You must be in fellowship prior to your Bible study, so that the spiritual information you receive can become a source, of blessing to your soul and produce spiritual growth.
24 And [de] they that are [ho] Christ's [Christos] have
crucified [stauroo] the flesh [sarx] with [sun] the affections [pathema] and [kai] lusts [epithumia]. KJV-Interlinear
24 Now
those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and
desires. NASB
The single thought, ‘Father, I believe in Jesus Christ,’ is how you are saved, and simultaneously entered into the family of God. Belonging to Christ, is a phrase that identifies all Christians, or all people who have believed in Christ.
At the very moment that you believed, your entire life was transformed as many, many things occurred in your favor. Even though you did not realize it at the time, and probably still do not fully understand all of the changes, God in His infinite wisdom and power and plan, caused changes, in and for you, that will never be taken away from you.
And here is one of those changes.
The flesh, or the power of the carnal life, or as it is more often called, the sin nature, which had total and complete control over your life as an unbeliever, no longer has that control.
The destiny of the sin nature is eternal condemnation. That destiny, in Christ, is now gone, cancelled, removed forever from you, and now you have eternal life, or life with God in heaven forever.
The crucifixion of the flesh is a phrase that means that you are now free from the chains with which it once had hold over you.
As an unbeliever, you are unsaved and lost to the Lake of Fire forever, which is a life separated from God and therefore separated from the only one who can hold life and all that exists, together. You as a person cannot hold anything together, and certainly not this planet or this universe. Only God can do that. And when you are turned loose in the hereafter, without God, then you will be totally on your own and alone and helpless and powerless, and terror, extreme terror and worse, will be your only companion.
But as a believer in Christ, that fearful future is no longer a threat. Eternal life with God in heaven where all things are really good and better, is far more preferable.
But there is much, much more to this.
The flesh or the sin nature, is the environment of living your life outside of Gods will.
The spirit, or the spiritual life, is the environment of living your life inside of Gods will.
In the sin nature you gain nothing. In the spirit, you gain everything and more.
The affections and lusts, refer to all of the passions and desires and drives of the sin nature, but more than that, it speaks of the ultimate outcome of those drives, which is a failed life.
This does not mean that you cannot turn back to this lifestyle and ruin your own life. For you certainly can do that. That is where confession and your daily study and the development of your spiritual life, or lack of it, come into play.
But, what you cannot do, is destroy your salvation, or undo it as though it never occurred.
Once saved, always saved. And no matter how much of a worthless person you try to be in life, your salvation will always be there.
Jesus Christ went to the Cross to pay the penalty of sin and death, and that has been accomplished. Paid in full. No one and nothing can re-issue a debt or another debt for sin. It was paid off.
And so too, when you believed in Christ, then you in effect received a receipt for that paid debt and now you are no longer obligated for the repercussions of sin and death. You in effect crucified, or obliterated, that debt with regard to your life through your faith in Christ.
So, do not live under the rules of the sin nature, but live under the rules of the spirit, because the sin nature gives you nothing, while the spirit gives you everything.
And living under the rules of the spirit is very simple. Confess to obtain the fellowship sphere of life and study and learn and use doctrine every moment of every day of your life.
