Galatians 5:24

The Christian has crucified the flesh in the sense that when he or she trusted Christ God broke the domination of his or her sinful nature. While we still have a sinful human nature, it does not control us as it did before we trusted in Christ (cf. Romans 6:6-7). Paul said we, not God, have crucified it. We did this when we trusted in Jesus Christ as our Savior (cf. Galatians 2:20). Therefore it is inconsistent for us to return to the flesh. "Passions" (Gr. pathemata, cf. Romans 7:5) are the outward expression of inner "desires" (Gr. epithymiai, cf. Galatians 5:16). In another sense we need to continually crucify the flesh by choosing to yield to the Spirit (Galatians 5:16; Galatians 5:18; Galatians 5:25; Romans 8:13; Colossians 3:5).