Introduction

Thirty-Four-year-old Cory Byrne owned a 9 foot long, 25 pound boa constrictor. He had the snake for about 4 years and he thought the snake was a great pet. I would imagine that a 9 foot snake would be pretty impressive to show off to your friends.

Back in June of 2010, NBC news reported that one night Cory reached over his shoulder to put the snake into its cage and apparently the snake got scared. Instinctually the snake reached for something to grab onto. What it grabbed onto was Cory’s neck.

In fact, the 25 pound animal grabbed onto Cory’s neck with such force that the man could not escape the snakes grip. His air supply was completely cut off. His face turned red and he passed out. He was found by his roommate’s girlfriend. She was unable to remove the snake by herself. She called for help, but it was too late. Cory died in a hospital several hours later.

Some animals can’t be tamed. All animals still have instincts that surface when they are put to the test. You can give a snake a cute name and decorate its cage but just because you think it’s your friend does not mean the ‘wild’ is out of it. No matter how long you’ve housed and cared for a wild boa constrictor (or any wild animal for that matter) it may still turn on you at any moment. It is, after all, still a snake. It’s a wild animal. It might seem tame on the outside, but right underneath the surface, it is a violent predator.

It is much the same way with our sin. Some people think that sin is their friend. They keep it close by. They treat it like a pet. They even show it off to their friends. But just because somebody likes a sin does not take the ‘wild’ out of it. (A Christian band I used to play with had a lyric that said, “there’s no thing as safe sin.”) Just because someone is comfortable with sin does not make it safe. Evil cannot be tamed.

Sin is a predator, it is not a pet. It may seem to be quietly keeping to itself in the corner while it is really just waiting for a moment to attack. What does sin attack? Its favorite prey is your faith. It is crafty enough to pose as something good (and even helpful) while it waits to sink its teeth into your life and kill off your faith for good.

Sin is wired to kill. Just like a snake, it will wrap itself around your life and begin to squeeze when you least expect it. Spiritually, sin will begin to squeeze all the faith and love and joy and holiness right out of a person. Sin doesn’t lead to freedom. The end result of sin is bondage and eventually death. It is nothing to be played around with. It is not a very good pet.

Romans 6:23 says that the ‘wages of sin is death.’

The dividends it pays is corruption. (It’s not a good investment)
It’s hostility is never domesticated and
Its end result is always fatal.
Sin hijacks relationships,
It invites brutality into the world and
It is the author of injustice.
Worst of all, sin creates a separation between us and God. Sin is not our friend. There is nothing good that remains in the world of sin. It deals with us by bringing death and destruction to our lives. That means… the only way we can effectively deal with sin is to destroy and kill it.

In the violent world we live in, let me be abundantly clear about what I’m talking about. I’m not talking about killing the sin in an enemy soldier or in your neighbor, or in your spouse or in your children. In this passage, Paul is not calling us to get violent with sin that we see in other people. This is a call for us to seek out and destroy sin in ourselves.

In Romans 8:13, Paul wrote, “13 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.” Last week, we summarized Paul’s teaching about sin with John Owen’s words. John Owen said, “Be killing sin or it will be killing you.”

Theologians of former generations call this process the “mortification of sin.” They get that terminology from the old Authorized or King James Version of the Bible. The King James translated Romans 8:13 this way, “13 For if ye live after the flesh, ye shall die: but if ye through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live.”

Today, we often use the word “mortify” to mean that we were embarrassed or ashamed about something. We would say something like, “When Jennifer was at school, she spilled spaghetti all down the front of her white shirt. She was mortified.” That is not at all the meaning that “mortify” held by the 17th century theologian.

When the King James was written, to mortify (thanatoō) meant to “put to death, to destroy or to render extinct.” When Paul commands us to “mortify the deeds of the body,” he has one thing in mind: the death of sin… To put to death, to destroy or to render extinct the sin in out lives.

If sin was a snake, the Bible is not telling us to just hide it or lock it up or medicate it or ignore it or to keep it in a cage. It doesn’t say to be very careful when you handle it. It’s says, “Don’t’ touch it!” It’s calling us to cut off its lifeline. The way you literally cut off the lifeline of a snake is the same way you figuratively cut off the lifeline of sin:

You can starve it
You can beat it with a shovel
You can shoot it with a gun
You can drown it out
You can suffocate it
It doesn’t matter so much how we do it. What matters is that you and I see sin not as a pet, but as a predator. We don’t keep it close by (or pet it or take care of it), but we cut it off completely. Once is it dead, there is no need to hide it or lock it up or medicate it or ignore it or to keep it in a cage. When it’s dead, you and I can move on. It’s not a threat to us any longer. The ability to cut off sin, and to love cutting off sin, is the miracle of the Holy Spirit’s work in the life of every believer.

