Understanding Lust

The secular definition of lust goes as follows:

• An overwhelming desire or craving.

• Intense eagerness or enthusiasm.

• craving, desire, hunger, itch, longing, thirst, wish, yearning

The biblical definition is consistent, but comes with implications.

…we…all formerly lived in the lusts of our flesh, indulging the desires of the flesh and of the mind…(Ephesians 2.3 NAS)

The Bible says that lust is the indulgence of the desires of the heart and mind. This is the

What is Mortification?

• The secular definition of mortification is as follows:

• To practice ascetic discipline or self-denial of the body and its appetites.

• Comes from the middle English word ‘mortifien’ which means ‘to deaden or subdue’ and from the Latin word ‘mortificare’ which means ‘to kill’.

abolish, annihilate, blot out, clear, eradicate, erase, exterminate, extinguish, extirpate, liquidate, obliterate, remove, root out, rub out, snuff out, stamp out, uproot, wipe out.

Again, the biblical definition is consistent, but comes with implications.

Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its lusts, (Romans 6.12 NAS)

To mortify is to get rid of sin, so that it is not the focus of your mind and heart so that you will not act in sin.

Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth. For you are dead, and your life is…with Christ in God. When Christ, who is our life, appears, then you shall also appear with him in glory. Mortify therefore your members…(Col 3.2-5 KJV ~ simplified)

To mortify is to remove all concentration on worldly things and to focus on heavenly things. To mortify is not simply to root out or eradicate sin, but to remove the focus of sin from things which are against God to things which are for God.

Why Should I Mortify Sin?

…God is light; in him there is no darkness at all. If we claim to have fellowship with him yet walk in the darkness, we lie [literally: we are liars] and do not live by the truth. (1 John 1.5,6)

This passage makes it abundantly clear that the person, who walks according to Christ’s ways, is a brother of Christ and will receive his inheritance in God’s kingdom. The person who claims to be a brother to Christ, but instead of following His commands lives according to his own lusts is living a lie and does not live according to the truth. The implication is that this person whose sin is un-mortified is only claiming the name of Christ, but has no inheritance, has not made a true commitment to follow Christ and therefore is not saved from eternal condemnation.

How Do I Do It? *

Habitual weakening of lust. Every lust is a righteous habit, which has not been developed and is therefore pushing the heart toward evil. This person who does not form righteous habits is described in Genesis 6.5, “the LORD saw that…every intent of the thoughts of [man’s]…heart was only evil continually. A persistence for bodily and mental sin leads to an evil heart. By nature, man’s habit is to “gratify the desires of the sinful nature” (Rom 13.14 NIV). Sin is “waging war against the law of my mind [God’s law according to general revelation] and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within my members” (Romans 7.23 NIV).

If every desire of the heart is habitually bent on evil, then the logical conclusion is to form righteous habits to replace the negative ones. Even clinical psychologists agree on this principle and have used it to break smoking and other drug habits. Paul gives advice on the matter of discerning good and evil when he told the Corinthian church, “…whatever you do, do all to the glory of God” (1 Cor 10.31 NAS). The idea is that we should not be so concerned with formulating a legalistic set of rules to follow; rather in all we do, we should take time to discern what would glorify God and do that. As we perform actions for God’s glory, we replace actions which are for our own gratification, thereby mortifying our sin. In case of specific struggles that we have, the principle applies as well. Find an action which you know to glorify God and when the lust of your flesh tempts you to sin, do what glorifies God. Examples are prayer, singing of hymns and reading God’s word.

Fight against sin. We are at war with sin. The following are important in any battle and are pertinent even on the topic of overcoming lust.

• Know the enemy. It is critical that you understand what you are dealing with in order to overcome it. The enemy is our own sinful nature. Adam and Eve were only had one sin, which was to eat the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil (Gen 2.17). There was only one lust. That lust was a desire to be like God. The temptation was to eat the fruit so that they could be like God, able to discern good and evil (Gen 3.5). Notice that where the serpent was the tool of for the temptation, the lust itself was rooted at the heart of man. If Adam and Eve did not have the wicked desire to be like God, they COULD NOT have been tempted by the serpent. Your battle against sin is rooted in your own wicked heart. “The heart is more deceitful than all else And is desperately sick;” (Jer 17.9).

• Be acquainted with the success of lust. I’m not suggesting that you intentionally fall to sin. That would be foolish indeed. Rather, you must be aware of situations, places, people and occasions which make it difficult for you to overcome your sin. Once you know your enemy, where they go, what they do, it is easier to defeat them. So it is with sin. We must be familiar with the situations which cause us to fall and succeed. Once we know how to defeat an enemy, we can do it repeatedly, which means we can form a habit so that the sin will be mortified.

• Intentional daily attack. Don’t wait for sin to attack you in order to attempt defense. Form a game plan. List your struggles and make conscious efforts to attack them daily. Do this by considering what you will be doing day by day so that you can prepare yourself for the temptations that are coming. You know your lusts so only you are qualified to determine this attack.

Conclusion

We can only mortify our sins in order to overcome lust by the power of the Holy Spirit and through forming of convictions. We do this so that we can bring glory to God and partake in Christ’s inheritance which is the kingdom of God.

