There are many believers—you can say the majority of the believers—who were not filled by the Holy Spirit when they believed in the Lord. On the contrary, after believing in the Lord for many years, they are still entangled by sins and have become fleshly believers. What we will talk about in the following portion concerning how the fleshly believer obtains salvation is according to the experience of the Corinthian believers and others like them. We are not saying that a believer must first believe in the substitutionary work of the cross and later believe in the uniting work of the cross. It is because many believers do not have the clear revelation of the cross from the beginning that they have only believed half of the truth. For this reason they need another chance to believe the other half of the truth. If the reader has completely believed the two sides of the work of the cross, this section will not be that deeply related to him. But if he is like the majority and has only believed half of the truth, this section will be indispensable to him. However, we want the reader to be clear that it is not necessary to believe the two sides of the work of the cross at separate times. It is because of the lack in man's believing that there is the need of believing the second time.
After the apostle spoke concerning many items of the flesh in Galatians 5, he continued, "But they who are of Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and its lusts" (v. 24). This is the way of salvation. What the believers pay attention to and what God pays attention to are very different. The believers are concerned about "the works of the flesh" (v. 19) which are the works, item by item, of the flesh. They are paying attention to sins individually: today's anger, tomorrow's jealousy, and the next day's strife. What they are sorrowful about and hope to overcome are certain sins. But these are simply fruits born of the same tree. You may pick one fruit—not to say that you cannot pick any one of them—and there grows another. One after another they grow without end, until eventually there will not be one day of victory. What God pays attention to is "flesh" (v. 24), not the works of the flesh. If a tree is dead, do we still fear that it will bear fruit? Believers always plan to deal with the offenses (fruits) and forget to deal with the flesh (the root). Therefore, it is unavoidable that one offense has not been dealt with clearly before another offense has already come. We need to deal with the root of sin.
The babes in Christ, being still of the flesh, should know more deeply the meaning of the cross. The work of God is to crucify the believer's old man with Christ so that those who are of Christ "have crucified the flesh with its passions and lusts." No matter whether it is the flesh or the strong lust in the flesh, both are crucified on the cross. In the past it was through this cross that sinners obtained regeneration and knew that they had been redeemed by the Lord from their sins. Now it is also through this cross that the babyish, fleshly Christians—perhaps already regenerated for many years—can obtain salvation and be freed from the dominion of the flesh that they may walk according to the Holy Spirit and no longer walk according to the flesh, in order that they may become spiritual men before long.
Thus the fall of man is in contrast to the work of the cross. The salvation afforded by the latter is the very remedy for the former. One being the sickness and the other the cure, they match one another perfectly. On one hand, the Savior died for the sinner on the cross to redeem him from sin so that the holy God can righteously forgive him. On the other hand, having died with the Savior on the cross, the sinner no longer is ruled by the flesh. Rather, his spirit regains the control, the body becomes the servant on the outside, and the soul is the medium in between. Thus, the original order of spirit, soul, and body is restored.