A life freed from "sinful thoughts" begins with a controlled mental life. But we can't fix our our "mental sinfulness". With a keen understanding of the psychology of habits, Arnold rejects all of the "self-help" and "self-medicating" ways that our culture teaches us might resolve those bad habits. I particularly found his discussion about the problem of relying on "willpower" helpful. Willpower will never alleviate sinful thoughts, because willpower is a part of the sinful problem in the first place. Willpower cannot be the savior, because willpower is part of the sinful patterns that enable and ennoble those sinful thoughts to begin with. Trying to use our willpower to get rid of our sinful thoughts only brings those habits and thoughts into a sharper mental focus. And any Christian who's ever struggled with sinful thoughts knows how true this is.
True liberation from sinful thoughts, Arnold advises, occurs only in Christ's redemptive work in our lives. Freedom from sinful thoughts happens only with surrender, not with struggle. In faithfulness, we surrender to the promise that Jesus is recreating our lives out of the little deaths that come with sinful thoughts. This is why Arnold focuses so much of Freedom from Sinful Thoughts on practices like confession, prayer, detachment, and repentance.
The Christian life is mysterious and counter-intuitive, Arnold insists, precisely because it is a gift from God rather than an achievement of our will. His wisdom in chapter 11, on "Confession", of the book is alone worth the price of having it on our shelf. (I won't spoil what's there; I leave it to the reader to discover how much Arnold has given us.)
I have to admit that, at first, I was disappointed by this book. I expected a book that purports to explain how to be free from sinful thoughts to offer exercises to accomplish that. But as I came to the end of Arnold's book, I realized what a treasure he's given to me: A reminder that any spiritual life that is my own struggle will only inevitably end in disaster and depression. It's only when I surrender to the work of Jesus in my life that there's real freedom to be found. That makes Freedom from Sinful Thoughts essential reading for those on the long road toward the liberation of the Gospel from the sinful thoughts that so bind our lives.
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I received a free copy of this book from Plough Publishing in exchange for my honest review here.