Killing Sin, Rediscovering a timeless truth

John Owen, a famous English puritan minister who lived from 1616-1683, famously wrote "be killing sin, or it will be killing you". As Christians we should be in the business of practicing holiness, in fact God commanded it! (1 Peter 1:16) This seems to many like an insurmountable task.
The most destructive force in my life, and yours is indwelling sin. Sin, transgression against God, kills. It kills our relationship with God, our intimacy with Him and his Holy Spirit, and keeps us from living a sanctified fulfilled life. Romans 8:13 says "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."
The apostle Paul here gives us the formula to Owens’s statement. Its clear from this passage there is no middle ground. There is no comfortable gray area where we can relax. We have two choices, either killing sin, or being killed by it.
Before Christ we were all already dead, dead in our trespasses and sin. (Eph. 2:1-10) We had no power in ourselves to fight sin and live again. We were utterly hopeless, then we read Eph. 2:4-5 that “God being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ, by grace you have been saved.”
You have been brought to life! God has given you His Spirit, not only to apply the blood of Christ to you, or to seal you, but also empower you to “put to death the deeds of the body” (Romans 8:13)
When the Holy Spirit comes unto a believer, he comes to a heart that is overrun by weeds. (I like gardening analogies; Owen used a forest, and I am not too familiar with them so I hope this makes sense!) He comes at the moment of regeneration and completely tills the soil and fertilizes it and brings it back to life. However, the seeds of sin are still there and the weeds spring back up. Now the garden bed is new, but the weeds still grow. If left unchecked the rapidly growing weeds will choke out every other plant and completely ruin your harvest, it will kill your garden.
The Holy Spirit enables us to pull the weeds, little by little clump by clump, until the job is done. If we reject the Spirit the weeds will grow, they will grow and choke everything out.
God gave the spirit to us so we can put to death the deeds of the flesh, the weeds, and live. The Christians duty is to kill sin. So how does the spirit enable us to put to death those deeds?

1) He makes us aware of them. As we read our bibles, engage in fellowship and prayer, the Holy Spirit makes us alert to Sin. We see what it is in our lives that is sinful. Here we must be aware. Our flesh is waring against the Spirit to try to kill us! The flesh will say “its not that big of a deal” or try to blind us. We must heed what the Spirit says.
2) He causes us to grieve. When we see sin for what it is, and God for who He is, its only natural that sin against him should make us grieve. The Holy Spirit opened my eyes to Who God is, to what Gods has done and when I examine my sin it causes me to grieve. I am ashamed I would transgress such a merciful, loving God. A God who at the cost of his only son, saved me and gave me true life. Not only in this world but the world come.
3) He enables us to repent. Repentance is key to the victorious believer. We confess the sin and kill it in our self’s. Disciplining our minds and actions through the power of the Spirit, aiming to commit it no more.
4) He applies Christ’s blood. 1 John 1:9 When we confess the blood of Christ is applied so that we can walk in righteousness.

Our lives as Christians are ones of constant battle, where there are no days off. We are constantly aiming to put to death the deeds or our flesh and fighting the devil and his systems. The is no gray area. You are either moving forward or being beaten back by Sin. Make it a point every day to examine yourself, allow God and his word to minister to your heart. When you become aware of sin by God’s grace and his Spirit, kill it!

Pastor Max Myers
Living Word Evangelical Free Church
​Elmira, NY