by
John MacArthur
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This message was published in The Master's Seminary Journal (TMSJ)
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TMSJ 5/1 (Spring 1994) 3-22
It is puzzling how a Christian who has experienced liberation from sin's dominion can at times give in to temptation in his daily life. The OT account of Agag and the Amalekites is a good illustration of how Christians should deal with sin. They should not try to co-exist with it, but should remove it completely. Saul partially obeyed God's directive, but Samuel obeyed it to the letter by killing King Agag. Christians obey God's command to mortify sin by living a life in the Spirit and not acknowledging any obligation to the flesh. Consistent effort to mortify sin in the body comes through a life lived in the Spirit. Mortification is the believer's responsibility and includes such responsibilities as abstaining from fleshly lusts, making no provision for the flesh, fixing one's heart on Christ, meditating on God's Word, praying incessantly, exercising self-control, and being filled with the Spirit. Covering up sin, internalizing it, exchanging it for another sin, or merely repressing it do not equate to sin's mortification. Continuously and uncompromisingly removing sin--resulting in a conscience free from guilt--is what the process entails.
And herein lies no small part of its power. . . . It is never quiet, [whether it is] conquering [or] conquered.
Do you mortify; do you make it your daily work; be always at it whilst you live; cease not a day from this work; be killing sin or it will be killing you. John Owen[2]
God's Anger Against Amalek
An OT illustration may help to shed light on the Christian's relationship to sin. In 1 Samuel 15, Samuel anointed Saul and solemnly gave him these instructions from the Lord: "Now go and strike Amalek and utterly destroy all that he has, and do not spare him; but put to death both man and woman, child and infant, ox and sheep, camel and donkey" (v. 3).[3]
God's command was clear. Saul was to deal ruthlessly with the Amalekites, killing even their infant children and animals. Their whole tribe was to be utterly and mercilessly leveled--no hostages taken.
What would cause a God of infinite love to mete out such a severe judgment? The Amalekites were an ancient nomadic race, descendants of Esau (Gen 36:12). They inhabited the southern part of Canaan and were perennial enemies of the Israelites. They were the same tribe that viciously attacked Israel at Rephidim shortly after the Exodus, in the famous battle when Aaron and Hur had to support Moses' arms (Exod 17:8-13). They ambushed Israel from behind, massacring the stragglers who were most weary (Deut 25:18). It was a cowardly attack by the most powerful and savage tribe in the whole region. God supernaturally delivered Israel that day, and the Amalekites fled into hiding. At the conclusion of that skirmish, God swore to Moses, "I will utterly blot out the memory of Amalek from under heaven" (v. 14). He actually made it a point of the Mosaic law that Israel was to destroy Amalek:
God's anger burned against the Amalekites for their wickedness. He constrained even the corrupt prophet Balaam to prophesy their doom: "Amalek was the first of the nations, but his end shall be destruction" (Num 24:20). The Amalekites used to harass Israel by coming into the land after crops had been sown and moving through the farmland with their tents and livestock, razing everything in their path (Judg 6:3-5). They hated God, detested Israel, and seemed to delight in wicked and destructive acts.
God's instructions to Saul, therefore, fulfilled the vow He swore to Moses. Saul was to wipe out the tribe forever. He and his armies were the instrument through which a righteous God would carry out His holy judgment on a sinister people.
The Folly of Partial Obedience
But Saul's obedience was only partial. He inflicted a crushing defeat upon the Amalekites, routing them "from Havilah as you go to Shur, which is east of Egypt" (1 Sam 15:8). As commanded, he killed all the people, but "he captured Agag the king of the Amalekites alive" (v. 8).
Why did Saul spare Agag? Perhaps he wanted to use the humiliated king of the Amalekites as a trophy to display his own power. Saul seemed motivated only by pride at this point; he even set up a monument to himself at Carmel (v. 12). Whatever his reasons, he disobeyed the clear command of God and allowed Agag to live.
The sin was so serious that God immediately deposed Saul and his descendants forever from the throne of Israel. Samuel told him, "Because you have rejected the word of the Lord, He has also rejected you from being king" (v. 23).
Then Samuel said, "Bring me Agag, the king of the Amalekites" (v. 32).
Agag, evidently thinking that his life had been spared and feeling pretty confident, "came to him cheerfully." "Surely the bitterness of death is past," he said.
