by: Jesse Robinson

Matt 5:29 If your right eye causes you to sin, tear it out and throw it away. For it is better that you lose one of your members than that your whole body be thrown into hell. 30 And if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away. For it is better that you lose one of your members than that your whole body go into hell.

For those of us that run around in the Gospel-centered circles, there is a danger that we might undermine the hatred of God for sin. God calls us to seriously and passionately commit ourselves to the destruction of sin in our lives and in our church body. When dealing with sin, Scripture commands three actions contributing to the mortification of sin. 1. Cut off. 2. Cut and run. 3. Confess.

1. Cut off – Jesus calls us to cut off the things most important to us, our right hand and eye, to destroy sin. Scripture is constantly exhorting us to put off the old man, to die to the flesh.

2. Cut and run – Scripture also calls us to flee from sin and temptation at certain times. Think of Joseph and Potiphar’s wife. Some sins will destroy us. We must even avoid the street of the adulteress.

3. Confess – Scripture commands that we confess our sin to God but also to each other. When shameful sin is brought into the light, the power of sin diminishes. Instead of one soldier, the whole army becomes engaged in the war against sin.

All three of these are modes of death, humiliation. We surrender our own pride and righteousness to fall upon the grace of Christ and his church and his righteousness.

However, there is the temptation to believe that though we’re saved by grace, the mortification of sin (this cutting off, cutting and running, and confessing) is performed by self-will and therefore works. If we just try hard, we can overcome sin. However, the same things that are true of salvation are true of the mortification of sin. Salvation is union with Christ. Salvation is by faith. Salvation is driven by love. Salvation is repentance. So too is the mortification of sin.

The mortification of sin is in union with Christ. In both Col 3 and Gal 5, key mortification passages, the saints are reminded of their death and resurrection with Christ. Gal 5:24 “And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.” You are already dead. When you experience desire to lust, you’re already dead.

The mortification of sin is by faith. Anything that does not come from faith is sin. Our passage comes right before Christ’s teaching of how to pray. “Lead me not into temptation but deliver me from the evil one.” When you pray do you hold an expectation of relief from Christ? John Owen, the expert on mortification, once said “All ways, endeavors, contendings that are not animated by this expectation of relief from Christ and him only are to no purpose, will do you no good.” Sometimes the most faith-filled prayer is that of a desperate “help!”

The mortification of sin is driven by love. Jesus says, “If you love me, you will keep my commandments.” We are tempted to think of lust as a sin problem. More accurately, it is a love problem. It is relational. The great Puritan pastor Richard Baxter once wrote on how to hate and conquer sin: “Consider well of the office, the bloodshed, and the holy life of Christ.—His office is to expiate sin, and to destroy it. His blood was shed for it: his life condemned it. Love Christ, and you will hate that which caused his death. Love him, and you will love to be made like him, and hate that which is so contrary to Christ.”

The mortification of sin is repentance. Remember Christ started his ministry and his proclamation of the kingdom with a call to repent. We must not cut off, cut and run, and confess without an attitude of repentance. We should be constantly repenting to our Lord whom we sin against constantly without fail. Do not merely tell yourself not to do something. Instead, repent. Confess your sin to the Lord. I find that it helps me to be verbal with this. So did the writers of the Psalms. Tell the Lord your evil thoughts and desires. Ask forgiveness. Cry out amongst your shame. And worship the God who has redeemed you through Christ, who has perfectly repented of all of your sins. This posture of humility destroys the power and pride of sin. And even though there is much shame in our sin against our Father, do you think that he ever tires of us repenting and returning to his safety? He loves it every time.

For some of us, we don’t really acknowledge the pervasive presence of real, tangible sin in our lives. Christ reveals the idolatry of your heart and self-worship. He calls your righteousness rubbish and invites you to be clothed in his fine garment of white. Some of you have so much despair that you will never be done with sin. In the pit of your depravity and uncleanness, Christ comes, holds you in your brokenness and gently picks you up to live and walk again in the power of his resurrection. Some of you believe that sin is a thing of the past and have put down the sword to fight. Christ raises the flag of war. There is still sin in you and he will not rest from the battle until you are perfect as he is.

It is in him, Jesus Christ our Lord, that we can perfectly rest, perfectly righteous before God, and in him, that we can perfectly fight, die, and destroy sin.