Sin, to Die in the Believer – Charles Spurgeon

THERE were certain heretics who disturbed the early Christian church, who said that our Lord did not really and actually die; but we know that he died, for his heart was pierced by the spear, and the flowing of the blood and water proved that he was in very deed most truly dead. Moreover, the Roman officer would not have sanctioned that the body should be given up if he had not made sure that he was dead already, and even made assurance doubly sure by piercing our Lord’s most blessed side. Christ really and truly died, there was no sham or make believe; it was no phantom which bled, and the atoning death was no syncope or long swoon. Even thus it must be with our old propensities; they must not pretend to die, but actually die; they must not be restrained by holy customs; they must not be mewed up by temporary austerities, or laid in a trance by fleeting reveries, or ostentatiously buried alive by religious resolves and professions; they must actually die, and die a real and true death before the Lord and within our souls.