A Brief Explanation of Mortification and Vivification
You may have at times heard references to mortification and perhaps a little less often vivification. You may understand these to be theological terms that are only for the scholars in their ivory tower yet hold no significance in your daily walk with God. These are theological terms, but I want to take a brief moment to describe what they are and how they can be useful for you. This essay will be far from exhaustive and purely exists to give you the initial steppingstone to be able to move into deeper water.
Mortification is defined as putting to death one’s sinful impulses in the power of the Spirit. This is seen as the idea in Galatians 5:24 where Paul says, “Now those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.” (NASB95) An argument could be made that this passage exclusively deals with salvation yet earlier in chapter 5:16 the Galatians are admonished to walk by the Spirit and not carry out the desire of the flesh. This act of refusing the flesh is in essence mortification.
One of the main ways to accomplish mortification is by having a continual relationship with Jesus through regular intake of scripture and praying to God. The point about scripture intake is seen in 2 Timothy 3:16 where Paul writes, “All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness,” Spending time with God in His Word which He breathed out will help us to mortify the flesh because it is profitable for teaching, reproof, correction, and training in righteousness. In other words, it will sanctify us, make us more holy and like God which means we will sin less.
On prayer for the benefits of mortification we see in Matthew 26:41 on the night Jesus is going to be betrayed between prayers of Jesus crying out to His father He goes to His disciples and says, “Keep watching and praying that you may not enter into temptation; the spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak.” We see a direct link to spending intentional time in prayer and the avoidance of temptation. So, in prayer we are avoiding the desires of the flesh killing that part of us so we can grow in Christ.
Vivification on the other hand is defined as giving life. This is seen in the first part of Galatians 5:16 where Paul admonishes them to walk by the Spirit. The Bible never just tells us to stop doing something but also provides instruction with what must replace it. Vivification is not just an expectation that we will walk in the Spirit but a description of the very thing the Spirit does in us our old self is dead and in Christ we have been raised anew. This idea is communicated vividly in Colossians 2:12 which says we “having been buried with Him in baptism, in which you were also raised up with Him through faith in the working of God, who raised Him from the dead.” Our raising and new life are from and by God through the same power which raised Jesus from the dead.
In our life the Spirit has given us we are now going to increase in the fruit of the spirit as listed in Galatians 5:22-23 where it says that “the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control;” These are the spiritual qualities we must replace our fleshly qualities with so we can grow in our Christlikeness. While the Spirit will grow this fruit in us, we are expected to participate as it says in 5:25, “If we live by the Spirit, let us also walk by the Spirit.” We are alive in the Spirit through our salvation now we are called to act like it. We cannot sit back and let the daily vivification happen; we must put effort into the work to become what we are. In fact, this entire act of mortification and vivification is the act of progressive sanctification, the act of being continuously perfected.