I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you shall be clean from all your uncleannesses, and from all your idols I will cleanse you. 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. You shall dwell in the land that I gave to your fathers, and you shall be my people, and I will be your God. And I will deliver you from all your uncleannesses. And I will summon the grain and make it abundant and lay no famine upon you. I will make the fruit of the tree and the increase of the field abundant, that you may never again suffer the disgrace of famine among the nations. Then you will remember your evil ways, and your deeds that were not good, and you will loathe yourselves for your iniquities and your abominations. It is not for your sake that I will act, declares the Lord God; let that be known to you. Be ashamed and confounded for your ways, O house of Israel.
- Ezekiel 36:25-32
Perhaps after reading the last two posts, you are left wondering, How do I go about changing my heart? You recognize that sin in your life, especially your proclivity towards lust, is deeply rooted in your hardened heart. You are starting to see that pornography is not the arch-enemy you made it out to be. It is only one avenue in which your lustful heart enjoys venturing down. Even when you seem to have the upper hand over the temptation to look at pornography, you are still tempted and falling to sin in the form of lust in your heart. You think that pornography is imprinted on your heart, but that is not the case. Rather, lust is deeply rooted in your heart, and removing pornography from your life is like pulling up a weed and only getting a handful of leaves; the root of the evil still rests deeply in the solid ground.
In Ezekiel 36, we see that it is God who cleanses us with the sprinkling of water. It is God who cleanses us from all idolatry. It is God who gives us a new heart. It is God who places His Spirit within us. It is God who softens our hardened hearts. It is God who causes us to walk according to His statutes and Law. It is God who chooses us to be His people and to dwell with Him in the Promised Land. It is God who delivers us from all uncleannesses. It is God who provides for our nourishment and who causes fruit to grow abundantly. It is God who acts according to His will and for His own name's sake, and not our own. "Let that be known to you."
So, what does that all mean? Does that mean that we should just sit tight and let God do all of the work for us?
If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come. All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation; that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation. Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.
- 2 Cor. 5:17-21
In 2 Corinthians 5, we see that we are new creations in Christ. Because we are new creations, Paul implores Christians to be reconciled to God. Paul continues to entreat his readers, "not to receive the grace of God in vain" (2 Cor. 6:1). So, what does all of this mean for you?
Look back at the creation of the world in Genesis 1. God spoke and whatsoever He commanded came to existence out of nothing. He commanded there to be light, and because He commanded light there was light. God spoke the world into existence. In The Christian Faith (2011), Michael Horton explains that:
The same Lord who "sent out his word and healed [the Israelites], and delivered them from their destruction" (Ps. 107:20), is the one who sent out his Word to create the world and everything in it. Israel's redeemer is the world's creator. The "living and active" Word that brings salvation (Heb. 4:12) is the same Word spoken in the beginning. In Christ the whole creation was created and holds together (Jn. 1:1-3; cf. Col. 1:15-17), and in him a new creation comes into being out of nothing but sin and death (Jn. 1:9-14; cf. Col. 1:18-20). (p. 332)
No less than God pronounced "Let there be..." when there was nothing, Abram "the father of many" while he was childless, Sarah fruitful while she was barren, and a young woman pregnant while she was a virgin, God pronounces believers righteous while they are unrighteous. In fact, Paul compares justification to God's ex nihilo fiat in creation in Romans 4:17. Elsewhere Paul adds concerning the gospel, "For God, who said, 'Let light shine out of darkness,' has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ" (2Co. 4:6). Thus, the entire reality of the new creation--not only justification, but renewal, and not only the renewal of the individual but of the cosmos--is constituted by the covenantal speech of the Trinity. (pp. 610-611)
In his sermon on Genesis 1:3-5, John Calvin explains:
Now Paul leads us higher by applying the similes of light and darkness to the gospel. He says that God, who brought light our of darkness, has also made his glory shine in our hearts through preaching, and that we contemplate him in the face of our Lord Jesus Christ. That is like saying that what Moses wrote concerning the order of nature as it pertains to this terrestrial life is fulfilled in the supernatural grace by which God calls us into the kingdom of heaven (cf. 2 Cor. 4:6), in order to give us everything we need. God produced light from darkness, Paul says. Now the darkness covered the deep, and from it he draws the light. Now that is a miracle which cannot be prized highly enough. That is true every day when it is applied to the supernatural light. For what is visible to our physical eyes concerning the creation of the world is shown to us by the eyes, but by faith we contemplate what we are taught in the preaching of the gospel. However, our Lord ordains that the gospel be preached by men, in whom there is only falsehood and vanity.
