Book Review: A Fight to the Death
Do you mortify, do you make it your daily work; be always at it whilst you live; cease not a day from the work; be killing sin, or it will be killing you.
Let no man think to kill sin with few, easy, or gentle strokes. He who hath once smitten a serpent, if he follow not on his blow until he be slain, may repent that ever he began the quarrel. And so will he who undertakes to deal with sin, and pursues it not constantly to the death. —John Owen
Believers in Jesus Christ are to be killers—not of people, but of their flesh and sin in their own lives. So says not just John Owen, but so also says the Word of God—
. . . for if you are living according to the flesh, you must die; but if by the Spirit you are putting to death the deeds of the body, you will live (Romans 8:13).
Therefore consider the members of your earthly body as dead to immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and greed, which amounts to idolatry (Colossians 3:5).
Killing (or mortifying) sin is a key component to a believer’s growth in sanctification. But just how to control the flesh and mortify sin is also a key question. Perhaps the best work on the subject is John Owen’s classic, The Mortification of Sin. However, for many, the 17th century English of this Puritan writer makes this work somewhat inaccessible for some readers. For them, A Fight to the Death by Wayne and Joshua Mack is a good alternative.
The thesis of the book is quite simple: “Sin is our enemy, and it wants to destroy us” (31). The book is divided into two main sections: “Why Fight Sin” and “How to Put Sin to Death.” The first is theologically persuasive, showing the dangers of sin while the second is instructive, with pragmatic “how to” counsel.
Why is the theology of sin important to understand? Because “if a person does not get what God has to say about sin, he will not get anything else” (17). And “Quite frankly, the Bible will be one long, confusing book if we do not understand sin” (19).
The Macks unpack a basic theology of sin (hamartiology): sin is a perversion of the truth of God; it’s a work of our enemy that foolishly minimizes the bitterness of sin. Sin is a terrible tyrant that will lead to more sin: “Sin once and it becomes more difficult not to sin in the future. When we choose to sin, it is as if we are choosing to push a ball down a hill. Our sin is going to pick up speed and it is going to become more and more difficult to stop” (38). Sin is folly, and it ignores the consequences of God’s terrible, eternal wrath: “We must look at our sins and say what God says about them: that they deserve hell. We must never allow ourselves to doubt that” (64).
This opening theological section is clear, saturated with biblical truth, rightly sobering, and a good foundation of meditation for the sin-struggler to contemplate in his fight against sin.
The second part, which helpfully accounts for about two-thirds of the book, is the “how to” manual for the one who is stuck in sin, beginning with the question, “What exactly does it mean to put sin to death in our lives?” The Macks identify a number of components: depriving our evil desires of their strength and power, actively fighting against the evil desires in our lives, and overcoming particular evil desires as they arise in our lives. They also helpfully remind the reader that mortification does not mean that sin will be fully eradicated from the believer’s life so he never has to deal with those temptations again. In other words, there is no perfectionism on this earth.
So, having rightly argued that the believer can mortify sin, just how is that done? The Macks offer a half dozen means for the believer to address sin in his life: by living in submission to the Holy Spirit, remembering the “ripple” effect of our sin—the reality that our every sin has implications in the lives of others, living in awareness of the “seasons” of temptation in our lives, being aware of the bent of our own lives and the sins to which we are particularly susceptible (self-examination), learning to discern the evil in the temptation instead of listening to its appeal, and learning from failure—our own and others.
This “how to” manual begins where every discussion of spiritual effort should begin: by acknowledging the provision of God in the Spirit to enable the believer to fight the sin. Mortification is the responsibility of the believer, but the believer is not alone in the fight—he uses the Word of God and the power of the Spirit of God to become the man of God.
God is always the sanctifier of His people. He is always the One who causes us to triumph, making us more than conquerors through Christ Jesus our Lord. Yet God does not overcome our sin apart from us, but rather by working in us. And it is His working in us that makes our efforts successful (70).
To that end, they identify seven aspects of what it means to walk in the Spirit (85):
Walking in the Spirit involves relying completely on the Spirit for every aspect of the Christian life.
Walking in the Spirit means living in the consciousness of His personal presence in us and with us.
Walking in the Spirit involves living out the dictates of God’s Word.
Walking in the Spirit means you will think much of Jesus.
Walking in the Spirit involves trusting that the Spirit will do in you what He promised.
Walking in the Spirit means you will be willing to do what the Spirit tells you to do in His Word.
Walking in the Spirit means submitting every thought, decision, and act to the Spirit’s control.
One of the strengths of the book is the simple and clear way the Macks articulate important and complex theological ideas. Their clarity is what will make the book helpful for and accessible to even the newest believer:
When we think of ourselves adoringly, we think of Christ sparingly. But when we stop boasting in ourselves and begin to admit the truth about us, we become smaller in our own eyes and Christ becomes greater and more precious to us (21).
It is easy, while we are reading a book like this, to agree that sin is foolish; it is much more difficult to believe when we are being tempted to sin. The fact is, when we are tempted, sin often appears to be pretty smart. And that is exactly when we need to remember that sin is a liar. It is not telling us the truth. To sin is always stupid (49).
A workman is known by his work. We look at a man’s paint job and we get an idea of the man himself: he is either sloppy or neat. . . . People look at us and, whether we like it or not, they get an idea of Jesus Christ. In other words, they associate Christ with what they see in us (89).
Many people—even Christians—are reluctant to examine their own hearts because it is such a painful experience. Like people who refuse to see a doctor because they are afraid of what the doctor might find, many of us will not look into our hearts and sit under searching preaching because we are afraid of what might be uncovered (125).
I am convinced that one of the reasons we do not see more power in our lives today is that very few of us as Christians really know what it means to watch and pray. We will never know true victory until we learn to do that (167).
A Fight to the Death is a book that will help counselors clearly explain the process of sanctification and mortification to their counselees. Even more, it will help counselors examine their own hearts and their own practices and equip them in their own fight against sin. And it will help even the newest believing counselee develop biblical habits of mortification, even if they don’t know when they first pick up the book what that word means.
Sin is a reality for every believer. To grow in Christ means that every believer must address and daily defeat that sin. This book is a helpful resource in guiding every believer to that victory.
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