With our strong emphasis on the grace of God and freedom in Christ, many evangelicals fall into the trap of having a passive stance toward sin. We rightly believe that salvation is the work of Christ alone from beginning to end. But we wrongly conclude from that gospel truth that we have no part to play in our sanctification. The fact is that the believer must learn to do battle with sin.
“Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, to make you obey its passions… For if you live according to the flesh you will die, but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live.” Romans 6:12;8:13
Pastor Colin Smith introduced me to some wonderful Puritan pastors who have helped me a great deal in this area. Working largely from John Owen’s teaching, Colin exhorts believers to know your sin, stalk your sin and kill your sin. Owen says, “Always be killing sin or it will be killing you.” Click here to read or listen to an excellent series from Pastor Colin on Repentance – the hidden path to a transformed life.
Know it.
“We need to be intimately acquainted with the ways, wiles, methods, advantages, and occasions which give sin (lust) its success. This is how men deal with their enemies. They search out their plans, ponder their goals, and consider how, and by what means they have prevailed over them in the past. Then they can be defeated. We need to… trace this serpent in all of its turning and windings, and to bring its most secret tricks out into the open. We must learn to say – ‘this is your usual method; I know what you are up to.’” John Owen, The Mortification of Sin, p. 37
Stalk it.
“One of the… most important parts of spiritual wisdom is to find out the subtleties, policies, and depths of any indwelling sin; to consider where its greatest strength lies – how it uses occasions, opportunities, and temptations to gain advantage. We need to find out its pleas, pretenses and reasonings, and see what its strategies, disguises and excuses are!
“We need to… trace this serpent in all of its turning and windings, and to bring its most secret tricks out into the open. We must learn to say – ‘this is your usual method; I know what you are up too.” John Owen, The Mortification of Sin, p. 37
“Ask envy what it aims at. Murder and destruction are its natural conclusion. Set yourself against it as if it had already surrounded you in wickedness… Every unclean thought or glance would be adultery if it could. Every covetous desire would be oppression and every unbelieving thought would be atheism… Sin’s expression is modest in the beginning, but, once it has gained a foothold, it continues to take further ground and presses on to greater heights.” The Mortification of Sin, p. 86
Kill it.
“The first thing in mortification is the weakening of this habit… This is called ‘crucifying the flesh and the lusts thereof (Gal 5:24); that is, taking away its blood and spirits that give it strength and power… As a man nailed to the a cross he first struggles and strives and cries out with great strength and might, but, as his blood and spirits waste, his strivings are faint and seldom, his cries low and hoarse, scarce to be heard; when a man first sets on a lust or distemper, to deal with it, it struggles with great violence to break loose; it cries with earnestness and impatience to be satisfied and relieved; but when by mortification the blood and spirits of it are let out, it moves seldom and faintly, cries sparingly and is scarce heard in the heart. Sin …is fastened to the cross… that… the power of sin [be] weakened and abolished by little and little.” John Owen, Overcoming Sin and Temptation p. 35
“[Sin] will not die except by being gradually and constantly weakened: Spare it and it heals its wounds, and recover its strength. Everything will do its utmost to preserve its life and being. So will sin do also; and if it be not constantly pursued with diligence and holy violence, it will escape our assaults. Let no man think to kill sin with a few easy or gentle strokes. He who has once smitten a serpent, if he follow not on his blow until he be slain, may repent that ever he began the quarrel. And so he who undertakes to deal with sin, and pursues it not constantly to death.” John Owen, Works, vol 3. p. 664