Take Up the Cross

Strive to enter in at the strait gate: for many, I say unto you, will seek to enter in, and shall not be able. — Luke 13:24  

Working of Sin

He feedeth on ashes: a deceived heart hath turned him aside, that he cannot deliver his soul, nor say, Is there not a lie in my right hand?
— Isaiah 44:20

They conceive mischief, and bring forth vanity, and their belly prepareth deceit.
— Job 15:35

To hear the groaning of the prisoner; to loose those that are appointed to death;
— Psalm 102:20

For sin shall not have dominion over you: for ye are not under the law, but under grace.
— Romans 6:14

The Working of Sin by Deceit to Entangle the Affections, by John Owen. The following contains Chapter Eleven of his work, “The Nature, Power, Deceit and Prevalence of the Remainders of Indwelling Sin in Believers. 1667.

O wretched man that I am! Who shall deliver me from the body of this death? I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord.
— Romans 7:24-25a

CHAPTER 11.

The working of sin by deceit to entangle the affections — The ways by which it is done — Means of their prevention.

But every man is tempted, when he is drawn away of his own lust, and enticed. Then when lust hath conceived, it bringeth forth sin: and sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death.
— James 1:14-15

The SECOND thing in the words of the apostle ascribed to the deceitful working of sin is its ENTICING. A man is “drawn away and enticed.” And this seems particularly to respect the affections, as drawing away respects the mind. The mind is drawn away from duty, and the affections are enticed to sin. From the prevalence of this, a man is said to be “enticed,” or entangled as with a bait. So the word imports, for there is an allusion in it to the bait with which a fish is taken on the hook which holds him to his destruction. And concerning this effect of the deceit of sin, we will briefly show two things:

What it means to be enticed, or to be entangled with the bait of sin, to have the affections tainted with an inclination to it; and when they are so enticed.

What course sin takes, and in what way it proceeds to thus entice, ensnare, or entangle the soul: —

1. For the first —

(1.) The affections are certainly entangled when they stir up frequent imaginations about the proposed object which this deceit of sin leads and entices towards. When sin prevails, and the affections have fully gone after it, it fills the imagination with it, possessing it with images, likenesses, appearances of it continually. Such persons “devise iniquity, and work evil upon their beds;” which they also “practice” when they are able, when “it is in the power of their hand,” Micah 2:1. As in particular,

Peter tells us that “they have eyes full of an adulteress, and they cannot cease from sin,” 2 Pet 2:14 — that is, their imaginations are possessed with a continual representation of the object of their lusts. And it is so in part where the affections are in part entangled with sin, and begin to turn aside to it. John tells us that the things that are “in the world” are “the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life,” 1Joh 2:16. The lust of the eyes is that which is conveyed by them to the soul. Now, it is not the bodily sense of seeing that is intended, but fixing the imagination on seeing such things. And this is called the “eyes,” because things are constantly represented to the mind and soul by it, just as outward objects are represented to the inward sense by the eyes. And oftentimes the outward sight of the eyes is the occasion for these imaginations.

So Achan declares how sin prevailed with him, Joshua 7:21. First, he saw the wedge of gold and Babylonish garment, and then he coveted them. He rolled them in his imagination, the pleasures and the profit of them, and then he fixed his heart on obtaining them. Now the heart may have a settled, fixed detestation of sin; yet if a man finds that the imagination of the mind is frequently solicited by it and exercised about it, he may know that his affections are secretly enticed and entangled. (2.) This entanglement is heightened when the imagination can prevail with the mind to lodge vain thoughts in it, with secret delight and complacency. This is termed by casuists, Cogitatio morosa cum delectatione — an abiding thought with delight, which if it is towards forbidden objects, then in all cases it is actually sinful. And yet this may be when the consent of the will to sin is not obtained — when the soul would not for the world do the thing which thoughts yet begin to lodge in the mind about it. The prophet complains of this “lodging of vain thoughts” in the heart as a thing that is greatly sinful, and to be abhorred:

Jer 4:14 — O Jerusalem, wash your heart from wickedness, that you may be saved. How long shall your vain or evil thoughts lodge within you?

All these thoughts are messengers that carry sin to and fro between the imagination and the affections, and increase it still, inflaming the imagination, and more and more entangling the affections. Achan thinks about the golden wedge, and this makes him like it and love it; by loving it, his thoughts are infected, and they return to the imagination its worth and goodly appearance; and so little by little the soul is inflamed to sin. And here, if the will parts with its sovereignty, sin is actually conceived.

(3.) Inclinations or readiness to attend to extenuations of sin, or the reliefs that are tendered against sin when it is committed, manifest the affections that are entangled with it. We have shown, and will yet further evidence, that it is a great part of the deceit of sin, to tender lessening and extenuating thoughts of sin to the mind. Its language in a deceived heart is this: “Is it not a little sin?” or “There is mercy provided;” or “In due time it will be relinquished and given up.” Now, when the soul is ready to hearken to and entertain such secret insinuations arising from this deceit, in reference to any sin or unapprovable course, it is evidence that the affections are enticed. When the soul is willing, as it were, to be tempted, to be courted by sin, to hearken to its dalliances and solicitations, it has lost some of its conjugal affections for Christ, and it is entangled. This is “looking on the wine when it is red, when it gives its color in the cup, when it moves itself aright,” Pro 23:31 — a pleasing contemplation on the invitations of sin, whose end the wise man gives us in verse 32.

