CAPH. My soul fainteth for thy salvation: but I hope in thy word. Mine eyes fail for thy word, saying, When wilt thou comfort me? For I am become like a bottle in the smoke; yet do I not forget thy statutes.
~ Psalm 119:81-83
For he shall deliver the needy when he crieth; the poor also, and him that hath no helper.
Psalm 72:12
Knowing this, that our old man is crucified with him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin.
~ Romans 6:6
For sin shall not have dominion over you: for ye are not under the law, but under grace.
~ Romans 6:14
And they that are Christ’s have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts.
~ Galatians 5:24
The Nature of Sin Further Revealed, and Its Aversion to All Good, Opened, by John Owen. The following contains an excerpt of Chapter Five of his work, “Remainders of Indwelling Sin in Believers”.
“O wretched man that I am! Who shall deliver me from the body of this death? I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord” —Rom 7:24, 25
CHAPTER 5.
The nature of sin further revealed as it is enmity against God — Its aversion to all good is opened — The means to prevent its effects prescribed.
Thirdly. We have considered something of the nature of indwelling sin, not absolutely, but in reference to the discovery of its power; but this power more clearly evidences itself in its actings and operations. Power is an act of life, and operation is the only discoverer of life. We don’t know that anything lives except by the effects and works of life. And great and strong operations reveal a powerful and vigorous life. Such are the operations of this law of sin, which are all demonstrations of its power.
What we have declared concerning its nature is that it consists in enmity. Now, there are two general heads of the working or operation of enmity — first, Aversion; secondly, Opposition.
First, Aversion. Our Saviour described the effects of the enmity that existed between himself and the teachers of the Jews; he says in the prophet, “My soul loathed them, and their soul also abhorred me,” Zec 11:8. Where there is mutual enmity, there is mutual aversion, loathing, and abomination. So it was between the Jews and the Samaritans — they were enemies, and they abhorred one another, as in John 4:9.1
Secondly, Opposition, or contending against one another; this is the next product of enmity. Isa 63:10, “He was turned to be their enemy, and he fought against them;” speaking of God towards the people. Where there is enmity, there will be fighting; it is the proper and natural product of it.
Now, both these effects are found in this law of sin: —
First, for aversion. There is an aversion in it to God and to every thing of God, as we discovered in part in handling enmity itself; and so we will not need to insist much on it again. All indisposition to duty (in which communion with God is to be obtained); all weariness of duty; all carnality, or formality in duty — springs from this root. The wise man cautions us against this evil: Ecc 5:1, “Keep your foot when you go to the house of God;” — Do you have any spiritual duty to perform, and do you intend to attain any communion with God? Then look to yourself, take care of your affections; they will be gadding2 and wandering, and that is from their aversion to what you have in hand. There is no good that we would do, in which we may not find this aversion exercising itself. “When I would do good, evil is present with me;” — ‘At any time, at all times, when I would do anything that is spiritually good, evil is present — that is, present to hinder me, to obstruct me in my duty; because it abhors and loathes the thing which I have in hand, it will keep me away from it if possible.’ In those in whom it prevails, it comes at length to that frame which is expressed in Eze 33:31.3 It will allow an outward, bodily presence for the worship of God, in which it is not concerned; but it keeps the heart quite away.
It may be that some will pretend they do not find it so in themselves, but they have freedom and liberty in and for all the duties of obedience that they attend to. But I fear this pretended liberty will be found, upon examination, to arise from one or both of these causes: —
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Footnotes:
1 Joh 4:9 Then the woman of Samaria said to Him, “How is it that You, being a Jew, ask a drink from me, a Samaritan woman?” For Jews have no dealings with Samaritans.
