Today’s Scripture: Psalm 78:40

“How often they rebelled against him . . . and grieved him!”

The verb mortify, or put to death, is used eleven times in the New Testament. In nine of those instances it refers to a literal putting to death of a person; each of those is in the context of an underlying hostility toward what that person stood for. For example, in Matthew 10:21: “Children will rebel against their parents and have them put to death” (NIV). The hostility is not only toward the parents but also toward their authority. Likewise Stephen, the first Christian martyr, was put to death because of his bold, uncompromising witness for Jesus Christ (Acts 7).

Now apply that sense of hostility toward the sin you wish to mortify. See your sin for what it is and what it stands for—a rebellion against God, a breaking of his law, a despising of his authority, a grieving of his heart. This is where mortification actually begins, with a right attitude toward sin. It begins with the realization that sin is wrong, not because of what it does to me or my spouse or child or neighbor, but because it is an act of rebellion against the infinitely holy and majestic God who sent his Son to be the propitiation for my sins.

Think of an unusually persistent sin in your life—perhaps some secret lust that lies in your heart that only you know about. You say you cannot overcome it. Why not? Is it because you exalt your secret desire above the will of God? If we are to succeed in putting sin to death, we must realize that the sin we are dealing with is none other than a continual exalting of our desire over God’s known will.

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Today’s Scripture: Romans 14:1

“As for the one who is weak in faith, welcome him, but not to quarrel over opinions.”

The issue of differing opinions about certain practices has been around at least since the days of the apostle Paul. He devoted an entire chapter of the book Romans to this brand of legalism.

The crux of the problem is stated well by Paul in Romans 14:5: “one person esteems one day as better than another, while another esteems all days alike. Each one should be fully convinced in his own mind.” People simply have different opinions about various issues. One person sees no problem in a certain practice; another person considers that practice to be sinful.

As Christians we can’t seem to accept the clear biblical teaching in Romans 14 that God allows equally godly people to have differing opinions on certain matters. We universalize what we think is God’s particular leading in our lives and apply it to everyone else.

When we think like that we are putting God in a box, so to speak. We’re insisting that he must surely lead everyone as we believe he has led us. We refuse to allow God the freedom to deal with each of us as individuals. When we think like that, we are legalists.

We must not seek to bind the consciences of other believers with the private convictions that arise out of our personal walk with God. Even if you believe God has led you in developing those convictions, you still must not elevate them to the level of spiritual principles for everyone else to follow. The respected Puritan theologian John Owen taught that “only what God has commanded in his Word should be regarded as binding; in all else there may be liberty of actions.” (Excerpt taken from Transforming Grace)

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Today’s Scripture: 1 John 3:1, NKJV

“Behold what manner of love the Father has bestowed on us, that we should be called children of God!”

When used as an imperative verb, behold carries the strong idea of imploring someone’s attention. This is how John used it in 1 John 3:1. He was saying, “Stop! Think of this! Consider this astonishing fact: God loves us so much that we’re called His children!”

Think of it: If you’ve trusted in Christ as savior, you’re God’s child, a son or daughter of the Creator, sustainer, and ruler of the universe—though our circumstances, or even our behavior, can often obscure that fact.

After John’s exclamation about this, he added, “and so we are” (3:1). It’s as if he was saying, “It’s really true! We really are his children!” Why does John get so excited about a truth we often take for granted?

This truth is amazing, first of all, because of who we once were. Consider the fact that every sin you’ve committed was an act of rebellion against the sovereign authority of God, or, as someone has said, an act of cosmic treason. But instead of the death we deserve as punishment for such treason, we’re made sons and daughters of the very king we’ve rebelled against! Instead of death, we get eternal life. Instead of wrath, we receive favor. Instead of eternal ruin, we’re made heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ. And all of this becomes ours without our doing a single thing to earn the king’s favor or any attempt on our part to make restitution! His Son has done it all for us.

Do you believe that? Do you each day realize that you’re a child of the heavenly king? (Excerpt taken from The Gospel for Real Life)

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Today’s Scripture: Romans 8:13

“If by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live.”

We’ll never reach the place where we don’t have to contend against the flesh. But the life of a Christian should be characterized by an earnest desire and sincere effort to put to death (mortify) the sins of the body.

Although mortification is our responsibility, it can be done only through the enabling power of the Holy Spirit. Paul said, “But if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live” (Romans 8:13). John Owen wrote, “all other ways of discipline are in vain. All other helps leave us helpless. Mortification is accomplished only ‘through the Spirit’ . . . no other power can accomplish it.”

