We run to Christ for forgiveness, then too often turn to the law for power to fight our sins. Paul rebukes us: "O foolish Galatians! Who has bewitched you? Let me ask you this one question: Did you receive the Spirit by keeping the law, or by believing what you heard? Are you so foolish? After beginning by means of the Spirit, are you now trying to finish by human effort?"

Take your sins to Christ's cross—for the old man can only be crucified there! We are crucified with him. The only weapon to fight sin with is the spear that pierced the side of Jesus.

Let me give you an illustration. You want to overcome an angry temper—how do you go to work? It's very possible you've never tried the right way of going to Jesus with it. How did I get salvation? I came to Jesus just as I was, and I trusted him to save me. I must kill my angry temper in the same way. It is the only way I can ever kill it. I must go to the cross with it and say to Jesus, "Lord, I trust you to deliver me from it." This is the only way to give it a death-blow.

Are you covetous? Do you feel the world entangle you? You may struggle against this evil as long as you please, but if it be your besetting sin, you will never be delivered from it in any way but by the blood of Jesus. Take it to Christ! Tell him, "Lord, I have trusted you, and your name is Jesus, for you save your people from their sins. Lord, this is one of my sins—save me from it!"

Ordinances are nothing without Christ as a means of mortification. Your prayers, and your repentances, and your tears—the whole of them put together—are worth nothing apart from him. "None but Jesus can do helpless sinners good"—or helpless saints either! You must be conquerors through him who loved you, if conquerors at all. Our laurels must grow among his olives in Gethsemane.