Leaving My Sin at the Cross
What I Leave at the Cross • Sermon • Submitted • Presented
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Okay, fine. So how do I do this?
The answer is rarely, “Try harder.”
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.
First, we must name the deeds that have to die.
Put to death therefore what is earthly in you: sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry.
On account of these the wrath of God is coming.
In these you too once walked, when you were living in them.
But now you must put them all away: anger, wrath, malice, slander, and obscene talk from your mouth.
Do not lie to one another, seeing that you have put off the old self with its practices
Now the works of the flesh are evident: sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality,
idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions,
envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these. I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.
Your sin is on the list, and it is neither better nor worse than your neighbor’s.
Second, we must confess that our hearts and minds produced those deeds.
And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.
We sinned because we wanted to sin.
For the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God, for it does not submit to God’s law; indeed, it cannot.
“cannot”: Literally, “it is not able”
Those who are in the flesh cannot please God.
Our minds led us to sin. Our minds lead nowhere else.
Third, we must accept that we are the problem, not the solution.
For I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate.
For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh. For I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out.
For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing.
Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death?
We are sinners who love our sins.
Fourth, we must tremble before a God who loves us anyway.
Therefore you have no excuse, O man, every one of you who judges. For in passing judgment on another you condemn yourself, because you, the judge, practice the very same things. We know that the judgment of God rightly falls on those who practice such things. Do you suppose, O man—you who judge those who practice such things and yet do them yourself—that you will escape the judgment of God? Or do you presume on the riches of his kindness and forbearance and patience, not knowing that God’s kindness is meant to lead you to repentance?
We do not repent because of Hell’s flame. We repent because of Heaven’s love.
Fifth, we must seek the help of the Spirit.
You, however, are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if in fact the Spirit of God dwells in you. Anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to him.
But if Christ is in you, although the body is dead because of sin, the Spirit is life because of righteousness.
If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit who dwells in you.
Only God raises the dead.
Sixth, we must make the crucifixion of sin our daily battle and make grace our daily victory.
For I know my transgressions,
and my sin is ever before me.
So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.
“When our Lord and Master Jesus Christ said, ‘Repent,’ he willed the entire life of believers to be one of repentance.” - Martin Luther
“Repentance is a continual life-long act." - Charles Spurgeon
“Be killing sin, or sin will be killing you.” - John Owen