Tag Archives: deceitfulness of sin

09/22/20

Enticed by Indwelling Sin

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In the eleventh chapter of Indwelling Sin in Believers, John Owen described how sin entices our emotions or desires (affections). “The mind is drawn away from duty, and the affections are enticed to sin.” He said this enticement can be likened to a fishing lure. “For there is an allusion in it to the bait wherewith a fish is taken on the hook, which holds him to his destruction.” The first thing he wants us to know about this kind of sinful enticement is what it is like to have our affections entangled and corrupted by this lure.

First, our affections become entangled when sin awakens a desire for the coveted object. And if sin prevails, it becomes an obsession, filling our imagination with images and likenesses of the object continually. Such a person devises wickedness; they obsess over the evil in their sleep. “That is, their imaginations are possessed with a continual representation of the object of their lusts.”

The apostle John tells us the things that are in world are the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes and pride of possessions (1 John 2:16). The lust of the eyes does not refer here to the bodily sense of seeing, but to how the imagination becomes fixated on whatever is the object of our desire. The act of seeing initiates the process of coveting it. A person’s heart can have a steady, secure hatred of the desire. However, if they find that their imagination frequently attends to it, they need to realize their affections may be secretly enticed by this sin.

This entanglement is intensified when the imagination prevails upon the mind to fantasize about the object of desire. This may occur even when the person would never actually do the thing they fantasize about. These thoughts are like couriers carrying sin to and fro, between the imagination and the affections. They inflame the imagination and increasingly entangle the desires. And if the will separates from what rules it, sin is conceived.

A readiness to rationalize sin, or the pardons offered against sin when it is committed, show how the affections are entangled with it. “Is it not a little one;” or “there is mercy provided;” or “in time I shall relinquish it” is the language of a deceived heart. When there is a readiness in the soul to entertain such secret insinuations, “it is evidence that the affections are enticed.” When the soul is willing to be to be tempted or courted by sin, it has lost its conjugal affections to Christ and is entangled.

When the deceit of sin has prevailed thus far on any person, then he is enticed or entangled; the will is not yet come to the actual conception of this or that sin by its consent, but the whole soul is in a near inclination thereunto. And many other instances I could give as tokens and evidences of this entanglement. These may suffice to manifest what we intend thereby.

Second, taking advantage of such times, it presents sin as attractive to our corrupt affections. It gilds over the object of our craving with a thousand pretenses, which it presents to our corrupt desires. This is when the bait is presented to the now hungry creature for its sinful pleasure. This pleasure consists of the ability to satisfy the flesh, to corrupt our affections. So, Paul cautioned us to “make no provision for the flesh” (Romans 13: 14).

Thus, therefore, the deceit of sin endeavours to entangle the affections, by proposing to them, through the assistance of the imagination, that suitableness which is in it, to the satisfaction of its corrupt lusts, now set at some liberty, by the inadvertency of the mind. It presents its wine sparkling in the cup, the beauty of the adulteress, the riches of the world, to sensual and covetous persons, and somewhat in the like kind, in some degree, to believers themselves. When, therefore, I say, sin would entangle the soul, it prevails with the imagination to solicit the heart, by representing this false painted beauty, or pretended satisfactoriness of sin: and then if Satan, with any peculiar temptation, fall into its assistance, it oftentimes inflames all the affections, and puts the whole soul into disorder.

Third, it hides the danger of sin. It covers the danger as the hook covers with the bait. However, it is not possible for sin to entirely hide its dangers from a person. “But this it will do, it will so take up and possess the mind and affections, with the baits and desirableness of sin, that it shall divert them from an actual and practical contemplation of the danger of it.” This is what Satan did with his first temptation, and what sin had done ever since. Sin uses a thousand different tricks to distract us from seeing the terror of the Lord as the ultimate consequence of our transgressions. The hope of pardon will be used to hide it; the hope of future repentance will hide it; the persistence of lust will hide it; fixing the imagination on present objects will hide it; the enjoyment of lust will hide it. It has a thousand tricks that cannot be repeated here.

