by Arthur W. Pink
by Arthur W. Pink
Philologos Religious Online Books
Philologos.org
by Arthur W. Pink
August, 1935
Self-Crucifixion.
“And they that are Christ's have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts” (Gal. 5:24). In the context, the Apostle is showing very clearly the difference between the carnal and the spiritual, by their “works” or “fruits,” and the importance of not only professing “to live in the Spirit,” but also, and chiefly, that we take care to “walk in the Spirit”; for just as a tree is known by its fruits, so a truly regenerate person is known, not by what he professes, but by his daily walk and conversation. Let, us then, consider—
I. The class of persons here mentioned—"they that are Christ's.” Clearly this descriptive statement does not include all men. It is not the entire human race, but a portion thereof. Who and what are they? The expression is intended to embrace the entire family of God—at least, such as are at any given time manifestively so. These are all Christ's, and that for four different reasons.
First, because they were all given to Christ by His Father. This was in eternity, before the worlds were framed. Hence Jesus says, “Thine they were, and Thou gavest them Me”; and again, “Thou hast given Him power over all flesh, that He should give eternal life to as many as Thou hast given Him”; and again, “Behold I and the children that God hath given Me.” Then, as God the Father gave them to Him, they must be His; hence He calls them “My sheep.” “They that are Christ's.”
Second, because He Himself has purchased them. They are not only His by eternal and sovereign donation; He has also bought them, redeemed them, paid the full price for them. What we purchase we are apt to consider our own property, especially if we pay a high price for it; and if any person tries to take from us anything so purchased, we style such a person a thief or a robber, and we take great pains to secure our property against the attacks of men of that description. Jesus is almighty to protect His flock, and, therefore, can confidently say, for the comfort of them all, “No one is able to pluck them out of My hands.” He has redeemed them unto God by His blood, “out of every kindred, and tongue, and people, and nation” (Rev. 5:9)—redeemed them “not with corruptible things, as silver and gold,” but with His own precious blood, “as of a Lamb without blemish and without spot” (1 Peter 1:19). “They that are Christ's.”
Third, because the Holy Spirit has brought each of them unto Him. The Apostle is speaking not of those “that are Christ's” according to God's decree, who have not yet been quickened from the death of sin, but of those who have been thus quickened, for there comes a day in the earthly life of every one of these for bringing them unto Christ, according to that word of His own: “All that the Father giveth Me, shall come to Me”; and again, “Every one that hath heard and learned of the Father cometh unto Me.” A point of time arises when they hear the Word of God with power, and “with the Holy Spirit sent down from Heaven” (1 Peter 1:12). They are thus made to see their sinnership, to cry for mercy, to perceive the beauty that is in Christ and His salvation, and its exact suitability to their case. This brings them unto Christ, being led in spirit by the Holy Spirit, that they may find in Him “wisdom and righteousness, sanctification and redemption.” “They that are Christ's.”
Fourth, because they have each given themselves unto Him. Thus they are Christ's by a fourfold right, and “bound up in the bundle of life” with Him by a fourfold cord. His people are all “made willing in the day of His power.” They gladly surrender themselves unto Him, they cheerfully take Him for their Lord and Master, wish to have the honour of being His disciples, and desire to prove their love to Him by obeying Him in His ordinances, and in all the precepts of His Word. Their language, therefore is
“Chosen in Christ ere time began,II. The statement here made concerning them: “have crucified the flesh, etc.” Here are three separate points for our meditation. Let us inquire—
I'd choose Thee in return”
“They that are Christ's.” Let us consider—
First, what are we to understand by the term “flesh”? This does not mean the body, as a pure object of God's creation, which is “fearfully and wonderfully made,” beautifully contrived, admirably adapted to all its surroundings, and which possesses pure appetites and desires, with which it was endowed by its wise and benevolent Creator, but rather what in Scripture is styled “the carnal man.” This is “the old man,” which is “corrupt according to the deceitful lusts,” and is, therefore, to be “put off” by the believer in Christ. It is mental as well as bodily, for we read of a “carnal mind” which is “enmity against God.” “Therefore,” says the Apostle, when writing to the Corinthians, “let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit.” Both body and mind, though originally good, have, through the Fall, and also through the habit of sin, become corrupt in nature, and depraved in taste, appetite, desire.
Second, what are we to understand by “Crucifying the flesh”? This language does not signify the punishment of the poor body after the manner of the heathen, which is imitated by Papists and Ritualists. It does not mean flagellation, needless exposure to inclement weather, dwelling in a cave or cell, injuring the health by long fasts and vigils, refusing to “nourish and cherish” the body as nature requires. This is not after the commandment of God in the sacred Scriptures, but “after the commandments and doctrines of men, which things have indeed a show of wisdom in will-worship, and humility, and neglecting of the body; not in any honour to the satisfying of the flesh” (Col. 2:22-23). No such barbarous acts as these are intended, yet the Word says the flesh is “crucified.”