Yet if God was able to draw light from darkness, he can in our day cause faith to shine within us and by its power communicate those things which are incomprehensible. That, then, is how we must bring together these two blessings of God: one concerns this transitory and frail life; the other leads us higher, to the kingdom of God, so that we may learn to glorify our God on the one hand, and on the other, to know that it has to be a miracle when he calls us to the knowledge of his truth. Now, even though there may be darkness in those who proclaim the gospel to us, as Scripture says, they cause us to think of Jesus Christ as a mirror for being transformed into his glory. Those men are mortal. That is, in them are only vanity and falsehood, and yet God uses them to enlighten us and communicate to us the holiness and righteousness which are in our Lord Jesus Christ. That is how we are to bless the name of God in all and through all. (Sermons on Genesis: Chapters 1:1-11:4, John Calvin, The Banner of Truth Trust, Edinburgh, 2009, pp. 27-28)
If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. "God's declaration, as McCormack concludes, 'creates the reality it declares.' 'God's declaration, in other words, is itself constitutive of that which is declared'" (Horton, 2011). The old has passed away; behold, the new has come. Notice that in 2 Cor. 5, Paul does not say that the old will pass away and the new will come. The old has passed away and the new has come. In his book Pilgrim Theology, Michael Horton (2011) explains that, "We do not work for a secure future, but from a secure present." He continues to explain:
As counterintuitive this may seem to our natural way of thinking, Paul says that the gospel is the answer not only to our guilt and condemnation but to our corruption and slavery to sin. As strange as it sounds to say that God pronounces the wicked just, it is even stranger to imagine that what we need most for sanctification is more proclamation of God's free grace in Christ. Perhaps guilt can be assuaged by the preaching of grace, but now that we are justified, don't we need directions for practical living? Indeed, we do. It is always the case that we need God's law to direct us. However, it is dangerous to assume that the law can empower us in sanctification any more than in justification.
"Let me ask you only this: Did you receive the Spirit by works of the law or by hearing with faith? Are you so foolish? Having begun by the Spirit, are you now being perfected by the flesh?" (Gal. 3:2-3)
When God spoke light into existence out of darkness, what did light contribute to it's existence? When God spoke everlasting life into existence out of everlasting death in you, what did you contribute to your salvation? Michael Horton (2011) explains:
Instead of a double source (synergism), redemption is concerned with a double grace: justification and inner renewal. It is all the work of God in Christ. In Lesslie Newbigin's words,
"The idea of a righteousness of one's own is the quintessence of sin. Against this, therefore, against every trace of a holiness or righteousness which does not depend simply upon God's mercy to the sinner, we have to set our faces as relentlessly as Paul did. But equally with Paul we have to recognize that if any man be in Christ there is a new creation, not a fiction but a real supernatural new birth, the life of the risen Christ in the soul."
Perhaps you recognize that I have tipped the balance. I seem to be emphasizing God's grace and our union with Christ more than anything else. You see, this is quintessential to the mortification of sin, especially that of lust. To build a solid structure, you must first build a solid foundation on which to build on. Before you can focus on the imperatives (those things that you are expected to do) you must focus on the indicatives (those things that are already true of you). First, the Father spoke the world into existence through the Word and the Spirit, He pronounced it good, and then He commanded it to be fruitful and to multiply. First God created His creation to be fruitful and multiply before He commanded it to do so. Creation was capable of being fruitful and multiplying (imperative) only because God had created it good and able to do so (indicative).
Likewise, as new creations in Christ, we must focus primarily on the indicatives that draw us to perform the imperatives expected of us. The Gospel is the indicative. The Law is the imperative. Believers, we are not expected to keep the Law apart from the grace of God that has been poured upon us in the person and work of Jesus Christ and the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. If you are not relying wholly upon the grace of God to overcome sin in your life, then your work will be to no avail. If you have abandoned the Spirit and are seeking to perfect the work of redemption that God has begun in you by the flesh, then I am not surprised that your best efforts to overcome sin have been overcome with failure after failure.
Your problem with pornography, believer, is a spiritual one, not a physical one. Your physical, beating heart is not what causes you to stumble. Your physical, beady eyes are not what cause you to fall. Your physical flesh does not draw you to profane a physical Temple of God. No, yours is a spiritual problem that must be addressed spiritually and through the Spirit of God and in union with Jesus Christ.
God has graciously filled you with the Holy Spirit who dwells in you, slowly and surely conforming you into the image of Jesus Christ, uniting you spiritually to Him in whom there is perfect righteousness and holiness. Having this great gift in your possession, you seek to fight a spiritual battle with will-power, averting your eyes, turning to other frail men and women, and mere ritualistic approaches to the means of grace. I know what you are doing, because we have all tried it. It's as if we are justified by God's gracious pronouncement of life where only death resided, and then we turn to God and say, "Thanks, but I've got this from here." We shake our heads in derision towards the Israelites for their blatant and destructive stubbornness, arrogance, pride, and deceitfulness but few men ever realize that they follow the same path after their justification before God. No sooner do we cross the Red Sea before we begin to complain, rebel, and trust in ourselves to pick up where we think God left off. The truth is, however, that God never left off. Rather, what was started by God's sheer act of grace is continue by God's sheer acts of amazing grace.
You don't need a new heart in order to overcome the sin of lust rearing its ugly head in the sin of pornography. You have a new heart. You do not need to reconcile yourself to God. You have been reconciled to God in Christ. You do not have to overcome the old man and establish the new man, but rather, "The old has passed away; behold, the new has come." These are indicatives, and the modern church grossly underestimates their usefulness in the Christian walk. Give me a passage of Scripture that tells me what God has accomplished in me by the work of Jesus Christ rather than a passage outlining my Christian duty any day of the week! However, most Christians prefer 10 Steps to Overcome Pornography over 10 Truths of the Grace of God That Render Pornography Defeated in the Life of a Christian.
