Galatians 5:16-26: Life in the New Man: Crucifying the Flesh

Romans 8:11–14 If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit who dwells in you. So then, brothers, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh. For if you live according to the flesh you will die, but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live. For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God.

Intro

In our war against sin, too many Christians spend their life surrendering ground to the enemy.

Of trying to manage their sin instead of killing it and putting it to death.

Instead of a life of victory a life of stumbling and failure again and again and again.

What does it look like to have victory over sin.

The last few weeks we’ve been looking at the New Man… Putting off the Old Self and putting on the New.

Setting our minds on things above striving after Christ and Godliness making godliness the #1 aim in our life living out the New Man and not the Old Man of the flesh.

And Lord willing, for the next two weeks we are going to look at this life in the New Man.

What does it mean to live as a New Creation in Christ?

And there two aspects… Life in the New Man crucifies the flesh and Life in the New Man bears the Fruit of the Spirit.

This week we are going to look at crucifying the flesh.

In Galatians 5 Paul talks about the works of the flesh and makes it clear: life in the New Man - the life of every true believer- is a life of war against the flesh and a daily crucifixion of its passions and desires.

Our Big Idea for the day is very simple…

Life in the New Man is making war on your sin and crucifying the flesh.

Putting off the Old and Putting on the New.

And we are going to have two points today looking at this war and how the Holy Spirit gives us victory in it.

Number 1… The New Man Wars Against Sin…

Number 2… The New Man Crucifies the Flesh…

Because of Jesus we are no longer slaves of sin but New Creations.

Indwelt by the Holy Spirit and empowered to live out the freedom in a life of holiness.

Let’s start with point number 1 and the spiritual battle against our flesh with…

I. The New Man Wars Against Sin

Galatians 5:16–21 But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh.

To put this in context… the whole letter of Galatians has been a diatribe against the Judaizers...

False teachers who were teaching a false gospel of justification by works.

You needed to be circumcised to be saved.

You needed to come back under the Old Covenant Law.

Trust in Christ for forgiveness but then make sure you keep the Law enough to to make yourself righteous.

Gospel

Paul’s whole point is that we are saved by Grace Alone through Faith Alone in Christ Alone and not by any of our good works.

Galatians is where Paul says that no one will be justified by works of the Law (Galatians 2:16).

And that if you accept circumcision… if you think even one aspect of the Law does anything to justify you… then you will be obligated to keep the whole Law and Christ will be of no advantage to you (Galatians 5:2-4).

He is our righteousness and He is all of our righteousness.

Galatians 4:4–5 When the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons.

The Eternal Son of God became a man and was born under the Law to fulfill the Law on our behalf.

And He went to the cross to suffer the penalty of the Law that our sin deserved.

For the wages of sin is death and Galatians 3:13 Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us—for it is written, “Cursed is everyone who is hanged on a tree” (Romans 6:23).

We are saved by Grace Alone through Faith Alone in Christ Alone because Christ fulfilled all the righteous requirements of the Law on our behalf and became a curse for us so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God (2 Corinthians 5:21).

That’s the gospel!

We are not saved by self-righteous, religious legalism… we are saved by God’s grace through faith in Christ.

But at the same time that doesn’t mean we are free to sin!

You get this a lot in our day.

On the one side of the ditch there is legalism and the other side of the ditch is antinomianism…

This idea of grace, grace, grace, grace, grace… You can’t judge me! That’s legalistic.

Anytime you bring up holiness and obedience Lukewarm Christianity will say its all grace.

But that grace does not free us to sin but frees us… from sin.

That’s why Paul says in Galatians 5:13 For you were called to freedom, brothers. Only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh.

In other words… the Christian life is not one that is Slavery to Sin or Slavery to Justification by Works and Religious Legalism…

Its slavery to Christ.

And slavery to Christ says put to death the deeds and desires of the flesh!

That’s verse 17…

For the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh, for these are opposed to each other, to keep you from doing the things you want to do. But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law.

What Paul is saying here is that life in the New Man is a war against sins of the flesh.

A spiritual battle of putting off the Old Man.

When you are born again the Holy Spirit comes to dwell in you (Ephesians 1:13-14).

And He gives you a New Heart with New Affections

In the New Covenant God promises I will take out their heart of stone and give them a heart of flesh and I will put my laws into their minds and write them on their hearts (Ezekiel 36:26; Hebrews 8:10).

This is the New Birth and being made a New Creation in Christ (2 Corinthians 5:17).

Where we once lived for sin… we live for sin no more.

God has given us new hearts… hearts that love Him and want to keep His commandments.

But we still struggle with the Flesh… our old sinful nature… that wars against the Spirit… For the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh.

We want to keep God’s law but the flesh… the Old Man… keeps us from doing the things we want to do.

Its that Spiritual Battle…

And Paul talked about that Spiritual Battle first hand in Romans 7.

