The Salvation of The Cross

The Salvation of The Cross

(Gal 5:24)  And they that are Christ’s have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts.

The root of sin is the flesh.  Sin, in and of itself is the fruit of the flesh.  We must kill the flesh so that it no longer bears fruit (sin).  Notice this scripture does not say to put the affections and lusts of the flesh to death rather the whole of the flesh from where these things come.

If we do not first understand what the death mentioned in this verse is, we will still not be able to receive salvation. May the Holy Spirit be our Reveal-er.

People who are Christ’s, those who believe in His name (who He is and what He has done) with all of their heart, by that belief, “have” crucified the flesh.  It has been done.  This is not speaking of some future event.  It is not about experience it is about what God says.

It is not a question of ethics or spirituality; it is not a question of knowledge or work; it is only a question of whether we belong to Christ. If we do, we have “crucified the flesh” on the cross—he/she “is” not crucifying nor “will” he crucify, but he “has” crucified.

We must have the right focus!

This verse is not speaking concerning the matter of experience, regardless what your experience is, but is stating God’s fact. “They who are of Christ Jesus,” whether strong or weak, “have crucified the flesh with its passions and its lusts.” You may say you are still sinning; God says you have been crucified on the cross. You say your temper still exists; God says you have been crucified on the cross. You say your lust is strong; God says your flesh has been crucified on the cross. Please do not pay attention to your experience now. Pay attention first to God’s speaking to you. If, instead of listening to and believing in God’s Word, you merely look at your own experience every day, you will never have the experience of the crucifixion of the flesh. Do not pay attention to your feeling and experience. Since God said your flesh has been crucified, it has indeed been crucified.  We must hear and believe God’s Word first—then we will have the experience. God said to you, “Your flesh has been crucified.” You need to answer, “Amen! Yes, my flesh has been crucified on the cross.”  By doing this, you will see that your flesh has indeed been crucified.

We must realize that the Bible does not tell us to be crucified. Rather, it tells us that we are those who have been crucified, because it is not that we are to be crucified by ourselves but that we have been crucified with the Lord Jesus.

(Gal 2:20)  I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.

(Rom 6:6)  Knowing this, that our old man is crucified with him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin.

This is where the faith of Abraham comes into play.

(Rom 4:3)  For what saith the scripture? Abraham believed God, and it was counted unto him for righteousness.

(Rom 4:4)  Now to him that worketh is the reward not reckoned of grace, but of debt.

(Rom 4:5)  But to him that worketh not, but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness.

God word says that my flesh was crucified with Christ.  We must learn to deal with the flesh from God’s point of view and not our own experience.  It is only when we learn to deal with the flesh from God’s point of view that we can then deal with it from our experiential stand point.

(Rom 7:5)  For when we were in the flesh, the motions of sins, which were by the law, did work in our members to bring forth fruit unto death.

(Rom 7:6)  But now we are delivered from the law, that being dead wherein we were held; that we should serve in newness of spirit, and not in the oldness of the letter.

(Col 3:2)  Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth.

(Col 3:3)  For ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God.

(Col 3:4)  When Christ, who is our life, shall appear, then shall ye also appear with him in glory.

(Col 3:5)  Mortify therefore your members which are upon the earth;

Verse 3 clearly states that we are already are dead.  This is a positional thing.  This is the way God sees us in the flesh.  He sees our life hidden in Christ.  The second death (mortify your members) is speaking of our real experience here on earth.

When we claim the truth of God’s word over our experience it becomes a reality in our spirits.

But how can we have power to apply the Lord’s death to our members?

(Rom 8:11)  But if the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, he that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by his Spirit that dwelleth in you.

A believer who wants to put to death the practices of the body must depend on the Holy Spirit to make his co-death with Christ become experience.  When a believer puts to death the practices of his body by the Lord’s death, he must believe that the Holy Spirit will cause the death of the cross to become real in the particular matter which he wants to put to death.

When the believer comes to know, in his/her spirit, that the cross is the only way, they can be liberated from the dominion of the flesh and be joined to the Lord in the life of the resurrection.

If the flesh and the lusts thereof are dead, why do we still sin?

