Tag Archives: The Mortified Christian

Christopher Love, The Mortified Christian: Case Three: Will We Sin Again?

09 Wednesday Jan 2013

Posted by in Biblical Counseling, Christopher Love, Genesis, Mortification, Puritan

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Love sets out a third “case of conscience”: “May a man whose lusts and corruptions are truly mortified by the Spirit of God commit and fall often into those sins that have been mortified?”

Love answers this in two parts: (1) Scripture does not record instances of one who has fallen into an obvious and gross sin, who then falls into that sin again. On this point, I must beg to disagree with Love.  Abraham bizarrely falls into cowardice concerning his wife, first with Pharaoh and later with Abimelech (Genesis 12 & 20).

Love does provide a good model for understanding the proper use of descriptive texts:  A descriptive text does not tell us everything about a topic – the specific cannot always be raised to a general.  For example, a miraculous work of through an Apostle (Acts 3), does not mean that all Christians will perform miraculous works of God.

Thus, Love quotes William Perkins, to the effect, “There is nothing in reason and experience that assure you that a corruption mortified, especially if it is an inward and secret sin, may not break forth again after you have repented of it” (101).  However, Love does not merely rest upon reason and experience (which are themselves no more than specific instances or conclusions drawn from specific instances): “There is nothing in the whole Bible against it that says expressly or by consequence [a logical deduction] that you cannot fall into the same sins after they are mortified.”  Then, as a pastor he wisely adds, “Therefore, this is something for your comfort.”

This does not mean that we should just shrug off a second or third (or nth fall) into sin.  To continue to fall into a sin threatens our heart – it makes it hard. It sets our conscience against, and like a determined detective, the conscience will hound us.  And finally, “I do not say that it is damnable, but it is a dangerous and deadly symptom, a sign of death upon you.

Mortification is a Work of the Spirit (Christopher Love, The Mortified Christian)

17 Monday Dec 2012

Posted by in Biblical Counseling, Christopher Love, Discipleship, John, Mortification, Puritan

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Love first proves the point by arguing from the whole to the part:  The Holy Spirit makes a believer holy; that is, the Holy Spirit sanctifies a believer.  Sanctification entails two movements: first a movement from sin, called “mortification”; and a second movement toward God, living unto God, called “vivification”. Seeing that the Holy Spirit superintends the whole, the Spirit must work in the parts.

Second, Love proves that mortification flows from the Spirit, for it is the Spirit who causes us to hate sin:

So you will never go about the extirpation of sin until you are sensible of the danger and guilt of yours sins. You will never be convinced of the danger and evil of sin unless the Spirit God enlightens you. The work of mortification is wholly ascribed to the Spirit of God because only He can convince us of the evil of sin so as to make us hate and abhor it and strive against it.

Which is as Jesus said:

7 Nevertheless, I tell you the truth: it is to your advantage that I go away, for if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you. But if I go, I will send him to you. 8 And when he comes, he will convict the world concerning sin and righteousness and judgment: 9 concerning sin, because they do not believe in me; 10 concerning righteousness, because I go to the Father, and you will see me no longer; 11 concerning judgment, because the ruler of this world is judged. John 16:7–11 (ESV)

This raises the question, Can’t an unbeliever be “good”? Well, certainly one may be well behaved irrespective of whether one believes in God or not. In fact, those who claim some sort of divine sanction are often the most unpleasant, because they couple their sinfulness to a certainty of belief and thus become dogmatic in their destruction.

While I very much believe that God restrains sin (and that the world would be unspeakably worse were it not for the restraining work of God), I do not believe that a bare belief in God makes one well behaved.  That is a very different issue.

Well then, how does one distinguish between “good” behavior based upon the some moral or social concern and sin truly mortified? Love sets out eight answers. Each of these answers pivot upon the central concern of one’s life toward God: does one care primarily for God’s valuation or the valuation of other human beings. In John 5:44, Jesus says:

44 How can you believe, when you receive glory from one another and do not seek the glory that comes from the only God? John 5:44 (ESV)

Either one lives by the valuation of God – or not (that is living by faith and not by sight).  Love works that doctrine out in a practical manner.

First, the Spirit would cause one to hate the sin for itself, irrespective of restraint. “It is the same as with a thief in prison: he may be restrained form sin because he cannot act it out, but yet he loves the sin (it may be) as well as he ever did.”  God hates the sin, so the subject believer must hate the sin.  “You not only leave sin, but abhor it. …Therefore, judge yourselves by this difference.”