He said…

Romans 7:15–17 For I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate. Now if I do what I do not want, I agree with the law, that it is good. So now it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me.

I’ve been made a New Creation.

I don’t want to sin… but sin is still there.

Verse 18…

Romans 7:18–20 For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh. For I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out. For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing. Now if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me.

The Old Man…

Romans 7:21–24 So I find it to be a law that when I want to do right, evil lies close at hand. For I delight in the law of God, in my inner being, but I see in my members another law waging war against the law of my mind and making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members. Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death?

This is the war between the Old Man and the New Man… between the desires of the flesh and the desires of the Spirit (Galatians 5:17).

And this war is called Sanctification… crucifying the flesh and walking in obedience to Christ.

And this War is the Life of the New Man… its our daily work.

As John Owen said, “Make it your daily work; be always at it while you live; cease not a day from this work; be killing sin or [sin] will be killing you.”

And then in verse 19 Paul describes some of the works of the flesh that are against the Spirit.

Galatians 5:19–21 Now the works of the flesh are evident: sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality,

Sexual Immorality

These include sexual sins of all kinds…

Fornication…

Cohabitation or living together…

Adultery…

Homosexuality…

Transgenderism…

Pornography…

Any kind of Sexual Deviancy…

All the way down to even lustful thoughts and long glances.

Jesus said anyone who even who looks at a woman with lustful intent has already committed adultery with her in his heart (Matthew 6:8).

We have to be zealous in taking our thoughts captive.

In our hyper-sexualized world where its just thrown at you all the time… we need to have the commitment of Job who said, “I have made a covenant with my eyes; how then could I gaze at a virgin?” (Job 31:1).

Are we zealous for our purity?

Are we guarding our thoughts… our minds… our marriages… our families from every manner of sexual sin?

Speaking of the Adulterous Proverbs says Proverbs 5:3–5 For the lips of a forbidden woman drip honey, and her speech is smoother than oil, but in the end she is bitter as wormwood, sharp as a two-edged sword. Her feet go down to death; her steps follow the path to Sheol.

Can a man carry fire next to his chest and his clothes not be burned? Or can one walk on hot coals and his feet not be scorched? (Proverbs 6:28).

He who commits adultery lacks sense; he who does it destroys himself. (Proverbs 6:32).

Paul says Flee from sexual immorality. Every other sin a person commits is outside the body, but the sexually immoral person sins against his own body. Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you? 1 Corinthians 6:18–19.

I’ll give you another one… impurity and sensuality would also include dressing modestly.

Women do you dress with dignity?

Young women are you dressing in such a way to invite the eye not for your beauty…

Its not wrong to be pretty… although Peter does say that the focus of your adorning [should] be the hidden person of the heart with the imperishable beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which in God’s sight is very precious”… (1 Peter 3:3-4).

But are you dressing in such a way to provoke attention and inviting your brothers to stumble?

At the end of the day, sexual immorality of all kinds needs to be ruthlessly put to death in our life.

As Paul says elsewhere But sexual immorality and all impurity or covetousness must not even be named among you, as is proper among saints (Ephesians 5:3).

Next on the list Paul includes…

Idolatry/Sorcery

idolatry, sorcery,

Idolatry is obviously the worship of false gods.

Worshiping anything or anyone other than the Triune God revealed in Jesus Christ.

Sorcery on its own is a little more difficult.

We usually think of sorcery as strictly witchcraft… which it definitely includes… but it really is anything that tries to “touch” the spiritual… or connect to the spiritual… or commune with the spiritual outside of Christ.

So this would include magic, psychics, and any participation in the occult…

The word Greek word itself is pharmakeia where we get our word pharmacy and so sorcery is also associated psychedelics and mind altering drugs…

So while you might not be having seances, drug use and marijuana are off limits for the Christian.

UAPs

And another one that you probably need to be aware of for our day is all this talk of UAPs (which just stands for Unidentified Arial Phenomena and is the new term for UFOs), but it involves aliens, and extraterrestrial phenomena and its becoming more and more common in the public discourse and even in our own government.

Now some, if not most of it, is probably just advanced human technology sitting behind layers and layers of classification.

But you’ll get people talk about crafts and interdimensional beings…

And if you think I’m crazy then you just haven’t been watching the news.

Its been in congressional hearings, on major news programs and in fact one of the most popular movies on Amazon right now is called the “Age of Disclosure” which has a lot of high-ranking government officials talk about whistleblowers and reverse engineering alien craft.

And it always starts with technology appealing to our culture’s scientific sensibilities but it always ends up being spiritual… we’re not alone, or they’re our creators or they can show us some higher path to life.

And you’ll hear people talk about “summoning” these craft and communicating with these interdimensional or alien entities… having life-changing spiritual encounters…

And its all just demons… its just sorcery rebranded as scientific technology.

