As we saw in the earlier blog, The Bible does not shy away from the sensitive matter of sexual purity. It does not avoid the topic of holiness. It addresses them head on comprehensively dealing with the root cause of sexual sin (the old self/man, the fallen nature) and how in practice, we overcome it.

The scriptures are clear on the need to overcome sexual sin and uphold purity and holiness. They detail what has already been achieved by Christ. They also explain what is de facto required from us. Both are essential and key for victory in the battle for sexual purity and holiness. Understanding them and their respective roles in securing and maintaining sexual purity and holiness is vital. These are the essential tools required in our Purity toolboxes.

There are five essential tools each one of us must have in our toolbox to ensure we do not give in to deceitful and evil desires of the flesh. They are a combination of, on the one hand understanding Christ’s accomplishments on the cross on our behalf and their present-day implications; and on the other, living our lives out practically, consistent with this truth. They can be summed up as understanding (Christ’s accomplishments on the cross), and aligning (oneself with them). Each can be further expanded on in greater detail. However, at this stage, it is more helpful to get an overview of their role and gain a basic understanding of their complementary functions. We will examine each tool briefly as follows.

1. Get your death — understand and embrace your own death in Christ and the new creation you are in Him. Everything else is premised and predicated on this.

Understanding and embracing your own death in and with Christ, its purpose and present-day implications (Rom 6 & Col 3) is foundational. It is essential and irreplaceable. Everything else is premised and predicated on the direct benefits for us of the completed works of Christ on the Cross. This is an area that needs to be understood and fully embraced by every single one of us if we are to successfully escape sin and its dominance over any area of our lives.

The apostle Paul laboured this point intensively in Romans 6. He sought to expand and elaborate on the freedom from sin that Christ wrought on the cross for us. This passage in Romans is dealt with in detail in the post, “Major Truth|Monumental Significance”.

Romans 6 and the entire New Testament are clear Christ’s death on the cross was not in vain. Christ has either successfully defeated sin and death on the cross once and for all and we too can now successfully overcome it in him. Or what happened on the cross was unsuccessful in defeating sin and death thereby limiting our ability to overcome both. It is one or the other and cannot be both. Either Christ has successfully overcome and we too are overcomers in Him, or He hasn’t overcome and we too are losers with Him.

There’s no ambiguity in Paul’s words, or ifs and buts, when he categorically and confidently asserts, “We know that our old self was crucified with him in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing, so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin.” (Romans 6:6). We cannot escape the fact of our crucifixion with Christ if we are indeed in Him. This is to remove the body of sin and liberate us from bondage to it. Here’s the fact, the truth, the rationale and purpose of it all in one sentence.

FACT: Our union with Christ and position in Him, has resulted in us undergoing what Christ underwent on the cross – crucifixion and death.

FACT: His death was our death and His crucifixion our crucifixion. That act of crucifixion on the cross centuries ago was not just the crucifixion of one man. It included countless multitudes in Him, including you and me.

FACT: Everything that happened to Christ has equally happened to us. We are fully united with Him. This union is by God as a result of our faith in Christ.

Paul’s statement in Colossians 3:3 is categorical and direct. “For you have died —” referring explicitly to the believer’s death with Christ.

The present-day implications of our death with Christ bring a radical change, a u-turn in how the believer now sees himself/herself. It is how one sees oneself and thinks of oneself that first needs to change. Viewing oneself through the lens of Romans 6:1 — 10 is crucial. These truths discuss the believer’s death and resurrection with Christ. It follows then that the reckoning of oneself as having died with Christ becomes foundational to everything else that follows.

Romans 6:11
So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.

2. Get your enemy — understand the nature of your old self (the flesh). Know how it operates. Recognize that it wages war against you.

