If I’m Dead to Sin, Why Must I Kill It Every Day?

00:00:00.000 | (upbeat music)

00:00:02.580 | George in Cologne, Germany writes in,

00:00:07.360 | "Pastor John, if a Christian is born anew

00:00:10.440 | "and has died to sin, why is sin in the heart

00:00:14.040 | "so decisive, the same for the flesh?

00:00:17.540 | "Why must it be killed every day?

00:00:20.180 | "My status in Christ and my daily work,

00:00:22.200 | "this mortification seems and feels so contradictory."

00:00:27.200 | What would you say to George, Pastor John?

00:00:30.360 | - Yes, it does.

00:00:31.520 | (laughs)

00:00:33.120 | I totally resonate.

00:00:34.680 | Let's try to do two things in answer to George's question.

00:00:40.580 | First, let's show from the New Testament

00:00:46.560 | what actually happens in the new birth,

00:00:50.040 | especially as it relates to a Christian's ongoing sinning.

00:00:56.120 | And then second, let's see if we can answer,

00:00:59.960 | at least partly, why does God do it this way?

00:01:03.680 | 'Cause that's really the heart of his question.

00:01:05.680 | But in order to get to that,

00:01:07.320 | I think we need to start with what happens

00:01:11.280 | in the new creation or the new birth.

00:01:14.360 | So my answer to this first question is,

00:01:16.700 | what God creates in the new birth

00:01:21.040 | is not a sinless Christian.

00:01:24.840 | What he creates is an embattled, not yet perfect,

00:01:29.840 | spirit-empowered, persevering, Christ-treasuring,

00:01:35.920 | sin-hating, new being, new creation in Christ.

00:01:42.100 | And don't miss those words, embattled and sin-hating.

00:01:48.200 | The new creation in Christ is a fighter.

00:01:53.880 | Paul said at the end of his life

00:01:55.640 | that I have fought the good fight.

00:01:58.600 | And he tells Timothy, "Fight the good fight."

00:02:02.640 | And he means the fight for holiness

00:02:04.640 | and the fight for faith, the good fight of faith.

00:02:07.760 | So notice these four paradoxical pairs of verses

00:02:13.640 | to see how the event of new birth

00:02:18.480 | relates to this ongoing battle.

00:02:20.920 | So here's the first pair.

00:02:22.480 | 1 John 3, 9, "No one born of God

00:02:26.440 | "makes a practice of sinning."

00:02:30.400 | 1 John 1, 8, "If we say we have no sin,

00:02:35.300 | "we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us."

00:02:39.360 | So new birth creates a DNA, as it were,

00:02:44.360 | in this new person, like a divine DNA

00:02:48.520 | that cannot be content with ongoing sinning,

00:02:53.200 | though in this life, if we say we have no sin,

00:02:57.400 | we have a misunderstanding of how it's working.

00:02:59.960 | So that's the first pair.

00:03:01.880 | Second pair, Romans 6, 6, "We know that our old self

00:03:06.880 | "was crucified with him in order that the body of sin

00:03:11.140 | "might be brought to nothing,

00:03:13.340 | "so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin."

00:03:17.320 | Wow, what an event.

00:03:19.080 | And then verse 11, "So you must reckon yourself dead to sin."

00:03:24.080 | Well, why?

00:03:28.160 | If you're dead, you're dead.

00:03:29.920 | No, "Reckon yourself dead to sin and alive to God in Jesus.

00:03:34.720 | "Let not sin reign."

00:03:37.500 | This is an imperative.

00:03:38.560 | Get about the business of killing sin,

00:03:40.840 | reckoning yourself dead to sin,

00:03:44.200 | and bringing yourself under the reign of Christ,

00:03:48.520 | not the reign of your mortal body.

00:03:50.040 | So the indicative statement, you have died,

00:03:53.140 | and the imperative statement, now consider yourself dead

00:03:56.160 | and live in the power of it.

00:03:57.580 | That's the second pair.

00:03:58.640 | Here's the third pair.

00:04:00.520 | Colossians 3, 3, "You have died,

00:04:03.220 | "and your life is hidden with Christ in God."

