Galatians 5:24. After Paul has in Galatians 5:17 explained his exhortation given in Galatians 5:16, and recommended compliance with it on account of its blessed results (Galatians 5:18-23), he now shows (continuing his discourse by the transitional δέ) how this compliance—the walking in the Spirit—has its ground and motive in the specific nature of the Christian; if the Christian has crucified his flesh, and consequently lives through the Spirit, his walk also must follow the Spirit.

τὴν σάρκα ἐσταύρωσαν] not: they crucify their flesh (Luther and others; also Matthies); but: they have crucified it, namely, when they became believers and received baptism, whereby they entered into moral fellowship with the death of Jesus (see on Galatians 2:19, Galatians 6:14; Romans 6:3; Romans 7:4) by becoming νεκροὶ τῇ ἁμαρτίᾳ (Romans 6:11). The symbolical idea: “to have crucified the flesh,” expresses, therefore, the having renounced all fellowship of life with sin, the seat of which is the flesh (σάρξ); so that, just as Christ has been objectively crucified, by means of entering into the fellowship of this death on the cross the Christian has subjectively—in the moral consciousness of faith—crucified the σάρξ, that is, has rendered it entirely void of life and efficacy, by means of faith as the new element of life to which he has been transferred. To the Christians ideally viewed, as here, this ethical crucifixion of the flesh is something which has taken place (comp. Romans 6:2 ff.), but in reality it is also something now taking place and continuous (Romans 8:13; Colossians 3:5). The latter circumstance, however, in this passage, where Paul looks upon the matter as completed at conversion and the life thenceforth led as ζῆν πνεύματι (Galatians 5:25; comp. Galatians 2:20), is not to be conceived (with Bengel and Schott) as standing alongside of that ideal relation,—an interpretation which the historical aorist unconditionally forbids.

σὺν τοῖς παθήμ. κ. ταῖς ἐπιθυμ.] together with the affections (see on Romans 7:5) and lusts, which, brought about by the power of sin instigated by the prohibitions of the law (Romans 7:8), have their seat in and take their rise from the σάρξ, the corporeo-psychical nature of man, which is antagonistic to God; hence they must, if the σάρξ is crucified through fellowship with the death of the Lord, be necessarily crucified with it, and could not remain alive. Comp. on Galatians 5:17; Romans 7:14 ff. The ἐπιθυμίαι are the more special sinful lusts and desires, in which the παθήματα display their activity and take their definite shapes. Romans 7:5; Romans 7:8. The affections excite the feelings, and hence arise ἐπιθυμίαι, in which their definite expressions manifest themselves; τῇ γὰρ ἐπὶ τὸν θυμὸν ἰούσῃ δυνάμει δῆλον ὅτι τοῦτο ἐκλήθη τὸ ὄνομα, Plat. Crat. p. 419 D. Comp. 1 Thessalonians 4:5.

Galatians 5:24. ἐσταύρωσαν. The Apostle has already traced back his own spiritual life to the fellowship with the crucifixion of Christ, which he had undergone at his conversion (Galatians 2:20). He assumes that his converts have likewise crucified the will of the flesh—not, however (as the previous context shows), that that will is already dead, but that the spirit has by one decisive victory asserted its complete supremacy in all true Christians, and so given an earnest of its entire triumph in the end.—παθήμασιν. This word departs here from its usual meaning, sufferings, and expresses inward emotions, as in Romans 7:5. Greek philosophers applied πάθος in like manner to denote active impulses of passion.

24. they that are Christ’s] They who belong to Christ, who are His by redemption—or perhaps as in Galatians 3:29, who are part of Christ. The same expression occ. 1 Corinthians 15:23. The R.V. reads ‘They that are of Christ Jesus’, which has the support of the earlier MSS.

have crucified] The aorist may be rendered strictly—‘crucified’; in which case the reference will be to their conversion and baptism. But in many passages of the N. T. this tense must be represented in translation by the English perfect as its true equivalent. Crucifixion is a lingering mode of death; and though the reception of Baptism was an overt and initial act by which the deeds of the body were mortified, yet such mortification is continued daily through the whole of the believer’s earthly life. It only ceases when he is ‘delivered from the burden of the flesh’. Compare the prayer for the newly baptized in the Office for Baptism: ‘that he being dead unto sin … may crucify the old man, and utterly abolish the whole body of sin’.

the affections and lusts] ‘its passions and appetites’. See Trench, N. T. Syn. p. 311, foll.

