Galatians 5:24

And they that are Christ's have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(24) But such things are just what the Christian would do. He will have nothing to make him act differently. He will not need to be taught peaceableness, goodness, or self-control, for the impulses which run counter to these are dead within him: they were killed at the moment when he gave himself up wholly to a crucified Saviour.

And.—Better, How, or But; introducing a summary conclusion from what has gone before, applying it to the Christian.

They that are Christ’s.—The reading of the oldest MSS. is, they that are of Christ Jesus. The Messianic character of the Christian scheme is put forward prominently: “they that belong to Jesus, the Messiah.”

Have crucified the flesh.—Strictly, crucified: viz., in their baptism. A full comment on this expression is afforded by Romans 6:2-14, where see Notes. The relation into which the Christian is brought with Christ is such as to neutralise and deaden all the sensual impulses within him; and inasmuch as the central point in that relation is the crucifixion: inasmuch, further, as crucifixion is death, and the Christian is bound to make the death of his Master his own, so far as relates to sin, he is said not merely to “kill” but to “crucify” the flesh, with its evil appetites and passions.

Affections and lusts.—Passions and desires. “Affections” are passive—susceptibility to evil impressions; “lusts” active—desire for that which is forbidden.

Benson Commentary

Galatians 5:24. And they that are Christ’s — Who are true believers in him, and therefore possessed of union with him, and shall be finally owned as belonging to him; have crucified the flesh — Have doomed it to a certain death, like the body of one that is nailed to a cross, and left to expire upon it; with the affections and lusts — All its evil passions, appetites, and inclinations. The word affections, or passions, as παθηματα should rather be rendered, as distinguished from the lusts of the flesh, are pride, self-will, discontent, anger, malice, envy, revenge. “This is a beautiful and affecting allusion to our Lord’s sufferings on the cross. The restraining of our fleshly lusts may be very painful to us, as the word crucify implies. But the same word, by putting us in mind of Christ’s suffering much greater pain for us, touches all the generous feelings of the heart, and excites us, from gratitude to him, to disregard the pain which so necessary a duty may occasion to us.”

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

5:16-26 If it be our care to act under the guidance and power of the blessed Spirit, though we may not be freed from the stirrings and oppositions of the corrupt nature which remains in us, it shall not have dominion over us. Believers are engaged in a conflict, in which they earnestly desire that grace may obtain full and speedy victory. And those who desire thus to give themselves up to be led by the Holy Spirit, are not under the law as a covenant of works, nor exposed to its awful curse. Their hatred of sin, and desires after holiness, show that they have a part in the salvation of the gospel. The works of the flesh are many and manifest. And these sins will shut men out of heaven. Yet what numbers, calling themselves Christians, live in these, and say they hope for heaven! The fruits of the Spirit, or of the renewed nature, which we are to do, are named. And as the apostle had chiefly named works of the flesh, not only hurtful to men themselves, but tending to make them so to one another, so here he chiefly notices the fruits of the Spirit, which tend to make Christians agreeable one to another, as well as to make them happy. The fruits of the Spirit plainly show, that such are led by the Spirit. By describing the works of the flesh and fruits of the Spirit, we are told what to avoid and oppose, and what we are to cherish and cultivate; and this is the sincere care and endeavour of all real Christians. Sin does not now reign in their mortal bodies, so that they obey it, Ro 6:12, for they seek to destroy it. Christ never will own those who yield themselves up to be the servants of sin. And it is not enough that we cease to do evil, but we must learn to do well. Our conversation will always be answerable to the principle which guides and governs us, Ro 8:5. We must set ourselves in earnest to mortify the deeds of the body, and to walk in newness of life. Not being desirous of vain-glory, or unduly wishing for the esteem and applause of men, not provoking or envying one another, but seeking to bring forth more abundantly those good fruits, which are, through Jesus Christ, to the praise and glory of God.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

And they that are Christ's - All who are true Christians.

Have crucified the flesh - The corrupt passions of the soul have been put to death; that is, destroyed. They are as though they were dead, and have no power over us; see the note at Galatians 2:20.

With the affections - Margin, "Passions." All corrupt desires.