Let us pause here for a while and convey some suggestions to prevent this work of the deceitfulness of sin. If we want to avoid the enticement and entanglement of sin, we must not stroll on the road that leads to death. Be mindful of your affections, which in the Scriptures are referred to as the heart—the principle thing God requires as we walk before Him. Proverbs 4:23 tells us to watch or keep our hearts with all vigilance.

You have many things in your life that you watch over—your life, your properties, your reputations, your families. But above all, watch over the heart; your affections. Keep it from being entangled with sin. If you save all other things but lose your heart, all is lost. What then can you do?

Generally, guard your heart by setting your minds on things above and not on earthly things; put to death what is earthly in you (Colossians 3:2, 5). If you set your mind on heavenly things, this will enable you to put sin to death. Let your mind be preoccupied with God Himself in all His beauty and glory; the Lord Jesus, who is altogether lovely; the mysteries revealed or the promises given in the gospel. If our minds were taken up with these things, what access could sin gain with its painted pleasures and sugared poisons? “For, what are the vain, transitory pleasures of sin in comparison of the exceeding recompense of reward which is proposed to us?

Specifically, set your mind on the cross of Christ, which is of overwhelming value for the frustration of indwelling sin. If the heart is filled by the cross of Christ, it crucifies all the baits and pleasures of sin. “It leaves no seeming beauty, no appearing pleasure or comeliness in them.” It roots up corrupt lusts, and leaves no starting point for the flesh to fulfill its lusts. “Fill your affections with the cross of Christ, that there may be no room for sin.”

Watch over the vigor of your heart towards heavenly things. If it is not regularly attended to, excited, directed and forewarned, it is apt to decline. And sin lies in wait, ready to take every advantage it can over them. Scripture speaks repeatedly of losing your first love, of letting your heart decay. So be jealous over it; regularly examine it; call it to account and supply it with what is needed to excite it to do its duty.

07/14/20

The Deceit of Indwelling Sin

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In chapter ten of Indwelling Sin in Believers, John Owen said he had not yet finished with showing how the deceit of sin draws the mind away from the discharge of its duties. Because of its importance, if the mind is weakened or turned aside from attending to the Word, the whole soul, will and emotions are certain to be entangled and drawn into sin. We need to be particularly alert for this, as the author of Hebrews said: “Therefore, we must pay attention to what we have heard, lest we drift away from it” (Hebrews 2:1). There is no other way to prevent this drifting except by giving our most earnest attention to the things we have heard in the Word, which expresses the whole duty of God to our minds.

First Owen said he would consider what is required in the mind of a believer with regard to particular duties we should attend to. Second, he would show the way the deceit of sin works so that attending to the Word may be removed from where it had attached.

It is not enough that we perform just any duty, rather that it must be universally squared and fitted to the task. This is the main responsibility of the mind, namely to assess the administration of spiritual duties and to see that all their matters are in order. Progress in obedience is like building a house. It does no good for a man to gather wood and stones, heaped up together without order. “They must be hewed and squared, and fitted by line and rule, if we intend to build.”

There is no advantage to our edification in faith and obedience if we multiply duties, but don’t order them according to the rule of the Word. God expressly rejects a multitude of duties if they are not suited to that rule: “What to me is the multitude of your sacrifices? says the Lord. . . They have become a burden to me; I am weary of bearing them” (Isaiah 1:11, 14). As letters in the alphabet signify nothing unless they are disposed in their proper order, so it is with our duties. As Paul said in Ephesians 5:15, “Look carefully then how you walk, not as unwise but wise.” Owen concluded his thought on what was required with regard to particular duties by saying, “We walk in duties, but we walk circumspectly in the attention of the mind.”

