The Mortification Of Sin

Rating:
Summary: Masterly Meditations on Mortification
Review: Also available in The Works of John Owen Vol. 6, this is a masterpiece on how to kill corruption in one's personal life. It is less than 100 pages long (in my copy!), but it is packed with some of the most insightful thinking regarding sanctification, that I have ever read. Owen packs much into this brief book leaving hundreds of rocks just turned over for the reader to search out treasures for himself. There are nine preliminary steps to mortifying sin which were of great practical help to me. They are: 1. Consider the dangerous symptoms of your lust; 2. Get a clear sense of the guilt and danger of the sin; 3. Load your conscience with the guilt of the "perplexing distemper"; 4. Have a vehement desire for deliverance; 5. Determine whether the sin is rooted in your natural temperment; 6. Prevent the opportunites for sin; 7. Vigorously oppose the first actings of sin; 8. Think deeply about the majesty of God; 9. Speak no peace to your own disquieted heart - let God speak it. These principles form the bulk of the book, but they are fenced in by strong opposition to all legalistic methods of dealing with sin and with hearty exhortations to focus on Christ and be empowered by the Spirit in the whole task of mortifying sin. An excellent treatment of the subject and worthy of repeated readings. In fact, it is #17 on my "Master Reading List" (which is a short list of the best books I have read and which deserve to be mastered - if you are interested email me at [e-mail])

Rating:
Summary: Absolutely Essential
Review: This is a work that deserves to be read and reread. John Owen has tackled the heavy issue of sin with more insight than most modern day psychologists. He thoroughly explains what it means to mortify sin by the Holy Spirit, and provides the equivalent of a 12 step program, Puritan-style. Of course, those steps are heavily interlaced with secondary points and supporting scripture texts. Eminently practical, completely biblical, and ultimately an uplifting look at the power of Jesus Christ over the dominion of sin.

Recommended for every Christ, but be prepared for difficult vocabulary and sentence structure. However, as an introduction to John Owen, this is probably one of the more accessible works.

Rating:
Summary: Absolutely Essential
Review: This is a work that deserves to be read and reread. John Owen has tackled the heavy issue of sin with more insight than most modern day psychologists. He thoroughly explains what it means to mortify sin by the Holy Spirit, and provides the equivalent of a 12 step program, Puritan-style. Of course, those steps are heavily interlaced with secondary points and supporting scripture texts. Eminently practical, completely biblical, and ultimately an uplifting look at the power of Jesus Christ over the dominion of sin.

Recommended for every Christ, but be prepared for difficult vocabulary and sentence structure. However, as an introduction to John Owen, this is probably one of the more accessible works.

Rating:
Summary: Puritan Literature on Practical Righteousness
Review: This provides most thorough and explicit instructions for the Christian life. It is outstanding in its class, a very encouraging work.

Rating:
Summary: Worth wading through the "King James" English
Review: This review refers to the copy Amazon has pictured, i.e. the Christian Focus edition in the Christian Heritage series.

Prior to starting at the beginning and slogging through, you may wish to take a peek at the structure the book is organised around:

General Rules:

1. p84
2. p89

Particular Directions:

1. p106
2. p109
3. p123
4. p129
5. p130
6. p133
7. p134
8. p137
9. p151

A totally refreshing read. I plan to follow my local Christian bookseller's advice as soon as possible: "This book needs to be read and reread". The reason for this is that it is so easy to become complacent about sin and sins. Praise God for Puritan literature such as this!

Owen's first General Rule (p84) is absolutely essential: "Be sure to get an interest in Christ if you intend to mortify any sin." He is in complete agreement with Arthur Pink in The Life of Faith, (p54) who says "None can possibly make any progress in the Christian life unless he first be a Christian." Logical? Obvious? Not to all in our time of universalism and pluralism unfortunately.

One difficulty I had (and I am unable to find a page reference for it) was that Owen says that even if we have stopped acting out a sin, we have not mortified it, because its root remains. This needs to be looked at in light of what our Lord said (Mt 5:29 NIV): "If your right eye causes you to sin, gouge it out and throw it away..." and again (vs 30) "And if your right eye causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away..." I know Jesus uses the word "cause" here, but surely what he is actually referring to is the avoidance of acting out an internal sinfulness through any part of the body. Removal of limbs per se will not change the heart, and Jesus wasn't pretending that. But we can see here that, in contrast to what Owen says, it is worth dealing with the symptoms of a sinful heart, regardless of the existence of the internal unmortified root.