Potent Quotables from Aaron Renn's remastering of John Owen's classic The Mortification of Sin into modern English.
CHAPTER ONE
The body [of sin] is the corruption and depravity of our nature of which our physical body is to a great extent the seat and the means by which sin expresses itself... Indwelling sin is compared to a person, a living person, called the "old self," with his abilities, attributes, wisdom, skill, subtlety, and strength. This, Paul says, must be killed – put to death – that is, to have the power, life force, vigor and strength it needs to produce its effects destroyed and taken away by the Holy Spirit.
Sin has already been killed meritoriously and by example when Christ died on the cross. That is, its ability to condemn us has been killed, and our sin and old nature have been nailed to the Cross. Hence in Romans 6 our “old self” is said to be “crucified with Christ” (v6) and we are said to have “died with Christ” (v8). When we believe in Christ and are regenerated (see vv3-5) a power opposed to sin and destructive to it is also put in our hearts (see Galatians 5:17). But the work of this sin-opposing power is not complete at the time of our conversion because of the indwelling sin that remains in us. It needs to be carried on towards perfection our entire lives.
The term “life” means eternal life, but also more than that. It means spiritual life in Christ today. That is, we get not just life in its ultimate eternal form, which we already have completely because of the finished work of Christ, but also the present reality of joy, comfort, and strength coming from it. Or as Paul says in 1 Thessalonians 3:8, “now we live, if you are standing fast in the Lord” – meaning “Now my life will do me good. I’ll have joy and comfort with my life” or “You will lead a strong, comfortable spiritual life while you are here and get eternal life in the hereafter.”
CHAPTER TWO
Sin is like the grave – it is never satisfied. And here is where a big part of the deceitfulness of sin lies, and how it ends up hardening people until they are lost (see Hebrews 3:13). Sin starts off small in its first temptations and activity, but once it gains a foothold in someone it constantly presses further onward to increasing degrees of depravity. This incremental growth in the severity of sin doesn’t often attract our attention and we don’t realize how much of an opening we’ve given it to make us fall away from God. We are satisfied and think we’ve done our duty if we simply keep sin from going any further – and this is how it hardens us. But sin is always pressing forward. It has no boundary it is willing to respect but constantly strives to make us completely turn our backs on God and actively oppose Him. The fact that it does this slowly, by degrees as it were, doesn’t result from sin actually being weak or slow-acting, but simply from how deceitfully it behaves towards us.
When grace is unused, it withers and decays. The fruit it produces is ready to die (see Revelation 3:2) and sin gains ground in its hardening of the heart (see Hebrews 3:13). In short, by not doing our duty grace withers, evil desires flourish, the condition of the heart grows worse and worse, and only God knows what awful and terrible results this has produced in so many people.
It is our duty to be “bringing holiness to completion in the fear of God” (2 Corinthians 7:1), to be “growing in the grace” every day (see 2 Peter 3:18 and 1 Peter 2:3), and to be sure that “our inner self is being renewed day by day” (2 Corinthians 4:16). This simply can’t be done without the daily putting to death of sin.
Sin works with all its strength against every act of holiness and against every degree of spiritual perfection we work towards. Nobody should think that he will make any progress in holiness and maturity if he does not walk over the belly of his sin and evil desires. No one who does not kill sin along the way will make any progress towards this destination. Anyone who isn’t feeling himself opposed and oppressed by sin, and who isn’t doing everything possible to kill it, is someone who is at peace with sin, not dying to it.7
Let a person pretend to himself that he doesn’t often think about committing sins, at least not on a daily basis. The root of a life like this, one lived without putting to death sin, is the ability to take in and digest sin without bitterness in the heart. When a person imagines that he is so in tune with God’s grace that he’s able to contemplate and commit sins daily without that bitterness, he’s at the very brink of turning the grace of God into a license to sin, and of being hardened by the deceitfulness of sin. And there’s no greater evidence of a false and rotten heart than that.
Each and every sin we commit has been meritoriously killed on the cross of Christ so that we are now justified and no longer condemned by them. A foundation of putting to death sin was laid in us at our conversion, namely being convicted of our sin and humbled by our sin, resulting in repentance and the implanting in us of the Spirit and a new nature opposed to sin and destructive to it. Nevertheless, indwelling sin remains in us and is acting and working in even the strongest and most mature of believers while they live in this world. Therefore the constant, daily killing of that sin is a critical duty for all believers as long as they are in this world.