Galatians 5:24. Οἱ δὲ τοῦ Χριστοῦ, Moreover they who are Christ’s) He resumes the proposition laid down at Galatians 5:18.—τὴν σάρκα, the flesh) of which Galatians 5:19-20.—ἐσταύρωσαν, have crucified) They do so with Christ, Romans 6:6, by having received baptism and faith. They have it crucified at present [they have the flesh now in a state of crucifixion]. Supply, and the Spirit is strong within them. This is included in Galatians 5:24 from Galatians 5:22.—παθήμασι, with the passions) The lusts spring from the passions, and are nourished by them. The affections and appetites both deserve the same punishment as the flesh. [The passions are those that are violent, boisterous, and outrageous. The lusts, on the contrary, calmly seek after what is calculated to minister food to the senses.—V. g.]

Verse 24. - And they that are Christ's (οἱ δὲ τοῦ Ξριστοῦ Ἰησοῦ [Receptus omits Ἰησοῦ]; now they that are of the Christ Jesus. The expression, ὁ Ξριστὸς Ἰησοῦς is not a common one. It occurs besides in Ephesians 3:1, τοῦ Ξριστοῦ Ἰησοῦ, where, however, as indeed here, editors are not quite unanimous in retaining Ἱησοῦ: and Colossians 2:6, τὸν Ξριστὸν Ἰησοῦν τὸν Κύριον. Ξριστὸς Ἰησοῦς without the article is continually met with. The presence of the article seems to betoken that the word "Christ" is introduced as an official description rather than as a proper name, "the Christ Jesus" being thus a phrase similar to "the Lord Jesus." Not being so familiar to us as this latter, it appears at first more uncouth than it really is. To understand the precise force of the conjunction δέ, we must review the foregoing context. In vers. 16, 17 the apostle puts in contrast with each other, "walking by the Spirit" and "fulfilling the desire of the flesh." In the three following verses (19-21) he points out what kind of life the flesh prompts men to pursue, and its fatal consequences; in vers. 22, 23 the character formed by the Spirit's influence, and its blessed immunity from the censure of the Law. He is now concerned to show how these considerations apply to Christians. A Christian (he says) by becoming such puts away the flesh; is alive, therefore, if at all, by or to the Spirit; this being so, he must in all reason by the Spirit's direction rule his conduct. It results from this review that the δὲ turns the course of remark upon a new topic, namely, the essential character of a Christian's profession as a premiss to introduce the practical conclusion stated in ver. 25. The use of the possessive, "of the Christ Jesus," is similar to that in 1 Corinthians 3:23, "ye are Christ's;" Romans 8:9, "he is not his;" Romans14:8, "we are the Lord's." Comp. also 2 Timothy 2:19; Titus 2:14, "a people for his own possession;" Ephesians 1:14. We are made Christ's people, outwardly and in covenant, by baptism; but we cannot be his very own, really and vitally (Romans 8:9), unless through faith we recognize him as our Lord and of our own free will and deed attach ourselves heartily to his discipleship. In that hour of renunciation of sin we in truth "fasten the flesh to the cross." Have crucified the flesh (τὴν σάρκα ἐσταύρωσαν). That is, have put it away from them, as a thing to be abhorred, that it might die the death. These three several particulars of thought appear combined in the mixt mode embodied in the word "crucified." The verb, denoting simply affixing to the cross, and not putting to death by crucifixion, intimates the lingering character of the death which the flesh was to undergo. It was, indeed, put away at once, by a final decisive act of the will; but it would still for a while continue to live. Viewed thus, the notion represented by the image harmonizes with the statement in ver. 17 of the continued conflict which is being waged within us between the flesh and the Spirit. The time when the Christian did thus affix the flesh to the cross is indicated by the form of expression, of being "of Christ;" there can have been no time since he has been Christ's at which this thing had not been already done. It is, alas, but too possible to take the flesh still living down from the cross and clasp it afresh to our bosom; but cherishing that as our friend, we are Christ's no longer. Above (Galatians 2:20) the apostle wrote, "I am hanging on the cross with Christ: but I live;" but with a different application of the image. There he was thinking of the relation into which his union with the crucified Jesus brought him with respect to the Mosaical Law. Here he has in view the renunciation of sin which accompanies the addiction of ourselves to Christ's service. There he himself is crucified; here, the