February 5, 2025

JESUS ENDURED THE CROSS FOR US

TODAY’S SCRIPTURE

When you follow the desires of your sinful nature, the results are very clear: sexual immorality, impurity, lustful pleasures, idolatry, sorcery, hostility, quarreling, jealousy, outbursts of anger, selfish ambition, dissension, division, envy, drunkenness, wild parties, and other sins like these. Let me tell you again, as I have before, that anyone living that sort of life will not inherit the Kingdom of God. But the Holy Spirit produces this kind of fruit in our lives: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. There is no law against these things! Those who belong to Christ Jesus have nailed the passions and desires of their sinful nature to his cross and crucified them there.

Galatians 5:19-24 NLT

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TODAY’S THOUGHT

Paul is making a powerful contrast between the works of our sinful nature and the fruit of the Spirit. He lets us know that we must make a choice whether we are going to live by our sinful nature or our renewed nature that has been born of the Spirit.

Paul says, “Those who belong to Christ Jesus have nailed the passions and desires of their sinful nature to his cross and crucified them there” (v. 24).

If we want to be successful as followers of Christ, we have to invite the Holy Spirit to produce in our lives the fruit of the Spirit—which includes self-control. Jesus demonstrated incredible self-control during His life on the earth. 

Even though Jesus was fully God He chose to set aside His divinity and limit Himself to a physical body. He chose to spend 30 years on earth in total obscurity as a carpenter before He began any earthly ministry. After only three years of teaching and performing miracles, Jesus allowed Himself to be rejected, tortured, and nailed to a tree.

The Bible tells us that Jesus created all things. John says, “all things were made through Him” (John 1:3). Paul carries this same message in Colossians 1: 16 when he tells us, “Everything was created through him and for him.”

That means Jesus created the thorns that pierced His brow in pain. Jesus created the cross to which He was nailed. He even created the nails that were driven into His hands and feet. 

Why would Jesus endure the pain of rejection, torture, and crucifixion? Scripture says He knew “the joy set before Him,” so He “endured the cross” (Hebrews 12:2) until He could say “it is finished” (John 18:30). Then He “gave up His spirit” (Matthew 27:50)—fully self-controlled until the end.

Jesus controlled his earthly flesh because He was on a mission. He knew there was a purpose for the pain. His spiritual insight into His present pain allowed Him to deny the fleshly desire to retaliate or remove the pain. He stayed under the control of Spirit so He could practice self-control. 

That is our key as well. We must live under the control of Holy Spirit so that we can practice self-control of our fleshly nature. I don’t care how long we follow Christ, or how many scriptures we can memorize, or how many prayers we pray, there will always be a struggle between our flesh and our spirit. 

I believe the struggle can be managed through got habits and systems in place in our lives. But we should never think that we are beyond temptation or failure. We have to realize this will be a life-long battle to remove the influence of the flesh and live in the victory of the Spirit.

Knowing we are in a battle keeps us vigilant and prepared. 

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TODAY’S PRAYER

Holy Spirit I need Your help each day to be aware of any area of weakness that Satan would try to use to gain a foothold in my life. Help me not to compromise or rationalize. Help me to feed my spirit and not my flesh. 

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