CHAPTER FOUR
Sin weakens the soul and takes away its strength. When David had for a while harbored an unkilled evil desire in his heart, it broke all his bones and left him with no spiritual strength. He complained that he was sick, weak, wounded, and faint. “There is,” he said, “no soundness in my flesh” (Psalm 38:3) and “I am feeble and crushed” (Psalm 38:8) and “my iniquities have overtaken me and I cannot see” (Psalm 40:12). An unkilled evil desire will drink up the energy and all the strength in the soul, weakening it in carrying out all its duties.
Sin diverts the heart from the spiritual state that is required for close fellowship with God. It grabs hold of the heart, making the object of sin desirable and beloved, and so expels the love of the Father (see 1 John 2:15 and 3:17). So now the soul can’t honestly say to God, “You are what I want” because it has something else that it loves more than God. Fear, desire, and hope, which are the most important feelings of the soul, and ones that should be full of God, instead end up entangled with sin.
Every un-killed sin will certainly do two things: it will weaken the soul and take away its strength, and it will darken the soul and take away its peace and comfort.
Just like it weakens, sin also darkens the soul. It is like a thick black cloud that spreads itself over the face of the soul and blocks all the rays of God’s love and favor. It takes away any sense of our adoption as sons of God.
It’s true that they remain in the heart even when we partially neglect our duty to kill sin. But they are ready to die (see Revelation 3:2). They are withering and decaying. The heart ends up like a lazy farmer’s field – it’s so overgrown with weeds you can barely see the wheat. Someone like that may search for faith, love, and zeal for God, and yet hardly be able to find any. And even if he does, they are so weak and so clogged up with evil desires that they don’t do him much good. But let his heart be cleansed by the killing of sin, the weeds of his evil desires rooted up every day – and this has to be done daily since they grow again new each day due to the nature of sin – let room be made in the heart for grace to thrive, and watch how every grace will respond and be ready to be used for the purpose God intended for it.
CHAPTER SIX
Every evil desire is a depraved habit or tendency that makes the heart incline toward doing evil. The Bible tells us what a person looks like when he hasn’t killed any of his evil desires, saying that “every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually” (Genesis 6:5). Such a person is always under the power of a strong bent and inclination to sin. And the only reason why he isn’t always chasing after some evil desire day and night is that he has so many of them that they are competing for his attention. So instead of just one he probably has a wide variety of evil desires, but all of them are ultimately about satisfying the self. Let’s suppose then that the evil desire we are trying to understand how to kill is a strong, deeply rooted, habitual inclination and bent of will and feelings towards an actual sin. It is always stirring up thoughts, fantasies, and schemes about its object. Such people have their hearts “fully set to do evil” (Ecclesiastes 8:11). The inclination of their spirit toward it is to make “provision for the flesh” (Romans 13:14).
Where [physical and moral habits] motivate us gently in a healthy way, sinful habits drive us with violence and impulsiveness. That’s why evil desires are said to “wage war against your soul” (1 Peter 2:11). They rebel or rise up in war against what is right. They lead people captive as if they had achieved victory in war (see Romans 7:23). This shows sin’s violent, impulsive nature... [The] first step in killing sin is to weaken the habit of any evil desire so that it won’t – with that violence, seriousness, and frequency – rise up, germinate, cause trouble, provoke, entice, or upset us as naturally as it would normally (see James 1:14-15).
[Sinful desires] will darken the mind, extinguish the fires of conviction, drive us to illogical decisions, undermine the power or influence of anything that might act against them, and burst out in us like an eruption or explosion.
Some sins and evil desires are more obvious in their bad effects than others. Paul distinguishes between sexual sin and all others, saying “Flee from sexual immorality. Every other sin a person commits is outside the body, but the sexually immoral person sins against his own body.” (1 Corinthians 6:18). That sin and its effects are more easily discernable than other sins. It may be, for example, that the love of the world is in someone no less than sexual lust is, but it’s not as obvious and doesn’t seem to affect people as much on the outside. Because of this some people might go through life thinking that they’ve properly killed their sin, and be highly regarded by others for being exceptionally moral when the reality is that they are just as full of evil desires as others who are held up as awful sinners. It just so happens that that their evil desires don’t result in publicly scandalous sins but rather in more subtle sins committed in a more calm state of mind that doesn’t seem out of control.
[The] first thing then in killing sin is weakening the habit so that it doesn’t: Propel us to evil and attack us as much as it used to, Seduce us and draw us away from God, and Divert us from the program of killing it The Bible calls this “crucifying the flesh with its passions and desires” (Galatians 5:24). It is draining the blood from sin and taking away what gives it its strength and power, causing the old self to waste away day by day (see 2 Corinthians 4:16).
