Making the soul tremble

In the 10th chapter of Owen's book The Mortification of Sin, he gives us direction for waging war on our sin by understanding the guilt it brings, the danger it represents, and the evil represents. Unlike our culture, which tells us there is no such thing as sin, so embrace what you want and feel, Owen understands that when we ignore or make peace with our sin, we are embracing death.

When discussing the guilt of sin, Owen mentions one of my favorite excuses: that it is not as bad as other sins. He says that sin always works to further itself within us, and if we cuddle up to it, we can't war against it:

"This is the proper issue of lust in the heart; it darkens the mind so that it shall not judge aright of its guilt...Let this, then, be the first care of him that would mortify sin, to fix a right judgment of its guilt in his mind..."

Owen enumerates the dangers of sin, which include the hardening of our heart by its deceitfulness, the temporal judgments God may bring to rebuke us, the loss of peace and strength that accompanies it, and the very real danger of eternal destruction where it can lead. I remember an elder at our church in Maryland once saying that we would be less willing to embrace our sin if very time we thought of pursuing it, we would say, "Christ was crucified for this."

Finally, Owen discusses the present evils that come from our sin. Firstly, it grieves the Holy Spirit:

"Consider who and what thou art, who the Spirit is that is grieved, what he hath done for thee, what he comes to thy soul about,what he hath already done in thee, and be ashamed."

Secondly, Owen says, the Lord Jesus is "wounded afresh by it." And thirdly, loving our sin takes away our usefulness in this life for the kingdom of God.

The thing I kept thinking as I read this chapter was how I have made peace with the enemy, and embraced my sin until I no longer see it as sin. Oh the deceitfulness of the human heart! How can we wage war against sin when we call it virtue, or "my personality", or my "quirks"? I am too prone to wink at my sin, and take God's mercy for granted.

"This, then, is...the opposition which is to be made to lust in respect of its habitual residence in the soul. Keep alive upon the heart these or the like considerations of its guilt, danger and evil: be much in the meditation of these things; cause thy heart to dwell and abide upon them...until they begin to have a powerful influence upon thy soul, until they make it to tremble."