* Much of this section on mortifying sin is sampled from John Owens, “The Mortification of Sin.”

Image Credits: blatje, sxc.hu

On day one of creation, God said, “‘Let there be light,’ and there was light” (Genesis 1:3 NIV). Certainly we know that this is a literal light as it also says that, “God called the light day, and the darkness he called night” (Genesis 1:5 NIV). However, God did not create the sun, the moon or the stars until the fourth day. So where did the light come from? This seems simple to some, but is not easy for all to grasp.

This passage from John is talking about Jesus Christ. All things were made through Christ. He, exclusively, was the light that shined for the first three days of earth’s existence. Not only that! His light is also the light of men, which is life. The first verses of the Bible tell us that life is through Christ. It was this way for Adam and Eve, and for the Israelites and for mankind today. If we want life, we obtain that one way and that is through Jesus Christ.

Genesis 1:4 says that, “God saw that the light was good, and He separated the light from the darkness” (NIV). Remember that the light is Jesus and it is good according to God the father. In contrast the darkness is everything else, everything which is not good. God made a specific point to separate the light from the darkness, the good from the evil. It was on this first day of creation that it was established that Christ was good and everything which is not of Christ is sin.

Now it’s time to apply this.

We are called to walk in the light, which is Jesus, according to creation. Isaiah said, “let us walk in the light of the LORD” (Isaiah 2:5). To walk is to live your life according to something. If we claim to be without sin, then we are living a lie and we walk in darkness; Christ is not in us. Hold to the teachings of Christ and you walk in the light. This is the path to life.

On a side note, does this mean that if we sin, we do not walk in the light? Certainly not. We are affected by the darkness even from the perspective of light. That is why we receive purification from the blood sacrifice of Jesus. Walking in darkness requires a deliberate act of defiance against the nature of Christ or the nature of God according for those who have experienced Christ only through general revelation.

“Many are asking, ‘Who can show us any good?’ Let the light of your face shine upon us, O LORD” (Psalms 4:6 NIV). In this Psalm David pleas with God to shine his light, or his goodness down on the Israelites. This is the same light that comes from Christ. In context, he is asking for virtue to be cast onto them so that they will remember God and come to repentance of their sins.

This is another reminder from Daniel. Do not claim to be holy. There is corruption in all of man. The man who claims to be humble is the least humble. God will judge the heart and reveal the darkness within. True light comes from heartfelt commitment to Jesus Christ and none other. The light must dwell in you. If it does not, then darkness does.

What to do with the light?

If we have the light within us, then all are to see it. Christ is saying, “Hey, if you have my light in you, then go shine my goodness out on others.” The goodness of Christ should pour from us like the beacon in the lighthouse so that others can see Christ in us. This is not merely evangelism, although it is that too. This is treating others as Christ would and as he has treated you, with grace, compassion and mercy. Why? So that they will praise God and so they will know Christ because of your demonstration of Christ in you.

In the end, when we go to be in heaven with the Father, there will be no need for the sun and the stars. We will live eternally, our lives lit by the glory of the Lord. Remember though that the light was separated from the darkness. Those who did not accept Christ will live eternally in darkness and eternal torment. They will be thrown “into the fiery furnace, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth” (Matthew 13:50 NIV).

The Challenge.
If you have the light in you, do not hold it in. Be a beacon of Christ’s light to the world so that they can experience the same eternity as you.

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First let’s address sin payment. “For the wages of sin is death” (Romans 6:23). Pure blood is the only acceptable payment for sin. Christ was the perfect sacrifice because he was completely pure, free from sin. Even before Christ came to earth, God made accommodation for sin as He knew that man could not overcome their sinful nature. Sin payment for the Israelites was by sacrificing unblemished animals. This is also why Christ is referred to in the bible as “the lamb of God” (John 1:29, 1:36).

Is atonement a license to sin? Due to man’s sinful nature, it is not possible to be free from sin. We were “predestined to be conformed to the likeness of his Son” (Romans 8:29). This is talking about long term conformity which is referred to as sanctification. Sanctification means we become more and more like Christ every day. The question is if God decided that we, as the body of Christ, should be more and more like Christ, who is free from all sin, then are we really followers of Christ if we do not see ourselves abandoning sin and conforming to the laws of God more and more every day?

The Disciple John put it this way, “If we claim to have fellowship with him”, (who is Christ in context, “yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not live by the truth” (1 John 1:6). The word lie in Ancient Greek does not simply mean that the statement is a lie rather that your life is a lie. So, if we say we follow Christ, but continue to be involved in sin, we are living a lie and may not truly have salvation through Jesus Christ.

It was decided before the creation of the world that followers of Jesus would “holy and blameless in his sight” (Ephesians 1:4). We are to be presented as “holy in his sight, without blemish and free from accusation” (Colossians 1:22). On the subject of abortion (or any sin really), are we fulfilling this command to be holy and blameless if we sin intentionally? Certainly children are a gift from God and he will give all the necessary strength and provision if we only trust in Him and pray that he will provide these things.