John Owen on Conquering Lust through Meditating on God.

John Owen comments in his essay, Of the Mortification of Sin in Believers, about how although we do not have the capacity to fully understand His Word, we can compensate for this inability by meditating on God's greatness, limitless power, and holiness.

We are dull and slow of heart to receive the things that are in the word revealed; God, by our infirmity and weakness, keeping us in continual dependence on him for teachings and revelations of himself out of his word, never in this world bringing any soul to the utmost of what is from the word to be made out and discovered--so that although the way of revelation in the gospel be clear and evident, yet we know little of the things themselves that are revealed. Let us, then, revive the use and intention of this consideration: will not a due apprehension of this inconceivable greatness of God, and that infinite distance wherein we stand from him, fill the soul with a holy and awful fear of him, so as to keep it in a frame unsuited to the thriving of flourishing of any lust whatsoever Let the soul be continually wonted to reverential thoughts of God's greatness and omnipresence, and it will be much upon its watch as to any undue deportments. Consider him with whom you have to do--even "our God is a consuming fire" [Heb. 12:29]--and in your greatest abashments at his presence and eye, know that your very nature is too narrow to bear apprehensiins suitable to his essential glory.(pp. 117-118, Overcoming Sin & Temptation)

I have two thoughts about this paragraph. First, God's Word is a wonderful resource. We as evangelicals tend to read books about biblical themes (i.e. biblical counseling, daily living, the spiritual disciplines, etc.) without doing the hard work of studying and meditating on God's Word itself. Although, we have over two thousand years of Church scholarship and books being written every day on the Word, we have not even scratch the surface of understanding God's Word. We need to long for the pure spiritual milk of the Word at a very personal level. Second, our default position in our decision-making process for our day-to-day walk needs to be not "What Would Jesus Do?", but an informed decision about "Does this glorify Christ?"

John Owen on Knowing God

John Owen writes about "knowing" or at least the "not knowing" the being of God.

For the being of God; we are so far from a knowledge of it, so as to be able to instruct one another therein by words and expressions of it, as that to frame any conceptions in our mind, with such species and impressions of things as we receive the knowledge of all other things by, is to make an idol to ourselves, and so to worship a god of our own making, and not the God that made us. We may as well and as lawfully hew him out of wood or stone as form him a being in our minds, suited to our apprehensions. The utmost of the best of our thoughts of the being of God is that we can have no thoughts of it. Our knowledge of a being is but low when it mounts no higher but only to know that we know it not.

There [may] be some things of God which he himself has taught us to speak of, and to regulate our expressions of them; but when we have so done, we see not the things themselves; we know them not. To believe and admire is all that we attain to. We profess, as we are taught, that God is infinite, omnipotent, eternal; and we know what disputes and notions there are about omnipresence, immensity, infiniteness, and eternity. We have, I say, words and notions about these things; but as to the things themselves what do we know? What do we comprehend of them? Can the mind of man do any more but swallow itself up in an infinite abyss, which is as nothing; give itself up to what it cannot conceive, much less express? Is not our understanding "brutish" in the contemplation of such things, and is as if it were not? Yea, the perfection of our understanding is not to understand, and to rest there. They are but the back parts of eternity and infiniteness that we have a glimpse of. What shall I say of the Trinity, or the subsistence of distinct persons in the same individual essence--a mystery by many denied, because by none understood--a mystery whose every letter is mysterious? Who can declare the generation of the Son, the procession of the Spirit, or the difference of the one from the other? But I shall not further instance in particulars. That infinite and inconceivable distance that is between him and us keeps us in the dark as any sight of his face or clear apprehension of his perfections. (pp. 114-115, Overcoming Sin and Temptation)

Again, these paragraphs are taken out of context. Owen goes on and writes how faith is central to our knowing God truly and experientially, but this passage serves us well to contemplate God as Job did when God finally revealed some of His glory to Job at the end of the book.

“I know that you can do all things, and that no purpose of yours can be thwarted. ‘Who is this that hides counsel without knowledge?’ Therefore I have uttered what I did not understand, things too wonderful for me, which I did not know. ‘Hear, and I will speak; I will question you, and you make it known to me.’ I had heard of you by the hearing of the ear, but now my eye sees you; therefore I despise myself, and repent in dust and ashes.” (Job 42:2-6, ESV)

How Augustine Preached Sermons

Peter Brown in his magnificent biography of Augustine of Hippo wrote about Augustine's sermons.

For Augustine did not 'preach' sermons, in the sense of delivering fierce denunciations of the gods. Rather he gave his congregation what we could call a 'teach-in'. In a world where the overwhelming majority of the population was illiterate, Christian doctrine was not primarily communicated through books. It was communicated, in detail, by sermons. The sermons preached by Augustine in 404 were nothing less than a series of master classes on the nature of true relations between God and men. They were preserved as they were spoken by stenographers. In them, we hear the principal themes of the Confessions of De Trinitate and the City of God brought to life for us in the simple Latin of the streets of Carthage and of the small towns of the Medjerda valley. Ordinary congregations were to have their full share of Augustine's magnificent vision of the Christian religion (pp. 457-458)

I want to make a couple of observations. First, obviously being illiterate is not the same as being stupid. Scholars have many of Augustine's sermons and the sermons taught difficult concepts to the ordinary congregation of that day. Sermons went on for over 2 hours at times. The preachers at that time made the sermons cyclical and segmented so the audience could leave and come back and still pick up the sense of the sermon.

The second observation is I am reading 7 Practices of Effective Ministry. The 4th practice is "Teach Less for More." The authors make some good points teaching children, but I do not agree with all their points about teaching adults. The authors want the churches to teach what is helpful (p. 136). However, we as a congregation need to go deep into theology at times to plumb the depths of grace. Paul prays in Ephesians for the Ephesian church to have "strength to comprehend."

For this reason I bow my knees before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named, that according to the riches of his glory he may grant you to be strengthened with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith—that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God. (Ephesians 3:14-19, ESV)

Knowing God is hard work and difficult. From reading this biography of Augustine, I would think Augustine would agree that Christians need to understand theology so they can understand the breadth and length and height and depth of the love of Christ. Read the Pauline epistles and remember that Paul was not writing to theologians alone. He was writing to ordinary congregations. God wants us to use our hearts, minds and souls to worship him.

John Owen: Greatest Motivation for a Life of Purity

I am still reading John Owen's essay, "Of the Mortification of Sin in Believers." The following quote loses a bit of impact from being out of context, but it is still good.

Consider who and what you are; who the Spirit is that is grieved, what he has done for you, what he comes to your soul about, what he has already done in you; and be ashamed. Among those who walk with God, there is no greater motive and incentive unto universal holiness, and the preserving of their hearts and spirits in all purity and cleanness, than this, that the blessed Spirit, who has undertaken to dwell in them, is continually considering what they give entertainment in their hearts unto, and rejoices when his temple is kept undefiled. (p. 102, Overcoming Sin and Temptation)

Augustine's Views on Predestination

I am finishing up a very good biography called Augustine of Hippo by Peter Brown. Brown spent a whole chapter explaining Augustine's view of predestination towards the end of his life. I copied a few of the more striking passages.

For Augustine's doctrine of predestination, as he elaborated it, was a doctrine for fighting men. A monk might waste his leisure worrying about his utlimate identity: to Augustine, such an anxiety was misplaced. A doctrine of predestination divorced from action was inconceivable to him. He has never written to deny freedom, merely to make it more effective in the harsh environment of a fallen world. The world demanded, among other things, unremitting intellectual labour to gain truth, stern rebuke to move men. (p. 406)

The following quote is from an Augustinian commentary on Deuteronomy.

Say not in thy heart: My strength and the power of my hand has wrought this great wonder: but thou shalt remember the Lord thy God, for He it is Who gives the strength to do great deeds.

Augustine consoled the victims of the sack of Rome by using the doctrine of predestination and reminding the victims that their future is secure in heaven with bodies that will be glorified.

What is more, such views made the world readily intelligible. The doctrine of predestination was developed by Augustine mainly as a doctrine, in which every event was charged with a precise meaning as a deliberate act of God, of mercy for the elect, of judgement for the damned...
Similarly, every tribulation of the elect was a calculated mercy. This alone was no small thing: for in the anthology of the works of Augustine, later compiled by Prosper, the opening book of the City of God, with the record of the still-distant news of unburied corpses, of nuns raped, of the enslavement of prisoners of war, will now appear as relevant to the every day experience of a man of the fifth century. (pp. 406-407)

Augustine at the end of his life wrote on perseverance. He tried to answer the question, what keeps a Christian on his walk throughout his life through pain and suffering?

What preoccupied Augustine, therefore, was no longer the mobilization of love that caused a man to act, but the mysterious resilience that would enable some men to maintain this love for the full course of their lives.(p. 408)

The 'gift of perseverance', as he [Augustine] had said , was the greatest of God's gifts to the individual. For it bestowed on frail human beings the same unshakeable stablility as the human nature in Christ had enjoyed: by this gift, a man was joined forever to the Divine, could be confident that the 'hand of God' would stretched above him to shield him, unfailingly, against the world. 'Human nature could not have been raised higher.' (p. 409)

Predestination, an abstract stumbling-block to the sheltered communities of Hadrumetum and Marseilles, as it would be to so many future Christians, had only one meaning for Augustine: it was a doctrine of survival, a fierce insistence that God alone could provide men with an irreducible inner core. (p. 410)

John Owen on the Deceitfulness of Sin

Here are two quotes by John Owen on the deceitfulness of sin. The first observation Owen makes is Christians minimize the full impact of sin.