flesh. The cross once more recurs in Galatians 6:9, with yet another reference. The description here given by the apostle of Christian conversion tallies well with that given by him in Romans 6:3-11. There, however, the change through which a man becomes a Christian is couched under a different image - that of a death and resurrection, analogous to and founded upon the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, which, in baptism, administered according to the original primitive mode, are represented by the immersion in and the emerging from the water. While illustrating this image, the apostle further says (ver. 6), "Our old man was crucified with him (συνεσταυρώθη), that the body of sin might be done away, that we should no longer be in bondage to sin;" where the Greek word rendered "was crucified with (him)" again denotes being affixed to the cross, in sympathy with him "who was made sin for us," with the view of bringing to nought "the body of sin "- which phrase, "body of sin," is nearly equivalent to "flesh," being the sum total of the vicious activities in which the flesh manifests itself; this bringing to nought or doing away (κατάργησις) of the body of sin, being the result ultimately to follow from the crucifixion, and not identical with it. In the passage in the Romans now referred to, the apostle brings to view, not only the just now cited description of the negative side of our regeneration, but also its positive side, of a passing into a new sphere of activities "walking in newness of life," and "living unto God in Christ Jesus." In our present passage the negative phrase is alone definitely stated. The difference is probably due to the fact that the figure of crucifying the flesh supplies the illustration of only the negative aspect; whereas baptism, with its watery burial and resurrection, represents the positive aspect as well. With the affections and lusts (σὺν τοῖς παθήμασι καὶ ταῖς ἐπιθυμίαις); with its affections and its lusts. The difference between "affections" and "lusts" may be probably assumed to be this - that the former denotes disordered states of the soul viewed as in a condition of disease, well represented in the Authorized Version by "affections;" whine the latter points to the goings forth of the soul towards objects which it is wrong to pursue. In Philippians 3:10; 1 Peter 1:11, and a number of other passages the noun παθήματα means "sufferings." Only once besides is it used in an ethical sense; in Romans 7:5 we read, "The παθήματα of sins which were through the Law wrought in our members to bring forth fruit unto death;" and in vers. 7, 8 the apostle instances "coveting" (ἐπιθυμία) as wrought by sin in his soul, by occasion of the commandment, "Thou shalt not covet." We seem led to conjecture that he meant that a sinful condition of the soul (πάθημα ἁμαρτίας) was by the commandment stimulated into a mere aggressive action. We have πάθος in Colossians 3:5 and 1 Thessalonians 4:5, and the plural πάθη in Romans 1:26; in each case of exorbitant sexual desire. But in the apostle's use of παθήματα in its ethical sense we seem to have neither the notion of extreme intensity nor the limitation to one particular class of desire, which are both of them apparent in his use of πάθος. This clause, "with its affections and its lusts," adds nothing to the substantial sense of "the flesh." The apostle seems led to subjoin the words by a pathetic remembrance o the moral miseries appertaining to "the flesh" - "those affections and those desires thereof which are so hard to control, and which are at the same time so fatal to our welfare." Galatians 5:24They that are Christ's (οἱ δὲ τοῦ Χριστοῦ)

The best texts add Ἱησοῦ they that are of Christ Jesus. Belong to him. The exact phrase only here. But see 1 Corinthians 1:12; 1 Corinthians 3:23; 1 Corinthians 15:23; 2 Corinthians 10:7, Galatians 3:29.

Have crucified the flesh (τὴν σάρκα ἐσταύρωσαν)

The phrase only here. Comp. Galatians 2:20; Galatians 6:14; Romans 6:6. The line of thought as regards death to sin is the same as in Romans 6:2-7, Romans 6:11; as regards death to the law, the same as in Romans 7:1-6.

Affections (παθήμασιν)

Better, passions. Often sufferings, as Romans 8:18; 2 Corinthians 1:5, 2 Corinthians 1:6, 2 Corinthians 1:7; Philippians 3:10; Hebrews 2:9. Often of Christ's sufferings. Comp. passions of sins, Romans 7:5 (see on motions). olxx, where we find πάθος in both senses, but mostly sufferings. Πάθος also in N.T., but rarely and Po. See Romans 1:26; Colossians 3:5; 1 Thessalonians 4:5 : always of evil desires.

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