John Owen was a puritan who lived in the United Kingdom, the most published author of the 17th century, and considered by many as one of the most important theologians produced by the West. One of his most famous lines ever penned comes from his book, The Mortification of Sin, which was first published in 1656. Mortification simply means “to put to death.” Owen’s entire book is really a treatise on Romans 8:13, “for if you are living in accord with the flesh, you are going to die; but if by the Spirit you are putting to death the deeds of the body, you will live.” Owens condensed this verse into 9 words: “Be killing sin or sin will be killing you.”
Now you may be thinking, “Pastor Keith, you said that God loves us too much to leave us as we were.” “Pastor Keith, you said: ‘Jesus loves His Church too much to leave her the way He found her.’” “Pastor Keith, I thought Ephesians 1:19 was for me and that the ‘boundless greatness of His power toward us who believe…’ is the power of the Holy Spirit that raised Jesus from the grave and now that same power dwells in me so that I can live the Christian life well? So, what is this business of needing to kill sin because it may kill me?”
John Owen was right when he wrote of our sin problem, that it “is always acting, always conceiving, and always seducing and tempting.”[1] Where is that in the Bible? It is all over the Bible, but it is in Galatians 5:17, “For the desire of the flesh is against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; for these are in opposition to one another, in order to keep you from doing what you want.” It is in Romans 7:23, “but I see a different law in the parts of my body waging war against the law of my mind, and making me a prisoner of the law of sin, the law which is in my body’s parts.”
Even though you can rejoice in your salvation, you still find yourself in places you do not want anyone else to hear, and maybe inwardly you are crying and begging as you grope for words: “Wretched man that I am! Who will set me free from the body of this death” (Rom. 7:24)? Owen’s wrote, “Every lust is a depraved habit or inclination pushing the heart toward evil.”[2] And, if you are honest, you know the terror of the truth of those words as you sit here today and the last thing you want is to feel more guilt over your failures, but instead want help and encouragement as you desire to press forward!
There are two words in Ephesians 4:25-32 that I believe will offer you some help and encouragement this morning. The first word is “ridding” (apotithēmi) and is linked to the sins we were once slaves to. The other word is “grief” (lypeō) as it relates to the Holy Spirit. But first, let begin by first turning our attention to the word “grief” because if you can appreciate verse 30, what it means to rid ourselves of sin and how we do it, this will make more sense.
Grief is Evidence that We Belong to God
There are two types of grief that proves that God made you alive together with Christ. There is the grief the Holy Spirit experiences over your sin and the grief you experience because of your sin.
Now that you are a Christian, the grief you experience over your sin is different than the kind of grief you experienced before you became a follower of Jesus. It is a grief that comes by way of being alive with Christ and no longer dead in your offenses and sins (2:1). When you were dead in your sins, you were also a child of wrath (Eph. 2:3)! Now that you are alive with Christ, you are a child of God! “Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children; and walk in love, just as Christ also loved you and gave Himself up for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God as a fragrant aroma” (Eph. 5:1). You are not just a child of God, but a “beloved” child of God!
Your grief over sin is different because you are now able to love Jesus in the way the apostle Peter described in his epistle: “though you have not seen Him, you love Him, and though you do not see Him now, but believe in Him, you greatly rejoice with joy inexpressible and full of glory, obtaining as the outcome of your faith, the salvation of your souls” (1 Pet. 1:8-9). Your grief over your sin is the kind of thing James wrote about: “Come close to God and He will come close to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners; and purify your hearts, you double-minded. Be miserable, and mourn, and weep; let your laughter be turned into mourning, and your joy into gloom. Humble yourselves in the presence of the Lord, and He will exalt you” (Jas 4:8–10). If you are born again, you grieve over your sin because of the ways it affects your relationship with God, which is the type of grieving that was impossible when you were dead in your sins.
There is another grief that is addressed in Ephesians 4:30, and it is the grief the Holy Spirit experiences over your sins. The reason why your sins grieve the Holy Spirit is because you who were once an enemy of God are now a child of God. Your sins grieve the Holy Spirit in the same way the sins of a child grieves the heart of his mother and father who loves their child and are committed to that child. God as a Trinity is eternally invested in your redemption: the Father chose you for redemption, the Son redeemed you for salvation, the Holy Spirit seals you to powerfully keep you… and all of it was motivated by love! We see the same work of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit in Romans 5:1-5,
Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we also have obtained our introduction by faith into this grace in which we stand; and we celebrate in hope of the glory of God. And not only this, but we also celebrate in our tribulations, knowing that tribulation brings about perseverance; and perseverance, proven character; and proven character, hope; and hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out within our hearts through the Holy Spirit who was given to us.” (Rom. 5:1–5)
The Holy Spirit is grieved over our sins because His sealing and indwelling is evidence of, “the love of God poured out within our hearts.” Kent Hughes said of the Holy Spirit: “He comes to us in the clay of our sinful humanity, and though the walls are covered over with spiritual leprosy, he indwells us.”[3] He does not just indwell us, He has come to stay! This is one of many reasons why Paul could write Romans 8:1, “Therefore there is now no condemnation at all for those who are in Christ Jesus.” Ephesians 4:30 doesn’t end with the command, “Do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God…” but concludes with a promise: “by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption.” If you are still confused over how this is good news, consider Philippians 1:6, “For I am confident of this very thing, that He who began a good work among you will complete it by the day of Christ Jesus.” It is because the Holy Spirit seals us and dwells within us with power that we are able to sing:
No guilt in life, no fear in death
This is the power of Christ in me
From life's first cry to final breath
Jesus commands my destiny
No power of hell, no scheme of man
Can ever pluck me from His hand
Till He returns or calls me home
Here in the power of Christ I'll stand
The One who dwells within you and seals you for the day of redemption is the Holy Spirit of God. He is not a power, a force, or a character trait of God; the Holy Spirit is a Person, and He is God Almighty! Christian, because God loves you, the Holy Spirit can be grieved by you.