Second, his hatred  stands against not merely great and obvious sins, but also small, personal, unknown sins. Any man may put off stealing and yet continue to covet; he may put off adultery and yet lust in his heart. The Spirit causes one to hate sin as – irrespective of whether it can be hidden or worn comfortably in the culture. “But a wicked man is never troubled for small sins. Those sins that almost break a godly man’s heart never break a wicked man’s sleep.”

Third, the Spirit causes one to willingly leave a sin. “Though a natural heart does not commit a sin, yet it is kept from it unwillingly….A wicked man may leave sin, but it is as a friend leaves his friend.”

Fourth, who does one respond when there is no restraint – or when the restraint has been removed? “When a man has mortifying grace wrought in him by the Spirit of God, his sins are continually dying and decaying, though they are not quite dead.”

Fifth, a carnal man is merely restrained by carnal considerations: It will look bad; I could be arrested, et cetera. The man being transformed concerns himself with the honor of God, “If I commit this sin, I shall thereby dishonor Go and scandalize the gospel and my profession and encourage other sins to break out afresh in me.”

Sixth, restraint only based upon fear of hell is not true saving change.  The hatred of sin should cause on to consider it better to be in hell, than to be in a “heaven” with sin.  Love alludes to a quotation of Anselm, set forth by Thomas Brooks:

Anselm used to say, ‘That if he should see the shame of sin on the one hand, and the pains of hell on the other, and must of necessity choose one, he would rather be thrust into hell without sin, than to go into heaven with sin,’ so great was his hatred and detestation of sin.

Thomas Brooks, The Complete Works of Thomas Brooks, Volume 1, ed. Alexander Balloch Grosart (Edinburgh; London; Dublin: James Nichol; James Nisbet and Co.; G. Herbert, 1866), 13.

Seventh, if one will sin on the basis of any occasion or allurement, then the Spirit’s work is not evident.  Love contrasts this with the mortified Christian, “But now a man who has mortified his corruptions by the power of the God’s Spirit is still opposing sin and never commits it but against his will. Sin may sometimes overtake him, but he runs from it as fast as he can.”

Eighth, the natural man finds any constraint on his sin irksome.  However, “a godly man rejoices and blesses God that he is restrained from committing a sin…So those sins that matters of joy and light to the wicked are a burden, sorrow, and trouble of the godly.

This then raises a further question for the one of a troubled conscience: We can look to the perfection of this work and think I have no true saving change!  Love, as an excellent and tender pastor, turns to this one and asks, Do you any change in your heart? Do you find yourself fleeing sin when you have opportunity?

Let us look to your conscience: do you see trouble in your conscience for those inward sins – sins which no one could ever see or find? “When those sins that are no bigger than molehills lie as heavy upon your heart as if they were mountains; and when your conscience can bear you witness that there is no secret lust that makes an incursion upon your soul but that you strive against it and labor to oppose it – this is an undoubted evidence that God has wrought a work of mortification in you by His Spirit.”

Christopher Love: Mortification is a Work of the Spirit.1

14 Friday Sep 2012

Posted by in 1 Corinthians, 1 Peter, Biblical Counseling, Christopher Love, Mortification, Puritan, Romans

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Christopher Love unpacks the clause of Romans 8:13, “But if ye by the Spirit do mortify …” and demonstrates the manner in which the Spirit is the agent of sanctification. First, the Spirit is called the Holy Spirit, for his “proper office is to make a man holy” (89). 

Second, sanctification is attributed to the Spirit:

1 Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ, To those who are elect exiles of the Dispersion in Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia, 2 according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, in the sanctification of the Spirit, for obedience to Jesus Christ and for sprinkling with his blood: May grace and peace be multiplied to you. 1 Peter 1:1–2 (ESV)

And such were some of you. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God. 1 Corinthians 6:11 (ESV)

Sanctification consists of both vivification, being alive toward God; and mortification, being dead toward sin. Therefore, the Spirit must be the agent of mortification.

Third, the Lord states that the Spirit is sent to bring conviction of sin:

And when he comes, he will convict the world concerning sin and righteousness and judgment: John 16:8 (ESV)

Conviction of sin brings turning from sin:

A man will never seek after a cure until he is sensible of his disease. So you will never go about the extirpation of sin until you are sensible of the danger and guilt of your sins. You will never be convinced of the danger and evil of sin unless the Spirit of God enlightens you. The work of mortification is wholly ascribed to the Spirit of God because only He can convince us of the Evil of Sin so as to make us hate and abhor it and strive against it.

