Putting sin to death-how is it done?

[ByTheSpirit]

I used to struggle hardcore with one sin in particular until the Holy Spirit illuminated my mind with this verse of scripture, Romans 8:13 (ESV) For if you live according to the flesh you will die, but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live.

You can not put sin to death on your own. God must do it for you. What I noticed was when I would be tempted, as I struggled I looked to my own ability to fight not God's and so I would fall. Then as I pondered that phrase, by the Spirit YOU put to death the deeds.

So notice it is not you alone that does it, nor is it God. He supplies the power and you submit. Usually I would notice when the sin was coming around, the temptation that is, and so as this truth hit my heart I would put myself in God's presence by praise, by prayer, by meditating on that one truth, by the Spirit put to death the deeds. Very important to understand this though, that God will not do it alone. What I mean is in my case for instance, I would plead with God, help me please! Take this away from me and it never did go and so I thought I must be displeasing to Him for me to be ignored as I was. Then through Romans 8:13 the Holy Spirit showed me, I already had freedom from those things holding me down, I just needed to allow Him to eradicate the sin desire whenever it came around. As I submitted to Him in temptation, even the most fierce temptations, I have been free of that particular trangression. But He did it as I allowed Him to.

I am inadequate to relay to you how powerful that truth is. Please pray and ponder over this today and into tomorrow. Let the Holy Spirit show you how He can and will put to death the deeds of the body as you submit.

 

[strelok0017]

By faith. Be happy in God and read the Bible. Mortification is the result rather than a process. If you take it as a process you will mortify sin but look at what Jesus said when He told in Luke 10:37. When we repent of a certain sin, for example, good deeds are a result of that repentance (changed or renewed mind). Don't hate your brothers, love others, seek God's will and He will make you happy. Not prosperous, don't get me wrong. But Christians are happy. Or at least ought to be. God does put our sin to death, yea, but in the same way He quenches our thirst: He gives us water.

 

[branchofthevine]

It is like that hymn: "turn your eyes upon Jesus, look full in His wonderful gaze, and the things of earth will grow strangely dim, in the light of His glory and grace"

 

[Alithis]

great post - and i also would say "by faith" as a short easy answer lol

I too have been made free by the way you speak of .. the work of Christ in us AS WE SUBMIT to him .

i once freed myself by intellectual effort and then i became enslaved to intellectual effort -it exhausted me and i fell .

when the Lord Jesus leads us out of the bondage of Egypt(sin) ..it is a journey ..not an instant . we must follow and listen and Do as he tells us to arrive at the journeys end ..which is full freedom - When he has worked that freedom in us ..it is a place of rest - not struggle .

God bless you OP for that post .

 

[Emmy]

Dear BryanN84. In Matthew 22: 35-40: Jesus tells a Lawyer: " The first and great Commandment is: Love God with all thy heart, with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. The second is like it: Love thy neighbour as thyself."
Then Jesus states this great fact: " On these two Commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets." Love is what God wants from us, so we can surmise that everything without Love or Compassion IS SIN. How can we put sin to death? I believe that everything we say or do, everything we advice or stand for, has to flow from Love, selfless and freely given. A Christian`s great weapon is Love, Love overcomes all enmity and wrong behaviour.
Jesus will give us his Love and Joy, and the Holy Spirit will empower us with His Love, also. We fight all with our weapon of LOVE. We might stumble and forget at times, but then we ask God to forgive us, and carry on Loving and Caring. We keep asking God and thanking God and sharing our Love whenever it is needed. LOVE and OBEY will lead us all the way.
Matthew 7: 7-8: Keep asking and thanking and sharing all Love and Joy, and watch how Sin is put to death. I say this with love, Bryan. Greetings from Emmy, your sister in Christ.

 

[DeaconDean]

The Apostle Paul told us:

"I protest by your rejoicing which I have in Christ Jesus our Lord, I die daily." -1 Cor. 15:31 (KJV)

God Bless

Till all are one.

 

[MWood]

It is not given to you to put sin to death. Sin was put to death by the shed Blood on the Cross. The only thing you can do is believe that Jesus is the Son of God, confess Jesus with your mouth, and believe in your heart the ressurection. Then you will have salvation. (Romans 10:9-10) Don't worry about your sins, they have been taken care of by Jesus.

 

[strelok0017]

Not really, MWood. Jesus cleanses us but He also kills indwelling sin in us.

 

[Alithis]

The Apostle Paul told us:

"I protest by your rejoicing which I have in Christ Jesus our Lord, I die daily." -1 Cor. 15:31 (KJV)

God Bless

Till all are one.

yes .. we must die daily ..or live in the new life of the Spirit in faith .
not turning back

but this term "die daily ' is given a difficult connotation.. but it is not difficult .

look at it in a simplistic way just for example -
when a young man gets googly eyed over a lady he believes he will marry .. he dies daily to himself .. he goes out of his way to not do his own thing ,but do what pleases her ..so we see in this limited example - that love makes light of dying to self .
Jesus said come to me all you who are heavy burdened and i will give you REST.

as believers be encouraged to spend more time on LOVING GOD ..then on resisting the flesh .. and you will find truly his burden is Light.