Although the Scriptures emphasize both human discipline and dependence on the Holy Spirit, we tend to emphasize one to the neglect of the other. To some, it seems more spiritual to “just turn it all over to God” and trust him to do the mortifying. Any mention of our responsibility is dismissed as being only “a work of the flesh.”

To other people who stress discipline, it seems more responsible to “just do it.” But mortification attempted only by human willpower always ends in self-righteousness or frustration. The more naturally disciplined person tends toward self-righteousness and wonders why everyone else can’t be as successful in mortification as he or she is. But all that person has done is exchanged one sin for another. The problem of impure thoughts, for example, is exchanged for pride and self-righteousness. Another person who tries to mortify some particular sin by his or her own willpower fails and becomes frustrated and guilty. So pride or frustration is always the result of attempts to mortify sin that are carried on apart from utter dependence on the Spirit. (Excerpt taken from The Discipline of Grace)

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Today’s Scripture: Romans 11:36

“For from him and through him and to him are all things.”

The realization that faith is the gift of God should encourage us to pray with confidence for others’ salvation. It means that no one, however hardened he or she may be, is beyond the regenerating, life-creating work of the Holy Spirit.

I think of some for whose salvation I pray regularly. One wants nothing to do with God. Another is happily indifferent, seeing no need of a savior because he’s a good, moral person. Others would be highly insulted to be told they need a savior because, after all, they’re both moral and religious.

What hope is there for these people? It lies only in the sovereign, mysterious work of the Holy Spirit. I pray regularly that he’ll work in their hearts through the Gospel message to create the faith they must have to believe in Christ.

Awareness that faith is the gift of God should also arouse a sense of profound gratitude and worship in our hearts. We could not even take advantage of God’s gracious gift of salvation apart from his prior working in our hearts. But God gave us life when we were dead, gave us sight when we were blind, and gave us the faith to trust in Christ for our salvation. If we spent the rest of our lives doing nothing but saying thank-you to God, we could still never sufficiently express our gratitude for his gift of salvation, including the gift of faith by which we receive it.

Do you want to grow in your own worship of God? That growth will be directly related to your understanding of the Gospel in all its fullness, including the fact that the faith by which you believed was a gift from God.

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Today’s Scripture: Romans 12:2

“Be transformed by the renewal of your mind.”

The verb be transformed in Romans 12:2 is a command to do something. This indicates that we as believers are not passive in this transforming process. We’re not like blocks of marble being transformed into a beautiful sculpture by a master sculptor. God has given us a mind and heart with which to respond to and cooperate with the Spirit as he does his work in us.

That thought leads naturally to a classic statement in Scripture of the working together of the believer and the Holy Spirit within: “Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, so now, not only as in my presence but much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure” (Philippians 2:12-13).

Paul urged the Philippian believers to apply themselves diligently to working out their salvation. He urged them to display the evidences of salvation in their daily lives through their obedience to God’s commands and through putting on the godly character traits that Paul elsewhere called the fruit of the Spirit. And, according to William Hendriksen, the tense of the verb work out indicates “continuous, sustained, strenuous effort.” Here again we see that sanctification is a process, and a process in which we, as believers, are very actively involved.

But Paul’s strong exhortation to the Philippians is based on the confidence that God’s Spirit is working in them, working to enlighten their understanding of his will, to stimulate in their emotions a desire to do his will, and to turn their wills so they actually obey. He gives them the enabling power so that they’re able to do his will. (Excerpt taken from Transforming Grace)

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Today’s Scripture: Colossians 3:5

“Put to death therefore what is earthly in you.”

Making the right choices to obey God rather than our sinful desires necessarily involves the discipline of mortification. What is mortification? And what does it have to do with holiness?

The apostle Paul gave us the answer: “For if you live according to the flesh you will die, but if by the Spirit you put to death [mortify] the deeds of the body, you will live” (Romans 8:13). To make the right choices it’s necessary to mortify, or put to death, the misdeeds of the body—the sinful actions we commit in thought, word, or deed. Paul was more explicit about some of these in Colossians 3:5: “Put to death therefore what is earthly in you: sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry.”

As we look at Romans 8:13, one thing we clearly see is that mortification, or putting sin to death, is our responsibility. Paul said, “If you put to death .” It’s our responsibility, something we must do, not something we turn over to God.

We should also note that Paul said, “For if you live according to the flesh you will die.” Paul was talking about spiritual, not physical death. The opposite is also true. If we live according to the Spirit—that is, if by him we “put to death the deeds of the body”—we shall live in the spiritual sense. Once again, as he did so frequently, Paul stressed the inextricable link between justification and sanctification. Paul clearly taught that we’re saved by grace through faith (Ephesians 2:8), but he also stressed that we’re to work out our salvation with fear and trembling (Philippians 2:12), that is, without presuming on the grace of God.

