Wednesday, November 3, 2010

No Greater Incentive for Holiness

In On Mortificaton of Sin, in a section on considering the evil of sin, John Owen urges the believer to consider how sin "grieves the holy and blessed Spirit":
Now, if there be any thing of gracious ingenuity left in the soul, if it be not utterly hardened by the deceitfulness of sin, this consideration will affect it.  Consider who and what thou art; who the Spirit is that is grieved, what he hath done for thee; and be ashamed.  Among those who walk with God, there is no greater motive and incentive unto universal holiness, and the preserving of their hearts and spirits in all purity and cleanness, than this, that the blessed Spirit, who hath undertaken to dwell in them as temples of God, and to preserve them meet for him who so dwells in them, is continually considering what they give entertainment in their hearts unto, and rejoiceth when his temple is kept undefiled.
"How shall we who died to sin still live in it?" (Rom. 6:2).  "Grieve not the Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption" (Eph. 4:30).

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