Solomon tells you of him who was enticed by the lewd woman, that he was "among the simple ones," he was " a young man void of understanding" (Prov. 7:7). And wherein did his folly appear? Why, says he (v. 23), "he knew not that it was for his life," he considered not the guilt of the evil that he was involved in. (p. 97, Overcoming Sin and Temptation)

We should not toy with sin because sin deadens our pursuit and enjoyment of God. The second observation builds on the first observation. Owen solemnly encourages us to be careful and watchful to be not hardened by sin's deceitfulness

This the apostle sorely charges on the Hebrews (3:12-13), "Take heed, brethren, lest there be any of you an evil heart of unbelief, in departing from the living God. But exhort one another daily, while it is called Today; lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin." "Take heed, " says he, "use all means, consider you temptations, watch diligently; there is a treachery, a deceit in sin, that tends to the hardening of your hearts from the fear of God." The hardening here mentioned is to the utmost --utter obduration; sin tends to it, and every distemper and lust will make at least some progress toward it. You that were tender, and used to melt under the word, under afflictions, will grow as some have profanely spoken, "sermon-proof and sickness-proof." You that did tremble at the presence of God, thoughts of death, and appearance before him, when you had more assurance of his love than now you have, shall have a stoutness upon your spirit not to be moved by these things. Your soul and your sin shall be spoken of and spoken to, and you shall not be all concerned, but shall be to pass over duties, praying, hearing, reading, and your heart not in the least affected. Sin will grow a light thing to you; you will pass it by as a thing of naught; this it will grow to. And what will be the end of such a condition? Can a sadder thing befall you? Is it not enough to make any heart to tremble, to think ob being brought into that estate wherein he should slight thoughts of sin? Slight thoughts of grace, of mercy, of the blood of Christ, of the law, heaven, and hell, come all in at the same season. Take heed, this is that [which] your lust is working toward--the hardening of the heart, searing of the conscience, blinding of the mind, stupifying of the affections, and deceiving of the whole soul. (pp. 98-99, Overcoming Sin and Temptation)

Pining for the City of God

Rome was sacked. Augustine's congregation in Hippo was confused and saddened. Augustine decided to preach on the Psalms to encourage his flock by pointing that only one city was eternal and that was the City of God. This series of sermons became the foundation of Augustine's magnus opus, The City of God. The premise was that throughout history there has been two cities represented by Babylon and Jerusalem. Babylon was the city of the people who reject God and His government. The heavenly Jerusalem was the city of God. The citizens of these two cities might be hard to distinguish at times, but in the last days their citizenship will become clear. The following quote was from one of these sermons. It explained how we, the Church, maintain and manifest our citizenship in the present age.

Now let us hear, brothers, let us hear and sing; let us pine for the City where we are citizens.... By pining we are already there; we have already cast our hope, like an anchor, on that coast. I sing of somewhere else, not of here: for I sing with my heart, not my flesh. The citizens of Babylon hear the sound of the flesh, the Founder of Jerusalem hears the tune of our heart. (Augustine as quoted by Peter Brown, p. 314, Augustine of Hippo

The author of Hebrews wrote that even before Jerusalem was an earthly city, Abraham sought the eternal city --the city of promise--during his earthly stay on earth.

By faith Abraham obeyed when he was called to go out to a place that he was to receive as an inheritance. And he went out, not knowing where he was going. By faith he went to live in the land of promise, as in a foreign land, living in tents with Isaac and Jacob, heirs with him of the same promise. For he was looking forward to the city that has foundations, whose designer and builder is God. (Hebrews 11:8-10, ESV)

After the role call of faith in chapter 11 of Hebrews, the author of Hebrews point out that all these heroes of the faith were seeking a heavenly city.

These all died in faith, not having received the things promised, but having seen them and greeted them from afar, and having acknowledged that they were strangers and exiles on the earth. For people who speak thus make it clear that they are seeking a homeland. If they had been thinking of that land from which they had gone out, they would have had opportunity to return. But as it is, they desire a better country, that is, a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared for them a city. (Hebrews 11:13-16, ESV)

Finally, at the end of Hebrews, we are to understand that this material world around us is not real, but we should seek the new Jerusalem which is permanent.

For here we have no lasting city, but we seek the city that is to come. (Hebrews 13:14, ESV)

God Chose the Foolish of the World to Shame the Wise

I am reading Peter Brown's excellent biography of Augustine of Hippo. The author describes the intellectual milieu of Augustine's day just before Augustine started writing his masterpiece, City of God. Peter Brown writes about the neo-paganists, who were growing in number in the decaying Roman Empire and were intellectual opponents of Christianity. The following quote describes how a neo-paganist would have viewed Christianity.

For such men, Christianity appeared, as it appears to many to-day, as a religion out of joint with the natural assumptions of a whole culture. The great Platonists of their age, Plotinus and Porphyry, could provide them with a profoundly religious view of the world, that grew naturally out of an immemorial tradition. The claims of the Christian, by contrast, lacked intellectual foundation. For a man such as Volusianus to accept the Incarnation would have been like a modern European denying the evolution of the species: he would have had to abandon not only the most advanced, rationally based knowledge available to him, but, by implication, the whole culture permeated by such achievements. Quite bluntly, the pagans were the 'wise' men, the 'experts', prudentes; and the Christians were 'stupid'. (pp. 299-300, Augustine of Hippo: A Biography)

This excerpt reminds me of 1 Corinthians 1:26-31.

For consider your calling, brothers: not many of you were wise according to worldly standards, not many were powerful, not many were of noble birth. But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong; God chose what is low and despised in the world, even things that are not, to bring to nothing things that are, so that no human being might boast in the presence of God. And because of him you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, righteousness and sanctification and redemption, so that, as it is written, “Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord.” (1 Corinthians 1:26-31, ESV)

Christianity was never the intellectually cool religion throughout the ages. Intellectual non-Christians stumbled over the truths about the necessity of the Cross and the depravity of their sin. God did not choose us because we were smarter than our opponents. We were chosen to shame the wise and embarrass the strong through our stupidity and weakness.

God wants to bring Himself glory through us in spite of us. Consider Augustine who was very sharp intellectually. However, we need to remember he was a country bumpkin from Africa and he was not from Rome: the cultural center of his world.  Also consider that he did not know Greek that well. We can be sure that he felt unequal to the task at times to fight his intellectual battles with the culture. However, we can assume that he knew that God placed him where he would do the most good. We, like Augustine, can know we serve an infinitely wise God.

The Trinity Orchestrates the Symphony of Salvation Together

We talked about the Trinity in Core last Thursday. In the introduction to a collection of essays called, From Heaven He Came and Sought Her, David and Jonathan Gibson wrote about how the Trinity is involved in salvation on page 49. They quoted Fred Sanders.

The Trinity orchestrates the symphony of salvation in all its movements: the Father elects and sends, the Son becomes incarnate and dies, the Spirit draws and vivifies. But while their works are distinct they are not independent: the Father elects in Christ, the incarnate Son offers himself on the cross through the eternal Spirit to the Father, and the Spirit is sent by the Father and the Son to draw and seal the elect. Grounded in the mutual indwelling of their persons, the Father, Son, and Spirit together serve the shared goal of our salvation. "The Spirit serves the Son by applying what he accomplished, and the Son serves the Spirit by making his indwelling possible. Both Son and Spirit, together on their twofold mission from the Father, serve the Father and mister to us." (Fred Sanders, Deep Things of God: How the Trinity Changes Everything, p. 149)

The Choir: God's Commandos

Judah was in trouble. The Moabites, Ammonites, and some Meunites were coming to invade Judah. Jehosophat was a faithful king, but God decided to test Jehosophat and the people of Judah. They passed with flying colors. The first act Jehosophat did was to 'set his face to seek the Lord'. He then called a fast and called the people to gather so that they may seek the Lord together. Here's the passage in 2 Chronicles.

Meanwhile all Judah stood before the Lord, with their little ones, their wives, and their children. And the Spirit of the Lord came upon Jahaziel the son of Zechariah, son of Benaiah, son of Jeiel, son of Mattaniah, a Levite of the sons of Asaph, in the midst of the assembly. And he said, “Listen, all Judah and inhabitants of Jerusalem and King Jehoshaphat: Thus says the Lord to you, ‘Do not be afraid and do not be dismayed at this great horde, for the battle is not yours but God's. Tomorrow go down against them. Behold, they will come up by the ascent of Ziz. You will find them at the end of the valley, east of the wilderness of Jeruel. You will not need to fight in this battle. Stand firm, hold your position, and see the salvation of the Lord on your behalf, O Judah and Jerusalem.’ Do not be afraid and do not be dismayed. Tomorrow go out against them, and the Lord will be with you.”

Then Jehoshaphat bowed his head with his face to the ground, and all Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem fell down before the Lord, worshiping the Lord. And the Levites, of the Kohathites and the Korahites, stood up to praise the Lord, the God of Israel, with a very loud voice. And they rose early in the morning and went out into the wilderness of Tekoa. And when they went out, Jehoshaphat stood and said, “Hear me, Judah and inhabitants of Jerusalem! Believe in the Lord your God, and you will be established; believe his prophets, and you will succeed.” And when he had taken counsel with the people, he appointed those who were to sing to the Lord and praise him in holy attire, as they went before the army, and say,

“Give thanks to the Lord,
for his steadfast love endures forever.”

And when they began to sing and praise, the Lord set an ambush against the men of Ammon, Moab, and Mount Seir, who had come against Judah, so that they were routed. For the men of Ammon and Moab rose against the inhabitants of Mount Seir, devoting them to destruction, and when they had made an end of the inhabitants of Seir, they all helped to destroy one another. (2 Chronicles 20:13-23, ESV)

The front lines in this battle was the choir. God wanted to demonstrate to Judah that God protects those who wait on Him. God will not fail those who trust Him and praise Him. What better way to thank God than through music. One of the main tools God has in his arsenal to fight his battles in this world is corporate worship. It helps the body of Christ to worship God in unison.

