On Unchecked and Excessive Desires (rewritten)

If we truly want to devote ourselves fully to God, then we need to take a serious, honest look at our desires — what they are and how far they go.

Desires themselves aren’t the problem. They’re part of being human. We naturally want things like life, food, knowledge, and connection with others. These are normal and even necessary. The issue is that, in both the natural, unspiritual person, and even in someone who is only partly spiritually formed, these desires often aren’t properly guided or kept in check by a deeper love for God. Instead, they grow beyond healthy limits. They become self-centered, excessive, and sometimes even harmful — so much so that they can take control of a person’s entire life. When desires reach this point, they bring with them a constant sense of restlessness and inner turmoil. That’s why they need to be carefully guarded against.

The Difference Between Justification and Sanctification (rewritten)

When faith and love take root in a person’s heart, things change for them. Their arrival sets off an internal struggle, because they confront something already present — the corrupt tendencies of our natural state. These two forces have nothing in common, so conflict is inevitable.

But before diving deeper into that inner conflict — which, if sanctification truly takes hold, will eventually lead to the overcoming of our old selfish nature — it’s worth pausing to think carefully about how sanctification relates to justification.

Most people agree that justification and sanctification are not the same thing. Still, they’ve sometimes been treated as if they were identical, even by thoughtful writers. That confusion isn’t entirely surprising, since both share an important underlying idea: complete submission.

The Temptations of a Sanctified Heart (rewritten)

At this point, our goal is to give a broad but careful overview of temptation — especially the kind experienced by someone whose heart is genuinely given to God. We’re talking about people who live in assurance, whose lives can rightly be described as sanctified. Even hearts like these are not exempt from temptation, and understanding how temptation works is essential to living faithfully.

At its core, temptation begins when something is presented to the mind — an object, an idea, or a situation — that has the potential to stir the desires or move the will in a wrong direction. That “wrong direction” can take two different forms. Sometimes the action temptation urges is simply wrong. Other times, the action is acceptable in itself but becomes wrong because it is carried too far. Either way, when temptation moves beyond thought and gains the consent of desire or will — prompting action when there should be none, or excessive action where restraint is required — sin is always the result. 

Seen from this perspective, temptation shows up in two main ways.