“Put to death, therefore, whatever belongs to your earthly nature…”–Col 2:5

The father is always pruning our lives so that we would bear more fruit (John 15:2), and we must yield to him in the task. Paul states, “I beat my body and mke it my slave…(1 cor 9:27).”

Lets look at six reasons we need to be about killing sin:

1.  Indwelling sin patterns will always be a problem in this world.

• We are not already made perfect (Phil 3:12).  We are inwardly being renewed day by day (2 Cor 4:1), and in the renovations that are going on within is the tearing down of the old, broken ways of that past.
• We have a war to overcome between the sinful nature and the Spirit of God that dwells within (Gal 5:17)
• We have a body of death (Rom 7:24) that we must be delivered from by putting it to death (Phil 3:21)
• If we are to kill an enemy, we can’t give up half way; we must persevere (Gal 6:9)(Heb 12:1)()(2 Cor 7:1)

2. Sin is always at work seeking to ensnare us and others, so we must always be weary of letting our guard down.  This battle will last all our days, and if we stop fighting against it we will be like a boxer who goes to fight and drops his gloves.

• The sinful nature desire what is contrary to the Spirit (Gal 5:17)
• Lust is always trying to temp us to sin (Jas 1:14)
• Sin “easily” entangles (Heb 12:1)

3. Sin, if not continually killed, will slowly kill you.  Ever sin that rises to temp or entice desires to move you to its extreme.  Every unclean glance seeks to be adultry, every coveting look seeks to be oppression, ever hatred or bitterness to be murder, and ever unbelieving thought to be atheism. This is the deceitfulness of sin.

• Sin seeks to harden your heart to itself and drive you away from God (Heb 3:12-13)  Sin’s foothold is small in the beginning, but seeks to take further ground and press on to higher heights.  Ted bundy attributes the beginning of his slide into depravity with pornography and slasher films.  Lust is never satisfied (Prov 30:15-16)and calls out for a deeper and deeper deprafity.  This growth has no boundaries except utter denial of God and opposition to Him.  Sin proceeds higher by degrees; it hardens the heart as it advances.  Nothing can stop this advance but killing it.

4.  The Holy Spirit, our new nature, and the Word of God are given to us to oppose sin and lust. (Gal 5:17)1 Pet 1:4()

• It is our participation putting off the old mand putting on the new man (Col 3:9-10).  We can’t do this in ourselves but must ask for grace from God to overcome.  If we don’t ask and recieve this help, and try to do this in ourselves, the result will be self-righteousness.

5.  Neglect of the task of killing sin makes our inner man shrivel instead of renewing him.  Paul affirms that the inward man is renewed day by day (2 Cor 4:16), but this is a choice we must make (Rom 12:2).  If we neglect this renewal, the inner man perishes, and the outward man is able to strengthen.  The world, the flesh, and the devil are continually pushing against us, and we cannot stop pushing back or we will be knocked backward.  Letting sin advance can cause a humble, tender, zelous believer into a carnal, cold, and wrathful person if it is allowed its full course.

• Grace must be excercised or it can wither and die (Rev 3:2)
• Sin seeks to harden our hearts (Heb 3:13)
• When sin starts to gain a foothold, it rots us out on the inside (Ps 31:10)
• Sin makes a man weak, sick, and ready to die (Ps Ps 40:12), and death is the chief end of the devil

6.  Spiritual growth is our daily duty (2 cor 4:16)

• We are to be “perfecting holiness in the fear of God” (2 Cor 7:1) every day.
• We are to be growing in grace every day (1 pet 2:2)(2 pet 3:18.

In summary:

Though we have a new nature though Jesus Christ, though we have the Holy Spirit inside of us, and though we have the precious promises of God to latch hold of, we are still in a battle against the world, the flesh, and the devil.  Mortification of sin is our daily duty, and to do so we must not only be aware of the schemes of the devil (2 Cor 2:11), but must also renew our inner man day by day to fight this battle. In all of this we must rejoice that God has given us victory through Jesus Christ, if we only will choose to take hold of it.

“For in my inner being I delight in God’s law; but I see another law at work in the members of my body, wagin war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within my members.  What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death?  Thanks be to God–through Jesus Christ our lord!” (Rom 7:21-25a)

Note:  much of this is from the book “Mortification of Sin” by John Owen

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Recently I listened to a Podcast from Mark Driscoll on Spiritual Warfare. One of the basic ideas that he points out is that the devil’s desire is to kill. He is a murderer. Thus, the devil’s desire is to get us to sin.

Sin gives the devil the ability to start a foothold in our lives. The answer to this fight is the mortification of sin. To mortify something means to put something to death. The foundational passage for this fight is in Rom 8:13:

“…If you live according to the sinful nature you will die, but if you by the Spirit put to death the misdeeds of the body, you will live.”

To study this passage we must go into detail:

1. This is directed to believers (Rom 8:1 “those who are in Christ Jesus”)
2. This is conditional: “if you”
3. The means to accomplish the task: “by the spirit”
4. The task: “put to death the misdeeds of the body”
5. The promise: “you will live”

In more detail:

1. The audience is self explained. We need to know who Paul is talking to, and we know that he is speaking to us.
2. The condition is of two choices: to live according to the flesh or according to the spirit. You are either living according to once or the other. The wonderful thing is that we have the choice to live according to the Spirit, and thus experience the life of Christ.
3. The strength to accomplish the task comes from the Spirit, not from our own effort. It is through Christ alone that we experience victory. Mortification from a self-strength or self-invention results in self-righteousness and pride, which is the source of all false religion.
4. The task to be focued on is the putting to death the misdeeds of the body is the same as putting away the flesh, or sinful nature. This is our past tendency toward sinful actions and thoughts.
   • “Deeds” here means not only action, but also inward compromise, which has its full result in outward action, or deeds.
   • To mortify means to put any living thing to death. It means to take away the source of all it’s strength and power so that it cannot act, or exert, or put forth any proper actings of its own. Indwelling sin is referred to as the “old man” in the KJV and NKJV (Rom 6:6, Eph 4:22, Col 3:9). The “old man” is a great metaphor because he still is living, has faculties, wisdom, craft, subtlety, and strength. However, the truth is that the “old man” is “crucified with Christ,” and we with him (Rom 6:6).
5. The promise is life. I believe this to be the abundant life of Christ, the knowledge of Christ, and eternal life. (John 12:25, 17:3)

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