There are certain things the rule of the Word directs us to, so that our mind would pay attention to every duty. First the duty should be full and complete. Under the law, no beast was permitted to be sacrificed if it had any defect, as when they were lame or blind. Saul, because he spared Agag and the fattest cattle (1 Samuel 15:3, 9), rendered the destruction of all the rest useless. “Thus, when men give alms, or perform other services, but not to the proportion that the rule requires, and which the mind by diligent attention to it, might discover, the whole duty is vitiated [corrupted].”

Your duty is to be done in faith, so that it is an actual derivation of the strength of Christ, without whom we can do nothing (John 15:5). It is not enough that the person is a believer, although that is necessary for every good work. Faith must be active in every duty, for our entire obedience is “the obedience of faith” (Romans 1:5). That is what the doctrine of faith requires, “and which the grace of faith bears or brings forth.”

As in natural life, no vital act can be performed except by the actual principle of life itself, so it is in spiritual life. “No spiritually vital act, that is, no duty acceptable to God, can be performed, but by the actual working of Christ, who is our life.” There is no other way open to us but faith. Christ now lives in me; and as Paul said in Galatians 2:20, “The life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God.” Therefore, a believer ought to ensure that everything he does for God, is done in the strength if Christ.

There are three things which a believer ought to attend to with regard to the manner of the performance of any duty. First, it should be done in the way and by the means that God has prescribed. This is particularly important in duties of worship. If this is not attended to, the entire duty is vitiated. Owen spoke this not to individuals who worship God according to their own imagination, but to those who did not “diligently attend to the rule, to make the authority of God to be the sole cause and reason, both of what they do, and of the manner of the performance of it.” This was why God so often called on his people to consider diligently and wisely that they do everything according to his commands.

Second, the affections of heart and mind belong to the performance of duties. A sacrifice without heart, without salt or fire, what good is it? God requires special affections to accompany certain duties. For example, “God loves a cheerful giver” (2 Corinthians 9:7). No longer are duties to be done without spiritual affections. If they are not attended to like this, the whole is lost.

Third, the mind is to attend to the end point of our duties, principally, the glory of God in Christ. There are several other endings that sin and self try to impose upon our duties, especially these two. The first is the satisfaction of convictions and the second is the praise of men. Self-righteousness and ostentation are the main ends of men who have departed from God in all moral duties whatsoever. “In their sins they endeavor to satisfy their lusts; in their duties, their convictions and their pride.” The mind of a believer should diligently guard against these.

Here there lies in no small part, the deceit of sin: it attempts to draw the mind away from keeping the watch and charge of the Lord. If it can do so, that is strip our duties of all the excellancies the mind is to attend to, it will not trouble itself—or us—about the duties themselves. And here is how it will try to do this.

First, it persuades the mind to be content with generalities and to stop attending to things in particular instances. It will persuade the soul to be satisfied in a general aim of doing things for the glory of God, without considering how every particular duty should have that tendency. Saul thought he had fulfilled his whole duty and done the will of God in his war against Amalek. But because he did not pay attention to every particular duty in that service, he dishonored God and ruined himself. If the soul contents itself with a general notion of advancing the glory of God instead of fixing the mind by faith upon its task, it has already been diverted and drawn off from its charge by the deceitfulness of sin.

He who satisfies himself with this general purpose, without acting it in every special duty, will not long retain that purpose. It does the same work upon the mind, in reference to the principle of our duties, as it does to the end. Their principle is, that they be done in faith, in the strength of Christ; but if men content themselves that they are believers, that they have faith, and do not labour in every particular duty to act faith, to lead their spiritual lives, in all the acts of them, “by the faith of the Son of God,” the mind is drawn off from its duty. It is in particular actions where we express and exercise our faith and obedience; and what we are in them, that we are, and no more.

Second, the minds of men have been doctrinally and practically diverted from the punishment appointed for the deceit of sin in the law. This has been an inlet to all kinds of abominations. As Romans 1:32 says, they knew the judgment of God is that those who do those things deserve to die, yet they not only continued in them, but encouraged others to practice them. “What hope is there for such persons?” There is indeed relief for humbled believing souls in the blood of Christ.