Don’t be fooled.

The angelic wheels in Ezekiel were all pretty amazing too.

They could go this way and that in any of their four directions without turning as they went (Ezekiel 1:15-21)

And in the end… all demons are… are fallen angels too.

For me its just Satan’s scheme to make people question the truth of God’s Word.

Paul goes on…

Relational Sins

enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, envy,

These are relational sins where we love ourselves more than we love one another.

They involve fighting… hostility… bitter conflict.

Selfishness outbursts of anger with impatience.

Rivalries turning conflict into winner takes all and always putting yourself first.

Paul says all these sins are works of the flesh.

And the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit.

So let me put it really practically for you.

It doesn’t matter if its your marriage… with your kids… with somebody else in this church… whatever relationship you have if these sins are boiling up… you automatically know you are walking in the flesh.

It doesn’t matter how right you think you are… if you have fits of anger and division and strife… if you’re stoking the fires… that’s not walking in the Spirit.

This is a huge check in our arguments cause I might think I’m right but the Spirit never leads someone into these works of the flesh.

Those should be automatic warning bells of what spirit we are walking in because those are all things that belong to the Old Man.

Drunkenness/Orgies

And finally…

drunkenness, orgies, and things like these.

These have to do with sins of indulgence or giving into a lack of self-control.

Alcohol

Now with drunkenness, alcohol is not a sin.

Psalm 104 says that God gave wine to gladden the heart of men (Psalm 104:14).

Jesus’ first miracle was turning water into wine (John 2).

But drunkenness and alcoholism belongs to the Old Man of the flesh.

Peter says For whatever overcomes a person, to that he is enslaved (2 Peter 2:19; cf. John 8:34).

κῶμος

That second word is not what we would normally think of when that word comes to mind…

Its more along the lines of wild partying of any kind.

Its excessive drinking and feasting and indulgence in all kinds immoral behavior that usually went with it that was usually associated with pagan feasts at the temples.

So as a work of the flesh this would include revelry and conformity to the world.

And Paul says…

I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.

The idea is not that if you’ve ever committed one of these sins…

If you’ve ever been drunk or had a lustful thought or ever given into an outburst of anger.

The idea is whoever lives in these sins… is given over to them and continually gives into them.

There is no coming into the Kingdom without repentance.

Living a life of sin… not struggling with sin!… we looked at that earlier!

But living a life of sin… is evidence that you are not born again and still in the flesh.

Its that warfare idea… if you are in the Spirit there will be a war against the works of your flesh because it cannot be otherwise… the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh.

And this is not an exhaustive list.

Down in verse 26 Paul highlights some of the particular sins tempting the Galatians… Let us not become conceited, provoking one another, envying one another (Galatians 5:26).

And here, Paul even he says “and things like these,” implying there are other things like slander or gossip or pride that he could have put on this list.

List As A Whole

So here’s what we need to do… we need to take the list as a whole.

And when you take the list as a whole Paul’s point is that the works of the flesh are all evident in an Unholy, Unloving, and Undisciplined Life.

Whatever fits into one of those categories are the very things that we should be putting to death.

Be Killing Sin or It will be Killing you.

Anything Unholy…

Unloving…

Anything that is the result or a life given over to a lack of self-control…

That’s all a part of the Old Man.

And the New Man… Paul says… has crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.

And that’s point number 2…

The New Man wars against sin and Crucifies the flesh.

II. The New Man Crucifies the Flesh

Galatians 5:24 And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.

There’s a callback here to what Paul said back in Galatians 2:20 I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.

In Galatians 2:20 we are the ones being crucified.

We die with Christ and we are raised to walk in the newness of life.

This is God’s work in our conversion.

But in Galatians 5:24 we are the ones doing the crucifying.

Paul says those who belong to Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.

What’s being crucified?… the flesh… the Old Man… the Old Self.

And notice Paul says have crucified.

Its past tense.

Its not something we are doing… its something we have done.

This is repentance.

We have died to our sin in coming to Christ.

Romans 6:6 says it like this: We know that our old self was crucified with him in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing, so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin.

In coming to Christ, you have crucified the flesh.

You’ve repented!

The Question is… Have you died to sin?

Have you truly crucified the flesh or is your sin still an option for you?

Have you truly died to it or is just… something you know you shouldn’t do?

Look what Paul says in Romans 6:11.

Romans 6:11 So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.

What does it mean when we say someone’s dead to you?

That you don’t talk to them… you don’t interact with them.

You don’t fellowship with them.

That relationship is completely dead and cut off.

That’s supposed to be you and your sin.

We don’t interact with it…

We don’t converse with it…

We don’t give an ear to its sweet temptations.

When temptation comes… “You’re dead to me” or better… “I’m dead to you.”

The Old Man’s not here… I’m a New Creation in Christ!

How many of us treat temptation that way?

