02. CHAPTER 2
CHAPTER 2 THE DUTY OF THE BEST BELIEVERS Confirming the need for mortification Mortification is still the duty of the best believers13 Indwelling sin stays with us; there is no perfection in this life14 What sin does in the life of believers15 Sin’s fruitfulness and tendency Every lust aims at the most extreme form of its kind The Spirit and a new nature are given to contend against indwelling sin16 The fearful consequence of neglecting mortification17 The first general principle of mortification – the sorrow of failing in this duty.
Having laid this foundation connecting mortification and life, the main deductions lead me to propose, I. The first general principle: despite the death of sin on the cross, sin remains. The best believers, who are certainly freed from the condemning Power of sin, still need to make it their business to mortify the indwelling power of sin all their life. So the apostle Paul writes, “Therefore mortify the parts of your body that belong to the earth.”18 To whom does he speak? Those who were “risen with Christ,” verse 1; those who were “dead” with him, verse 3; those who have their life in Christ, and who will “appear with him in glory,” verse 4. Do you mortify the sin in your life? Do you make it your daily work? Always be at this work while you live! Do not miss a day from it. You need to be killing sin, or it will be killing you. Being virtually dead with Christ, being made alive with him, will not excuse you from this work. Our Savior tells us how his Father deals with every branch in him that bears fruit, every true and living branch. “He prunes it so it may bear more fruit.”19 He prunes it, and not for a day or two, but while it continues to be a branch in this world. And the apostle tells you what his own practice was: “I subdue my body, and bring it into submission.”20 “I do it daily;” he says, “it is the work of my life: I do not omit it; this is my business.” And if this was the work and business of Paul, who was so exceptionally gifted in grace, revelations, enjoyments, privileges, and consolations, well beyond the ordinary believer, why would we be exempt from this work and duty while we are in this world? Here are a few reasons why we need to do this daily: 1. Indwelling sin stays with us while we are in this world; therefore we always need to mortify it. The useless, foolish, and ignorant disputes we get into about keeping the commands of God perfectly, of somehow reaching perfection in this life, of being wholly and perfectly dead to sin, I will not get into now. It is more than probable that the people who promote such ideas never knew what it takes to keep any of God’s commands. They are so far from perfection that they never sincerely strived for even partial obedience, much less universal obedience. And so, many in our day who talk of perfection have been wiser than we, and they assert that perfection consists in knowing no difference between good and evil. Their perfection is not in the things we call good. Instead it is all the same to them; the height of wickedness is their perfection. Others have found a new way to perfection by denying original, indwelling sin. They bend the spirituality of God’s law to men’s carnal hearts. They realize that they are ignorant of the life of Christ and its power in believers, so they have invented a new righteousness that the gospel knows nothing of. They are uselessly puffed up by their fleshly minds.
There are those of us who do not dare to be wise beyond what is written, nor do we boast by other men’s measure of what God has or has not done for us. We say that indwelling sin lives in us to some degree as long as we are in this world. We do not dare to speak as “though we had already attained, or were already perfect.”21 Our “inward man is to be renewed day by day” while we live here.22 Amid the renovations of the new are the breaches and decays of the old. While we are here we “know but in part.”23 We have a darkness remaining that needs to be gradually removed by our “growth in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.”24 But “the flesh lusts against the Spirit, so that we cannot do the things that we want to do,”25 and we are therefore defective in our obedience as well as in our light.26 We have a “body of death”27 from which we are not delivered until the death of our bodies.28 Now, having a duty to mortify, to kill sin while it is in us, we need to get to work. If someone is appointed to kill an enemy, and he ceases striking before the other ceases living, he does only half his work.29 2. Sin not only still abides in us, but it still acts, still labors to bring out the deeds of the flesh. When sin lets us alone, we may let sin alone. But sin is never less quiet than when it seems most quiet. Its waters are deepest when they are still. So we need to vigorously root out sin at all times and in all conditions, even where we least suspect it. Sin not only stays in us, but “the law of the members of the body is still rebelling against the law of the mind,”30 and “the spirit that dwells in us tends to envy.”31 Sin is always at work. “The flesh opposes the Spirit.”32 Lust is still tempting and conceiving sin.33 In every moral action, sin inclines towards evil, or it hinders good, or it disengages the spirit from communion with God. It inclines to evil. “The evil I do not want to do, that is just what I do,” says the apostle.34
Why is that? “Because nothing good lives in me (that is, in my flesh),” verse 18. And sin hinders me from doing good: “The good that I want to do, I do not do,” verse 19. “In the same way, either I do not do it, or I do not do it as I should; all of my holy things are being defiled by this sin.”35 “The flesh lusts against the Spirit, so that I cannot do the things that I want to do.”36 Sin distracts our spirit, and so it is called “The sin that so easily entangles us.”37 That is why the apostle has such grievous complaints about it in Romans 7. So sin is always acting, always conceiving, always seducing and tempting. Who can say that he ever had anything to do with God or for God, that indwelling sin did not have a hand in corrupting? And sin will have this impact more or less all of our life. If sin is always acting, and we are not always mortifying, then we are lost creatures. If a man stands still and allows his enemies to beat him without resistance, then he will undoubtedly be conquered. If sin is subtle, watchful, strong, and always at work in the business of killing our souls, and we are slothful, negligent, and foolish in trying to ruin its efforts, then how can we expect a good outcome? There is not a day that goes by that sin either foils or is foiled, that it either wins or loses; and it will be this way all the while we live in this world.