Paul and Silas had a similar experience with worship. They were in Philippi. Paul and Silas were captured, dragged through the streets, stripped of their clothes, beaten by rods, imprisoned and placed in stocks. These missionaries set the example for all missionaries that followed them in suffering: they sang hymns and glorified God.

About midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the prisoners were listening to them, and suddenly there was a great earthquake, so that the foundations of the prison were shaken. And immediately all the doors were opened, and everyone's bonds were unfastened. (Acts 16:25-26, ESV)

God again responded to their praise of His commandos (missionaries); he set them free. The following passages exhort us to sing corporately to celebrate God's work in our lives, to teach one another about Christ, to admonish one another, and to give thanks in our hearts to God.

Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is. And do not get drunk with wine, for that is debauchery, but be filled with the Spirit, addressing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody to the Lord with your heart, giving thanks always and for everything to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, submitting to one another out of reverence for Christ.

Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God. (Colossians 3:16)

John Owen on the Nature of Sin

Here's a few quotes from the book Overcoming Sin and Temptation by John Owen. It is a tough read, but here are some nuggets from Owen, with some general observations.

Without sincerity and diligence in a universality of obedience, there is no mortification of any one perplexing lust to be obtained. (p. 86)

Owen is pointing out that one may conquer one sin, but like a hydra, it might grow another head in some other sin. The only way to kill sin off (the mortification is never totally accomplished during our stay on earth) is total obedience to the Gospel.

Hatred of sin as sin, not only as galling or disquieting, a sense of the love Christ in the cross, lies at the bottom of all true spiritual mortification.(p. 87)

We may hate how a sin (gambling or pornography addiction) may affect our lives and our family, but unless we kill off sin because we love Christ and what he did on the cross to pay for our sin; we will not have any real progress in the mortification of our sin.

Lust, as I showed in general, lies in the heart of everyone, even the best, while he lives; and think not that the Scripture speaks in vain, that it is subtle, cunning, crafty--that it seduces, entices, fights, rebels. (p. 88)

Sin or lust is a formidable enemy and it takes constant vigilance to mortify lust in all its forms.

Augustine on Preaching

Peter Brown wrote an excellent biography of Augustine named, Augustine of Hippo. Augustine was a bishop: an elder of the town of Hippo who was in charge of the local church and some priests in the surrounding area. He had some very wise insights about the Bible, preaching and training leaders.

The first quote is about Augustine's desire to immediately feed his flock from the bounty of the Word of God. The rest of the quotes are self-explanatory.

Augustine was certain of his basic role. It was not to stir up emotion: it was to distribute food. The Scriptural idea of 'breaking bread', of 'feeding the multitude', by expounding the Bible, an idea already rich with complex associations, is central to Augustine's view of himself as a preacher. (p. 249)

As he told Jerome, he could never be a 'disinterested' Biblical scholar: "If I do gain any stock of knowledge (in the Scriptures), I pay it out immediately to the people of God' (p. 249)

Nothing can be better, nothing more sweet for me than to gaze upon the Divine treasure without noise and hustle: this is what is sweet and good. To have to preach, to inveigh, to admonish, to edify, to feel responsible for every one of you--this is a great burden, a heavy weight upon me, a hard labour. (Augustine as quoted by Brown, pp. 252-253)

Augustine never faced the problem of replacing classical education throughout the Roman world. He merely wished to create for the devotees of true 'Wisdom' an oasis of literary culture, that was distinguished by being unselfconscious, unacademic, uncompetitve, and devoted to the understanding of the Bible alone. (p. 264)

Ephesians, Prayer and the Cosmic Battle

We were reading Ephesians 6:10-20 in the Wednesday Morning Men's Group. I noticed in Ephesians that prayer was central to our struggle against the cosmic powers. In Ephesians, prayer did not have a metaphor of a piece of armor tied to it. Paul wrote that prayer was our primary weapon and our main defense in our struggle. In the following passage, I put in bold the part of the passage that dealt with prayer.

Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might. Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the schemes of the devil. For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places. Therefore take up the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand firm. Stand therefore, having fastened on the belt of truth, and having put on the breastplate of righteousness, and, as shoes for your feet, having put on the readiness given by the gospel of peace. In all circumstances take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming darts of the evil one; and take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God, praying at all times in the Spirit, with all prayer and supplication. To that end keep alert with all perseverance, making supplication for all the saints, and also for me, that words may be given to me in opening my mouth boldly to proclaim the mystery of the gospel, for which I am an ambassador in chains, that I may declare it boldly, as I ought to speak. (Ephesians 6:10-20, ESV)

In Peter T. O'Brien's commentary: The Letter to the Ephesians, he states the following about the importance of prayer in our struggle with the present darkness.

Prayer is given greater prominence within the context of the battle with the powers of darkness than any of the weapons listed in vv. 14-17... Paul wants his readers to understand that prayer is 'foundational for the deployment of all the other weapons', and is therefore crucial if they are to stand firm in their spiritual struggle. He has already shown his concern for them by praying that they might know the greatness of God's power (1:15-23), and be strengthened by it so as to grasp the dimensions of Christ's love for them and be filled with all the fulness of God (3:14-21). The apostle wants them to realize that a life of dependence on God in prayer is essential if they are to engage successfully in their warfare with the powers of darkness. (p. 483-484, Peter. T. O'Brien)

We are in a battle of cosmic proportions. We are commanded to pray continually. (xref. 1 Thess. 5:17). To pray continually, we need to keep alert as for what we need to pray. Here's O'Brien again,

Believers are to pray continually because their struggle with the powers of darkness is never ending. And their prayers are to be 'in or by the Spirit', that is, inspired and guided by the same Holy Spirit through whom they have confident access to the Father (2:18). As those who have been built into God's dwelling place in the Spirit (2:22) and who are being filled by the Spirit (5:18), they are to pray to the Father, prompted and guided by the Spirit. This is not a reference to praying in tongues, since not all christians are expected to engage in such prayer, but has to do with specific requests offered through the Spirit by every believer involved in spiritual warfare. Even when we do know what pray as we ought, the Spirit comes to our assistance and intercedes for us with unspoken groanings that are perfectly in line with the will of God (lit. 'according to God', Rom. 8:26-27). (pp. 484-485)

C. S. Lewis and Others on the Nature of Sin

Psalm 51:3-5

For I know my transgressions, and my sin is ever before me. Against you, you only, have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight, so that you may be justified in your words and blameless in your judgment. Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me.

Sin is described as "the plague of his own heart."

Matthew Henry comments on I Kings 8:38

Sin is the plague of our own heart; our indwelling corruptions are our spiritual diseases.

I Kings 8:38-39 NKJV

whatever prayer, whatever supplication is made by anyone, or by all Your people Israel, when each one knows the plague of his own heart, and spreads out his hands toward this temple: 39 then hear in heaven Your dwelling place, and forgive, and act, and give to everyone according to all his ways, whose heart You know (for You alone know the hearts of all the sons of men),

C. S. Lewis through Screwtape, the senior demon in the Screwtape Letters, points out the effectiveness of the smaller sins.

“You will say that these are very small sins; and doubtless, like all young tempters, you are anxious to be able to report spectacular wickedness. But do remember, the only thing that matters is the extent to which you separate the man from the Enemy. It does not matter how small the sins are provided that their cumulative effect is to edge the man away from the Light and out into the Nothing. Murder is no better than cards if cards can do the trick. Indeed the safest road to Hell is the gradual one-the gentle slope, soft underfoot, without sudden turnings, without milestones, without signposts.” (p. 56, Screwtape Letters)

Westminster Shorter Catechism

Q. 14. What is sin? A. Sin is any want of conformity unto, or transgression of, the law of God.

Scriptural Support for the Catechism Answer:

“If anyone sins, doing any of the things that by the Lord's commandments ought not to be done, though he did not know it, then realizes his guilt, he shall bear his iniquity. (Leviticus 5:17, ESV)

So whoever knows the right thing to do and fails to do it, for him it is sin. (James 4:17, ESV)

Everyone who makes a practice of sinning also practices lawlessness; sin is lawlessness. (1 John 3:4, ESV)

Jonathan Edwards on Sin

“Divines are generally agreed that sin radically and fundamentally consists in what is negative, or privative, having its root and foundation in a privation or want of holiness. And therefore undoubtedly, if it be so that sin does very much consist in hardness of heart, and so in the want of pious affections of heart, holiness does consist very much in those pious affections.” (Religious Affections)

A Dust-Covered Man on a Dust-Covered Horse

In the Civil War, U. S. Grant was stuck. He needed to capture Vicksburg, but he could not get through the swamp on the east side of the river. Grant made a risky move. He had his men march down river through the swamp on the western side so he could attack Vicksburg from behind. The maneuver was risky because he cut himself off from his supply line. Shelby Foote related why the men followed him with such a risky plan.

[During the Vicksburg campaign] the men knew they were cut loose from their base of supplies, but Grant himself gave them confidence. They believed Grant knew what he was doing, and one great encouragement for their believing that was that quite often on the march, whether at night or in the daytime, they’d be moving along a road or over a bridge and right beside the road would be Grant on his horse—a dust-covered man on a dust-covered horse—saying, “Move on, close up.” So they felt very much that he personally was in charge of their movement and it gave them added confidence.

