Tag: John Owen

04/23/24

Corruption Caused by Indwelling Sin

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In chapter fifteen of Indwelling Sin, John Owen said he would now consider the many ways indwelling sin habitually corrodes grace and holiness in believers. At first, believers have many fresh springs and refreshing showers coming upon them, filling them up with a high rate of faith, love holiness, fruitfulness, and obedience. As it is with a flood, when these many streams run into a river, the river swells over its bounds, “and rolls on with more than ordinary fullness.” But if these springs are not kept open, if they don’t continue with an abundance of these showers, “they must needs decay and go backwards.”

One of these springs is a fresh, vigorous sense of pardoning mercy. Accordingly, when this is in a person’s soul, it results in the love and delight of God and leads to obedience to His will. “As, I say, is the sense of gospel-pardon, so will be the life of gospel-love.” Consider the sinful woman described in Luke 7:36 and following.

When a Pharisee had asked Jesus to eat with him, a woman who was known to be a sinner came and kissed his feet and anointed them with ointment. The Pharisee thought to himself, if Jesus were a true prophet, he would know what sort of woman is touching him, for she is a sinner. Knowing his thoughts, Jesus told him a parable about a moneylender and two debtors and asked which debtor loved him more. The Pharisee judged it was the one for whom the money lender cancelled the larger debt. Jesus confirmed he had judged rightly and then said to Simon:

Do you see this woman? I entered your house; you gave me no water for my feet, but she has wet my feet with her tears and wiped them with her hair. You gave me no kiss, but from the time I came in she has not ceased to kiss my feet. You did not anoint my head with oil, but she has anointed my feet with ointment. Therefore I tell you, her sins, which are many, are forgiven—for she loved much. But he who is forgiven little, loves little. (Luke 7:44-47)

So, when sinners are first converted, they are very sensible to their great forgiveness. Their recognition of the greatness of their sin greatly subdues their hearts and spirits to God, “and quickens them to all obedience.” Even cursed sinners as they were could be delivered and pardoned. “The love of God and of Christ, in their forgiveness, highly conquers and constrains them to make it their business to live to God.”

A second spring is the fresh taste they have of spiritual things that has such a savor and relish in their souls, that worldly pleasures are rendered sapless and undesirable. After tasting the wine of the gospel, they desire no other. When souls are first translated into the light of Christ, they see a new glory that defiled the desirableness of all earthly diversions. “They see a new guilt and filth in sin, that gives them an utter abhorrency of its old delights and pleasures.”

It’s as if a man that was kept a long time in a dungeon was brought forth suddenly into the sun light. He’d find so much pleasure and contentment in the beauties of the creation that he’d think he could never weary of it. Nor would he ever be content to be under darkness—for any reason—ever again. So it is with people when they are first translated into the marvelous light of Christ to behold the beauty of the new creation. “They see a new glory in him, that hath quite sullied the desirableness of all earthly diversions. And they see a new guilt and filth in sin, that gives them an utter abhorrency of its old delights and pleasures.”

The first way, then, that indwelling sin prepares individuals for decays and corruption in grace and obedience is it strives to stop or taint these springs by sloth or negligence. It prevails on the soul to forget or neglect thinking about the things that so powerfully influenced it to strict and fruitful obedience. If care is not taken, if the person is not diligent and watchful of the means appointed by God to maintain a living sense of them upon them, “they will dry up and decay.” And the obedience that should spring from them will as well.

Let the heart ever so little disuse itself to gracious, soul-affecting thoughts of the love of God, the cross of Christ, the greatness and excellency of gospel-mercy, the beauties of holiness; they will quickly be as much estranged to a man, as he can be to them.

Another way that indwelling sin works to taint these springs is to encourage formal, weary, powerless thoughts of those things which it should overcome in diligence thankful obedience. God said through Moses to Aaron he will be sanctified in all those who are near him (Leviticus 10:3). So are we to deal with the things of God whereby we have communion with him. When we begin to entertain them with slight and common thoughts, not using and improving them to the utmost, they lose all their beauty, and glory, and power towards them.

When we have anything to do, wherein faith, or love towards God is to be exercised, we must do it with all our hearts, with all our minds, strength, and souls, not slightly and carelessly, which God abhors; he does not only require that we bear his love and grace in remembrance, but that, as much as in us lies, we do it according to the worth and excellency of them.

So, when we consider gospel truths, we should strive to be changed into the same image or likeness (2 Corinthians 3:18). Otherwise, it will be like James tells us: “He is like a man who looks intently at his natural face in a mirror. For he looks at himself and goes away and at once forgets what he was like” (James 1:23-24). It makes no impression upon him because he does it only slightly. They talk of religion and spiritual things as much as they ever did in their lives, and perform duties with as much steadfastness as they ever did.

But yet have poor, lean, starving souls, as to any real and effectual communion with God. By the power and subtlety of indwelling sin, they have grown formal, and learned to deal about spiritual things in a careless manner, whereby they have lost all their life, vigour, savour, and efficacy towards them. Be always serious in spiritual things, if ever you intend to be bettered by them.

