Expositor's Bible Commentary Commentary Galatians 5:24

"And they that are of Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with the passions and the lusts thereof." — Galatians 5:24 (ASV)

It should be evident by this time that the warfare between the sinful nature and the Spirit is both intense and unremitting. The qualities of each are fundamentally opposite, and those who feel caught in this warfare cannot do the good they would like to do. How, then, is victory to be achieved? What must believers do to triumph? In the final verses of this chapter Paul gives two answers.

First, he reminds his readers that when they came to Christ, they repented fully of the works of the sinful nature and indeed turned their backs on them forever. This act they must sustain. In speaking of this radical repentance, Paul uses the vivid image of crucifixion, though in a different way from such passages as Ro 6:6 and Gal 2:20. In those instances, the verb is in the passive voice (“was crucified,” “have been crucified”), and the reference is to what has been done for believers as a result of Christ’s death. But in this passage the verb is in the active voice (“have crucified”) and points rather to what believers have themselves done and must continue to do. The proper term to describe this act is repentance. Thus believers have already repented of their former way of life to the degree of actually having executed the old nature. This does not mean that the battle is thereby over, however. As in an actual crucifixion, life lingers even though the criminal has been nailed to the cross. Nevertheless, believers must regard the decisive act as having been done. They are not to seek to remove from the cross what has once been nailed there.