Overcoming Sin and Temptation (Chapter 8)

John Owen has an excellent comment in his work on the Holy Spirit - Volume 3 of his collected works, in that chapter on the Mortification of Sin which is an amplification of what he is saying here about not just mortifying the sin that doth so easily beset us… “there is no less fatal mistake where we make the object of this duty to be only some particular lusts, or the fruits of them in actual sins, as was before observed. This is the way with many. They will make head against some sins, which on one account or other they find themselves most concerned in; but if they will observe their course, they shall find with how little success they do it. For the most part, sin gets ground upon them, and they continually groan under the power of its victories; and the reason is, because they mistake their business. Contests against particular sins are only to comply with light and convictions. Mortification, with a design for holiness, respects the body of sin, the root and all its branches. The first will miscarry, and the latter will be successful. And herein consists the difference between that mortification which men are put upon by convictions from the law, which always proves fruitless, and that wherein we are acted by the spirit of the gospel. The first respects only particular sins, as the guilt of them reflects upon conscience; the latter, the whole interest of sin, as opposed to the renovation of the image of God in us.

It is important that we not miss his point, IMHO. He says that to mortify only the sin that is the blast of the martial trumpet in our concience is to only have legal motives for dealing with sin. The result is that, as he said before, the mortification of sin is a cause and effect of salvation (you suppose you are earning God’s favor by it) instead of a means to an end of salvation - work out your own salvation for it is God that works in you.

Craig wrote: …”, it seems to me that Owens is asking for a kind of introspection here that is not only impossible but may even be idolatrous since it asks us to know what we cannot know”

Thomas: >Any real serious self-examination cannot be done without the aid of the Spirit, “Search me oh God, and know my heart, try me and know my thoughts and see if there be any wicked way in me…”

Let us use an illustration. Suppose a man has problems looking at sensual images on the computer. His wife is computer savvy enough, or becomes so, that she is able to look through his web searching history and see where he has been. Once she finds out, she really becomes angry and then threatens to tell the pastor and ask for marital counseling. He may realize that he has a problem with this sin and wants to quit it because he certainly does not want the humiliation of having to face his pastor and be accountable for where he has been on the internet.

What is interesting, the enmity of the heart begins to arise against anyone bringing an accusation against us in proportion to the light that is brought, our own guilt, and the judgment that awaits. That is why with the unregenerate, the enmity against God is total. Romans 8:7. It is unjust, He has done nothing to merit such contempt, “they hated Me without a cause.” But the desire to save ourselves from the ensuing punishment is purely mercenary. It is completely selfish. It wants to be saved from the punishment, it has no sorrow for the crime, or feels no culpability. This disposition still remains in the Christian as well. This is the principle that is to be put to death.

Now back to the illustration.

But if the scrutiny was not there, he would go back to looking at the images on the internet for he still loves to do so.

Now suppose on is own, on the other hand, he thinks about how good God has been to him to give him a dear wife that loves him and holds him accountable. And he realizes she doesn’t just want him to quit looking at the images because she is jealous, but because she is concerned about his soul. He is deeply burdened that he has traded on her love and despised it for this moment of pleasure to indulge his sensual appetites. He begins to abhor himself because he has chosen an image of a woman over the reality, a real Christian sister that God has given him as a helper, and friend.

Now when he thinks back to the sensual images he saw on the computer, he begins to have a disaffection, then a total disinclination to them. When he is in a real healthy condition, his wife is greatly prized and the sensual images are completely abhorrent to him. The images have no more tempting ability, or at least to turn the previous spark back into a fire he would really have to feed that principle within him, and quench the love he has toward his wife.

This the unregenerate cannot do at all. This is called Total Inability. He cannot have a disinclination to sin, because he is a slave in his affections to it. This the Christian can do because there has been a change in the “governing disposition” of the soul, that is called regeneration. The lever has been reversed on the affection, and they can now arise to God.

I hope this illustration helps. If you think Owen is calling us to self reflection now, wait until we get to chapter 13.

It is fair to ask in that chapter if Owen is pressing self examination too far, but that is a point we can discuss when we get there.

Admittedly, self examination is not an easy task depending on temperament alone. Some can hardly bring themselves to it… Some saints can hardly refrain from it, such as William Cowper who ended up in complete despair four times in his life.