But Samuel was not amused. He told Agag, "As your sword has made women childless, so shall your mother be childless among women." Scripture simply says, "And Samuel hewed Agag to pieces before the Lord at Gilgal" (v. 33).
The human mind instinctively recoils at what seems to be a merciless act. But it was God who commanded this to be done. This was an act of divine judgment to show the holy wrath of an indignant God against wanton sin. Unlike his countrymen and their king, Samuel was determined to carry out the Lord's command entirely. As it was, the battle intended to exterminate the Amalekites forever ended before the goal was reached. Scripture records that only a few years later, the reinvigorated tribe raided the southern territory and took all the women and children captive--including David's family (1 Sam 30:1-5).
When David found the marauding Amalekites, "behold, they were spread over all the land, eating and drinking and dancing because of all the great spoil that they had taken from the land of the Philistines and from the land of Judah" (v. 16). He slaughtered them from twilight until the next evening, killing all but four hundred who escaped on camels (v. 17).
The Amalekites are a perfect illustration of the sin that remains in the believer's life. That sin--already utterly defeated at the cross--must be dealt with ruthlessly and hacked to pieces, or it will revive and continue to plunder and pillage his heart and sap his spiritual strength. He cannot be merciful with his Agag, or indwelling sin will turn and try to devour him. In fact, the sin remaining in Christians often becomes more fiercely determined after the gospel initially overthrows it.
Scripture commands believers to deal with their sin by putting it to death:
Life in the Spirit
In Rom 8:13 Paul also wrote of "putting to death the deeds of the body." After declaring victory over sin in Romans 6, then describing the ongoing struggle with sin in chap. 7, he describes the triumphant experience of life in the Spirit throughout chap. 8. In the middle of that chapter, the apostle declares that the distinctive behavior of those who are led by the Spirit is that they continually put their evil deeds to death.
It is significant that the Holy Spirit is mentioned only once in the introduction to the epistle (1:4, "the Spirit of holiness"), and not mentioned again until Rom 8:1. In Romans 8 alone there are at least twenty references to the Holy Spirit.
Romans 8 portrays the Holy Spirit as the divine agent who frees believers from sin and death (vv. 2-3), enables them to live righteously (4-13), assures and comforts them in their affliction (14-19), preserves and sustains them in Christ (20-28), and guarantees their final victory in eternal glory (29-39). Right in the context of this profound teaching about the Holy Spirit's role in the Christian's life, Paul has some important things to say about mortifying sin. He begins by contrasting life in the Spirit with life in the flesh and under the law. It is important to understand these truths in their proper context:
In other words, there are only two kinds of people in the world--those who are in accord with the flesh and those who are in accord with the Spirit. Of course, there are in-the-Spirit people at many different levels of spiritual maturity. In-the-flesh people also come in varying degrees of wickedness. But everyone is either "in the flesh" (v. 8) or "in the Spirit" (v. 9). There is no category called "in between."
What Paul suggests is that the Holy Spirit changes a person's basic disposition when he is born again. He brings him into accord with Himself. He actually indwells him (vv. 9, 11). Christians become partakers of the divine nature (2 Pet 1:4). Their orientation to God changes. Where there was enmity, there is now love (cf. Rom 8:28). In the flesh they could not please God (v. 8), but now the righteous requirement of the law is fulfilled in them (v. 4). Central to all of this is the reality that their whole mind-set is new. Whereas the mind set on the flesh meant death, the mind set on the things of the Spirit results in life and peace (v. 6).
If your mind-set--the fundamental orientation of your understanding, its bent, its thought patterns--did not change when you made a profession of faith in Christ, something is seriously wrong. That is not to suggest that Christians cannot fall into old patterns and habits. But it does mean that now that they are "in the Spirit," their thoughts toward God, sin, and righteousness are radically different from when they were "in the flesh." They have new holy affections and longings for godliness. They have a love for God that transcends their attachment to this world (Jas 4:4). They can no longer blithely "indulge the flesh in its corrupt desires" (2 Pet 2:10). They no longer have anything in common with those "who set their minds on earthly things. For our citizenship is in heaven" (Phil 3:19-20). And it is toward heaven that their minds are now inclined. They set their minds on the things of the Spirit (Rom 8:5). Even when they fail or fall to earthly temptations, they "joyfully concur with the law of God in the inner man" (7:22). That is their basic orientation and mind-set.
