Scougal on Sanctification

I've been continuing to work my way through "The Life of God in the Soul of Man" by Henry Scougal. Today I came upon two quotes dealing with sanctification and the struggle against sin that I found helpful.

First, he provides insight into the relationship between God's work and our work in changing our hearts.

All the art and industry of man cannot form the smallest herb, or make a stalk of corn to grow in the field; it is the energy of nature, and the influences of Heaven, which produce this effect. It is God "who causeth the grass to grow, and herb for the service of man;" and yet nobody will say, that the labours of the husbandman are useless or unnecessary.

Then Scougal provides some perspective on the intensity of the struggle with sin:

But now, that I may detain you no longer, if we desire to have our souls moulded to this holy frame, to become partakers of the divine nature, and have Christ formed in our hearts, we must seriously resolve, and carefully endeavour, to avoid and abandon all vicious and sinful practices. There can be no treaty of peace, till once we lay down these weapons of rebellion wherewith we fight against heaven; nor can we expect to have our distempers cured, if we be daily feeding on poison. Every wilful sin gives a mortal wound to the soul, and puts it at a greater distance from God and goodness; and we can never hope to have our hearts purified from corrupt affections, unless we cleanse our hands from vicious actions.

I found these words a helpful reminder that God is the one that changes us but we are called to strive and fight hard against our sin.

Also, on a non-related note, check out my guest post on gratitude over on my community group's blog today.

What I Needed to Hear

Earlier today I saw this post on Tim Challies blog, Just Stop It!. There is a funny clip from MadTV along with a short discussion about fighting sin. In the clip, Bob Newhart is counseling a woman who has irrational fears and his advice to her is "Stop It!". Tim goes on to say that to him it is a reminder that sanctification is a joint work between us and God and that while sometimes we look for a step-by-step method or pray for deliverence, we must also strive to fight sin. Here is the part of Challies' post that affected me:

Some time ago I spoke to a friend about an ongoing sin in his life and tried to show him that the essence of his problem was this: he hates his sin just a little bit less than he loves it. Sure he wants to stop sinning, but even more he wants to keep sinning. And I think he came to agree. My advice was pretty well what Newhart offered the woman in this video: “Stop it!” Are you fighting sin? I’ll pray for you—really, I will. And I’ll recommend that you memorize some Scriptures, some fighter verses, that will help you battle that sin by bringing to mind the promises of God. But I’ll also challenge you to just stop it and to stop it now. You stop sinning by turning your back on it. You do not sit back and wait for God to change you while you remain in your sin. Rather, you join him in the fight, joining your will with His strength. And together you go to war.

Now, obviously sanctification is not based on our strength and our efforts alone (This video and post are not a systematic theology of sin. For some more thoughts on the video and counseling by David Powlison check out this post by Justin Taylor). We need Christ and the Holy Spirit working through us to create change in our lives. But for me at least, praying can come somewhat easier than being intentional and seeking to fight sin, instead of waiting for it to come around. As I was confronted this morning with seeing those stubborn patterns of sin in my life, I read this article and was reminded that I need to cry out to God more for his help and I need to make every effort to remove temptation and fight sin in my life.

One of the commenters on the post linked to this Martyn Lloyd-Jones quote posted on the Pyromaniacs blog. He also encourages us by saying that Scripture does not command us to be passive in our sanctification but rather to strive to fight sin in our lives along with God.

I pray that by God's grace my heart would continue to grow to hate sin more than I love it.

(HT: Tim Challies)