If someone were to ask you, “What’s the most dangerous spiritual responsibility to neglect?” You might think of Scripture reading, prayer, evangelism, listening to preaching, or attending corporate worship. And it’s not that you’d be wrong…God commands all believers to pursue those things. They’re non-negotiable.
But there’s another spiritual responsibility we often overlook. It’s an intimate, unpleasant, and exhausting duty—killing sin. Maybe that’s a provocative thing to say, and some might want to challenge it. After all, didn’t Christ deliver a crushing blow to sin when He rose from the dead? Wasn’t it His job to kill sin at Calvary? Well, yes, and that was the fundamental beginning to His judgment against sin.
Christ removed the penalty of our sin on the cross. As Christians, you and I no longer stand accused under the righteous requirements of the law (Romans 8:4). There’s no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus (Rom 8:1). The work of Christ also removed sin’s power over believers. Having been crucified with Christ, we’re no longer enslaved to sin’s grip. Christ rendered it powerless when He rose from the dead (Rom. 6:14, 22). So if Christ removed sin’s penalty and power, what’s left to kill?
Too few Christians are asking that question today, and too few pastors are bringing it to their attention. That wasn’t true of Puritan pastor John Owen. He dealt comprehensively with the question, teaching Christians from Scripture how to kill remaining sin. In one of his classic works, The Mortification of Sin, there’s a famous quote from Owen I’ve never forgotten: “Be killing Sin, or sin will be killing you.” That’s right—kill or be killed. Take your pick.
Thankfully, other faithful pastors followed in Owen’s footsteps to expound on the Bible’s teaching on the believer’s relationship to indwelling sin. They understood the reality of remaining sin, took its threat seriously, and labored to help the body of Christ adopt biblical strategies for killing it. We owe the Lord a deep debt of gratitude for them for helping us with such practical issues in our sanctification.
It was about 5 years ago through the “Grace to You” podcast when I heard what proved to be one of the most impactful and helpful messages from John MacArthur. The sermon was called, “Hacking Agag to Pieces,” and it aired as part of the sermon series, Dealing with Sins of the Mind. I remember the powerful analogy John made in that sermon; he compared the remaining sin in the life of a believer with King Agag, the wicked ruler of the Amalekites in the Old Testament.
As the story goes, God sent Samuel to rebuke King Saul because he allowed Agag to live in disobedience to His command to annihilate the Amalekites. Samuel announced the end of Saul’s throne, and then turned to Agag to take care of a more gruesome business. Samuel hacked Agag to pieces with a sword.
I’ve never forgotten that graphic illustration of how serious God is that we be relentless to pursue and put to death every remaining sin in our lives. Here’s John’s conclusion to that message:
As believers, indwelling sin continues to trouble us, but God calls us to treat that remaining sin like Samuel treated Agag. Kill it. Be brutal about it. But how do we do that? That’s the question we’ll explore in the next post, with the help of the Apostle Paul, John Owen, and John MacArthur. Sound good? Stick around.
Until then, be killing sin, or sin will be killing you.
Tommy Clayton
From http://www.gty.org
Amen! I do believe the best way to kill sin is to pursue Christ. If we directly fight sin we will be drawn aside from our pursuit of Christ.
Two very good quotes I have taken to heart are:
“The thing you feed grows and the thing you starve dies.”
“Those who don’t want to fall shouldn’t walk in slippery places.”
This wretched man and its failings. Won’t it be wonderful to say goodbye to it one day?
I will rephrase what Manfred said in the words of the apostle Paul: “…that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death…”
It’s only in KNOWING Christ that we are conformed to His image. No striving on our part to kill sin will ever work. Sanctification should be the natural result of an ever deepening walk with the Lord. Focus on sin=fleshly striving. Focus on Christ=Spirit-empowered victory over sin.
“But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not carry out the desire of the flesh. ” ~Galatians 5:16
“Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself unless it abides in the vine, so neither can you unless you abide in Me. I am the vine, you are the branches; he who abides in Me and I in him, he bears much fruit, for apart from Me you can do nothing.” ~John 15:4-5
Thanks R&R. Those quotes are great!
Great point Manfred.
When we love (& pursue) the Father (& the Son) with all of our heart, we fulfill all of the laws of the prophets. When we have a heart after Christ, we are pleased by the same things that pleases Him. Conversely, when we have a heart after Christ, we are grieved by the same things that grieve the Spirit. We should be quick to kill the sin that grieves the Spirit before we can ever grow accustomed to it. The longer sin is allowed to grow, the harder it is to kill. Deny sin and watch it die the same as you would see the flesh die if you were to starve it.
W.
“Have we done everything we can to stop feeding our lusts?”
~ Albert Martin
Great post. Thanks and God bless you!
Kill sin!
(Romans 6)
There it is!
Colossians 3:5-10–Therefore put to death your members which are on the earth: fornication, uncleanness, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry. Because of these things the wrath of God is coming upon the sons of disobedience, in which you yourselves once walked when you lived in them. But now you yourselves are to put off all these: anger, wrath, malice, blasphemy, filthy language out of your mouth. Do not lie to one another, since you have put off the old man with his deeds, and have put on the new man who is renewed in knowledge according to the image of Him who created him.
Jesus also had some strong words about how to deal with sin. Matthew 5:29-30–”If your right eye causes you to sin, pluck it out and cast it from you; for it is more profitable for you that one of your members perish, than for your whole body to be cast into hell. And if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and cast it from you; for it is more profitable for you that one of your members perish, than for your whole body to be cast into hell.”
It is no secret–God hates sin! So why would anyone who claims to love Christ want to continue in the same sins for which the Father poured out His wrath upon Christ while He hung on the cross? Since God hates sin, and Paul tells us to “be imitators of God” (Ephesians 5:1), then shouldn’t we also hate sin?
I think the most important aspect for the Christian to realize is that he is a slave, bought with a price and he is not his own. If this becomes reality to him, then all those selfish desires and the stubbornness of doing his own thing becomes less and less attractive and powerful. You focus, instead on God’s desires and wishes. His will becomes your will. You seek daily to follow Him and please Him, not yourself. You are in fact an extension of Him. You are His hands and feet, and you do only that which He commands.