A Believer's Guide to Spiritual Victory: John Owen's 14-Point Checklist for Mortifying Sin

1. Introduction: Why 'Killing Sin' is a Lifelong Christian Duty

For the Christian believer, the fight against indwelling sin is a central, lifelong duty, not an optional exercise for the spiritually elite. It is the necessary, daily work of all who desire to live authentically in the grace of God. Among the most profound and practical resources ever written on this subject is Of the Mortification of Sin by the great 17th-century pastoral theologian John Owen. Grounding his entire discourse in the profound truth of Scripture, Owen provides a masterclass in the spiritual warfare required of every genuine Christian.

He lays his foundation on the Apostle Paul’s exhortation in Romans 8:13: "If ye through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live." Owen emphasizes that this command is not a suggestion for unbelievers to improve themselves, but a duty prescribed specifically to believers—those who have been freed from sin’s condemning power but must still contend with its indwelling power. This is not a work of self-righteous asceticism but a Spirit-empowered engagement that is directly and infallibly connected to the vigor, comfort, and peace of our spiritual lives.

The purpose of this guide is to distill Owen’s comprehensive theological counsel into a practical, actionable checklist. It is designed to equip the modern believer to move beyond vague intentions and wage a more effective, sincere, and victorious war against the sins that so easily beset us. Before we can engage the specific tactics of this battle, however, we must first adopt the foundational mindset required for authentic spiritual combat.

2. The Foundational Mindset: Preparing for Authentic Battle

Before applying specific tactics, a believer must adopt two non-negotiable principles that form the foundation for any successful mortification of sin. John Owen is clear that without this proper foundation, all our efforts will be in vain, leading not to freedom but to formality, hypocrisy, or despair. These principles clarify who is qualified for this fight and what disposition is required to receive God’s blessing in it.

• Mortification is the work of believers alone. Owen’s first general rule is that this spiritual duty is prescribed exclusively to those who are truly "ingrafted into Christ." For an unregenerate person, the immediate duty is not the piecemeal mortification of a particular sin, but the wholesale conversion of the soul. To attempt to kill sin without first being made alive in Christ is like building a house without a foundation. As the prophet Jeremiah lamented, men may labor to purify base metals, but if they are not gold and silver to begin with, "the founder melteth in vain" (Jer. vi. 29). The first step in killing sin is to be made alive by the Spirit.
• Universal sincerity in obedience is non-negotiable. Owen’s second foundational rule is that a believer cannot hope to defeat one "perplexing lust" while being negligent and careless in other areas of their spiritual life. God requires our whole heart. To fight earnestly against a sin that brings personal trouble while remaining lax in duties like prayer, meditation, or loving-kindness, is to operate from a corrupt principle of self-love. It reveals that we are more concerned with our own peace than with God's glory. Such partial efforts will not be blessed, for God will not empower our work just so we can be at liberty to grieve Him in other ways. Often, the very reason God allows a particular lust to gain power is to chasten us for our general lukewarmness and awaken us to a more thorough and sincere walk with Him.

With this strategic mindset established, we can now turn to the specific spiritual practices that constitute the daily work of mortifying sin.

3. Owen's Spiritual Practice Checklist: 14 Steps to Mortify Sin

The following points are a series of diagnostic and active spiritual practices derived from Owen's wise counsel. They are not a legalistic formula for self-improvement, but a practical tool for believers to wage a more effective and sincere war against a prevailing, disquieting sin. Critically, these steps are not a substitute for Christ's power, but rather the very arena in which our faith in Him must be exercised. Use them to assess the state of your heart and to guide your Spirit-led efforts toward greater holiness.

