My Year with Owen #5

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).

Life, Vigor, and Comfort are not necessarily connected to mortification. ~ John Owen

Adoption and justification, not mortification, are the immediate causes of life, vigor, and comfort. ~ John Owen

In the ordinary relationship with God, the vigor and comfort of our spiritual lives depend much on our mortification of sin. ~ John Owen

Every unmortified sin will certainly do two things: it will weaken the soul and deprive it of its vigor. It will darken the soul and deprive it of its comfort and peace. ~ John Owen

It untunes and unframes the heart itself by entangling its affections. It diverts the heart from the spiritual frame that is required for vigorous communion with God; it lays hold on the affections, rendering its object beloved and desirable, so expelling the love of the Father (1 John 2:15, 3:17); so that the soul cannot say uprightly and truly to God, "You are my portion," having something else that it loves. Fear, desire, hope, which are the choice affections of the soul, that should be full of God, will be one way or the other entangled with it. ~ John Owen

Thoughts are the great purveyors of the soul to bring in provision to satisfy its affections; and if sin remain unmortified in the heart, they must ever and anon be making provision for the flesh, to fulfill the lusts thereof. ~ John Owen

As sin weakens, so it darkens the soul. It is a cloud, a thick cloud, that spreads itself over the face of the soul, and intercepts all the beams of God's love and favor. It takes away all sense of the privilege of our adoption; and if the soul begins to gather up thoughts of consolation, sin quickly scatters them. ~ John Owen

The heart is like the sluggard's field--so overgrown with weeds that you can scarce see the good corn. ~ John Owen

Mortification is the soul's vigorous opposition to self--wherein sincerity is most evident. ~ John Owen

© Becky Laney of Operation Actually Read Bible