Understanding the nature of the old self/flesh and how it operates is absolutely key. Our old self/nature is represented or manifested in the old way of life and the deceitful desires which caused its corruption in the first place. These desires are “deceitful” (phoney or misleading) because they promise a world of fulfillment but fail spectacularly to deliver on them. Ephesians 4:22 “to put off your old self, which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful desires,“

These two aspects of the old self are what require extra vigilance and action on our part. Both should be firmly denied. You have to do away with how you lived in the past, terminate your previous way of life. The old self seeks to undermine the new creation in Christ through deceitful desires. This is the crucial intel every believer must have under their belt to succeed in their battle for purity and holiness. You must understand the deceitful nature of your old person’s desires (flesh’s) and refuse to give in to them.

Realising that the desires of the old self which we regularly gave in to in the past without much thought are deceitful, is a major game changer. These desires are out and out liars. They promise satisfaction yet all they leave you with is temporary gratification. That’s it. They offer nothing more. You remain unfulfilled and unsatisfied and craving for more of that which was never meant to (or could) fulfill or satisfy. They deceive us into thinking they bring ultimate and lasting satisfaction when they never can. The old self’s corruption from which we needed salvation was caused by these very desires which try to deceive us even now. When you know something or someone is lying to you, trying to pull a fast one on you, you’d be an utter fool to go along with it.

Understanding how the old self principally operates (through its deceitful desires) and how the new self is now able to actively dismantle and discard it because it has been nailed to the cross is crucial. It was crucified with Christ – as we saw in Romans 6 and succinctly put in Gal 5:24 – because of its corruption beyond reform or redemption: And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. We now have the power to put off the old self precisely because it has already been ripped apart on the cross and rendered powerless over us (Romans 6:10).

Paul calls on the Colossian Christians to, “Put to death (kill!) therefore what is earthly in you: sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry.” Colossians 3:5 They were to show no mercy towards the flesh and its desires. They needed to firmly deny and resolutely resist it.

Knowledge is extremely powerful. The enemy’s desire and strategy is to misinform and deceive. He routinely misconstrues and misrepresents God’s truth and His commands. You cannot counter the enemy’s lies (his principal weapon of attack) without knowing the truth yourself. Otherwise he’ll be playing on your feelings and emotions misconstruing them to his advantage. Only truth dispels and quashes lies and it’s your responsibility to counter his misinformation with the truth of God’s word.

3. Don your new self in Christ— consciously and every single day.

Next in the tool list is the proactive act of daily and consciously putting on the new self in Christ. The second tool was an action of undoing or putting off as a result of understanding how the old self operated and gained dominance over us. In contrast, the third tool in our Purity toolbox is one of putting on or building up. This is achieved by daily instructing our minds in the knowledge of God, primarily through God’s own self-revelation, i.e. scriptures.

Ephesians 4:23 — 24
and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds, and to put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness.

Colossians 3:9 — 10
Do not lie to one another, seeing that you have put off the old self with its practices and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge after the image of its creator.

It is essential for the believer to train their mind on things above and related to Christ. This is why there is an exhortation to, …“Set your minds on the things above” (Col 3:2). The key to putting on the new self is growing in the knowledge of God. You achieve this by daily and consciously directing your mind on Him through His Word.

Do you consciously everyday put on the new self having discarded the old? Without this everything else falls apart and cannot hold together. The famous quote attributed to Socrates is spot on:

“The secret of change is to focus all of your energy not on fighting the old, but on building the new.”

The battle for purity pivots on this daily and conscious putting on of the new self in Christ. The apostle Paul calls on the Romans to walk properly in Romans 13:13, meaning, “not in orgies and drunkenness, not in sexual immorality and sensuality, not in quarreling and jealousy”. Then he reminds them that in order to achieve that they need to, “put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to gratify its desires.’

Their ability to abstain and desist from orgies, drunkenness, sexual immorality and sensuality, quarreling and jealousy was contingent upon their putting on The Lord Jesus Christ, their new selves in Him. It is this same conscious and daily act of putting on Christ that will empower them to make no provision for the flesh. This leads us on to tool # 4.

