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Sanctification is “a progressive work of God and man that makes [one] more and more free from sin and like Christ in [their] actual lives.”[1] It is “the continuing work of God in the life of the believer, making him or her actually holy…‘bearing an actual likeness to God.’”[2]
An important part of sanctification is mortification of the flesh, Owen explains: “to mortify is to put to death or crucify any living thing or principle, to take away its strength, so that it cannot act according to its nature…to extinguish and destroy all that force and vigor of corrupted nature which inclines to earthly, carnal things, opposite untothat spiritual, heavenly life and its acting’s, which we have in and from Christ.” [3] Owen continues to explain that to mortify a sin does not mean a person is going to fully kill and destroy it so that it no longer resides in their heart. This, however, is the aim, yet complete mortification will never be fully accomplished in this life. No one can completely mortify their sin, nevertheless, they should aim and desire for complete destruction of sin. They should aspire for sin to be wholly rooted out of their heart of life.[4] Owen further explains:
He [should] so kill [sin] that it should never move nor stir any more, cry or call, seduce or tempt, to eternity. Its not-being is the thing aimed at. Now, though doubtless there may, by the Spirit and grace of Christ, a wonderful success and eminency of victory against any sin be attained, so that a man may have almost constant triumph over it, yet an utter killing and destroying of it, that it should not be, is not in this life to be expected’[5]
So to mortify means to kill, but not utterly. Owen warns Christians: “be killing sin or sin will be killing you”[6]. It should be a Christian’s constant aim to fight and kill the sin in their life that they might become more holy. So mortification works hand in hand in the life-long process of sanctification.
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