I will release anyone from this duty that can make sin surrender, that can bring a cessation of arms in this warfare. If sin will spare him one day, even one duty (assuming he is acquainted with the spirituality of obedience and the subtlety of sin), he may say to his soul, “Take the day off in this duty.” The saints long for deliverance from sin’s bewildering rebellion. They know that the only safety against it is constant warfare.
3. Sin not only troubles us, but if left alone, it produces soul-destroying sins.
Sin not only strives, acts, rebels, troubles, and disturbs us, but if it is left alone, if it is not continually mortified, it will produce great, cursed, scandalous, soul-destroying sins. The apostle tells us what the works and the fruits of sin are. “The works of the flesh are apparent: adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, jealousy, anger, strife, sedition, heresies, envy, murders, drunkenness, carousing, etc.”38 You know what it did in David and many others. Sin always aims at the extreme. If it had its way, every time it rises up to tempt or entice, it would go out to the most extreme sin of that kind. If it could, every unclean thought or glance would become adultery. Every covetous desire would become oppression. If it were allowed its own reign, every thought of unbelief would become atheism. Men may reach a point, where sin is so unrestrained, that it no longer stings their conscience. The most outrageous sin no longer seems scandalous. If every impulse of lust were satisfied, it would reach the height of villainy. Sin is like the grave that is never satisfied.39 This is part of the deceitfulness of sin, which hardens men’s hearts and leads to their ruin.40 It is subtle in its initial approach, and so we succumb to it. But once it has a hold on our heart by these little concessions, it gains a footing; and then it presses on in increasing degrees of the same kind. This continual pressing forward fools the soul into thinking the separation from God that has already happened is insignificant. It thinks that if there is no further progress, then nothing is different. To the extent the soul is made insensitive to a sin, that is, insensitive to what the gospel requires of the believer, that is the extent to which the heart is hardened. But sin still presses forward. That is because the only boundary it has is our complete relinquishment of God, and our opposition to him. Its ability to proceed towards this extreme end by degrees, and to make good the ground it has gotten by hardness, does not come from its nature, but from its deceitfulness. Nothing can prevent this infiltration but mortification. Mortification will wither the root of the sin, and strike at its head every hour, so that whatever it aims at it is thwarted. If the best saint in the world shirks this duty, he will fall into as many cursed sins as anyone else.
4. The Spirit and the new nature are given to us so we have the moral strength to oppose sin.
“The flesh lusts against the Spirit.” Well, so what? “The Spirit also lusts against the flesh.”41 There is a tendency in the Spirit, or our new spiritual nature, to act against the flesh, as well as a tendency in the flesh to act against the Spirit.42 It is our participation in the divine nature that gives us an escape from the pollution that is in the world through lust. In Romans 7:23 we find there is a law of the mind, as well as a law of the fleshly members. When two people are fighting, it is unjust and unreasonable to bind one and leave the other at liberty to wound him at his pleasure. In the same way, it is foolish to bind the one who fights for our eternal salvation, and leave alone the one who violently seeks our everlasting ruin. The contest is for our lives and souls! Not employing the Spirit and the new nature to mortify sin daily, is ignoring the excellent assistance that God has given us against our greatest enemy. If we neglect to use what we have received, God may justly hold back giving more. His graces and his gifts are bestowed on us to use, to exercise, and to trade with. Not mortifying sin daily is sinning against the goodness, kindness, wisdom, grace, and love of God who furnished us with the help and moral strength we need to do that.
5. Neglecting this duty renews the old man, and rots the new man.
Neglecting this duty throws the soul into a condition exactly opposite to what the apostle proclaims: “Even though our outward man rots, the inward man is renewed day by day.”43 When this duty is neglected, the inward man rots, and the outward man is renewed day by day. Sin becomes like the house of David, and grace becomes like the house of Saul. Everything is turned upside-down.
Exercise and success are the two main havens of grace in the heart. When grace is abandoned, it withers and decays. The things of grace are ready to die,44 and sin gains ground towards hardening the heart.45 What I mean is that, by ignoring this duty, grace withers, lust flourishes, and the condition of the heart grows worse and worse. The Lord knows what desperate and fearful effects sin has had with many people. When we neglect mortification, sin gets a substantial victory, and it breaks the bones of the soul.46 It makes a man weak, sick, and ready to die,47 so that he cannot look up.48 When we take blow after blow, wound after wound, foil after foil, and never rise up in vigorous opposition, can we expect anything but being hardened through the deceitfulness of sin, and finding our souls bleeding to death?49
Indeed, it is sad to consider the effects of this neglect that lie under our eyes every day. We see those whom we knew to be humble, melting, broken-hearted Christians. They were tender and afraid of offending anyone, zealous for God and all his ways, and respectful of his Sabbaths and laws. By neglecting this duty, they have grown earthly, carnal, cold, and wrathful. They conform to the men and to the things of the world, making a scandal of religion; and they become a fearful temptation to those who know them. The truth is, true evangelical mortification is almost lost among us. Some have made it earthly, legal, censoring, and partial. It is tainted with wrath, envy, malice, and pride. Others have made it seem obsolete with their pretenses of liberty and grace, and I do not know what else, trying to justify its neglect. More about that later.
