And they that are Christ's have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts.
All Commentaries on Galatians 5:24 Go To Galatians 5
Cornelius a Lapide
AD 1637
They that are Christ"s, &c. This sets out the preceding antithesis between the works of the flesh and the works of the Spirit. Two armies are ranged in battle array; but Christ"s soldier crucifies his flesh with its affections and lusts, and not only these, but by fastings, hair-shirts, labours, and penances, he crucifies the corrupt flesh itself, as being the seed-ground of lust. So Anselm; but it Isaiah , better to take flesh, not properly, but as standing for the concupiscence residing in the flesh, as in ver17. Those who are led by the Spirit of Christ have crucified their lust, their corrupt nature with its vicious tendencies and actual vices. "They have subdued it," says S. Augustine, "out of that holy fear which abideth for ever, which makes us afraid of offending Him whom we love with all our heart and soul and mind."
Note that concupiscence here Isaiah , as it were, a soul: its affections are its faculties; its lusts are its acts. Christians crucify these, i.e, crush them with such pain as that endured by Christ when He was crucified. This they do (a) by the fear of hell and of God; (b) by reason, and a constant will, and a firm purpose of pleasing God; (c) by a vigilant watch over their eyes and their senses; (d) by prayer; and (e) by fastings, watchings, and other acts of austerity.