There needs to be a ruthlessness in putting our sin to death… something as ruthless as crucifixion.

We don’t welcome sin as a friend or give it an ear.

What did God say?

Sin is crouching at the door. Its desire is contrary to you, but you must rule over it (Genesis 4:7).

Sin is a wild animal that wants to eat you alive.

With every temptation we need to see our sin as an enemy at the gates seeking to destroy us.

Seeking to lay up seige works against our heart and kill us to the very last.

This does not mean we won’t struggle with sin.

Crucifixion is a slow death.

Paul says we have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.

When temptation comes, we don’t draw out the nails to give our sin new life.

We drive the nails in deeper!!

That’s you in your war against sin.

Anything Unholy… Unloving… Undisciplined given over to passions and desires

Every temptation… is sin gasping for breath and the very place you need to drive the death blow.

Pick up the hammer and drive the nails harder.

By the Spirit

But its not by force of will… by our own strength… or by white knuckling our own holiness.

Its a Spirit empowered crucifixion.

A Spirit-empowered holiness in a Spirit-empowered holy war.

Paul says in Galatians 5:15 and 25…

Galatians 5:15, 25 But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh… If we live by the Spirit, let us also keep in step with the Spirit.

Keep in step is a military term used to talk about walking in ranks… following orders… and keeping formation.

The idea is a step-by-step, moment by moment dependance on Him and following His lead.

So what does it mean to walk by the Spirit… live by the Spirit… keep in step with the Spirit?

It means depending on the Spirit’s strength and power and not ourselves.

It means living by His wisdom and His light as revealed in His Word.

Men wrote the Bible as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit (2 Peter 1:21)..

He illuminates and shines a light on the Scripture He inspired

He will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you (John 14:26).

The Holy Spirit works in us a New Heart with New affections that loves Christ and wants to live for Christ and we put our sin to death more and more as we live out those New Affections.

The sweetness of sin?… That’s all part of the Old Man… that’s part of the flesh.

That’s not walking by the Spirit.

Walking by the Spirit is not grieving the Spirit and being filled with the Spirit letting the Word of Christ dwell in you richly (Ephesians 4:30; Ephesians 5:18-19; Colossians 3:16).

Its not vague spiritual feelings or trying to hear that quiet whisper.

Its depending on the Spirit and trying to live according to God’s Word.

Its when temptation comes praying “Lord God, give me victory over this Sin. Help me in this temptation and deliver me from my own sinful flesh.”

Its what we talked about a few weeks ago.

God I’m insufficient here.

I’m weak here.

I need your grace here.

I know I’ve crucified the flesh… I know I should be dead to this sin.

But its so tempting and I’m so weak.

Will you give me the Holy Spirit… will you give me a greater measure of His sanctifying grace and power!

I can’t do it on my own… I need your help.

Without you, I have no hope.

And If you who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him! (Luke 11:11-13).

And remember the promise that comes right before that passage… Everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks it will be opened.

He is the Helper…

The One who comes alongside with strength to help us wherever we have need.

Its a long… slow process. Crucifixion takes time.

It doesn’t happen all at once…

But it happens more and more as we yield to the Holy Spirit.

But there’s got to be that break.

That point where you consider yourself dead to sin and alive to God whether thats in general or some particular sin in your life.

Without that break… without that resolve… without that renouncing of sin… you will just keep treading water.

But here’s the Promise!

2 Corinthians 3:17–18 Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit.

You will have victory over that sin.

That sin will not always define you…

That sin will not always beat you.

You have crucified the flesh!

That sin is already in its death throes.

Its gasping for its last breath.

And the Holy Spirit lives in you as a New Creation to sanctify you by His grace and power.

And So… 2 Corinthians 4:16… we do not lose heart. Though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day.

Step by step.

Conclusion

Life in the New Man is making war on your sin and crucifying the flesh.

Be killing sin or sin will be killing you.

Its progressive sanctification… putting off the Old self and putting on the New.

Its a daily crucifixion of the flesh with its passions and desires.

Have you crucified the flesh?

Have you died to the flesh with its passions and desires.

You can’t live life in the New Man without it.

The New Man is zealous for his holiness and ruthless in the crucifixion of his sin.

Are you living out the New Man or are you still living out the Old?

And don’t lose heart…the same grace that justified us is not the same grace that sanctifies us leading us step by step into greater freedom, joy, and communion with Christ.

You’re not losing ground… the victory is already won.

Let’s Pray

Heavenly Father, thank You for the finished work of Christ and the ongoing work of Your Spirit in us. Help us to give up every darling lust. Make every sin that seems so sweet become bitter. Strengthen us to walk by the Spirit, to crucify the flesh with its passions and desires, and to experience the freedom and joy of life in the New Man. Renew our hearts, empower our steps, and draw us closer to Jesus. In His precious name we pray, Amen.

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