And lusts - See the note at Romans 1:24.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

24. The oldest manuscripts read, "They that are of Christ Jesus"; they that belong to Christ Jesus; being "led by (His) Spirit" (Ga 5:18).

have crucified the flesh—They nailed it to the cross once for all when they became Christ's, on believing and being baptized (Ro 6:3, 4): they keep it now in a state of crucifixion (Ro 6:6): so that the Spirit can produce in them, comparatively uninterrupted by it, "the fruit of the Spirit" (Ga 5:22). "Man, by faith, is dead to the former standing point of a sinful life, and rises to a new life (Ga 5:25) of communion with Christ (Col 3:3). The act by which they have crucified the flesh with its lust, is already accomplished ideally in principle. But the practice, or outward conformation of the life, must harmonize with the tendency given to the inward life" (Ga 5:25) [Neander]. We are to be executioners, dealing cruelly with the body of sin, which has caused the acting of all cruelties on Christ's body.

with the affections—Translate, "with its passions." Thus they are dead to the law's condemning power, which is only for the fleshly, and their lusts (Ga 5:23).

Matthew Poole's Commentary

They that are Christ’s; those who are ingrafted into Christ by faith, united to him, and so his members;

have crucified the flesh; by virtue of a power derived from the cross of Christ, have got their unregenerate part in a great measure mortified;

with the affections and lusts; with the inordinate desires, affections, and passions of it: not that they have wholly put off these, (they are men still), but the inordinateness of them is corrected, mortified, and subdued.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

And they that are Christ's,.... Not all as yet that are secretly so, who are chosen in him, and by him, are given by the Father to him in covenant, and whom he has purchased by his blood, and considers as his people, his sheep, and his children, though as yet they are not called by his grace; of these, as yet, what follows cannot be said, and therefore must mean such as are openly Christ's, whom he has laid hold on as his own in the effectual calling, who have his Spirit as a spirit of regeneration and sanctification, who have truly believed in Christ, and have given up themselves unto him.

have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts: by the flesh is meant, not the natural body to be macerated and afflicted with fastings, watchings, &c. but the corruption of nature, the old man and carnal heart. The Vulgate Latin version reads, "their own flesh"; and so do the Syriac and Ethiopic versions; their concern lying with their own, and not with the corruptions, affections, and lusts of others. By "the affections and lusts" are intended, not the natural affections and passions of the soul, and the desires of it; but its vile and inordinate affections, its corrupt inclinations, evil desires, and deceitful lusts; all which are "crucified" first "with Christ", as the Arabic version reads; see Romans 6:6 and which are so abolished, done away, and destroyed, by the sacrifice of Christ, that the damning power of them over his people is entirely gone. And in consequence of this crucifixion of the body of sin, with Christ upon the cross, when he finished and made an end of it, sin, with its passions and lusts, is crucified by the Spirit of God in regeneration and sanctification; so that it loses its governing power, and has not the dominion it had before: not but that the flesh, or corrupt nature, with its evil affections, and carnal lusts, are still in being, and are alive; as a person fastened to a cross may be alive, though he cannot act and move as before, being under restraints, so the old man, though crucified, and under the restraints of mighty grace, and cannot reign and govern as before, yet is alive, and acts, and operates, and oftentimes has great sway and influence; but whereas he is deprived of his reigning power, he is said to be crucified: and though this act is ascribed to them that are Christ's, yet not as done by them in their own strength, who are not able to grapple with one corruption, but as under the influence of the grace of Christ, and through the power of his Spirit; see Romans 8:13.

Geneva Study Bible

And they that are Christ's have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Meyer's NT Commentary

Galatians 5:24. After Paul has in Galatians 5:17 explained his exhortation given in Galatians 5:16, and recommended compliance with it on account of its blessed results (Galatians 5:18-23), he now shows (continuing his discourse by the transitional δέ) how this compliance—the walking in the Spirit—has its ground and motive in the specific nature of the Christian; if the Christian has crucified his flesh, and consequently lives through the Spirit, his walk also must follow the Spirit.