6. It is our duty to be “perfecting holiness out of the fear of God.”50
It is our duty to “grow in grace” daily.51 It is our duty to “renew our inward man day by day.”52 Now, this cannot be done without mortifying sin day by day. Sin strongly opposes every act of holiness, and every degree to which we grow. No man should think he is making any progress in holiness if he does not walk over the dead bodies of his lusts. Anyone who does not kill sin that stands in his way is not taking any steps towards his journey’s end. Anyone who finds no opposition from sin, and does not take every opportunity to mortify it, is actually at peace with sin; he is not dying to it.
This, then, is the first general principle of our ensuing discourse. Let me put it this way: despite the death of each and every sin on the cross of Christ, sin remains. Despite the foundation of mortification afforded by our conversion, our own conviction of sin, and our humiliation for sin, sin remains. Despite the new moral strength to oppose and destroy sin that has been implanted in us, sin remains. Sin has such an effect on the best of believers that, as long as they live in this world, the constant daily mortification of sin remains their obligation.
Before I proceed to the next principle, I have to complain about the many professed Christians these days who, instead of showing great and evident fruits of mortification, hardly bear any leaves of it. There is a growing popular movement attracting those who display many spiritual gifts, and who freely express their spirituality. There is a noise of religion and religious activities in every corner. There is preaching in abundance. And it is not done in the empty, light, trivial, and vain manner it once was. For the most part, it results from a spiritual gift. If you were to measure the number of believers by the attention they draw, the number of gifts they show, or the professions they make, the church might be prompted to ask, “Where did all these followers come from?” But if you measure them by their fruits of mortification, this great discriminating grace of Christians, perhaps their number is not so large.
There are so many of those who converted during this popular movement, who talk about and profess their faith with a level of spirituality seldom seen before. But unfortunately, they give evidence of a miserably unmortified heart. I will not judge them, but perhaps boast about what the Lord has done in them. If wasting time, idleness, squandering time in clubs, envy, strife, quarreling, jealousy, anger, pride, worldliness, and selfishness53 are badges of Christians, then we have them among us in abundance. And if such behavior can be found in those who have so much light, and which, we hope, is saving light, then what do we say about some who would like to be called religious and yet despise the light of the gospel? What do we say about those who know no more of the duty we are discussing than occasionally denying themselves a few outward, harmless, and seldom practiced enjoyments? May the good Lord send out a spirit of mortification to cure our diseased state, or we will wind up in a sad condition!
Two evils accompany every unmortified professor of faith.
There are two evils which certainly accompany every unmortified professor of faith: the first is found in himself, and the other is found in respect to others – 1. The evil in himself.
He can pretend not to, but he has careless thoughts of sin, sins of daily weakness. The sign of an unmortified sinful habit is being able to digest the sin without any bitterness in the heart. A man may imagine the kind of grace and mercy that will allow him to swallow and digest his daily sins without bitterness. When he does, he is at the brink of turning the grace of God into lewdness, and of being hardened by the deceitfulness of sin. There is no greater evidence of a false and rotten heart, than to be able to trade that grace and mercy for the sinful habit. The blood of Christ is given to cleanse us.54 Christ lifted up gives us repentance.55 The doctrine of grace teaches us to deny all ungodliness.56 Using these to cloak and approve sin, is a rebellion that will break the bones. Most of the professors of Christ who have fallen from grace in our day, have departed us through this door of unmortified sin. For awhile most of them had ideological convictions; those convictions kept them to their duties and brought them to a profession of faith. In this way they “escaped the pollution that is in the world, through the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.”57 But enticed only by the doctrine of the gospel, and being weary of duty (for which they had no moral foundation), they neglected numerous requirements of the doctrine of grace. Once this evil laid hold of them, they quickly fell into damnation.
2. The evil in relation to others around them. This has two evil influences on unmortified professors of Christ –
(l.) It hardens them, by persuading them that they are as good as the best professors of Christ. Whatever they see exemplified in the best professors, is so colored by their own lack of mortification, that it has no value to them. They have a zeal for religion, but they lack restraint and universal righteousness. They reject wastefulness, but practice worldliness. They separate from the world; but living entirely to themselves, they take no care to exercise loving-kindness. Or they talk spiritually, but they live in vanity. They mention communion with God, but they are conformed to the world in every way. They boast of the forgiveness of sin, and yet they never forgive others. And with such mindsets, these poor creatures harden their hearts by their unrepentance.
(2.) They deceive others, by making them believe it would be good if everyone could be as spiritual as they purport to be. And so it becomes an easy thing for others to be tempted by religious fame, and to go far beyond what they see in these false professors. Yet, they will still come short of eternal life. But this, and all the evils of walking without mortifying sin, will come later.58