John Owen’s The Mortification of Sin is a classic work on sanctification based on Romans 8:13, “For if you live according to the flesh you will die, but if by the Spirit you put to death [mortify-KJV] the deeds of the body, you will live.”
Published over 300 years ago, this small book is by no means an easy read but it continues to have a profound impact.
Jerry Bridges, a leading author on godliness and writer of The Pursuit of Holiness and The Discipline of Grace, said in his opinion Owen's Indwelling Sin in Believers and The Mortification of Sin are "the most helpful writings on personal holiness ever written.” Bible scholar J.I. Packer gives similar praise. “I owe more to John Owen than to any other theologian, ancient or modern; and I owe more to [The Mortification of Sin] than to anything else he wrote.”
Killing Sin
Today the word "mortify" seems strange but it simply means to kill sin. Owen urges in one place, "Be killing sin or sin will be killing you."
The killing of sin is one side of sanctification; the other is spiritual-mindedness (Romans 8:6). Paul used metaphors like “putting on” and “putting off” for these two daily duties of holy living. We are to "put on" the new--be increasingly focused on Christ and the new life--and "put off" the old--be increasingly disengaged from what remains of our old patterns of thought and conduct apart from Christ.
To put off your old self, which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful desires, and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds, and to put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness. (Ephesians 4:22-24)
Put to death [mortify-KJ] therefore what is earthly in you: sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry….But now you must put them all away: anger, wrath, malice, slander, and obscene talk from your mouth. Do not lie to one another, seeing that you have put off the old self with its practices and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge after the image of its creator…..Put on then, as God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassion, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience.” (see Colossians 3:5-12)
Aspiration & Mortification
John Stott in Men Made New (pp. 91-92) helpfully explains two theological terms for the two sides of sanctification.
Aspiration is the process of setting our mind on the things of the Spirit. “Those who live according to the Spirit set their minds on the things of the Spirit”(Romans 8:5). Aspiration, Stott writes, is:
a whole-hearted giving of ourselves, in thought and energy and ambition, to ‘whatever is true and honorable, just and pure, lovely and gracious’ (see Phil. 4:8). It will include a diligent use of the ‘means of grace,’ such as prayer, Bible reading, fellowship, worship, the Lord’s Supper, and so on.
Mortification means:
a ruthless rejection of all practices we know to be wrong; a daily repentance, turning from all known sins of habit, practice, association or thought; a plucking out of the eye, a cutting off of the hand or foot, if temptation comes to us through what we see or do or where we go. The only attitude to adopt towards the flesh is to kill it.
Stott says aspiration and mortification should both be viewed as life-giving processes:
Both hold the secret to life, in the fullest sense. There is no true life without the death called mortification, and there is no true life without the discipline called aspiration. It is while we put to death the deeds of the body that we shall live (vs 13); it is while we set our minds on the things of the Spirit that we find “life and peace” (vs 6).
Why Owen Wrote
Three things moved John Owen to write “The Mortification of Sin.” First, as a doctor of souls, he had discovered that most believers were not able to stand up against temptation. He said he had observed in the general condition of believers "a great disability” in the handling of temptations.
Second, Owen was moved by the “dangerous mistakes” of spiritual leaders who emphasized harsh bodily discipline as the path to holiness. Their teaching was not Christ-centered and grace-based; it was a man-focused, man-empowered attempt at holiness. Owen said such people were “unacquainted with the mystery of the gospel and the efficacy of the death of Christ.” These men had:
imposed the yoke of a self-wrought-out mortification on the necks of their disciples, which neither they nor their forefathers were ever able to bear. A mortification they cry up and press, suitable to that of the gospel neither in respect of nature, subject, causes, means, nor effects; which constantly produces the deplorable issues of superstition, self-righteousness, and anxiety of conscience in them who take up the burden which is so bound for them.
 |
| False mortification |
The apostle Paul opposed fleshly asceticism in Colossians 2:16. “They have indeed an appearance of wisdom in promoting self-made religion and asceticism and severity to the body, but they are of no value in stopping the indulgence of the flesh” (see 2:16-23).
Third, Owen wrote out of a desire to glorify God and adorn the gospel by being holy in his personal life and by fostering holiness in others.
I hope I may own in sincerity, that my heart’s desire unto God, and the chief design of my life in the station wherein the good providence of God hath placed me, are, that mortification and universal holiness may be promoted in my own and in the hearts and ways of others, to the glory of God; that so the gospel of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ may be adorned in all things.
