Sunday, October 12, 2014

The Nature Of Indwelling Sin



Recently we have talked a great deal on Sunday mornings about our game plan, that is, our mission and how we go about it. We have compared it to athletic competition, more specifically making our way around a baseball diamond. Yet, we are not the first ones to use such metaphors. For example, the author of Hebrews, after taking us on a tour through the magnificent “hall of faith” in chapter eleven and setting before us many examples of saints who went before us and walked by faith as they gave witness to God, called us to the following (12:1-2):
Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.

Here we not only discover a biblical sports illustration, we are also taught that sin hinders us from carrying out God’s mission. Now, we might be tempted to think sin is not that big a deal. Yet, we must keep in mind that sin is one of the reasons why God the Father had to send God the Son to live, die, and be raised in the place of sinners (2 Cor. 5:21; 1 Peter 2:24; 3:18; 1 John 3:8). What is more, we magnify God’s gracious work in us as we put his new life in us on display. Yet, when we live no differently than we did before Christ (when we sin), we cloud that work in us.

Since this is the case, I want to take a few weeks in this blog and talk about how we view sin, how we deal with temptation, and how we put to death sin (or as Hebrews 12:1 puts it, “lay aside every…sin which clings so closely”).

In order to carry out this discussion I want to share with you some great teaching out of a book I read years ago and just recently re-read this past month. It is a book titled Sin And Temptation: The Challenge Of Personal Godliness that was put together by James M. Houston. What Houston did was to compile the teaching of the 17th century British Puritan author and teacher, John Owen, on these subjects. Owen is notorious for being very difficult to read, even though to tackle his writings is always worth the effort. Houston helps us in the task by updating Owen’s English and editing his lengthy prose—bringing it down to bite-sized chunks. What I want to do is to summarize that abridged teaching to benefit all of us.

Part 1 of this book (titled “Indwelling Sin In The Believer”) comes out of the gate in the first chapter by addressing “The Nature Of Indwelling Sin.” Here are some key points Owen makes about this subject.


  • ·         If we have trusted Jesus Christ as Savior, though we are a new person who can follow him, live for the glory of God, and say, “No,” to sin, nevertheless sin still dwells in us. Paul writes in Romans 7:20: “Now if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me.” Paul’s point, in context, seems to be that this tendency not to carry out the will of God perfectly in dependence upon him to his glory (sin) is still present in the Christian. It is no longer the king of us, as it once was (see Romans 6:14), but it is still an insurgent who can carry out terrorists plots in our hearts. Therefore, we must be on guard. 
  • ·         One of the times we will see indwelling sin in us to the greatest degree is when we want to do good, yet, somehow we still manage also to want to do evil and this latter impulse, warring against the former (James 4:1),  is what we follow. Paul writes in Romans 7:21: “So I find it to be a law that when I want to do right, evil lies close at hand.” (emphasis added) Again, we must remember we live in this in between sphere: We have already been transformed, but we have not yet been fully perfected. So, we live differently, with a new king (Jesus), but we are still very much capable of sinning. Therefore, we must be on guard.
  • ·         The origin of this sin is in the heart (Matthew 15:19). Therefore, we must guard our desires, our thoughts, and our will. This can only be done by God’s Spirit working through God’s Word in response to prayer and usually among God’s people.
  • ·         Because sin still indwells the heart, our heart is deceitful (Jer. 17:9). We must beware of how easily we lie to self, saying, “All is well.” “I am not doing anything wrong.” “I don’t need to apologize,” etc., etc. And these are the very opposite of what is true!
  • ·         Our need to battle this indwelling sin will never be over until we die or Christ returns. This is why Paul tells us we must continually be killing sin or it will continually be killing us (Rom. 8:13; Col. 3:5)!
  • ·         Ah, but where is our hope found against indwelling sin? It is in Jesus Christ! Consider what Paul writes in Romans 7:24-25: “Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord!

Amen!

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