12 books every Christian should own and read
A series of book reviews used for the monthly church bulletin of 2013
Book no. 6: The Enemy Within by Kris Lundgaard
There are many good books dealing with the issue of sin in the life of the believer. John Owen wrote extensively on this subject, most notably “The Mortification of Sin”. J.C. Ryle, Jerry Bridges, and Joel Beeke have also made valuable contributions. Of them all, “The Enemy Within” by Kris Lundgaard has been one of the most helpful to me.
The preface of the book provides a good introduction:
“’If God has redeemed me from sin, and given me His Holy Spirit to sanctify me and give me the strength against sin why do I go on sinning?’ This Question has plagued me throughout my life of faith. In my lowest moments it has brought despair; it has even darkened the edges of my brightest times.
In the summer of 1996 I stumbled across something helpful that has given me hope. The name John Owen kept popping up over the years, especially when I read J.I Packer’s books. I steered clear of Owen because I knew from forays into his books in seminary that the going would be slow and hard. But when the impotence of my sanctification became glaringly clear to me, every obstacle was overcome, and I picked up my dusty copy of The Nature, Power, Deceit, and Prevalency of the Remainders of Indwelling Sin in Believers.
Over the next few weeks I wrestled my through Owen’s cumbersome syntax and antiquated vocabulary, taking an hour to put eight or ten pages behind me. I was reading every sentence two, three, or four times, looking up every Bible reference, thumbing through my dictionary to find “aversation” and “inadvertency” and underlining 80 percent of what I read. It was for my mind the back-breaking work of digging a mine with a pickaxe. But there was gold to had along the way – not just a handful of dust, but a mother-lode-full of nuggets.
The gold I found was hope, renewed love for Christ, an approach to holiness by faith in Him. Along the way I was sick to my stomach over sin, yet somehow lifted up to the cross for deliverance. Whe I finished Indwelling Sin, I didn’t miss a beat, but drove my pick into The Mortification of Sin. By now the whole way I looked at holiness was changing, and I believed that by God’s grace, looking into the face of Christ to see His glory, I could resist sin to the point of shedding my blood (Heb 12:1-4)
My heart wants to share this hope. Over and over in small groups and conversations I have heard my own anguished question (why do I still sin?) from the lips of friends. I know John Owen’s unfolding of the scriptures is just what we all need to hear. But I know that few will ever trouble themselves to hack through his ponderous prose, no matter how passionately I recommend him. So I decided to bring Owen into the twenty-first century. I kidnapped Owen. By force I took him as my co-author, and together we have written a new Book………..”
The book comes highly recommended by some noteworthy Christian authors and I commend it to all who want the tools to help them deal with indwelling sin. Reading it will not make the struggle any easier, but it will strengthen our hands to take up the fight.