If we’re to be serious about killing our lust, we have to know and believe that it will only happen by the Holy Spirit. There is no other remedy or power that is effective. If you can name it, it has been tested and it has failed. A wrong understanding of how to kill sin has been a constant plague of the Roman Catholic Church. It’s at the heart of all false religions (including pop psychology). And it shows up in modern evangelicalism in any number of weird trends. A simple tonic to expose false remedies is Colossians 2:20-23:

 

If with Christ you died to the elemental spirits of the world, why, as if you were still alive in the world, do you submit to regulations—“Do not handle, Do not taste, Do not touch” (referring to things that all perish as they are used—according to human precepts and teachings? These have indeed an appearance of wisdom in promoting self-made religion and asceticism and severity to the body, but they are of no value in stopping the indulgence of the flesh.

 

In our decadent generation today, we look with some degree of admiration upon many heretical sects, cults, and false religions for their seeming devotion to holiness. Mormons, some Roman Catholics, and some Muslims seem to be among the most righteous and “godly” members of our society. There really is an appearance in each of these groups of wanting to be holy and to destroy the power of sin. But if we’re going to be biblical we must understand that their “righteousness” can never be anything more than a show. We cannot allow the poverty of Western evangelicalism to entice us to sell short biblical holiness. Let me be perfectly clear: Mormons, Muslims and most Roman Catholics do not understand the power of God or the mystery of the gospel. They are not holy. They are deceived.

 

This is also true among professing Christians that buy into the kind of self-help, self-improvement Jedi mind tricks that sell books today. God did not ordain the means of “positive thinking” anymore than He ordained the means of monastic vows for the purpose of sanctification. Self-efficacy is a myth.

 

What’s worse is that God actually has given us tools for killing sin and growing in holiness—prayer, fasting, watching, meditation, etc. But these tools are used wrongly by most Christians. We come to God like we come to a vending machine: I put in the correct change (pray, read my Bible, etc.), and expect holiness to pop out, as though God were obligated to honor my actions with results. We look at these duties as causes of sanctification, and not as means by which God usually sanctifies us. And that’s a crucial distinction. God’s Spirit is the cause and the power behind our sanctification. And He works at His own discretion.

 

“Getting serious” doesn’t work either. And given the sheer absence of biblical teaching on killing lust, this is the kind of thing that many (young men, in particular) tend to polarize towards. It works like this: You fall into a nasty sin like pornography. You instantly promise yourself and God that you won’t do it ever again. You throw away your internet cables, cancel your internet subscription, auction off your iPod on eBay, and go ahead and put Covenant Eyes on your computer, just in case. You watch and you pray.

 

But then you grow cold. The sense of sin wears off. And the next thing you know you’re worse off than when you started. You did some good and wise things, but good and wise things in themselves aren’t remedies for sick souls. You can’t kill your sin just by changing your circumstances. Which doesn’t mean you shouldn’t change your circumstances. But if that’s all you’re doing, you’re just rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic. You need real power. You need the Holy Spirit. He is the only one that can free you from the power of sin.