Indwelling sin will often stop these springs of gospel obedience by false and foolish opinions, corrupting the simplicity of the gospel. “False opinions are the works of the flesh.” They mostly come from the vanity and darkness of the minds of men with a mixture of corrupt affections. Owen said they have seen some who after they had received “a sweet taste of the love of God in Christ,” and walked with him for many years, despised all their own experiences and rejected the efficacy of truth. “We have innumerable instances hereof in the days wherin we live.”

Owen goes on in the chapter to describe how Satan is a diligent, watchful, and crafty adversary. “He will neglect no opportunity, no advantage that is offered to him.” Wherever our spiritual strength is impaired by sin, or however our lusts pressure, Satan falls in with that weakness, and presses towards that ruin.” He gives his readers a few cautions to keep them from this corruption.

First, there are a great number of hypocrites in the body of believers. For others, you don’t know what the present temptations they struggle against. There may be some secret lust in their heart that the soul contends against faintly. But it does not make thorough work, vigorously mortifying it by the strength and power of grace.

But where indwelling sin has provoked, irritated, and given strength to a special lust, it proves assuredly a principal means of a general declension. For as an infirmity and weakness in any one vital part, will make the whole body consumptive, so will the weakness in anyone grace, which a perplexing lust brings with it, make the soul. It every way weakens spiritual strength.

Yet there is hope. Owen said a great sin will certainly give a great turn to the life of a believer. If it is cured in the blood of Christ, with the humiliation that the gospel requires, “it often proves a means of more watchfulness, fruitfulness, humility, and contention, than ever the soul before obtained.” If neglected, it certainly hardens the heart and weakens spiritual strength, enfeebles the soul, and discourages all communion with God. But if like a broken bone which is well set, it leaves the person stronger than before. If otherwise, it makes the person a cripple all their days.

These are the corruptions caused by indwelling sin.

10/3/23

Indwelling Sin Weakens Spiritual Strength

In chapter fourteen of Indwelling Sin in Believers, John Owen examined how of the power of Sin can flare-up. In chapter fifteen, he moved on to examine how this power could also be seen in the habitual decline from a state of communion with God. The ways and means by which this decline succeeds in the life of believers are many.

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When a person is converted, they usually have many refreshing showers of God’s grace bathing their souls. This is produces in them an elevated amount of faith, love, holiness, fruitfulness and obedience. Like a river with many streams running into it, when there is a heavy rain, it overflows its banks. If these streams are not fed continually by showers, “they must needs decay and go backwards.”

The newly converted has a strong sense of God’s pardoning mercy. They are sensible of great forgiveness as was Paul when he said: “of whom I am the foremost” (1 Timothy 1:15). This subdues their hearts to all in God and quickens them to all obedience—that such a poor and cursed sinner should be delivered and pardoned. “The love of God and of Christ, in their forgiveness, highly conquers and constrains them to make it their business to live for God.”

Secondly, the fresh taste of spiritual things has such a savor and relish in their souls, that worldly pleasures are sapless and disagreeable. Having tasted the wine of the gospel, they desire no other. They have such a savor and relish for the grace of Christ upon their souls, that they cannot think of rejecting it. They then see a new guilt and filth in sin that leads to an abhorrence of its old delights and pleasures.

Now, whilst these and the like springs are kept open in the souls of converted sinners, they constrain them to a vigorous active holiness. They can never do enough for God; so that, oftentimes, their zeal, as saints, suffers them not to escape without some blots on their prudence, as men; as might be instanced in many of the martyrs of old.

Indwelling sin attempts to stop or taint these springs. It grooms the individual for decline and decay in grace and obedience by works of sloth and negligence. It prevails the individual to neglect the things that influenced it to strict and fruitful obedience. If diligence and watchfulness are not used, the means appointed by God to keep a quick and living sense of this grace will dry up and decay. And the obedience that springs from this grace will also dry up. Prevailed upon by spiritual sloth, a decay grows insensibly upon the whole soul because of indwelling sin. Thus, God often complained that his people had forgotten him—that they had grown unmindful of his love and grace.

When people begin to become weary of the things of God, those things by which we have communion with him, they deceive themselves by becoming a hearer of the word and not a doer. They look intently at themselves in the mirror of the word, but go away and immediately forget what they were like (James 1:23-24). Owen said it does not make an impression on them; it begets no image of their likeness. They become content with slight and rare thoughts of the things of God. They talk of spiritual things, and perform their religious duties, yet they have poor, starving souls as to any real communion with God.

By the power and subtlety of indwelling sin, they have grown formal, and learned to deal about spiritual things in a careless manner, whereby they have lost all their life, vigour, savour and efficacy towards them. Be always serious in spiritual things, if ever you intent to be bettered by them.

Oftentimes, indwelling sin will stop the springs of gospel obedience by false and foolish opinions, by corrupting the simplicity of the gospel. “False opinions are the works of the flesh.” They proceed from the vanity and darkness in the minds of men, with a mixture of corrupt affections. The apostle Paul was afraid the Corinthians would be led astray from a sincere and pure devotion to Christ (1 Corinthians 11:3) by a decay in faith, love and obedience.

