How to Have Victory Over Sin And Die To Self
The new and living way
There are so many Christians online writing about their struggle with sin.
I have written a few articles in response, but I’m in the minority.
Let’s get this clear, if we have died with Christ we are dead to sin.
Sin no longer has control over us.
The Apostle Paul tells us this in the Book of Romans:
“What shall we say, then? Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase? By no means! We are those who have died to sin; how can we live in it any longer? Or don’t you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life.”
No longer slaves to sin
Paul goes on to say that if we have been united to Christ in His death, that also means we are united to Him in His resurrection. At baptism our old self is crucified with Christ and sin is taken away from our body.
“For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we will certainly also be united with him in a resurrection like his. For we know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body ruled by sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves to sin— because anyone who has died has been set free from sin.”
So, if you are saved, you are no longer a slave to sin but a slave to righteousness.
“You have been set free from sin and have become slaves to righteousness.”
What is this struggle then that Christians are all talking about?
There is the sinful nature that is a slave to sin and there is the new nature that is a slave to God’s law. We all have a responsibility to go before God and find out if are we saved. Many people who say they are saved, are not.
When you are saved, you will not want to sin, yes, you may be tempted but you do not want it. Before salvation, we wanted to sin. We liked it, just like all the lost souls in the world today. We too once walked in darkness.
We have been justified by faith, not by any doing of our own so we cannot boast.
“This righteousness is given through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe.” (Romans 3:22)
The only way in which we can be free from sin is to live life through the Holy Spirit. It is the ONLY way.
“Those who live according to the flesh have their minds set on what the flesh desires; but those who live in accordance with the Spirit have their minds set on what the Spirit desires. The mind governed by the flesh is death, but the mind governed by the Spirit is life and peace. The mind governed by the flesh is hostile to God; it does not submit to God’s law, nor can it do so. Those who are in the realm of the flesh cannot please God.”
As New Testament believers, we know that Jesus died for our sins. We no longer live by the law, but by the Spirit.
It is only by living in the Spirit that we can live without sin. Believers cannot go on sinning because they have been born of God.
“Those who have been born into God’s family do not make a practice of sinning, because God’s life is in them. So they can’t keep on sinning, because they are children of God.”
“Whoever has been born of God does not sin, for His seed remains in him; and he cannot sin, because he has been born of God.”
Why do we feel like we are sinning when we are not?
As I was thinking and praying about why Christians today are talking about falling into sin and feeling great guilt about it, I wondered, are they really sinning or could it be a sign of a deeper purification?
God led me to a preacher from long ago who shone some light on this dilemma.
Firstly, if you are falling into sin such as what the apostle Paul mentions in Galatians 5:19-21, “…sexual immorality, impurity, and debauchery; idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like.” then you will have to get right with God.
Paul completes this paragraph by saying, “I warn you, as I did before, that those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God.”
But, if you are not caught in such sin but do not feel holy, then you are in a good place. You have been sanctified and are moving further into holiness.
In a Sermon called How to Die to Self, G.D. Watson, a Wesleyan Methodist preacher (1945-1924), talks of a Middle Zone, “where we are not sinning as such, yet we are not yet Christ-like either."
In the sermon, he said that..
“Many deeply spiritual persons have come to understand that there is a real death to self after the work of sanctification. They detected many manifestations of the creature life which are not clearly sinful on the one side, not yet really Christ-like on the other side, but a middle zone of creaturely activity and self which the spirit shows them must be passed beyond or crucified in order to reach deep abiding union with God where there is none of self and all of Christ Jesus.
The very persons who deny this state of grace are the ones who most positively manifest in manifold ways their need of being dead to self. I am writing this not for those who have any theory to maintain, but for the humble and simple-hearted saint who really hunger to sink out of self into God.”
— G.D. Watson, How to Die to Self
How to die to self
The goal of death to self is to lose the self-will. To have Christ, all and all in us, and to have none of self.
Do we believe it is possible?
We must count the cost.
Below are some of the ways G. D. Watson says we can die to self.
He says we must have a pure divine motive - it must be the seeking of God (The Triune God) for his glory.
We must have no other desire other than to be a channel, a vessel for the embodiment of His life and the outbeaming of His glorious attributes through us.
Our motive must be to be nothing.
The Steps to dying to self
Humiliation: sinking into humility.
We are to calmly face failures, persecution, loneliness, poverty, disappointments, etc.
Not to receive human honors or praise: be careful of this as it can inflate the human self-esteem (ego).
We are not to get offended easily as this is also pride.
We are to seek to be childlike in all things and extremely simple in our manners, words, dress, taste, and interior experiences.
The Christ life is simple and the more we become like Christ, the more we will become disappointing to others as we will have died to grandiosity and anything which draws unnecessary attention to the self.
A person like this talks less and lives more quietly and interiorly.
Our labors are less ostentatious.
We bring things to pass through prayers and faith in God more than by outward showy methods.
We love to live like God.
It is a profound hidden life in which people think we don’t amount to very much.
Living by pure faith, depending less on spiritual phenomena - seeking His will.
Another way of dying to self is to thoughtfully avoid making our religious life an unnecessary burden to our families and loved ones. This is false too. We should seek to be yielding and obliging.
We should seek our nothingness and the allness of God daily.
Look to Christ for the most minute guidance.
The daily cross
Jesus said:
“Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me and for the gospel will save it.”
—Mark 8:34-35
This daily cross leads the sanctified soul into a deeper death of self.
The daily cross is a suffering of the soul. It drives us to prayer.
The cross will always be there. It’s our daily suffering.
The goal is not to get free of it but to learn to bear it like Jesus bore his suffering with boundless tender love.
We are to love our cross. We must bear it meekly, quietly, lovingly as unto God and not to man.
Pure limitless love is the only true victory over our trials.
So, you are not to cut down your cross, but water it with love and prayer, and in time you will receive its fruits.
The benefits of being crucified
Not I, but Christ lives in Me.
“I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.”
It is through suffering that we can reach a state of perfection.
When one suffers for long enough and takes it all to God in prayer, it produces spiritual perfection. The saint becomes calm and accepting of their suffering.
They become still and quiet. Their self-will even ceases to fight as it has been surrendered. At this point, the person longs only for the things of God and God Himself.
They have overcome attachments. They have conquered the self-life and now live the Christ life. This results in blessings abound.
It widens the heart of the saint and Divine Love takes over their being.
Creature love, as Watson calls it, is crucified, leaving only boundless love. This person loves in a new way as God loves others through them.
A deep tenderness takes over and everything old, hard, bitter, harsh, or critical is crushed into fine powder.
This perfect suffering gives liberty from earthly things so heaven can fill the soul, and as the apostle Paul said, become citizens of heaven.
Merci beaucoup! Timely, once again. Thank you for reflecting His light!
This was such a deep and insightful piece, thank you.
“The Christ life is simple and the more we become like Christ, the more we will become disappointing to others as we will have died to grandiosity and anything which draws unnecessary attention to the self.”
Something to ponder for me. Thanks Orla.