1. Assess for Inveterateness. The first dangerous symptom of a prevailing lust is when it has been allowed to "lie long corrupting in thy heart." A sin that has become a long-term resident grows familiar to the mind and conscience. The soul ceases to startle at its presence and becomes habituated to its company. This neglect allows the sin to sink its roots deep into our faculties and affections, making it far more stubborn and difficult to eject. An old, neglected wound is always dangerous and often requires extraordinary remedies. Reflection: For how long has this sin been a resident, rather than a visitor, in my heart? Have I become comfortable with its presence?
2. Expose Secret Justifications. A sin becomes deeply entrenched when we make "secret pleas of the heart for the countenancing of itself." This can happen in two primary ways. First, instead of dealing directly with the sin, we search our hearts for other evidences of grace to quiet our conscience and assure ourselves that our state is good despite the sin. Second, we misapply God's grace and mercy to an unmortified sin, essentially thinking, "In this one thing, God be merciful to me," while having no sincere intention of killing it. Reflection: Do I look for other 'good things' in my life to quiet my conscience about this sin, rather than dealing with the sin itself?
3. Identify Inner Defeats of the Will. A lust has gained dangerous ground when it frequently achieves "success in its seduction" by gaining the consent of the will, even if the outward act is not committed. When the heart delights in the thought of the sin and the will chooses it, the sin has already won a significant victory. This is a sign of deep entanglement, for it reveals that the inner person is aligned with the very evil it professes to be fighting. Reflection: Even if I avoid the outward act, does my will still consent to this sin in the theater of my mind?
4. Evaluate Your True Motivations. A grave symptom appears when you find yourself fighting sin "only with arguments from the issue or the punishment due unto it." If your primary motivation is the fear of hell or the fear of shame, it reveals a heart that would gladly commit the sin if there were no negative consequences. This means the sin has already conquered your will and affections. A true believer fights sin with gospel weapons: the love of Christ, the grief of the Spirit, and a deep-seated abhorrence of sin as sin. Reflection: Am I fighting this sin because I hate it, or only because I fear its consequences?
5. Discern God's Chastening Hand. Examine whether your perplexing sin contains an element of God's "chastening punishment." Reflect honestly: Did this sin gain power after a season of spiritual negligence, unrepentant guilt, or a failure to be thankful for God’s mercies? God sometimes allows a particular lust to gain strength to awaken us from a general carelessness in our walk with Him. A new sin may be permitted to bring an old, unconfessed sin to remembrance. Reflection: Could this persistent struggle be God's way of exposing a broader pattern of spiritual negligence in my life?
6. Expose Resistance to God's Warnings. It is a sign of a deeply hardened condition when a lust has "withstood particular dealings from God against it." This means the sin has survived direct, sharp convictions from a sermon, a passage of Scripture, or a painful providence. God has spoken directly against it, yet the heart has held onto it. This demonstrates a willful resistance to God's warnings and is an unspeakably dangerous state. Reflection: Has God sent specific warnings against this sin through sermons, Scripture, or suffering that I have ignored?
7. Embrace the Sin's Full Gravity. You must get a "clear and abiding sense" of the full reality of your sin. Meditate deeply on its guilt (how it is uniquely offensive because it is committed against God's infinite love and grace), its danger (its power to harden your heart, invite God’s temporal correction, and destroy your peace), and its evil (how it grieves the Holy Spirit, wounds the new creature within you, and tramples on the love of Jesus Christ). Do not allow your mind to be diverted by extenuating thoughts. Reflection: Have I truly meditated on how this sin grieves the Spirit, wounds Christ, and destroys my peace?
8. Load Your Conscience Specifically. Charge your conscience with the full weight of the sin's guilt. Owen outlines a two-step method: first, bring your sin before the "holiness, spirituality, [and] fiery severity" of God's Law to be thoroughly convicted of its filth. Second, bring that convicted conscience before the Gospel to see how your sin scorns the love, mercy, and precious blood of Jesus Christ. Let your heart be broken by the reality that you have defiled the very soul that Christ died to wash. Reflection: Have I brought this sin before the holiness of God's Law for conviction, and then before the mercy of His Gospel for brokenness?
9. Cultivate a Vehement Desire for Deliverance. You must foster a "constant longing, breathing after deliverance from the power of it." This is not a passive wish but an active grace that keeps the heart watchful, ready to act, and persistently crying out to God. This longing is the very life of "praying always" and sets faith and hope to work. A soul that is content with its condition, even while troubled by it, will never find freedom. Reflection: Is my desire for freedom a passive wish, or an active, constant groaning of my soul to God?
10. Identify Natural Predispositions. Consider if the "distemper be not rooted in thy nature" and cherished by your physical constitution. This does not excuse the sin, but it does mean that extraordinary diligence is required. Owen recommends that for sins with a strong natural root (e.g., anger, certain appetites), practices like fasting may be a necessary means of "keeping under the body" to weaken the soil in which the sin-weed grows. Reflection: Is this sin fueled by my natural temperament, requiring extraordinary means (like fasting) to weaken its root?
11. Starve the Sin of Opportunity. You must watch against all "occasions" and "advantages" that your sin uses to exert itself. This requires wisdom and vigilance. Identify and resolve to avoid the specific companies, environments, activities, or even studies that act as triggers and provide fuel for your lust. Know that he that dares to dally with occasions of sin will dare to sin. Reflection: What specific situations, relationships, or habits serve as the 'occasion' for this sin, and what is my plan to avoid them?
12. Crush the First Stirrings of Sin. Rise "mightily against the first actings of thy distemper, its first conceptions." Do not reason with it or tell yourself, "Thus far and no farther." Sin is like a leak in a dam; once it breaks out, it cannot be easily bounded. It is far easier to stop its first stirring in your thoughts than to halt its progress once it has engaged your affections and will. Reflection: Do I attack the first sinful thought, or do I entertain it, foolishly believing I can control it later?
13. Practice Self-Abasement Through Awe of God. Diligently fill your mind with "the excellency of the majesty of God and thine infinite, inconceivable distance from him." This practice fosters a profound humility and self-abhorrence that strikes at the very root of pride, which is the root of all sin. Contemplating God's immense, holy, and glorious being will produce a holy fear and awe that renders the soul inhospitable to the thriving of lust. Reflection: How often do I consciously fill my mind with the greatness of God to shrink the power of my own pride and desire?
14. Refuse Self-Prescribed Peace. Beware of the profound danger of speaking peace to your own heart "before God speaks it." Test the peace you feel. Is it accompanied by a deep and growing detestation of the sin itself, or merely relief from its troublesome consequences? Was it arrived at "slightly," through a superficial glance at a promise, or through deep, soul-humbling dealings with God? False peace skins the wound over while the infection corrupts underneath. Reflection: Is the peace I feel after a failure a true gift from God, or have I spoken it to myself 'slightly' to avoid the hard work of repentance?

