Summary:

In four posts I’d like to describe four expressions of faith for killing sin.  This post handles the first expression of faith, “Know what the Bible says about sin.”  The other three are: 2) Mourn over the ugliness of sin, 3) Cry out to God for deliverance, and 4) Worship.

What is an “expression of faith?”

Only God has the power to save us.  We add nothing to our salvation, it is a gift from God received by faith, not works (Eph. 2:8-9).  However, true faith is not passive.  We can and should express our faith in many ways, always reaffirming our need for God.  If our minds and bodies are not self-controlled to focus on God, we easily drift into problems.  As it relates to overcoming sin, we take action in order to rely on God more fully so that real victory can be realized.

I put together these four expressions of faith so that I could personally remember how to depend on God in my own daily fight against indwelling sin.  I struggle with many of the sins condemned in the Bible, including all the “seven deadly sins” of lust, gluttony, greed, sloth, wrath, envy and pride.  In my heart I’m a conflicted man, wanting so much to follow Jesus, but also wanting to sin.  I’m not unfamiliar with shame.

Thankfully, I’m not alone.  I appreciate the testimonies of Augustine and Luther who also openly admitted to the war within.  The Apostle Paul wasn’t embarrassed to talk about it either.  “But there is another power within me that is at war with my mind. This power makes me a slave to the sin that is still within me” (Rom. 7:23 NLT).

I confess that my most ugly sins are as bad as anything I’ve ever known or heard about in other people.  One of my favorite statements in the Bible is Paul’s confession in 1 Timothy 1:15, “Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am the foremost.” With that statement Paul freed us from the terrible compulsion to hide the ugly truth about our hearts.

Our war against sin is one of the least emphasized aspects of the Christian life.  Many people under my care don’t know how to identify sin or how to kill it.  John Owen prefaced his classic book, The Mortification of Sin in Believers, with these words,

“I shall in a few words acquaint thee with the reasons that obtained my consent to the publishing of the ensuing discourse. The consideration of the present state and condition of the generality of [Christians], the visible evidences of the frame of their hearts and spirits, manifesting a great disability of dealing with the temptations wherewith, from the peace they have in the world and the divisions that they have among themselves, they are encompassed, holds the chief place amongst them. This I am assured is of so great importance, that if hereby I only occasion others to press more effectually on the consciences of men the work of considering their ways, and to give more clear direction for the compassing of the end proposed, I shall well esteem of my lot in this undertaking. This was seconded by an observation of some men’s dangerous mistakes, who of late days have taken upon them to give directions for the mortification of sin, who, being unacquainted with the mystery of the gospel and the efficacy of the death of Christ, have anew imposed the yoke of a self-wrought-out mortification on the necks of their disciples, which neither they nor their forefathers were ever able to bear.” [Underline mine]

What was true in Owen’s day is even more common today.

This is why I need to write these four expressions of faith.  They have become for me a memorable way to depend on God’s mercy and power to save.

The first “expression” is to study the Bible.  Pretty basic.  Bible study is an expression of faith in the sense that we are agreeing with and depending on God.  The Bible is the starting place, and the ultimate authority, for all of life.  In the fight against sin, we need to study what the Bible says about sin.

Expression of Faith #1: Know what the Bible says about sin

Here are nine things the Bible says about sin.  First, sin is entrenched and powerful; only God can touch it and live.

November’s [‘08] Wired Magazine ran an article about Chernobyl. A French company is building a huge steel cap to cover the nuclear disaster site. The cap is 30 stories high with completion expected in 2012. Apparently the cap will protect Ukraine (and the rest of us!) from the disaster’s “lava-like formations.” (Did you know there were lava-like formations at Chernobyl?  Yeesh…) This will not be a tourist site. The cap will not have doors for public viewing. It is unsafe, dangerous stuff!