Owen said this is often what happens. He has seen some, who after receiving a sweet taste of the love of God in Christ, and having walked humbly with God for many years, being deceived by false and foolish opinions. They despised their own experiences and rejected all the efficacy of truth. There were innumerable instances then (and now). They put an unspeakable value on the pardon of sin in the blood of Christ and delighted in the gospel discoveries of spiritual things, and walked in obedience on account of them. But they were beguiled and turned aside from the truth in Jesus, to despise the springs of their former obedience.

And this is one way whereby indwelling sin produces this pernicious effect, of drawing men off from the power, purity, and fruitfulness attending their first conversion, and engagements to God, bringing them into habitual declension, at least as to degrees, of their holiness and grace. There is not a thing we ought to be more watchful against, if we intend effectually to deal with this powerful and subtle enemy.

Indwelling sin does this by catching people by surprise in their watch against the return of Satan, who left off from tempting Jesus only until there was a more opportune time (Luke 4:13). It is like this with believers as well. If the person does not stand continually on guard against him, Satan will quickly gain advantage, and disrupt their fruitfulness and obedience. He accomplishes this by having carnal lusts prevail over their convictions, making their soul fit to entertain returning devils.

Satan is a diligent, watchful and crafty adversary. He will not neglect any opportunity or advantage that is offered to him. Where ever our spiritual strength is impaired by sin, or where our lusts press us, Satan aligns with the weakness and presses towards its ruin. “All the actings of the law of sin are subservient to this end of Satan.”

Indwelling sin entangles the soul in the things of the world. And when he discovers that has happened to a person he has been cast out of, he is encouraged to pursue after them. He seeks by his temptations, to impel them by their own lusts. “And oftentimes by this advantage he gets so in upon the souls of men, that they are never free of him more wilst they live.”

“Believers come forth from the spring of new birth with some purity and cleanness.” Yet sometimes they associate with others whose profession may run towards heaven even as their does, but they are muddied with sin and the world. These are often corrupted and so decline from their first purity, faith and holiness. In other words, “in the body of believers, there is a great number of hypocrites.” We cannot say for certain who is or isn’t one, but know for certain there are some. So, take heed how you give yourself up in conformity to the professors you meet with.

Owen continues on with his reflections on how many professors are also sick and wounded. He said sin works by cherishing some secret particular lust. Where indwelling sin has provoked and given strength to a special lust, it proves to be a principal means of a general decline. Just as an infirmity and weakness in any vital part will make the whole body ill, so will the weakness caused by a perplexing lust do to the soul. “It every way weakens spiritual strength.”

It is so with men brought into spiritual decays by any secret perplexing corruptions. It may be they have had a vigorous principle of obedience and holiness; indwelling sin watching its opportunities, by some temptation or other, has kindled and inflamed some particular lust in them. For a while it may be they take notice of it, sometime they complain, but think they will do as in former times, until being insensibly weakened in their spiritual strength, they have work enough to do in keeping alive what remains and is ready to die.

A great sin will certainly give a great turn to the life of a believer. However, “if it be well cured in the blood of Christ, with that humiliation which the gospel requires, it often proves a means of more watchfulness, fruitfulness, humility, and contention, than ever the soul before obtained.” Like a broken bone, if it is well set, it leaves the limb stronger than before. But if not, it makes a man a cripple all his days. “These things we do but briefly name, and sundry other advantages of the like nature, that sin makes use of to produce this effect, might also be instanced in; but these may suffice to our present purpose.”

02/21/23

The Effects of Indwelling Sin

In chapter fourteen of Indwelling Sin in Believers, John Owen said he was now ready to examine how the power of Sin is demonstrated by the effects it has in the lives of believers. There are two kinds of effects. First is the great actual flare-ups of sin in their lives. Secondly, there is the habitual decline from the state and condition of obedience and communion with God, “which they had obtained.” Both originate with the law of sin, and both are convincing evidence of its power and efficacy.

First, Owen considers the eruptions of actual sin in the lives of believers, that are recorded in Scripture. The examples Owen gives are not of the ordinary sort of believers, but men with a distinct reputation, “on account of their walking with God.” Noah, Lot, David, Hezekiah, among others. An ordinary method could not have turned them. “It was a poison that no athletic constitution of spiritual health, no antidote could withstand,” namely indwelling sin.

These men did not fall into their great sins at the beginning of their profession of faith. “But after a long course of walking with God, and acquaintance with all these things.”

Who can look to have a greater stock of inherent grace than those men had? To have more experience of God and the excellency of his ways, the sweetness of his love. And of communion with him than they had? Who has either better furniture to oppose sin withal, or more obligations so to do than they? And yet we see how fearfully they were prevailed against.

Are we more holy, wise, and watchful than David, of whom it was said, that he was “a man after God’s own heart?” Or, are we better than Hezekiah, who appealed to God himself, that he had served him “with a whole heart?” (2 Kings 20:3) These men are metaphorically given as buoys to us. That we may discover the sands, the shelves, the rocks “whereupon they made their shipwreck.” And it would have been to their ruin, “had not God been pleased, in his faithfulness, graciously to prevent it.”

