Theology for the Curious

Ep.154 - RE:NOUNCE - Dealing With Your Own Heart

Pete Goulding

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Every Christian knows the reality of the battle within. Paul defines as the flesh fighting against the spirit, the old you, combating with the new you, under grace. But how aware are we of the nature of this inner beast? How serious should we take it? How ferocious and proactive is our darker nature? What sinister potential does it hold of totally destroying us? And how are we to get any kind of guarantee that we will eventually end up on the winning side?

The battle of personal holiness is a lifelong struggle from which there is no relief. In this weeks episode the curious team take the unusual step of drawing wisdom from a 400 year-old book written by perhaps one of Britain’s most outstanding Puritans of the 17th century. John Owen was 40 years of age when he wrote, “The Mortification of Sin” in 1656, as a means of teaching young ministers. The great emphasis of this classic work was, in Owen’s words, “be killing sin , or it will be killing you”

In the four centuries that have passed since the book, there have been few if any that have rivalled Owen’s insight, pastoral observations and spiritual encouragement in terms of our battle with inner sin. Taking a number of principles from Owen’s thinking, the Curious team unpack what it means to understand sin, to renounce it, to develop a right perspective of it, and to embrace the power of God’s Spirit in the conquering of it. Join them this week for a very insightful and challenging episode.

Further Reading
Here’s a bit of homework for you….we’ve included a couple of articles that compliment this episode….

The Mortification of Sin - TheGospelCoalition

On The Mortification of Sin - DesiringGod.org

Mortification of Sin - APuritansMind.com

What we’re reading?
As a feature to our notes, we are adding the book or books that we’ve browsed related to this episode…enjoy! (We’d strongly recommend all three of Owen’s outstanding trilogy below)

John Owen—
The Mortification of Sin in Believers
Of Indwelling Sin in Believers
Of Temptation

Kevin DeYoung—
The Hole in Our Holiness

J. I. Packer—
Rediscovering Holiness
Keep In Step With The Spirit 


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