[When] someone first sets himself against an evil desire to deal with it, it tries with great violence to break loose. It cries out with eagerness and impatience to be released. But when through the killing process the blood and spirits of it are drained away, it moves less often and more faintly, it barely cries out, and is barely heard from in the heart again. It may sometimes have a last dying gasp with an appearance of great power and strength, but it’s quickly over, especially if that last desperate struggle is kept from getting any success.
Whatever the evil desire may be or however it manifests itself – whether by actively propelling us into sinful actions or hindering us in doing what is good – unless we crucify it effectively nothing else we do after the fact will do any good. We can destroy the bitter fruit from an evil tree all day long, but as long as the root remains healthy and untouched, dealing with the fruit will not stop the tree from continuing to bear more, more, more. This is the foolish approach a lot of people take. They eagerly and diligently try to keep from performing sinful actions, but they leave the root of the underlying evil desires untouched – maybe not even looked for – and they don’t make any progress at all in actually killing their sin.
[When] a person sees sin at any time at work in his heart, seducing him, spurring him on to fantasies and plans for making provision for the flesh and fulfilling its evil desires, he instantly knows he has a problem. He then brings it to the law of God and the love of Christ, condemns the sin, and follows up with every ounce of effort he has to kill it. When a person is able to get to this place, that sin is weakened in its root. Its movement and actions are fewer and weaker than they used to be so that it can’t interfere with the performance of his duties or with his peace of mind. When he can, in a calm and deliberate way, seek out and fight against sin in his life, then it has been killed in him to a great extent. Thought it may not be totally eradicated, a man like that can have peace with God his whole life.
[The] believer struggling to overcome a powerful indwelling sin, there are three main things he should want to accomplish: 1. The weakening of that sin’s power to tempt and propel him to perform evil and rebel against God. This is done by implanting and cultivating a power of grace that is opposed to sin and destructive of it. This is the foundation of weakening sin. So implanting and growing in humility weakens pride. Patience weakens impulsiveness. Purity of mind and conscience weaken sexual sin. Heavenly mindedness weakens the love of this world. These are the graces of the Spirit, empowered and directed by the Spirit, acting on or towards the same objects that evil desires also try to act, only in an opposite and holy direction.
CHAPTER SEVEN
An unsaved, un-regenerated unbeliever might do something that looks like killing sin, but the thing he’s done can never be acceptable to God. Think about, for example, the many encouragements and techniques for moral living found in the ancient philosophers – people like Seneca, Cicero, and Epictetus, for example. They wrote impressive letters and books talking about their contempt for the world and for self and about how to control and conquer human passions and impulses. They are still studied in colleges all over the world. But the actual lives they lived were as different from that of a Christian engaged in the genuine pursuit of killing sin as the painting of the sun is from the actual sun itself blazing in the sky. They may have written beautiful words, but they couldn’t generate any actual heat or light.
Many unsaved people are bitter and bothered about their sin. They may even be under conviction about it because they’ve heard the word of God preached to them. They may be suffering in life because of the consequences of their sin. Many of them decide to do something about that by making a vigorous attempt to stop the bad behavior that’s been causing them so many problems. But they are working inside of a fire, and that fire is burning up everything they try to do.
[This] is the usual progression of people who try to kill sin and modify their behavior without believing in Christ first. They are deluded, then they are hardened, then they are destroyed.
Because of the wisdom, goodness, and love of God, He uses various ways and means of keeping sin in check even in unbelievers. If not for this form of common grace, the world really would be entirely lawless and evil. However He manages to accomplish this, it’s a testament to the care, kindness, and goodness of God without which we would be living in a hell on earth.
There is a particular convicting power in the word of God that He sometimes uses to wound or otherwise humble sinners, but which does not lead to their conversion. We are supposed to proclaim the word of God with the goal of converting people, but it does not always result in this effect. Sometimes it falls short even though it has a convicting effect. When we proclaim the word boldly some people will be called out on their sins in a way that results in them being restrained in some way, even thought that’s not really our goal, which is actually to bring them to faith in Christ.
