Help from (John) Owen

I taught a Sunday school class on John Owen yesterday (he's a Puritan theologian that our family is particularly fond of), and in preparing for the class I started to re-read the first part of his book (or series of books), Overcoming Sin and Temptation, edited by Kelly Kapic and Justin Taylor. It's a fabulous book, and perhaps I'll say more about it as I begin to work back through it. Owen helped me this morning to more clearly see some truths in God's Word about my own sin and about the work of the Spirit within me, and I wanted to pass along a few of his summary statements in his exposition of Romans 8:13: "If you through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body you shall live."

• "The choicest believers, who are assuredly freed from the condemning power of sin, ought yet to make it their business all their days to mortify the indwelling power of sin" (p. 47).
• "The mortification of indwelling sin remaining in our mortal bodies, that it may not have life and power to bring forth the works or deeds of the flesh, is the constant duty of believers" (p. 49).
• "The vigor, power, and comfort of our spiritual life depends on the mortification of the deeds of the flesh" (p. 49).
• "Indwelling sin is compared to a person, a living person, called 'the old man,' with his faculties and properties, his wisdom, craft, subtlety, strength; this, says the apostle, must be killed, put to death, mortified - that is, have its power, life, vigor, and strength to produce its effects taken away by the Spirit. It is, indeed, meritoriously, and by way of example, utterly mortified and slain by the cross of Christ; and the 'old man' is thence said to be 'crucified with Christ' (Rom. 6:6), and ourselves to be 'dead' with him (Rom. 6:8), and really initially in regeneration (Rom. 6:3-5), when a principle contrary to it and destructive of it (Gal. 5:17) is planted in our hearts; but the whole work is by degrees to be carried on toward perfection all our days" (p. 49).

More to come from (John) Owen...