06. CHAPTER 6

CHAPTER 6 MORTIFICATION DESCRIBED IN ITS PARTICULARS The mortification of sin described The components and degrees of mortification The habitual weakening of sin’s root and source The power of lust to tempt us Differences in that power as to persons and times Constant fighting against sin The aspects of the fight considered Success against sin Concluding thoughts about the process How to mortify a sin in general, to prepare for particular courses of action.

I. Mortifying a Sin -

2. Positively (see Chapter 5 for Mortifying a Sin Negatively) Mortifying a lust has three components:

(1.) Habitually weakening it.

(2.) Constantly fighting and contending against it.

(3.) Realizing success over it.

(1.) Habitually weakening it.

Every lust is a depraved habit or attitude that continually inclines the heart toward evil. From that, we have a description of someone who has not truly mortified his lust, “Every purpose of the thoughts of his heart is filled with evil, from morning to night.”85 He is always under the power of a strong inclination to sin. The only reason a natural man does not pursue a particular lust day and night, is because he has so many to serve. Each one cries out to be satisfied. Although he pursues his lusts in great variety, in reality he only wants to satisfy self.

Let us suppose then that the lust or compulsion is a strong, deeply-rooted, habitual inclination, of both will and affections, toward some actual sin. The sin itself is irrelevant. No matter what it is, it always stirs up fantasies, thoughts, and schemes about its object. That is why men are said to have their “hearts set on evil;” the bent of their spirits leans towards it to make “provision for the flesh.”86 A sinful, depraved habit differs from all natural or moral habits. Those incline the soul gently and appropriately to itself, while sinful habits impel with violence and fierceness. That is why lusts are said to fight or wage “war against the soul,”87 [NT:4754 strateuomai]. They rebel or rise up with the type of brutality and conflict that would be expected in a war. Romans 7:23 says we are led captive, or made captive, after sin’s success in battle [NT:497 antistrateuomai]. All of these are works of great violence and fierceness.

I could make it blatantly obvious, from the description we have in Romans 7, that it darkens the mind, extinguishes our convictions, overthrows reason, blocks the power and influence of whatever hampers it, and consumes them all in flames. But this is not my present focus. The first thing we need to do in mortification is to weaken this habit of sin or lust. That way, it cannot rise up in us to conceive, agitate, provoke, entice, and disturb us with the same intensity, seriousness, and frequency it normally does.88

I’d like to give one caution or rule, by the way, and it is this: though every lust by its nature equally and universally draws or drives us to sin, there are two limitations,

[1.] A particular lust may be unexpectedly amplified, heightened, and strengthened in someone. It has life, power, and vigor far beyond what another lust might have in him, or the same lust might have in someone else. When a lust aligns with a man’s personality, the season or path of his life, the right circumstances, or when Satan has a handle on it, then that lust grows severe and fierce above all others, or above the same lust in another man. That is when its intense steam darkens the mind. Even though a man knows the same boundaries, they have no power or influence on his will. Instead, the consuming lust liberates all kinds of perverted affections and passions in him.

Lust gets its strength especially by temptation. When a suitable temptation meets up with a matching lust, it gives it new life, vigor, power, violence, and rage, that it did not seem to have before, nor seem to be capable of. Numerous examples of this might be listed, but that is for another treatise.

[2.] Some lusts are far more obvious in their severity than others. Paul notes a difference between sexual impurity and all other sins, “Flee sexual immorality. Every other sin a man does is outside the body; but sexual immorality sins against his own body.”89 For this reason, the behavior of sexual sin tends to be more tangible, more discernible than others. Perhaps someone is consumed by love of the world, and his lust in this area is no less dominant than sexual lust would be. But it does not ignite the same consuming, forceful frenzy that sexual lust does.

Consider further that such men may think they are mortified, and they may appear so in the eyes of the world. Yet they have the same dominating lust as those who cry out in astonishment when their untamed and disturbing behavior appears. Indeed, their craving is no less than those who have been driven by its power into scandalous sins. It is only that their lusts are for things that do not produce such disruption in their soul. They can be exercised more with a calmer demeanor. Or their natural temperament does not generate the same intensity as someone else’s might.

I repeat, the primary thing in mortification is to weaken this habit, so that it does not drive and agitate us as much, or entice and distract us as often. We do not want it to be able to disrupt and confound us as we take away its life, vigor, promptness, and ambition. This is called “crucifying the flesh with its passions.”90 That is, we take away its blood and vitality which give it strength and power. We waste away the body of death “day by day.”91 When a man is nailed to the cross, he struggles and toils at first. He cries out with great strength and might. But as his blood and vitality waste away, his efforts become fainter and fewer. His cries become low and hoarse, scarcely audible. In the same way, when a man first sets out to deal with a lust or a compulsion, it struggles with great violence to break loose. It cries with all seriousness and impatience to be satisfied and relieved. But when mortification spills its blood and vitality, it moves more seldom and more faintly. It cries out sparingly, and is hardly heard in the heart. Sometimes it may have a dying outburst of great vigor and strength; but that is quickly over, especially if it is kept from any meaningful success. The apostle describes this in Romans 6, especially verse 6: “Sin,” he says, “is crucified; it is nailed to the cross.” To what end? “That the body of sin might be rendered useless.” The power of sin is weakened and abolished little by little, so that “we will no longer serve sin;” That is, we do it so that sin may not incline and impel us so effectively as to make us its servants, as it has done in the past. And this is not only with respect to carnal and sensual affections, or the desires of worldly things. It is not only with respect to the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life.92 But it is also with respect to the flesh of the mind and will, and their natural opposition to God. Whatever the troubling disease is, and however it shows itself, either by driving us to evil or keeping us from good, the rule is the same: unless it is effectively weakened, all our efforts will miss the goal. A man may cut down the bitter fruit from an evil tree until he is exhausted. As long as the root keeps its strength and vigor, cutting down the hanging fruit will not keep the tree from bearing more. This is the foolishness of some men. They apply themselves earnestly and diligently against an outbreak of lust, but by ignoring its underlying cause, they make little or no progress toward mortification.