CHAPTER EIGHT
If you are trying with all your might to kill a sin or evil desire, why? It’s causing you anxiety, it makes you afraid, you know it has bad consequences, and you don’t feel like you have peace with God about it. But maybe you aren’t praying and reading your Bible. Or maybe you’ve been committing other sins that aren’t quite causing you as much personal trouble, but haven’t done anything to kill them. Christ died for all these too. Why aren’t you being diligent in killing all of your sin and carrying out all the duties you’ve been assigned? If you hate sin as sin then you would be just as aggressive about trying to stamp out all of it in your life. The fact that you are so selective in the particular sins you strive to defeat says plainly that the reason is because they are the only ones that are causing you pain and trouble. If they weren’t, you probably wouldn’t be worried about them either.
Paul says, “Let us cleanse ourselves from every defilement of body and spirit” (2 Corinthians 7:1). If we want to do anything, we have to do everything. So killing sin doesn’t just come down to killing this or that evil desire. It involves a universally humble frame of heart, with watchfulness over every evil, along with the performance of every duty. That’s what we must seek to do.
If anyone then wants to really and truly kill any particular sin, he should be very sure to be equally as diligent in obeying God in every other area of his life. He needs to know and behave as if every sin, every evil desire, every failure to perform his duty is as equally as bothersome to God as the sin he wants to get rid of – because they are. While the heart is indulging a negligent attitude towards obedience to God in everything, the soul is weak since it is not giving faith to the entire work it is called to do. It is selfish, because it’s more concerned with the personal consequences of sin rather than its unholiness and inherent filth. And it is a constant provocation to God.
CHAPTER NINE
When an evil desire has been in our hearts for a long time, festering and corrupting away inside of us, it puts our spirit into a terrible state... Old, neglected wounds are usually fatal. They are always dangerous. When we let an indwelling sin stay with us for a long time, it becomes like drug-resistant bacteria – deadly and difficult to kill.
People who belong to Christ, and who live from gospel principles, have His death, fellowship with God, and a deep-rooted hatred of sin as sin to use as the motivation to kill sin and every evil desire in their hearts. That’s how Joseph resisted the temptation to sleep with Pharaoh’s wife, saying, “How then can I do this great wickedness and sin against God?” (Genesis 39:9). Similarly Paul says, “The love of Christ controls us” (2 Corinthians 5:14) and “Since we have these promises, beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from every defilement of body and spirit” (2 Corinthians 7:1). But if someone is so overpowered by his evil desires that only the threats of the law are keeping him from actually doing it, if he can no longer fight sin with the power of the gospel but instead can only do it through fear of hell, it’s clear that sin has achieved a significant degree of control over his heart and his will.
CHAPTER TEN
Sin’s evil breath fogs up the mind so that it can’t make a proper judgment about it. Rationalizations, extenuating circumstances, mixed-up desires, promises to reform later, and hope for future forgiveness all play a role in keeping the mind from truly understanding the magnitude of what we are doing.
You who used to have such a tender heart, who used to melt under the power of the word of God, who used to turn to Him during your trials, will come to be what some have described as “sermon-proof and sickness-proof.” You who, when you were in much better spiritual condition than today, used to tremble at the thought of dying and having to appear in the presence of God to give an account for your life, now casually skip your duties, prayers, reading the word, attending church, etc., without it bothering your heart at all. Sin will become a trivial thing to you. You’ll commit it without thinking twice. This is what it turns into in your life over time. Is there any worse thing that can happen to you? Isn’t just the thought of this happening enough to send a chill down your spine? Trivializing grace, mercy, the blood of Christ, the law, and heaven and hell will all be the result of sin in time. This is what your evil desires are trying to accomplish in you, namely the total hardening of your heart, the numbing of your conscience, the blinding of your mind, and the total deceiving of your soul.
Though God may not completely cut you off because of your sin, there’s a very good chance He will apply the rod of discipline. Though He’ll forgive your sins, He’ll still take action to stop you from committing them anymore. Remember David and all the trouble he had. Does it scare you to think about God killing your child in His anger, sending huge setbacks into your life in anger, breaking your bones in anger, letting you experience some terrible scandal or humiliation in anger, or maybe even killing you in anger? Does it scare you to think that other people might also experience huge pain or experience God’s punishment on account of your sin? It should.
To have peace with God and the strength to walk with Him is really the summation of great promises we receive from His covenant of grace. This is where the spiritual life is found.
Someone who is entangled with sin like the person above, who is continuing to live under the power of corruption, can’t have any assurance of salvation. It would be very appropriate for him to fear of the eternal judgment of God, and he should assume that’s what is going to end up happening to him unless he repents. “There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus” (Romans 8:1). That’s true, but who does it apply to? Who can feel confident that he is safe from condemnation? Those “who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit” (v4), that’s who.