This checklist provides the strategic framework for the battle, but the supreme strategy that empowers and animates every one of these steps is found in Christ alone.

4. The Supreme Strategy: Activating Faith in Christ for Victory

While the preceding checklist provides the what of mortification—the necessary spiritual disciplines and diagnostics—this final principle provides the divine how. It is the central engine that drives the entire endeavor, transforming it from a frustrating exercise in self-effort into a victorious act of faith. All true victory flows from one source: a living, active faith set upon Jesus Christ for the specific purpose of killing sin. This entire work is carried on by the Holy Spirit, the divine agent who convinces us of sin's evil, reveals Christ's fullness to us, brings the cross into our hearts, and enables the very acts of faith required for victory. It is "through the Spirit" that we are empowered to mortify the deeds of the body.

Owen instructs believers to "set faith at work on Christ for the killing of thy sin" in three primary ways:

• Ponder the Provision in Christ. By faith, you must deliberately fill your soul with the consideration of the "fulness of grace" and the "treasures of strength" that are laid up in Jesus Christ for this very purpose. When you feel utterly weak, unstable, and ready to faint, faith looks away from your own inability to Christ's infinite ability. Meditate on the truth that He is an exalted Prince and Savior, whose purpose is to give repentance and purity to His people. There is enough power in Him not just to help you, but to make you "more than a conqueror."
• Cultivate an Expectation of Relief. Faith does not merely acknowledge that Christ can help; it actively expects that He will help. Based on His compassion as our great High Priest who was tempted as we are, and on His faithfulness to His innumerable promises, we are to raise our hearts to a settled expectation of relief. This is not a passive waiting but an active, hopeful posture that engages both the power of Christ and our own diligence in using the means He has provided.
• Act Faith on the Death of Christ. Owen’s most specific counsel is that mortification flows "peculiarly from the death of Christ." Faith must look intently upon Christ crucified, bringing Him in that bleeding, sin-bearing condition into the heart. It involves applying His shed blood directly to your specific corruption. Virtue for purging and cleansing flows from the cross. By faith, we see our "old man" crucified with Him, and from that union, we draw the sin-killing power that puts our lusts to death day by day.

This constant, faith-driven reliance on Christ is the only path to true and lasting spiritual victory.

5. Conclusion: The Lifelong Path to Peace and Strength

The mortification of sin is not a one-time achievement but the constant, daily duty of every believer who seeks to honor God. It is a battle that will last as long as we are in this world, demanding our utmost diligence and sincerity.

Yet, as John Owen so powerfully reminds us, true victory is not found in rigid self-discipline or hollow asceticism, but in a Spirit-empowered, faith-driven reliance on the person and finished work of Jesus Christ. He alone provides the grace that weakens sin and the strength that enables holiness. The vigor, power, peace, and comfort of our spiritual lives depend on our faithfulness in this ongoing, essential fight. By His grace, we will find that this necessary, daily battle is not a distraction from our spiritual life, but the very path to its deepest peace and most intimate communion with God.