How Do I Leave My Sin at the Foot of the Cross?

“Give it to Jesus.”
“Surrender it to Him.”
“Leave it all at the foot of the cross.”

You’ve likely heard these expressions in Christian circles. They sound so applicable when they’re repeated by a friend sitting across from you at brunch that you nod along, tucking one of the phrases into your mental pocket to pull out later.

Then you do. On the drive home or in a quiet moment, you wonder if you’ve been doing it right. 

Because it doesn’t seem to matter what your struggle is. Maybe it’s gossip. Maybe it’s porn. Maybe it’s a quick temper that picks a fight every time you’re provoked. Maybe it’s a quiet bitterness from a hurt you thought you’d forgiven but continues to resurface. 

Whatever it is, even when you’ve consciously given it to Jesus, you wake up the next morning and it’s back. Or it reappears because you gave in to temptation during moments of stress or exhaustion, even though you thought you’d fully surrendered the struggle to the Lord. 

What then? When you feel caught somewhere between the guilt that clings to you and the truth of Scripture, what does it actually mean to leave a sin struggle at the foot of the cross? 

10 Things You Should Know 

A dear friend sent that question to our group text a little over a month ago––not as a theoretical exercise but because she was frustrated to once again be facing the same issue she’d been working so hard to be free from.

Maybe you’re there too. Maybe you’ve wondered something similar after picking up a struggle you’d already given to Christ. If so, here’s some of what I said to her then, what I’ve been realizing recently, and most importantly, what God’s Word says about this topic. 

1. It all rests on the gospel. 

Do you remember the place where Jesus first found you? Return to the moment you realized you had no hope but Him. Go back to the moment you saw the nails in His hands and knew you not only needed His mercy but that you wouldn’t find forgiveness anywhere but Him. Everything that comes after is rooted in that place––every step forward, every battle you fight. If you lose sight of this foundation, you’ll lose your footing for all the rest.

“Look, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!” (John 1:29)

2. You can’t undo what He’s already done. 

When Jesus declared, “It is finished” (John 19:30), He wasn’t offering a partial payment that would ultimately depend on how well you perform. He knew the ways you’d fall short. He knew the promises you wouldn’t keep, no matter how hard you tried. 

It doesn’t matter how loudly shame tries to tell you, “You’re too broken to be fixed” or “you’re too messed up to be loved.” Christ’s forgiveness wasn’t conditional. It’s all covered, no matter what. Do you believe that?

But this man, after offering one sacrifice for sins forever, sat down at the right hand of God. (Hebrews 10:12) 

3. Surrender begins at the cross, as you see the weight of your sin and the wonder of His mercy. 

It’s what sets you free to confess all of your sin to Him, knowing it’s already been crucified with Him and forgiven. It’s why the encouragement to surrender all to Him resonates with you so deeply. The only response to Him paying it all is to offer Him everything. 

If we confess our sins, he is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. (1 John 1:9) 

4. You must continue to rely on Jesus for everything—day by day, moment by moment.

This is the part we often get wrong. We start out at the cross, knowing we’re in need of God’s mercy, but then we begin to drift––trying to manage, fix, or perfect ourselves apart from the grace that saved us. We proclaim the first part of Galatians 2:20 with our lips: “I have been crucified with Christ, and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me.” But if our lives told the story, they might read more like this: “The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God controlling everything myself.” 

In Galatians 3:3, Paul asks, “After beginning by the Spirit, are you now finishing by the flesh?” Surrender doesn’t mean that you confess your sins and struggles to the Lord during a powerful moment in a worship service, only to walk away determined to fix your life and live out your freedom by yourself. If you had what it takes to do this without Christ, you never would have ended up at the cross in need of Him in the first place. 

I do not set aside the grace of God, for if righteousness comes through the law, then Christ died for nothing. (Galatians 2:21)

Here’s what surrender looks like: 

• You stop running. You stop making excuses, minimizing what you’ve done, or promising you’ll do better in the future (Prov. 28:13). 
• You stand before Jesus, and tell Him the whole truth: “Jesus, I chose ______ instead of You.” Confession isn’t a performance; it’s a cry for help (Psalm 32:5). 
• You remind yourself that your help has a Name. You remember that Jesus died for this sin too. You ask the Lord to help you believe that––because of Christ––what you’ve done is not counted against you anymore. You are fully forgiven (Rom. 8:1). 
• You hand it over. Whether you write it down, pray with your palms open, or simply talk to the Lord in the quietness of your heart, you ask Him to take this from you and to continue to be your help: to show you what needs to change, to strengthen you in your weakness, and to lead you every moment––in your thoughts, habits, and daily decisions (Psalm 37:5). 
• Then you walk with Him. You take Him at His Word that you’re forgiven. You rely on His Spirit for everything, and when He leads, you are willing to follow (Gal. 5:25).