In contrast, "the mind set on the flesh is death" (v. 6). Paul does not say that the mind set on the flesh causes death. He declares that it is death. The state of mind that is dominated by fleshly desires is a condition of spiritual death. In other words, those whose thoughts and desires are altogether fleshly are already "dead in [their] trespasses and sins" (Eph 2:1). This cannot be a description of the true believer in Christ.
Christians are no longer "in the flesh": "You are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you. But if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Him" (Rom 8:9). The Greek word for "dwells" is okv (oike), which means "I inhabit." Paul says that the very Spirit of God indwells every person who trusts in Jesus Christ. The Spirit is in believers, and they are "in the Spirit." They are not "in the flesh."
Death in the Physical Body
But they are still "of flesh," and therefore their physical bodies deteriorate and die. The germ of death inhabits them all. Because of the curse of sin, they begin to die as soon as they are born.
For the Christian, however, this earthly life has more than death: "If Christ is in you, though the body is dead because of sin, yet the spirit is alive because of righteousness" (v. 10). In other words, the human body is subject to death (and is already dying) because of sin, but the believer's spirit is already alive in Christ. Eternal life is his present possession. Though the body is dying, the spirit is already endowed with incorruptibility.
In v. 10 the word "body" clearly refers to the actual physical body (not the flesh-principle), and the expression "dead" speaks of physical death. Notice that vv. 10 and 11 use the word "body" (sma [s_ma]) instead of "flesh" (srj [sarx])--the word Paul used throughout the first nine verses. By contrasting "the body" and "the spirit" in this way, he makes his meaning inescapable. In verse 10, "the spirit is alive" refers to the human spirit, the immaterial part of man's being. The body may be dying because of sin, but the believer's spirit is fully alive and thriving "because of righteousness"--because he is justified and therefore already has "passed out of death into life" (John 5:24). Paul simply says here what he also told the Corinthians, "Though our outer man is decaying, yet our inner man is being renewed day by day" (2 Cor 4:16).
In fact, the indwelling Spirit also promises "life to [our] mortal bodies" in a future resurrection with a glorified body (v. 11).
Paul's point is that the body apart from the Spirit of God has no future. It is subject to death. Therefore the Christian has no duty to the mortal side of his being:
Paul once more draws the line of distinction as clearly as possible between Christians and non-Christians. He is by no means warning believers that they might lose their salvation if they live according to the flesh. He has already made the point that true believers do not and cannot live in accord with the sin principle (vv. 4-9). Besides, Paul began this chapter with the statement, "There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus" (8:1). He will end it with the promise that nothing can separate Christians from the love of God in Christ Jesus (vv. 38-39). A warning of the possibility of falling away would contradict the very purpose for which he was writing.
Paul simply reiterates what he says again and again throughout his NT epistles--that those whose lives and hearts are altogether fleshly are not true Christians. They are already spiritually dead (v. 6), and unless they repent, they are headed for eternal death. Meanwhile, their earthly lives are a kind of abject bondage to sin. They are enslaved to their own flesh, constrained to cater to its sensual desires.
What Is Mortification?
Christians, on the other hand, have a different obligation--not to the flesh, but to the new principle of righteousness embodied in the Holy Spirit. Therefore they labor by the power of the Spirit to mortify sin in the flesh--to "[put] to death the deeds of the body." If you do this, he says, "you will live" (v. 13).
Of course, Paul does not suggest that anyone can obtain life or merit God's favor by the process of mortification. He is saying it is characteristic of true believers that they put to death the deeds of the body. Nothing is more natural than for people "led by the Spirit of God" (v. 14) to mortify their sin. One of the proofs of their salvation is that they do this. It is expected of them. It is the expression of their new nature.
In other words, the true believer is not like Saul, who wanted to pamper and preserve Agag, but like Samuel who hacked him to pieces without mercy and without delay. Saul may have wanted to make a lap dog of Agag, but Samuel knew that was utterly impossible. Similarly, a believer will never tame his flesh. He cannot mollycoddle his sin. He must deal with it quickly and severely.