Thirdly, the deceit of sin will attempt to turn the mind aside from attending to the love and kindness of God, against whom every sin is committed. This is a prevailing consideration, if rightly and graciously managed in the soul. The receipt of the promises ought to be effectual, stirring us up to all holiness, “so to work and effect an abstinence from all sin.”

And what promises are these? Namely, that God will be “a Father unto us, and will receive us,” 2 Cor. vi. 17, 18, which comprises the whole of all the love of God towards us, here and to eternity. If there be any spiritual ingenuity in the soul, whilst the mind is attentive to this consideration, there can be no prevailing attempt made upon it by the power of sin.

Owen has more to say on the deceitfulness of indwelling sin as it attempts to turn the mind away from the discharge of its duties. But you will have to turn to his discussion of how it uses inadvertency, an unwillingness to take any notice of warnings, as well as weak and ineffectual attempts to reclaim its attention to duty. He concluded his thoughts in chapter ten by saying the whole effect of the working of the deceitfulness of sin can be reduced to three tasks.

First, the lessening of a universally watchful frame of spirit towards every duty, and against all, even the most hidden sin.

Second, the exclusion of particular attending to such duties as have a special respect to the weakening and ruin of the whole of the law of sin, and the prevention of its deceitfulness.

Third, Spiritual sloth with regard to all the particular attention of duties and sins.

10/8/19

Misdirection of Indwelling Sin

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In chapter nine of Indwelling Sin in Believers, John Owen described how the deceit of sin draws our mind from attending to the duties by which our soul is preserved, particularly prayer and meditation. Sin maintains an enmity against all duties of obedience, or rather with God in them. Citing Romans 7:21, “When I want to do right, evil lies close at hand,” he said it is present within us to hinder the spiritually good, the good in reference to God we would do. All duties of obedience are directly opposed to the law of sin; “for as the flesh in all its actings lusteth against the Spirit, so the Spirit in all its actings lusteth against the flesh.”

Every duty performed in the strength and grace of the Spirit is contrary to the law of sin. Romans 8:13 says if you live through the Spirit, you put to death the deeds of the flesh. Actions by the Spirit of grace does this work. There are some duties which, in their own nature and by God’s appointment, have a particular influence in weakening and subduing the whole law of sin in its very principles and chief strengths. The mind of a believer ought to principally attend to these; and sin in its deceit strives to draw your mind away from them. Just as some remedies have a specific quality against physical disease, so in this disease of the soul there are some duties that have a special virtue against this sinful distemper.

Owen said there are two duties that have a special inclination by God’s design for the destruction of the whole law of sin, and he intends to “show the ways, methods, and means, which the law of sin useth to divert the mind from a due attendance unto them.” The two duties are prayer, especially private prayer, and meditation. He said these two agree in their general nature and differ only in the manner of their performance. By meditation Owen meant meditating on the word and our own hearts, “that they may be brought into a more exact conformity.”

It is our pondering on the truth as it is in Jesus, to find out the image and representation of it in our own hearts; and so it hath the same intent with prayer, which is to bring our souls into a frame in all things answering the mind and will of God. They are as the blood and spirits in the veins, that have the same life, motion, and use.

There are two or three rules for the right performance of meditation, according to Owen. The first is to Meditate of God with God. By this he meant we should have an attitude of deep humiliation and abasement of our souls before God. This will focus our mind, drawing it from one thing to another, giving glory to God and affecting our soul until it is brought into a state of holy admiration and delight of God. “My meaning is, that it be done in a way of prayer and praise,—speaking unto God.”

