How To Mortify Sins | Why do we go on in Sin? | What does it look like to kill sin?

Consider listening to the following sermons by Dr. Richard Caldwell that will encourage us in our walk with Christ to do these very things:

The Certainty of New Life: https://youtu.be/MYtsqScLp40
The Application of Doctrine: https://youtu.be/qzlEXcFYz4k
Salvation's New Abilities: https://youtu.be/4R9csD924OQ
Why Grace Meets Objections: https://youtu.be/upikWrIJg-A
The Answer for Grace Abuse: https://youtu.be/nlhfU0K6Yic
Our Death With Jesus: https://youtu.be/22CGqTJCaUE
No Chance to Repent: https://youtu.be/neBZXGiDLP8
Worship and the Mortification of Sin: https://youtu.be/a8WQOH1SEGs
The Believing Life: https://youtu.be/uozvF_3kp5E
Living in Hostile Territory - Part 1: https://youtu.be/_DEvgp3PK5g
The War Within: https://youtu.be/Yt3y7bpSrOQ
The Sin of Adultery: https://youtu.be/v75oRsellvY
The Children of God in this World: https://youtu.be/dftJQvDWTqI
Threats to God's Children: https://youtu.be/jtrrA5tHLy0

If sin remains with/in us until glorification, how do we mortify them? If mortifying sin means killing it, how do we actually do that? If we kill our sin, why does it remain, and why do we go on in sin?

This week on the Straight Truth Podcast, Dr. Richard Caldwell and Dr. Josh Philpot discuss the mortification of sin. What does it mean to kill it? What does it look like to kill sin? And if we are taking the steps necessary to kill sin in our lives, why does it not go away? These are questions we need answers to if we are to grow and progress in the Christian life. Without understanding our sin and dealing with it ongoingly, we can stifle our sanctification process, bringing dishonor and shame to our Lord who bought us. In Christ, we are new creatures. Daily we must put off sin and put on Christ. Listen in as Dr. Caldwell opens the Word of God and helps us to understand this process of mortifying our sins.

Dr. Caldwell affirms that on this side of glorification, we will not be perfected, and sins will reappear. Mortification means that we have to go on putting those sins to death. Putting them to death means that we deal with all our sin issues in light of our real death to sin and in light of our real new life in Jesus Christ. We must deal with sin in accordance with the truth as it is in Jesus.

Dr. Caldwell shares Romans 6:5-11. He tells us that it teaches us that we know a real freedom right now with respect to sin because of what Jesus has done for us. Jesus came into the world to die on behalf of our sins. He has accomplished that. It is finished. It is done. There is something about Jesus' death to sin that informs the believers' death to sin. Before Christ, we were enslaved to sin, but now united to Christ, we can choose to say no to sin and yes to Christ. So mortifying sin is to regard ourselves as dead to that sin. Moment by moment, choice by choice, decision by decision is how we put sin to death.

When a believer gives themselves to sin, they are living as if they are still a slave, as if they are still in Adam. But, if we are in Christ, we do not have to give in to sin. Instead in that very moment, we put it to death by saying no to it and saying yes to Jesus Christ. Putting to death sin will be a continual process that believers must engage in daily because killing sin does not happen all at once. So, we must battle to slay our sin, doing so with the sword of the Spirit, with the belt of truth, through the power of the Spirit. We won’t do this perfectly, and there will be times when we trip and stumble.

So what do we do when we stumble? We repent, we get up, and we walk again. We don’t use it as an excuse to go on in sin. Dr. Caldwell explains that Romans 6 also addresses this. As believers, we want to serve Christ and live righteous lives, and we've been given the capacity to do that. This is a pattern for those who have new life in Christ. Those made new by the regenerating work of the Holy Spirit will live new lives. Anything less is a contradiction of who we are in Christ.

So if we are going to mortify sin, we cannot give it oxygen. We cannot give it room to live and breathe. We must subdue sin by refusing it, by starving and rejecting it. Our Lord said that if our hand causes us to sin, cut it off. He said if our eye causes us to sin, pluck it out. It should be obvious that He is speaking metaphorically. He is not saying for us to literally cut off our hands or pluck out our eyes. He is using radical terminology to help us understand the seriousness of sin. We want to take radical action to do whatever is necessary to overcome sin and put it to death.

We must recognize the presence of sin in our lives to kill it. To recognize sin as sin, we must know the Word of God. We must saturate ourselves with His Word cultivating hearts that desire to obey God as we understand and take sin seriously.