Killing Sin

John Owen once said, "Be killing sin or it will be killing you." One of the battles at the heart of the Christian life is the battle to put sin to death. Sinclair Ferguson has written a very helpful little article, where he focuses on Colossians 3:1-17 and draws out a number of lessons on how we ought to go about mortifying sin (that is, how we put sin to death).

One of the points he makes is that, in the fight against sin, dying to sin does not happen in isolation to living to righteousness. That is, we do not simply stop doing sinful things. No, we must instead replace sinful attitudes and behaviours with Christ-like attitudes and behaviours. Ferguson says:

The negative task of putting sin to death will not be accomplished in isolation from the positive call of the Gospel to “put on” the Lord Jesus Christ (Rom 3:14. Paul spells this out in Colossians 3:12-17. Sweeping the house clean simply leaves us open to a further invasion of sin. But when we understand the “glorious exchange” principle of the Gospel of grace, then we will begin to make some real advance in holiness. As sinful desires and habits are not only rejected, but exchanged for Christ-like graces (3:12) and actions (3:13); as we are clothed in Christ’s character and His graces are held together by love (v. 14), not only in our private life but also in the church fellowship (vv. 12–16), Christ’s name and glory are manifested and exalted in and among us (3:17).

The whole article is well worth reading, you can read it by clicking here.

Personal Prayer and Killing Sin

J. I. Packer writes: "The activity by which the Christian directly secures the mortification of his sins is prayer". What does this look like? In this helpful short video Packer unpacks further what he means by this.

 

The Joy of Being a Miserable Sinner

Some helpful words from B. B. Warfield on why a sense of our sinfulness helps us in the fight for joy in the Christian life:

[T]here is nothing in us or done by us at any stage of our earthly development because of which we are acceptable to God. We must always be accepted for Christ’s sake or we cannot ever be accepted at all. This is not true of us only “when we believe,” it is just as true after we have believed. It will continue to be true as long as we live. Our need of Christ does not cease with our believing nor does the nature of our relation to Him or to God through Him ever alter no matter what our attainments in Christian graces or our achievements in Christian behavior may be. It is always on His “blood and righteousness” alone that we can rest. There is never anything that we are or have or do that can take His place or that takes a place along with Him. We are always unworthy, and all that we have or do of good is always of pure grace. Though blessed with every spiritual blessing in the heavenlies in Christ, we are still in ourselves just “miserable sinners.” “Miserable sinners” saved by grace, to be sure. But “miserable sinners” still deserving in ourselves nothing but everlasting wrath.

There is emphasized in this attitude the believer’s continued sinfulness in fact and in act and his continued sense of his sinfulness. And this carries with it recognition of the necessity of unbroken penitence throughout life. The Christian is conceived fundamentally, in other words, as a penitent sinner.

We are sinners, and we know ourselves to be sinners lost and helpless in ourselves; but we are saved sinners, and it is our salvation which gives the tone to our life—a tone of joy which swells in exact proportion to the sense we have of our ill-desert. For it is he to whom much is forgiven who loves much and, who loving, rejoices much.

Desiring Worthlessness, Becoming Worthless

"Thus says the LORD:

'What wrong did your fathers find in me that they went far from me, and went after worthlessness, and became worthless?'" (Jeremiah 2:5)

In Jeremiah 2 we read the words that God called Jeremiah to proclaim to Jerusalem (verse 2), revealing the foolishness of their turning from God to idols. It is striking what He says in verse 5 about the effects of their idolatory. He says that they "...went after worthlessness, and became worthless". They set their affections on nothingness, and thus became nothing. They ran after worthless idols,and became worthless themselves.

This is a reminder that we become like what we worship. We are conformed to that which all our affections and desires are centred on. The Psalmist recognised this in Psalm 115. In verses 4-7 he recounts how the idols of the nations are mute, blind, deaf and unfeeling. He then says, "Those who make them become like them; so do all who trust in them." Those who set their affections on these idols become hardened to the true and living God, they become mute, blind, deaf and unfeeling themselves.

Whatever it is that holds our affections, whatever we desire above all, whatever we constantly have at the centre of our thoughts, this will end up shaping us and defining us. Henry Scougal, in his classic little book The Life of God in the Soul of Man, said these words:

Love is that powerful and prevalent passion, by which all the faculties and inclinations of the soul are determined, and on which both its perfection and happiness depend. The worth and excellency of a soul is to be measured by the object of its love. He who loveth mean and sordid things, doth thereby become base and vile; but a noble and well-placed affection, doth advance and improve the spirit into a conformity with the perfections which it loves.

What then is the object of our love? If we recognise the truth of Jeremiah 2:5, surely we cannot stop short of having the eternal God of the Bible, the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, as the one who holds all of our affections, desires and thoughts. He alone is the source of all that is good, therefore if we settle with anything else as the ultimate object of our love we are selling ourselves short. If we do not recognise the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus our Lord (Philippians 3:8), and treasure Him above all things we are short changing ourselves.