This story showed Grant shepherding his men. He made sure they were going in the right direction and they were not going astray. I thought this was a vivid illustration of what an elder does for a church. Grant was covered with dust like his men. An elder should be involved with his flock and the church's daily battles. Grant had two commands. First he told them to move on so they would reach their goal. Second Grant told them to close up. This command meant close up the ranks: Stay together as a unit and don't fall behind. An elder should encourage his flock to move on toward knowing Christ, and helping others to know Christ. An elder should make sure the members of the flock should close up: shepherd the flock so no one goes astray through false teaching. The ministry of the ministers of the Word, according to Ephesians, should be maturity of the body and unity of faith. An elder should teach the Word in such a manner so the congregation can "Move on, close up." Here are some of the verses about elders preserving unity through the ministry of the word.

And he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and teachers, to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ, until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, (Ephesians 4:11-13, ESV)

He must hold firm to the trustworthy word as taught, so that he may be able to give instruction in sound doctrine and also to rebuke those who contradict it. (Titus 1:9, ESV)

C. S. Lewis on Greed

In the The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, Eustace was unwillingly transported to Narnia and taken aboard a ship that was on an adventure. As this adventure progressed, Eustace went on an expedition on a mysterious island. He got lost, found a treasure, and he fell asleep on the treasure. C. S. Lewis described the following event when Eustace awoke from his charmed sleep.

He had turned into a dragon while he was asleep. Sleeping on a dragon's hoard with greedy, dragonish thoughts in his heart, he had become a dragon. (p. 75, The Voyage of the Dawn Treader,)

C. S. Lewis's commentary on Ephesians 4:28.

In the passage where the New Testament says that every one must work, it gives as a reason "in order that he may have something to give to those in need." Charity--giving to the poor--is an essential part of Christian morality: in the frightening parable of the sheep and the goats it seems to be the point on which everything turns. Some people nowadays say that charity ought to be unnecessary and that instead of giving to the poor we ought to be producing a society in which there were no poor to give to. They may be quite right in saying that we ought to produce that kind of society. But if anyone thinks that, as a consequence, you can stop giving in the meantime, then he has parted company with all Christian morality. I do not believe one can settle how much we ought to give. I am afraid the only safe rule is to give more than we can spare. In other words, if our expenditure on comforts, luxuries, amusements, etc., is up to the standard common among those with the same income as our own, we are probably giving away too little. If our charities do not at all pinch or hamper us, I should say they are too small. There ought to be things we should like to do and cannot do because our charitable expenditure excludes them. I am speaking now of "charities" in the common way. Particular cases of distress among your own relatives, friends, neighbours or employees, which God, as it were, forces upon your notice, may demand much more: even to the crippling and endangering of your own position. For many of us the great obstacle to charity lies not in our luxurious living or desire for money, but in fear--fear of insecurity. This must often be recognised as a temptation. Sometimes our pride also also hinders our charity; we are tempted to spend more that we ought on the showy forms of generosity (tipping, hospitality) and less than we ought on those who really need our help. (p. 67, Mere Christianity)

Here's the verse in Ephesians:

Let the thief no longer steal, but rather let him labor, doing honest work with his own hands, so that he may have something to share with anyone in need. (Ephesians 4:28, ESV)

The relationship between Greed and Pride.

That is why I say that Pride is essentially competitive in a way the other vices the other vices are not. ... Greed may drive men into competition if there is not enough to go round; but the proud man, even when he has got more than he can possibly want, will try to get still more just to assert his power. Nearly all those evils in the world which people put down to greed or selfishness are really far more the result of Pride.

Take it with money. Greed will certainly make a man want money, for the sake of a better house, better holidays, better things to eat and drink. But only up to point. What is it that makes a man with 10,000 pounds a year anxious to get 20,000 pounds a year? It is not the greed for more pleasure. 10,000 pounds will give all the luxuries that any man can really enjoy. It is Pride--the wish to be richer than some other rich man, and (still more) the wish for power. For, of course, power is what Pride really enjoys ... (p. 95, Mere Christianity)

C. S. Lewis ends Mere Christianity with this summary of the fundamental principle of the Christian world view.

The principle runs through all life from top to bottom. Give up yourself, and you will find your real self. Lose your life and you will save it. Submit to death, death of your ambitions and favorite wishes every day and the death of your whole body in the end: submit with every fiber of your being, and you will find eternal life. Keep back nothing. Nothing that you have not given away will be really yours. Nothing in you that has not died will ever be raised from the dead. Look for yourself, and you will find in the long run only hatred, loneliness, despair, rage, ruin, and decay. But look for Christ and you will find him, and with him everything else thrown in.(p. 175)

C. S. Lewis on Anger

Here are some miscellaneous quotes by C. S. Lewis on Anger and Wrath.

This first quote points out the effect of our anger on others is not the measure of the impact of the unrighteous anger on our souls.

One man may be so placed that his anger sheds the blood of thousands, and another so placed that however angry he gets he will only be laughed at. But the little mark on the soul may be much the same in both. Each has done something to himself which, unless he repents, will make it harder for him to keep out of the rage next time he is tempted, and will make the rage worse when he does fall into it. Each of them, if he seriously turns to God, can have that twist in the central man straightened out again: each is, in the long run, doomed if he will not. The bigness or smallness of the thing, seen from the outside, is not what really matters.” (p. 72,Mere Christianity)

In the following quote, Lewis is trying to convince Malcolm that depersonalizing God's anger with unemotional analogies of anger (i.e. "The live wire doesn't feel angry with us, but if we blunder against it we get a shocked") doesn't really help us at all.

All the liberalising and "civilising" analogies only lead us astray. Turn God's wrath into mere enlightened disapproval, and you also turn His love into mere humanitarianism. The "consuming fire" and the "perfect beauty" both vanish. We have, instead, a judicious headmistress or a conscientious magistrate. (p. 97, Letters to Malcolm Chiefly on Prayer)

C. S. Lewis commenting on James 1:20

I know that "the wrath of man worketh not the righteousness of God." That is not because wrath is wrath but because man is (fallen) man.(p. 97, Letters to Malcolm Chiefly on Prayer)

Here's the passage in James.

Know this, my beloved brothers: let every person be quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to anger; for the anger of man does not produce the righteousness of God. (James 1:19-20, ESV)

The first sonnet of the poem the Five Sonnets by C. S. Lewis. Notice the line "Anger's the anesthetic of the mind."

You think that we who do not shout and shake
Our first at God when youth or bravery die
Have colder blood or hearts less apt to ache
Than yours who rail. I know you do. Yet why?
You have what sorrow always longs to find,
Someone to blame, some enemy in chief;
Anger's the anesthetic of the mind,
It does men good, it fumes away their grief.
We feel the stroke like you; so far our fate
Is equal. After that, for us begin
Half-hopeless labours, learning not to hate,
And then to want, and then (perhaps) to win
A high, unearthly comfort, angel's food,
That seems at first mockery to flesh and blood.

C. S. Lewis (and Friend) on Sloth

This is how Dorothy L. Sayers, a contemporary and friend of C. S. Lewis, defines sloth.

It is the sin which believes in nothing, cares for nothing, seeks to know nothing, interferes with nothing, enjoys nothing, loves nothing, hates nothing, finds purpose in nothing. lives for nothing, and only remains alive because there is nothing it would die for. (Dorothy L. Sayer)

In C. S. Lewis's book, The Screwtape Letters, a senior demon, Screwtape, writes a series of letters to his nephew, Wormwood. The purpose of the letters is to advise Wormwood in the finer points of temptation in order to keep his patient, John, from finishing the course as a Christian. The following passage is part of a letter where Screwtape advises Wormwood how to keep his patient from doing spiritual disciplines, especially prayer.

You no longer need a good book, which he really likes, to keep him from his prayers or his work or his sleep; a column of advertisements in yesterday's paper will do. You can make him waste his time not only conversation he enjoys with people whom he likes but also in conversations with those he cares nothing about, on subjects that bore him. You can make him do nothing at all for long periods. You can keep him up late at night, not roistering, but staring at a dead fire in a cold room. All the healthy and outgoing activities which we want him to avoid can be inhibited and nothing given in return, so at last he may say, as one of my own patients said on his arrival down here, "I now see that I spent most of my life in doing neither what I ought nor what I liked." The Christians describe the enemy as one “without whom Nothing is strong.” And Nothing is very strong: strong enough to steal away a man’s best years, not in sweet sins but in dreary flickering of the mind over it knows not what why, in the gratification of curiosities so feeble that the man is only half aware of them, in drumming of fingers and kicking of heels, .... It does not matter how small the sins are provided that their cumulative effect is to edge the man away from the Light and out into the Nothing.” (Letter XII, Screwtape Letters)

The following quote from C. S. Lewis's most famous sermon summarizes well the missed opportunities that we have when we give into sloth.

Indeed, if we consider the unblushing promises of reward and the staqgering nature of the rewards promised in the Gospels, it would seem that Our Lord finds our desires, not too strong, but too weak. We are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea. We are far too easily pleased." (pp. 2-3, The Weight of Glory)

C. S. Lewis on Pride

Here are some of my favorites quotes by C. S. Lewis on Pride.

