Be Killing Sin
“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 8:13
The battle against the flesh is perhaps the most significant battle of the Christian life. In Romans 8:13 Paul says, “For if you live according to the flesh you will die.” John Murray commented on this verse: “Here is an inevitable and invariable sequence, a sequence which God Himself does not and cannot violate.” Or, as John Owen put it more succinctly, “Be killing sin or sin will be killing you.” We must know what’s at stake in this battle. In His teaching in Matthew 5:27-30, Jesus could not have been more clear: Lose your lust or lose your soul!
The battle is either won or lost in the mind. We must come to think in a way we have never thought before if we are to live a life we have never lived before. Paul makes this point repeatedly in the New Testament (see Romans 12:2; Ephesians 4:17-24; and Colossians 3:1-6). To win this fight, we must keep several key concepts at the forefront of our minds:
First, we must know our enemy. In Genesis 3 we see Satan attack Adam and Eve in three ways: by attacking weakness, spreading doubt, and sweetening sin. He begins with the woman because she was the weaker of the two; God never intended her to stand at the tip of the spear in spiritual combat (1 Timothy 2:12-15). Adam failed to protect his wife from Satan's insinuations. The devil progressively led Adam and Eve to doubt the truth of God's Word, the certainty of God's judgment, and the goodness of God's heart. Without these ideas to secure their thinking, they had no defense against Satan's final attack, which was to sweeten sin. Once evil is seen as good, the moral universe is turned upside down, and we will start desiring evil as good.
Secondly, we must know ourselves. We must understand that we have no power to stand against the flesh. We can only fight this battle in the Spirit and by the Spirit. As the second half of our theme verse declares, “If by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live.” To do this, we must attend to the Word of God, and Scripture memory is crucial. We must also understand our “why”-- that is, the idolatrous desires that lie at the root of every sin we commit. In my experience, there is often one desire that lies back behind every sin we commit. Discovering this requires careful thought and self-examination (Psalm 139).
Thirdly, we must know our Savior. In Romans 13:14 Paul says, “But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to gratify its desires.” We must put on godly virtues and never abstract them from Christ. We must lay hold of the power of the cross to kill our sins and remind ourselves that what Christ did upon the cross has already killed sin's power to control us (Romans 6:11). Christ's ministry to the leper, the cripple, and the tax collector in Luke 5:12-32 represents a parable of Christ's ability to save us from the effects of sin. We see our Savior's endearing kindness to touch dirty people, liberate people from the enslaving effects of sin, and befriend horrible people like Levi, you, and me.
In conclusion, the battle against the flesh is the most significant battle of the Christian life. We must win this battle in our minds by knowing our enemy, knowing ourselves, and knowing our Savior. We must come to think in a way we have never thought before if we are to live a life we have never lived before. The power of the cross has already killed sin's power to control us (Galatians 2:20-22), and it is by the Spirit that we put to death the deeds of the body (Romans 6:11).
How are you doing in your battle against sin, Christian? Whether you are faring well or ill, you must not forget: “Be killing sin, or sin will be killing you!”