From John Owen, Chapter 5 in Of the Moritification in Believers. This morning – “What Mortification of Sin is Not.”
To mortify a sin is not utterly to kill, root it out, and destroy it, that it should have no more hold at all nor residence in our hearts. It is true this is that which is aimed
at; but this is not in this life to be accomplished (69).
Mortification Is Not the Dissimulation of Sin [outwardly forsaking a sin without any internal heart change – not that his heart has forsaken the sin, he has merely become more cunning in hiding it from the public view – that’s my commentary on this point from Owen] (70).
The mortification of sin consists not in the improvement of a quiet, sedate nature (70). [My comment: some have naturally quiet and outwardly humble personalities. Mere natural improvements on one’s already quiet personality is not mortification of sin]
A sin is not mortified when it is only diverted (71).
Occasional conquests of sin do not amount to a mortifying of it (71).
