The Enemy Within: Chapter 9 (Pt 2)

Do you find yourself saying "I'm not perfect. I'll never be perfect. God knows I'm not perfect, so He can't expect me to be perfect, to be sinless, to not sin so I can cut myself some slack. Besides, it's mentally unhealthy to get down on yourself for any reason. I need to keep a high self-esteem. That's healthy. I should not get mad at myself when I sin. I should accept it."

Is that, or something like it, you? If it is, you're dead wrong, and not able to obey some obscure, but very important commands in the New Testament--commands to kill your own sin.

Since reading this book, I've taken to putting the words "mortify" in the margin next to verses on this subject. It's not complete, but this is what I have so far...

"if you are living according to the flesh, you must die; but if by the Spirit you are putting to death the deeds of the body, you will live" (Rom 8:13).

"those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires" (Gal 5:24).

"may it never be that I would boast, except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world" (Gal 6:14).

"consider the members of your earthly body as dead to immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and greed, which amounts to idolatry" (Col 3:5).

This is the task we need to get our wills to truly believe is good, which should not be too hard for the Christian were it not for the flesh. You see, "God created the will so that it only chooses what it believes to be good for or agreeable to the soul" (103).

Keep this in mind, every bit of "the deception and temptation we've been discussing [in previous posts] has one intent: to convince the mind that this sinful act is somehow 'good' for the soul so that the affections hunger for it, and the will chooses it" (103).

That sentence is the key. That is the scheme, the method that your flesh wants you and me to be ignorant of (2 Cor 2:11). This knowledge is the first step towards being able to stand firm against them (Eph 6:11).