HOW TO CEASE FROM SIN

HOW TO CEASE FROM SIN

Before we can rightly consider the subject of ceasing from sin, we must first understand what sin is. Sin is lawlessness. Sin is the act, or the intent to act, according to my own will. “When lust hath conceived, it bringeth forth sin”. Sin entered when Eve acted in contravention of the word of God, in accordance with her own judgment and will. It was not that she did anything morally degrading; and it did not lessen the fact of its being sin, because her act would greatly contribute to her advantage, and raise her in the natural scale. It is important to see that sin is not confined to immorality, or to anything degrading; it is simply running counter to the will of God, and there may be grievous sin, where everything is nice and advantageous in a human point of view. Saul of Tarsus lived in all good conscience, and was, concerning the righteousness which is in the law, blameless, and yet he was the chief of sinners, because, with all his moral reputation, he was in will and act opposed to God.

The thought of foolishness is sin. Whatsoever is not of faith is sin. In a word, “the carnal mind [or the mind of the flesh] is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be”. “In me, (that ^[p. 222] is, in my flesh,) dwelleth no good thing”; “the mind of the flesh is death;” “they that are in the flesh cannot please God”. As there is nothing in the flesh that is good, when it is allowed to think or to act, there is sin there. Whether it be the most noble conduct, or the most degraded, it is simply independence of God, and at bottom preferring one’s own way to God’s; and surely, as there cannot be more than one right way, it is clear, when the flesh acts or thinks for itself, it is sin.

We must, however, distinguish between the claims of nature, such as hunger, cold, etc., as the Creator made man, and the desires of the flesh and of the mind, which are man’s inventions. God made man upright, but he has sought out many inventions. Any of these inventions sought after in the will of man is sin; for though it might not be evil in itself, the fact of its being sought or enjoyed in independence of God makes it sin. Seeing, therefore, that there is no soundness in the flesh, from the crown of the head to the sole of the foot, how are we to cease from sin? It is evident that, as there is no good thing in the flesh, no good can come out of it; the spring is corrupt; and hence, the only way to check sin, or to cease from it, is by subjecting the sin in the flesh to death; in fact, carrying out what is termed in Scripture, “dead to sin”. The point I must first arrive at is, that nothing good is in the flesh, and that if any good comes from me - anything pleasing to God - it must come apart from the flesh, even from the Spirit of God. The body with a will in it is the flesh; without a will, it is Christ’s servant.

Through grace I have received pardon through Christ for my sins, but the flesh, as the principle of sin, is still in me, but as a forgiven one; accepted in Christ, with a new nature, and life in Him, the temple of the Holy Spirit, I cannot enjoy my new position unless I cease from sin. “If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves”, and yet I am not true to the state in which grace has set me, unless I am dead to sin. The greatness of His grace ^[p. 223] is unfolded to me, in order that I should not sin, as John says, “These things write I unto you, that ye sin not”. It is not enough for me to long after true holiness, or to know that I have a divine nature; I have to keep the flesh in death; I have to arm myself with “the same mind” - that is death - for “he that hath suffered in the flesh hath ceased from sin”. (1 Peter 4.) There is no way of correcting the flesh, it must be reckoned dead. I must learn, first, that I am crucified with Christ. God has, so to speak, judicially ended the old man in the cross, that the body of sin might be destroyed. I am therefore before God dead; “Ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God” (Colossians 3: 3); but I am alive in Christ, the law of the Spirit making me free from the law of sin and death; yet the flesh is in me, and lusteth against the Spirit; still the Spirit triumphs. If I walk in the Spirit, I shall not fulfil the lusts of the flesh; the lusts are there, but they are not allowed to move. If they were not there, there would be no lusting one against another, and no success of the Spirit. How could there be success, when there was no opponent? I am now at liberty to treat my flesh - nay, I am called to do so - as that to which I am no debtor; and not only so, but if I live after the flesh, I shall die; but if I through the Spirit mortify the deeds of the body, I shall live.