Then Owen turned to the habitual decline from zeal and holiness that they had obtained; a state and condition “which are found in many believers.” It often falls out, that instead of manifesting the promises of spiritual growth and improvement, decay and decline are found in many of the saints of God. This is principally from the strength and efficacy of indwelling sin. Owen then observed how some of the saints so decline “from that growth and improvement in faith, grace, and holiness, which might justly be expected from them.”

One example he gave was of men who seem to retain a good zeal for truth. Although they make a good outward appearance, they are found “to be the most abominable.” They cry out against errors, but not for the sake of truth. They do so to support their views and interests. “Let a man be on their party, and promote their interest, be he ever so corrupt in his judgment, he is embraced and it may be, admired.” Notice how Owen’s words apply equally to our time:

This is not zeal for God, but for a man’s self. It is not “the zeal of thing house hath eaten me up;” but “Master, forbid them, because they follow not us.” Better it were, doubtless, for men never to pretend to any zeal at all, than to substitute such wrathful selfishness in the room of it. . .

We need then go no further than this wretched generation wherein we live, to evince the truth of the observation laid down, as the foundation of the instance insisted on. The Lord give repentance before it is too late.

James’ epistle noted the general rule, “that lust, or indwelling sin is the cause of all actual sin, and all declensions in believers.” In the covenant of grace there is abundant provision made, not only for preventing decline and decay in believers, “but also for their continual carrying on towards perfection. The word of the gospel and its ordinances, are given to us for this end (Ephesians 4:11-15). They were all given in order to prevent the decay and decline in the saints, “for building up the body of Christ.” They were designed for our safe-guarding and deliverance from all their attempts and assaults.

So that we no longer live as children, tossed to and fro, carried by craftiness and human into deceitful schemes. “Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ” (Ephesians 4:15). This is the purpose of all gospel ordinances, “namely to preserve believers from all decays of faith and obedience, and to carry them on still towards perfection.” These are the means by which God causes the vine to grow and produce fruit.

We see people living under and enjoying all the means of spiritual thriving, yet they wither and waste away instead of becoming fat and flourishing. This argues there is some secret powerful distemper, whose noxious qualities hinder the virtue and efficacy of the means they enjoy. “This is indwelling sin.” In the midst of all the precious means of growth and flourishing, it can bring leanness on the souls of men.

It may well make us tremble, to see men living under, and in the use of the means of the gospel, preaching, praying, administration of sacraments, and yet grow colder every day than other, in zeal for God; more selfish and worldly, even habitually to decline, as to the degrees of holiness which they had attained to.

In addition to these means of spiritual growth and improvement, there are also the supplies of grace continually provided to the saints from Christ Jesus, who communicates spiritual life to all who are his. He gives out sufficiently to afford them a strong, vigorous, thriving, flourishing life. He comes not only to provide life to his sheep, but he came to give it abundantly (John 10:10), “so that they may be fat and fruitful.” So it is with every member of the whole body of Christ. “The end of all communications of grace, and supplies of life from this living head. Is the increase of the whole body, and every member of it.”

The withering and decay of any member of Christ’s mystical body is not a result of his failure to communicate grace for an abundant life. Rather, it is from the powerful intervention and opposition of indwelling sin. Where lust grows strong, a great deal of grace will be spent just to keep the person alive. It spends its strength and power in withstanding the continual assaults of violent corruptions and lusts, “so that it cannot put forth its proper virtue towards further fruitfulness.”

This is clear evidence of the efficacy of indwelling sin. Namely, that it is able to prevent and check the mighty power of grace. “This makes so many trees barren in fertile fields.” It compels the fruitful vineyard to bring forth so many wild grapes. So great is the power and efficacy of indwelling sin, that it often leads saints to decline in their walk with God, as with Samson.

Such is this indwelling sin, if not watched over; it breaks all the cords made to bind it; it blunts the instruments appointed to root it up; it resists the instruments appointed to root it up; it resists all healing medicines, though ever so sovereign; and is therefore, assuredly of exceeding efficacy.

The end result of recognizing this power of sin is that we must be careful to avoid and prevent its scheming. Of all the effects it produces, there is none more dangerous than how it habitually weakens many believers from their former ways and attainments, notwithstanding all the sweetness their souls have found in them.

11/29/22

Hindering the Birth of Conceived Sin

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In chapter 13 of Indwelling Sin in Believers, John Owen said before he moved on to examine the remaining evidence for the power and efficacy of sin, he wanted to reflect further on James 1:14, which he thought was “the bottom and foundation of our discourse of the general deceitfulness of sin.” Owen said James seems to be saying in 1:14 (“But each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire”) that whenever sin is conceived, it is inevitably brought forth. However, by placing the origin of sin in the consent of the will to the sin, as he did in chapter 12 (See “Engaging the Will with Indwelling Sin”) and supposing that the manifestation of sin consists in its actual commission, “we know that these do not necessarily follow one another.” Owen said that there is a realm of sin conceived in the womb of the wills and hearts of men that is never brought forth. How can this be true?

First, it is not because of the connection between desire and sin in this realm. When sin conceives, it wants to give birth (James 1:15). And if in fact, it does not, there is only a minor reduction of its guilt. A will determined to sin is actual sin. There is nothing lacking on sin’s part, if a conceive sin is not actualized. The obstacle and impediment to its conception lies elsewhere.