Christopher Love: Fifth Consolation of the Mortified Christian

10 Monday Sep 2012

Posted by in Biblical Counseling, Christopher Love, Edward Polhill, Mortification, Puritan

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Take this for your comfort: the disturbing and troubling of your heart by a sin argues that sin to be mortified more than unmortified, provided that as your sin stirs in your heart, so your resolutions and supplications against those sins stir in your heart, too. If sin fights against you, you must strive against it in resolutions and protestations against it.

Indeed, the heavenly country can only be obtained by striving. Bunyan provides such a picture at the Interpreter’s House:

Then the Interpreter took him, and led him up towards the door of the palace; and behold, at the door stood a great company of men, as desirous to go in, but durst not. There also sat a man at a little distance from the door, at a table-side, with a book and his inkhorn before him, to take the names of them that should enter therein; he saw also that in the doorway stood many men in armor to keep it, being resolved to do to the men that would enter, what hurt and mischief they could. Now was Christian somewhat in amaze. At last, when every man started back for fear of the armed men, Christian saw a man of a very stout countenance come up to the man that sat there to write, saying, “Set down my name, sir;” the which when he had done, he saw the man draw his sword, and put a helmet on his head, and rush towards the door upon the armed men, who laid upon him with deadly force; but the man, not at all discouraged, fell to cutting and hacking most fiercely. So after he had received and given many wounds to those that attempted to keep him out,  Matt. 11:12; Acts 14:22; he cut his way through them all, and pressed forward into the palace; at which there was a pleasant voice heard from those that were within, even of those that walked upon the top of the palace, saying,

“Come in, come in,

Eternal glory thou shalt win.”

So he went in, and was clothed with such garments as they. Then Christian smiled, and said, I think verily I know the meaning of this.

Edward Polhill in A View of Some Divine Truths writes:

This plainly appears by comparing the heavenly rewards and the earthly man together. The rewards are at a great distance from sense. They lie in another world. The treasure is in heaven. The recompense is above. A red sea of death is to be passed through before we can come at it. The man, to whom the tender is made, is earthly, carnal, living by sense, wrapt in the veil of time; one like the infirm woman in the gospel, who is bowed together, and can in no wise lift up himself, no, not to a heaven of glory and blessedness freely offered unto him. He hangs in the clay of one earthly thing or other, and by bonds of strong concupiscence is fastened to this lower world; and, which is a prodigy in an immortal soul, he loves to be so, and thinks that it is good being here. A little earth with him, is better than heaven. Sensual pleasures out-relish the pure rivers above. O how unfit is such a man to close in with such a reward! How much work must be done to make him capable of it! The man must be unearthed and unbound from this lower world.

The concupiscential strings, which tie him thereunto, must be cut, that his soul may have a free ascent towards heaven. A precious faith must be raised up, that this world may appear, such as it is, a shadow, a figure, a nothing to make man happy; that heaven with its beatitudes may be realised and presented to the mind. A divine temper must be wrought, that he may be able to rend off the veil of time, and take a prospect of eternity; to put by all the world, and look into heaven. He must be a pilgrim on earth, living by faith, walking in holiness, every step preparing for, and breathing after the heavenly country. He must pray, work, strive, wrestle, watch, wait, serve God instantly, and all this to be rewarded in another world; without such a temper heaven will signify nothing, and without a Divine power such a temper cannot be had.

Hence St. Peter tells us, “That God hath begotten us again unto a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance incorruptible.” (1 Pet. 1:3, 4.) The lively hope, which takes hold upon the great reward, is not from the power of nature; no, it is from a divine generation, it is a heavenly touch from Christ risen and sitting at the right hand of majesty, from thence to do spiritual miracles, as upon earth he did corporeal. Hence St. Paul argues, “If you be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above.” (Col. 3:1.) The natural man, dead in sin, cannot seek them; only those who are spiritual and risen with Christ can do it. It is therefore from the Divine power and spirit, that men, naturally carnal and earthly, are made capable of closing with the heavenly and supernal rewards which are tendered in the gospel.

Edward Polhill, The Works of Edward Polhill (London: Thomas Ward and Co., 1844), 33.

