From Dr. Piper

How to Kill Sin John Piper The only hope of getting our lives changed is to be accepted by God by faith alone and then in the joy and the power and the freedom and the assurance of that acceptance, we have the resources now to put to death the deeds of the body. To fight the fight of faith. To reckon ourselves dead. And to be transformed into the image of Christ. Romans 6:11-14 1- Christ died for your sin. You have to start here. Romans 3:25, Romans 5:8-9 God did. He sent His Son for our sins. If you skip this part, satan will defeat you with a guilty conscience. 2- When Christ died and rose, you died and rose in Him. What He was executed for, you were executed. God looks at you as He looks at Christ. Romans 6:6, 6:8 3- God unites us to Christ by faith so that what was accomplished for us on the cross is applied to us in Christ by the Spirit. Romans 6:5 How did He do that? 1 Corinthians 1:30 God put you in Christ. What did you have to do? ** Looking on what He has done for you in Christ, what He is for you in Christ, what He promises to do and receiving that as a free gift and as the treasure of your life, that is faith. 1 Peter 2—to you who believe, He is precious. 4- When you are in Christ by faith, God justifies you. He forgives all your sins and imputes to you the righteousness of Christ. 2 Corinthians 5:21 As God reckoned to Christ my sin which didn’t belong to Him, He reckoned to me His righteousness which didn’t belong to me. 5- A mental and volitional act preceding direct engagement with temptation. Romans 6:11 *It is something you do with your reason and your will. Know yourself this way. Think this way about what happened to Jesus and what happened to you in Jesus. *It is in Christ that you are to reckon these things now. All of this is happening before temptation is mentioned. It is amazing all that happens prior to the conflict. If we simply absorb our thought processes from the music, and the videos, and the conversations, we lose. We become like everybody else. We die. 6- Direct engagement. When sin distorts a desire, sends this desire to lie to you and deceive you that this act that it wants you to pursue will reward, at that moment, you must prefer another ruler. The t-shirt that says “just say no” is not a Christian t-shirt because 5 massive steps come before “say no.” We say no when Judas desire of lust come, we choose to say no. But oh so much more is the foundation of that choosing. Romans 6:12 sin is attacking through desires. We are called to choose against them. Appeal to your will and your mind. No, I will not speak that word. Engage your will. You choose. What is choosing? How does it happen? Choosing is to prefer one thing over another thing. If God is going to get the glory in our lives, choosing against sin must be because we regard God and what He is and what He promises as preferable. If we don’t, He doesn’t get glory. He is infinitely preferable. Isn’t that why the text says that you are dead to sins and its desires? You are alive to God. He looks preferable to you now. The forgiveness of all our sins and the imputation of righteousness and at the practical level, with the death to the preferability of sin and life to the preferablity of God. When you meet sin, you win to the degree that you have looked upon God and all that He has done for you and counted Him precious and a treasure so that He is preferable to that deadly, lying, Judas desire. And then you say no. But you don’t just say no. You say that Christ is your all. This is a battle of dying to the promises of sin and coming alive to the promises, the beauty, the treasure, and the desirability of God. Fight this thing on the positive end.