4. Be on the front foot — Fight back through flight. Take out the enemy’s surprise element.

The apostle Paul insists that no provision be made for the flesh to gratify its desires. It is not only about abstaining but proactively denying the flesh chances for its gratification

The flesh is not to be given even the slightest chance or opportunity for its gratification. Such opportunities themselves are to be proactively avoided and even choked to death and the flesh denied them. Don’t even allow your mind to go there let alone your self. In practical terms this means, having clear boundaries, clear red lines – in relation to the flesh accessing opportunities for its gratification – which you will not cross or compromise no matter what. Equally importantly, don’t ever get into the habit of making light of sin or finding excuses for it. There are none in the eyes of God so there can be none full stop.

As already emphasised, making no provision for the flesh is only viable where there is a conscious, daily effort of putting on the Lord Jesus Christ. Everything is sure to fall apart without the building up of this new person which we have become in Christ and renewing it daily. Colossians 3:10  “being renewed  in knowledge after the image of its creator.”

In his letter to the Corinthian church in 1 Corinthians 6:18, Paul was direct in his instruction to them. He told them to flee from sexual immorality. He emphasized its unique, self-destructive nature: “Flee from sexual immorality. Every other sin a person commits is outside the body, but the sexually immoral person sins against his own body.”

Here Paul elevates the need to turn away from that which threatens to compromise holiness to a proactive flight mode.

Strangely enough, flight is the only sure way of overcoming sexual immorality. There is no “fight” option. Never hang around opportunities for the flesh to gratify its desires.

Cutting oneself off, no matter what, and fleeing are a must if God’s call to holiness is to be honoured and practically lived out – however costly. Joseph lost his job. He also lost his freedom. This happened when he chose to honour God by cutting himself off to flee the advances of a married woman. Joseph knew that he’d be sinning against God and detrimental to holiness that he chose to flee. He did not even stop to consider her request in order to appease her or save his own job. It was a no-go zone for him from which the only escape was flight. It still is. For Joseph this was a closed-off area to which access was not even a consideration. Joseph valued and so chose to preserve his holiness above everything else.

Where provisions for the gratification of the flesh are present should be no go zones for true disciples of Jesus Christ. No go zones!

In 2 Tim 2:22, Paul exhorts his young protege Timothy to run away from youthful passions. Timothy should not stop to consider or rationalize them. Paul immediately follows that command up with the need to replace those passions with a pursuit of “righteousness, faith, love, and peace, along with those who call on the Lord from a pure heart.”

5. Leverage the power of community — all the actions above are designed to be carried out in community. They are guaranteed to succeed with the support of the immediate family God.

Note that Paul incorporates and actively encourages this pursuit “along with those who call on the Lord from a pure heart.” It is so important we do this together, in community, along with the rest of God’s household and not try to achieve it all by ourselves. Herein – in community – lies the fifth essential tool for a life of purity and holiness. Community is God’s gift to us which we need to tap into if we are to hack the Christian life. The Christian life by definition is a life lived in community with others and never alone or by ourselves. The pursuit of purity and obedience to God is one we are called to conduct in community with those The Lord has placed in our lives. We need to recognize our need for community on this journey and actively embrace it in all areas of our lives.

Hebrews 10:24 – 25 speaks of the significance of living and journeying in community to those who seemed to be flagging in this respect – “And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near.”

A clear call and reminder to them to live in and regularly practise community wherein God has ordained both encouragement and inspiration for all. Authentic community always attracts The Divine’s blessing and His life. Psalms 133:3
For there the LORD has commanded the blessing, life forevermore.

So leverage the power of community. In terms of sexual purity, it is wise to find a mature brother or sister in Christ who can hold you ruthlessly accountable to scriptural standards of holiness and purity.

The author of Hebrews extends the power of community beyond the regular encouragement and inspiration we all routinely need for the journey. He calls for daily exhortations which serve as antidote against the hardening of hearts which can easily set in as a result of the deceitfulness of sin. Hebrews 3:12 – 13
Take care, brothers, lest there be in any of you an evil, unbelieving heart, leading you to fall away from the living God. But exhort one another every day, as long as it is called “today,” that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin.

Such is the power of community that it can even help prevent the ultimate fallout, apostasy.

Keep leveraging its power.

Proactively seek and stay in community.

You are wired to overcome because Christ has already done so on your behalf.