Christopher Love: Fourth Consolation of the Mortified Christian

09 Sunday Sep 2012

Posted by in Biblical Counseling, Christopher Love, Mortification, Puritan

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Take this for your comfort: God will never damn you for that sin which in the whole course of your life you used all possible means to subdue and destroy….Though the devil forces sin upon you, if you use all possible means to resist it the Lord will hold you guiltless.

It is not sinless which marks a Christian, but rather that one does not make a constant practice of sin. Thomas Brooks develops this point by using the imagery of “making a trade” – that is, turning something into a primary occupation, the principle means of life. This is an important point: I once heard a man claim that he must be a Christian, because he was so imperfect.  While all Christians are imperfect, imperfection is not the principle mark of the Christian. Sinless perfection will not be had, but the true Christian must wallow in sin without struggle:

That these saints did not make a trade of sin. They fell once or twice, and rose by repentance, that they might keep the closer to Christ for ever. They fell accidentally, occasionally, and with much reluctancy;2 and thou sinnest presumptuously, obstinately, readily, delightfully, and customarily. Thou hast, by thy making a trade of sin, contracted upon thy soul a kind of cursed necessity of sinning, that thou canst as well cease to be, or cease to live, as thou canst cease to sin. Sin is, by custom, become as another nature to thee, which thou canst not, which thou wilt not lay aside, though thou knowest that if thou dost not lay sin aside, God will lay thy soul aside for ever; though thou knowest that if sin and thy soul do not part, Christ and thy soul can never meet. If thou wilt make a trade of sin, and cry out, Did not David sin thus, and Noah sin thus, and Peter sin thus? &c. No; their hearts turned aside to folly one day, but thy heart turns aside to folly every day, 2 Peter 2:14, Prov. 4:16; and when they were fallen, they rise by repentance, and by the actings of faith upon a crucified Christ;3 but thou fallest, and hast no strength nor will to rise, but wallowest in sin, and wilt eternally die in thy sins, unless the Lord be the more merciful to thy soul. Dost thou think, O soul! this is good reasoning? Such a one tasted poison but once, and yet narrowly escaped; but I do daily drink poison, yet I shall escape. Yet such is the mad reasoning of vain souls. David and Peter, &c., sinned once foully and fearfully; they tasted poison but once, and were sick to death; but I taste it daily, and yet shall not taste of eternal death. Remember, O souls! that the day is at hand when self-flatterers will be found self-deceivers, yea, self-murderers. That these saints did not make a trade of sin. They fell once or twice, and rose by repentance, that they might keep the closer to Christ for ever. They fell accidentally, occasionally, and with much reluctancy;2 and thou sinnest presumptuously, obstinately, readily, delightfully, and customarily. Thou hast, by thy making a trade of sin, contracted upon thy soul a kind of cursed necessity of sinning, that thou canst as well cease to be, or cease to live, as thou canst cease to sin. Sin is, by custom, become as another nature to thee, which thou canst not, which thou wilt not lay aside, though thou knowest that if thou dost not lay sin aside, God will lay thy soul aside for ever; though thou knowest that if sin and thy soul do not part, Christ and thy soul can never meet. If thou wilt make a trade of sin, and cry out, Did not David sin thus, and Noah sin thus, and Peter sin thus? &c. No; their hearts turned aside to folly one day, but thy heart turns aside to folly every day, 2 Peter 2:14, Prov. 4:16; and when they were fallen, they rise by repentance, and by the actings of faith upon a crucified Christ;3 but thou fallest, and hast no strength nor will to rise, but wallowest in sin, and wilt eternally die in thy sins, unless the Lord be the more merciful to thy soul. Dost thou think, O soul! this is good reasoning? Such a one tasted poison but once, and yet narrowly escaped; but I do daily drink poison, yet I shall escape. Yet such is the mad reasoning of vain souls. David and Peter, &c., sinned once foully and fearfully; they tasted poison but once, and were sick to death; but I taste it daily, and yet shall not taste of eternal death. Remember, O souls! that the day is at hand when self-flatterers will be found self-deceivers, yea, self-murderers.

Thomas Brooks, The Complete Works of Thomas Brooks, Volume 1, ed. Alexander Balloch Grosart (Edinburgh; London; Dublin: James Nichol; James Nisbet and Co.; G. Herbert, 1866), 25.

2 The saints cannot sin (voluntate plena sed semi-plena) with a whole will, but, as it were, with a half will, an unwilling willingness; not with a full consent, but with a dissenting consent.