2 Wandering aimlessly in search of pleasure.
3 Eze 33:31 “So they come to you as people do, they sit before you as My people, and they hear your words, but they do not do them; for with their mouth they show much love, but their hearts pursue their own gain. Also, Isa 29:13 Therefore the Lord said: “Inasmuch as these people draw near with their mouths And honor Me with their lips, But have removed their hearts far from Me, And their fear toward Me is taught by the commandment of men;
First, Ignorance of the true state and condition of their own souls, of their inward man and its actings towards God. They don’t know how it is with their souls; and therefore they are not to be believed in what they report. They are in the dark, and know neither what they do nor where they are going. It is like the Pharisee who knew little of this matter; which made him boast of his duties to God himself.Luk 18.11
Or secondly, it may be that whatever duties of worship or obedience such persons perform, through lack of faith and any interest in Christ, they may have no communion with them; and if so, sin will make but little opposition to them in these things. We speak of those whose hearts are exercised with these things. And if under their complaints about them, and groanings for deliverance from them, others cry out to them, “Stand off, for we are holier than you,” they are willing to bear their condition (knowing that their way may be safe, even though troublesome), and they are willing to see their own dangers, that they may avoid the ruin which others fall into.
Let us then consider a little this aversion to those acts of obedience in which there is no concern except for that of God and the soul. In public duties there may be a mixture of other considerations; they may be so influenced by custom and necessity that a right judgment cannot be made about this matter from these duties.
But let us take into consideration the duties of retirement, such as private prayer and meditation and the like; or else extraordinary duties, or duties that are to be performed in an extraordinary manner: —
1. In these, this aversion and loathing will oftentimes reveal itself in the affections. A secret striving will be in them about close and cordial dealing with God, unless the hand of God in his Spirit is high and strong upon his soul. Even when convictions, a sense of duty, dear and real esteem for God and communion with him, have carried the soul into its closet, if there is not the vigor and power of a spiritual life constantly at work, then there will be a secret loathness in them toward their duty. Indeed, sometimes there will be a violent inclination to the contrary; so that the soul would rather do any thing, embrace any diversion, even though it wounds itself by that, than to vigorously apply itself to what it breathes after in the inward man. It is weary before it begins, and it says, “When will the work be over?” Here God and the soul are immediately concerned; and it is a great conquest to do what we would do, though we come exceedingly short of what we should do.
2. It reveals itself in the mind also. When we address ourselves to God in Christ, we are, as Job puts it, to “fill our mouths with arguments,” Job 23:4, so that we may be able to plead with him as he calls us to do: Isa 43:26, “Put me in remembrance; let us plead together.” This is why the church is called upon, in going to God —
Hos 14:2, “Take words with you, And return to the LORD. Say to Him, Take away all iniquity; Receive us graciously, For we will render the calves (the sacrifices) of our lips.”
The sum is this: that the mind should be furnished with the considerations that prevail with God, and be ready to plead them, and to manage them in the most spiritual manner, to the best advantage. Now, is there no difficulty in getting the mind into such a frame as to lay itself out to the utmost in this work? to be clear, steady, and constant in its duty? to draw out and make use of its stores and furniture of promises and experiences? It starts, wanders, flags — all from this secret aversion to communion with God, which proceeds from the law of indwelling sin. Some complain that they can make no work of meditation — they cannot bend their minds to it. I confess there may be a great cause for this in their lack of a right understanding of the duty itself, and of the ways of managing the soul in it; therefore I will speak a little to that afterward: yet this secret enmity also has its hand in the loss they are at, and that is both in their minds and in their affections.
Others are forced to live in family and public duties, because they find such little benefit and success in private. And here has been the beginning of the apostasy of many professors, and the source of many foolish, sensual opinions. Finding this aversion in their minds and affections from closeness and constancy in private spiritual duties, and not knowing how to conquer and prevail against these difficulties through Him who enables us, they have at first been subdued to neglect them; partial at first, then total — until, having lost all conscience about them, they have opened a door to all sin and licentiousness, and so to a full and utter apostasy. I am persuaded that there are very few who apostatize from a profession of any length, as our days abound with. Rather, their door of entrance into the folly of backsliding was some great and notorious sin that blooded their consciences, tainted their affections, and intercepted all delight from having anything more to do with God. Or else it was a course of neglect in private duties, arising from weariness in contending against that powerful aversion to them which they found in themselves. And this also, through the craft of Satan, has been improved into many foolish and sensual opinions about living to God without, and above, any duties of communion. And we find that after men have choked and blinded their consciences for a while with this pretense, cursed wickedness or sensuality has been the end of their folly. And the reason for all this is that,
• giving way to the law of sin in the least, is giving strength to it.