We cannot do this ourselves, it must be done for us. Let us pray for transformed hearts that love Jesus undividedly, that hold Him at the centre of our affections. It is only a miracle that can transform our hearts from running after worthlessness, to running after the true and living God.

Covetousness and the Promises of God

In Colossians 3:5 Paul describes covetousness as idolatory. It is idolatory because covetousness looks somewhere other than God for the contentment that only He can give.

This means that our covetousness stems from unbelief. The reason we covet is because we fail to believe the promises of God. When we desire deeply that new car, clothes or the latest gadget it is because we are looking to them for contentment instead of trusting in the promises of God, which alone brings contentment. We are refusing to believe that Jesus alone (in whom all of God's promises find their 'yes' - 2 Corinthians 1:20) can meet every need and satisfy every longing.

If covetousness flows from a refusal to believe the promises of God, this means that we cannot battle this sin by simply telling ourselves to "stop coveting". We cannot battle the compulsion to keep ordering books, CD's or DVD's through the internet by simply saying "that's the last one". We cannot put to death the enslaving desire to constantly be buying the latest clothes, even though our wardrobe is full, by saying "that's enough". If this is our strategy we will fail. We will either fall back into the same sin, or find ourselves exchanging it for a new sin. This is because our hearts long for contentment, and they will always be seeking somewhere for it.

Therefore, if we are to put the idol of coveoutness to death, we must do so by believing the promises of God. We must remind ourselves of the promises of God and preach them to ourselves. We must seek our contentment in the promises of God, which find their fulfillment in Jesus.

Here are two promises in particular that have reference to covetousness:

• 1 Timothy 6:6 - "...there is great gain in godliness with contentment." God promises us that great gain is not found in a bulging bank account, a racy sports car, a bursting wardrobe or stacked shelves. No, great gain is found in godliness with contentment. If we truly believe this then we would be investing more time in growing in godliness and being content in Jesus alone, than browsing amazon or playing the stock markets.
• Hebrews 13:5 - "Keep your life free from love of money, and be content with what you have, for he has said, 'I will never leave you nor forsake you.'" Jesus promises never to leave us or forsake us; and if we have Him, we have everything. He is the source of all things and the one who sustains all things (Hebrews 1:2-3). Therefore, if we have Him, how foolish is it to run after other things. If we truly believed this we would spend more time delighting in Him and praising Him for all that we have in Him (Ephesians 1:3), instead of spending all our time thinking about our bank accounts or trying to justify buying that new DVD box set.

Covetousness is idolatory. It looks somewhere other than God for the contentment that only God can give. Therefore, we start to run after all the things we don't have, claiming that we 'need' them. The only way we will smash this idol is by looking in the right place for contentment. It is only when we believe the promises of God that we will find ourselves moving from covetousness to true contentment.

Drifting?

Godly living does not come naturally. Our hearts naturally gravitate towards ungodliness rather than godliness. Don Carson says:

People do not drift toward Holiness. Apart from grace-driven effort, people do not gravitate toward godliness, prayer, obedience to Scripture, faith, and delight in the Lord. We drift toward compromise and call it tolerance; we drift toward disobedience and call it freedom; we drift toward superstition and call it faith. We cherish the indiscipline of lost self-control and call it relaxation; we slouch toward prayerlessness and delude ourselves into thinking we have escaped legalism; we slide toward godlessness and convince ourselves we have been liberated.

This means that as Christians we need to constantly on our guard lest we drift. Paul calls Timothy to watch his life and doctrine closely (1 Timothy 4:16). The author of Hebrews calls his hearers to pay much closer attention to the gospel message that they heard, lest they find that they drift from it (Hebrews 2:1). We need to be constantly watching ourselves and constantly returning to the gospel. If we don't we shall find ourselves drifting further and further from the gospel and from the godliness that comes from applying the gospel to ourselves.We need to constantly be preaching the gospel to ourselves and to examine closely our Christian walk.

This is also why we need one another as Christians. That is why it is so vital that we are stuck in at a local church. We need one another. We need to continue to speak the gospel to each other and to challenge one another to lives that are in line with the gospel. We cannot do this by ourselves. We need other brothers and sisters in Christ who will love us enough to point out when we've gone wrong, both in our beliefs and in our living, and to call us back to embracing the truth of the gospel and to living that is in line with the gospel. We need to surround ourselves with those who will constantly be encouraging us with Bible truths. If we do not have this we will gradually find ourselves drifting further and further out to sea.

When We Battle Sin With Sin

It is not necessarily a godly thing to avoid looking lustfully at a woman. Neither is it necessarily a godly thing to guard our tongue from gossiping.

I'm not suggesting for a moment that lust and gossip are not sinful and abhorrent to God. They are. Neither am I suggesting that we should not be seeking to put to death the sins of lust and gossip. We should. Rather, what I want to show is that we can avoid sin and still be sinning. We are not necessarily being godly when we are avoiding sin.

