MORTIFICATION OF SIN

John Owen
[1656]

Chapter 2

NECESSITY OF
MORTIFICATION

Summarize in general
why mortification is so
necessary in the
Christian life.

Be killing sin or it will be

killing you.

What are the dangers of

expecting perfection in
this life? In other words,
what are the dangers of
believing we have come
to the end of killing
sin in this life?

It is more probably that

those who hold such views
never knew what belonged to
the keeping of any one of
Gods commands

and are so much below

perfection of degrees, that they
never attained to a perfection
of parts in obedience or
universal obedience in
sincerity.

How does Paul describe

sins activity in the
Christian in Romans 7?

When sin lets us alone we

may let sin alone; but as sin
is never less quiet than when
it seems to be most quiet, and
its waters are for the most
part most deep when they are
still

so should our fight

against it to be vigorous at all
times and in all conditions,
even where there is least
suspicion.

There is not a day but sin

foils or is foiled, prevails or is
prevailed on; and it will be so
while we live in this world.

What is the goal of our

sinful natures?

Sin aims always at the

utmost; every time it rises up
to tempt or entice, might it
have its course, it would go
out to the utmost sin in that
kind.

How does sin deceive

us?

How does the new

nature operate in
relation to sin?

Not to be daily employing

the Spirit and new nature for
the mortifying of sin, is to
neglect that excellent relief
which God has given us
against our greatest enemy.

How is the failure to

mortify sin a sin in
itself?

When a man has confirmed

his imagination to such an
apprehension of grace and
mercy as to be able, without
bitterness, to swallow and
digest daily sins...

that man is at the very

brink of turning the grace of
God into lasciviousness, and
being hardened by the
deceitfulness of sin.

Neither is there a greater

evidence of a false and rotten
heart in the world than to
drive such a trade.

Let not that man think he

makes any progress in
holiness who walks not over
the bellies of his lusts. He who
does not kill sin in his way
takes no steps toward his
journeys end.

He who finds not opposition

from it, and who sets not
himself in every particular to
its mortification, is at peace
with it, not dying to it.

How does the goal of

the Christian life
motivate us to
mortification?