3 Though sin do (habitare) dwell in the regenerate, as Austin notes, yet it doth not (regnare) reign over the regenerate; they rise by repentance.

Christopher Love: Third Consolation of the Mortified Christian

08 Saturday Sep 2012

Posted by in Biblical Counseling, Christopher Love, Deuteronomy, Puritan

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Take this for your comfort: if you conscientiously make use of those means the Lord has sanctified for the mortifying of your sins, then, even if, notwithstanding all, your sins prevail and overcome you, the Lord will hold you guiltless.

Love takes the image given in the law:

25 But if in the open country a man meets a young woman who is betrothed, and the man seizes her and lies with her, then only the man who lay with her shall die. 26 But you shall do nothing to the young woman; she has committed no offense punishable by death. For this case is like that of a man attacking and murdering his neighbor, 27 because he met her in the open country, and though the betrothed young woman cried for help there was no one to rescue her. Deuteronomy 22:25–27 (ESV)

The woman was ravished and hated the sin, but she was not rescued. The man who found her will die, but she will not be guilty. In the same manner, should the devil rape your soul (so to speak), “your soul can bear you witness that you cried out to God for help, and struggled and strove against the corruption”.  But what if you think, yes but I fell?

for the righteous falls seven times and rises again, but the wicked stumble in times of calamity. Proverbs 24:16 (ESV)

The mark of the wise man is not that he never falls. The mark of the wise man is that he rises seven times.

Christopher Love: Second Consolation of the Mortified Christian

07 Friday Sep 2012

Posted by in Biblical Counseling, Christopher Love, Matthew, Puritan, Richard Sibbes

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Take this for your comfort: if you use all conscionable means to bridge your lusts, you may be confident that sooner or later grace will get the victory over sin. Sin may be a combatant, but it shall never be a conqueror.

Does this not contradict the first consolation? No. Our is set firmly upon the knowledge that grace will gain the victory:

15 Jesus, aware of this, withdrew from there. And many followed him, and he healed them all 16 and ordered them not to make him known. 17 This was to fulfill what was spoken by the prophet Isaiah: 18 “Behold, my servant whom I have chosen, my beloved with whom my soul is well pleased. I will put my Spirit upon him, and he will proclaim justice to the Gentiles. 19 He will not quarrel or cry aloud, nor will anyone hear his voice in the streets; 20 a bruised reed he will not break, and a smoldering wick he will not quench, until he brings justice to victory; 21 and in his name the Gentiles will hope.” Matthew 12:15–21 (ESV)

The work of Christ will not end “until he brings justice to victory.”   This presumes conflict, which Christ will win – thus, we must not become discouraged:

Discouragement rising from unbelief and the ill report brought upon the good land by the spies moved God to swear in his wrath that they should not enter into his rest. Let us take heed that a spirit of faint heartedness, rising from the seeming difficulty and disgrace involved in God’s good ways, does not provoke God to keep us out of heaven. We see here what we may look for from heaven. O beloved, it is a comfortable thing to conceive of Christ aright, to know what love, mercy and strength we have laid up for us in the breast of Christ. A good opinion of the physician, we say, is half the cure. Let us make use of this mercy and power of his every day in our daily combats: `Lord Jesus, thou hast promised not to quench the smoking flax, nor to break the bruised reed. Cherish thy grace in me; leave me not to myself; the glory shall be thine.’ Let us not allow Satan to transform Christ to us, to make him other than he is to those that are his. Christ will not leave us till he has made us like himself, all glorious within and without, and presented us blameless before his Father (Jude 24).

What a comfort this is in our conflicts with our unruly hearts, that it shall not always be thus! Let us strive a little while, and we shall be happy for ever. Let us think when we are troubled with our sins that Christ has this in charge from his Father, that he shall not `quench the smoking flax’ until he has subdued all. This puts a shield into our hands to beat back `all the fiery darts of the wicked’ (Eph. 6:16). Satan will object, `You are a great sinner.’ We may answer, `Christ is a strong Saviour.’ But he will object, `You have no faith, no love.’ `Yes, a spark of faith and love.’ `But Christ will not regard that.’ `Yes, he will not quench the smoking flax: `But this is so little and weak that it will vanish and come to naught.”  Nay, but Christ will cherish it, until he has brought judgment to victory.’ And this much we have already for our comfort, that, even when we first believed, we overcame God himself, as it were, by believing the pardon of all our sins, notwithstanding the guilt of our own consciences and his absolute justice. Now, having been prevailers with God, what shall stand against us if we can learn to make use of our faith?

