Indwelling Sin in Believers (Puritan Paperbacks)

John Owen's Indwelling Sin in Believers is a guide to knowing our enemy, a field-manual for the lifelong war Christ's soldiers must wage against the sin that remains in them after conversion. Like an experienced general, Owen sets out the strategy and tactics of indwelling sin with unrivalled insight and clarity.

Based on Romans 7:21, 'I find then a law, that, when I would do good, evil is present with me', Owen's work shows that sin is a powerful inward law or principle lodged in the heart whose whole nature is enmity against God. This powerful river, flowing from the Fall, can only be brought under control by regenerating grace. However, sin's enmity remains in believers after conversion, and the long war against it is one in which all Christians must engage.

Though this is a book about sin, it is no less about the all-sufficient grace of Christ. There is much here to strengthen and comfort the believer. Owen never lets us think tht we must depend on our own unaided efforts. Nor are we sent to the law for help, since defeating sin is something the law cannot do. Our victory lies in seeing to it that the springs of grace remain open, and that communion with God in christ remains our joy and delight.

This abridgement seeks to make Owen more accessible to present-day readers, but carefully retains the essence of his thought and as many as possible of his own expressions. It is a companion volume to The Mortification of Sin and Temptation Resisted and Repulsed,also published by the Trust in the same series.

About the Author

John Owen was born in 1616 in Stadhampton, Oxfordshire and died in Ealing, West London, in 1683. During his sixty-seven years he lived out a life full of spiritual experience, literary accomplishment, and national influence so beyond most of his peers that he continues to merit the accolade of ‘the greatest British theologian of all time.’

No outline of Owen’s life can give an adequate impression of the stature and importance to which he attained in his own day. He was summoned to preach before Parliament on several occasions, most notably on the day after the execution of Charles I. During the Civil War, Owen’s merit was recognized by General Fairfax, then by Cromwell who took him as a Chaplain to Ireland and Scotland. He was adviser to Cromwell, especially though not exclusively on ecclesiastical affairs, but fell from the Protector’s favour after opposing the move to make him King. In 1658 he was one of the most influential members of the Savoy Conference of ministers of Independent persuasion. After the Ejection he enjoyed some influence with Charles II who occasionally gave him money to distribute to impoverished ejected ministers. All in all, he was, with Richard Baxter, the most eminent Dissenter of his time.

Despite his other achievements, Owen is best famed for his writings. These cover the range of doctrinal, ecclesiastical and practical subjects. They are characterized by profundity, thoroughness and, consequently, authority. Andrew Thomson said that Owen ‘makes you feel when he has reached the end of his subject, that he has also exhausted it.’ Although many of his works were called forth by the particular needs of his own day they all have a uniform quality of timelessness. The Trust has reprinted his Works in twenty-three volumes.