And they that are Christ's have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts. -- Galatians 5:24 (KJV)
Who does this verse describe? Paul answers before he says anything about crucifixion. They that are Christ's. Ownership comes first, and everything after it follows from that.
Whose You Are
This is not a verse about believers who have reached an advanced stage. Paul is describing everyone who belongs to Jesus, and he describes them by whose they are rather than by what they have achieved. The identity is not the reward for the crucifying. It is the reason for it.
Now watch who performs the verb. Paul does not write that the flesh was crucified for them. He writes that they crucified it. The people who belong to Christ are the subject of that sentence, and the deed is theirs.
His cross remains the ground of all of it. Nothing here is accomplished apart from Calvary, and no one puts the flesh to death by willpower. But Paul is not describing spectators to someone else's death. He is describing a decisive act on the believer's part, and he puts it in the past tense: have crucified. Not are working toward. Not intend to. Something was settled, and you settled it.
Affections and Lusts
Then Paul goes underneath the behavior. The flesh was crucified “with the affections and lusts” — not only the things done, but the wanting that produced them.
That is a harder sentence than it looks. Most of us can stop an action for a while by force. What we cannot manage for long is wanting it. Paul is not describing better behavior management. He is describing appetites taken to the cross and left there.
It is worth saying plainly what this does not mean. It does not mean the appetites fell silent when you obeyed the gospel—when you repented, were baptized in His name, and were filled with His Spirit. It means the flesh has no rights anymore. It still speaks; it no longer owns you.
So name the appetite you have been managing rather than surrendering. Say what it actually is. Then do with it what this verse says you have already done, because you are not your own, and neither is it.