 

[98cwitr]

thank you for sharing this, Bryan.

 

[MrJim]

Great thread!

 

[Emmy]

Dear MWood. You are right, Sin was put to death for us, by Jesus. That does not mean that we may sin now as much as we like. However: Jesus promised us His help and guide, BUT we MUST ASK. In Matthew 7: 7-8: we are told: "ask and ye shall receive." We know that God will never force us, doesn`t that tell us that we must ask and be ready to give up sinning? It is a two-way procedure: we ask and pray-and Jesus our Saviour is always ready to help and guide us: "But we must ask," and then thank God. I say this with love, MWood. Greetings from Emmy, your sister in Christ.

 

[Hupomone10]

Great post, and great truth you have discovered and applied.

5 Through Thee we will push back our adversaries; Through Thy name we will trample down those who rise up against us.
6 For I will not trust in my bow, Nor will my sword save me.
7 But Thou hast saved us from our adversaries, And Thou hast put to shame those who hate us." Psalm 44:5-7

In this passage are the two great truths you speak of.

First, there is fighting against the adversaries, the enemies. But how one fights is crucial. If done focused on one's own sanctified new-creation strength and resources of Self, it will be eventual defeat.

Therefore, the first great truth is in verse 6 & 7, that it is His strength and resources that delivers.

The second great truth is that for the soldier to experience this victory, it is contingent on his/her active submission allowing the Lord's strength and resources in the temporal battle to be implemented.

"Through Thee we will push back"
"I will not trust in my (feelings, reason, personal strength and resources), nor will (any resources of Self) save me."

They fought, they trusted God not Self's resources, God saved. Too many times regarding salvation we focus only on the pie-in-the-sky-by-and-by aspect. The saving spoken of here is in the temporal battles, that of putting to death the deeds of the body daily; as Dean said: dying daily.

And that can only be done by faith in Christ in an ongoing way, not self-effort: faith in Christ -

in His indwelling Presence which will not change,
in His accomplished work which cannot change -
("knowing this, that our old man was crucified..." "reckon yourselves to be dead to sin..." "the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God);
and in His Word which will never fail.​

 

[MrJim]

Certainly a conditional aspect to the passage with the "if"s...if you do that then this will happen..

 

[MWood]

Dear MWood. You are right, Sin was put to death for us, by Jesus. That does not mean that we may sin now as much as we like. However: Jesus promised us His help and guide, BUT we MUST ASK. In Matthew 7: 7-8: we are told: "ask and ye shall receive." We know that God will never force us, doesn`t that tell us that we must ask and be ready to give up sinning? It is a two-way procedure: we ask and pray-and Jesus our Saviour is always ready to help and guide us: "But we must ask," and then thank God. I say this with love, MWood. Greetings from Emmy, your sister in Christ.

Hi Emmy
Because our sins are covered by the blood that does not give us a license to sin. BUT who needs a license? We are sinners! We will sin. That is the reason Jesus had to shed His blood for our sins. God knew that we could not live a life without sinning. When we believe in the death, burial, and ressurection of Jesus, we are in Him and He is in us. We don't want to be a sinner any more. Thus we repent and reframe form doing the things that we used to do. But we still sin. And we thank God for the forgiving of our sins and don't have to ask Him to forgive us because our sins are already forgiven.

 

[Alithis]

Hi Emmy
Because our sins are covered by the blood that does not give us a license to sin. BUT who needs a license? We are sinners! We will sin. That is the reason Jesus had to shed His blood for our sins. God knew that we could not live a life without sinning. When we believe in the death, burial, and Resurrection of Jesus, we are in Him and He is in us. We don't want to be a sinner any more. Thus we repent and reframe form doing the things that we used to do. But we still sin. And we thank God for the forgiving of our sins and don't have to ask Him to forgive us because our sins are already forgiven.

we still sin .. but it is not the willful blatant sin that we once lived in .. and were enslaved to .. if any are still enslaved - there is certain deliverance in Christ .
but as others have agreed -there is a process of asking and following given instruction by the Holy Spirit
the entire bible gives account of what God says .. and what man does in response to what God says . those who obeyed ..gained victory and lived in it ..those who disobeyed ..remain enslaved to their enemy and sin .

so there is always a reciprocation of hope faith, coupled with obedience in faith and hope ..that brings about a sure result because he who promised it is Sure .
In this case the result is full freedom from the habitual destructive sin .