(2.) Constant fighting and contending against it. A large part of mortification is to always lay heavily into it. When sin is strong and energetic, the soul can hardly make headway against it. It sighs, groans, mourns, and is troubled by sin, but it seldom has it on the run. This is how David speaks of himself. David complains that his sin had “taken hold of him, so that he could not see.”93 He could barely fight against it! Several things are involved in fighting against sin:

[1.] A man has to know that he has this kind of enemy to deal with. He must recognize it, and consider it to be an enemy indeed. It must be destroyed by all means possible. As I said before, the contest is taxing and hazardous. It is about eternal things. When men have indifferent, fleeting thoughts of their lusts, it is not a good sign that they are mortified, nor that they are on their way to mortification. Every man must know “the plague of his own heart.”94 Without this knowledge, nothing else can be done. It is frightening to think how many have so little knowledge of the main enemy they carry in their hearts. This ignorance makes them ready to justify themselves, to reject reprimands and warnings, because they do not know they are in danger.95

[2.] To begin this warfare, we need to work at learning the ways, deceits, methods, opportunities, and circumstances of sin’s success. That is how men deal with their enemies. They assess their enemy’s plan of action, examine their motives, and consider how they have won in the past, so that they may prevent their enemy from succeeding again. This is the greatest skill we need to develop. If we take this away, then waging war, through which we’ve gained our greatest improvements in human wisdom and zeal, would be mindless. This is how those who are successful against lust deal with it. They contemplate it not only when it is actually tormenting, enticing, and seducing them, but in their quieter moments. They consider, “This is our enemy; this is his path and his progress to date. These are his advantages. This is how he prevailed before, and this is what he will continue to do if not prevented.” So David says, “My sin is ever before me.”96

Practical spiritual wisdom is finding out the subtleties, policies, and depths of an indwelling sin. We have to consider where its greatest strength comes from, what advantage it has in various circumstances, when it has opportunities, and how it tempts us. What are its pleas, pretenses, and reasons? What are its strategies, emblems, and excuses? A good part of our warfare is to set the wisdom of the Spirit against the craft of the old man, to trace this serpent in all its turnings and windings. It is being able to say, “I recognize your old ways; I know what you are after,” and so always being ready to deal with it.

[3.] We need to hinder it daily using all the things below that are painful, deadly, and destructive to it. That is the epitome of this contest. We can never think our lust is dead just because it is quiet. We need to work at giving it new wounds, new blows every day. Those are the apostle’s instructions, “Kill the parts of your earthly nature.”97 While the soul is in this frame of mind and deals with sin in this way, it has the upper hand. Sin will be under the sword and dying.

(3.) Realizing success over it.

Frequent success against any lust is another piece of evidence of mortification. By success, I do not mean a mere setback for sin, so that it does not appear or succeed this time. It is gaining a victory over it, and pursuing it until we conquer it completely. For instance, any time the heart finds sin at work seducing and scheming how to fulfill the lusts of the flesh, the heart must instantly arrest sin. It must drag it before the law of God and the love of Christ. There, it must condemn and execute it.

I’m saying that when a man follows this course of action, lust is weakened at its very root. Its activities are fewer and weaker than before. They are not able to hinder his duty nor interrupt his peace. He can quietly and sedately uncover sin, fight against it, and have success. Then sin will be considerably mortified, and despite all its opposition, a man may have peace with God all his life.

These two approaches, then, will work for any troubling compulsion which perverts and corrupts our nature:

First, weaken its indwelling temperament, through which it attracts, entices, and drives us to evil, and to rebel against God. This is done by implanting and cherishing a habitual principle of grace that stands in direct opposition to it, and ruins it. By implanting and developing humility, pride is weakened; by patience, anger is weakened; by purity of mind and conscience, immorality is weakened; by heavenly-mindedness, love of this world is weakened. These are the graces of the Spirit, or they are the same grace which is variously acted out by the Holy Ghost according to the diversity of our lusts. Our same natural corruption likewise variously acts itself out according to the opportunities and circumstances it encounters.

Second, we need to promptly, eagerly, and with the power of the Spirit, fight with a battle cry against this lust by all the ways, and with all the means and aid, that are at our disposal. Success largely depends on these two things.

Now this: if the compulsion does not have an insurmountable advantage from its natural situation, we can expect its complete conquest so that we may never feel its opposition again. We can rise to a level of peace in our conscience that matches the true meaning of the covenant of grace.