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Today’s Scripture: Hebrews 10:14

“He has perfected for all time those who are being sanctified.”

Sanctification is the radical change God brings about in the heart of a person who trusts Jesus Christ as savior. It’s the passing from spiritual death to spiritual life, the beginning of a new creation in Christ, and the writing of God’s law in our hearts. It means a new relationship to the law of God and a new attitude toward it. And all this is from God, a gift of his grace just as surely as is the gift of justification.

God doesn’t bring us into his kingdom, then leave us on our own to grow. He continues to work in our lives to conform us more and more to the likeness of his Son. As Paul said, “he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ” (Philippians 1:6). This continuing work of God is called “progressive sanctification.” It differs from initial sanctification in two respects. Initial sanctification occurs instantly at the moment of salvation when we’re delivered from the kingdom of darkness and brought into the kingdom of Christ (Colossians 1:13). Progressive sanctification continues over time until we go to be with the Lord.

Initial sanctification is entirely the work of God the Holy Spirit who imparts to us the very life of Christ. Progressive sanctification is also the work of the Holy Spirit, but it involves a response on our part so that we as believers are actively involved in the process.

The progressive nature of sanctification is implied throughout the New Testament epistles in all those instances where we are exhorted to grow, to change, to put off the deeds of the old man and put on Godlike character. (Excerpt taken from Transforming Grace)

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Today’s Scripture: Hebrews 5:14

“The mature . . . have their powers of discernment trained by constant practice to distinguish good from evil.”

Paul exhorted Timothy, “Train yourself for godliness” (1 Timothy 4:7). Though godliness is a broader concept than holiness, holiness is a major part of it, so training ourselves to be godly certainly includes training in holiness.

This training requires exercise. In fact, the King James Version translates this phrase, “exercise thyself . . . unto godliness.” How do we exercise ourselves in the spiritual realm? Through the choices we make. When we make wrong choices, we train ourselves in the wrong direction—like the false teachers Peter described, who had “hearts trained in greed” (2 Peter 2:14).

God wants us to train ourselves in the right direction through making right choices. Frankly, this is where the going gets tough. We’ll agree with Scripture’s teaching about some particular sin and even make a commitment of sorts to put it out of our lives. Then the temptation to indulge that sin comes once again, and we’re unwilling to make the tough choice. We would like to be rid of that sin, and even pray to God to take it away, but are we willing to say no to it?

Every day we’re training ourselves in one direction or the other: toward lying or truthfulness; selfishness or unselfishness; anger or forgiveness; impurity or purity; irritability or patience; covetousness or generosity; pride or humility; materialism or simplicity.

Only through making the right choice to obey God’s Word will we break the habits of sin and develop habits of holiness. This is where we desperately need the Holy Spirit’s power to enable us to make the right choices. So cry out to God every day for his help; cry out each time you are confronted with the choice to sin or to obey.

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Today’s Scripture: 2 Corinthians 4:6

“God . . . has shone in our hearts.”

In Jesus’ conversation with Nicodemus the Pharisee (John 3:1-21, NIV), we see the necessity of the Spirit’s work to give us faith. Jesus said emphatically, “no one can see the kingdom of God unless he is born again” (verse 3). He said, “no one can enter the kingdom of God unless he is born of water and the Spirit” (verse 5). And he compared the Spirit’s life-giving action with the sovereign and mysterious action of the wind (verses 7-8).

Notice that Jesus spoke not of permission to enter the kingdom but of inability to enter it apart from a new birth: “no one can . . . ” We cannot—we don’t have the ability to—enter the kingdom unless the Spirit of God gives us life through the new birth. We’re born again, then, by a sovereign, monergistic (that is, the Spirit working alone) act of the Holy Spirit. Then, as a result of that new birth, we exercise the faith given to us and enter the kingdom of God.

In this light we better understand a Scripture such as Acts 16:14: “one who heard us was a woman named Lydia, from the city of Thyatira, a seller of purple goods, who was a worshiper of God. The Lord opened her heart to pay attention to what was said by Paul.”

What does it mean that the Lord opened Lydia’s heart? It means he made her spiritually alive, that she was born again. It means he removed the Satan-induced blindness from her mind so she could understand and embrace the Gospel. It means he delivered her from the kingdom of darkness, where she’d been held captive, so she could respond in faith. Note the sequence: she could not respond to Paul’s message until God first opened her heart. (Excerpt taken from The Gospel for Real Life)

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Today’s Scripture: 2 Corinthians 5:17

“The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.”