Without the Holy Spirit’s power, you and I would never be strong enough to loosen sin’s death grip on our lives. It would just continue to tie us up tighter and tighter until every last bit of spiritual vitality was squeezed right out of our lives. That is what Paul meant when he said in verse 10 that the “body is dead because of sin.” God saved us from a fate worse than death when he gave us new life in Christ. The rest of verse 10 says, “the Spirit is life because of righteousness.”

Recap

Last week we talked at length about why we kill off sin in the body. Today I want to talk about the practical side of this issue. How exactly do you and I go about killing off sin? For clarity, let’s begin with what “mortification of sin” is not.

Mortification is not self-abuse

13 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.

Over the centuries, some people have read this verse and taken it to mean that they needed to torture themselves in order to show repentance for their sin. Here’s a 15th century woodcut depicting self-flagellation that was the result of a wrong understanding of this passage (among others). Some people would brutally beat themselves with whips or go on long fasts that would leave them just short of death. That reaction is not what Paul intended here at all. Mortification is not self- punishment.

Mortification is not a legalistic series of steps to free ourselves from the guilt of sin. It is more of a mentality. It is the working out of our faith in a real way that actually changes our appetites. It is a deep-seated desire to stop living in a way that leads to death and to start living in the fullness of the Holy Spirit. Jesus called it a hunger and thirst for righteousness. He says in the Beatitudes, “6 “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied.” (Matthew 5:6)

Let’s look at how we go about developing a hunger and thirst for righteousness and what “the mortification of sin” actually entails:

Principles of mortification.

#1 Killing sin requires an ongoing effort.

Romans 8:13b, “if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live.”

When Paul says to “put to death,” the tense of the verb he uses implies that it is an ongoing action. That means you and I will never come to a time in our lives when we no longer struggle with sin. Killing off sin is an ongoing effort that will last until the day we take our last breath.

Through the power of the Holy Spirit, we can begin having new desires. Romans 8:5 says, “5 For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit set their minds on the things of the Spirit.”

A person who is saved is filled with and indwelt by the Spirit. The Spirit hates sin and is continually rooting it out. So, a saved person is marked by this ongoing war against the flesh in the power of the Spirit. He continues this battle inside of you (and me) until His New Spiritual desires become more precious and sweet to you than your old sinful desires.

As this new mentality grows, it paves a way ahead for you and I that leads straight to eternal blessings in heaven.

#2 Killing off sin is only done “by the Spirit.”

A non-believer is not very effective in pulling the sin off from around their neck and keeping it from choking out their spiritual vitality. They can hide or cover up or suppress sin, but they can’t kill it. I believe that hiding or suppressing sin is little more than legalism. Legalism cleans up the outside of a person’s life while they are still rebellious toward God on the inside. Only the Spirit can bring about real transformation of a person’s character at the core level.

That is why I believe this passage is written to believers. It reminds believer that all their flesh ever tried to do before was to cut short their life. Romans 8:13a says, “13 For if you live according to the flesh you will die…”

That verse is meant as a reminder to believers to never go back to their old life and as a warning to non-believers that sin is far more dangerous than they think it is. Saving faith is always a faith that can be proven. Someone who claims to be filled with the indwelling presence of the Holy Spirit, while refusing to actively kill off the enemy’s influence, is not a very convincing Christian.

The Spirit, on the other hand, brings about real change in a person’s life. The Holy Spirit transforms people from sin toleraters to sin killers. Christians are sin killers by the power of the Spirit. But notice here that the Spirit does not act on His own while we sit back and do nothing.

The verse says, “ if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live…” According to the verse, who does this killing? The Spirit gives the power to act (“by the Spirit”), but it is pretty clear that we are actively engaged in the battle. Without the Spirit we cannot act but without our cooperation, the Spirit will not proceed.

One pastor said, “The spirit works through our faith, when we stop perceiving God with dread and start perceiving Him with such eagerness that we jettison everything from our lives that clouds our view of God and welcome into our lives everything that clears our view of God.”

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So how do we most clearly know what God expects and what God says? Through his Word.

#3 Killing off sin is done according to the Word of God.

Jesus said in John 6:63, “It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh is no help at all. The words that I have spoken to you are spirit and life.”