According to Christian teachers, the essential vice, the utmost evil, is Pride. Unchastity, anger, greed, drunkenness, and all that, are mere fleabites in comparison: it was through Pride that the devil became the devil: Pride leads to every other vice: it is the complete anti-God state of mind. (p. 109, Mere Christianity)

That raises a terrible question. How is it that people who are quite obviously eaten up with Pride can say they believe in God and appear to themselves very religious? I am afraid it means they are worshipping an imaginary God. They theoretically admit themselves to be nothing in the presence of this phantom God, but are really all the time imagining how He approves of them and thinks them far better than ordinary people: that is, they pay a pennyworth of imaginary humility to Him and get out of it a pound’s worth of Pride towards their fellow-men
(p. 111, Mere Christianity)

Pleasure in being praised is not Pride. The child who is patted on the back for doing a lesson well, the woman whose beauty is praised by her lover, the saved soul to whom Christ says "Well done," are pleased and ought to be. For here the pleasure lies not in what you are but in the fact that you have pleased someone you wanted (and rightly wanted) to please. The trouble begins when you pass from thinking, "I have pleased him; all is well," to thinking, "What a fine person I must be to have done it." The more you delight in yourself and the less you delight in the praise, the worse you are becoming. (p. 112, Mere Christianity)

This sin has been described by Saint Augustine as the result of Pride, of the movement whereby a creature (that is, an essentially dependent being whose principle of existence lies not in itself but in another) tries to set up on its own, to exist for itself. Such a sin requires no complex social conditions, no extended experience, no great intellectual development. From the moment a creature becomes aware of God as God and of itself a self, the terrible alternative of choosing God or self for the centre is opened to it. This sin is committed daily by young children and ignorant peasants as well as by sophisticated persons, by solitaries no less than by those who live in society: it is the fall in every individual life, and in each day of each individual life, the basic sin behind all particular sins: at this very moment you and I are either committing it, or about to commit, or repenting it.(p. 79, The Problem of Pain)

I can hardly imagine a more deadly spiritual condition than that of the man who can read that passage [Sermon on the Mount] with tranquil pleasure. (p. 182, God in the Dock)

It is Faust, not he, who really exhibits the ruthless, sleepless, unsmiling concentration upon self which is the mark of hell. (Preface to The Screwtape Letters)

Pride is the primary sin, so C. S. Lewis wrote a lot about Pride. The following chapters have great insights on the sin of Pride.

• Mere Christianity: Book 3: Beyond Personality: Chapter 8, "The Greatest Sin," 
• The Problem of Pain: Chapter 5, "The Fall of Man", 

C. S. Lewis (and friends) on Envy

I have a quote from The Great Divorce by C. S. Lewis, but I want to set it up first with other quotes on envy and some explanation of the context of the quote in the narrative. I will then finish the blog with a cure for envy advocated by Charles Spurgeon.

Traditionally envy was regarded as the second worst and second most prevalent of the seven deadly sins. Like pride, it is a sin of the spirit, not of the flesh, and thus a “cold” and highly “respectable” sin, in contrast to the “warm” and openly “disreputable” sins of the flesh, such as gluttony. Its uniqueness lies in the fact that it is the one vice that its perpetrators never enjoy and rarely confess. (The Call, Os Guinness)

"But Envy always brings the truest charge, or the charge nearest to the truth, that she can think up; it hurts more." (The Four Loves, C. S. Lewis ).

Envy enters when, seeing someone else’s happiness or success, we feel ourselves called into question. Then, out of the hurt of our wounded self-esteem, we seek to bring the other person down to our level by word or deed. They belittle us by their success, we feel; we should bring them down to their deserved level, envy helps us feel. Full-blown envy, in short, is dejection plus disparagement plus destruction. (The Call, Os Guiness)

“Envy begins by asking plausibly: ‘Why should I not enjoy what others enjoy?’ and it ends by demanding: ‘Why should others enjoy what I may not?’” (Dorothy Sayers)

The following dialog occurs in The Great Divorce. The protagonist John witnesses an exchange of a resident of heaven with her husband. The husband is visiting from hell. The wife tries to persuade him to stay and pleads with him to forget his pride and self-importance so he can then join her in heaven. At the end of the conversation, he refuses heaven and happiness, and demands that the wife leave her Joy(Christ) and follow him back to hell. She flatly refuses. The protagonist, John, asks his tour guide is it really necessary that wife should be so untouched by her husband's self-inflicted misery. The tour guide, George MacDonald, responds as follows:

Would ye rather he still had the power of tormenting her? He did it many a day and many a year in their earthy life."
"Well, no. I suppose I don't want that."
"What then?"
"I hardly know, Sir. What some people say on earth is that the final loss of one soul gives the lie to all the joy of those who are saved."
"Ye see it does not."
"I feel in a way that it ought to."
"That sounds very merciful: but see what lurks behind it."
"What?"
"The demand of the loveless and the self-imprisoned that they should be allowed to blackmail the universe: that till they consent to be happy (on their own terms) no one else shall taste joy: that theirs should be the final power; that Hell should be able to veto Heaven."
"I don't know what I want, Sir."
"Son, son, it must be one way or the other. Either the day must come when joy prevails and all the makers of misery are no longer able to infect it: or else for ever and ever the makers of misery can destroy in other the happiness they reject for themselves. I know it has a grand sound to say ye'll accept no salvation which leaves even one creature in the dark outside. But watch that sophistry or ye'll make a Dog in a Manger the tyrant of the universe." (pp. 120-121)

Here is a couple notes of explanation. First, Sophistry is an argument based on cleverness and not truth. Second, "Dog in a Manger" means some one who prevents other people from getting what they want when the person can't get what he wants. The fable goes "There was a dog lying in a manger who did not eat the grain but who nevertheless prevented the horse from being able to eat anything either."

Here's a quote by Charles Spurgeon on the cure for envy. I stole it from a website listed below.

The cure for envy lies in living under a constant sense of the divine presence, worshiping God and communing with Him all the day long, however long the day may seem. True religion lifts the soul into a higher region, where the judgment becomes more clear and the desires are more elevated. The more of heaven there is in our lives, the less of earth we shall covet. The fear of God casts out envy of men. ( http://www.challies.com/personal-reflections/the-cure-for-envy)

C. S. Lewis on Lust

This is my favorite passage of C. S. Lewis on lust. The Great Divorce is written as a dream. Some of the residents of hell take a bus trip to heaven. The protagonist meets up with a guide, George MacDonald, who explains the various encounters of the residents of heaven with the tourists from hell. The residents of heaven try to convince the tourists to stay. In the following dialog, George MacDonald explains the vignette just witnessed where an angel-like being convinces a tourist to let the angel kill the tourist's pet lizard. The pet lizard is a whispering, whimpering creature that represents lust.

"Do ye understand all this, my Son"? said the Teacher.

"I don't know about all, Sir," said I. "Am I right in thinking the Lizard really turned into the Horse?

"Aye. But it was killed first. Ye'll not forget that part of the story?"

"I'll try not to, Sir. But does it mean that everything--everything--that is in us can go on to the Mountains?"

"Nothing, not even the best and noblest, can go on as it now is. Nothing, not even what is lowest and most bestial, will not be raised again if it submits to death. It is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body. Flesh and blood cannot come to the Mountains. Not because they are too rank, but because they are too weak. What is a Lizard compared with a stallion? Lust is a poor, weak, whimpering, whispering thing compared with that richness and energy of desire which will arise when lust has been killed." (pp. 103-104)

The verses MacDonald is referencing is

So is it with the resurrection of the dead. What is sown is perishable; what is raised is imperishable. It is sown in dishonor; it is raised in glory. It is sown in weakness; it is raised in power. It is sown a natural body; it is raised a spiritual body. If there is a natural body, there is also a spiritual body. (1 Corinthians 15:42-44, ESV)

C. S. Lewis on Gluttony

A friend at work and I were discussing the sin of gluttony and he reminded me of this passage by C. S. Lewis in the Screwtape Letters. In the book, a senior demon Screwtape was explaining to a junior demon, Wormwood, the efficacy of promoting the sin of gluttony in their clients. A fellow demon, Glubose, had Wormwood's client's mother well in hand through the sin of gluttony. This passage rang so true. I had a coworker just like this. However, we all could fall into this sin either from excess side or delicacy side.

My dear Wormwood,
The contemptuous way in which you spoke of gluttony as a means of catching souls, in your last letter, shows only your ignorance. One of the great achievements of the last hundred years has been to deaden the human conscience on that subject, so that by now you will hardly find a sermon preached or a conscience troubled about it in the whole length and breadth of Europe. This has largely been effected by concentrating all our efforts on gluttony of Delicacy, not gluttony of Excess. Your patient's mother, as I learn from the dossier and you might have learned from Glubose, is a good example. She would be astonished--one day, I hope, will be--to learn that her whole life is enslaved to this kind of sensuality, which is quite concealed from her by the fact that the quantities involved are small. But what do quantities matter, provided we can use a human belly and palate to produce querulousness, impatience, uncharitableness, and self-concern? Glubose has this old woman well in hand. She is a positive terror to hostesses and servants. She is always turning from what has been offered her to say with a demure little sigh and smile, "Oh, please, please... all I want is a cup of tea, weak but not too weak, and the teeniest weeniest bit of really crisp toast." You see? Because what she wants is smaller and less costly than what has been set before her, she never recognises as gluttony her determination to get what she wants, however troublesome it may be to others. At the very moment of indulging her appetite she believes that she is practising temperance. In a crowded restaurant she gives a little scream at the plate which some overworked waitress has set before her and says: "Oh, that's far, far too much! Take it away and bring me about a quarter of it." If challenged, she would say she was doing this to avoid waste; in reality she does it because the particular shade of delicacy to which we have enslaved her is offended by the sight of more food than she happens to want.