The Holy Spirit is the Promise that We Can Live for God
The reason why the Holy Spirit can be grieved is not only because He loves you, but because He has provided you with all that you need to say no to sin. Some of you are passively waiting to gain victory over sin in your life as though there is some magic recipe needed for you to successfully conquer certain sins in your life. Listen, when it comes to victory over sin, there is no easy button you can push! This might shock some of you, but to gain victory over your sin, you must be willing to fight against your sin.
There is a list of sins Paul provides in verses 25-32, but do not think that this is an exhaustive list or that the sins listed are worse than others that are not listed. What is provided in these verses are examples, and dare I say it, examples we tend to feel better about than other sins. The point for why the apostle lists these sins is that we are to “rid” ourselves of them. We are to rid ourselves of falsehood (v. 25), sinful anger (v. 26), theft (v. 28), unwholesome talk (v. 29), ungodly virtues (vv. 31-32).
We are to rid ourselves of deceit because God is truth and the devil is the father of lies (Deut. 32:4; John 8:44). We are to rid ourselves of ungodly anger because it does not leave room for the kind of mercy, love, and grace we received from God (see Col. 3:12-13; Matt. 18:21-35). We are to rid ourselves of theft because it feeds our idolatrous hearts into thinking what belongs to God, and how He has blessed others, really belongs to us. We are to rid ourselves of unwholesome talk because what comes out of our mouths really comes out of the heart (Matt. 15:17-19). We are to rid ourselves of bitterness, wrath, anger, clamor, slander, and malice by replacing those sins with kindness, compassion, and forgiveness.
What does it mean to “rid” ourselves of these sins and how do we do it? Well, for starters, do not for a second think that Paul is telling us to do these things to keep our salvation. Bryan Chapell rightly said of these verses: “We are not to live to secure grace but to live out the grace that God secured for us.”[4]
In light of the grace that God secured for us and the power that resides within us from His Holy Spirit, we are able, and we must, “rid” ourselves of these sins that threaten us. When we were dead in our sins, we were unable to “rid” ourselves of the sins of our flesh, but after God made us alive with Christ, He gave us a new nature and empowered us to fight our sins and to win against them. This is one of the reasons Jesus called Him the Helper: “I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Helper, so that He may be with you forever…” (John 14:16).
The word for “rid” in Greek is apotithēmi. The ESV translates this word “put away.” The NIV translates this word, “put off.” The previous version of the NASB before the 2020 update even translated this word, “lay aside.” All three ways are legitimate ways to translate apotithēmi, but I think the NASB2020 is better! “Ridding yourselves of falsehood, sinful anger, theft, unwholesome talk, and ungodly virtues…. Be truthful, exercise righteous anger when necessary, work hard and live generously for the good of others, and use your words for the glory of God and the edification of those around you!” The same Greek word is used in Hebrews 12:1-2, “Therefore, since we also have such a great cloud of witnesses surrounding us, let’s rid [apotithēmi] ourselves of every obstacle and the sin which so easily entangles us, and let’s run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking only at Jesus, the originator and perfecter of the faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.”
Do more than just lay aside your sin, do more than just put it off, do more than put it away; get rid of it! Throw it aside! Put it to death! Why? Because it is dangerous! Just because you are a Christian and have the Holy Spirit, do not be passive about it. Treat it as something venomous and deadly! Your desire to lie, to give into anger and rage, to take that which does not belong to you – get rid of it and put it to death! Your unwholesome talk dressed up in gossip, the words you use to tear down others, the poison that comes out of your mouth with cunning words used to get your way, or any other unwholesome speech – get rid of it! Put it to death! Why? Because it is deadly, that’s why! Be killing sin or it will be killing you.
Later in his book, The Mortification of Sin, Owens wrote: “If sin is subtle, watchful, strong, and always at work in the business of killing our souls, and we are slothful, negligent, and foolish in this battle, can we expect a favorable outcome? There is not a day but sin foils or is foiled, prevails or is prevailed upon. It will always be so while we live in this world. Sin will not spare for one day. There is no safety but in a constant warfare for those who desire deliverance from sin’s perplexing rebellion.”[5]
How do you get rid of the sin that threatens you? Well, for starters, confess it and get radical about not visiting that sin again. If you keep running back to your sin, find someone who you can talk to and will hold you accountable. God saved you from your sins and idols for a freedom only available in Him. You may be in bondage to a sin or sins, but they have no claim over your life. If you are a man, seek the help of your brothers; if you are a woman, seek the help of your sisters. You have all of the Holy Spirit you will ever need for a power over any bondage that you feel trapped in, but know that you belong to the Body of Christ and your sanctification is a community project.
Some of you have grown so calloused to your sin because you have surrendered to it; it is time to stop grieving the Holy Spirit and live in the reality of your new identity in Jesus: “For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them” (Eph. 2:10).
Amen.