00:04:07.480 | Verse five, "Put to death, therefore,

00:04:10.300 | "what is earthly in you."

00:04:12.000 | So the death that we died makes us a fighter,

00:04:16.480 | a fighter against what we've died to, put to death.

00:04:20.200 | And the last pair is 1 Peter 1, 23,

00:04:24.060 | "You have been born again, not of perishable seed,

00:04:27.540 | "but of imperishable through the living,

00:04:28.920 | "abiding word of God."

00:04:30.880 | Second half of the pair, 1 Peter 2, 1 to 2,

00:04:34.140 | "So put away all malice, all deceit, hypocrisy,

00:04:37.600 | "envy, slander, like newborn infants,

00:04:40.880 | "long for the pure spiritual milk,

00:04:43.220 | "so that by it, by it you grow up into salvation."

00:04:47.760 | So what I infer from those four pairs of verses

00:04:52.400 | is that what the new birth, the new creation brings

00:04:56.840 | into being is an embattled, not yet perfect,

00:05:01.040 | spirit-empowered, persevering, Christ-treasuring,

00:05:04.180 | sin-hating, new being in Christ.

00:05:07.800 | And the outcome is guaranteed, but the battle is real.

00:05:12.600 | And so the last question is, why does God do it this way?

00:05:17.520 | I mean, He has the power to snap His finger

00:05:22.040 | and make us sinless.

00:05:24.120 | And we know that He does because He's gonna do that

00:05:26.400 | in the twinkling of an eye, at the resurrection,

00:05:28.680 | or in the moment of death,

00:05:30.080 | and we won't be made into robots when He does it.

00:05:34.640 | He will make us sinless without in any way

00:05:38.520 | making us less human or less free.

00:05:42.640 | We will never, ever sin again in heaven.

00:05:47.640 | Why doesn't He do it now?

00:05:50.940 | That's the question.

00:05:52.480 | And I think there is at least one clear macro answer

00:05:57.480 | to that question and some less clear micro answers to that.

00:06:04.840 | Question that flow from the macro.

00:06:08.080 | The macro answer is, God does it this way

00:06:12.200 | because He intends for the process of sanctification

00:06:17.200 | to maximize the praise of His glory,

00:06:21.520 | especially the praise of the glory of His grace.

00:06:25.520 | And I say that because of numerous places

00:06:29.940 | where this is the express intended outcome of sanctification,

00:06:34.940 | like Philippians 1:11, where the outcome is supposed to be

00:06:39.920 | that we are, quote, "filled with the fruit of righteousness

00:06:43.820 | "that comes through Jesus Christ

00:06:45.520 | "to the glory and the praise of God."

00:06:49.260 | So He's gonna bring about a fullness

00:06:51.780 | of fruits of righteousness because He means to be praised.

00:06:56.820 | That's the design in why He does it the way He does it.

00:07:00.140 | Or 2 Thessalonians 1:11,

00:07:03.020 | where the outcome of our sanctification is, quote,

00:07:05.880 | "So that the name of our Lord Jesus may be glorified in you

00:07:10.880 | "and you in Him according to the grace of our God

00:07:15.820 | "and of the Lord Jesus Christ."

00:07:17.300 | So whether we can see at the micro level

00:07:21.780 | why this is the case, it is clear at the macro level

00:07:26.980 | God has chosen to sanctify us through this painful,

00:07:31.340 | slow, progressive, embattled way

00:07:36.020 | because it glorifies Christ and the grace of God

00:07:39.940 | more than if He snapped His finger

00:07:43.560 | and made us perfect and sinless at the point of new birth.

00:07:47.360 | Now, are there any micro sub reasons that we can see

00:07:52.360 | that might explain why is that the case?

00:07:56.140 | And I'll just mention three.

00:07:57.580 | One, through this slow, painful, embattled process,

00:08:02.100 | we are reminded, John Piper is reminded every day

00:08:07.020 | how dreadfully depraved and sinful and helpless I am

00:08:11.700 | and would be if left to myself.