When the deceit of sin has prevailed thus far in any person, then he is enticed or entangled. The will has not yet come to the actual conception of this or that sin by its consent, but the whole soul is in a near inclination to it. I could give many other instances as tokens and evidences of this entanglement: these may suffice to manifest what we intend by it.

2. Our next inquiry is, How, or by what means, the deceit of sin thus proceeds to entice and entangle the affections? Two or three of its baits are manifest in this —

(1.) It makes use of its former prevalence upon the mind in drawing it away from its watch and circumspection. The wise man says, Pro 1:17, “Surely in vain the net is spread in the sight of any bird;” or “before the eyes of everything that has a wing,” as in the original. If it has eyes open to discern the snare, and a wing to carry it away, it will not be caught· In vain the deceit of sin would spread its snares and nets for the entanglement of the soul, while the eyes of the mind are intent upon what it does, and so stir up the wings of its will and affections to carry it away and avoid it. But if the eyes are put out or diverted, the wings are of very little use for escape; and therefore this is one of the ways which is used by those who take birds or fowls in their nets. They have false lights, or they display things, to divert the sight of their prey; and when that is done, they take the time to cast their nets on them. So does the deceit of sin; it first draws away and diverts the mind by false reasonings and pretences, as was shown, and then it casts its net upon the affections for their entanglement.

(2.) Taking advantage of such times, it proposes sin as desirable, as exceedingly satisfactory to the corrupt part of our affections. It gilds over the object by a thousand pretences, which it presents to our corrupt lustings. This is laying bait, which the apostle in this verse evidently alludes to. Bait is something desirable and suitable, that is proposed to the hungry creature for its satisfaction; and by all its artifices, it is rendered desirable and suitable. Thus sin is presented to the soul by the help of the imagination; that is, sinful and inordinate objects, which the affections cling to, are so presented. The apostle tells us that there are “pleasures of sin,” Heb 11:25, which, unless they are despised, as they were by Moses, there is no escaping sin itself. Hence those who live in sin are said to “live in pleasure,” Jas 5:5. Now, this pleasure of sin consists in its suitableness to give satisfaction to the flesh, to lust, to corrupt affections. Hence we have that caution in Rom 13:14, “Make no provision for the flesh, to fulfill its lusts;” that is, do not allow your minds, thoughts, or affections to fix on sinful objects, suited to satisfy the lusts of the flesh, to nourish and cherish them by it. He speaks to this purpose again in Gal 5:16: “Do not fulfil the lust of the flesh;” — “Do not bring in the pleasures of sin, to satisfy them.” When men are under the power of sin, they are said to “fulfill the desires of the flesh and of the mind.” Thus, therefore, the deceit of sin endeavors to entangle the affections by proposing to them, through the assistance of the imagination, that suitableness which is in it to satisfy its corrupt lusts, which are now set at some liberty by the inadvertency of the mind. It presents its “wine sparkling in the cup,” the beauty of the adulteress, the riches of the world, to sensual and covetous persons; and somewhat in the like kind, in some degrees, to believers themselves. When I therefore say that sin would entangle the soul, it prevails with the imagination to solicit the heart, by representing this false-painted beauty or pretended satisfactoriness of sin. And then if Satan, with any particular temptation, falls in to its assistance, it oftentimes inflames all the affections, and puts the whole soul into disorder.

(3.) It hides the danger that attends sin; it covers it like the hook is covered with the bait, or the net is spread over with meat for the fowl to take. It is not, indeed, possible that sin should utterly deprive the soul of the knowledge of its danger. It cannot dispossess it of its notion or persuasion that “the wages of sin is death,” and that it is the “judgment of God that those who commit sin are worthy of death.” But it will do this: — it will so take up and possess the mind and affections with the baits and desirableness of sin, that it diverts them from an actual and practical contemplation of its danger. What Satan did in and by his first temptation, sin has done ever since. At first Eve guards herself with calling to mind the danger of sin: “If we eat or touch it we shall die,” Gen 3:3. But as soon as Satan had filled her mind with the beauty and usefulness of the fruit to make one wise, how quickly she laid aside her practical prevalent consideration of the danger of eating it, and the curse due to it; or else she relieves herself with a vain hope and pretense that it should not be, because the serpent told her so! So David was beguiled by the deceit of sin in his great transgression. His lust being pleased and satisfied, the consideration of the guilt and danger of his transgression was taken away; and therefore he is said to have “despised the LORD,” 2Sam 12:9, in that he did not consider the evil that was in his heart, and the danger that attended it in the threatening or commination of the law.

