Summarising the Strategies

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The Christian is in a battle and the chief enemy is sin. Sin is deceptive and employs some of the most subtle and harsh strategies against its opponent. In my last few posts I examined specific strategies that will help the believer in the war on sin. In my first post (the war on sin) I examined crucial starting points for this battle: a right view of sin, the need for genuine salvation, and a battle plan. After establishing this, the second post deals with the first strategy in this war, and that is Recognising Sin. The recognition of sin is crucial because sin will disguise itself and deceive us. The second strategy we noted was Replacing Sin. This strategy calls for an active pursuit of righteousness thus causing it crowd out evil in our lives (see Col. 3:5-11). Then we looked at the next strategy which is Refusing Sin. This is the active and constant act of denying wickedness and abstaining from it. What happens when we fall short and allow sin to consume us? What do we do when we bear the wound of sin in this war? The final strategy we considered was Repenting from Sin.When we fall short, we are to confess this sin, forsake it and keep following Christ.

Though this series is not exhaustive, the purpose of this brief series was to remind us of the seriousness and sinfulness of sin. As the people of God, we are at war. We must be serious about this. The battle we have with sin is a life long battle. Sin will keep on raging against us until our Lord returns. So it is our duty by His grace to stand firm in our war on sin, and be killing it before it kills us. May these strategies be repeated in an ongoing way as we strive to serve our Master and live a life of gratitude for Him because of all that He has done for us. By His grace, let us be  Recognising Sin, Replacing Sin, Refusing Sin, and Repenting from Sin. I conclude this series with the challenging words of John Owen,

“We will not be making progress in holiness without walking over the bellies of our own lust. He who does not kill sin along the way is making no progress in his journey.”[1]