Many, if not most, believers were not filled with the Holy Spirit at the moment they received Jesus as Lord.
What is even worse, after many years of believing they continue to be entangled by sin and remain carnal Christians.
How a Christian may be set free from his flesh is based upon the experience of the believers at Corinth as well as that of many like believers everywhere.
THE DELIVERANCE OF THE CROSS
Upon numbering many deeds of the flesh in his letter to the Galatians, the Apostle Paul then points out that ” the ones also of Christ Jesus, the flesh crucified with that which was suffered and the lusts.” (Gal. 5:24).
This is speaking of our legal redemption; Jesus suffered on the cross as our substitute the death of the sufferings and lusts of the flesh. So that legally we are righteous in YHWH’S sight.
Here is deliverance, the fact that our flesh has already been crucified in our standing with God, our position in Christ.
The reason believers do not experience this is because in their daily lives their mind is not renewed to this fact. We must reckon ourselves dead to sin and alive to God, by confessing the word, and acting on it. (Romans 6:11)
11 Likewise you also, reckon yourselves to be dead indeed to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Reckon Logizomai- (suppose, think “on”, thoughts taken captive to Christ, “to conclude.” To occupy oneself with, to consider.)
Is it not strange that what concerns the believer vastly differs from what concerns God? The believer is concerned with “the works of the flesh” (Gal. 5:19), that is, with the varying sins of the flesh.
They are occupied with today’s anger, tomorrow’s jealousy, or the day after tomorrow’s strife.
The believer mourns over a particular sin and longs for victory over it. Yet all these sins are but fruits from the same tree.
While plucking off one fruit, out grows another. One or another of the fruits of the flesh grow, giving the believer no chance for victory.
YHWH is not concerned with the works of the flesh but with “the flesh” itself (Gal. 5:24, so he killed it on the cross).
If we do not realize that tree of the flesh has been put to death, then we will fear that it will bear fruit?
Babes in Christ need to appropriate the legal aspects of the cross, for they are still carnal.
YHWH crucified the believer’s old man with Christ with the result that those who belong to Christ (this is legal redemption, we have been bought with the price Jesus’ paid on the cross). Legally have their flesh with the sufferings and lusts have been crucified with Christ on the cross.
Keep in mind the flesh together with its sufferings and desires has been crucified.
Now the carnal babe in Christ must be delivered from the rule of the flesh in their daily life by the finished work of the Cross so that they can walk according to the Spirit and no longer according to the flesh. Thereafter it will not be long before they become a spiritual Christian.
The salvation provided by the Cross is the remedy for the problem.
Firstly, Jesus died on the cross to remit sin.
Secondly, the babe in Christ’s old man died on the cross with Christ so that they might not be controlled any longer by their flesh. Only this can enable a person’s spirit to regain its proper rule and make the body its outward servant and our soul is the link, the mediator to bring our spirit and soul into agreement to bring our body under the spirits control.
In this way the spirit, the soul, and the body are restored to their original position before the fall.
If we are ignorant of the meaning the finished work of Christ on the cross and our co-crucifixion with Him, “the death of the flesh”, we shall not be delivered. May the Holy Spirit reveal this to you.
“Those who belong to Christ Jesus” refers to every believer in the Lord. All who are born again belong to Him.
The deciding factor is not how spiritual one is or what cowork he does for the Lord nor whether he has been freed from sin, has overcome the passions and desires of his flesh, and is now wholly sanctified.
In other words, the question can only be: has one been regenerated (born again) or not? Has one believed in the Lord Jesus as his Savior or not? If he has, no matter what his current spiritual state may be: in victory or in defeat: his flesh has been crucified.
The issue before us is not a moral one, nor is it a matter of spiritual life, knowledge, or work. It simply is whether he is the Lord’s.
If so, then he already his flesh has been crucified on the cross. The meaning clearly is not that of going to be crucified, or of in the process of crucifying, but has been crucified.
We have indicated that the crucifixion of the flesh is not dependent upon experiences, however different they may be; rather is it dependent upon the fact of God’s finished work.
“Those who belong to Christ Jesus”: the weak as well as the strong: “have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.”
You say you still sin, but God says you have been crucified on the cross.
You say your temper persists, but God’s answer is that you have been crucified.
You say your lusts remain very powerful, but again God replies that your flesh has been crucified on the cross.
For the moment will you please not look at your experience but just listen to what God says to you.
If you do not listen to His Word and instead look daily upon your situation, you will never enter the reality of your flesh having been crucified on the cross.
Disregard your feelings and experience. God pronounces your flesh crucified; it therefore has been crucified.
Simply respond to God’s Word and you shall have experience. When God tells you that “your flesh has been crucified” you should answer with “Amen, indeed my flesh has been crucified.” In so acting upon His Word, you shall see your flesh is dead indeed.
The believers at Corinth had indulged in sins of fornication, jealousy, contentions, party spirit, lawsuits and many others. They were plainly carnal.
True, they were “babes in Christ”; nevertheless, they were of Christ. Can it be said that these carnal believers had had their flesh crucified on the cross? The answer undeniably is yes; even these had had their flesh crucified. How is this so?
We should realize that the Bible never tells us to have ourselves crucified; it informs us only that we “were crucified.”
We should understand that we are not to be crucified individually but that we have been crucified together with Christ (Gal. 2:20; Rom. 6:6).
If it is a crucifixion together then the occasion when the Lord Jesus was Himself crucified is that moment when our flesh too was crucified.
Furthermore, the co-crucifixion is not inflicted on us personally since it was the Lord Jesus who took us to the cross at His crucifixion.
Therefore, God considers our flesh as crucified already. To Him it is an accomplished fact.
Whatever may be our personal experiences God declares that “those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh.”
To possess such death, we must not give too large a place to discovering how or to observing our experience; we should instead believe God’s Word.
“God says my flesh has been crucified so I believe it is crucified. I acknowledge that what God says is true.”
By responding in this way, we shall soon encounter the reality of it. If we look at God’s fact first our experience will follow next.
From God’s perspective these Corinthians did have their flesh crucified on the cross with the Lord Jesus; but from their point of view, they certainly did not have such an experience personally.
Perhaps this was due to their not knowing Jesus’ legal work. For this reason, the first step towards deliverance is to treat the flesh according to God’s viewpoint. And what is that?
It is not in trying to crucify the flesh but in acknowledging that it has been crucified, not in walking according to our physical senses (sight) but according to our faith in the Word of God.
If we are well established on this point of acknowledging the flesh as already crucified, then we shall be able to proceed in dealing with the flesh experimentally.
If we doubt this fact, the possibility of our possessing it will escape us. To experience co-crucifixion we first must set aside our current situation and simply trust the Word of God.