"So in every case, the decisive impulse for our holiness and our sin-killing is the death of Christ. Which means that the decisive power for our conquering sin is Christ’s canceling sin. That is, the only sin that we can defeat is a forgiven sin. If we try to defeat an unforgiven sin — that is, if we try to conquer our sin before it is canceled — we become our own saviors; we nullify the justification of the ungodly (Romans 4: 4– 5), and we head straight for despair and suicide. The Link: Our Empowered Will But don’t miss this: In each of these three cases (in the death of Christ we died, we were bought, and we were forgiven), the link between the cross and our conquered sin is our empowered will. Our will, engaged to fight sin with blood-bought power. I say that because in each of these three cases the statement of our death, our purchase, and our forgiveness was made the cause of a command addressed to our will. “Let not sin reign in your body.” “Glorify God in your body.” And “Be kind to one another, tender hearted, forgiving one another.” Those commands are addressed to us. They engage our will. And the power that engages and enlivens and carries our will, so that it will be clear that our willing is a cross-exalting willing, is the power of the Holy Spirit, which is given to us precisely because of the death of Christ for us. The Holy Spirit is a blood-bought, new covenant gift of God (Romans 8: 3­5; 7: 4; Galatians 2: 20). Which means that the link between the cross and our conquered sin is a Holy-Spirit empowered will. Listen to these texts that describe this reality: Romans 7: 6 — “We died to that which held us captive, so that we serve in the new way of the Spirit and not in the old way of the written code.” I serve in the newness of the Spirit. Romans 8: 13— “By the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body.” I put sin to death, by the Spirit. Galatians 2: 20— “I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.” The life I now live . . . Christ lives in me.” 1 Peter 4: 11— “Whoever serves, let him do it as one who serves by the strength that God supplies — in order that in everything God may be glorified through Jesus Christ.” I serve, but in the strength that God supplies. And it is a blood-bought supply. 1 Corinthians 15: 10— “By the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace toward me was not in vain. On the contrary, I worked harder than any of them, though it was not I, but the grace of God that is with me.” I worked. But it was the grace of God that was working in my working. In every single case, this is the way it works: I am working. I am willing. I am serving. I am putting sin to death. My will is engaged. But in every case, our will is empowered by another will: the will of the Spirit, the will of Christ, the will of God, the will of grace."


John Piper. Sanctification in the Everyday: Three Sermons by John Piper (Kindle Locations 70-92). Desiring God Foundation.

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