Let me explain. If we avoid looking lustfully at a woman or guard or tongue from gossiping because we are concerned about our reputation before others, because we want to be known in the eyes of others as godly, then we are simply replacing one sin with another. We are simply replacing the sin of lust or gossip by the sin of people pleasing and pride. We are battling sin with sin. We are letting the love of one particular idol keep us from sacrificing at the altar of another idol. In this case, our love for our reputation before others keeps us from lustful glances or gossip.

If we battle sin in this way, we may convince others and even ourselves that we are being godly. However, the truth is that we are decieving others and we are decieving ourselves. We our letting our love for one particular idol blind us to the reality of our sin. We may think that we're being godly and putting sin to death, when we are in fact letting sin flourish, we are letting a particular idol (e.g. the idol of reputation) shape our actions.

This means that as we seek to battle sin and put it to death in our lives, we need to carfully examine our motives for doing so. If we want to be godly in killing sin then we need to get our motivations right, otherwise we will only end up decieving ourselves that we are honouring God when we are not. If we are not killing sin out of a love for God which shows itself in a love for others (Matthew 22:37-40) then we are simply replacing one sin with another. A love for God which drives out a love for the world (1 John 2:15), must be the engine which drives our battle against sin. If this is not the case, then we decieve ourselves that we are being godly in our battle against sin. If we are not doing it out of a love for God, a zeal for His glory, then we will be doing it out of a love for something which is not God. This is idolatory.

The way that we cultivate a sin-killing love for God is through the gospel, as revealed in the Bible. It is by the gospel that God transforms our hearts to love Him more and more. It is as we see the glory of God in the face of Christ as revealed in the gospel (2 Corinthians 4:4, 6), that we are changed to reflect that glory more and more, because the more we see Christ, the more we will be transformed to be like Him (1 John 3:2), the only One who has perfectly loved God. As the gospel changes our hearts to love God more and more, it will simultaneously change us  to hate sin more and more. This means that we will be genuinely putting sin to death and not merely replacing sin with sin.

True Belief

Horatius Bonar had these words to say about the nature of true belief in God and how this affects our view both of God and of ourselves. What he says is both perceptive and challenging. Take your time reading through it, think through what he is saying, and then take time to examine your own heart in light of it.

In all unbelief there are these two things—a good opinion of one’s self and a bad opinion of God. Man’s good opinion of himself makes him think it quite possible to win God’s favor by his own religious performances; and his bad opinion of God makes him unwilling and afraid to put his case wholly into His hands. The object of the Holy Spirit’s work (in convincing of sin) is to alter the sinner’s opinion of himself, and so to reduce his estimate of his own character that he shall think of himself as God does, and so cease to suppose it possible that he can be justified by an excellency of his own. The Spirit then alters his evil opinion of God, so as to make him see that the God with whom he has to do is really the God of all grace.

But the inquirer denies that he has a good opinion of himself and owns himself a sinner. Now a man may SAY this, but really to KNOW it is something more than SAYING. Besides, he may be willing to take the name of sinner to himself, in common with his fellow-men, and yet not at all own himself such a sinner as God says he is—such a sinner as needs the cross, and blood, and righteousness of the Son of God. It takes a great deal to destroy a man’s good opinion of himself; how difficult it is to make a man think of himself as God does! What but the almightiness of the Divine Spirit can accomplish this?

Unbelief, then, is the belief of a lie and the rejection of the truth. Accept, then, the character of God as given in the gospel; the Holy Spirit will not give you peace irrespective of your views of God’s character. It is in connection with THE TRUTH concerning the true God, “the God of all grace,” that the Spirit gives peace. That which He shows us of ourselves is only evil; that which He shows us of God is only good!

Recognising the Reality About Ourselves

It is important that we recognise some difficult truths about ourselves. Jonathan Edwards, in his sermon The Spirit of Love the Opposite of a Selfish Spirit (from 1 Corinthians 13:5), gives a vivid description about what happened to mankind at the fall (Genesis 3): 

The ruin that the fall brought upon the soul of man consists very much in his losing the nobler and more benevolent principles of his nature, and falling wholly under the power and government of self-love. Before, and as God created him, he was exalted, and noble, and generous; but now he is debased, and ignoble, and selfish.

Immediately upon the fall, the mind of man shrank from its primitive greateness and expandedness, to an exceeding smallness and contractedness; and as in other respects, so especially in this. Before, his soul was under the government of that noble principle of divine love, whereby it was enlarged to the comprehension of all his fellow creatures and their welfare. And not only so, but it was not confined within such narrow limits as the bounds of the creation, but went forth in the exercise of holy love to the Creator, and abroad upon the infinite ocean of good, and was, as it were, swallowed up by it, and became one with it. But so soon as he had transgressed against God, these noble principles were immediately lost, and all this excellent enlargedness of man's soul was gone; and thenceforward he himself shrank, as it were, into a little space, circumscribed and closely shut up within itself to the exclusion of all things else.

Sin, like some powerful astringent, contracted his soul to the very small dimensions of selfishness; and God was forsaken, and fellow creatures forsaken, and man retired within himself, and became totally governed by narrow and selfish principles and feelings. Self-love became absolute master of his soul, and the more noble and spiritual principles of his being took wings and flew away.