Probably no other passage suggests more starkly the contrast between living by grace and living by works than Romans 7:6: “But now we are released from the law, having died to that which held us captive, so that we serve in the new way of the spirit and not in the old way of the written code.”

The new way of the Spirit is not a less rigorous ethic than the old way of the written code. The difference doesn’t lie in the content of God’s moral will. Since that’s a reflection of the holy character of God, it cannot change. Rather, the difference lies in the reason for obeying and the ability to obey.

Are you seeking to build and maintain your relationship with God on the basis of “keeping the law”—on the basis of your personal performance—or on the basis of the merit of Jesus Christ? Do you view God’s moral precepts as a source of bondage and condemnation for failure to obey them, or do you sense the Spirit producing within you an inclination and desire to obey out of gratitude and love? Do you try to obey by your own sheer will and determination, or do you rely on the Spirit daily for his power to enable your obedience?

Do you feel God has set before you an impossible code of conduct you cannot keep, or do you view him as your divine heavenly Father who has accepted you and loves you on the basis of the merit of Christ? For acceptance with God, are you willing to rely solely on the finished perfect work of Jesus instead of your own pitifully imperfect performance?

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Today’s Scripture: Ephesians 5:14

“Awake, O sleeper, and arise from the dead.”

Paul was fond of painting an absolutely dismal picture of our condition, then saying, “But here’s God’s remedy.” He did it in Ephesians 2:1-5, where he said that although we were dead in our transgressions and sins, God “made us alive together with Christ.” It’s God who gives us spiritual life. We couldn’t make ourselves spiritually alive any more than a dead person can make himself alive.

When Lazarus lay dead in the tomb, he could not decide to come to life again. He could not even respond to Jesus’ call, “Lazarus, come out,” unless with that call Jesus gave him life (John 11:1-44). Lazarus’s condition, as he lay dead in the tomb, is a picture of our spiritual predicament. We can hear the Gospel a hundred times, but unless that call is accompanied by the life-giving power of the Holy Spirit, we can no more respond to it than Lazarus could respond to a vocal call from Jesus.

I know it’s difficult for us to accept the fact that we could not just decide to trust Christ in much the same way we might decide to buy more life insurance. The truth is, we did decide to trust Christ, but the reason we made that decision is that God had first made us spiritually alive. This is part of the good news. God comes to us when we’re spiritually dead, when we don’t even realize our condition, and gives us the spiritual ability to see our plight and to see the solution in Christ. God comes all the way, not partway, to meet us in our need. When we were dead, he made us alive in Christ. And the first act of that new life is to turn in faith to Jesus. (Excerpt taken from The Gospel for Real Life)

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Today’s Scripture: Romans 6:17

“You . . . were once slaves of sin.”

Before we became believers, Paul said we were “following the prince of the power of the air” (Ephesians 2:2). This “prince” is Satan, the devil. We don’t like to think we were followers of the devil, but that’s what the Bible says.

This doesn’t mean we were as wicked as we could be; after all, as Paul said elsewhere, “Satan himself masquerades as an angel of light” (2 Corinthians 11:14). What it does mean is that Satan blinded us to the Gospel: “The god of this age has blinded the minds of unbelievers, so that they cannot see the light of the Gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God” (2 Corinthians 4:4). But God “rescued us from the dominion of darkness [Satan’s kingdom] and brought us into the kingdom of the Son he loves” (Colossians 1:13).

Before God delivered us, we were Satan’s captives. We could not see the light of the Gospel. This inability was spiritual, not mental. We were spiritually blind, unable to recognize our need of the savior or to see God’s gracious provision of him.

Paul also said that “we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath” (Ephesians 2:3). And more specifically: “The mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God, for it does not submit to God’s law; indeed, it cannot. Those who are in the flesh cannot please God” (Romans 8:7-8). Note the absolute negatives Paul used.

We were under the dominion of Satan, and slaves of our own sinful natures. And apart from a supernatural work of God in our lives, we were helpless to do anything about our condition.

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Today’s Scripture: Psalm 115:3

“Our God is in the heavens; he does all that he pleases.”

Confidence in God’s sovereignty in all that affects us is crucial to our trusting him. If there’s a single event in all the universe that can occur outside of God’s control, then we cannot trust him. His love may be infinite, but if his power is limited and his purpose can be thwarted, we cannot trust him. You may entrust to me your most valuable possessions; I may love you and my aim to honor your trust may be sincere. But if I don’t have the power or ability to guard your valuables, you cannot truly entrust them to me.

