion to Christ brings about an actual change the moment it happens. We are “born again” (John 3:3) as new people; and birth is, after all, a once for all event. We become part of Christ - we are “in him” as he so often loves to say (for example, Romans 8:1). It follows, then, that if we are “in Christ”, and he has died once for all, then we too have died once for all.
So there is a paradox here, and in Colossians 3 Paul puts both parts of it together. In verse 3 he tells the Colossian Christians that “you died” (past tense) but then in verse 5 that they must “put to death whatever belongs to your earthly nature” (present tense).
A simple way to put it is this: in the Christian life there is an “already” and there is a “not yet”. The destruction of our sin through the cross is already an accomplished fact - which is why Jesus died with the triumphant cry on his lips “It is finished!” Praise God for that.
But it is not yet completed. And that is something for which we are responsible - we can’t just fold our arms and expect God to do it without us. Like that mother on the beach we must act decisively and ruthlessly.
Or you could put it like this. In principle our victory over sin is complete because of the cross. But in practice there is still a lot of hard work to do.
How are things with you and your “flesh”, your “fallen nature”? Have you become a little careless, a little indulgent, perhaps? Is Jesus calling you to take a hard look to see if there are certain things that still need to be crucified?
Let’s never forget: if we don’t destroy “the flesh”, it will destroy us. And let’s think of this as we watch Jesus being crucified this Friday...
Father God, thank you for Good Friday, and for Jesus’ final and complete victory over sin. Thank you that through faith in him I am already a new person. Now help me day by day to “put to death whatever belongs to my earthly nature” in whatever ways may be necessary. Amen.
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