WALKING IN NEWNESS OF LIFE  ·  REFORMED VOICES ON SANCTIFICATION

STUDY 02 OF 05

John Owen on the Mortification of Sin

The Spirit-Wrought Killing of Indwelling Sin as the Daily Discipline of the New Life

The Anchor Text  ·  Romans 6:4 (ESV)

We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life.

Key terms: περιπατήσωμεν (peripatēsōmen, “we might walk,” aorist active subjunctive, hortatory) and ἐν καινότητι ζωῆς (en kainotēti zōēs, “in newness of life”). καινότης (kainotēs) denotes newness of kind, not merely of time — a new order of existence, lived out as a manner of walking.

Owen’s own text is Romans 8:13 rather than 6:4, and the connection is deliberate: the definitive death-to-sin of Romans 6 is daily applied through the Spirit-wrought mortification of Romans 8. Owen supplies the negative engine of the newness-of-life walk — its how.

CENTRAL TRUTH

Walking in newness of life has a relentless negative side. The believer must put indwelling sin to death every day — by the Spirit and never by mere self-effort — for sin left unkilled is never static, but always killing.

SECTION 01

The Author

John Owen (1616–1683) was the foremost theologian of English Puritanism, vice-chancellor of Oxford under the Commonwealth, and an Independent (Congregationalist) in churchmanship. Classically Reformed, his vast output includes Communion with God, The Death of Death in the Death of Christ, the massive Pneumatologia (a treatise on the Holy Spirit), and a multi-volume commentary on Hebrews. His practical works on the Christian’s inner life remain his most widely read.

SECTION 02

The Work

Of the Mortification of Sin in Believers (1656) began as a series of sermons and is collected in The Works of John Owen, edited by William H. Goold, volume 6 (Temptation and Sin; Banner of Truth). The whole treatise is an exposition of Romans 8:13 — “if ye through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live.”

SECTION 03

The Argument

From his single text Owen draws several governing principles. First, even the choicest believers — those freed from the condemning power of sin — must make it their daily business to mortify the indwelling power of sin. Second, the work is the Spirit’s and not self-strength; mortification attempted from native resources collapses into a subtler self-righteousness. Third, the Spirit always turns the believer away from sin and back to a crucified and risen Christ, so that mortification fosters communion rather than mere moral exertion.