The Mortification of Sin

John Owen, Of the Mortification of Sin in Believers (1656)

John Owen, vice-chancellor of Oxford under the Commonwealth

Relentless, close, and quite certain that a sin you are not fighting is a sin that is winning.

Catch rate: 60 / 255
Base research: 184
Stat total: 320

Base stats

Every stat is a checkable fact about the actual book, not a designer's mood. Bars are drawn against the highest value any book reaches.

Stamina84

Contend94

Defend82

Popularity60

Total320

Cited for this book

John Owen’s subject is Romans 8:13: “if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live.” He argues that sin in a believer is never asleep, that leaving it alone is not neutral, and that killing it is daily, lifelong work. It is done by the Spirit, not by gritted teeth.

Moves learned

By levelling up. A book that develops keeps what it knew and learns the rest on its new schedule.

Lv	Move	Type	Cat.	Pwr	Acc	PP
1	Be Killing Sin	Ethics	Argument	88	100%	10
1	Random Verse	Bible	Argument	10	100%	30
34	Chapter…	Bible	Scripture	—	—	12
40	Rest	Spirituality	Rest	—	100%	5
50	It Rests on Christ	Ecclesiology	Argument	72	100%	10

The quotes behind its moves

How to read these. In Scholar’s Dream, books argue with each other. Each thing a book can do in a debate is a move, and most moves carry a real quotation — the words the book puts on the table when it uses that move.

Strong against lists the opposing books and arguments a move was written to answer. Used against one of them, it hits much harder than usual: ×2 means twice the normal force, ×4 four times. It is the game’s way of saying: this is the sentence that answers that argument. Open an entry to read why.

“Do you mortify; do you make it your daily work; be always at it whilst you live; cease not a day from this work; be killing sin or it will be killing you.”
John Owen, Of the Mortification of Sin in Believers (1656), ch. 2 (public domain).public domain

Be Killing Sin

EthicsArgument · power 88 · 100% accurate

In the gameOwen’s subject is sin in a believer, and his claim is that it never holds still. Left alone it is not neutral — it is working. So the killing of it is daily, lifelong, done by the Spirit rather than by gritted teeth, because the alternative is being killed by it.

Strong against

×4Salvation from Sinan argument · why?

Owen: sin is not finished in a believer, and it is never resting. Be killing sin, or it will be killing you. Nobody writes that to people who have stopped sinning!

×2Seasonable Thoughtsan argument · why?

A quiet congregation is not the same as a mortified one. Sin left alone is not resting; it is working!

“In peace I will both lay myself down and sleep, for you, Yahweh alone, make me live in safety.”
Psalm 4:8 (WEB).

Rest

SpiritualityRest · 100% accurate

In the gameBreak off and rest. Stamina is restored in full and any trouble is slept off, but the book is then ASLEEP for a turn (two turns, one time in five) while the other side does as it likes.

“When baptism is given in the words of the gospel, however great be the perverseness of understanding on the part either of him through whom, or of him to whom it is given, the sacrament itself is holy in itself on account of Him whose sacrament it is.”
Augustine, On Baptism, Against the Donatists 4.12.19 (trans. J. R. King, rev. Hartranft, NPNF¹ 4, public domain).public domain

It Rests on Christ

EcclesiologyArgument · power 72 · 100% accurate

In the gameIf a baptism were only as good as the hands that gave it, no one could ever be sure they had been baptised at all. The minister is not the one doing the saving.

Strong against

×4The Conscience of the Giveran argument · why?

It answers the sentence itself — the book was written at this man.

×3One Nature After the Unionan argument · why?

Everything rests on who Christ is. If his manhood had been swallowed up, there would be no man to stand in our place, and nothing for our salvation to rest on.

×2Every Creed Killsan argument · why?

The church is not the states that fought in its name. It never was.

×2The Traitor’s Handsan argument · why?

Augustine’s answer: baptism belongs to Christ, not to the minister. A traitor’s hands cannot undo what Christ gives.

×2The Varieties of Religious Experiencean argument · why?

The private inner experience is real. It is also not the thing faith rests on — that is outside you, finished, and does not rise and fall with how you feel about it on a given morning.