I'm not saying Fasting is the only way to Crucify the flesh but it is a very powerful way and Jesus our Lord gave us a perfect example on how to crucify the flesh.
Well, I don't know of any verse in the entire New Testament that says that crucifying the flesh is accomplished through fasting. Not one. As I pointed out, the Christian's flesh is crucified by spiritual means laid out in
Romans 6. Fasting has its place, but not in putting to death the flesh and the source of all our sin which is Self. As the apostle Paul wrote,
Colossians 2:23
23 These things indeed have an appearance of wisdom in self-imposed religion, false humility, and neglect of the body, but are of no value against the indulgence of the flesh.
Here Paul says very plainly that neglecting the body (ie. fasting) is of no value against indulging the impulses of one's flesh. Instead, a Christian crucifies their flesh in their living first by knowing that they are, in Christ, already dead to sin and then by counting on it being so when they face fleshly temptation.
Mathew 6:16:18
16 “Moreover, hypocrites, with a sad countenance. For they disfigure their faces that they may appear to men to be fasting. Assuredly, I say to you, they have their reward. 17 But you, when you fast, openly.
Jesus is saying when you fast! don't be like the hypocrites showing a face like they are fasting,
Right. But what Jesus doesn't say is that fasting is a way to put to death one's flesh. No writer of the New Testament says such a thing.
Fasting is Biblical and really does humble and kill of the flesh, fasting and prayer are underestimated within the Church and a Christian way of life.
Yes, fasting
is biblical. But it has nothing to do with how one lives a crucified life, a life in which one is "dead to sin but alive unto God." Such a life is obtained
by Christ on our behalf and we live out what he has done for us
by faith in our crucified position spiritually in him. This is how the Bible says we crucify the flesh.
God bless you all and may we all follow the lead of the Holy Spirit.
Thank you. May God bless you, too!
Paul does say we are co-crucified with Christ but we are also called to pick up our cross daily and deny yourself, this is an everyday walk anyone that claims to have killed off his flesh would be a liar.
How does one die to one's self? Is there any verse in all of the New Testament where we are told that fasting is the way to do so? No. Instead, we take up our cross in denial of ourselves by surrendering moment-by-moment to God's will and way (
Romans 6:13; Romans 12:1; James 4:7: 1 Peter 5:6) and by faith "reckoning" ourselves to be dead unto sin, as the Bible says we are (
Romans 6:11).
Any Christian who says they are not dead to sin shows in saying so that they don't understand their own spiritual position in Christ. The Christian life is the process whereby a Christian's spiritual position in Christ is increasingly manifested in their daily condition (or everyday experience). But the Christian must be co-crucified with Christ
before they can live out this spiritual reality practically. This process doesn't work in reverse. An apple tree doesn't produce apples in order to be an apple tree. It produces apples only because it is
already an apple tree. So, too, the Christian who is dying to himself. He does so successfully only because he is
already dead to sin.
In any case, I'm not trying to put people off fasting. It's an important spiritual practice. But it is
not the way to crucify one's flesh.