Mortification of Sin in Believers
Mortification of Sin in Believers
Mortification of Sin in Believers
Cheat Sheet
for John
Owen's
Mortification
of Sin in
Believers
John Owen's
Mortification of Sin in Believers
is a beast of a book.
It's not a beast in size--it clocks in at 84 pages. It's a beast in content, language
and style:
Content:
Mortification (killing) of sin doesn't get a lot of work in our
modern
churches
. Neither do the methods behind killing sin. So it will be a
shock to the
system for believer and unbeliever
alike.
Language:
Published in 1656, when Owen was 40,
Mortification
shares some of
the same characteristics of a Shakespearean play. A reader must untangle
complex sentences and bone up on his Elizabethan vocabulary.
Style:
Owens writes like a lawyer. His arguments are precise (liberal use of
verses from both the Old and Testament) and highly structured. And then there is
a hierarchy that demands a close reading.
No wonder an
anonymous biographer said Owen
"travels through [his subjects]
with the grace of an elephant." And that's funny, because Owen actually
called
Mortification
his "little discourse."
I guess you can make that kind of statement when you are the
greatest theologian
in the English Language
.
In a future post I'll follow up with the reasons why a close reading will be worth
it, in the meantime I hope this cheat sheet will give you a taste--and desire--
for
Mortification
.
And keep in mind, this cheat sheet is dense because John Owen is dense: it is
hard to determine what should go and what should stay because it all is very
important.
My goal is to encourage you to pick up a copy of Mortification
and read it
. I had
the privilege of studying it with a great friend, which is an effective tactic to
reading Owen. I highly recommend it.
Grab a copy here:
PDF of the Mortification of Sin in Believers
(This is how I read it.)
Google Books
Book at Amazon
Kindle Version
Audio version--Free