• to let it alone, is to let it grow;
• not to conquer it, is to be conquered by it.
As it is in respect to private, so it is also in respect to public duties which have anything extraordinary in them. What strivings, strugglings, and pleadings there are in the heart about them, especially against their spirituality! Indeed, in and under these aversions, are the mind and affections not sometimes entangled with things that are uncouth, new, and strange to them, things which, even during the least serious business, a man would not stoop to take into his thoughts? But if the least looseness, liberty, or advantage is given to indwelling sin, if it is not perpetually watched over, it will work toward a strange and unexpected effect. In brief, let the soul unclothe any duty whatsoever, private or public, anything that is called good — let a man divest the duty of all outward respects, which secretly insinuate themselves into the mind, and give the mind some complacency in what it is about, but do not render it acceptable to God — and he will assuredly find something of the power, and some of the effects, of this aversion. It begins in loathness and indisposition; it goes on with entangling the mind and affections with other things; and if it is not prevented, it will end in weariness about God, which He complains about in His people — Isa 43:22 “But you have not called upon Me, O Jacob; but you have been weary of Me, O Israel! They ceased from their duty because they were “weary of God.”
But because this instance is of great importance to professors in their walking with God, we must not pass it over without intimating some directions for them in contending against and opposing it. Only this must be premised: I am not giving directions for mortifying indwelling sin in general — which is to be done by the Spirit of Christ alone, by virtue of our union with him — Rom 8:13 “But if you, through the Spirit, mortify the deeds of the body, you shall live;”— but only our particular duty with reference to this especial evil or effect of indwelling sin which we have insisted on a little; or what, in this single case, the wisdom of faith seems to direct to and call for. This will be our way and course in our process of considering its other effects.
1. The great means to prevent the fruits and effects of this aversion, is to constantly keep the soul in a universally holy frame. As this weakens the whole law of sin, so it correspondingly weakens all its properties, and particularly this aversion. It is this frame only that will enable us to say with the Psalmist, Psa 57:7, “My heart is fixed, O God, my heart is fixed.” It is utterly impossible to keep the heart in a prevailing holy frame in any one duty, unless it is holy in and toward all and every duty. If sin-entanglements get hold in any one thing, they will take advantage of the soul in every thing. A constant, even frame and temper in all duties, in all ways, is the only preservative for any one way. Do not let someone who is neglectful in public, persuade himself that all will be clear and easy in private, nor the contrary. There is a harmony in obedience: if you break just one part, you interrupt the whole. Our wounds in particular arise generally from negligence as to the whole course of obedience; so David informs us,
Psa 119:6, “Then I will not be ashamed, when I respect all your commandments.”
A universal respect for all God’s commandments is the only preservative from shame; and we have reason to be ashamed of nothing, more than of the shameful miscarriages of our hearts in point of duty, which arise from the principle mentioned before.
2. Labor to prevent the very beginnings of the workings of this aversion; let grace go before it in every duty. We are directed, 1Pet 4:7, to “watch to prayer;” and as it is to prayer, so it is to every duty — that is, consider and take care that we are not hindered from within or without as to its due performance. Watch against temptations, to oppose them; watch against the aversion that is in sin, to prevent it. Just as we are not to give way to Satan, we are to sin no more. If it is not prevented in its first attempts, it will prevail. My meaning is this: Whatever good we have to do, as the apostle puts it,Rom 7.21 and find evil present with us (as we will find it present), prevent its parleying with the soul — its insinuating poison into the mind and affections — by a vigorous, holy, violent stirring up of the grace or graces that are to be acted out and set to work in that duty particularly. Let Jacob come first into the world; or if he is prevented by the violence of Esau, then let him lay hold on his heel to overthrow him, and to obtain the birthright. Upon the very first motion of Peter to our Saviour, crying, “Master, spare yourself,” Jesus immediately replies, “Get behind me, Satan.” So we ought to say, “Begone you law of sin, you present evil;” and if we do, it may have the same use to us. Get grace up, then, in time for duty; and be early in the rebukes of sin.