Oh, what a confusion is this to Satan, that he should labour to blow out a poor spark and yet should not be able to quench it; that a grain of mustard seed should be stronger than the gates of hell; that it should be able to remove mountains of oppositions and temptations cast up by Satan and our rebellious hearts between God and us. Abimelech could not endure that it should be said, `A woman slew him’ (Judg. 9:54); and it must needs be a torment to Satan that a weak child, a woman, a decrepit old man should, by a spirit of faith, put him to flight (The Bruised Reed).

Christopher Love: First Consolation of the Mortified Christian

06 Thursday Sep 2012

Posted by in Biblical Counseling, Christopher Love, Mortification, Puritan, Romans

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Though we have instruction in the means of mortification, though we have desire to follow after our Lord in a life of practical holiness, we often find our practice lies below our desire. Knowing this weakness, Christopher Love provides three consolations to the Christian:

Take this for your comfort: though use the utmost endeavors to mortify sin, yet you cannot withstand the existence of sin in you, but only hinder its reigning in your heart.

In Romans 6, Paul does state

Do not let sin reign in your mortal body to obey its lusts (Rom. 6:12, NASB).

In verse 22, he continues, “But now having been freed from sin”. However, Paul nowhere states that we will be free from sin’s presence. Indeed, entire structure of the argument presumes the continued presence of sin, “do not go on presenting the members of your body to sin as instruments of unrighteousness”.  We could not present our body to sin, if sin were not present.  Do not despair over the present conflict:

It is therefore no sign of a good condition to find all quiet, with no opposition; for can we think that corruption, which is the older element in us, and Satan, the strong man who has many holds over us, will yield possession quietly? No, there is not so much as a thought of goodness discovered by him, but he joins with corruption to kill it in the birth. And as Pharaoh’s cruelty was especially against the male children, so Satan’s malice is especially against the most religious and manly resolutions.

This, then, we are always to expect, that wherever Christ comes there will be opposition. When Christ was born, all Jerusalem was troubled; so when Christ is born in any man, the soul is in an uproar, and all because the heart is unwilling to yield up itself to Christ to rule it.

Richard Sibbes, The Bruised Reed.

If we wrongly believe that we will become utterly freed from sin, we will fall into discouragement and hopelessness.  Such discouragement can only breed more sin. Hope of our glory with Christ is a great means of holiness now:

1 See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God; and so we are. The reason why the world does not know us is that it did not know him. 2 Beloved, we are God’s children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared; but we know that when he appears we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is. 3 And everyone who thus hopes in him purifies himself as he is pure. 1 John 3:1–3 (ESV)

Do not despair over the return of rather. But rather use the means given by God, seek to walk in the Spirit, and sleep and wake before the throne of grace (Heb. 4:14-16; Psalm 3).

Summary of Christopher Love’s Eight Helps to Mortification

27 Friday Jul 2012

Posted by in Biblical Counseling, Christopher Love, Discipleship, Puritan, Spiritual Disciplines

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Christopher Love set forth eight helps to mortification of sin[1]. Here the eight points in summary fashion. Two of the helps concern avoiding temptation; sex helps concern spiritual disciplines which set the heart upon God in such a manner as to grow in desire for him above all other things. In the end, only a desire for God greater than a desire for anything which of the creation will be sufficient to guard our hearts from sin.

 

1.     Two responses to temptation: Avoid both the external and the internal elements of temptation.

a.     Avoid occasions of that to which you are addicted: Prov. 5:8

b.     Run at the first motion of lust rising in your heart: Gen. 39:12

2.     Six disciplines:

a.     Pray for help: Matt. 27:41

b.     Memorize Scripture: Psalm 119:11

c.      Fast: “Fasting and prayer are the slaughter-houses of sin” (83). Luke 4:1-4

d.     Pledge yourself to God; “resolve in the strength of Christ”. 1 Pet. 2:21; Heb. 11:26

e.      Hate all of sin: “The best way to keep a tree from growing is not to cut off the branches, but to pluck it up by the roots” (84). Psalm 119:104

f.       Meditate on the death of Christ. Hrebrews 3:1, 12:1-2; 2 Tim. 2:8.