The beauty of sanctification is that it is accomplished in the life of a Christian primarily by the grace of God and not by the works of men. That is to say, mortification and vivification are gracious acts of the Spirit, not Lawful acts of the flesh. Perhaps no truth has been more understated and under-appreciated by the church today than the ministry of the Spirit in the life of a child of God.
If you tell me to be more Christlike, I will quickly be discouraged by my inability to overcome numerous temptations and I will start to question my salvation. If you tell me that I am a new creation in Christ, I will quickly lift my eyes to my gracious God, thank Him for His Son, my union to Him, His Spirit, His indwelling in me, and His grace for the complete forgiveness of sins. And yet, we Christians prefer exhortation to perform imperatives rather than hear exclamation of gospel indicatives. Nothing will discourage a man faster than telling him to accomplish the impossible without telling him why he can accomplish the impossible.
Those who are in the flesh cannot please God.
You, however, are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if in fact the Spirit of God dwells in you. Anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to him. But if Christ is in you, although the body is dead because of sin, the Spirit is life because of righteousness. If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit who dwells in you.
So then, brothers, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh. For if you live according to the flesh you will die, but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live. For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God. (Rom. 8:8-14)
This whole passage is indicative of our new life in Christ filled with the Spirit of God. Paul could have just written Please God, but he doesn't. Rather he shows us why it is impossible to please God in the flesh. And yet, how many of us try to please God by putting to death the deeds of the body by the flesh? We know we must please God, but how will we ever do so? By the Spirit! For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God. Because Christ is in you, although your body is dead because of sin, the Spirit gives you life because of Christ's righteousness. The same Spirit that raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you! He who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit who dwells in you! Isn't that so much better than just telling you to "Put to death the deeds of the body?" The imperative is grounded in the indicative. You will put to death the deeds of the body because you are in Christ and the Spirit of God is in you! Mortification of sin is not as much an action of man to accomplish the righteousness that God requires but rather, it is a reaction of man having been united to Christ, the righteousness of God, and being quickened by the Spirit to perform every good work.
We underestimate the gospel's power in the new creation. Many Christians recognize its necessity for justification, but so many Christians underestimate its usefulness for sanctification. Faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ. Who is the Word that was in the beginning, was with God, and was God? Who is the Word that, "All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made?" Who is the Word of which it is said, "In him was life, and the life was the light of men?" In the first words of John's gospel account, John demonstrates that Genesis 1 is not meant to be a polemic against athiests and evolutionary naturalists. John ties the Old Testament creation to the New Testament creation. Rather than God creating a world filled with creatures through the Word of life and the Spirit, God is creating His church filled with new creatures through the Word of Christ and by the Spirit. I close with two more quotations that hopefully tie everything together from Michael Horton's Pilgrim Theology:
Just as creation began with a command, "Let there be...And there was...," so too does the new creation originate in the womb of the word. The church is "a chosen race" and a "holy nation," "that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light" (1 Pet. 2:9). Although "the gospel is veiled it is veiled only to those who are perishing... For God, who said, 'Let light shine out of darkness,' has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ" (2 Cor. 4:3, 6). It is not surprising that Paul also thinks of new creation as analogous to ex nihilo creation (Ro. 4:17-18). By speaking righteousness (imputed in justification and merited in sanctification) into a condition of unrighteousness, God brings into existence not only a collection of justified and renewed individuals but a living community: his church...
...God's words are performative: powerful, event-generating discourse. They are not only enlightening or informative; they are fulfilled (Eze. 12:28; cf. Isa. 55:10-11). The scene of the prophet preaching to the valley of dry bones in Ezekiel 37 vividly portrays this living and active word that creates the reality of which it speaks. And in the same way, the preaching of the gospel draws us out of our self-enclosed prison of sin and death, effectually calling, justifying, and renewing us from the inside out. By the word of the gospel the Spirit builds a temple-house for the Father in the Son.
Here is a list of resources used in this post along with other useful texts on this subject:
Michael Horton's The Christian Faith: A Systematic Theology for Pilgrims on the Way
Michael Horton's Pilgrim Theology: Core Doctrines for Christian Disciples
John Calvin's Sermons on Genesis: Chapters 1:1-11:4
Walter Marshall's The Gospel Mystery of Sanctification
Kevin DeYounge's The Hole in Our Holiness: Filling the Gap between Gospel Passion and the Pursuit of Godliness
Edward Fisher's The Marrow of Modern Divinity
John Owen's Overcoming Sin and Temptation: Three Classic Works of John Owen
If you are struggling with pornography or know somebody that is and you found this blog helpful, uplifting, and encouraging, then please visit my Facebook page for further resources and discussion. If you would like to contact me, feel free to message me through my Facebook page as well. I am literally a click away. I would love to know who you are and keep you in my prayers. Thanks.
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