Already a Winner

Galatians 5:24
And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.

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Paul says here that anyone who belongs to Jesus (anyone who has come to be known by God [4:9]), are people who have crucified the flesh and its works (a partial list is given in verses 19-21: sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, envy, drunkenness, orgies). Those who belong to God have put these things to death and left them behind, and they have been raised anew, living by the Spirit of God.

It means that if I belong to God, I have already done this act and am living under a new reality. As I was reading this, I wondered, “If I still struggle with living in the flesh, do I really belong to God? Have I really been raised anew in the Spirit?” The point Paul is making is not that everyone who knows God is now perfect and doesn’t struggle with their past identities anymore, but the key is to “walk by the Spirit” (5:25); to live a daily life with God, struggles and all.

I need to be reminded that I am able to continue putting my struggles behind me because I have already crucified them. What I am struggling with is not a full-blown relapse, but a residue of wanting old, familiar things.

It’s not by my efforts that the things I desire and struggle with are conquered, it’s only by faith through Christ that I am justified. It’s all about him, not my struggles. Lord, help me to live with this victory at the forefront of my mind today; to live as one who has been adopted by you, not as a slave, but as an heir.