Overcoming Sin and Temptation - John Owen

Justin Taylor offered up a second book for review, a book he coedited with Kelly Kapic. Justin has been involved with getting more resources from John Owen available on the web, and this book was (I suspect) a logical move from that work.

The key work by Taylor/Kapic was updating Owen's language into that which can be understood by the modern reader. Owen was a very deep thinker, and having that depth compounded by a difficult translation from old English to modern English was more work than many (myself included) were generally inclined to do with regularity. Taylor and Kapic found a reasonable balance with updating the language while keeping the original authorial intent. I might have gone a step further in a number of places, but that I probably why I'm not paid to do that sort of thing!

Prior to this book, I had known of John Owen, mostly through the work of Justin Taylor on his blog and elsewhere on the net, and a sermon by John Piper. I greatly appreciated this book, in that there is a great amount that is transportable into our own lives. I found myself challenged over and over to re-examine my own walk with Christ on how deal with my own sins and temptations. This is a subject relevant to every Christian, though I don't think that this book is at a level that all Christians would appreciate it. That is unfortunate, not that the book is deep, but that not all Christians are ready for this level of thought and truth and forced examination of their own walks with Christ.

This book actually consists of 3 different writings of John Owen. Of the Mortification of Sin in Believers, Of Temptation: The Nature and Power of It, and Indwelling Sin are the three different writings used for this book. All three pair together in thought and writing style well. While I have not read the originals, it seems as though Taylor and Kapic have used a light had in their editing/updating of these texts. Many difficult segments they have chosen to leave as original have footnotes that accompany them to help clarify. This is where I would be most likely to have gone a step further, as I am one who really dislikes bouncing back and forth to footnotes - it breaks my flow of reading and train of thought to have to do it. A very minor nit picky issue I know, but as a whole I didn't get too far off track since the content is so good.

Owen's writing is laden with a treasure trove of scriptural references. Thankfully the editors have collected these into a single reference at the back of the book (Scripture Index). This is something I have no doubt I will return to in the years to come in my ministry as I continue to grow in these areas, as well as coach and teach others on these subjects.

An example of something I really found as excellent among this book is the following from page 153:

Grace and corruption
lie deep in the heart; men oftentimes deceive themselves in the search
after the one or the other of them. When we give vent to the soul, to try what
grace is there, corruption comes out; and when we search for corruption,
grace appears. So is the soul kept in uncertainty; we fail in our trials. God
comes with a gauge that goes to the bottom. He sends his instruments of trial
into the bowels and the inmost parts of the soul, and lets man see what is in
him, of what metal he is constituted.

Hard hitting, but deeply profound and true. The book is filled with things like this.

I would highly recommend this book. It would be a great gift to a pastor if they do not already own it. The jewel of Owen is matched quite nicely with the efforts of the editors to make his writings more approachable to the average person. Just beware that this book will likely make you very uncomfortable about your faith. It is like a spot light shining into the darkness of our own personal sins.