We should meditate on the word in the word. That is consider the sense in particular passages. Look to God for help, guidance and direction as you attempt to discover his mind and will in His Word. “Then labour to have our hearts affected by it.” If you come up short in these things, compensate by being more frequent with your prayer and meditation. Some individuals get discouraged because their minds don’t regularly supply them with thoughts to carry on their meditations. “Let this be supplied by frequent returns of the mind unto the subject proposed to be meditated upon, whereby new senses will still be supplied unto it.”

James 1:5 declared the way God appointed to obtain strength and power against sin: “If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God, who gives generously to all without reproach, and it will be given him.” Prayer is the way we have of obtaining from God through Christ a supply of all our wants, assistance against all opposition, especially that which is made against us by sin. “Faith in prayer countermines all the workings of the deceit of sin; and that because the soul doth therein constantly engage itself unto God to oppose all sin whatsoever.”

If there is a secret lust lurking in the heart, you will discover it either rising up against this or using its artifices to protect itself against it. In Psalm 51:5, as David was confessing his actual sin, he discovered the root of all his miscarriages in his original corruption, “Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity.” The Spirit acts as the candle of the Lord, enabling it to search all the inward parts of the soul.

It gives a holy, spiritual light into the mind, enabling it to search the deep and dark recesses of the heart, to find out the subtle and deceitful machinations, figments, and imaginations of the law of sin therein. Whatever notion there be of it, whatever power and prevalency in it, it is laid hand on, apprehended, brought into the presence of God, judged, condemned, bewailed. And what can possibly be more effectual for its ruin and destruction? for, together with its discovery, application is made unto all that relief which in Jesus Christ is provided against it, all ways and means whereby it may be ruined.

While your soul is constantly engaged to God in this way, it is certain that no sin can rise to dominate and rule over you. This is a victory over sin, a most considerable victory, where your soul clearly and promptly demonstrates its resolve. And it may be, by the grace of God, that this will be a final conquest—whatever the soul engaged to God is resolved to do will be done. “And this tends to the disappointment, yea, to the ruin of the law of sin.”

If the heart be not deceived by cursed hypocrisy, this engagement unto God will greatly influence it unto a peculiar diligence and watchfulness against all sin. There is no greater evidence of hypocrisy than to have the heart like the whorish woman, Prov. 7:14,—to say, “‘I have paid my vows,’ now I may take myself unto my sin;” or to be negligent about sin, as being satisfied that it hath prayed against it. It is otherwise in a gracious soul. Sense and conscience of engagements against sin made to God, do make it universally watchful against all its motions and operations. On these and sundry other accounts doth faith in this duty exert itself peculiarly to the weakening of the power and stopping of the progress of the law of sin.

If the mind is diligent and watches to keep its soul from the efficacy of sin, it will carefully attend to this duty and its implementation. However, sin attempts to defend itself by diversion, by drawing the mind away from this and similar duties. It does this through three main methods.

It takes advantage of the weariness of the flesh. And out of that fleshly weariness reluctance and weariness of doing your duty emerges. Jesus said to his disciples in the Garden of Gethsemane (Matthew 26:41), “The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak.” There is an amenability between spiritual flesh and natural flesh in this matter; they help each other. If the mind is not diligent and watchful to prevent such insinuations from occurring, it will be drawn away, which is the intended effect.

The deceitfulness of sin also takes advantage of corrupt reasonings, taken from the pressing and urging of the circumstances of life. We say, “If we were to strictly attend to all our spiritual duties, we would neglect pressing matters and be useless to ourselves and others.” God certainly gives us enough time for all He requires of us in this world. No duties need to be in persistent conflict with one another. God does not call or bless us when we take on more than we can tolerably do.

And then there is the deceit of promising a more diligent attendance to a duty when time permits. By this means it brings the soul to justify putting off its duty, as when Felix said to Paul that he would call him to hear more at a future time. The end result is the time never comes.