Now sin, when it presses upon the soul to this purpose, will use a thousand wiles to hide from the soul the terror of the Lord, the consequence of transgressions, and especially of that peculiar folly to which it solicits the mind. Hopes of pardon will be used to hide it; and future repentance will hide it; and the present importunity of lust will hide it; occasions and opportunities will hide it; surprisals will hide it; the extenuation of sin will hide it; balancing duties against it will hide it; fixing the imagination on present objects will hide it; desperate resolutions to risk the worst to enjoy lust in its pleasures and profits will hide it. It has a thousand wiles, which cannot be recounted.

(4.) Having prevailed thus far, gilding over the pleasures of sin, hiding its end and demerits, deceit proceeds to raise perverse reasonings in the mind, to fix it on the sin that is proposed, so that it may be conceived and brought forth, the affections already being prevailed upon; we will speak of this under the next heading of its progress. Here we may stay a little, as formerly, to give a few directions for obviating this woeful work of the deceitfulness of sin. Would we not be enticed or entangled? Would we not be disposed to the conception of sin? Would we be turned out of the road and the way which goes down to death? — then let us take heed of our affections. These are of such a great concern in the whole course of our obedience, that Scripture commonly calls them “the heart,” as the principal thing which God requires in our walking before him. And this is not to be slightly attended to. In Pro 4:23, the wise man says, “Keep your heart with all diligence;” or, as in the original, “above” or “before all keepings;” — Before every watch, keep your heart. You have many keepings that you watch for: watch to keep your lives, to keep your estates, to keep your reputations, to keep up your families. “But,” he says, “above all these things, prefer that keeping which attends to the heart, to your affections, so they are not entangled with sin.” There is no safety without it. Save all other things, and lose the heart, and all is lost — lost to all eternity. You will say, then, “What shall we do, or how shall we observe this duty?”

1. Keep your affections as to their object.

(1.) In general. In Colossians 3, the apostle gives general advice as to this very case. His advice in the beginning of that chapter is to direct us to the mortification of sin, which he expressly engages in verse 5: “Mortify therefore your members which are on the earth;” — “Prevent the working and deceit of sin which wars in your members.” And to prepare us, to enable us for this, he gives us that great direction in verse 2: “Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth.” Fix your affections on heavenly things; this will enable you to mortify sin; fill the affections with things that are above; let them be exercised with them, and enjoy the highest place in the affections. They are above, blessed and suitable objects, fit for and answering to our affections — God himself, in his beauty and glory; the Lord Jesus Christ, who is “altogether lovely, the chief of ten thousand;” grace and glory; the mysteries revealed in the gospel; the blessedness promised by it.

If our affections were filled, taken up, and possessed with these things — as it is our duty to make them, and as it is our happiness when they are — what access could sin, with its painted pleasures, with its sugared poisons, with its envenomed baits, have to our souls? How we would loathe all its proposals, and say to them, “Get away from here, as an abominable thing!” For what are the vain, transitory pleasures of sin, in comparison to the exceeding recompense of the reward which is proposed to us? This is the argument the apostle presses in 2Cor 4:17, 18.

(2.) As for the object of your affections, in an especial way, let it be the cross of Christ, which has an exceeding efficacy towards disappointing the whole work of indwelling sin:

Gal 6:14, “God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by which the world is crucified to me, and I to the world.”

Paul gloried and rejoiced in the cross of Christ; his heart was set upon this; and these were the effects of the cross: — it crucified the world to him; it made the world a dead and undesirable thing. The baits and pleasures of sin are taken, all of them, out of the world, and out of the things that are in the world — namely, “the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life.” These are the things that are in the world, and it is from these that sin takes all its baits by which it entices and entangles our souls. If the heart is filled with the cross of Christ, it puts undesirableness and death upon them all; it leaves no seeming beauty, no apparent pleasure or attractiveness, in them. Again, he is saying, “It crucifies me to the world; it makes my heart, my affections, my desires, dead to any of these things.” It roots up corrupt lusts and affections; it leaves no principle to go out and make provision for the flesh, to fulfill its lusts. Labor, therefore, to fill your hearts with the cross of Christ. Consider the sorrows he underwent, the curse he bore, the blood he shed, the cries he made, the love for your souls that was in all this, and the mystery of the grace of God in it. Meditate on the vileness, the demerit, and punishment of sin as represented in the cross — the blood, and the death of Christ. Will Christ be crucified for sin, and our hearts not be crucified to sin with him? Will we entertain it, or hearken to its dalliances, which wounded, which pierced, which slew our dear Lord Jesus? God forbid! Fill your affections with the cross of Christ, so that there may be no room for sin. The world once put him out of the house into a stable, when he came to save us; let him now turn the world out of doors, when he has come to sanctify us.

2. Look to the vigor of the affections towards heavenly things. If they are not constantly attended to, excited, directed, and warned, then they are apt to decay, and sin lies in wait to take every advantage against them. We have many complaints in the Scripture about those who lost their first love, in allowing their affections to decay. And this should make us jealous over our own hearts, lest we also be overtaken with the same backsliding frame. Therefore be jealous over the affections; often and strictly examine them, and call them to account; supply them with due considerations to excite and stir them up to duty.

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