Crucifixion evidently signifies execution, death—a shameful death, and painful death, a lingering death, an accursed death, a judicial death. And this pre-supposes judgment and condemnation. In every believer, then, “the body of sin” has been judged, condemned, and executed—at least the execution is in process, and will ultimately be completed. Thus “the body of sin” is said to be “destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin” (Rom. 6:6). Of this crucifixion of the carnal nature there are two different, yet connected views or aspects. The flesh crucified—
(a) By virtue of the believer's mystical union with Christ. This aspect of the subject is more fully gone into in Romans 6; also in Galations 2:20, where the Apostle says, “I am (i.e., have been) crucified with Christ.” When Jesus, as the Head and Husband, the Surety and Representative of His Church was crucified, it was for her sins; therefore she is said to be crucified with and in Him.
(b) By constant soul-discipline and self-denial. The Redeemer says that no man can possibly be His disciple who does not “deny himself, and take up his cross daily.” All that is carnal in him is to be continually denied, by the new birth he has been sanctified, and made to possess a holy nature. This is totally contrary to the “old man” of sin. Hence the inward conflict. But, for our encouragement, we are told, “Sin shall not have dominion over you.”
The Apostle does not say “the flesh” is dead. No; but it is “crucified,” and therefore dying—fastened, as it were, to the cross, so that it can no longer rule in the heart and life as it once did, though it often, alas! exerts considerable influence. But if not dead in the believer, it is doomed and already dying, and the believer is to reckon himself dead to it (Rom. 6:11). The verb here is not in the perfect tense (Greek) as in Galations 2:20. That was done once for all and by Christ for all them “that are Christ's,” and the effects remain forever. Here the aorist is employed, and the meaning is that the believer has the flesh still, but in a state of crucifixion, as saith the Apostle in 1 Corinthians 9:27—”I keep under my body, and bring it into subjection.” In other places this self-crucifixion is called mortifying the deeds of the body (Rom. 8:12-14; Col. 3:4). That which is mortified is dead. The Christian life is one of continued mortification as regards the old and corrupt nature; and the more we die to sin, the more we live to God.
Third, what are we to understand by the “affections and lusts”? Not that we are to mortify and be dead to every natural feeling. Far from it. The pure natural affections, desires, feelings, inclinations, appetites, and sympathies were bestowed by a benevolent Creator on purpose to be properly and moderately gratified. But “the Spirit speaketh expressly, that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits, and doctrines of devils; forbidding to marry, and commanding to abstain from meats, which God hath created to be received with thanksgiving of them which believe and know the truth. For every creature of God is good, and nothing to be refused, if it be received with thanksgiving: for it is sanctified by the Word of God and prayer” (1 Tim. 4:1, 3-5). How strikingly does this language foretell and reprove the monkery and undue asceticism of apostates!
The word “affections” is more exactly rendered “passions” in the margin, for it signifies, not pure natural affections, but rather raging, boisterous, vile, sudden passions. Originally the word signifies “sufferings,” and truly those who are under the influence of ungoverned, wicked passions, are sufferers. What sufferings do these indulgences produce, not only in the person himself, but in all connected socially with him! And by the indulgence of these furious passions, the seeds are sown of an eternal harvest of pain. The same word is, in Romans 7:5, translated “motions”—”when we were in the flesh (i.e., in an unregenerate condition) the motions of sins, which were by the law, did work in our members to bring forth fruit unto death”; and a cognate word is rendered “affections” in the bad sense, in Romans 1:26—”God gave them up unto vile affections.” By the other term “lusts,” we understand desires that are wicked, base, carnal. The Greek signifies what the mind is set upon—that which is quietly indulged in the mind—all those inclinations, propensities, and inward feelings that are depraved and corrupt.
Now “they that are Christ's” have all these evil passions and desires like other people, but with this great difference: they have them in a state of crucifixion, mortification, abeyance. They are not delivered entirely from them yet, though they shall be.
“When death, which puts an end to life,But even now they are not so under the dominion of the carnal nature as they once were. Sin does not reign in their heart and life as it once did, though frequently, through infirmity, and sometimes through lack of watchfulness, it exercises sufficient influence to cause much anxiety, doubt, and sorrow of heart. But the time is hastening on when they shall be “delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God.” Is this your hope? Is sin a burden to you? Then you may look forward with the feelings of the poet, when he sang—
Shall put an end to sin.”
“O glorious hour! O blest Abode!
I shall be near and like my God!
Nor flesh nor sense shall e'er control
The sacred pleasures of my soul.”
A.E. Realff, 1887.
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