Licensed to Kill: A Field Manual for Mortifying Sin

If John Owen’s The Mortification of Sin is a bit heavy for you, Licensed to Kill: A Field Manual for Mortifying Sin by Brian Hedges might be a good place for you to start. Here is an early excerpt:

Putting to death sin is the duty of every Christian, but no one can become a Christian by mortification. The only sins we can kill are the sins that have been forgiven by the shed blood of Jesus. Owen said, “There is no death of sin without the death of Christ.” To attempt to kill sin without Christ will only delude us and harden us further in our sins. The first priority in dealing with sin is to look to the crucified Savior, Jesus Christ.

In one of the most interesting stories in the Old Testament, the newly rescued people of Israel sinned by murmuring against God and his servant Moses. Their unprovoked sin was so evil that the Lord judged them by sending poisonous snakes into their camp. These “fiery serpents . . . bit the people, so many people of Israel died.” Then the people came to Moses, confessed their sin, and begged him to ask God to take the snakes away. Moses prayed for the people, and God gave him a strange command: he was to make a serpent from bronze and place it on a pole in the middle of the camp. Then, if someone had been bitten by a snake, he or she had only to look at the bronze snake in order to be healed. The simple act of gazing at the brazen serpent brought life and healing (see Numbers 21:4–9).

But more amazing is how Jesus used this story on the New Testament: :And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in him might have eternal life” (John 3:14–15).

The most important thing to understand in this first chapter is this: before you can kill sin, you have to look to the Lord who was lifted up on the cross for you. You cannot fight sin unless you have found rest in the inexhaustible sufficiency of the doing and dying of Jesus Christ in your place. You cannot mortify sin unless that sin has already been nailed to the cross of Christ. There is no death of sin without the death of Christ.

—Brian G. Hedges, Licensed to Kill: A Field Manual for Mortifying Sin (Cruciform Press, 2011), 16–18.

Whoever causes one of these little ones who believe to stumble, it would be better for him if, with a heavy millstone hung around his neck, he had been cast into the sea. If your hand causes you to stumble, cut it off; it is better for you to enter life crippled, than, having your two hands, to go into hell, into the unquenchable fire [. . .]. If your foot causes you to stumble, cut it off; it is better for you to enter life lame, than, having your two feet, to be cast into hell [. . .]. If your eye causes you to stumble, throw it out; it is better for you to enter the kingdom of God with one eye, than, having two eyes, to be cast into hell, where their worm does not die, and the fire is not quenched.

—Mark 9:42–48

In his book Licensed to Kill: A Field Manual for Mortifying Sin, Brian Hedges recounts the story of Aron Ralston, the mountain climber who, in 2003, was forced to amputate his own arm to free himself from a fallen boulder. He then makes a connection between Ralston’s experience and Mark 9:42–48.

While sin cannot drag a true blood-washed believer in Jesus to hell, the basic lesson Jesus teaches in this passage is vital to the life of faith. Jesus’ words still hold true: sin is out to ruin us, as badly as t can, dragging us as far away from God as it can, in any way that it can. Just as Aron Ralston didn’t decide to sever his own arm until it was clear there was no other alternative, so we will not exert holy violence against our sins until we’re convinced that they really are dangerous.

—Brian G. Hedges, Licensed to Kill: A Field Manual for Mortifying Sin (Cruciform Press, 2011), 22–23.

I find then the principle that evil is present in me, the one who wants to do good. For I joyfully concur with the law of God in the inner man, but I see a different law in the members of my body, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin which is in my members.

—Romans 7:21–23

The problem of sin in the lives of believers is difficult to reconcile with the Bible’s teaching on the effects of regeneration. If we are dead to sin, why is sin still present? In the last verses of Romans 7, Paul struggles with this conflict. Brian Hedges, considering Romans 6–7, offers this summary explanation: “the bondage to sin is broken, but the conflict with sin continues.” Further, he offers this analogy:

Imagine that an undercover spy is lurking in the White House administration plotting an act of terrorism against the United States. There is a huge difference between the relative positions of the President of the United States and the seditious mole. Both are resident in the White House, but only the President has legitimate executive authority. The mole works by deception, manipulation, and subterfuge. But he has no right to be there, no rightful rank in the chain of command.

In much the same way, sin is resident, not president, in the believer’s heart. The dominion of sin has ended. Its authority to rule is removed, its stranglehold broken. It has influence, but no legitimate authority to rule over us. It is an insidious mole in the believer’s heart that works through manipulation, deception, and subterfuge.

—Brian G. Hedges, Licensed to Kill: A Field Manual for Mortifying Sin (Cruciform Press, 2011), 37–38.