00:08:15.500 | And so God intends for me to know this,

00:08:18.980 | to feel this by my constant need for warfare

00:08:23.900 | to overcome my bent to sinning.

00:08:26.080 | Number two, flowing from that reminder,

00:08:30.220 | we are made, John Piper is made to feel the wonder

00:08:34.740 | of God's patience and grace in holding onto me

00:08:39.740 | and returning to me again and again

00:08:42.540 | and reviving me and fighting for me

00:08:44.600 | and bringing me safely to glory,

00:08:47.060 | at least for 70 years now.

00:08:49.220 | It is no wonder that the book of Jude

00:08:53.060 | closes with a stunning doxology

00:08:57.700 | to God's persevering, keeping power

00:09:00.660 | in the embattled Christian life.

00:09:02.800 | Now unto him who's able to keep you

00:09:06.120 | from stumbling and falling and present you blameless

00:09:10.060 | before his glory with great joy,

00:09:12.520 | to the only God, our Savior, through Jesus Christ,

00:09:15.600 | be glory and majesty and dominion and authority.

00:09:18.740 | Isn't that amazing that he would,

00:09:20.820 | what is he giving glory to God for?

00:09:22.980 | He is giving glory and majesty and dominion

00:09:26.100 | and authority to God for one simple reason,

00:09:28.780 | God patiently keeps working with us until the end.

00:09:33.500 | That's just astonishing to me.

00:09:35.380 | And I don't think I would feel that

00:09:37.300 | nearly to the level that I do

00:09:39.520 | without God doing it the way he's doing it.

00:09:42.980 | And the last, the third thing I would say

00:09:45.980 | is that since true holiness is the reflex

00:09:50.980 | of seeing the superior beauty and value of Christ,

00:09:54.960 | the nature of the daily battle

00:09:59.760 | keeps this reality in front of me

00:10:02.100 | so that Christ and his beauty and his value

00:10:06.200 | remain central in my life.

00:10:09.720 | So it becomes clear that Satan is defeated

00:10:15.080 | not by the mere finger-snapping raw power of God,

00:10:19.600 | but by the supreme beauty of Jesus Christ

00:10:23.960 | that I have to get clear every day from scripture

00:10:27.720 | so that I'm more attracted to Jesus than to unholiness.

00:10:31.320 | So I think the main thing that I would say to George

00:10:35.220 | is that whatever the reasons are

00:10:38.440 | that God has chosen to sanctify us

00:10:40.640 | in this slow, painful, and battled way,

00:10:43.360 | this choice of his is because he gets greater glory

00:10:48.360 | when we fight the battle every day

00:10:52.560 | with the weapons he has appointed

00:10:54.800 | and the way he has ordained.

00:10:56.760 | So let's get on with the good fight.

00:11:00.820 | - Amen, such a great reminder of God's plan

00:11:04.480 | in our sanctification.

00:11:05.800 | Thank you, Pastor John, and thank you, George.

00:11:07.480 | We are getting a lot of questions of late

00:11:09.360 | from our friends in Germany, my fatherland,

00:11:12.900 | and for more details about this podcast,

00:11:15.560 | to catch up on past episodes

00:11:16.980 | or to subscribe to the audio feed,

00:11:18.600 | and even send us a question from Germany,

00:11:20.960 | go to our home at desiringgod.org/askpastorjohn.

00:11:24.780 | Tomorrow, we talk about tragedy,

00:11:26.460 | overload in the digital age.

00:11:28.240 | How can we navigate all the bad news

00:11:30.100 | and the legitimate needs we see in our social media feeds

00:11:32.260 | without getting locked up and paralyzed by inactivity?

00:11:35.680 | Ooh, that's a big one.

00:11:37.240 | Thanks for listening to the Ask Pastor John podcast

00:11:39.140 | with longtime author, theologian, and pastor, John Piper.

00:11:42.560 | I'm your host, Tony Aranka.

00:11:44.960 | We'll see you tomorrow.

00:11:46.120 | (upbeat music)

00:11:48.700 | (upbeat music)

00:11:51.280 | [BLANK_AUDIO]

If I’m Dead to Sin, Why Must I Kill It Every Day?

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