“They are positive inclinations to active disobedience and they are also negative – that is, inclinations not to bother about moral and spiritual issues. That kind of inclination used to be called sloth, spiritual laziness.”

Renowned theologian J. I. Packer recently elaborated his views on how to put sin to death, saying that the first thing a Christian should do is ask God to “enable me to see the sin as He sees it.”

And the way God sees sin, he explained, is as the “spiritual equivalent of dirt in places where cleanliness ought to be” and as “something very ugly.”

“If the Father and the Son in mercy show me their love to me and draw out of me grateful love to them, if at the same time the Spirit makes me aware that my sinful habits are what they are and that each … of them anathema to God, God wants to see the last of it, and through the power of the Holy Spirit He can actually bring that to pass,” the 85-year-old Canadian author stated in a video featured on Desiring God ministry’s website.

Desiring God, led by John Piper, is preparing to host its national conference in Minneapolis in September and the theme of the event is “Act the miracle: God’s work and ours in the mystery of sanctification.”

“Few things it seems to me are more crucial than that we discern the relationship between human effort in the Christian life and a deep and profound reliance upon the sovereign, gracious, decisive work of God,” said Piper, also an influential Reformed theologian, in his preview of the conference.

“For many people, this is a very puzzling paradox. Should I work if God is the decisive worker? Or is God the decisive worker?”

“Yes we do it but He does it in and through us. How does that work? What are the biblical foundations? …

I’m eager to wrestle with this with you because I think we have to get this right in our life if we’re going to glorify Jesus and display to the world the kind of works that cause Him glory in their eyes.”

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