Like with the beginnings of a bodily sickness, it is a great advantage to immediately direct our attention to heal it. In a similar way, God shows us where the “beginning of sin” is—in drawing the mind away from a due attendance of all things required in the discharge of its spiritual duty. “The principal care and charge of the soul lies on the mind; and if that fail of its duty, the whole is betrayed, either as unto its general frame or as unto particular miscarriages.” The failure of the mind is like the failing of the watchman in Ezekiel (3:16-21); “The whole is lost by his neglect.”

God does not look at how many duties we perform or how challenging they are. Rather, He looks for the intent and spirit He requires in what we do. If you would take a true measure of yourselves, “Consider how it is with you as to the duty of your minds which we have inquired after.” Consider if you have been diverted or drawn away by any of the deceits mentioned. And if you discover failings of any kind, you will find the beginning of deceits there. “By one way or other your minds have been made heedless, regardless, slothful, uncertain, being beguiled and drawn off from their duty.” And this discovery will direct your soul to a suitable way of healing and recovery, which will never be effected by a multiplying of particular duties, but rather by a restoring of your soul (Psalm 23:3).

05/14/19

The End Game of Indwelling Sin

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Continuing his reflections on Indwelling Sin in Believers, John Owen noted in chapter eight how powerful it is—how the mind is drawn from its duty by the deceitfulness of sin. He advised all who value their souls to guard against the efficacy of deceitfulness, as it magnifies the power of indwelling sin. He warned: “Each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire” (James 1:14). However, before turning to examine what this deceitfulness consists of, Owen cited some evidence from Scripture regarding the general nature of this deceitfulness.

Hebrews 3:13 urged that we exhort one another daily, in order to not be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin. “Deceitful it is; take heed of it, watch against it, or it will produce its utmost effect in hardening of the heart against God. It is on the account of indwelling sin that the heart is said to be ‘deceitful above all things’” (Jeremiah 17:9). Every lust is deceitful. And when there is poison in every stream, it must be corrupt at its source—the heart.

Paul urged us to put off our old self, which is “corrupt through deceitful desires” (Ephesians 4:22). We were once led astray; deceived. We were slaves to various passions and pleasures (Titus 3:3). All who desire to live a godly life will be persecuted, while evil people “will go from bad to worse, deceiving and being deceived” (2 Timothy 3:13). We are at a loss when dealing with such an adversary. “He knows he can have no security against one that is deceitful, but in standing upon his own guard and defence all his days.”

In order to show the strength and advantage sin has by its deceit, Owen observed that Scripture placed it as the head of every sin. Even with the first sin “deceit went before the transgression.” In 2 Corinthians 11:3, Paul said sin and Satan still take the same course. There is the same method—beguiling, deceiving comes first, and sin follows afterwards. “Hence, all the great works that the devil doth in the world, to stir men up to an opposition unto the Lord Jesus Christ and his kingdom, he doth them by deceit.” Therefore, the many warnings given to us to be careful that we should be deceived (Ephesians 5:6; 1 Corinthians 6:9; 15:33; Galatians 6:7; Luke 21:8). When the law of sin prevails to deceive, “it fails not to bring forth its fruit.”

The ground of this efficacy of sin by deceit is taken from the faculty of the soul affected with it. Deceit properly affects the mind; it is the mind that is deceived. When sin attempts any other way of entrance into the soul, as by the affections, the mind, retaining its right and sovereignty, is able to give check and control unto it. But where the mind is tainted, the prevalency must be great; for the mind or understanding is the leading faculty of the soul, and what that fixes on, the will and affections rush after, being capable of no consideration but what that presents unto them. Hence it is, that though the entanglement of the affections unto sin be ofttimes most troublesome, yet the deceit of the mind is always most dangerous, and that because of the place that it possesseth in the soul as unto all its operations. Its office is to guide, direct, choose, and lead; and ‘if the light that is in us be darkness, how great is that darkness!’”

