Hey, so, this book was recommended highly by a friend of mine and seems fitting to be read. I have briefly scanned the first 4 chapters already, but as mentioned, intend to better process as I read. The pdf is available here (click to get the pdf).
I really really liked the first chapter when I read it the first time on a walk home from a friend's house (since I never normally get time to read). haha. The first chapter, essentially is an introduction to the first treatise which finds its subject matter in 'the mortification of sin in believers' which essentially is an expansion and exposition on Romans 8:13 "if you through the Spirit do put to death the deeds of the body, you shall live" (NKJV). In this chapter Owen expands briefly upon each phrase in the sentence and further expands in the subsequent chapters.
I think the idea that caught me the most was the expansion on the word 'if'. As he explains, 'if' normally either denotes and uncertainty, or a certainty (as ironic as that sounds). One way to read the verse would be 'you will live only if you do ____' 'you must do this, or else die'. Very much dependent upon your works. However, Owen explains based on the greater context of the whole that it really denotes a certainty that if this is done you will live, and further that: although it is our daily duty to mortify the flesh, the Spirit is there to help us and is the only true means to doing so; that the ones exhorted to do so are Christians already redeemed from sin and death by Jesus, now free from condemnation (8:1); and that through Jesus our eternal life is already given as a free gift not something to now be earned. So the condition is more along the lines of a patient who has already been in to see a doctor and has now been given medicine with the instructions "if you take this medicine, you will become healthy".
This is a certainty as we trust and live in Christ; you shall live. So follow me and take up your cross and deny yourself.
Ttyl.
D.Fa
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