τὴν σάρκα ἐσταύρωσαν] not: they crucify their flesh (Luther and others; also Matthies); but: they have crucified it, namely, when they became believers and received baptism, whereby they entered into moral fellowship with the death of Jesus (see on Galatians 2:19, Galatians 6:14; Romans 6:3; Romans 7:4) by becoming νεκροὶ τῇ ἁμαρτίᾳ (Romans 6:11). The symbolical idea: “to have crucified the flesh,” expresses, therefore, the having renounced all fellowship of life with sin, the seat of which is the flesh (σάρξ); so that, just as Christ has been objectively crucified, by means of entering into the fellowship of this death on the cross the Christian has subjectively—in the moral consciousness of faith—crucified the σάρξ, that is, has rendered it entirely void of life and efficacy, by means of faith as the new element of life to which he has been transferred. To the Christians ideally viewed, as here, this ethical crucifixion of the flesh is something which has taken place (comp. Romans 6:2 ff.), but in reality it is also something now taking place and continuous (Romans 8:13; Colossians 3:5). The latter circumstance, however, in this passage, where Paul looks upon the matter as completed at conversion and the life thenceforth led as ζῆν πνεύματι (Galatians 5:25; comp. Galatians 2:20), is not to be conceived (with Bengel and Schott) as standing alongside of that ideal relation,—an interpretation which the historical aorist unconditionally forbids.

σὺν τοῖς παθήμ. κ. ταῖς ἐπιθυμ.] together with the affections (see on Romans 7:5) and lusts, which, brought about by the power of sin instigated by the prohibitions of the law (Romans 7:8), have their seat in and take their rise from the σάρξ, the corporeo-psychical nature of man, which is antagonistic to God; hence they must, if the σάρξ is crucified through fellowship with the death of the Lord, be necessarily crucified with it, and could not remain alive. Comp. on Galatians 5:17; Romans 7:14 ff. The ἐπιθυμίαι are the more special sinful lusts and desires, in which the παθήματα display their activity and take their definite shapes. Romans 7:5; Romans 7:8. The affections excite the feelings, and hence arise ἐπιθυμίαι, in which their definite expressions manifest themselves; τῇ γὰρ ἐπὶ τὸν θυμὸν ἰούσῃ δυνάμει δῆλον ὅτι τοῦτο ἐκλήθη τὸ ὄνομα, Plat. Crat. p. 419 D. Comp. 1 Thessalonians 4:5.

Expositor's Greek Testament

Galatians 5:24. ἐσταύρωσαν. The Apostle has already traced back his own spiritual life to the fellowship with the crucifixion of Christ, which he had undergone at his conversion (Galatians 2:20). He assumes that his converts have likewise crucified the will of the flesh—not, however (as the previous context shows), that that will is already dead, but that the spirit has by one decisive victory asserted its complete supremacy in all true Christians, and so given an earnest of its entire triumph in the end.—παθήμασιν. This word departs here from its usual meaning, sufferings, and expresses inward emotions, as in Romans 7:5. Greek philosophers applied πάθος in like manner to denote active impulses of passion.

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

24. they that are Christ’s] They who belong to Christ, who are His by redemption—or perhaps as in Galatians 3:29, who are part of Christ. The same expression occ. 1 Corinthians 15:23. The R.V. reads ‘They that are of Christ Jesus’, which has the support of the earlier MSS.

have crucified] The aorist may be rendered strictly—‘crucified’; in which case the reference will be to their conversion and baptism. But in many passages of the N. T. this tense must be represented in translation by the English perfect as its true equivalent. Crucifixion is a lingering mode of death; and though the reception of Baptism was an overt and initial act by which the deeds of the body were mortified, yet such mortification is continued daily through the whole of the believer’s earthly life. It only ceases when he is ‘delivered from the burden of the flesh’. Compare the prayer for the newly baptized in the Office for Baptism: ‘that he being dead unto sin … may crucify the old man, and utterly abolish the whole body of sin’.

the affections and lusts] ‘its passions and appetites’. See Trench, N. T. Syn. p. 311, foll.