As a tender and loving person is grieved when a friend is mean to him, so it is with the great tender and loving Holy Spirit, who decided to actually move in and make His home in our hearts, and once there to bless us. He’s grieved when we harbor His enemies in our hearts, ones He’s on a mission to destroy.
The Holy Spirit, who has decided to live in them, is continually observing what it is that entertains their heart, and He rejoices when His temple is kept undefiled.
Our sin hurts the new creation Christ made inside of us, tramples on the love He has for us, and pleases His enemy. It is turning our backs on Him through the deceitfulness of sin and “crucifying once again the Son of God to their own harm and holding Him up to contempt” (Hebrews 6:6). So every time we hold on to sin in our hearts – the very sin Christ came to destroy – we are hurting and grieving Him.
The world today is full of poor, pathetic believers. How few of them actually walk in any beauty or glory! How barren and useless they are for the most part! Among the many reasons for this sad state of affairs – and it’s an important reason – is that too many of them are harboring evil desires in their hearts. That evil is in their heart like worms eating away the roots of their obedience, corroding and weakening it day by day. This undermines every gift, and all the ways gifts are used and developed. We should expect that God will prevent people like these from having much spiritual success.
CHAPTER ELEVEN
Consider what God could have done to you in light of your sin. He could have subjected you to public humiliation and shame. He could have sent you to hell. Think about all the provocations you’ve given Him. Beyond just being an average sinner, you’ve “lied to Him with your tongue” and dealt falsely with Him by “flattering Him with your mouth” (Psalm 78:36) then breaking every promise you ever made to Him by the sin you are committing. Yet He continues to spare you time after time though you seem bound and determined to see how long He can hold out against your insults. And you’re still going to sin against Him again? You’re going to try His patience with you again and see if you can get Him to ignore what you’re doing? Haven’t you sometimes felt like you’ve finally pushed God too far and there’s no possible way He could forgive you again, spare you from hell again, and redeem your life yet again? And yet, despite everything that you expected, He came back to you again with His love and mercy. And you’re still going to keep on sinning against Him to His face?
[The Law of God] makes us aware of our sin, of how guilty we are. It wakes us up out of our sleep and gets our attention. It holds up a mirror so we can see the reality of our sin. If you refuse to deal with your sin at this point, it’s not because of your faith in Christ, it’s because sin has hardened your heart.
How often have you been literally at the door of becoming hardened by the deceitfulness of sin, and yet by the infinite and rich grace of God you recovered your fellowship with Him? Haven’t you been in places where you found His gifts to you wasting away and your delight in your duties, prayer, and meditation disappearing? Haven’t you found yourself increasingly inclined to a careless walk with God? Haven’t you found yourself enjoying hanging out with an ungodly crowd, going places and doing things you know God hates? Haven’t you seen what happened to other people who were in similar situations? Somehow God in His mercy saved you from that place. But yet again you’ll take a chance by putting yourself in jeopardy of your heart getting hardened?
CHAPTER TWELVE
In the physical world, a strong desire for something has no value unless it motivates a person to actually take some action to make the thing desired actually come to pass. It’s different in the spiritual world. In the spiritual world, longing after deliverance – breathing and panting after it – is a grace all its own, and it changes the soul towards accomplishing it... So get yourself into a state where your heart is panting and breathing for deliverance from sin, just like David did in the Old Testament.
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
Sometimes our very personalities or even our physical makeup can make us particularly vulnerable to certain sins... Just because you have some unique vulnerability to sins in your natural makeup, this is not an “extenuating circumstance” that frees you from your guilt. Some people will try to blame anything other than themselves for even the most horrible crimes... The fact that you are particularly vulnerable to a specific sin just means that’s the way sin manifests itself in your life... Sin is always difficult to fight. If this one has a special advantage over you because of your personal makeup, then without extraordinary watchfulness, care, and diligence, you can be sure it is going to be victorious over you.
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
[You] should act quickly and forcefully against your sin as soon as you find out it is acting against you. Fight fast and fight hard. Don’t let it get any ground. Don’t tell your sin, “You can go this far, but no farther.” If you give it one step, it will surely take another. It’s impossible to try to put a boundary around sin. It’s like water in a channel: if it breaks out, it will follow its own way. Keeping sin from getting started in the first place is actually easier than trying to keep it safely restrained once it does.