There are two things necessary for a conceived sin to become actualized: power and the resolve of the will to give it birth. Wherever these two are, actual sin will ultimately ensue. Therefore, whatever would hinder conceived sin must affect either the power or the will of the sinner. And this hinderance must be from God!

He has two ways of doing it—by his providence or by his grace. Owen is not saying they are distinct from each other. There is always a generous mixture of grace in God’s providence and ample providence mixed within his grace. However, providence is seen in the power or the outward acts of the individual, and grace is evident internally with regards to the will.

So, when sin is conceived, the Lord can obstruct its production by his providence by taking away the power necessary for its to be accomplished—life itself. Life is the foundation of all power, and when it ceases, “all power ceases with it.” God frequently averts the power of sin by taking away the lives of those who conceived it. He did so with Sennacherib by taking away the life of his soldiers (2 Kings 19:35). Similarly, he dealt with those soldiers who came to take Elijah by sending down fire from heaven (2 Kings 1:10-12).

But, Owen asked, since even believers may conceive sin, does God ever prevent its production and accomplishment in them by taking their lives? Surely, God does not judicially cut off the life of any who are his in order to prevent the manifestation of some sin they may have conceived. This would be directly contrary to 2 Peter 3:9, where it says the Lord is patient towards us, not wishing that any should perish, but “that all should reach repentance.”

This is the purpose for the long suffering of God towards believers, that before they die, they may come to the awareness and repentance of every known sin. This is the unchangeable rule of God’s patience in the covenant of grace. Far from being an encouragement to sin, it is a motive to universal watchfulness against it. It is of the same nature as the gospel of grace and mercy in the blood of Christ. This exemption of which we speak lies in direct contradiction to it.

Whereas our Savior declares the whole nature of conceived sin in the Sermon on the Mount of Matthew 5, it cannot be that they must perish forever who are “so judicially cut off.” God does not deal that way with his. He does not cast off the people he foreknew. And yet, there are some cases where God may take away the lives of his own in order to prevent the guilt they would otherwise incur.

For example, if there was coming some great temptation and trial upon the world that God knew one of his elect would not be able to withstand. Knowing that it would dishonor him, God takes them out of the world, as it says in Isaiah 57:1, “For the righteous man is taken away from calamity.” Not only is he taken from the evil of punishment and judgment, but also the evil of temptations and trials. This often proves to be the worse of the two.

It may also occur in the case of ignorance or not knowing the mind and will of God. This seems to have been the case with Josiah when he was killed in battle at Carchemish (2 Chronicles 35:24). Doubtless the Lord often proceeds like this:

When any of his own are engaged in ways which please him not, through the darkness and ignorance of their minds, that they may not proceed to further evil or mischief, he calls them off from their station and employment, and takes them to himself, where they shall err and mistake no more.

Ordinarily, God has other ways of diverting individuals from sin, other than killing them, as we shall see. God can also providentially hinder conceived sin by cutting short the power necessary to bring it forth. Without that power it is impossible to execute what they had intended or bring forth what they had conceived. Here we also have various examples in Scripture. In 1 Kings 13:4 Jeroboam stretched out his hand to lay hold of the prophet, but it withered and became useless.

This is a tried-and-true way for God to prevent sin from overflowing the world. He cuts people short of their moral power necessary to accomplish the sin. Many who have plotted mischief against the church of God have been divested of the power by which they sought to accomplish it. Some have their bodies stricken with disease, so they cannot serve their lusts. Others are deprived of the instruments by which they would accomplish their work.

There has been for many days, sin and mischief enough conceived to root out the generation of the righteous from the face of the earth, had men strength and ability to their will, did not God cut off and shorten their power, and the days of their prevalence.

In some cases, under some intense temptations, God may obviate the accomplishment of conceived sin with believers. However, there is a difference from what he does with nonbelievers and it is only in cases of extraordinary temptation.  One way or another God takes away their power so they are not able to do what they have designed. In this way God awakens them to consider what they are doing, and brings about a repentant change in their hearts from the sin they intended.

God may also prevent the accomplishment of the conceived sin by removing or taking away the means by which the sin the conceived sin was to have been committed. God may do this by diverting the thoughts of the individuals who had conceived sin. In Genesis 37, the brothers of Joseph had thrown him in a pit with the intention of starving him. But God brings a company of Ishmaelite merchants by, and diverts their thoughts with a new thought—selling him instead of killing him. “These are some of the ways whereby God is pleased to hinder the bringing forth of conceived sin, by opposing himself and his providence to the power of the sinning creature.”

 

12/8/20

Engaging the Will With Indwelling Sin

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John Owen described in chapter 12 of Indwelling Sin in Believers how the deceit of sin progressively works towards the birth of actual sin. He said this happens by distracting the mind from its duty, then entangling the affections, which leads to the thought of sin so that it may be brought forth. “Then lust (or desire) when it has conceived gives birth to sin” (James 1:15).