It was Jesus who said,
The language is often misunderstood. Paul is not calling for a life of self-flagellation. He does not say believers should starve themselves, wear camel-hair shirts, or deprive themselves of life's basic needs. He is not telling them to mutilate themselves or live monastic lives or anything of the sort. The mortification Paul speaks of has nothing to do with external self-punishment. It is a spiritual process accomplished "by the Spirit."
Paul is describing a way of life where Christians seek to throttle sin and crush it from their lives, sapping it of its strength, rooting it out, and depriving it of its influence. That is what it means to mortify sin.
How Does a Christian Mortify Sin?
Mortification involves the cultivation of new habits of godliness, combined with the elimination of old sinful habits from one's behavior. It is a constant warfare that takes place within the believer. Although a Christian should expect his triumph over sin to be ever-increasing, his mortification can never be wholly complete before he is glorified. He is to remain perpetually committed to this task. He must see sin as a sworn enemy, and commit himself to slaying it wherever and whenever it rears its head.
Obviously, mortification is the work of believers only. Unbelievers are called to repent and flee to Christ. Those still enslaved to sin have no means by which to put sin to death. The Holy Spirit--the agent of mortification--does not indwell them. Their only hope is the salvation offered to those who will trust Jesus Christ and entrust themselves to Him. No one can mortify sin who is not "in Christ" and "in the Spirit."
Scripture offers several practical means whereby believers can mortify their sin. Their growth in grace depends on their obedience to these duties. None of them is a fleshly or mechanical formula. They are not religious activities or rituals. John Owen observed that most of the Roman Catholic religious system consists of
Abstain from fleshly lusts. Peter wrote, "Beloved, I urge you as aliens and strangers to abstain from fleshly lusts, which wage war against the soul" (1 Pet 2:11). In other words, stop lusting. Abstain from it. Stay away from it. "Flee immorality" (1 Cor 6:18). What could be more direct?
Do you want to put to death the lusts in your heart? Then stop entertaining them. Peter does not prescribe a program of therapy. He does not suggest that it be treated as an addiction. He simply says abstain. Quit doing it. You have no business indulging such thoughts. Put them away at once. You yourself must do this; it cannot be done for you. There is no point waiting for some heavenly power to erase this sin automatically from your life. You are to stop it, and stop it immediately. Martyn Lloyd-Jones said,
Now that teaching is also often put like this: you must say to a man who is constantly defeated by a particular sin, "I think your only hope is to take it to Christ and Christ will take it from you." But what does Scripture say in Ephesians 4:28 to the man who finds himself constantly guilty of stealing, to a man who sees something he likes and takes it? What am I to tell such a man? Am I to say, "Take that sin to Christ and ask him to deliver you?" No, what the apostle Paul tells him is this: "Let him that stole, steal no more." Just that. Stop doing it. And if it is fornication or adultery or lustful thoughts, again: Stop doing it, says Paul. He does not say, "Go and pray to Christ to deliver you." No. You stop doing that, he says, as becomes children of God.[7]
Make no provision for the flesh. In Rom 13:14 Paul writes, "Put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh in regard to its lusts." In other words, simply refuse to accommodate fleshly lusts. If you struggle with gluttony, stop loading up on junk food when you shop at the market. If you are tempted with sexual desire, refrain from filling your mind with images that feed your lust. If you do not want to fall, do not walk where it is slippery. Refuse to furnish your mind with the means to entertain evil thoughts. Make no preparations for the possibility of sin. Thus you can slay sin before it breeds.
Fix your heart on Christ. The apostle John wrote, "We know that, when He appears, we shall be like Him, because we shall see Him just as He is. And everyone who has this hope fixed on Him purifies himself, just as He is pure" (1 John 3:2-3). It is an inexorable spiritual law that you become like the object of your worship. Psalm 135 says,
Meditate on God's Word. The psalmist wrote, "Thy word I have treasured in my heart, that I may not sin against Thee" (Ps 119:11). The Lord told Joshua,
Jesus prayed, "Sanctify them in the truth; thy word is truth" (John 17:17). The truth of God's Word is the medium the Holy Spirit uses in sanctification. Load your mind with it. Fill your heart with it. Ponder it carefully and let it direct your walk.
Pray without ceasing. On the night Jesus was betrayed, He took His disciples with Him to Gethsemane and told them, "Pray that you may not enter into temptation" (Luke 22:40). Later He found them sleeping and rebuked them for their prayerlessness. He told them, "Keep watching and praying, that you may not enter into temptation; the spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak" (Matt 26:41).
