The Mortification of Sin

by John Owen

and the biggest goal I have for the ministry God has blessed me with, is to encourage as many people as possible to be killing sin and striving for universal holiness –

The body then is the corruption and depravity of our nature of which our physical body is to a great extent the seat and the means by which sin expresses itself.

that’s not because our inward sinful desires didn’t try to make us actually commit the sinful action – they always do. To kill outward sins we must make

sure that “the axe is laid to the root of the trees” (Matthew 3:10), the root being our inward evil desires.

Romans 8 talked about indwelling sinful and corrupted desires as the fountain and underlying cause of all sinful actions, Paul includes destroying these as part ...

Putting to death is the killing of the indwelling sin remaining in our mortal bodies so that it doesn’t have life or power to bring forth the deeds of the body. “If…you put to death” is a metaphorical expression that is supposed to make us think of killing anything that’s alive. To kill a man, or any other living thing, is to take away the force that gives him all his strength, vigor, and power, so that he can’t take any action or do anything – that is, he’s dead. So it is here. Indwelling sin is compared to a person, a living person, called the “old self,” with his abilities, attributes, wisdom, skill, subtlety, and strength. This, Paul says, must be killed – put to death – that is, to have the power, life force, vigor and strength it needs to produce its effects destroyed and taken away by the Holy Spirit. Sin has already been killed meritoriously and by example when Christ died on the cross. That is, its ability to

This book then is aimed at those of you who are believers and are assigned the duty of killing sin.

The Holy Spirit is the only way to kill sin. All other helps leave us helpless. They will not work.

The certainty of the connection between the action and the result. For example, a doctor might say to someone who is sick, “If you take this medicine, you will recover.” In this case, we use the word “if” precisely to show the certainty of the connection between taking the medicine and recovering.

The intention in this verse then is simply to make a certain link between killing the deeds of the body and collecting on the free gift of life. Here’s the gift, and here’s how you collect it. If you kill the deeds of the flesh, you absolutely will obtain the gift of life. It is supposed to motivate you to the work of killing those deeds.