In order for the conception of sin to result in the actual sin, it must have the consent of the will. Without the agreement of the will, sin cannot be committed. When the will has acquiesced to sin, there is nothing in the soul to hinder it’s actual manifestation. But God has various ways of frustrating the birth of these conceptions, causing them to fade away in the mind that first devised them.

This is so that not even the smallest part of the sin which may be willed or conceived is committed, even though there is nothing in the soul to prevent it from occurring once it has yielded. It’s like when a cloud is full of rain and ready to fall, but a wind comes and drives the cloud away. The will is ready to bring forth sin, but by one wind or another, God diverts it. This is even if the cloud was as full of rain as if the rain had already fallen; if the soul was as full of sin as if it had already been committed the sin.

The conception of lust or sin is therefore necessary to obtain the consent of the will to its enticement. The will is the primary cause of obedience and disobedience. Moral actions done to us or that are in us are good or evil to the extent they partake of the consent of the will. “Every sin is so voluntary, that if it be not voluntary, it is not sin.” This is ultimately true of actual sins. An Aristotelian sense of formal cause in the iniquity of actual sins arises from the acts of the will in them and concerning them. Owen said by this he means the people who commit sin. Otherwise, in itself, the formal reason for sin is its deviation from the law of God.

He said there is a twofold consent of the will with regard to sin. The first is seen in the full, absolute, complete consent following a deliberation by the will. The convictions of the mind are conquered and there is no principle of grace in the will to weaken it. It is as if the soul is a ship before the wind, “with all its sails displayed, without any check or stop.” It rushes into sin, like a horse charging into battle. As it says in Ephesians 4:19, “they have given themselves up to sensuality, greedy to practice every kind of impurity.”

This is that consent of the will, which is acted in the finishing and completing of sin in unregenerate persons, and is not required to the single bringing forth of sin, whereof we speak.”

Secondly, there is a consent of the will that is joined with a secret opposition to the temptation to sin and a desire to the contrary. We see this in Peter denying his master. His will was in the denial or he would not have done it. It was a voluntary action that he chose to do at that time. However, there was within Peter’s will an opposing principle of love to Christ and faith in him that did not utterly fail. “The efficacy of it was intercepted, and its operations suspended actually, through the violent urging of the temptation that he was under.” Although it was within his will, and even weakened his willingness to deny Christ, it was not done with the sense of self-pleasing that usually accompanies full, absolute, complete consent of the will.

Although there may be a predominant consent in the will, which may be sufficient for the conception of certain sins, there cannot be an absolute, total, full consent of the believer to any sin. There is in his will a principle fixed on good for all—the principle of grace. “Grace has the rule and dominion, not sin, in the will of every believer.” Consent to sin in the will, which is contrary to the inclination to do good, is not—and cannot be—total, absolute and complete. Not only is there a general prevailing principle against sin in the will, there is also a secret reluctancy to its own action in consenting to sin.

It is true that sometimes the soul is not conscious of this reluctance because the present consent of the will carries away an awareness of the principle of grace in the will. But the general rule holds true in all things and at all times: “the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh” (Galatians 5:17). This is so, though not always to the same degree, nor with the same success.  The dominance of the contrary principle, namely the desires of the flesh, in this or that particular act does not disprove it.

But this is true when the opposite is considered. “There is no acting of grace in the will, but sin lusts against it.” While that lusting may not be conscious in the soul, it is enough to keep those actions of grace from perfection. “So it is in this opposition of grace, against the acting of sin in the soul; though it be not sensible in its operations, yet it is enough to keep that act from being full and complete.” A significant amount of spiritual wisdom is needed to rightly discern between the spiritual opposition of the principle of grace in the will against sin, and the rebukes given to the soul by the conscience for the conviction of sin.

Take note that repeated acts of willful consent to sin may generate a habitual inclination towards similar acts. This may bring a tendency to the will of easily or impulsively consenting to sin, a dangerous condition to the soul that should be guarded against. This consent which has been described, may be considered in the following ways. First it becomes accustomed to the circumstances, causes, means, and inducements to sin. Then it begins to value the actual sin.

In the first sense, there is a virtual consent of the will to sin. In every laxity to the prevention of it, in every neglect of duty that makes a way for it, in every hearkening to a temptation that leads towards it. “In a word, in all the diversions of the mind from its duty, and entanglements of the affections by sin, before mentioned.” Remember that where there is no formal act of the will, there is no sin. But we were supposed to speak of the consent of the will to actual sin, so far as it is— one way or the other—either committed or prevented.

This is the way that the deceit of sin proceeds to procure the consent of the will in order to conceive actual sin. Note first that the will is a rational appetite. It is rational when guided by the mind, and an appetite when excited by the affections. Second, it only chooses that which has the appearance of good. It cannot agree to anything it sees as evil. “Good is its natural and necessary object, and therefore, whatever is proposed to it for its consent, must be proposed under an appearance of being either good in itself, or good at present to the soul.”

Our way is therefore made somewhat plain. We have seen how the mind is drawn away by the deceit of sin, and how the affections often become entangled. What remains is to discover some of the special deceits, their corrupt and fallacious reasonings, and then show how they prevail on the will to consent to sin.

