Put Sin To Death

Romans 8:13: “For 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.”

How do Christians fight against sin? By putting sin to death. Sin is serious.  Because of the constant fight with your flesh, be on guard to put any evidence of sin to death.

• Look Upward:

When we begin the fight to kill sin, we must always remember that we cannot do anything good apart from God. If we rearrange Romans 8:13, it tells us that we put to death the deeds of the body by the Spirit. Our fight with sin always begins with God.

Let’s look at a few practical ways that God helps with the sin in your life:

• 👉Know your new identity in Christ. If you have placed your faith in him, you are not the same person you used to be. You are no longer dead in sin but alive in Christ.
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• 👉Pray to the Father. Pray for strength from God in your temptations and when you fall short, confess your sins. Pray to hate the sin and have it removed from your life.
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• 👉Fix your heart on the Son. Jesus is our example. He endured this world of suffering without sinning. He is also our relatable high priest (Heb 4:15). He atones for our sins.
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• 👉Rely on the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is who ensures our salvation from beginning to end. The Spirit convicts us of sin and helps us grow in our faith.  Our fight against sin always begins with God. Yet, we still struggle and are responsible for how we fight sin.
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• Look Inward:

Our culture teaches us to look inward for strength, but we don’t look inward to find our strength. We look inward to find what is causing our weaknesses. We must recognize sin for what it really is. Sin is disgusting and vile. God created mankind to know him and be known by him. Sin makes us live apart from God and apart from the way we were created. To live with God equals life; to live without God equals death. Sin kills.

John Owen said, “Be killing sin or it will be killing you.” Let’s look at a few practical ways that you can kill sin in your life.

• 👉Kill any current sin. If you have any sins in your life that you haven’t let go of, you must turn from them. It is controlling you.
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• 👉Don’t be content with sin. If you feel convicted of sin, don’t allow it to remain in your life. You must turn from all sin, not just the ones you’re willing to give up.
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• 👉If you see a sin developing, kill it as soon as possible. The longer sin is in your life, the more difficult it becomes to remove it. Sin is like a snowball that will keep growing until it’s addressed.
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• 👉Kill sin at the source. Jesus reminds us that it's better to lose something important to you than to lose everything because you're unwilling to give up the sin (Matt 5:29– 30). We often try to cover and limit the symptoms of sin, but sin must be addressed at its source.
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• 👉Strive to know and continue knowing your heart. The heart is a wicked place. You must seek to identify sins and continue to inspect your heart in a repeated process of killing and searching.
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• 👉Practice Silence and Solitude. We should be silent before the Lord often and have time where we can focus on killing our sin. Most often, our sins are left untouched because of our busyness.
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• 👉Fast. Fasting is expected by Jesus. He said, “When you fast,” not if (Matt 6:16). It requires you to humble yourself and depend upon God. Fasting will help you overcome sin.
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• 👉Read the Word. The most powerful weapon you have to kill sin is the Word of God (Heb 4:12). Read large sections of the Word.
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• 👉Study the Word. Don’t just read large sections; study it deeply in small pieces. This will allow you to know the truths about who God is and who we should be.
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• 👉Meditate on the Word. Constantly think about it day and night. This will empower you to kill sin and make your life prosperous.
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• 👉Memorize the Word. “I have stored up your word in my heart, that I might not sin against you” (Psalm 119:11). Quote memorized Scripture to kill sin.

After we have looked upward and inward, we then must look outward to kill sin.

• Look Outward:

Looking outward takes courage and humility. You were not meant to fight sin on your own. You were meant for community. The church is there to strengthen and encourage one

another in the faith, which includes killing sin. Let’s look at a few practical ways that others can help kill sin in your life.

• 👉Confess your sins to other believers. This is the one thing the devil doesn’t want you to do. This brings sin into the light, and we want to keep it in the darkness. Don’t live alone in your sin.
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• 👉Have other believers hold you accountable. We need people to bear our burdens of sin. Find a believer with whom you can mutually provide encouragement and accountability.
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• 👉Worship. We are commanded by God to worship together. When we worship with others, we can be encouraged and strengthened to kill sin. The local church is not optional. It is an important aspect of your arsenal to kill sin.

Killing sin is the first step. Step two is to replace it with the gospel. Because of the gospel, the power of sin has been defeated. “There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus” (Rom 8:1). Believers have hope today in Christ to kill sin and truly live!