03. CHAPTER 3
CHAPTER 3 FALSE MORTIFICATION OF SIN Confirming the second general principle of the means of mortification The Spirit is the only author of this work Discovering the uselessness of the Roman Catholic ritualized mortification Many means used by the Roman Catholic church are not specified by God Those means which are specified by him are abused The mistakes of others in this business The Spirit is promised to believers for this work59 All that we receive from Christ is by the Spirit How the Spirit mortifies sin60 Several ways the Spirit operates in this endeavor How the Spirit’s ways work, and our duty in that work The next principle involves the sovereign cause of mortification, which is the Holy Spirit.
II. The second general principle: Only the Spirit is sufficient to do this work of mortification;
Any other ways or means of mortifying sin apart from him will have no effect. He acts directly to do it, and he works in us just as he pleases.
1. Men seek other remedies in vain.
Men will not be healed by other remedies. The specific ways that are prescribed by God to mortify sin are known to us. A lot of the Roman Catholic religion and its practices consist of mistaken ways and means of mortification. This is the pretense of their rough garments; they deceive themselves. Their vows, orders, fasting, and penance, are all built on this false groundwork; they are all meant to mortify sin. Their preaching, sermons, and books of devotion, all look this way. That is why some think the locusts that came out of the bottomless pit are the friars of the Roman Catholic church (Revelation 9:3). They are said to torment men to the point that “they seek death but cannot find it” (verse 6). These interpreters think the friars tormented men by their stinging sermons, through which they convinced them of sin. But being unable to discover the remedy which could heal and mortify the sin, they kept these people in such perpetual anguish and terror, and so troubled their consciences, that they desired to die. This is the core of their religion. They labor to mortify the sins of dead creatures [prayer for the dead] because they are ignorant of the nature and purpose of mortification. They mix poison with it by trying to persuade us of its merit. The call it supererogation (going beyond what is necessary to merit God’s favor). The term itself is proud and barbarous. Their glory in this ritual is actually their shame – more about them and their practice of mortification in chapter 7.
It is known that the ways and means they invented to mortify sin are still prescribed for the same purpose by some who should know better from the gospel. Directions to this effect have lately been given by some, even those professing to be Protestants. It would have been more appropriate coming from Roman Catholic devotees three or four hundred years ago. Such outside efforts, such physical exercises, such self-performances, such merely legal duties, without the least mention of Christ or his Spirit, are varnished over with swelling words of vanity as the only effective means to mortify sin. This reveals a deep-rooted ignorance of the power of God and the mystery of the gospel. That was one reason for publishing this paper.
Two reasons, among others, why the Roman Catholics cannot truly mortify sin with all their endeavors are these:
(1.) Because many of the ways and means they use were never designated by God for that purpose. (Nothing in religion has any effect unless it has been designated by God for that purpose). Examples of these are their rough garments, their vows, penances, disciplines, monastic life, and the like. God will ask, “Who has required these things of you?” and then he will say, “You worship me in vain, teaching doctrines that come from the traditions of men.” The same sort of self-punishment is advocated by others.
(2.) Because they do not properly use the things that are designated by God as a means of mortification. These include praying, fasting, watching, meditation, and the like. These have their use in the business in hand, but where they are meant to be streams flowing from other fountains, they consider them fountains in themselves. That is, they are only the means to an effect, secondary to the Spirit and to faith. But they consider them virtues in themselves. If they fast so much, and pray so much, and keep their hours and times, then the work is done. As the apostle says in another case, “They are always learning, never coming to the knowledge of the truth.” In this case, they are always mortifying, but they never really kill anything. In brief, they have a lot of means to mortify the natural man living the natural life, but none to mortify lust or corruption. This is the usual mistake people make who are ignorant of the gospel about this thing. It is the basis of a lot of superstition and will-worship in the world. What horrible starvation some of the ancient authors practiced in their monastic devotion! What violence they did to their nature! What extreme suffering they put themselves under! Search for the basis for such behavior and beliefs, and you will find they all made the same mistake. In attempting such rigid mortification, they struck at the natural man instead of the corrupt old man; they struck the body in which we live instead of the body of death. The natural practices of others will not do it either. Men are exasperated with the guilt of a sin that has succeeded against them. They instantly promise themselves and God that they will not do it anymore. They keep a close watch on themselves. They pray for awhile until the fever of it goes away, and the sense of sin is worn off. But then mortification goes away as well. The sin returns to its former control. Duties may be excellent food for a weak soul, but they are no medicine for a sick soul. The person that turns his meat into his medicine cannot expect some great turn of events. Spiritually sick men cannot sweat out their disease by working. But this is what men are doing when they deceive their own souls, as we shall see later.
It is evident from the nature of the work itself that none of these ways are enough to accomplish the task. It is a work that requires so many concurrent actions that no self-effort can attain it. It requires an almighty energy to accomplish, as will be made evident shortly.
