One of my former pastors used to refer to this quote occasionally. I always found it helpful, so I finally dug around and found the reference. The kind of convincing Christians need to be engaged in:

1. To convince those in whom sin evidently hath the dominion that such indeed is their state and condition…

2. To satisfy some that sin hath not the dominion over them, notwithstanding its restless acting itself in them and warring against their souls…(Works of John Owen, Volume 7, p. 517).

This is the great chore for anyone who would win the lost and encourage the sanctification of Christians: convincing non-believers that they are under the dominion of sin and convincing Christians that they are free from that dominion.

• Romans 8:9 ¶ You, however, are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if in fact the Spirit of God dwells in you. Anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to him.

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