If You Are Struggling with Sin...

...remember that Jesus hates sin (and your sin in particular), and if you are in Christ today, He has dealt with it and is dealing with it through the cross and the power of the Spirit at work in you. I came across these words from Charles Spurgeon this morning (Owen consistently and sweetly asks at breakfast if we can read Morning and Evening, a wonderful 365-day devotional by Spurgeon that takes about 3 minutes to read together...I think he likes looking up the date for that morning):

"[Jesus] hates wickedness so much that He bled to wound it to the heart; He died that it might die; He was buried that He might bury it in his tomb; and He rose that He might for ever trample it beneath His feet."

The plants of grace in our hearts

Some wise counsel from John Owen on weeding the garden of your heart today:

“The life and vigor of our spiritual lives consists in the vigor and flourishing of the plants of grace in our hearts. Now, as you may see in a garden, let there be a precious herb planted, and let the ground be untilled, and weeds grow about it, perhaps it will live still, but be a poor, withering, unuseful thing. You must look and search for it, and sometimes can scarce find it; and when you do, you can scarce know it, whether it be the plant you look for or not; and suppose it be, you can make no use of it at all. When, let another of the same kind be set in the ground, naturally as barren and bad as the other, but let it be well weeded, and everything that is noxious [injurious, harmful, unwholesome] and hurtful removed from it – it flourishes and thrives; you may see it at first look into the garden, and have it for your use when you please. So it is with the graces of the Spirit that are planted in our hearts. That is true; they are still, they abide in a heart where there is some neglect of mortification; but they are ready to die (Rev. 3:2), they are withering and decaying. The heart is like the sluggard’s field – so overgrown with weeds that you can scarce see the good corn. Such a man may search for faith, love, and zeal, and scarce be able to find any; and if he does discover that these graces are there yet alive and sincere, yet they are so weak, so clogged with lusts, that they are of very little use; they remain, indeed, but are ready to die. But now let the heart be cleansed by mortification, the weeds of lust constantly and daily rooted up (as they spring daily, nature being their proper soil), let room be made for grace to thrive and flourish – how will every grace act its part, and be ready for every use and purpose!”

Encouragement to put your sin to death today

John Owen reminded me this morning about the encouragement that is available to me in the truth of Galatians 5:16-17: "But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. For the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh..." As Owen put it, "one main reason why the Spirit and the new nature are given unto us [is] that we may have a principle within us whereby to oppose sin and lust." Let this be a relief and an encouragement to you as you battle against sin today!

"Not to be daily employing the Spirit and new nature for the mortifying of sin is to neglect that excellent succor [assistance, relief] which God has given us against our greatest enemy...His graces, as well as his gifts, are bestowed on us to use, exercise, and trade with. Not to be daily mortifying sin is to sin against the goodness, kindness, wisdom, grace, and love of God, who has furnished us with a principle of doing it."

And one more: "Exercise and success are the two main cherishers of grace in the heart; when it [grace] is suffered to lie still, it withers and decays: the things of it are ready to die (Rev. 3:2); and sin gets ground toward the hardening of the heart (Heb. 3:13). This is that which I intend: by the omission of this duty grace withers, lust flourishes, and the frame of the heart grows worse and worse; and the Lord knows what desperate and fearful issues [outcomes] it has had with many."

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...