Bengel's Gnomen

Galatians 5:24. Οἱ δὲ τοῦ Χριστοῦ, Moreover they who are Christ’s) He resumes the proposition laid down at Galatians 5:18.—τὴν σάρκα, the flesh) of which Galatians 5:19-20.—ἐσταύρωσαν, have crucified) They do so with Christ, Romans 6:6, by having received baptism and faith. They have it crucified at present [they have the flesh now in a state of crucifixion]. Supply, and the Spirit is strong within them. This is included in Galatians 5:24 from Galatians 5:22.—παθήμασι, with the passions) The lusts spring from the passions, and are nourished by them. The affections and appetites both deserve the same punishment as the flesh. [The passions are those that are violent, boisterous, and outrageous. The lusts, on the contrary, calmly seek after what is calculated to minister food to the senses.—V. g.]

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 24. - And they that are Christ's (οἱ δὲ τοῦ Ξριστοῦ Ἰησοῦ [Receptus omits Ἰησοῦ]; now they that are of the Christ Jesus. The expression, ὁ Ξριστὸς Ἰησοῦς is not a common one. It occurs besides in Ephesians 3:1, τοῦ Ξριστοῦ Ἰησοῦ, where, however, as indeed here, editors are not quite unanimous in retaining Ἱησοῦ: and Colossians 2:6, τὸν Ξριστὸν Ἰησοῦν τὸν Κύριον. Ξριστὸς Ἰησοῦς without the article is continually met with. The presence of the article seems to betoken that the word "Christ" is introduced as an official description rather than as a proper name, "the Christ Jesus" being thus a phrase similar to "the Lord Jesus." Not being so familiar to us as this latter, it appears at first more uncouth than it really is. To understand the precise force of the conjunction δέ, we must review the foregoing context. In vers. 16, 17 the apostle puts in contrast with each other, "walking by the Spirit" and "fulfilling the desire of the flesh." In the three following verses (19-21) he points out what kind of life the flesh prompts men to pursue, and its fatal consequences; in vers. 22, 23 the character formed by the Spirit's influence, and its blessed immunity from the censure of the Law. He is now concerned to show how these considerations apply to Christians. A Christian (he says) by becoming such puts away the flesh; is alive, therefore, if at all, by or to the Spirit; this being so, he must in all reason by the Spirit's direction rule his conduct. It results from this review that the δὲ turns the course of remark upon a new topic, namely, the essential character of a Christian's profession as a premiss to introduce the practical conclusion stated in ver. 25. The use of the possessive, "of the Christ Jesus," is similar to that in 1 Corinthians 3:23, "ye are Christ's;" Romans 8:9, "he is not his;" Romans14:8, "we are the Lord's." Comp. also 2 Timothy 2:19; Titus 2:14, "a people for his own possession;" Ephesians 1:14. We are made Christ's people, outwardly and in covenant, by baptism; but we cannot be his very own, really and vitally (Romans 8:9), unless through faith we recognize him as our Lord and of our own free will and deed attach ourselves heartily to his discipleship. In that hour of renunciation of sin we in truth "fasten the flesh to the cross." Have crucified the flesh (τὴν σάρκα ἐσταύρωσαν). That is, have put it away from them, as a thing to be abhorred, that it might die the death. These three several particulars of thought appear combined in the mixt mode embodied in the word "crucified." The verb, denoting simply affixing to the cross, and not putting to death by crucifixion, intimates the lingering character of the death which the flesh was to undergo. It was, indeed, put away at once, by a final decisive act of the will; but it would still for a while continue to live. Viewed thus, the notion represented by the image harmonizes with the statement in ver. 17 of the continued conflict which is being waged within us between the flesh and the Spirit. The time when the Christian did thus affix the flesh to the cross is indicated by the form of expression, of being "of Christ;" there can have been no time since he has been Christ's at which this thing had not been already done. It is, alas, but too possible to take the flesh still living down from the cross and clasp it afresh to our bosom; but cherishing that as our friend, we are Christ's no longer. Above (Galatians 2:20) the apostle wrote, "I am hanging on the cross with Christ: but I live;" but with a different application of the image. There he was thinking of the relation into which his union with the crucified Jesus brought him with respect to the Mosaical Law. Here he has in view the renunciation of sin which accompanies the addiction of ourselves to Christ's