The Eighth Help to Mortification by Christopher Love

20 Friday Jul 2012

Posted by in Biblical Counseling, Christopher Love, Discipleship, John Owen, Meditation, Mortification, Puritan

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The eighth direction given by Love on the mortification of is, “Meditate on Christ’s death.”  Should we consider plainly how sin, one’s own sin, poured out the blood of Christ, “Shall I not kill those sins that killed Christ?”

 John Owen makes a similar point at the end of The Mortification of Sin:

First, Act faith [consider and procure by faith] peculiarly upon the death, blood, and cross of Christ; that is, on Christ as crucified and slain. Mortification of sin is peculiarly from the death of Christ. It is one peculiar, yea, eminent end of the death of Christ, which shall assuredly be accomplished by it. He died to destroy the works of the devil. Whatever came upon our natures by his first temptation, whatever receives strength in our persons by his daily suggestions, Christ died to destroy it all….

If indeed we are baptized into Christ, and beyond outward profession, we are baptized into his death. The explication of this, of one being baptized into the death of Christ, the apostle gives us, verses 4, 6: “Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death; that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life. Knowing this, that our old man is crucified with him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin.” “This is,” saith he, “our being baptized into the death of Christ, namely, our conformity thereunto; to be dead unto sin, to have our corruptions mortified, as he was put to death for sin: so that as he was raised up to glory, we may be raised up to grace and newness of life.” He tells us whence it is that we have this baptism into thedeath of Christ, verse 6; and this is from the death of Christ itself: “Our old man is crucified with him, that the body of sin might be destroyed;” …“is crucified with him,” not in respect of time, but causality. We are crucified with him meritoriously, in that he procured the Spirit for us to mortify sin; efficiently, in that from his death virtue comes forth for our crucifying; in the way of a representation and exemplar we shall assuredly be crucified unto sin, as he was for our sin. This is that the apostle intends: Christ by his death destroying the works of the devil, procuring the Spirit for us, hath so killed sin, as to its reign in believers, that it shall not obtain its end and dominion.

Thus, the death of Christ is in a fundamentally important way, my death.  Yet, if I persist in sin then how is the death of Christ my death – how have I ceased sin in the suffering (1 Pet. 4:1-2).

Thus, Love pairs a meditation on the death of Christ is meditation upon our own death: “Not only the thought of Christ’s death, but the thought of your own death, too, will stir you up to mortification.” Brooks, remedy 3 to the second device of Satan, instructs us to consider the sight of sin when it is no longer hidden but when it is judged and laid bare:

To look on sin with that eye [with] which within a few hours we shall see it. Ah, souls! when you shall lie upon a dying bed, and stand before a judgment-seat, sin shall be unmasked, and its dress and robes shall then be taken off, and then it shall appear more vile, filthy, and terrible than hell itself; then, that which formerly appeared most sweet will appear most bitter, and that which appeared most beautiful will appear most ugly, and that which appeared most delightful will then appear most dreadful to the soul. Ah, the shame, the pain, the gall, the bitterness, the horror, the hell that the sight of sin, when its dress is taken off, will raise in poor souls! Sin will surely prove evil and bitter to the soul when its robes are taken off. A man may have the stone who feels no fit of it. Conscience will work at last, though for the present one may feel no fit of accusation. Laban shewed himself at parting. Sin will be bitterness in the latter end, when it shall appear to the soul in its own filthy nature. The devil deals with men as the panther doth with beasts; he hides his deformed head till his sweet scent hath drawn them into his danger.

Till we have sinned, Satan is a parasite; when we have sinned, he is a tyrant. O souls! the day is at hand when the devil will pull off the paint and garnish that he hath put upon sin, and present that monster, sin, in such a monstrous shape to your souls, that will cause your thoughts to be troubled, your countenance to be changed, the joints of your loins to be loosed, and your knees to be dashed one against another, and your hearts to be so terrified, that you will be ready, with Ahithophel and Judas,3 to strangle and hang your bodies on earth, and your souls in hell, if the Lord hath not more mercy on you than he had on them. Oh! therefore, look upon sin now as you must look upon it to all eternity, and as God, conscience, and Satan will present it to you another day!

Thomas Brooks, The Complete Works of Thomas Brooks, Volume 1, ed. Alexander Balloch Grosart (Edinburgh; London; Dublin: James Nichol; James Nisbet and Co.; G. Herbert, 1866), 17.