Sin is like that. Sin is deadly, poisonous, and none of us can touch it.  The best we can do is try to hide it from people, cap it over with some kind of self-control.  But God can do what we cannot.  By the power of Jesus’ blood, God is a sin killer.  He purifies the evil formations in our hearts.

Anybody can change his behavior, but our behavior is not the root of sin.  If we want to kill sin, we need to go after the root.  These “sinful passions” (Rom. 7:5) are situated deep in our hearts.  For example, if I feel anger toward someone, it is not enough to simply refrain from yelling; I’ve got to kill the anger itself.  Proverbs 21:10 says, “The soul of the wicked desires evil.”  God wants to purify our desires.  As someone once said, controlling our behavior is like unplugging a toaster.  The toaster might be dormant, but the power is still there.  God wants to kill the power of sin in our lives.  Many Christians make the mistake of thinking that changed behavior (unplugging the toaster) is the same thing as purity, but God wants to purify the desires of our hearts.

Galatians 5:17 For the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh, for these are opposed to each other, to keep you from doing the things you want to do.

This problem is so entrenched and so powerful that no amount of hiding or self-discipline can change the ugly reality of our condition; only God can handle this toxic stuff.  This is why faith, and expressing our faith, is crucial in the war.  And make no mistake, it is a war.

Romans 7:22-25  For I delight in the law of God, in my inner being, but I see in my members another law waging war against the law of my mind and making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members. Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord!

Second, the Bible tells us that sin is inherited.  Wayne Grudem: “…all members of the human race were represented by Adam in the time of testing in the Garden of Eden. As our representative, Adam sinned, and God counted us guilty as well as Adam.”

Paul contrasts the spiritual impact of two men, Adam and Jesus, in Romans 5:18-19: “…as one trespass led to condemnation for all men, so one act of righteousness leads to justification and life for all men. For as by the one man’s disobedience the many were made sinners, so by the one man’s obedience the many will be made righteous.”

The Canons of Dordt (1619) explained it this way: “Therefore, all people are conceived in sin and are born children of wrath, unfit for any saving good, inclined to evil, dead in their sins, and slaves to sin; without the grace of the regenerating Holy Spirit they are neither willing nor able to return to God, to reform their distorted nature, or even to dispose themselves to such reform.”

When Adam and Eve disobeyed God, they brought sin into their lives and then passed it along to all their descendants.  That’s us!  Every human being has a powerful, anti-God posture from birth.   The Bible calls it the “flesh” and there is no escape from it.  The sin of Adam and Eve is woven into the very fabric of our being.  All of us are infected with sin, which is why it’s so sad when some churches train people to put on masks, pretending everything’s fine, pretending we’re okay.  We’re not.

King David said, “Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me” (Psalm 51:5).

Third, the Bible tells us that sin is pervasive.  We are entirely infected with sin.  Sin doesn’t pop its ugly head once in a while, it influences everything we do.  J. I. Packer wrote, “Our best works are shot through with sin and contain something for which we need to be forgiven.”  George Whitfield wrote, ”I cannot pray but I sin — I cannot preach to you or any others but I sin — I can do nothing without sin; and, as one expresseth it, my repentance wants to be repented of, and my tears to be washed in the precious blood of my dear Redeemer. Our best duties are as so many splendid sins.”

Sin in pervasive.  We’re tempted to think about sin as occasional and jarring, as though a quick prayer can get us back to a more normal state of purity.  Instead, the Bible is clear that our sin nature infects everything we do, so that none of our actions remotely resemble God’s holiness.  This is why I can, in all seriousness, equate the sin in my heart to the sin of the most notorious criminal.  I might have better self-control, but that’s a silly thing to be proud of when I consider the darkness of my heart.  One thing I’ve experienced in talking to men in prison, and I’ve heard similar comments from other people who minister in prisons, is the disturbing realization that the line is thin between me and the guy across the table.  Just a few small decisions in my past and I would easily be behind bars or dead.

