Crucifying the Flesh

Day 20 – Crucifying the Flesh

Scripture:
“And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.”
Galatians 5:24 (ESV)

As Paul brings his teaching on the fruit of the Spirit to a close, he makes something unmistakably clear. The life that produces spiritual fruit does not happen by accident. It comes at a cost.

Paul uses the language of crucifixion, and his readers would have immediately understood the weight of that word. Crucifixion was not symbolic or gentle. It was slow, painful, and final. When something was crucified, it was being put to death.

Here Paul tells us that those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. In other words, the only way the fruit of the Spirit becomes evident in our lives is when the old way of life is no longer in charge.

This helps us understand what limits spiritual growth. Yesterday we saw that there is no law, no limit, placed on love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. God never tells us to have less of those things.

What limits the fruit of the Spirit is not God’s law. It is our flesh.

The desires of the flesh are often at odds with the Spirit of God within us. The flesh pulls us toward comfort, control, pride, and self. The Spirit pulls us toward surrender, obedience, humility, and life. When we give in to the flesh, the fruit of the Spirit is crowded out. When the flesh is put to death, the life of Christ begins to shine through us.

Crucifying the flesh does not mean pretending temptation does not exist. It means choosing, again and again, not to let sin win. It means refusing to settle for who we have been, and instead leaning into who we are becoming through the power of the Holy Spirit.
This is where real freedom is found. Not in doing whatever we want, but in living fully alive in Christ.

So the question for today is simple, but not easy.
What needs to die so that Christ may live in and through you?

Reflection

• Where do you most often feel the tension between the flesh and the Spirit?
• What desires or habits might be limiting the fruit God wants to grow in your life?
• What would it look like today to choose surrender instead of self?

Prayer
Jesus, thank You for giving Your life so that I could truly live. Help me to put to death the things in my life that pull me away from You. I want Your Spirit to shape my desires, my choices, and my future. Teach me to surrender daily so that Your life is seen in me. Amen.