This morning I appreciated Justin Taylor's article about the Puritans and what they have to teach us about counseling. Some of the points offered are echoed in a book from Cruciform Press entitled Licensed To Kill: A Field Manual For Mortifying Sin. I'm working through this book right now with a class of teenagers at our church.
Two items in particular resonated with me and what I've been studying lately:
First, the Puritans "looked not just at behavior but at underlying root motives and desires. Man is a worshipper; all problems grow out of ‘sinful imagination’ or idol manufacturing."
Killing sin is not just about changing behavior, it is essentially and more critically about transforming the heart and its very desires.
Second,the Puritans "considered the essential spiritual remedy to be belief in the gospel, used in both repentance and the development of proper self-understanding."
The Gospel isn't just for "getting me saved", it is living and active and vital to my everyday growth, comfort, discipline, sanctification and perseverance.
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