What do you think about when you sin? Do you minimize it as a minor slip? Excuse it because of circumstances? Justify it because everyone does it? Or do you see it for what it actually is—the hateful thing that crucified the Lord of life and glory?
That’s not emotional manipulation. That’s biblical reality. Every sin you commit is the same kind of rebellion that drove nails into Christ’s hands. Every act of disobedience is participating in the same rejection of God that hung Him on the cross. Every time you choose sin, you’re essentially saying, “I prefer this to Christ. I value this more than His sacrifice. I’ll take this pleasure over His pain.”
Think about that the next time you’re tempted. That sexual sin you’re considering? That’s what crucified Christ. That dishonesty you’re justifying? That crucified Christ. That bitterness you’re nurturing? That crucified Christ. That pride you’re feeding? That crucified Christ. Not someone else’s sin—yours. Not sin in general—this specific sin you’re about to choose. It’s the hateful thing that murdered the Son of God.
Does that sound harsh? Good. It should. We’ve domesticated sin, made it manageable, turned it into something we can live with comfortably. We call it mistakes, poor choices, struggles. We treat it like a bad habit we need to break rather than cosmic treason against a holy God. But Scripture won’t let us minimize it. Every sin must be renounced as the hateful thing that crucified the Lord of life and glory.
Notice that word—renounced. Not managed. Not controlled. Not reduced. Renounced. Completely rejected. Utterly repudiated. Totally abandoned. You don’t make peace with what crucified Christ. You don’t negotiate with it. You don’t gradually phase it out. You renounce it as the hateful thing it is.
But here’s where this gets personal and practical. You can’t renounce what you’re still excusing. You can’t reject what you’re still justifying. You can’t abandon what you’re still clinging to. As long as you’re making excuses for your sin, minimizing its seriousness, justifying your choices—you’re not renouncing it. You’re just managing your image while keeping the sin.
Think about Peter. After he denied Christ three times, he didn’t minimize it as understandable given the circumstances. He didn’t justify it as a temporary lapse. He went out and wept bitterly. Why? Because he saw his sin for what it was—betrayal of the One who loved him, denial of the One who died for him, rejection of the Lord of life and glory. That’s renunciation. That’s seeing sin clearly and hating it appropriately.
This is why genuine faith produces a progressive experience of continually doing the works of Christ. Not because works save you, but because genuine faith sees sin the way God sees it—as the hateful thing that crucified His Son. And when you see sin that way, you can’t comfortably continue in it. You fight against it. You renounce it. You pursue its opposite.
Paul describes this when he talks about putting off the old self and putting on the new. You don’t just stop doing certain sins. You renounce the entire old way of life as corrupt and deceitful. You reject it completely, then you actively put on the new self created in righteousness and holiness. Both actions together—renouncing the old and embracing the new.
But let’s be honest about the struggle. You will sin again. You will fail. You will fall into patterns you thought you’d renounced. Does that mean your renunciation wasn’t genuine? Not necessarily. Renunciation doesn’t mean instant perfection. It means fundamental rejection. You can genuinely hate your sin while still struggling against it. The difference is whether you’re fighting or surrendering, whether you’re renouncing or excusing.
Think about an addiction. Someone can genuinely renounce alcohol while still struggling with cravings, still facing temptation, even still having occasional relapses. The renunciation is real even though the battle continues. What would prove the renunciation false is if they stopped fighting, made peace with the addiction, justified their drinking, excused their behavior. That’s not renunciation anymore—that’s surrender.
The same is true spiritually. You renounce sin as the hateful thing that crucified Christ. That doesn’t mean you never sin again. It means you never make peace with it again. Every time you fall, you get back up hating the sin that tripped you. Every time you fail, you renounce afresh what caused you to fail. The battle continues, but the fundamental rejection remains.
This is part of what Scripture means by a progressive experience. You’re not expected to achieve instant, complete victory over every sin the moment you believe. But you are expected to progressively renounce sin as you see more clearly what it cost Christ. You’re expected to continually do the works of Christ—not perfectly, but increasingly, not instantly, but progressively.
And here’s the motivation that makes this possible: You’re not renouncing sin to earn God’s love. You’re renouncing it because you’ve already received God’s love and can’t stand the thought of crucifying His Son afresh. You’re not fighting to gain acceptance. You’re fighting because you’ve been accepted and you love the One who accepted you.
So what sin are you excusing right now? What rebellion are you justifying? What disobedience are you minimizing? Stop. Look at the cross. See what your sin cost. Watch what it did to the Lord of life and glory. Then renounce it. Not as a manageable weakness. Not as an understandable struggle. As the hateful thing that crucified Christ. Reject it completely. Turn from it decisively. Hate it appropriately.
That’s not legalism. That’s love. Love for the One who died because of your sin and rose to free you from it.
“Knowing this, that our old man was crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves of sin.” (Romans 6:6)
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