2. It is the work of the Spirit. This is so because, (1.) God promised to give the Spirit to us to do this work. The work of mortification in general takes away the stony heart, that is, the stubborn, proud, rebellious, and unbelieving heart. This is still promised to be done by the Spirit, “I will give my Spirit, and take away the stony heart.”61 And this work is done by the Spirit of God when all our own ways fail.62 (2.) Mortification is a gift of Christ, and all the gifts of Christ come to us by the Spirit of Christ.
“Without Christ we can do nothing.”63 All of our supplies and relief, each exercise of grace from him, are communicated to us by the Spirit. It is through the Spirit that Christ works exclusively in and on believers. From Christ we have our mortification: “He is lifted up and made a Prince and a Savior, to give repentance to us.”64 And our mortification is no part of our repentance. How does he do it? Having “received the promise of the Holy Ghost,” 65 Christ pours him out for that purpose. You know the various promises he made to send the Spirit. As Tertullian said, “Vicariam navare operam,” he is vicariously doing the works that Christ had to accomplish in us. The resolution of one or two questions will now lead me nearer to what I primarily want to point out. The first question is, How does the Spirit mortify sin?
I answer that, in general, he does it in three ways –
[1.] The Spirit causes our hearts to grow in grace and in the kind of fruits that oppose the fleshly fruits, and their source. The apostle enumerates the fruits of the flesh in Galatians 5:19-21, and he contrasts them with the fruits of the Spirit in verses 22, 23. They are nothing alike. But if these spiritual fruits grow in us, wouldn’t the other fleshly fruit grow too? In verse 24, he says “No. Those who belong to Christ have crucified the flesh with its affections and lusts.” But how? Verse 25, “By living in the Spirit and walking after the Spirit;” that is, by the growth of these Spiritual graces in us, and walking in step with them. The apostle says, “These [two kinds of fruit] are contrary one to another,” verse 17; so they cannot coexist to any great degree. This “renewing of us by the Holy Ghost,”66 as it is called, is one substantial path to mortification. The Spirit causes us to grow, thrive, flourish, and prosper in those graces which are contrary, opposite, and destructive to all the fruits of the flesh, and to the quiet thriving of indwelling sin.
[2.] The Spirit makes a real physical efficient attack on the root and habit of sin, to weaken, destroy, and remove it. That is why he is called a “Spirit of judgment and burning.”67 He actually consumes and destroys our lusts. He takes away the stony heart with an almighty efficiency. As he begins his work for each kind of sin, he carries it on for each degree of sin. He is the fire which burns up the very root of lust.
[3.] He brings the cross of Christ into the heart of a sinner by faith. He gives us communion with Christ in his death, and fellowship with Christ in his sufferings. More about how that is done later. The second question is this, If this is the work of the Spirit alone, why are we urged to do it?
If only the Spirit of God can do it, maybe we should leave the work entirely to him.
[1.] It is only the Spirit’s work in the same way that all graces and good works in us are the Spirit’s. He “works in us [NT:1754 energeo “energizes”] to will and to act in accord with his own good purpose.”68 He “exercises [OT:6466] all our works in us.”69 He “fulfills [NT:4137] every work of faith with power.”70 He assists us [NT:4878,5241] to pray, and he is a “Spirit of humble prayer.”71 And yet we are rightly exhorted to do all these things.
[2.] He does not work out our mortification in any way that keeps it from being our act of obedience. The Holy Ghost works in us and on us in a way that is consistent with who we are, a way that preserves our own liberty and free obedience. He works on our understanding, our will, our conscience, and our desires, consistent with the nature of each. He works in us and with us, not against us or without us. His assistance is an encouragement to complete the work, and not an excuse to neglect it.
Indeed, I might take time here to sorrow over the endless and foolish efforts people make when they are convicted of their own sin. They manage to restrain it by countless, and bewildering rituals. But being strangers to the Spirit of God, all of this is done in vain. They fight without victory and have war without peace. They are in slavery all their life. They spend their strength on something that will not satisfy their hunger, laboring for what cannot benefit them. This is the saddest warfare any person can be engaged in. Someone who is powerfully convicted by the law, is pressed to fight against sin. But he has no strength for the combat. He can only fight; he can never conquer. Such people are like men purposely thrown on their enemy’s sword to be slain. The law drives them on, and sin beats them back. Sometimes they think they have foiled sin, when all they have done is raise a cloud of dust to keep from seeing it. They mistake their natural fear, sorrow, and anguish for an indication that sin is conquered. In reality, it is not even touched. By that time they are exhausted, and yet they must enter into the battle again. The lust they thought was slain appears to have no wound.
If the case is so sad with those who are lost, but at least make the effort, then what is the condition of those who despise all this? What of those who are under the perpetual power and control of sin, who love it, and who worry only that they cannot satiate the desires of the flesh?