Hello Craig: I still wanted to answer the second part of your post. You wrote, “For myself, it’s pretty hard to tell whether I hate a sin as sin or simply because of its consequences in my life. My motives are rarely that obvious or pure.”

I am assuming you mean your motives as to why you hate sin, not why we sin, because that is the discussion. I believe Owen’s point is that a person who only aims to mortify sin because of the legal consequences of it, does not in fact really hate sin. He hates the punishment for it, but would continue to sin if those punishments were not forthcoming. I must admit, to bring ourselves to loathe sin because it is done against the goodness, mercy and love of God is a difficult thing UNLESS someone is very much assured that he has indeed experienced that mercy and love for himself. If one is not assured that God is his father, it is almost inevitable that all that he does to attempt to please God is done out of legal motives, and not out of evangelical motives. There is so much I can say by way of proof of this, since I myself am very introverted and have studied my own heart on this subject, and what the Puritans have said. In other words, many of their writings on this subject come to my mind.

I am quite familiar with John Owen’s own writings on this subject and I believe he says much in his volume I am now narrating for Sermon Audio, called the Forgiveness of Sin, that expresses the point in question for abler than I can do.

Owen wrote on evangelical sorrow for sin, “There is a respect in it to the love of God; and this breaks the heart of the poor returning sinner. Sorrow from the law shuts itself up in the soul, and strangleth it. Sorrow from the thoughts of the love of God opens it, and causeth it to flow forth. Thoughts of sinning against the love of God, managed by the Holy Ghost; — what shall I say? their effects in the heart are not to be expressed. This made Ezra cry out, “O my God, I am ashamed and blush to lift. up my face to thee,” Ezra 9:6; and verse 10, “What shall we say after this?” After what? Why, all the fruits of love and kindness they had been made partakers of. Thoughts of love and sin laid together make the soul blush, mourn, be ashamed, and confounded in itself. So Ezekiel 36:31, “Then shall ye remember your own evil ways, and your doings that were not good.” When shall they do so? When thoughts and apprehensions of love shall be brought home to them; and, saith he, “Then shall ye lothe yourselves in your own sight.” The soul now calls to mind what love, what kindness, and what mercy, what grace, what patience hath been exercised towards it, and whereof it hath been made partaker. The thoughts of all these now come in upon him as streams of water. Such mercy, such communion, such privileges, such hopes of glory, such tastes of heaven, such peace, such consolation, such joy, such communications of the Spirit, — all to a poor, wretched, cursed, lost, forlorn sinner; and all this despised, neglected! the God of them all provoked, forsaken! “Ah,” saith the soul, “whither shall I cause my sorrow to go?”

Later Owen compares the thoughts of those who confess their sins out of legal motives,”It must be free, and spiritually ingenuous. Cain, Pharaoh, Ahab, Judas, came all to an acknowledgment of sin; but it was whether they would or no. It was pressed out of them; it did not flow from them. The confession of a person under the convincing terrors of the law or dread of imminent judgments is like that of malefactors on the rack, who speak out that for which themselves and friends must die. What they say, though it be the truth, is a fruit of force and torture, not of any ingenuity of mind.”

I hope some of these quotes are helpful, but would welcome your thoughts or even objections.

RE: A question that came to mind was ‘why do we neglect certain duties?’ Owen mentioned that we neglect other duties probably because they “are not of the same kind with the lust wherewith [we are] troubled”.

Good question! To use Owen’s own words, sins such as sexual temptation make a “combustion” in the whole man. Therefore they get our attention quicker. But sins that we have little light regarding the evil of, hardly get our attention. An interesting sermon to read is Jonathan Edwards’ sermon, “The Necessity of Self Examination” or “why many living in sin know it not.”

We neglect certain duties because we are not convinced that they are our duties, and modern teaching on this subject has aided this error. The moment someone uses the word “duty” the cry of “legalism” is heard. And it is very subtle. It is subtle because it is supposed that if we serve God out of love, we don’t have to worry about serving Him out of duty. They have created a dichotomy that the Puritans never recognized. Jesus said if you love Me you will obey my commandments. This is not welcome language. But that is another discussion.