Tuesday, January 10, 2017

My Year with John Owen #2

I will be sharing some John Owen quotes this year. The first book I'll be reading is Of the Mortification of Sin in Believers (1656).
If sin be subtle, watchful, strong, and always at work in the business of killing our souls, and we be slothful, negligent, foolish, in proceeding to the ruin thereof, can we expect a comfortable event? ~ John Owen
The saints, whose souls breathe after deliverance from its [i.e., sin's] perplexing rebellion, known there is no safety against it but in a constant warfare. ~ John Owen
Sin will not only be striving, active, rebelling, troubling, disquieting, but if let alone, if not continually mortified, it will bring forth great, cursed, scandalous, soul-destroying sins. ~ John Owen
Sin aims always at the utmost; every time it rises up to tempt or entice, might it have its own course, it would go out to the utmost sin in that kind. ~ John Owen
There is not the best saint in the world but, if he should give over this duty, would fall into as many cursed sins as ever any did of his kind. ~ John Owen
This is one main reason why the Spirit and the new nature are given unto us--that we may have a principle within us whereby to oppose sin and lust. ~ John Owen
The contest is for our lives and souls. Not to be daily employing the Spirit and new nature for the mortifying of sin is to neglect that excellent succor which God has given us against our greatest enemy. ~ John Owen
His graces, as well as his gifts, are bestowed on us to use, exercise, and trade with. Not to be daily mortifying sin is to sin against the goodness, kindness, wisdom, grace, and love of God, who has furnished us with a principle of doing it. ~ John Owen
It is our duty to be "perfecting holiness in the fear of God" (2 Cor. 7:1); to be "growing in grace" every day (1 Pet. 2:2; 2 Pet. 3:18); to be "renewing our inward man day by day (2 Cor. 4:16). Now, this cannot be done without the daily mortifying of sin. ~ John Owen
Sin sets its strength against every act of holiness and against every degree we grow to. ~ John Owen

© Becky Laney of Operation Actually Read Bible

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