Beginning this chapter, Owen relays that the main of his work has now passed. This chapter seeks to give the reader a better understanding of the "power and efficacy of indwelling sin" by showing its effects on believers. Those who have grace upon grace poured out upon their lives still fall back in the traps of the old man. Owen does this two ways: (1) By showing the great "eruptions of sin in their lives"(2) By their "habitual declensions from the frames, states, and condition of obedience and communion with God, which they had obtained."
First, Owen would have us consider the actual sins that come out of the lives of believers as evidence toward the power and efficacy of indwelling sin. He does this a couple of ways, but first Owen reminds us that in the Scriptures we must remember, "Most of them were not the lowest form of believers but they had peculiar intimacy with God." Owen points us to men like Noah, Lot, David, Hezekiah, and shows that their walk with God was constant, yet they fell. Owen comments,
An ordinary engine could never have turned them out of the course of their obedience. It was a poison that no athletic constitution of spiritual health, no antidote, could withstand.
Not only did these men fall by the power of indwelling sin, remember that they did not fall from small heights. They did not fall at the very beginning of their profession. These men had walked with God for some time when these eruptions sapped their spiritual life. Consider,
Noah, according to the lives of men in those days of the world, had walked uprightly with God some hundreds of years before he was so surprised as he was (Genesis 9). Righteous Lot seems to have been towards the end of his days ere he defiled himself with the abominations recorded. David, in a short life, had as much experience of grace and sin, and as much close,spiritual communion with God, as ever had any of the sons of men, before he was cast to the ground by this law of sin.
What better argument is needed to prove the power of indwelling sin that resides within your heart? Did not these men have much sight of the goodness and grace of God in their lives? Moreover, as Owen puts it, "who had either better furniture to oppose sin withal, or more obligation so to do, than they?"
This certainly calls our attention to this great enemy. The Scriptures would have us remember these great men, and what these men are when not submitted before the power of the Holy Spirit! Next, Owen also shows that not only were these men experienced in the things of God, but also these abominations happened after some "newly received great and stupendous mercies from the hand of God." Had not Noah just seen the annihilation of an entire wicked generation and just came out of the boat by the grace of God when he fell into drunkenness? Had not Lot seen "hell coming out of heaven" upon Sodom and Gomorrah when he fell into incest? Had not David been delivered out of many troubles and out of the hand of Saul when he fell into murder and adultery?
Are we any better than these men? Do we think we will also stand against this great enemy if we do not watch and pray? If these great men, whom God himself calls righteous, men after His own heart, and the only righteous one, fell; what does this communicate about our enemy at hand? Owen concludes this point,
They are all set up as buoys to discover unto us the sands, the shelves, the rocks, whereupon they made their shipwreck, to their hazard, danger, loss, yea, and would have done to their ruin, had not God been pleased in his faithfulness graciously to prevent it.
The law of sin also proves its power by "the habitual declensions from zeal and holiness." Owen illustrates this point with an analogy,
As the wind which will blow down a dead tree that has no root to the ground will scarcely shake or bow a living, well-rooted tree. But this it will do.
These men we find as examples in the Bible, they were men who walked close with God. This seems to be common among believers that their zeal is not as strong as it was at their first profession of Christ. Owen evidences this point by having us notice this point. Is the zeal of most believers the same as it was form the very beginning? Do they attend to the word of God as earnestly as they did when they first confessed Christ? Owen continues,
Is there the same conscientious tenderness of sinning abiding in many as was in the days of old, the same exact performance of private duties, the same love to the brethren, the same readiness for the cross, the same humility of mind and spirit, the same self-denial?
When we find this to be true in those older ones in the faith, this is evidence of the efficacy of the power of the law of sin in their heart. It has a grip on the heart where they no longer push forward, but rather take the blows as common.
Owen concludes this chapter by showing the power of indwelling by contrasting it with the provisions made against it by the Holy Spirit. Owen believes this shows us how great an enemy is before us, despite the great gifts of the Spirit given to believers for their edification. First, Owen considers the word and the ordinances of the Gospel are given for the "preventing of decays and declensions in the saints, all for the carrying them on to perfection." He uses Ephesians 4:11-15 to make his point. The work of all these ordinances is for the "equipping of the saints for the work of ministry, for the building up the body of Christ." Yet do we not find believers using demeaning words when they talk to one another? Do we not find believers dragging each other's names through the mud? Owen then asks the question,
Does it have bounds fixed to its work? Does it carry us so far, and them leave
us?
No, the very work of these gifts from the Holy Spirit is given for our perfection before God. Verse 14 states, "so that we may no longer be children, tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness in deceitful schemes." Yet do we not find it to be true, despite these efficacious gifts given to the church that the law of sin still prevails over many believers?
Not only this, but God has also made us mindful of this assistance and is "continually calling upon us to make use of the means appointed for the attaining of the end purpose." God is continually calling us to come and find pasture provided, so that your souls may live. Owen gives a great illustration here; please hear this rather long quote,
If we see a lamb run from the fold into the wilderness, we wonder not if it be
torn and rent of wild beasts. If we see a sheep leaving its green pastures and watercourses, to abide in dry barren heaths, we count it no marvel, nor inquire farther, if we see him lean and ready to perish; but if we find lambs wounded in the fold, we wonder at the boldness and rage of the beasts of prey that durst set upon them there...It is indeed no marvel that poor creatures who forsake their own mercies, and run away from the pasture and fold of Christ in his ordinances are rent and torn with divers lusts, and do pine away with hungerand famine; but to see men living under and enjoying all the means of spiritual thriving, yet to decay, not to be fat and flourishing, but rather daily to pine and wither, this argues some secret powerful distemper.
This argues for a strong enemy. An enemy that can cause a soldier to starve in battle who eats three times a day. The believer who is praying, reading, and attending church can still be swept away by the craft of the enemy.
Does Jesus Christ not continually pour grace out on His Church? Is He not a Living Head who gives grace upon grace to His church, yet is His Church taking one-step forward and two backward? So many times, it seems that the dispensations of grace given merely combat the powers of indwelling sin and not to cause us to have spiritual victories. What about you, is this true of you? Is the grace given you just given to fight off your lusts? Can you say that the grace given you daily by your Lord and Savior is causing you to inch closer and closer to the image of Christ? It seems that in our life we are given so much grace, but the very next second we act as though Christ has not shown us mercy and favor. May we feed upon the green pastures of Christ! May Jesus Christ be our steadfast hope and joy! May we see the power of this inbred enemy and watch and pray against it. This, I believe, will cause our hearts to be ready to spring for the cross and deny ourselves.
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