The real value of the quiet, unobtrusive work which Glubose has been doing for years on this old woman can be gauged by the way in which her belly now dominates her whole life. The woman is in what may be called the "All-I-want" state of mind. All she wants is a cup of tea properly made, or an egg properly boiled, or a slice of bread properly toasted. But she never finds any servant or any friend who can do these simple things "properly"--because her "properly" conceals an insatiable demand for the exact, and almost impossible, palatal pleasures which she imagines she remembers from the past; a past described by her as the "The days when you could get good servants" but known to us as the days when her senses were more easily pleased and she had pleasures of other kinds which made her less dependent on those of the table. Meanwhile, the daily disappointment produces daily ill temper: cooks give notice and friendships are cooled. If ever the Enemy introduces into her mind a faint suspicion that she is too interested in food, Glubose counters it by suggesting to her that she doesn't mind what she eats herself but "does like to have things nice for her boy." In fact of course, her greed has been one of the chief sources of his domestic discomfort for many years. (pp. 77-78)

Mortification of Sin

I have been reading the "Mortification of Sin" by John Owen. Owen refers to some verses over and over again. I thought it would be handy to write the verses down somewhere. After meditating on these verses, I realize that I tend to dismiss how much sin impacts my life. As I talk to fellow Christians, the battle with our own sin does not seem to concern us: Christ died for us, right? Owen points out that it is a life and death battle. As the following verses point out, God has given us the provision to fight sin through Christ living in us, but it takes a God-commanded effort on our part to win the battle.

For if you live according to the flesh you will die, but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live. (Romans 8:13, ESV)

Let us walk properly as in the daytime, not in orgies and drunkenness, not in sexual immorality and sensuality, not in quarreling and jealousy. But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to gratify its desires. (Romans 13:13-14, ESV)

Since we have these promises, beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from every defilement of body and spirit, bringing holiness to completion in the fear of God. (2 Corinthians 7:1, ESV)

Now the works of the flesh are evident: sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these. I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God. (Galatians 5:19-21, ESV)

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, ESV)

Put to death therefore what is earthly in you: sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry. (Colossians 3:5, ESV)

Beloved, I urge you as sojourners and exiles to abstain from the passions of the flesh, which wage war against your soul. (1 Peter 2:11, ESV)

No one born of God makes a practice of sinning, for God's seed abides in him, and he cannot keep on sinning because he has been born of God. (1 John 3:9, ESV)

Joseph, Free Will, and God's Sovereignty

Our faith family is studying Genesis, and this week we are studying one of the more famous and clear statements of God's sovereignty in the Bible.

So Joseph said to his brothers, “Come near to me, please.” And they came near. And he said, “I am your brother, Joseph, whom you sold into Egypt. And now do not be distressed or angry with yourselves because you sold me here, for God sent me before you to preserve life. For the famine has been in the land these two years, and there are yet five years in which there will be neither plowing nor harvest. And God sent me before you to preserve for you a remnant on earth, and to keep alive for you many survivors. So it was not you who sent me here, but God. He has made me a father to Pharaoh, and lord of all his house and ruler over all the land of Egypt. (Genesis 45:4-8, ESV)

When I read this passage not only do I marvel on what a mature believer Joseph is, but several questions about free will come to mind. Did God entice Joseph's brothers to sell Joseph into slavery? Did God orchestrate the caravan of Ishmaelites's arrival to coincide with the brothers' dispute about what to do with Joseph? How did God bring this about? Could Joseph's brothers have decided otherwise? If they decided otherwise, how would God have brought Israel's family to Egypt? If the brothers acted godly or even honorably, how might their lives been better?

Of course, how we view free will and God's sovereignty affects our missionary strategy. How does a strong view of God's sovereignty in everyday events affect our evangelism? If God has chosen His elect since before the beginning of creation, why evangelize? What about the believer's free will?

J. I. Packer proposes an intellectual framework that does not answer the question, but gives us a way to approach these kind of issues in scripture. Packer proposes that the free will versus God's sovereignty issue is an antinomy. J.I. Packer's book, Evangelism and the Sovereignty of God is a small, but very useful book about how to view evangelism within the confines of God's Sovereignty. Packer defines antinomy as

What is an antinomy? The Shorter Oxford Dictionary defines it as 'a contradiction between conclusions which seem equally logical, reasonable or necessary'. For our purposes, however, this definition is not quite accurate; the opening words should read 'an appearance of contradiction'. For the whole point of an antinomy--in theology, at any rate--is that it is not a real contradiction, though it looks like one. It is an apparent incompatibility between two apparent truths. An antinomy exists when a pair of principles stand side by side, seemingly irreconcilable, yet both undeniable. There are cogent reasons for believing each of them; each rests on clear and solid evidence; but it is a mystery to you how they can be squared with each other. You see that each can be squared with each other. You see that each must be true on its own, but you do not see how they can both be true together. Let me give an example. Modern physics faces an antinomy, in this sense, in its study of light. There is cogent evidence to show that light consists of waves, and equally cogent evidence to show that it consists of particles. It is not apparent how light can be both waves and particles, but the evidence is there, and so neither view can be ruled out in favour of the other. Neither, however, can be reduced to the other or explained in terms of the other; the two seemingly incompatible positions must be held together, and both must be treated as true. Such a necessity scandalizes our tidy minds, no doubt but there is no help for it if we are to be loyal to the facts. (pp. 18-19, Evangelism and the Sovereignty of God

Just to clarify Packer's example, all subatomic particles exhibit this Wave Particle Duality. You can go to a physics lab and ask a physicist to demonstrate the Wave Particle duality. The physicists would show you particles or photons exchanging momentum. Exchanging momentum would be in our day-to-day lives billiard balls bouncing off each other on a billiard table. Subatomic particles can collide too. This same physicist would then show you experiments where subatomic particles reflect, diffract, and show interference just like a wave. Through sophisticated experiments, physicists can demonstrate that even one particle exhibits the characteristics of a wave. This is one of the basic principle of quantum mechanics and this duality is not even close to being the strangest concept that quantum theory provides us.

To use a more theological example, I would say that the Hypostatic Union (Christ is fully God and fully Man) is an another example of an antinomy. Scripture argues both that Jesus Christ is fully man and he is fully God. If you deny His humanity, you start moving into heresies like Docetism and Gnosticism. If you deny that Christ is fully God you fall into Arianism or Adoptionism or even Mormonism. We must assert both Jesus's full humanity and full divinity to understand the full truths and promises of scripture.

Packer emphasizes that an antinomy is not a figure of speech like a paradox. Jesus uses paradoxes all the time to illustrates truths about what life in the Kingdom of God is like. For example, Matthew 10:39, "Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it." Although at first glance it seems contradictory, we understand what the paradox means and we can explain how the saying works. It is comprehensible. However, an antinomy is impossible to understand. Both opposing concepts are completely true.

Packer then asks the question, "What should one do, then, with an antinomy?" Packer simply encourages the reader to just accept it. Other theologians like R. C. Sproul think this is a cop out. Sproul claims that we can understand how God works through man's free will. However, Packer's concept of the antinomy is a great concept to move pass some sticking points people have about God's justice. We can them move to have discussions on how God's sovereignty is a great comfort to those who wait upon the Lord.

This idea of comfort brings us back to the Joseph passage. Joseph could comfort his brothers because he trusted in God's sovereignty and forgave them. Joseph had the brothers totally at his mercy, but Joseph saw God's hand in bringing Joseph down to Egypt and saw God's hand in the maturing of his brothers. Joseph forgave them because he understood God's sovereignty. As Allen P. Ross wrote in his commentary on this passage,

Reconciliation comes through forgiveness, and forgiveness through the recognition of God's sovereignty. (p. 675, Creation and Blessing: A Guide to the Study and Exposition of the Book of Genesis, Allen P. Ross)

The Ministry of the Word

Jehosaphat became a great king in Judah. He bravely removed pagan worship sites (high places and Asherim). He fortified the cities. He followed God courageously. Early in his career he organized the priests and sent them out to the cities of Judah.

And they taught in Judah, having the Book of the Law of the Lord with them. They went about through all the cities of Judah and taught among the people. (2 Chronicles 17:9, ESV)

Jehosaphat did this because it is commanded in the Law.

You are to distinguish between the holy and the common, and between the unclean and the clean, and you are to teach the people of Israel all the statutes that the Lord has spoken to them by Moses.” (Leviticus 10:10-11, ESV)

They shall teach Jacob your rules and Israel your law; they shall put incense before you and whole burnt offerings on your altar. (Deut. 33:20)

Why did God put teaching the Word of God to all His people as the primary task of the priests? Why did a godly king like Jehosaphat insisted that God's people hear God's Word? What was even more curious, why did a pagan king, Artaxerxes send Ezra, an expert on the God's Word, to Jerusalem to teach the Israelites God's Word and enforce it?

“And you, Ezra, according to the wisdom of your God that is in your hand, appoint magistrates and judges who may judge all the people in the province Beyond the River, all such as know the laws of your God. And those who do not know them, you shall teach. Whoever will not obey the law of your God and the law of the king, let judgment be strictly executed on him, whether for death or for banishment or for confiscation of his goods or for imprisonment.” (Ezra 7:25-26)

I don't know Artaxerxes's motives for having the Word taught to the Israelites, but one of the reasons had to be with maintaining order and unity. If the Israelites were obeying their law, they would be good subjects. The Word brings unity to a people. Charles Hodge, the great Princeton theologian, noted in his Systematic Theology about the impact the Word of God had in world history.

The Bible ever has been and still is, a power in the world. It has determined the course of history. It has overthrown false religion wherever it is known. It is the parent of modern civilization. It is the only guarantee of social order, of virtue, and of human rights and liberty. Its effect cannot be rationally accounted for upon any other hypothesis than that it is what it claims to be, "The Word of God." (p. 89, Systematic Theology Volume 1

Jotham, a godly king of Judah, is referenced in 2 Chronicles about how the Word of God ordered his kingdom.