A Christian has a deep desire to be “in Christ.” They lay ahold of Jesus because in Jesus they have life. They say along with Peter, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life, 69 and we have believed, and have come to know, that you are the Holy One of God.”. (John 6:68b-69) We find what it means to be “in Christ.” within the pages of the Book God wrote for us, the Bible.

Consider all the equipment listed in our spiritual arsenal in Ephesians 6. Many of you might be familiar with what is often called the “Armor of God.” All of the equipment listed there is defensive gear, except for one thing. The Belt of truth, breastplate of righteousness, gospel shoes, shield of faith and helmet of salvation are all tools used to defend against the attacks of the devil as he tries to penetrate our lives with the flaming arrows of deception and temptation.

So what is the only offensive weapon? It is the Sword of the Spirit. Now be careful that you don’t think that the Sword of the Spirit is the Holy Spirit. We don’t wield the Holy Spirit as if He is a weapon under our control. The Bible makes it clear that we are conforming to Christ’s image and not the other way around. We can’t control the Holy Spirit. He controls us. In Ephesians, it defines the exact nature of the sword of the Spirit. Ephesians 6:17 says that the ‘sword of the Spirit’ is the ‘Word of God.’

It is critically important that we know the Word of God because the Word of God is our most powerful and effective weapon. 1 Corinthians 2:12-13 says, “12 Now we have received not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might understand the things freely given us by God. 13 And we impart this in words not taught by human wisdom but taught by the Spirit, interpreting spiritual truths to those who are spiritual.”

But knowledge of the word of God is not very effective unless we courageously depend on it.

#4 Killing off sin takes courageous belief.

Killing off sin requires that we lay down the fleshly weapons that we’ve used before and wholeheartedly embrace what God says in his Word. James 2:18-19 says, “18 But someone will say, “You have faith and I have works.” Show me your faith apart from your works, and I will show you my faith by my works. 19 You believe that God is one; you do well. Even the demons believe—and shudder!” What good is knowing the Word of God if we never act on what it says? If we don’t act on what God’s Word says, than knowledge alone doesn’t practically help us. Consider an illustration about a soldier going into battle:

Image a young, 18-year-old foot soldier going to war for the first time. He has been trained how to use a hand grenade. He’s been given a hand grenade and put onto the battlefield. Now, he’s never used a hand grenade in live combat before, and he’s not totally confident that it will actually work. He has used a water balloon before. He’s confident that he can hit the target with a water balloon, and will make his enemy wet. So… he leaves his grenade behind and uses what’s familiar to him instead of what effective.

Is the familiar and comfortable “weapon” going to stop his enemy?
Is the effective weapon doing any good if it is not being used?
In order for the young soldier to use the grenade effectively, he needs to not only own a grenade and know how to use the grenade, but he needs to believe that a grenade is an effective weapon against the enemy and then use it.

In the same way, you and I can know the scriptures. We can understand how to apply the scriptures. But if we don’t have the courage and belief to use scriptural principles in the real world, then all the scripture knowledge in the world doesn’t do us any good. We can have a mind full of powerful truths while choosing to lob water balloons filled with the world’s wisdom at the enemy instead of cutting it off with the sword of the Spirit.

Believing in the Word of God to the point of actually relying on it takes courage. You and I have decisions to make every day. We can choose to make those decisions based on the Spirit or on the flesh. Which one will you choose?

Life Application

What is God calling you to cut off today?
Is there a sin in your life that you have tolerated for far too long?
Are you treating evil as a pet or as a predator?
Is there a weak spot in your spiritual armor that is vulnerable to temptation?
Jesus warns us not to be caught unprepared. In Luke 21:34, Jesus says, “34 “But watch yourselves lest your hearts be weighed down with dissipation and drunkenness and cares of this life, and that day come upon you suddenly like a trap.”

The “cares of this life” can so easily wear us down and lead to drunkenness, over-eating, over-working or other distractions that take our eyes off of the pursuit of our Lord. The worries of this life can be all-consuming. Worrying about impressing people or about your investments or about the ills of the political system can become so all-encompassing that we lose sight of God’s plan for our life.

Being a ‘Son of God’ who is led ‘by the Spirit of God’ makes an unmistakable difference in the real lives of those who are Christ followers. They know the Word of God and they act on it. They lay hold of the promises of God and cut away anything that would keep them from embracing more of the Spirit. The writer Hebrews encourages us to “…lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us…” (Heb. 12:1b)

Cut off sin and let it die then have the courage to courageously believe the truth of God’s promises.