The will is imposed upon by corrupt reasoning, namely that grace is exalted in pardon and mercy is provided for sinners. This first deceives the mind, which opens the way to the will’s consent by hiding the evil from it. In carnal hearts, this prevails to make them think their liberty consists in being “slaves of corruption,” forgetting that “Whatever overcome a person, to that he is enslaved” (2 Peter 2:19). This poison often taints the minds of believers themselves, which we are cautioned against in Scripture.

There is a twofold mystery of grace—of walking with God, and of coming to God. The grand design of sin is, to confuse the doctrine and mystery of grace in reference to these things. This is done by applying those considerations to the one which are properly applied to the other, so that each part is hindered; and the influence of the doctrine of grace on them is defeated. “I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin. But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. He is the propitiation [means of forgiveness] for our sins” (1 John 2:1-2). Here the entire design and use of the gospel is briefly expressed.

There is full relief in the propitiation and intercession of Christ for us. “This is the order and method of the doctrine of the gospel, and of the application of it to our own souls: first to keep us from sin, and then to relieve us against sin.” But here enters the deceit of sin. It changes the method and order of the application of gospel truths. It takes up the last first, namely to relieve us of sin. And this excludes the use of the first utterly! If any man sin, there is pardon provided. This is all that the gospel would willingly have us remember.

“The grace of God brings salvation, having appeared unto us to that end and purpose.” When we should come to God by believing, the deceit of sin emphasizes keeping free from sin, where the gospel proposes there is pardon from sin for our encouragement. When we should come to God and walk with him, the deceit of sin points to there being pardon for sin, where the gospel primarily proposes we should keep ourselves from sin.

Now the mind, when it is entangled by this deceit and diverted from the true end of the gospel, tries several tactics upon the will to obtain its consent. First, it launches a sudden surprise in the midst of temptation. When a temptation befalls the soul, the principle of grace in the will rises up with a rejection of it. But suddenly, the mind, “being deceived by sin, breaks in upon the will, with a corrupt, fallacious reasoning from gospel grace and mercy.” Then it halts the will’s opposition and tips the scale to the side of temptation by presenting evil as a present good. Thus, sin is conceived in the sight of God, although it may never be committed.

It also gains the will’s consent unconsciously. It insinuates the poison of this corrupt reasoning little by little, until it has greatly prevailed. The entire apostasy from the gospel is principally the casting of the soul into the mold of this false reasoning, so that sin may be indulged in because of grace and pardon. “Hereby is the soul gratified in sloth and negligence, and taken off from its care as to particular duties, and avoidance of particular sins.” It transfers the works of the soul from the mystery of the law of grace to searching for salvation as if we had never performed any duty.

This is the common way of sin’s procedure in the destruction of souls, which seem to have made some good engagements in the ways of God. When it hath entangled them with one temptation, and brought the will to some liking of it, that presently becomes another temptation, either to the neglect of some duty, or to the refusal of more light; and commonly, that whereby men fall off utterly from God, is not that wherewith they are first entangled.

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.

09/18/18

The Captivating Power of Indwelling Sin

in the public domain; by Johannes Gossner, 1851

In chapter seven of Indwelling Sin in Believers, John Owen continues his reflections on the way indwelling sin exerted its enmity on the believer. Here he describes its captivating power and the madness that comes from its growth and success. He begins by citing Romans 7:23, where Paul said he sees a law waging war against the law of grace in his mind and making him captive to the law of sin. After quoting verse 24 (“Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death?”), he said he intended to declare what this meant.

Owen began by noting Paul said the soul was made captive to the law of sin, and not to any specific sin. For the most part, God gives believers grace so that they won’t be “made a prey” to any particular sin, so it will not have dominion over them. For if such a sin gained power over the individual, whether it was big or small, “it becomes in him in whom it is a sin of boldness, pride, and presumption.”  The prevalency of sin within the soul is certainly from Satan, but it has “no peculiar footing nor advantage in the nature, constitution, or condition of the sinner.” And yet, if we succumb to the temptation of a particular sin, it will likely take advantage of something within our “natural constitution.”

When any lust grows high and prevailing more than others, upon its own account, it is from the peculiar advantage that it hath in the natural constitution, or the station or condition of the person in the world; for otherwise the law of sin gives an equal propensity unto all evil, an equal vigour unto every lust. When, therefore, it cannot be discerned that the captivating sin is peculiarly fixed in the nature of the sinner … the prevalency of it is peculiarly from Satan.

Owen said Paul was not describing in the Romans 7 passage how we are captivated by some specific sin, but rather the enslavement of the law of sin. “We are compelled to bear its presence and burden whether we will or no.” Sometimes an individual hopes and prays that they may be freed from a specific sin. And as the result of a gracious gift from God, people are sometimes actually freed from their captivity to a specific sin. They may even begin to hope they are freed from the law of sin, “but after a while see it is quite otherwise.”

Sin acts again, makes good its old station; and the soul finds that, whether it will or no, it must bear its yoke. This makes it sigh and cry out for deliverance.

Captivity is “misery and trouble,” said Owen; and no one willingly puts himself into that kind of trouble. He may choose its causes, the ways and means leading up to it, but not the captivity itself. “Whatever consent, then, the soul may give unto sin, which is the means of this captivity, it gives none to the captivity itself; that is against the will wholly.” This leads to the following.

