Sin and Temptation

by John Owen

John Owen’s Classic Works on the Evil of Sin and the Power of Grace, Updated for Modern Readers Regarded as one of the greatest theologians in history, 17th-century pastor John Owen remains influential among those interested in Puritan and Reformed theology. The Complete Works of John Owen brings together all of Owen’s original theological writing, including never-before-published work, reformatted for modern readers in 40 user-friendly volumes. Volume 15, The Christian Life—Sin and Temptation , includes the treatises “Of the Mortification of Sin in Believers”; “Of The Nature and Power of It”; “The Nature, Power, Deceit, and Prevalency of Indwelling Sin”; and “A Treatise of the Dominion of Sin and Grace.” Each work has been edited with extensive introductions by Kelly M. Kapic, Justin Taylor, and Shawn D. Wright. Released over a number of years, The Complete Works of John Owen will inspire a new generation of Bible readers and scholars to deeper faith.

Genres: Theology, Nonfiction

232 pages, Hardcover

Published January 1, 1983

About the author

John Owen was an English theologian and "was without doubt not only the greatest theologian of the English Puritan movement but also one of the greatest European Reformed theologians of his day, and quite possibly possessed the finest theological mind that England ever produced" ("Owen, John", in Biographical Dictionary of Evangelicals, p. 494)

Reviews

[Louie Hogan · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read this book on recommendation from my girlfriend’s dad and have some mixed feelings about it. On the one hand, it is pretty inescapably Puritan (which, as an Anglican, I’m sort of already predisposed to be suspicious of). But the central theme of the book is absolutely one worthy of consideration: that Christians must deal with the reality of sin.

I think Owen makes a sound point that we shouldn’t pretend like sin is irrelevant or trivial to the Christian experience but demands meaningful contemplation and active opposition. He rightly states that to minimize sin on account of the grace of God is a dangerous error that we must oppose.

But I guess my main problem is that for an entire work on sin, Owen has almost nothing to actually say about grace. The few passages that he does reflect on it, you almost get the impression that grace is to be considered the reluctant mechanical response to sin on God’s part but is not itself a meaningful treasure to celebrate and enjoy.

Without trying to actually downplay his point that sin warrants real examination (because it does) I do think Owen fails to navigate the tension that should be true of every Christian: recognizing and opposing sin because of its cancerous effects on our souls and participating in the freedom of grace that is in Christ because of God’s abundant and abiding love. Owen tends to fall on the former end of the continuum, but doesn’t seem to have much to say about the latter. And the danger there is rather simple: to focus all attention on the reality of sin without attending to the full breadth of the grace of God is to permit sin a dominance over the self that isn’t appropriate for those made alive in Christ.

So, as I said, I have a mixed set of responses.

[Dane Jöhannsson · Rating 5 out of 5]

This work, found in volume 6 of Owen's collected works, is one of the greatest demonstrations of that insightfully rich christian psychology so common among the puritans. This work is piercing and stimulating.