3. Though it does its worst, be sure it never prevails to the point of conquest. Be sure you are not wearied out by its tenacity, nor driven from your hold by its importunity; do not faint by its opposition. Take the apostle’s advice, Heb 6:11, 12 “We desire that every one of you show the same diligence to the full assurance of hope to the end: that you not be slothful.”
Continue to hold out with the same diligence. There are many ways by which men are driven from a constant holy performance of duties; all of them are dangerous, if not pernicious1 to the soul. Some are diverted by business, some by company, some by the power of temptations; some are discouraged by their own darkness. But none is so dangerous as this: when the soul gives up in part or in whole, wearied by the aversion of sin to holiness, or to communion with God in holiness. This would argue for the soul’s surrender to the power of sin. Unless the Lord breaks the snare of Satan in this, it will assuredly prove ruinous. Our Saviour’s instruction is that “we always ought to pray, and not faint,” Luke 18:1. Opposition will arise — but none is so bitter and keen as that from our own hearts; if we faint, we perish. “Take heed lest you be wearied,” says the apostle, “and faint in your minds,” Heb 12:3. Such fainting is attended with a weariness, and that is attended with giving way to the aversion that is working in our hearts. This is to be avoided, if we would not perish. The caution is the same as the apostle’s:
Rom 12:12, “Rejoicing in hope, patient in tribulation, continuing constant in prayer;” And in general, it is the same caution given in Rom. 6:12,
“Do not let sin therefore reign in your mortal body, that you should obey it in its lusts.”
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Footnote:
1 Exceedingly harmful; they work or spread in a hidden and injurious way, like a disease.
To cease from duty, in part or in whole, because of the aversion of sin to its spirituality, is to give sin the rule, and to obey it in its lusts. Do not yield to it then, but hold out in the conflict; wait on God and you shall prevail:
Isa 40:31, “Those who wait upon the LORD shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint.”
What is now so difficult will only increase in difficulty if we give way to it; but if we abide in our station, we will prevail. The mouth of the Lord has spoken it.
4. Carry around a constant, humbling sense of this close aversion to spirituality that still lies in our nature. If men find its efficacy, what consideration should, or can, be more powerful to bring them to walk humbly with God? After all the revelations that God has made of himself to them, and all the kindnesses they have received from him, and his doing them good and not evil in all things, that there should be such a heart of unkindness, and such unbelief still abiding in us, as to have an aversion to communion with him — how the very thought of that ought to throw us facedown into the dust, and fill us with shame and self-abhorrence all our days! What have we found in God, in any of our approaches or addresses to him, that it should be this way with us? What iniquity have we found in him?
Has he been a wilderness to us, or a land of darkness? Did we ever lose anything by drawing near to him? No! Has there not lain in this, all the rest and peace which we have obtained? Is he not the fountain and spring of all our mercies, of all our desirable things? Has he not bid us welcome at our coming? Have we not received from him more than heart can conceive or tongue express?
What ails our foolish and wretched hearts then, to harbor such a cursed secret dislike of him and his ways? Let us be ashamed and astonished at considering it, and walk in a humbling sense of it all our days. Let us carry it about with us in the most secret place in our thoughts. And just as this is a duty that, in itself, is acceptable to God, who delights to dwell with those who are of a humble and contrite spirit, so it is exceedingly efficacious to weaken the evil we are speaking of.
5. Labor to possess the mind with the beauty and excellence of spiritual things, so that they may be presented lovely and desirable to the soul, and this cursed aversion of sin will be weakened by it. It is an innate acknowledged principle that the soul of man will not keep up cheerfully the worship of God, unless it discovers a beauty and attractiveness in it. Hence, when men had lost all spiritual sense and savor of the things of God, to supply the lack that was in their own souls, they invented outwardly pompous and gorgeous ways of worship, in images, paintings, pictures, and I know not what carnal ornaments; things they have called “The beauties of holiness!” This much, however, was discovered in this: that the mind of man must see a beauty, a desirableness in the things of God’s worship, or it will not delight in it; aversion will prevail. Let then the soul labor to acquaint itself with the spiritual beauty of obedience, of communion with God, and of all duties of immediate approach to him, so that it may be rife with delight in them.
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