DEATH TO SELF
Galatians 5:19-20 says:
"Now the deeds of the flesh are evident, which are immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmities, strife, jealousy, outbursts of anger, disputes, dissensions, factions, envying, drunkenness, carousing, and things like these, of which I forewarn you, just as I have forewarned you, that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God."
Galatians 5:22-23 lists the opposite work of the Spirit:
"But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfuless, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law."
Galatians 5:24:
"Now those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires."
Paul wrote this letter to the church at Galatia in Asia Minor. Her members had begun well by being born again by the Holy Spirit and faith in the finished work of Jesus on the cross. Then false teachers began imposing practices of Jewish law on them, claiming that unless the Galatian believers observed them, as well, they could not and would not go to heaven. Theirs became a religion of works, not faith.
In this final, closing declaration where he compares the law versus faith, Paul instructs and admonishes these believers to keep living by faith. He contrasts the difference between the outworking of life under the law, which cannot save or change the heart, and walking in the Holy Spirit, Who is Life!
Paul calls the works of the law "deeds" because the law puts the spotlight on them as acts of one's character, though it cannot save from them and their destructive outcomes.
First, he names deeds that cannot necessarily be seen but still are very much alive in a person controlled by them: immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmities, strife, jealousy. Even today people can claim they are not immoral because they have not consummated a sexual act or bowed down to some sort of statue. However, recall that Jesus said if a man looked at a woman to lust after her, already he had committed adultery with her in his heart. In today's world that includes indulging in pornography, homosexuality, and other forms of lust satisfaction.
Likewise, another manifestation of the flesh that today's Christians glide over is the slavery of idolatry. Anything that takes the place of Jesus on the throne of our heart is an idol. We live in the Last Days of earth's existence. Jesus said the Last Days would be like the days of Noah, when people lived only for wealth and pleasure.
Money in its many forms, and possessions that create pleasure and ease, can be heart idols in today's world. Remember Jesus' definition of the law: "Love the Lord your God with ALL your heart, soul, strength, and mind." God must be ALL. No room whatsoever for idols. For many believers, acquisitions and things of all sorts possess them. God does not possess either the possessions or the possesor. Things sit on the throne of their heart, not God! That is idolatry that God condemned in the Ten Commandments and condemns today!
Next in the list of deeds of the flesh are things that affect others in our circle of influence, whether family, friends or community including our church: outbursts of anger, disputes, dissensions, factions, envying, drunkenness, carousing, and things like these. When the heart is ruled by the flesh, it is bound to break out in the behaviors identified by Paul. None of them are good or beneficial. Each one destroys peace and harmony which are holy, good and loving. They create havoc in families, work places, the streets, even the church! Jesus also said we are to love others as we love ourselves. Those characteristics of the flesh certainly are destructive to relationships between others and ourself, so un-Godly!
"Now those who belong to Christ have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires."
Worst of all and hard to admit is one's most willful idol, SELF. In a day when society encourages us to be ourself, to claim our rights and to be our own person, death to our self is most unappealing and destestable. Yet, that is the ultimate foundation for the one who would really, wholly belong to Jesus and meet His criteria for being a member of His bride! It is absolutely necessary for attaining eternal life and inheriting the kingdom of God!
Jesus does not spare His followers from a death less painful and complete than His own. He endured the most awful death imagainable, made worse by the fact that He was not guilty of the sins for which He died. He did not deserve the suffering and beatings that laced His body on our behalf.
Of His followers, Jesus requires crucifixion, too---a real and life-changing death to ourself and all we claim to have and be. Jesus died to give us resurrection life. He wants to live His life through us, so we must be as He is...crucified and then risen in newness of life imbued by the Holy Spirit baptism.
Remarkably, every form of death can be self-inflicted suicide but one. It is impossible to commit suicide by crucifixion. Someone else has to drive the spikes through our wrists and feet. Someone else has to drop the cross with us on it into the hole that keeps the cross upright for the world to see. Crucifixion is an agonizing death, complete and final. And, in the case of our carnal self, it demands total humbling of our self before God, surrender to Him and His control of our life, His will over our own forever! When our surrender is complete, He will drive the nails, He will lift the cross high so our death is no secret to the universe. And, once dead, it is He Who raises us from the dead in the fullness of His Spirit!
"Now those who belong to Christ have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires."
Jesus spoke over and over again about death to self. He said a seed falls into the ground and dies, but then comes up in newness of life as a green, living plant. Life comes only after death. He had to die so that He could give us new life in His Spirit. Just so, we must die with Him so that we can rise in newness of life, also. It is that death to self, to the Old Man, to carnality, to the sin nature---name it what you will, it cannot dodge death, though it tries desperately. Only those who have experienced death to self belong to Jesus. Only those will enjoy eternal life with Him forever as His bride. Have you died?