Isaiah 64:6 (NET) We are all like one who is unclean, all our so-called righteous acts are like a menstrual rag in your sight. We all wither like a leaf; our sins carry us away like the wind.

Forth, sin is vile.  R.C. Sproul writes, ”[Sin is] cosmic treason….even the slightest sin that a creature commits against his Creator does violence to the Creator’s holiness, His glory, and His righteousness. Every sin, no matter how seemingly insignificant, is an act of rebellion against the sovereign God who reigns and rules over us and as such is an act of treason against the cosmic King.” Sproul goes on to describe sin as a debt, as enmity (God-hatred) and as a crime.

We are tempted to make light of sin.  We call our sins “mistakes” and we make excuses.  People say things like, ”I wouldn’t have committed adultery if my wife had treated me better.” An elementary step in killing sin is to agree with God’s definition of it: vile.

Revelation 3:17  For you say, I am rich, I have prospered, and I need nothing, not realizing that you are wretched, pitiable, poor, blind, and naked. I counsel you to buy from me gold refined by fire, so that you may be rich, and white garments so that you may clothe yourself and the shame of your nakedness may not be seen, and salve to anoint your eyes, so that you may see.

At this point, a person might despair.  That’s normal, and probably very healthy.  We ought to grieve over the sinfulness of sin.  But our grief gives way to unmeasurable joy in light of the Gospel.

Charles Spurgeon said, “Too many think lightly of sin, and therefore think lightly of the Savior. He who has stood before his God, convicted and condemned, with the rope about his neck, is the man to weep for joy when he is pardoned, to hate evil which has been forgiven him, and to live to the honour of the Redeemer by whose blood he has been cleansed.”

Fifth, sin is deceptive.  Sin is crafty.  It will kill the person who is not wary and watchful.  This explains why a person can feel guilty for gaining five pounds, while at the same time feeling anger against a family member without any shame at all.  This explains how churches split, two sides of a gossip war feeling entitled to their feelings of anger.  Gossip, division, anger are sin, but sin is deceptive!  It hides inside us like something harmless.  Our sin nature makes us feel guilt for things that the cross was not meant to atone for, and our sin nature makes us feel comfortable with the very worst evil.  Jerry Bridges talks about “Respectable Sins,” the sins we love to tolerate.  It’s true that Satan is deceptive, but not all deception comes from him. I know of no one more capable of brilliant deception than myself.

Martin Lloyd-Jones once wrote, “One characteristic of the Christian is always this: a profound distrust of self and a realization of the power of God….It takes a Christian to see the darkness of his own heart and the frailty of his own nature….The Christian is a man who knows his own weakness, and he is afraid of it. So he prays for a steady spirit, a reliable spirit. He wants to be a sound man.”

Sixth, sin enslaves and kills.  Like Chernobyl, the “lava-like formulations” of the sin inside us have the intention of enslaving and killing us.  This point is made at least half a dozen times in the book of Romans.

Romans 7:5 For while we were living in the flesh, our sinful passions, aroused by the law, were at work in our members to bear fruit for death.

Knowing the end of sin will help us to be vigilant against it.  A lack of love between husband and wife will go unchecked, leading to nauseating sorrow, if each one fails to see the end of sin.  Little resentments, tiny expressions of entitlement, small denials of grace, these lead to habits (slavery) and always-growing division.  If we’re foolish, we’ll allow that to continue.  We need to know the end of sin, the intentions of evil.  As John Owen wrote, “Be killing sin or sin will be killing you.”

Seventh, sin exposes Christians to satanic/demonic attack.

Eph. 4:26-27 Be angry and do not sin; do not let the sun go down on your anger, and give no opportunity to the devil.

In other words, if we disobey this command against long-term anger, our disobedience gives an opportunity to Satan.  Presumably this is true with every sin, not just anger.  If we do not flee from sin, we expose ourselves to demonic influences.  This explains addictions more than any biological force, although certainly biology is involved.  When we indulge in lust, gluttony, greed, sloth, wrath, envy, pride or other sins, the devil can gain a foothold in our lives.