Are you finding that sin is beginning to worm its way into your thoughts? Rise up and fight with all your strength against it. Do that with no less anger that you’d have if it fully got what it wanted. Think about what evil thoughts want to bring forth. Lust wants to make you commit fornication and adultery. Envy’s ultimate goals are murder and destruction. So when they come, fight against them with no less strength than if they’d already driven you to behaving wickedly. If you don’t do this, you’ll never beat sin. Because with every bit of success sin has in getting you to enjoy the thought of it, it also has success in making you think it’s not that severe.
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
We talk about God all the time. We talk about His ways, His works, His plans, and His character. But the truth is, we just don’t know that much about Him. Our thoughts, our meditations, and the things we say about Him are completely insufficient to express His actual glory and the true nature of His attributes.
Let me first acknowledge that there’s a vast and almost inconceivable difference between what we know about God now and what people had when they were still under the law. Their eyes were as good, as sharp, and as clear as ours. They had faith and spiritual understanding as good as ours. And God was as glorious to them as He is to us. But our times are clearer than theirs were. The dark of night is gone and the sun has risen high in the sky. This has made it much easier for us to see than it was for them.
Remember that even the most spiritual people on Earth, the ones we think have the closest relationship with Him, still in this life don’t know anything other than the smallest portion of what there is to know about our God.
Paul praised to the highest the superiority of the glory of the light of the gospel above that of the law. He talked about how the “veil” that darkens our sight is taken away so that with “open” or “unveiled face” we are “beholding the glory of the Lord” (2 Corinthians 3:18). But do we see perfectly? Alas, not. He also tells us that: “For now we see through a glass, darkly” (1 Corinthians 13:12 KJV). Paul isn’t talking about a telescope here (though even with telescopes we don’t get anywhere near the clear picture of things we’d like to). No, he’s talking about a looking glass – that is, a dull mirror – something that only produces images of things, and not very good ones at that. That’s what he’s comparing our knowledge to. He also tells us that everything we see “by” or “through this glass” is in “a riddle” – it’s dark and obscure. And speaking about himself, one who surely saw God more clearly than anyone alive now does, tells us that he only saw “in part.” He only saw the backs of heavenly things.
Paul compares everything he ever learned about God to the knowledge of earthly things he had when he was a child, knowing he would eventually grow beyond them (see 1 Corinthians 13:11-1223). We know what weak, feeble, and uncertain ideas and notions children have about anything that’s difficult or complex. And we know that when they outgrow their childish notions they look back on them with embarrassment. Children are called to love, honor, believe, and obey their father. But their fathers know just how silly their ideas are about adult matters. Similarly, despite all our confidence in the things we’ve learned or attained, all our ideas about God are childish when compared to His actual infinite nature and character. We can babble on and on about everything that we think we know so well about God. We can love, honor, believe, and obey our Heavenly Father. For His part, He takes it all in, but He also understands just how childish even our best and most accurate thoughts about Him are.
We can think that we’ve attained great knowledge, clear and exalted thoughts about God, but when we actually find ourselves in His presence we will cry out, “We never knew Him as He is! We didn’t even know the thousandth part of His glory and perfection and blessedness. It never even entered into our hearts!”
Paul gives his glorious description of God as He “who alone has immortality, who dwells in unapproachable light, whom no one has ever seen or can see” (1 Timothy 6:16). His light is so bright nothing can approach Him. He is not seen because He cannot be seen – because we cannot endure the sight of Him. The light of God, in whom there is no darkness, prevents access to Him by any creature whatsoever. We are so weak that we can’t even look directly at the sun. How much less into the light and glory of God? When considering these things, a wise man will confess that “I am too stupid to be a man” (Proverbs 30:2). That is, he knows nothing of God, and so seems to know nothing at all about anything when he turns his mind to think about God and His ways and works.
What could I say about the Trinity, for example? One God, three Persons. It’s a mystery many people have denied simply because nobody can actually understand it. Can anyone really explain the “generation of the Son” or the “procession of the Spirit”24 – or the difference of one from the other? I don’t think I need to go any further here. Suffice it to say the infinite and inconceivable distance between God and us keeps us in the dark as to any sight of His face or clear understanding of any of His infinite attributes.
God’s goal in giving us any knowledge about Himself is to so that we will “glorify Him as God.” That is, so we will love Him, serve Him, believe and obey Him – to give Him the honor and glory that is due from pathetic sinful creatures like us to a forgiving and God and Creator. All of us have to admit that we have never fully lived out the knowledge that we’ve been given.
Christ by His word and His Spirit does reveal God the Father to the hearts of all His people: as a Father, as a covenant-keeping God, and as rewarder. This is completely sufficient to teach us to obey Him here, to lead us to Him, to make us lie down in His bosom forever. Yet it is still only a tiny portion of Him that we actually know.