Paul, however, said we can entrust our most valuable possession to the Lord: “I know whom I have believed, and am convinced that he is able to guard what I have entrusted to him for that day” (2 Timothy 1:12, NIV). “But,” someone says, “Paul is speaking there of eternal life. It’s our problems in this life that make me wonder about God’s sovereignty.”

It should be evident, however, that God’s sovereignty does not begin at death. His sovereign direction in our lives even precedes our births. God rules as surely on earth as he does in heaven. He permits, for reasons known only to himself, people to act contrary to and in defiance of his revealed will. But he never permits them to act contrary to his sovereign will.

Our plans can succeed only when they are consistent with God’s purpose, and no plan can succeed against him (Proverbs 16:9; 19:21; 21:30). No one can straighten what he makes crooked or make crooked what he has made straight (Ecclesiastes 7:13). No one can say, “I’ll do this or that,” and have it happen if it is not part of God’s sovereign will (James 4:15). (Excerpt taken from Trusting God)

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Today’s Scripture: 2 Corinthians 5:18

“All this is from God.”

One reason we don’t appreciate the grace of God more is that we either don’t understand or don’t appreciate the radical dimension of the instantaneous act of sanctification which God gives at salvation. If we had a moral lifestyle before conversion, we find it difficult to accept Paul’s description of our attitude toward God: “The mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God, for it does not submit to God’s law; indeed, it cannot. Those who are in the flesh cannot please God” (Romans 8:7-8). We don’t think of our former attitude as being hostile to God’s law.

But human morality and submission to God’s law are entirely different in principle, though they may appear similar in outward appearance. Human morality arises out of culture and family training and is based on what is proper and expected in society. It has nothing to do with God except to the extent that godly people have influenced that society. Submission to God’s law arises out of a love for God and a grateful response to his grace, and is based on a delight in his law as revealed in Scripture. When society’s standards vary from Scripture, we then see the true nature of human morality: It’s just as hostile to God’s law as is the attitude of the most hardened sinner.

Sanctification changes our attitude. Instead of being hostile to God’s law, we begin to delight in it (Romans 7:22). We find that “his commandments are not burdensome” (1 John 5:3), but rather are “holy and righteous and good” (Romans 7:12). This radical and dramatic change in our attitude toward God’s commands is a gift of his grace, brought about solely by the mighty working of his Spirit within us.

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Today’s Scripture: Romans 3:11

“No one understands.”

It’s difficult for decent, upright Americans to accept that they’re by nature hostile to God, that we cannot please him. This is because they’ve confused general American morality, plus a dose of church attendance, with obedience to God’s law. Most have never been seriously confronted with the exceedingly high standard of God’s eternal law. When they are, they typically reveal their underlying hostility to it.

Paul’s writings are filled with dismal descriptions of our spiritual condition before we became believers. he said, for example, “you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked” (Ephesians 2:1-2). He’s speaking, of course, about spiritual death. We were totally unresponsive to the God of Scripture. We may have been religious, but we were still dead.

Spiritually dead people cannot receive and embrace the Gospel. As Paul said in 1 Corinthians 2:14, “The man without the spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him, and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually discerned” (NIV). Does this mean unbelievers cannot understand the facts of the Gospel? No—it means they cannot sense their own need of it and embrace it. As long as we were spiritually dead, we could not just “decide” to believe the Gospel and trust in Jesus Christ.

In our spiritual deadness, we were “following the course of this world” (Ephesians 2:2). World is often used in the Bible for the sum total of human society in opposition to God. The world’s attitude toward God varies from indifference to hostility, but the bottom line is, “no one seeks for God” (Romans 3:11). This is the world we followed. We were spiritually dead, enmeshed in a culture totally opposed to God.

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Today’s Scripture: 2 Corinthians 5:17

“If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation.”

One of the best descriptions of this initial act of God in sanctification is found in Ezekiel 36:26-27 where God makes this gracious promise: “and I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules.”

Note the changes God brings about in our inner being when he saves us. He gives us a new heart and puts a new spirit within us—a spirit that loves righteousness and hates sin. He puts his own Spirit within us and causes us to follow his decrees and obey his law. God gives us a growing desire to obey him. We no longer have an aversion to the commands of God, even though we may not always obey them. Instead of being irksome to us, they have now become agreeable to us.

David said in Psalm 40:8, “I delight to do your will, o my God.” Why did David have this delight? It was because, as the remainder of the verse says, “your law is within my heart.” David found a law written in his own heart corresponding to the law written in God’s Word. There was an agreeableness between the spiritual nature within him and the objective law of God external to him.

It’s that way with a person who’s a new creation in Christ. There’s a basic though imperfect correspondence between the law written in a believer’s heart and the law written in Scripture. (Excerpt taken from Transforming Grace)

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