There are only a couple places in the Bible where God literally tells us exactly what His will is for us, universally.  One is James 1:27 – “Religion that is pure and undefiled before God, the Father, is this: to visit orphans and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained from the world.” and the other is 1 Thessalonians 4:1-8 – “Finally, then, brothers, we ask and urge you in the Lord Jesus, that as you received from us how you ought to walk and to please God, just as you are doing, that you do so more and more. For you know what instructions we gave you through the Lord Jesus. For this is the will of God, your sanctification: that you abstain from sexual immorality; that each one of you know how to control his own body in holiness and honor, not in the passion of lust like the Gentiles who do not know God; that no one transgress and wrong his brother in this matter, because the Lord is an avenger in all these things, as we told you beforehand and solemnly warned you. For God has not called us for impurity, but in holiness. Therefore whoever disregards this, disregards not man but God, who gives his Holy Spirit to you.”

So we are exhorted by God, as redeemed creations by the Spirit to love the least among us sacrificially, and to pursue personal holiness in all areas of our life, specifically in our sexuality.  Now I fail at both of these things, and trust me, so do you.  Before you start patting yourself on the back because you’ve never committed adultery, or never had sex before marriage, remember that you are not judged by other men, but by Jesus Christ, who lived a perfectly holy life.  His standard is that we have no lustful intentions of the heart.  Further, before you congratulate yourself for the last Sally Struther’s child you’ve adopted, remember that God does not judge you by the amount of money you give away, but by what you decide to keep.  How does your heart break for the orphan and widow that will go to sleep hungry and homeless tonight?  How does that impact your life decisions?  Look above to James 1:27 – God doesn’t ask about how much you gave to orphans and widows, but how you visited them in their affliction.  Do you love them enough to get involved?  That is how you will be judged.

Now, my goal isn’t to beat ourselves up here, only to give us each a clearer picture of our own depravity, and the battleground we are to wage war in.  My goal is to encourage all of us, to shine the light of God’s Word on our hearts to see sin clearly, and then to intentionally make war on it.  How do we do this?  We’re given a battle plan in 1 Thess 4 above.  By grace through faith in the gospel of Jesus Christ, we are positionally right with God.  This means the battle is already been decided, and guess what?  Jesus won.  Jesus, as a perfectly Holy and righteous sacrifice, absorbed the wrath of God for our sins.  The price has been paid.  By God’s grace through faith, the perfect righteousness of Christ has been credited to us, through no merit of our own.  If you don’t allow your heart to rest in the foundational truth of your justification by faith, apart from works, you’ll never be able to attack sin in your life with joy.  It is the ONLY foundation from which you can attack sin, and have true victory.  Another way to say this, is that you can only defeat, defeated sin.  So the first step in the battle plan is to rest our hearts in the foundation of our justification in Christ.

So if the first step of our war on sin is a battle to rest our hearts in our relationship with God, positionally, the next step is to rest our hearts in our relationship with god experientially or manifestly.  As new creations in Christ (2 Cor 5:17), a very real change has occurred.  Gone is the old heart, that was hardened to sin, and at enmity with God.  In has come a new heart, that is being molded into the image of God, by the Holy Spirit that dwells in us.  Experientially, our heart now rejoices in obedience to God, and manifestly we are indentified with Christ, as Christ dwells in us as the Holy Spirit.  What this means is that we already posess every tool necessary for our fight against sin.  The Word of God is with us and in us, bringing to light the truth of all scripture, a full revelation of God, growing us in wisdom, and providing for us the weapons of war.

Now, with our position secure, and our weapons ready, we can deal with the fact that we are fallen creatures living in a fallen world.  The reason I go into so much effort to discuss our position, and identity with Christ by the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, is because if you don’t rest in that daily you will have no joy in pursuing obedience to God.  If you do not delight in obeying God, you are not really killing sin, you’re just finding sin substitutes – usually pride.  God is most glorified in us, when we are most satisfied in Him – John Piper (paraphrase of Phil 1:21)  Most people think of attacking sin as stopping some behavior, but fighting sin God wants us as Christians to be unimaginably happy – in our relationship with Him.  Now I don’t want to leave you here, without given you some pragmatic means by which you can attack sin.  So here are two separate thoughts, hopefully one of them or both will be helpful

1)  Make it a point to delight your heart in the goodness of God every morning – Psalm 37:4 – Delight yourself in the Lord, and He will give you the desires of your heart (Himself)

2)  Saturate your heart in God’s Word – Psalm 119:9-11 – “How can a young man keep his way pure?  By guarding it according to your word.  With my whole heart I seek you; let me not wander from your commandments!  I have stored up your word in my heart, that I might not sin against you.”

3)  Purpose your life to live sacrificially for others – James 1:27 above

4)  Surround yourself with fellow Christians who will love you and speak the truth of God’s Word into your life

Separate, John Piper has a tool based on the acronym ANTHEM that is helpful both in sexual sin, and in any kind of temptation.

A – Avoid temptation as much as is reasonably possible.
N – Say NO to every lustful thought within five seconds.
T – Turn your mind forcefully toward Christ as a superior satisfaction.
H – Hold the promises and pleasure of Christ firmly in your mind until they push out the other images and ideas.
E – Enjoy Jesus. Sin cannot keep its appeal when it is compared to the pleasure of knowing Christ.
M – Move into a useful activity away from idleness and other vulnerable behaviors.

For Our Sanctification with Joy,
Adam