The gospel wasn’t revealed to give us knowledge or experience of God’s essential glory. It doesn’t enable us to see Him as He really is. It only tells us enough to serve as a foundation for our faith, love, obedience, and pursuit of Him. That is, its goal is to give us enough knowledge of God so that we can do what He expects us to do (whatever it is that poor creatures like ourselves living in the middle of temptations are capable of doing). But in the world to come, when He calls us to eternal, uninterrupted admiration and contemplation of Him, He will reveal Himself to us in a completely different way. The things we see now will disappear like a shadow.
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
When we go to Christ for healing, our faith sees Him specifically as someone who has been pierced. Faith takes many different views of Christ, depending on the occasion in which it addresses Him and the fellowship that it has with Him. Sometimes faith views His holiness, sometimes His power, sometimes His love, and sometimes His favor with the Father. And when it goes for healing, then the stripes on His back are to be looked at, the blood of the covenant: “with his wounds we are healed” (Isaiah 53:5). Not the outward story of them, which is how Roman Catholics think of it, but to look on the love, kindness, mystery, and design of the cross. When we look for peace, the punishments Christ endured must be in our minds. If this is done according to the Spirit who is poured out on believers, then it will make us hate the sin or sins that we are seeking healing and peace from. “Yet I will remember my covenant with you in the days of your youth, and I will establish for you an everlasting covenant.” And what then? “Then you will remember your ways and be ashamed” (Ezekiel 16:60-61).
A person can beg for healing in the right way from the true Great Physician of his soul. He can comfort his troubled heart with the promises of grace in the covenant. But when peace is spoken to him, if it doesn’t come along with absolute hatred of the sin that caused him to feel so troubled in the first place, then it wasn’t a peace God created, but it was a peace he made for himself. It’s like putting a band-aid on gangrene. The underlying rot of sin is still there and will continue to eat away inside and break out again and again and again. People who do this – who run to Christ for mercy and want to be rid of the trouble sin is causing them, but want to keep savoring the taste of sin under their tongue – should never believe that they have any true and lasting peace... If that’s the case, you may actually be saved – though “only as through fire” (1 Corinthians 3:15) – and maybe God will still do some things for you and through you, but don’t expect much peace. Instead expect to be sick and fainting your entire life (see Isaiah 57:17).
There are three types or levels of life: the vegetative, the sensible, and the rational.26 Everything living takes part in the vegetative life, that is, physical growth alone, including things like taking in nutrients and reproducing. Plants have only this form of life. Animals add to that the sensible life, meaning the ability to sense and respond to their environment. Human beings also add to these two the rational life, meaning the life of the mind, which enables abstract thinking. Someone who has the capability of rational thought doesn’t live according to that alone, but also to the other lower forms of life. So people not only think, they also eat, reproduce, respond to their environment, etc. It’s the same with people in the way they relate to the things of God. Some are merely natural and rational people. Others have a conviction of sin and an illumination of truth added to that. And still others are truly regenerate. Anyone who has a higher level of spiritual life also has the lower levels. So a believer, someone who is regenerated by the power of the Spirit, still continues to experience conviction and illumination and also can still think normal thoughts. So a believer’s true regenerate life is not always the thing that underpins everything that we do. Sometimes lower levels of life like our rational minds also cause us to do things.
Worst of all, this false peace doesn’t change a person’s life. It doesn’t heal the evil. It doesn’t cure the sickness of sin. When God speaks peace, it changes the person so that he will “not turn back to folly” (Psalm 85:8). When we speak peace to ourselves, we don’t get rid of the evil in our hearts. In fact, this is one of the fastest paths to backsliding. If, having bandaged yourself up, you find yourself struggling with sin again instead of having been delivered from it, it’s very clear that while you may have been at work in your soul, Jesus Christ and His Spirit weren’t. In fact, all too often after having convinced us that all is well with our soul, our rational minds will shortly be inventing excuses and justifications for going right back into sin. When God speaks peace He brings such sweetness and such a sensation of His love to our souls that it serves as a powerful incentive not to commit that sin anymore.
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
[By] faith think often of the unlimited supply of grace that is in Jesus Christ, and how He can at any time strengthen and deliver you. Even if that does not give you an immediate victory, at least you will be strengthened in your chariot. And you won’t run from the battlefield until the battle is over. You’ll be saved from despair, from giving up in unbelief, or from seeking “help” from other places that will never work and never give you the victory you’re looking for. The value in doing this will only come over time as you put it into practice.