Deceit hides what ought to be seen and considered; it conceals circumstances and consequences. It represents things as other than what they are. We see this in what Satan did with original sin. He focused on the advantage of knowledge—and by doing so presented the whole case as other than it truly was. “This is the nature of deceit; it is a representation of a matter under disguise, hiding that which is undesirable, proposing that which indeed is not in it, that the mind may make a false judgment of it: so Jacob deceived Isaac by his brother’s raiment and the skins on his hands and neck.”

Deceit is always carried on by degrees, little by little, so that the end result is not seen. The manner and progress of sin is fully expressed in James 1:14-15: “Each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire. Then desire when it has conceived gives birth to sin, and sin when it is fully grown brings forth death.” Owen said the truth of these verses must be insisted on.

In the foregoing verse the apostle manifests that men are willing to drive the old trade, which our first parents at the entrance of sin set up withal, namely, of excusing themselves in their sins, and casting the occasion and blame of them on others. It is not, say they, from themselves, their own nature and inclinations, their own designings, that they have committed such and such evils, but merely from their temptations; and if they know not where to fix the evil of those temptations, they will lay them on God himself, rather than go without an excuse or extenuation of their guilt. This evil in the hearts of men the apostle rebuketh, verse 13, “Let no man say when he is tempted, I am tempted of God: for God cannot be tempted with evil, neither tempteth he any man.” And to show the justness of this reproof, in the words mentioned he discovers the true causes of the rise and whole progress of sin, manifesting that the whole guilt of it lies upon the sinner, and that the whole punishment of it, if not graciously prevented, will be his lot also.

The entire progress of lust or indwelling sin is expressed in these words. First, the ultimate end aimed at in all the actions of sin is death—the everlasting death of the sinner. “Pretend what it will, this is the end it aims at and tends unto. Hiding of ends and designs is the principal property of deceit.” Second, the general way of acting towards that end is temptation, which proceeds by degrees, as illustrated here in James 1:14-15: (1) Each person is tempted when he is lured (2) and enticed by his own desire. (3) When desire is conceived, (4) it gives birth to sin, (5) and sin when it is fully grown brings forth death.

Thirdly, the mind is drawn away by the deceit of sin. The affections or emotions are enticed or entangled. The consent of the will is the formal conception of actual sin. Fourth is the conversation in which sin is brought forth; where it exerts itself into the lives of men. Lastly it consummates and shuts up the whole world of sin with death or eternal ruin. “Now, it is the mind that this effect of the deceit of sin is wrought upon. The mind or understanding, as we have showed, is the guiding, conducting faculty of the soul. It goes before in discerning, judging, and determining, to make the way of moral actions fair and smooth to the will and affections.”

There are two things which belong to the duty of the mind, which God requires: 1) to keep itself and the whole soul in such a frame and posture that it may render all duties of obedience and 2) to attend to all particular actions so that they are performed as God requires. “In these two things consists the whole duty of the mind of a believer; and from both of them doth indwelling sin endeavor to divert and draw it off.” Owen went on to describe how indwelling sin sought to draw the attention of the mind away from a due consideration of its own vileness and the dangers with which it is faced. A second method of drawing the mind away is known, but not sufficiently guarded against—filling the mind with earthly things.

What wisdom, what watchfulness, what serious frequent trial and examination of ourselves is required, to keep our hearts and minds in a heavenly frame, in the use and pursuit of earthly things, is not my present business to declare. This is evident, that the engine whereby the deceit of sin draws off and turns aside the mind in this matter is the pretence of the lawfulness of things about which it would have it exercise itself; against which very few are armed with sufficient diligence, wisdom, and skill. And this is the first and most general attempt that indwelling sin makes upon the soul by deceit,—it draws away the mind from a diligent attention unto its course in a due sense of the evil of sin, and a due and constant consideration of God and his grace.

John Owen saw that we have a blind spot and that sin will always attempt to catch us off guard, coming at us through misdirection and deception. It takes advantage of our particular, personal weaknesses; we are lured and enticed by our own desires. And when sin is fully grown, its end game is death and eternal ruin.