"Lead us not into temptation" was part of the model prayer He gave the disciples (Luke 11:4). Prayer is an effective and necessary means for heading off sinful temptations before they can attack. Look at prayer as a preemptive strike against fleshliness. By drawing a believer near to the Lord and focusing his thoughts on Him, prayer both steels against fleshly temptation and weakens the temptations when they come.
Watch and pray. Identify the circumstances that lead you into sin, and pray specifically for strength to face those situations. Pray for a holy hatred of sin. Pray that God will show you the real state of your sinful heart. The psalmist prayed this prayer for sanctification:
Exercise self-control. Self-control is a fruit of the Spirit (Gal 5:23)--and it is also one of the means through which the Spirit enables Christians to mortify the deeds of the body. Paul wrote,
Paul does not speak of punishing the body through self-flagellation or neglect. He certainly does not advocate anything that would physically weaken or injure the body. No athlete would do such things.
The present writer once met a man who wore a belt studded with nails that constantly tore at his flesh. He felt he was punishing his body and atoning for his own sins. Many misguided people over the ages have attempted similar means to deal with the body. Martin Luther as a young monk almost destroyed his body with excessive fasting before he discovered that God's Word says, "The just shall live by faith" (Rom 1:29). In the Philippines at Easter each year, there are men who actually have themselves crucified in a bloody ritual that they believe makes them holy.
That is not at all the spirit of what Scripture calls for. It is a watchful self-discipline that refuses to pander to the appetites of the body at the soul's expense. Jesus said, "Be on guard, that your hearts may not be weighted down with dissipation and drunkenness and the worries of life, and [the Day of the Lord] come on you suddenly like a trap" (Luke 21:34).
Be filled with the Holy Spirit. "Do not get drunk with wine, for that is dissipation," Paul wrote, "but be filled with the Spirit" (Eph 5:18). To be Spirit-filled is to be controlled by the Holy Spirit, just as to be drunk is to be under the influence of alcohol. Believers are to be utterly yielded to the Spirit's control.
This brings the discussion full circle to its beginning in Rom 8:13. Christians mortify sin "by the Spirit." It is the Holy Spirit's power in them that actually does the work of mortification in those who yield to Him. Once again, however, it is emphatically true that this does not mean they are passive in the process. As John Owen wrote,
There are many more duties related to mortifying sin--such as clothing oneself with humility (1 Pet 5:5), having the mind of Christ (Phil 2:5), putting away spiteful feelings toward others (Eph 4:31-32), putting on the armor of God (Eph 6:11-17), laying aside sinful attitudes (Col 3:8-9), adding the graces of spiritual growth to one's life (2 Pet 1:5-7), following the know, reckon, yield, obey, serve pattern of Romans 6. This basic category of being filled with the Spirit encompasses all of these.
It is really as simple as this: "Walk by the Spirit, and you will not carry out the desire of the flesh" (Gal 5:16). The fruit of the Spirit will overgrow and choke out the works of the flesh.
"Let us [therefore] cleanse ourselves from all defilement of flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God" (2 Cor 7:1).
Strike Sin at Its Head
John Owen wrote, "He that is appointed to kill an enemy, if he leave striking before the other ceases living, doth but half his work."[9] Christians must be always at the task of mortifying sin. They may slaughter a whole tribe of Amalekites, but if they deliberately permit one Agag to escape, God will not be pleased with their efforts.
The flesh is very subtle and deceptive. A particular sin may leave the believer alone for awhile to make him think he is rid of it. But it can come back with a hellish fury if he is not on guard. Sin perpetually stalks him; he must be continually mortifying it. This is a duty he cannot rest from until he rests in glory.
Give sin an inch, it will take a mile. If it can gain a footing in Christians' lives, it will send forth roots and grow like kudzu. It will use them and abuse them and inflict as much disaster as possible. Owen wrote,
Christians are not ignorant of Satan's devices, the apostle declares (2 Cor 2:11). Neither should they be naive about the subtleties of their own flesh. When Agag comes to them cheerfully, saying, "Surely the bitterness of death is past" (1 Sam 15:32) or when he wants to make friends and declare an end to hostilities--that is when it is most imperative to turn on him and cut him ruthlessly to pieces before the Lord.