service. There he himself is crucified; here, the flesh. The cross once more recurs in Galatians 6:9, with yet another reference. The description here given by the apostle of Christian conversion tallies well with that given by him in Romans 6:3-11. There, however, the change through which a man becomes a Christian is couched under a different image - that of a death and resurrection, analogous to and founded upon the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, which, in baptism, administered according to the original primitive mode, are represented by the immersion in and the emerging from the water. While illustrating this image, the apostle further says (ver. 6), "Our old man was crucified with him (συνεσταυρώθη), that the body of sin might be done away, that we should no longer be in bondage to sin;" where the Greek word rendered "was crucified with (him)" again denotes being affixed to the cross, in sympathy with him "who was made sin for us," with the view of bringing to nought "the body of sin "- which phrase, "body of sin," is nearly equivalent to "flesh," being the sum total of the vicious activities in which the flesh manifests itself; this bringing to nought or doing away (κατάργησις) of the body of sin, being the result ultimately to follow from the crucifixion, and not identical with it. In the passage in the Romans now referred to, the apostle brings to view, not only the just now cited description of the negative side of our regeneration, but also its positive side, of a passing into a new sphere of activities "walking in newness of life," and "living unto God in Christ Jesus." In our present passage the negative phrase is alone definitely stated. The difference is probably due to the fact that the figure of crucifying the flesh supplies the illustration of only the negative aspect; whereas baptism, with its watery burial and resurrection, represents the positive aspect as well. With the affections and lusts (σὺν τοῖς παθήμασι καὶ ταῖς ἐπιθυμίαις); with its affections and its lusts. The difference between "affections" and "lusts" may be probably assumed to be this - that the former denotes disordered states of the soul viewed as in a condition of disease, well represented in the Authorized Version by "affections;" whine the latter points to the goings forth of the soul towards objects which it is wrong to pursue. In Philippians 3:10; 1 Peter 1:11, and a number of other passages the noun παθήματα means "sufferings." Only once besides is it used in an ethical sense; in Romans 7:5 we read, "The παθήματα of sins which were through the Law wrought in our members to bring forth fruit unto death;" and in vers. 7, 8 the apostle instances "coveting" (ἐπιθυμία) as wrought by sin in his soul, by occasion of the commandment, "Thou shalt not covet." We seem led to conjecture that he meant that a sinful condition of the soul (πάθημα ἁμαρτίας) was by the commandment stimulated into a mere aggressive action. We have πάθος in Colossians 3:5 and 1 Thessalonians 4:5, and the plural πάθη in Romans 1:26; in each case of exorbitant sexual desire. But in the apostle's use of παθήματα in its ethical sense we seem to have neither the notion of extreme intensity nor the limitation to one particular class of desire, which are both of them apparent in his use of πάθος. This clause, "with its affections and its lusts," adds nothing to the substantial sense of "the flesh." The apostle seems led to subjoin the words by a pathetic remembrance o the moral miseries appertaining to "the flesh" - "those affections and those desires thereof which are so hard to control, and which are at the same time so fatal to our welfare." Galatians 5:24

Vincent's Word Studies

They that are Christ's (οἱ δὲ τοῦ Χριστοῦ)

The best texts add Ἱησοῦ they that are of Christ Jesus. Belong to him. The exact phrase only here. But see 1 Corinthians 1:12; 1 Corinthians 3:23; 1 Corinthians 15:23; 2 Corinthians 10:7, Galatians 3:29.

Have crucified the flesh (τὴν σάρκα ἐσταύρωσαν)

The phrase only here. Comp. Galatians 2:20; Galatians 6:14; Romans 6:6. The line of thought as regards death to sin is the same as in Romans 6:2-7, Romans 6:11; as regards death to the law, the same as in Romans 7:1-6.

Affections (παθήμασιν)

Better, passions. Often sufferings, as Romans 8:18; 2 Corinthians 1:5, 2 Corinthians 1:6, 2 Corinthians 1:7; Philippians 3:10; Hebrews 2:9. Often of Christ's sufferings. Comp. passions of sins, Romans 7:5 (see on motions). olxx, where we find πάθος in both senses, but mostly sufferings. Πάθος also in N.T., but rarely and Po. See Romans 1:26; Colossians 3:5; 1 Thessalonians 4:5 : always of evil desires.