James 4:7 Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.

In other words, the opposite of submission to God is submission to the devil.  There is no middle-ground.

Romans 6:16 Do you not know that if you present yourselves to anyone as obedient slaves, you are slaves of the one whom you obey, either of sin, which leads to death, or of obedience, which leads to righteousness?

This is an important consideration as we fight sin.  It may be that my slowness to kill it has invited demons to play in my life, making the sin much harder to kill, inviting unparalleled danger into my home.  If I suspect that this is true, then I should repent and also command the demon(s) to leave.  People tend to get obsessed and silly with spiritual warfare.  Instead, this should be done calmly (because we speak as those with the authority of Christ), quickly, confidently, and out-loud (since demons probably cannot read our thoughts).  A prayer like this is sufficient: “By the authority of Jesus Christ and the power of His blood I command all demons to go away.”

Eighth, the Bible tells us that God is angry toward sin.  God punishes sin.

Sin gives us trouble from Satan, but much worse, it gives us trouble from God.

Deuteronomy 6:14-15 You shall not go after other gods, the gods of the peoples who are around you, for the LORD your God in your midst is a jealous God, lest the anger of the LORD your God be kindled against you, and he destroy you from off the face of the earth.

Matthew 10:28 And do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather fear him who can destroy both soul and body in hell.

Hebrews 10:31 It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.

Some people make the mistake of contrasting “the God of the Old Testament” with “the God of the New Testament.”  In reality, God does not change (Mal. 3:6).  He is the same yesterday, today, and forever (Heb. 13:8).  The great love and grace we see in the New Testament is available to us through the Gospel, but if we resist the Gospel and continue in sin, this is our “New Testament” fate:

Revelation 14:19-20  So the angel swung his sickle across the earth and gathered the grape harvest of the earth and threw it into the great winepress of the wrath of God. And the winepress was trodden outside the city, and blood flowed from the winepress, as high as a horse’s bridle, for 1,600 stadia.

Ninth, God loves sinners and He forgives sin.

1 John 1:9 If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

This is the greatest truth the world has ever known, and it is the central message of the Bible.  God loves sinners and He forgives sin.  All the ugliness of sin is cleaned by God’s amazing grace when we come to Him in repentance and faith.

1 Timothy 1:15 The saying is trustworthy and deserving of full acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am the foremost.

Like many people, I grew up with a vague idea that God loves people.  But I wasn’t real sure about his love for me.  He sees who I really am.  A few years ago I preached through the entire Bible in one-year, which was a fun journey for our church family.  During that year God gave me a strong and previously unknown confidence in His love for sinners like me.  One of my favorite places in the Bible is when Jesus told His disciples about His work in heaven, preparing a place for us to live forever.  “In my Father’s house are many rooms” (John 14:2).  I like to tell my children that we will all live together with God someday in one big house in heaven.  I think God is intentionally personal with that image.  I can’t wait to see my room.

So, on the one hand, the first eight points in this post help me to see the bad news – that I am a sinner.  Much worse than being a failure or unpopular or unkind, I am a condemned sinner.  But the great purpose of the Bible is to reveal the glory of God in His love for sinners like me.

Romans 7:24 – 8:1 Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death?  Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, I myself serve the law of God with my mind, but with my flesh I serve the law of sin. There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.

If we are serious about killing sin, we need to know what the Bible says about it.  Everyone is a theologian; we all believe something about sin, God, forgiveness, etc.  The only difference between us is that some of us are Biblical theologian and some of us make it up.  Since the stakes are so high in our war against sin, we need to study the things God wants us to know.

We express our faith in God by studying His Word as our only hope for understanding reality.  We completely depend on Him to light our path.  The beginning place of expressing faith in God is to submit to the authority, clarity, sufficiency, and reliability of the Bible.