Confronting Sin*
How Do You Perceive Your Sin?
Someone told me the other day that his friend purchased a “pet” snake for $400. First of all, I never describe a snake as a pet, and second, I would never pay for one. I was taught at an early age that the best strategy when you encounter a snake is to figure out how to kill it as soon as possible. But what about sin? How do we treat sin? What is my first reaction when encountering sin? Do I figure out how to kill it as soon as possible, or do I treat it as a pet?
“ Rather than ignoring or relenting to the reality of the presence of sin, we must face our sin and act.”
A Clear Perspective
The Puritan John Owen warns Christians, “Be killing sin or it will be killing you.”(1) One of the first and primary practices that come from authentic repentance is the practice of confronting sin. As followers of Christ, it is both an awareness of the reality of being redeemed and yet living with sin. As Paul reminds us in Rom 7, “So I find it to be a law that when I want to do right, evil lies close at hand. For I delight in the law of God, in my inner being, but I see in my members another law waging war against the law of my mind and making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members. Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death?” Given the reality of this struggle, this spiritual war, how do followers of Jesus confront sin? First, rather than ignoring or relenting to the reality of the presence of sin, we must face our sin and act. The first act is to stand in the shadow of the cross. Pastor and author Tim Keller explains, “Christians think that we are saved by the gospel, but then we grow by applying biblical principles to every area of life. But we are not just saved by the gospel, we grow by applying the gospel to every area of life.”(2) He further elaborates to assert that “the root of all our disobedience is particular ways in which we continue to seek control of our lives through systems of works-righteousness.”(3)
“Repentance becomes a critical ingredient not only to how we begin the Christian life, but how we live out the Christian life, and how we finish the Christian life.”
A Present Repentance
Christians must ensure their lives are in line with the gospel. Believers must be creatures of the word of God, saturating our minds and hearts in the Scriptures. Leaning again on Keller’s insight, “The way to progress as a Christian is continually to repent and uproot these systems (systems of sinful behavior) in the same way that we became Christians—by the vivid depiction of Christ’s saving work for us, and the abandoning of self-trusting efforts to complete ourselves.”(4) There it is, continual repentance. As Kevin DeYoung observes, “Few things are more important than repentance. No doubt, the church is for broken and imperfect people— broken people who hate what is broken in them and imperfect people who have renounced their sinful imperfections. [Therefore, we are] to labor for a church community where lifelong repentance is the normal experience of Christian discipleship.”(5) As a result, repentance becomes a critical ingredient not only to how we begin the Christian life, but how we live out the Christian life, and how we finish the Christian life. In the coming weeks, we will discover together how to tackle sin and live victorious lives as Christ's followers who continue repenting.
*This is the second in a series of blogs taken from the book The Power of Repentance by Barry Gibson
(1) John Owen, Of the Mortification of Sin in Believers.
(2) Timothy Keller, Galatians for You, 68.
(3) Timothy Keller, Galatians for You, 68-69.
(4) Timothy Keller, Galatians for You, 69.
(5) Kevin DeYoung, What Does the Bible Really Teach…?, 98–99.
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