So Jotham became mighty, because he ordered his ways before the Lord his God. (2 Chronicles 27:6, ESV)

Jotham was a king so not only did he order his personal life; he ordered his kingdom before the ways of the Lord. God's Word has a ordering and unifying effect on God's people. In Ephesians 4, Paul wrote about how God uses God's Word to mature His people into Christ.

And he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and teachers, to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ, until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, so that we may no longer be children, tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness in deceitful schemes. Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ, from whom the whole body, joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped, when each part is working properly, makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love. (Ephesians 4:11-16, ESV)

"Speaking the truth in love" does not mean giving people a painful truth in a "loving" way. Speaking the truth in love is speaking the gospel into lives because you love them. Every member of the body of Christ has the ministry of the Word. The teachers and shepherds are needed to equip us with the tools to minister the Word, but it is up to each of us to speak the Gospel in word and song to one another (Ephesians 5:19). This will protect the body of Christ in sound doctrine and unify us in love and truth to each another.

John Owen on "Grieving the Holy Spirit"

In his essay Work of the Spirit as Comforter, John Owen gave his definition of "Grieving the Holy Spirit." This phrase was used by Paul in Ephesians.

And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. (Ephesians 4:30, ESV)

I have read a lot of definitions of "Grieving the Holy Spirit" over the years and this definition fits best with the context of the Ephesians passage.

Grief is here ascribed to the Holy Spirit, not properly, but metaphorically, in order to give us such an apprehension of things as we are able to receive. What may justly grieve a good man, and what he will do when undeservedly grieved, represent to us what we are to understand of our own condition with respect to the Holy Ghost, when he is said to be grieved by us. And grief in the sense here intended, is a trouble of mind arising from an apprehension of unkindness not deserved, of disappointments not expected, on account of a near concern in those by whom we are grieved. Hence we may see, what it is we are warned of, when we are cautioned not to grieve the Holy Spirit.

There must be unkindness in what we do. Sin has various respects towards God, of guilt, filth, and the like. But grieving him denotes unkindness, or a defect of love, answerable to the testimonies we have received of his love to us. He is the Spirit of love, he is love. All his actings towards us and in us, are fruits of his love; and all our joys and consolations arise from a sense of the love of God, communicated in an endearing way of love unto our souls. This requires a return of love and delight in all duties of obedience on our part. When instead hereof, by our negligence and carelessness, or otherwise, we fall into those things which he abhors, he observes the unkindness and ingratitude which is therein, and is therefore said to be grieved by us. (pp. 379-380, The Holy Spirit: His Gifts and Power)

John Owen: An Inexpressible Privilege

This is from the last essay in the appendix of John Owen's book, "The Holy Spirit: His Gifts and Power." It summarizes well the teaching of the elders the last few weeks on the Holy Spirit. There is one note of clarification I need to make: "the privilege" to which John Owen refers is "receiving the Spirit."

No one way, or thing, or similitude, can express or represent the greatness of this privilege. It is anointing, it is sealing, it is an earnest and first-fruit; every thing whereby the love of God, and the blessed security of our condition, may be expressed or intimated to us. For what greater pledge can we have of the favour of God, what greater dignity can we enjoy, what greater assurance can we have of future glory, that that God has given us his Holy Spirit? (p. 378)

Prophesied with lyres, harps and cymbals (1 Chron. 25:1)

In my devotional reading I came across the following verse:

David and the chiefs of the service also set apart for the service the sons of Asaph, and of Heman, and of Jeduthun, who prophesied with lyres, with harps, and with cymbals. (1 Chron. 25:1)

Notice that Asaph, Heman, and Jeduthun prophesied while playing a variety of musical instruments. I looked up commentaries to figure out what was the nature of their ministry and prophecy. Verse 3 in the same chapter gave a little more information.

under the direction of their father Jeduthun, who prophesied with the lyre in thanksgiving and praise to the Lord. (1 Chron 25:3b)

When I think of prophecy, I think of God revealing judgement or God revealing more information about His Son, Jesus Christ. In this passage the office of prophet is also the office of choir director. These prophets are revealing ways to praise God through music. However, these psalms also reveal the Messiah. Psalm 89 is attributed to Asaph and it is a very messianic song full of prophecy. David is a prophet who prophesied through Psalms and music: Psalm 2, 16, 22, 34, 69 and 110. David seems to be standardizing this function within the temple. The best commentary I found with my limited resources is the footnotes in the ESV Study Bible.

1 Chron. 25:1–8 David and the leaders of the Levites divided the musicians into the three family groups of Asaph, Jeduthun, and Heman (see 6:31–47), who prophesied with musical instruments, i.e., wrote songs. In some cases, their songs seem to have become part of OT Scripture, for Asaph is named in the titles of Psalms 50 and 73–83, and Jeduthun in the titles of Psalms 39, 62, and 77. In addition, Heman here may be the same person as Heman the Ezrahite named in the title of Psalm 88 (cf. also 1 Chron. 6:33). The verb “to prophesy” (Hb. naba’) indicates that their songs were prompted or guided by the Spirit of God. This shows that “prophecy” is not always a direct announcement of God’s plans; it indicates that the person is operating as God’s authorized spokesman, here providing the right way for God’s people to sing to him (they prophesied … in thanksgiving and praise to the Lord, 25:3).

David and the leaders of Israel at that time spent time and effort organizing and developing the ministry of music within the temple. They viewed music as a prophetic ministry that was meant to use instruments and songs that praised and gave thanks unto the Lord. In our church, the leaders decided to be very intentional about the liturgy. Our liturgy is designed to proclaim the gospel. This seems to be a very valid application of the passage. The music ministry is a prophetic ministry. The songs should proclaim the gospel during a service. The whole service should be carefully designed to proclaim Christ as Lord in every aspect of the service.

John Owen: Short Definition of The Sealing of the Holy Spirit

John Owen defines how believers are sealed by the Holy Spirit by looking back at how Christ was sealed by the Holy Spirit (John 6:27). The Holy Spirit descended on Jesus (Luke 3:21), not to indwell Him, but communicate to the world around that Jesus is the foretold Messiah: God's beloved Son. Likewise, the Holy Spirit communicates to us and others our position with God.

God's sealing of believers, then, is his gracious communication of the Holy Ghost unto them, so to act his divine power in them as to enable them unto all the duties of their holy calling, evidencing them to be accepted with him, both to themselves and others, and asserting their preservation to eternal salvation. The effects of this sealing are gracious operations of the Spirit in and upon believers; but the sealing itself is the communication of the Spirit unto them.
(p. 373-347, The Holy Spirit )

Charles Hodge: The Difference between Systematic and Biblical Theology

People have asked me about what is the difference between biblical and systematic theology. I was just browsing my new 3-volume Systematic Theology by Charles Hodge and I thought the following was a good definition.

So the Bible contains the truths which the theologian has to collect authenticate, arrange, and exhibit in their internal relation to each other. This constitutes the difference between biblical and systematic theology. The office of the former is to ascertain and state the facts of scripture. The office of the latter is take those facts, determine their relation to each other and to other cognate truths, as well as to vindicate them and show their harmony and consistency. This is not an easy task, or one of slight importance. (pp. 1-2, Systematic Theology Volume 1, Charles Hodge)

John Owen: Talk Less and Pray More

In essay called "The Work of the Holy Spirit in Prayer," John Owen encourages believers to use the gift freely given to us and enabled by God. The world and our flesh fight against us in exercising this gift, but this should not stop us: it is our pipeline to fruitful living.

It is our duty to make use of this gift [prayer] of the Spirit. Have you an ability to pray always freely given you by the Holy Ghost, why do you not pray always, in private, in families as occasions offer? Prayer is that singular duty, in which every grace is acted, every sin opposed, every blessing obtained; the whole of our obedience is concerned in it, and much of our present and future blessedness depends upon it. What difficulties and discouragements rise up against it, what aversion there is in corrupted nature to it, what distractions often attend it, is well known to the people of God. But to help us under our various infirmities; to give us freedom and confidence in coming to the throne; to enable us a children to cry, 'Abba, Father', the Holy Spirit is give to us. Who then can express the sin and folly of neglecting prayer? How does it grieve the Spirit, and injure our own souls! Can we go from day to day in the neglect of opportunities and occasions of prayer? How shall we answer this contempt of the Spirit's gracious aid? Do carnal persons habitually live without prayer? Alas! they not how to pray; but for those who have received this gift of the Spirit, enabling them to pray, and making it pleasant to the inner man--how great an aggravation is it to their sin! I press this duty of prayer the more, because the temptations and dangers of the present day particularly call for it. If we were to talk less and pray more, things would be better than they are in the world.

It is the duty of those who have received this gift, to cherish it, to stir it up and improve it; it is freely bestowed, but it is carefully to be preserved. It is a gospel-talent given to be traded with, and thereby increased. [brackets mine](pp. 360-361, The Holy Spirit: His Gifts and Power)

John Owen on the Real Effect of Prayer

This passage from the The Holy Spirit: His Gifts and Power is taken from a long section on how the Holy Spirit works within us to effect sanctification. The Holy Spirit prompts us to the spiritual disciplines and to love God more. We pursue the disciplines because we love God, we want to know God better, and we want to be like Him.

For in and by fervent prayer, the habit, frame, and inclinations of the soul to universal holiness, with a detestation and abhorrence of all sin, are increased, cherished, and strengthened. Believers are never raised to a higher intention of spirit in the pursuit of holiness, nor are more conformed to it than in prayer; and hence they often come from it above all impressions from sin, as to inclinations and compliances. Would such a frame always continue, how happy were we! But abiding in the duty, is the best way of reaching out after it. (Owen, pp. 342)

So in summary, pray for holiness and pray for the desire to be holy. If you are weak and we always are, beg for the desire.

