A Checklist for the Soul

The Puritans spent a lot of time doing "surgery on the soul", exploring sin, its causes, effects and its remedies. One of the chief among them in this regard was John Owen. Here's a helpful list (abridged by me) on what will keep you motivated to mortify (kill) sin. On the flipside, neglect of these will lead to sin overpowering you.

1. The daily exercise of faith on Christ as crucified - This is the great fundamental means of the mortification (killing) of sin in general, and which we ought to apply in every particular instance of sin. What does this effect?

• A holy mourning in us (Zech 12:10)
• A conformity to Christ in death by overthrowing the reign of sin (Rom 8:8-11)
• A communion with Christ in his death by being dead to sin (Rom 6:4-5)
  

2. Continual Prayer - for these reasons:

• By this we obtain spiritual aids and supplies of strength against sin (1 Thess 5:23)
• Constant prayer leads to a frame of life that preserves the soul where sin cannot habitually prevail on it.
• This is the immediate weapon that the soul possesses against sin's power. Sin unchecked will gradually work out all due regard for prayer, either in the matter or manner of its performance. Here are some ways sin will do this:
  
  • It will produce in the mind an unreadiness for the duty of prayer when we should be in prayer.
    
  • It will add unwillingness to unreadiness, a mind preposessed by sin will be contrary to the interests, dispositions and inclinations of prayer.
  • Sin will finally prevail to a total neglect of the duty of prayer. Devotion to one, sin or prayer, will alienate the other.
    

3. Constant self-abasement, condemnation and abhorrency - Proverbs 10:9, "he that walks humbly walks surely". God regards the broken heart and contrite spirit. Humility in light of sin is the soil where all grace will thrive and flourish. One of the first areas where sin attacks is the humble frame of mind.

*I would add (if I may) that humility and the daily exercise of faith in Christ crucified is a remedy for pride as well. As Paul declared (Rom 12), "In view of the mercies of God" in the Gospel, one develops a "sober judgment" of oneself, not higher than one ought.

[Adapted from "Of the Dominion of Sin and Grace", John Owen, London 1688]

Be blessed!

On Trials & God's Discipline

Life is like a Bajaj Scooter. It takes a few hard kicks to get it running.

Truth, Knowledge, Sin, The Gospel and New Life.

“What is Truth?” Pilate asked Jesus. It is the fundamental question to answer when discussing the nature and scope of the theory of knowledge (also called epistemology), because knowledge is meaningless without knowable truth. Truth is the actual state of things. It is absolute, independent, and not determined or affected by subjective interpretation, nor by emotions, culture or perception. Truth exists because God, who is the only self-existent being, exists. In fact, God is truth (1 John 5:6, 20; cf. John 4:24). Truth is knowable only to the extent that God reveals it to those who can know this truth. God is the source of all things and the comprehensive source of knowledge (Ephesians 3:9; Genesis 1:1). Humankind, therefore, as created by God, can only possess knowledge derived from God (Acts 17:28). God has revealed truth to the human race (Deuteronomy 29:29), and though there is a limit to human knowledge (Isaiah 55:8-9), there are certain truths which are common to all people.

Humans are created in the image of God (Genesis 1:26, 27; 9:6), and thus derive certain characteristics from God, including the ability to reason (Isaiah 1:18), a sense of morality (Romans 2:14, 15) and a longing for eternity (Ecclesiastes 3:11). Man can know what God has revealed (Romans 1:19; Daniel 2:21, 22; Hebrews 1:1-2; Psalm 19:1-2), and God has revealed certain facts through the created order: men know that God exists and that He is omnipotent (Romans 1:20). However, this knowledge is suppressed by those who refuse to believe (Romans 1:18). In fact, Romans 1:20 assumes that the existence of the physical world is certain (“clearly perceived”) evidence of the existence of God. To deny the existence of absolute certainty is thus as much a lie as denying God. In an epistemic sense, belief is not defined as wishful hope, but as the acceptance of what is true. Knowledge entails this belief, so it follows that refusing to believe that which is true is self-contradictory. This is significant, because not only is God’s existence certain (from natural revelation), God Himself is knowable with certainty through special revelation, God’s revealed Word, which is truth (John 17:17). Knowing God is the highest goal of human existence (John 17:3), and God is knowable through the person of Jesus Christ (John 1:18). This is the heart of Christian belief, based on knowable, objective truth (John 19:35) which is clearly revealed in Scripture. Yet people refuse to believe. Why this self-contradictory behavior, given all the resources of reason and fact? The answer lies within sin and its effects.

Man is hindered from knowing God (Psalm 82:5) because he is a being affected by the Fall (Genesis 3) and sin, and he has been blinded from truth by God as judgment for his rejection of it (Luke 10:21; Romans 1:21-22; 1 Corinthians 1:18-19). Also, humans are affected by satanic blindness which prevents them from understanding the gospel of Christ (2 Corinthians 2:3, 4) without God’s merciful intervention. Internally, man is separated from life and truth by his own sin and hardness of heart (Ephesians 4:17, 18), dead to spiritual truth (Ephesians 2:1-2). Obviously before God can be known, the hindrances to truth need to be removed. This cannot be internally motivated change, because man’s every resource, even his reason itself, is controlled by the blinding effects of the Fall (Jeremiah 13:23).

This is why Jesus presents the necessity of new birth (John 3:3). Comprehending spiritual truth, which entails knowing God in the glories of Christ’s person, requires the work of the Holy Spirit (1 Corinthians 2:12, 13) who is the agent of regeneration and new birth (John 3:5-8, Romans 8:8-10). The means which the Spirit uses is God-given faith (Ephesians 2:8-9) based on the gospel of Jesus Christ (Romans 10:17) which is the penal substitution of Christ on behalf of the sinner, through the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ (1 Corinthians 15:1-4; 2 Corinthians 5:21). The gospel is objective, life-giving truth, centered on Jesus Christ, and revealed in Scripture (John 14:6; John 20:31; 2 Corinthians 5:17). This is why the only solution to man’s absolute disability is to reason through Scripture with a confident hope that God will bring life to the soul (Acts 17:2; 18:4, 18:19; 19:8-9).

Positional realities of the atonement

Hebrews 10: (esv)
11 And every priest stands daily at his service, offering repeatedly the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins. 12 But when Christ had offered for all time a single sacrifice for sins, he sat down at the right hand of God, 13 waiting from that time until his enemies should be made a footstool for his feet. 14 For by a single offering he has perfected for all time those who are being sanctified.

vs 14: has perfected
past tense, his perfection of us is a completed action, accomplished by a single offering. The word "perfected" connotes something that is complete, having nothing missing, having all parts in place. This is how God sees us through Christ.

who are we?
vs14: those who are being sanctified
a. our "perfection" through Christ's atonement is in no way affected by our present sanctification (or more personally, our struggle with being sanctified).
b. our sanctification in this passage is passive - we are being sanctified. We do not ultimately sanctify ourselves.

Reasons this is important for encouragement for those who truly know Christ:
- your status is secure, unaffected your failure to walk perfectly
- your failure is not an ultimate indicator of eternal reality, because you don't sanctify yourself, God does.
- the proof of accomplished perfection is in the struggle, or as Piper puts it, the move from lingering imperfection towards holiness.
Praise God.