Now the first cause of great damage to souls is ignorance of what sin is; they do not know it, so as to be able to discern it, for the conscience cannot wince when there is no sense of unholiness, and yet there may be damage to the soul, though it be ignorant for the moment of the cause of the damage. We read, “If a soul touch any unclean thing, whether it be a carcase of an unclean beast, or a carcase of unclean cattle, or the carcase of unclean creeping things, and if it be hidden from him; he also shall be unclean, and guilty”. (Leviticus 5: 2.) We come in contact with much that is unholy, and though there be grief thereby to the Holy Spirit in us, there is no pain to our conscience, because we are not enlightened ^[p. 224] about it; and hence our confidence with God continues; our hearts condemn us not. (See 1 John 2: 20, 21.) A soul may be suffering from many a wilfulness, or contact with a dead person, of which it is not conscious. If it were conscious of it, and yet allowed the wilfulness to be unrebuked and unrenounced, that would be a bad conscience, and all communion would be interrupted. It is only the known sins that the conscience can take note of, but the unknown ones damage the soul, and the more spiritual any one is, the more sensitive he is to the touch of sin. The ability to see what is sin is only in proportion as I am living in the Spirit, and thus I know it too by contrast. How often has one found out that there was sin, when at the time one had no idea of it. The first step to true knowledge is to abhor oneself, as utterly vile, and unable to do or to seek anything according to God; and then, having detected a sin, to cease from it, by suffering in the flesh.

In order the better to expose the incorrect ways by which we try to cease from sin, I will specify some particular sins. There are two classes of sins - one, the lusts that are to be mortified; the other, the ways that are to be put off. Take covetousness, for instance - that is a lust, and one which includes the most common, and often most excused, sin. It is idolatry, an uncontrolled desire to obtain anything. When a soul is in this state, lust has conceived, and it is sin, though the desire may not be fulfilled or carried into effect. Now the way to cease from this, is not by simply praying, even with great resolutions, that the desire may be taken away, or avoiding the object, or order of things, which feeds it - though one cannot too distinctly own it before the Lord, or too absolutely avoid every place or circumstance where the desire would be encouraged - but this might go on year after year without there being any ceasing from it; nay, these very exercises, though right as far as they go, would give that measure of relief which lulls the conscience for the moment, but is sure to be followed by a ^[p. 225] deeper voluptuousness. There is no ceasing from it. Nor can there be a superiority over sin simply by faith. If this were the case, then, as there is justification by faith, there would be no exercise of life in me through the Spirit, and no bearing about the dying of Jesus, that the life of Jesus might be manifested in my body. The sin must be denounced as a thing not to be tolerated. The existence of its root, which is the flesh, is not to be suffered nor recognized. So that it is not merely a particular sin which I refuse, but I insist that the flesh, the soil for all sin, must be dead, as it is dead for me in the sight of God. There must be suffering in the flesh, or there will be no ceasing from sin.

If I see fruit, and feel pleasure in finding that I could take it without being detected, then, even though I have not taken it, I have sinned; lust has conceived. But if, when I see it, I have a sense of pain instead of pleasure in seeing what I might do, I suffer in the flesh, I have ceased from sin therein.

It is very evident that there is not a sense of the darkness or unholiness of lust of any kind, but as there is a ruling sense of the beauty of the contrast of the nature which was in Christ, which could not see anything to draw it aside, in the most inviting object here to which, as man, He had no right; and we know that even what He had right to He would not accept from any one but God, who only is good.

Next, as to the ways of the flesh. It is not enough to condemn them as they arise, but they must be put off, not corrected, in order that the grace of Christ may appear in their place.

Lastly, as to thoughts, which are doubtless the most tormenting and infectious of all, because the beginning of all evils; for every temptation begins with a thought. If Satan can succeed in getting attention to his suggestion, the ground is prepared for him to help you to the evil act. Hence, lust has to conceive before it is sin; the thought enters like a flash, but if you have suffered in the flesh ^[p. 226] you drive it away, as you would a wasp. If you entertain it, it is sin. Associations, books, stories, circumstances, tend to present thoughts of their own stamp to our minds; and hence the need of watchfulness as to all these things, because it is no use to say that the flesh is to be reckoned dead, while we minister to it in any of these ways.