5. You surrendered, but sin didn’t. 

The hard reality is that just because you’ve surrendered a sin struggle to the Lord doesn’t mean that it will automatically fade away. As long as you live this side of heaven, sin will wage war, trying to reclaim territory in your heart. As the Puritan writer John Owen said, 

Sin not only still abides in us, but it still acts, still labors to bring out the deeds of the flesh. When sin lets us alone, we may let sin alone. But sin is never less quiet than when it seems most quiet. Its waters are deepest when they are still. So we need to vigorously root out sin at all times and in all conditions, even where we least suspect it. . . . Sin is always at work.¹

This doesn’t mean that your surrender was incomplete, or that you didn’t do it the “right way.” Let your struggle remind you to draw closer to Christ and find help in the perfect Savior who overcame sin.

Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body, so that you obey its desires. . . . But as those who are alive from the dead, offer yourselves to God, and all the parts of yourselves to God as weapons for righteousness. (Romans 6:12–13)

6. Surrender to Christ includes making war. 

The battleground for surrender is your heart, your mind, and your actions. In Romans 8, Paul wrote,

If by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live. For all those led by God’s Spirit are God’s sons. (Romans 8:13–14) 

“Put to death” is a strong term, violent even. It reflects the seriousness of the struggle. John Owen said, “You need to be killing sin, or it will be killing you.”² This may look like identifying areas of weakness––whether it’s certain environments, people, or digital content––and setting boundaries. It may mean replacing the habits you’re putting to death with Christ-centered ones. As you keep fighting, the Lord will equip you. Don’t forget: He’s already won.

Thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ! (1 Corinthians 15:57)

7. You can expect His supply of grace. 

You can count on the Lord to never fail you. He knows you’re weak; He knows the limitations of your heart and mind and how difficult it is to fight temptation. Look back on ways that He’s already been faithful to you. Look to Him with the expectation that He will be able to provide all you need in the moment you need it.

No temptation has come upon you except what is common to humanity. But God is faithful; he will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation he will also provide the way out so that you may be able to bear it. (1 Corinthians 10:13)

8. When conviction sets in, see it as an invitation to return. 

In moments when you sin once again and are discouraged, or when what you’ve done weighs heavily on you, rather than allowing it to condemn you, consider it evidence that the Spirit of God is alive and at work in your heart. Imagine where you’d be if the opposite were true:

• If sin hardened your heart (Heb. 3:13). 
• If sin clouded your ability to see that it’s hurting you (2 Cor. 4:4).
• If sin deadened the sting of guilt until the situation hardly felt wrong anymore (1 Tim. 4:2). 

If God is drawing attention to areas of your life that need to be surrendered to Him, take it as a call to turn away from the things that lead you from Him. Praise God that He is committed to your growth and holiness, shaping you to be more like His Son rather than shaming you. 

I am sure of this, that he who started a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus. (Philippians 1:6) 

9. God’s already renovated more than you realize. 

When my friend texted our group and mentioned the sin cycle she’s been stuck in, one of my responses was simply to tell her I was proud of her. She felt as if she was continually going back to square one, but as someone who had known her for years, I’d seen how much work the Lord had already done in her heart. 

You need trusted friends to hold you accountable, and you also need people to remind you that you’re not the same person you once were. As they encourage you with ways that God has already changed you, thank Him and trust He’ll continue His work until the day you’re fully transformed. 

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has passed away, and see, the new has come! (2 Corinthians 5:17) 

10. In Christ, surrender always leads to life. 

Keep looking to Jesus. He had no sin to lay down, but He endured the cross, scorning its shame, “for the joy that lay before him” (Heb. 12:2). The cross was never the end of the story. On the other side of His surrender, on the other side of loss, came resurrection and glory. It will for you too.

As you seek to leave your sin at the cross, keep your eyes on your risen Savior. The same Spirit that raised Him from the dead lives in you, working resurrection power in every part of your life. 

If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead lives in you, then he who raised Christ from the dead will also bring your mortal bodies to life through his Spirit who lives in you. (Romans 8:11)

¹ John Owen, On the Mortification of Sin, ed. William H. Goold, vol. 6 of The Works of John Owen (London: Johnstone & Hunter, 1850–53; modernized and annotated by William H. Gross, 2002), https://www.monergism.com/thethreshold/sdg/owen/Mortification%20of%20Sin%20-%20John%20Owen.pdf.

² Owen, On the Mortification of Sin.