The power of indwelling sin is great. We see this in how the will strives to be free from it. If the will faced no opposition from indwelling sin, or if the opposition was weak, then there would be no great evidence of its captivating power. But the persistent striving and resistance against the diligence, activity and watchfulness of the individual’s will is evidence of its power. The result is a variety of ways by which the soul is successfully held captive.

And there are several degrees of the success of the law of sin in the soul. Sometimes it carries the person unto outward actual sin, which is its utmost aim; sometimes it obtaineth the consent of the will, but is cast out by grace, and proceeds no farther; sometimes it wearies and entangles the soul, that it turns aside, as it were, and leaves contending,—which is a success also. One or more, or all of these, must be, where captivity takes place.

What could be a more wretched state than this condition? All captivity is dreadful, but its greatest aggravation stems from the condition of the tyrant to whom any one is enslaved. When the soul is graced with a loathing of sin, with a hatred of the least discrepancy between itself and the will of God, what could be worse than being held captive by this law of sin? This condition is then peculiar to believers. 

Unregenerate men are not said to be led captive to the law of sin. They may, indeed, be led captive unto this or that particular sin or corruption,—that is, they may be forced to serve it against the power of their convictions. They are convinced of the evil of it,—an adulterer of his uncleanness, a drunkard of his abomination,—and make some resolutions, it may be, against it; but their lust is too hard for them, they cannot cease to sin, and so are made captives or slaves to this or that particular sin. But they cannot be said to be led captive to the law of sin, and that because they are willingly subject thereunto. It hath, as it were, a rightful dominion over them, and they oppose it not, but only when it hath irruptions to the disturbance of their consciences; and then the opposition they make unto it is not from their wills, but is the mere acting of an affrighted conscience and a convinced mind. They regard not the nature of sin, but its guilt and consequences. But to be brought into captivity is that which befalls a man against his will; which is all that shall be spoken unto this degree of the actings of the power of sin, manifesting itself in its success.

Lastly is the rage and madness that stems from the opposition of the law of sin to God and the law of his will. The Preacher said there is evil and madness in the human heart while we live (Ecclesiastes 9:3). This evil is the result of indwelling sin. It seems to consist of a violent, persistent pursuit of evil or sin. “It is the tearing and torturing of the soul by any sin to force its consent and to obtain satisfaction.”

It riseth up in the heart, is denied by the law of grace, and rebuked;—it returns and exerts its poison again; the soul is startled, casts it off;—it returns again with new violence and importunity; the soul cries out for help and deliverance, looks round about to all springs of gospel grace and relief, trembles at the furious assaults of sin, and casts itself into the arms of Christ for deliverance. And if it be not able to take that course, it is foiled and hurried up and down through the mire and filth of foolish imaginations, corrupt and noisome lusts, which rend and tear it, as if they would devour its whole spiritual life and power.

Ordinarily it does not rise up to these heights. “Though sin be always a fire in the bones, yet it flames not unless Satan come with his bellows to blow it up.” It is provoked and heightened by some great temptation, building upon some previous sin. Sin does not reach this height of madness at its first assault. “The great wisdom and security of the soul in dealing with indwelling sin is to put a violent stop unto its beginnings, its first motions and actings.” If it gains entrance to the soul and finds any reception, it gains strength and power.

The effects produced by this rage and madness include casting off—for a time—the yoke or rule of the government of the Spirit and the law of grace. Remember that where grace has dominion, it can never be fully dethroned. It will still keep its right and sovereignty, “but its influences may for a season be intercepted” by the power of sin. In this case, sin is like an untamed horse that casts off its rider and runs away. Owen then encouraged his readers to consider how this was done.

The seat and residence of grace is in the soul—the whole inner person—including the mind, will and affections. The whole person is a “new creature,” (2 Corinthians 5:17). “Its rule or dominion is the pursuit of its effectual working in all the faculties of the soul, as they are one united principle of moral and spiritual operations.” So then interrupting the rule or dominion of grace must consist of the faculties and affections of the soul acting contrary to how they act when they are ruled by grace.

Sin darkens the mind. It enflames the affections, “heated with the noisome lusts that have laid hold on them.” It weakens the will’s ability to obey the law of grace, and then renders it useless by “the continual solicitations of sin and temptation.” First the will lets go of its hold and debates whether it should yield or not; at last giving up to its adversary. It then takes away the power of self control, of considering the consequences of your actions.

And for the affections, commonly the beginning of this evil is in them. They cross one another, and torture the soul with their impetuous violence. By this way is the rule of the law of grace intercepted by the law of sin, even by imposing upon it in the whole seat of its government. When this is done, it is sad work that sin will make in the soul.

Turning to Paul’s exhortation in Romans 6:12, Owen warned his readers to not let sin reign in their bodies, to make them obey its lusts. Be careful to not let it get dominion over you even for a moment. The rage and madness of sin neutralizes your self-control, your ability to consider the consequences of what you are about to do. Secretly resolved to accomplish their lusts, they despised what God could do for them, even though it costs them their souls. Thus is the captivating power of indwelling sin.