Though it might seem like a long time as you’re waiting for help in the middle of your struggle with sin, you can be sure that help will come at the appointed time. And you can also be sure that the time appointed by Lord Jesus is the best time. So raise up your heart to a certain expectation of relief from Christ, Look at Him “as the eyes of servants look to the hand of their master” (Psalm 123:2) when he is expecting something from that master. If you do, your soul will be satisfied and Christ will surely deliver you. He will kill your evil desires and you will have true peace in the end. Just look for it from Him – expect Him to do it. And remember: “If you are not firm in faith, you will not be firm at all” (Isaiah 7:9).
“Because He Himself has suffered when tempted, He is able…” Did the sufferings and temptations Christ experienced add to His ability and power? Given that He is God, technically they didn’t. He was already all-powerful. What this is referring to is His being ready and willing to use His power to help us. He is willing to help and there’s nothing that can stop Him. He is able, having suffered and been tempted, to break through anything to help us poor, tempted souls: “He is able to help.” It is a way of referring to the effect his temptations produced. Because He was tempted, He is now willing to help us. This is repeated again in Hebrews 4:15-16: For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin. Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need. The encouragement in verse 16 is exactly what I’m trying to get across. It’s this: that we should expect to receive help from Christ, which the writer calls “grace to help in time of need.”
God tells us that His covenant with us is like the physical laws that govern the movements of the sun, the moon, and the stars (Jeremiah 31:36). That’s why the psalmist said he waited for God’s relief “more than watchmen for the morning” (Psalm 130:6). That is, it would certainly come just like morning would come at its appointed time for the soldiers on night watch. Your help from Christ will be like that. It will come at the appointed time like rain on parched desert ground. “He who calls you is faithful; He will surely do it” (1 Thessalonians 5:24).
A person who is expecting something from somebody else will surely make sure he knows exactly how he’s going to get it. A panhandler begging for change will go to where he expects the people are who will give him money. In the way Christ usually works, He expects us to be both waiting and looking for Him, and behaving in the ways that we should expect will help us access the help He promises. We do this from an expectation of faith, not idle hope. That’s why we pray, meditate, etc. We do them with the expectation that Christ will help us because these are means He’s given us to access that help. Everything we do comes down to this. We do them based on an expectation of help from Christ and for no other reason.
[Paul] tells where it is we receive this baptism into the death of Christ. It comes from that death of Christ itself. He says, “Our old self was crucified with him in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing” (v6). We were not physically crucified with Christ at Golgotha, but we were crucified with respect to the effects that crucifixion produced, of which there are three specific ones that are relevant here: We were crucified meritoriously. Sin has been completely crucified and killed in its ability to condemn us eternally, and this obtains for us the Spirit by which we can put to death the indwelling sin that remains in us. We were crucified efficiently.30 The death of Christ is the cause of us receiving the power to crucify sin. We were crucified by way of representation and example. As He was crucified for our sin, so we should be crucified to sin. This is what Paul means: Christ by His death, having destroyed the works of the devil and having purchased the Spirit for us, has so killed sin in its rule over believers, that it will not have dominion over them or achieve its objective in them.
It is the Holy Spirit, and the Holy Spirit alone, who clearly and fully convinces us of the evil, guilt, and danger of the corruption, evil desire, or sin that is to be killed. Without this conviction, or while it is so faint that the heart can fight against it or simply swallow it up, no serious and complete effort to kill sin will be made. An unbelieving heart (which we all have in part) will use any excuse it can until it is overpowered by clear convictions. This is the proper work of the Spirit. “He will convict the world concerning sin” (John 16:8). He alone can do it. If people’s rational thinking or mere intellectual considerations combined with the preaching of the Bible were able to convict people of their sins, we’d see a lot more of it than we actually do. The preaching of the word shows people that they are sinners, what things actually are sinful, and that they themselves are guilty of doing them. But this light is not very bright or powerful, nor does it really get a hold of the soul to such an extent to truly convince it – or produce the repentance that should clearly follow if it were convinced. And so even the smartest people we know don’t think that they are really sinners or bad people at all, at least they don’t apart from the work of the Spirit. It is the Spirit alone who shows people their true condition. And this is the first thing the Spirit does in order to kill any sin whatsoever. He convicts the soul of all its evil. He cuts off all its pleas and deceptions. He puts a stop to all its excuses and evasions. He exposes every false pretense. And He makes the soul own up to its own abominations and lie down in them. Unless this is done, nothing else matters.
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