The best way that I can explain it is to use this example.  We as human beings are tripartite.  That is to say we are spirit – soul – body.  Much like a cream filled cookie.  The top cookie representing the spiritual realm, the cream in the middle is our soul and the bottom cookie is our earthly body (our flesh).  Before our accepting Christ and being born again of spirit our soul was totally subject to the flesh.  We were in bondage to our fleshy nature.  Even though our flesh was put to death with Christ on the cross our soul is still used to the old nature and must now be made subject to our spirit.

(Rom 8:13)  For if ye live after the flesh, ye shall die: but if ye through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live.

We must always remember that when Adam was created and God breathed the breath of lives into him, he became a what?  A living soul!  If we agree that we are spirit, soul and body, and the body of the believer is now dead, all that is left is the spirit and the soul.

What is the soul?

The word “soul” in Hebrew in the Old Testament is nephesh, which in Greek in the New Testament is psuche. These two words are used about eight hundred times in the Old and the New Testaments.

It is within our soul where we find our will, our intellect or mind and our emotions.  It is basically the seat of our personality.

When we are born again the Holy Spirit comes to dwell within us and begins, if we are willing, He begins bring our soul into line with God’s perfect will through our spirit.  We begin to walk in the Spirit!

This does not mean that the body ceases to exist in the physical realm.  Clearly it does.  The idea which we are speaking of here is that for all intents and purposes our body is dead in so much that our souls are no longer in bondage to the flesh.  It is no longer our master.  As we begin to walk in the spirit by the renewing of our mind by the Holy Spirit and the Word of God we (our soul) are no longer being conformed to the world through the flesh rather we are being transformed by the Spirit.

As previously stated Adam became a living soul.  But he still had flesh.

(Gen 2:21)  And the LORD God caused a deep sleep to fall upon Adam, and he slept: and he took one of his ribs, and closed up the flesh instead thereof;

This flesh however was not flesh as we think of it in light of our present earthly body.  I believe it is the kind of flesh which Jesus had after He was glorified by the Father and then later appeared to the Apostles.

Why do I make this claim?

(Rom 8:23)  And not only they, but ourselves also, which have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body.

(1Co 15:53)  For this corruptible must put on in-corruption, and this mortal must put on immortality.

(1Co 15:54)  So when this corruptible shall have put on in-corruption, and this mortal shall have put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written, Death is swallowed up in victory.

Although our spirits have been reborn and our souls regenerated we are still waiting to receive our new, immortal, uncorrupted bodies.  Now if Adam was originally created and made uncorrupted and we are waiting for an new uncorrupted body, something must have happened in the garden after Adam had transgressed that changed his body into the corrupted bodies in which we find ourselves today.

This corrupted flesh, which covered Jesus, was broken and put to death on the cross as our was.  We however have not received our glorified bodies.  We are basically walking the earth in a dead body.  It’s just there.  We simply live within it.

When Jesus states: he who has ears let him hear, is he speaking to physically deaf people?

Of course not.

When He said: Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.  Was Jesus speaking of physical sight?

No Way.

He is speaking of spiritual hearing and spiritual sight.

We are to ignore what our physical senses tell us and rely only what God tells us through His Word!

The bottom line here is that if we are to live the spiritual life while we inhabit these corrupt mortal bodies we must believe what the word of God tells us and not rely on our own understanding.  We must see ourselves from a Kingdom perspective.

We should know that our walking may, at most, be like Paul’s. He said, “For though we walk in flesh, we do not war according to flesh” (2 Cor. 10:3). Because he still had the body, he still walked in the flesh. But, due to the corruption and wretchedness of the flesh and its nature, he did not “war according to flesh.” Although he walked in the flesh, he did not “walk according to the flesh” (Rom. 8:4). Before the believer is separated from his body, he can by no means be separated from the flesh. Physically speaking, he lives in the flesh (Gal. 2:20). Spiritually speaking, he does “not war according to flesh.” If Paul still had the flesh according to which he might war (only he did not do that), who would dare to say that he did not have “flesh”? Therefore, both the cross and the Holy Spirit are needed at all times.

We need to allow the Holy Spirit to destroy the roots within our soul which remain from the body and allow our spiritual roots to replace them.  Only then can we bring our soul into alignment with God’s perfect will in this lifetime.

God Bless You All

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