Underground Exiles

As I’ve read The Mortification of Sin, I’ve certainly been humbled.  While John Owen is ponderous and weighty as a theologian, his pastoral heart shines through this particular work.

And God has been especially gracious - I’ve been given grace to mortify a particular habitual sin three times in just one week!  This just proves to me that today’s grace is sufficient.

So now I go a little further on into Owen’s work, and find this:

“When God stirs your heart about the guilt of your sin, concerning either its root and indwelling, or its breaking out, be careful you do not speak peace to yourself before God speaks it.  Listen closely to what He says to your soul.”

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So as I’m reading through The Mortification Of Sin by John Owen, I’m also reading The Doctrine Of Repentance by Thomas Watson as a companion volume.

In writing this book, Watson says that true, gospel repentance consists of six things, and according to Watson if you leave out a single one of these, repentance “loses it’s virtue”.  Like many of the Puritans, Watson equates these six things as being similar to ingredients in a medicine, and if it misses even one of the necessary ingredients, it no longer does the work that it is designed to do.

According to Watson these six “ingredients” are:

1. Sight of sin
2. Sorrow for sin
3. Confession of sin
4. Shame for sin
5. Hatred for sin
6. Turning from sin

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So as I continue reading The Mortification of Sin by John Owen, I find my self struck by this statement:

You cannoy mortify a specific sin that is troubling you, unless you are seeking to obey the Lord from the heart in all areas!

Let me be frank; that statement hurts.  When I first read it, it was like a hard punch to the stomach.

In reality all John Owen is doing is being plain about what is apparent all throughout the Gospels.  Jesus is absolutely ruthless about going after the heart, and anything less just isn’t on His radar.

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“Do you mortify? Do you make it your daily work? Do not take a day off from this work; you must always be killing sin or it will be killing you.” — John Owen,The Mortification of Sin

The honest answer to Owens’ question is “No”.  Killing my sin is not something that even crosses my mind.

I’m so full of sin that I’m not even aware of my sin the majority of time.  Sure, I’m pretty good at confessing the small stuff - but what about anger?  Or pride?  Or lust?

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WHEN GOD GRIEVES… | Southern Baptist Blogs - SBC Voices.

I try to keep up with the SBC Voices blog on my feedreader, and this post was like a kick in the gut.

Well written, and very timely, at least for me anyway.  Go by and give it a read, and may you take to heart what it has to say.

Happy reading!