John Owen on the Mortification of Sin

John Owen explains the mortification of sin in the last section of his book, The Holy Spirit: His Power and Gifts. The "mortification" or "putting to death" sin is a concept the appears frequently in the New Testament. The following passage in Romans is a prime example.

For if you live according to the flesh you will die, but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live. For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God. For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the Spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry, “Abba! Father!” The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs—heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with him. (Romans 8:13-17, ESV)

John Owen is making the point that this process of mortification is hard work. It is a day by day intense process that will take a lifetime. He explains later in the book how the Holy Spirit is involved in the process, but in this section, Owen explains our involvement in this task will take our whole effort.

From hence it is evident, that the mortification of sin is a gradual work. We must be exercised in it ever day, and in ever duty. Sin will not die, unless it be constantly weakened. Spare it, and it will heal its wounds, and recover its strength. We must continually watch against the operations of this principle of sin: in out duties, in our calling, in conversations, in retirement, in our straits, in our enjoyments, and in all all that we do. If we are negligent on any occasion, we shall suffer by it; every mistake, every neglect is perilous.

It may be justly feared, that the nature of this duty is mistaken by many. Some look upon it as an easy task. But is it for nothing that the Holy Spirit expresses it by mortification, or killing? Certainly this intimates a violent contest. Every thing will do its utmost to preserve its life. Let no man think to kill sin with a few gently strokes. He, who has once smitten a serpent, if he follow not his blow till it be slain, may repent that ever he began the quarrel; and so will he who undertakes to deal with sin, if he pursue it not constantly to death; sin will revive, and the man must die. Again, the principle of sin is in us, and is called ourselves. It cannot be killed without a sense of pain. It is compared to cutting off right hands, and plucking out right eyes. Lusts, that pretend to be useful and pleasant to the flesh, will not be mortified without sensible violence. It is also a fatal mistake to make only some particular lusts, or actual sins, the object of this duty. Many persons will make head against particular sins, but in general with little success; sin gets ground upon them, and they groan under its power; and the reason is, because they mistake the business. Contests against particular sins, are only to comply with light and convictions. Mortification, with a design for holiness, respects the body of sin, the root and all its branches. The first will miscarry; the latter will succeed.(pp. 338-339)

Christ's Role in Our Sanctification

John Owen is defending the idea that sanctification is of grace and not of works. He is arguing that a "moral" life is not necessarily a holy life. Sanctification is provided for, sustained by, and exemplified by Christ Himself. Therefore living a virtuous life without Christ is not a sanctified life. On the other hand, those Christians who think Christ's life and death only provides us only with redemption and justification, miss the whole purpose of Christ's life on earth: Christ is our example and our goal. The following quote is from The Holy Spirit: Its Gifts and Power

And we should always consider, how we ought to act faith on Christ, with respect to this end. Let none be guilty practically of what some are falsely charged with as to doctrine. Let none divide in the work faith, and exercise themselves in only half of it. To believe in Christ for redemption, for justification, for sanctification, is but one half of the duty of faith. It respects Christ only as he died for us, as he made atonement for our sins. For this end he is first and principally proposed to us; but this is not all. He is also proposed to us as our pattern and example. And as it is a cursed imagination, that this was the whole end of his life and death, namely, to exemplify and confirm the doctrine of holiness which he taught; so to neglect his so being our example, in considering him by faith to that end, and labouring after conformity to him, is evil and pernicious. Wherefore, let us be much in the contemplation of what he was, and what he did; how in all instances of duties and trials he carried himself, till an image or idea of his perfect holiness is implanted in our minds, and we are made like thereby. (p. 322)

The Great Gift of our Union with Christ.

Here is a passage by John Owen celebrating our union with Christ. Owen stops and marvels at what a miracle it is that we have the Spirit of Christ indwelling us.

Hereby we have union with Jesus Christ, the head of the Church, and become 'members of his bones and of the flesh' (Eph. 5:30); as Eve was of Adam; she had the same nature with him, and that derived from him; so we are of him, partakers of the same divine nature; for he that is 'joined to the Lord is one Spirit' (I Cor. 6:17). How excellent then is this grace! It is the same in kind with the holy nature of Christ, and makes us one with him. How great a privilege it it! What an honour and security to the soul that has it. What duties are hence required, and how should we admire the grace and love of Christ through whose mediation we receive it. This is our life, but we cannot perfectly comprehend it, for it is hid with Christ in God' (Col. 3:3). (p. 307, The Holy Spirit: His Gifts and Power

John Owen on Self Cleansing from Sin is Impossible.

John Owen addresses directly the people who think they can cleanse themselves from sin by their own efforts. According to scripture we are too filthy and too weak to accomplish the task. External law and forces cannot do it. We need to be cleansed from the inside out.

We are unable of ourselves, without the special assistance of the Holy Spirit, to free ourselves from this pollution[the effects of sin]. It is true, it is frequently prescribed to us as our duty. We are commanded to wash ourselves, to cleanse ourselves from sin, and the like, but these expressions do not imply a power in ourselves to perform what is so required; but they teach us, that whatever God works in us in a way of grace, he prescribes to us in a way of duty; and though he does it in us, yet he also does it by us; so that the same work is an act of his Spirit and of our wills as actuated thereby. We are not able by an endeavours of our own, to cleanse ourselves from this defilement. 'If I wash myself with snow-water' saith Job, 'and make my hands ever so clean, yet shalt thou plunge me in the ditch, and my own clothes shall make me to be abhorred' (Job 9:29). Means may be used whereby an appearance of cleansing may be made, but when things come to be tried, in the sight of God, all will be found filthy and unclean, 'In vain', says the prophet, 'shalt thou take to thyself soap and much nitre; you shalt not be purged' (Jer. 2:22). The most probable means of cleansing, and the the most effectual in our judgement, however multiplied, shall fail in this case. Some speak much of washing away their sins by the tears of repentance; by repentance, as prescribed in the Scripture, is of another nature, and assigned to another end: men's tears are but 'soap and nitre', which will not produce the effect intended. The institutions of the law were of themselves insufficient for this purpose; they purified the unclean legally, and as to the flesh (Heb. 9:13); of themselves they could go no further, only they signified that whereby sin was really cleansed. The real stain is too deep to be removed by any outward ordinances, and therefore God, as it were rejecting them all, promised to open another fountain for that purpose (Zech. 13:1).

John Owen has another chapter on how the filth of sin is purged by the Spirit and blood of Christ. The introduction to the chapter reveals his argument.

The purification of believers from the defilement of sin, is assigned in Scripture to various causes--to the Holy Spirit, as the efficient cause; to the blood of Christ, as the procuring cause; and, to faith and affliction, as the instrumental causes.

The Holy Spirit is the craftsman who is making the sanctification happen. The blood of Christ is the price of our redemption. Faith and affliction are the tools the Holy Spirit is using to cleanse us from our sin.

John Owen on Where Holiness Comes From

John Owen on writing about sanctification points out the fallacious reasoning of his day that holiness can be achieved without a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. There was an argument in the churches in his day that all holiness consists of is moral honesty and virtue. Many liberal churches make the same assertion today. Owen in the following paragraphs clarifies the issue of gospel holiness.

And hence we may detect many pernicious mistakes about this matter, both notional and practical. For there are some who would carry holiness beyond the bounds of a special relation to Christ, or that relation beyond the only bond it it, which is faith. For they would have it to be no more than moral honesty or virtue, and so cannot with any modesty deny it to those heathens, who endeavoured after it according to the light of nature. And what need then is there of Jesus Christ? I commend moral virtues as much any man ought to do, and am sure there is no such grace where they are not. Yet to make any thing to be our holiness that is not derived from Christ, I know not what I more abhor. Such an imagination dethrones Christ from his glory, and overthrows the gospel.

Others proceed much further. They have notions of good and evil, by the light of nature; these are improved by convictions from the law, and produce great effects. For where the soul is once effectually convinced of sin, righteousness, and judgement, it cannot but seek deliverance from the one, and the attainment of the of the other, that so it may be well with it at the last day. These convictions are still more improved, according to the means of knowledge men enjoy, or the errors and superstitions they embrace. From the latter proceed penances, vows, uncommanded abstinences, and other painful duties. Where the light received is in general according to truth, it will engage men to a reformation of life, a multiplication of duties, abstinence from sin, and a zealous profession of religion in one way or another. Such persons may have good hopes that they are holy, may appear to the world to be so, be accepted in the Church of God as such, and yet be utter strangers to true gospel holiness. And the reason is because they have missed it in the foundation; and not having in the first place obtained an interest in Christ, have built their house on the sand whence it will fall in the time of trouble.

Wherefore let them wisely consider these things, who have any conviction of the necessity of holiness. It may be that they have laboured hard in duties that materially belong to it; many things they have done, and many things forborne, on account of it; and it may be, they think that for all the world they would not be found among unholy persons on the last day. This may be the condition of many young persons, who have lately engaged in the ways of religion upon their convictions: it may be so with others, who for many years have followed after righteousness in a way of duty. But it is observable, that the duties of obedience seldom prove more easy and pleasant to such persons than they did at first, but rather more burdensome every day. Besides,they never arrive to a satisfaction in what they do, something still is wanting; and hence they often become apostates. But what is worse still, all they have done, or can do on this bottom, will come to no account, but perish with them at the great day. Would we prevent these fatal evils; would we have a real, thriving, everlasting holiness; let our first business be to secure a relation to Jesus Chris, without which it can never be attained. (pp. 275-276, The Holy Spirit: His Gifts and Power