Sin is not mortified when it is merely covered up. A Christian can hide his sin from the sight of others, but that is not the same as mortification. If a sin has simply been papered over with hypocrisy, what good is there in that? If conscience has only been daubed, Christians are in a much more dangerous state than before. "He who conceals his transgressions will not prosper, but he who confesses and forsakes them will find compassion" (Prov 28:13). You have not done your duty with regard to your sin until you have confessed and forsaken it.
Sin is not mortified when it is only internalized. If you forsake the outward practice of some evil, yet continue to ruminate on the memory of that sin's pleasures, beware. You may have moved your sin into the privacy of your imagination, where it is known only to you and to God, but that sin has not been mortified. If anything, it has become more deadly by being married to pretended righteousness. Jesus rebuked the Pharisees for this very thing. They avoided murder, but tolerated hate. They refrained from fornication, but indulged in lustful thoughts. Jesus declared them worthy of eternal hell (Matt 5:21-28).
Sin is not mortified when it is exchanged for another sin. What good is it to trade the lust of the flesh for the lust of the eyes? That lust has not been mortified; it has only changed form. Puritan Thomas Fuller said, "Some think themselves improved in piety, because they have left prodigality and reel into covetousness."[12] If you succumb to this tactic, your heart is in danger of being hardened by the deceitfulness of sin (Heb 3:13).
Sin is not mortified until the conscience has been appeased. The goal is "love from a pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere faith" (1 Tim 1:5). As long as the conscience remains defiled, it affects a Christian's testimony.
If you want to mortify sin, John Owen wrote, "Load thy conscience with the guilt of it."13 Contrary to the popular wisdom today, he believed the pangs of guilt were a natural and healthy consequence of wrongdoing. "Be ashamed,"[14] he wrote, for he saw shame as an advantage in the mortification of sin. He correctly understood Paul's meaning in 2 Cor 7:10: "The sorrow that is according to the will of God produces a repentance without regret."
Those who give a nod of the head to their guilt, claim the promise of forgiveness, quickly reassure themselves, and then think no more of their wrongdoing are subjecting themselves to the heart-hardening deceit of sin--especially when the sin threatens to become a habit. Let sorrow do its full work in your heart to produce a deep, honest repentance, and those sins will be severely weakened.
Sin is not mortified when it is merely repressed. Some people use diversions to avoid dealing with their sin. They try to drown their conscience with alcohol or drown out their guilt with entertainment and other distractions. When temptation surfaces, they do not give a biblical answer, as Jesus did (Matt 4:4, 7, 10). Instead they seek a fleshly escape route. Of this tendency Martyn Lloyd-Jones said,
It is a lifelong task, in which progress will always be only gradual.
That may make the fight seem daunting at first. But as soon as Christians
set themselves to the work, they discover that sin shall not be
master over them, for they are under grace (Rom. 6:14). That means it is God
who is at work in them both to will and to work for His good pleasure (Phil
2:13). And having begun His good work in them, He "will perfect it
until the day of Christ Jesus" (Phil 1:6).
Provided by:
Tony Capoccia
Bible Bulletin Board
Box 314
Columbus, New Jersey, USA, 08022
Websites: www.biblebb.com and www.gospelgems.com
Email: tony@biblebb.com
Online since 1986
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2John Owen, The Works of John Owen (16 vols., 1967 reprint; Edinburgh: Banner of Truth, 1853) 6:177, 6:9.
3All Scripture quotations are from the NASB unless otherwise indicated.
4Ibid., 6:8., emphasis added.
5D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones, Romans: An Exposition of Chapter 8:5-17: The Sons of God (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1974), 92, emphasis added.
6Owen, Works 6:16-17.
7D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones, Sanctified Through the Truth: The Assurance of Our Salvation (Wheaton: Crossway, 1989) 54.
8Owen, Works 6:20.
9Ibid., 6:11.
10Ibid., 6:12, emphasis added.
11Ibid., 6:14.
12Cited in I. D. E. Thomas, A Puritan Golden Treasury (Edinburgh: Banner of Truth, 1977) 264.
13Owen, Works 6:56.
14Ibid., 55.
15Lloyd-Jones, Romans 8:5-17 143.