What Mortification is Not
Posted on Thursday, December 13, 2007 at 3:17 PM by David Zavadil
“Suppose a man to be a true believer, and yet finds in himself a powerful indwelling sin, leading him captive to the law of it, consuming his heart with trouble, perplexing his thoughts, weakening his soul as to duties of communion with God, disquieting him as to peace, and perhaps defiling his conscience, and exposing him to hardening through the deceitfulness of sin, what shall he do? What course shall he take and insist on for the mortification of this sin, lust, distemper, or corruption, to such a degree as that, though it be not utterly destroyed, yet, in his contest with it, he may be enabled to keep up power, strength, and peace in communion with God?”
In this week's reading of The Mortification of Sin, Owens discusses what mortifying sin is not. While brief, it is a section worth reading. I found myself convicted of my own attitudes toward sin as I read this chapter. Listen to some of Owen's words:
"A man may be sensible of a lust, set himself against the eruptions of it, take care that it shall not break forth as it has done, but in the meantime suffer the same corrupted habit to ventitself some other way; as he who heals and skins a running sore thinks himselfcured, but in the meantime his flesh festers by the corruption of the same humor,4and breaks out in another place...He that changes pride for worldliness, sensuality for Pharisaism, vanity in himself to the contempt of others, let him not think that he has mortified the sin that he seems to have left. He has changed his master, but is a servant still."
How often do you, like me, find yourself patting yourself on your back for overcoming a sin only to find that you are suffering from another form or manifestation of sin? Have you wondered why you just can't seem to eradicate some sinful behavior? Owen reminds us that we will never be fully free from sin this side of heaven. In fact, our constant mortification serves to draw us closer to Christ. If we completely eliminate sin, succeed in putting it all to death, would we need Christ?
"This we would have; but God sees it best for us that we should be complete in nothing in ourselves, that in all things we must be “complete in Christ,” which is best for us (Col. 2:10)."Edited on: Thursday, December 13, 2007 3:24 PM
Posted in Bible Study (RSS), Commentary (RSS)
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