We recently finished our series on “Mortification of Sin” at The Well, and wanted to leave you with some memorable quotes from John Owen’s book, inspired by Romans 8:13,

“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“.

11 Quotes from John Owen’s Mortification of Sin

1. “Be killing sin, or it will be killing you.”
2. “The root of an un-mortified course is the digestion of sin without bitterness in the heart.”
3. “A man may easier see without eyes, speak without a tongue, than truly mortify one sin without the Spirit.”
4. “Every un-mortified sin will certainly do two things: It will weaken the soul, and deprive it of its vigor. It will darken the soul, and deprive it of its comfort and peace.”
5. “Mortification from a self-strength, carried on by ways of self-invention, unto the end of a self-righteousness, is the soul and substance of all false religion in the world.”
6. “The vigor, and power, and comfort of our spiritual life depends on the mortification of the deeds of the flesh.”
7. “Not to be daily mortifying sin, is to sin against the goodness, kindness, wisdom, grace, and love of God, who hath furnished us with a principle of doing it.”
8. “It is to be feared that very many have little knowledge of the main enemy that they carry about with them in their bosoms. This makes them ready to justify themselves, and to be impatient of reproof or admonition, not knowing that they are in any danger.”
9. “The life and vigor of our spiritual lives consists in the vigor and flourishing of the plants of grace in our hearts.”
10. “Hatred of sin as sin, not only as galling or disquieting, a sense of the love of Christ in the cross, lie at the bottom of all true spiritual mortification.”
11. “Rise mightily against the first actings of thy distemper, its first conceptions; suffer it not to get the least ground. Do not say, “Thus far it shall go, and no farther.” If it have allowance for one step, it will take another.”

Check out the podcast here, and learn more about John Owen here.

John Owen, 1616-1683