Not in Self but Holiness

Introduction

In our culture, hope is only truly found in getting to do what we want to do when we want to do it. Even in supposedly Christian circles, that includes the ability to sin how and when we want. Any constraining of these things is often thought of as legalism or being overly strict.

The passage in front of us is incredibly well known and often memorized. Today, however, we are focusing on one of the last verses here, verse 24. Those who are showing the fruit of the Spirit have crucified the flesh. As we look at the cross, we see that we care called onto it as well.

Look to the Cross

On Good Friday, we are reminded of the suffering of Christ. The gospels don’t go into great detail on what happened, because it would be well known what a scourging was and what crucifixion involved. Many times people wouldn’t survive the scourging as the blood loss from being whipped to the point of potentially exposing internal organs could be fatal all on its own. This is to say nothing of the actual act of crucifixion itself.

Crucifixion was the cruelest way to kill someone at that time. In this method of execution, the victim died not from blood loss, but from being unable to breathe. Nailed to a piece of wood which itself was often nailed to a living tree, your arms would be spread out and bear a good portion of your weight. The rest would be bourn on your feet, themselves nailed to the tree. In order to take enough pressure off of your diaphragm you would need to pull up on your hands and push off of your feet to get up to breathe. Obviously, this would cause great pain, and the resulting weakness would only increase the longer you were on the cross. The drive to breathe would force you to do this over and over, as the feeling of breathlessness would force one into a panic. You had to really hate someone to put them through that.

Of course, the pain for Christ actually came from enduring the wrath of the Father for our sin, but we aren’t able to see that spiritual reality, so we are given this physical picture in order to slightly grasp what is going on here.

However, I wanted us to be reminded of this picture before we look at our text today. It is only one verse that is our focus. Before we get to the main verb of our verse, let’s clarify a term, the flesh. The flesh isn’t just referring the body itself. Paul is not like the Greeks who see the body as inherently evil. What Paul is referring to here is sin. If you are a Christian, you have a new nature. Your soul is redeemed, but the body still needs redemption. That will come after the final judgement, but until now, “the flesh” is cast in the role of your enemy, someone who must be fought and killed.

But notice the language that Paul uses here to describe that fight! He reaches for the cruelest, most shameful, literally excruciating method of execution there is.

Is that how we treat our sin? We use far too tame a language for our fight against sin. We talk about “struggle” or “wrestling” or “fighting” but do we say that we are crucifying our anger? Crucifying our lust? Crucifying our selfishness? That is a level of intentionality, a level of focused determination and hatred of our sin that we just don’t see talked about.

Why don’t we? I think ultimately it is because we hope in sin rather than holiness. We think that unless we indulge in our lust we will not find joy in our lives. Unless we blow up in a fit of rage at our families, we won’t have control. Unless we continue to harshly criticize others’ sins we won’t have peace about our own soul’s condition. In other words, we try to get the Fruit of the Spirit by following the passion’s of the flesh. It’s our default mode! We see others gain these things (or at least we think they do) by following the desires of the flesh, hoping in the power of sin. Jesus offers a different way.

We should instead follow after Christ, including joining Him at the cross. When it comes to the fight against sin, you need to bring a hammer and nails. You need to get some accountability. There needs to be some confession. There needs to be some support from fellow believers. Crucifying your sin is terrifying. After all, sin is all you’ve known, and whatever your pattern is has gotten you this far! But God calls us to greater. God calls us to crucify, cruelly nail our sin to the cross. To do otherwise is to nail your family, your marriage, your Lord to the cross, instead. You must crucify one or the other.

This isn’t a one time process, either. This is a continual re-nailing to the cross our sinful desires again and again over the years. Your sin knows how to talk you out of it. It knows how to look like your only hope, the one you hold dear. It will make it look like you are nailing your own child to the cross. But it is only by crucifying your sin do you find Christ.

You need to be crucified with Christ. And if you do, it will no longer be you who live, but Christ who lives in you. You will be brought to a new life, one that is not controlled by sin, but one that lives out those fruit of the Spirit earlier. The only way to bear fruit is to bear the cross.

Join Christ at the Cross

What do we do from here?

First, we take a moment to stare at the cross, realizing that this is all our sin gets us. Someone has to die, and it turns out that the person who has to suffer for your sin has to be the person who isn’t guilty of it. Your sin caused the Father to sacrifice His Son. See your sin for what it is.

Second, in dependence on The Holy Spirit inside you, begin the process of whatever it takes to get rid of sin. Maybe that means no more computer time alone. Maybe that means moving jobs. Maybe that means changing friends. Whatever in specific that means, you come after your sin with the intent of torturing it to death. Only by doing this will you find the hope that Jesus died to give you.

As one commentator reminds us, we must remember both aspects of this. Jesus has died and paid for all of your sins, but there is still the active process on your end to fight, kill—crucify—that sin every day. If we forget this, “Either the believer is lulled into passivity by assuming that God automatically does all we need apart from the response of our own will—or the believer, thinking it all falls on their own shoulders, lapses into a ‘works’ mentality that breeds anxiety.” (Moo, Galatians, 368). Look to the cross to find the power to hate your sin and kill it, and to find the peace that it is forgiven.