Christian Books on Sin and Temptation: 12 Classics That Help
If you want one short, plain book on sin, read D. L. Moody's Sowing and Reaping. It takes about two hours, and it is built on one verse: "whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap." If you are fighting a particular temptation right now, read Henry Drummond's talk "The Man Who Is Down" in Stones Rolled Away. And when you are ready for the deepest book ever written on the subject, go to John Owen.
The old writers were honest about sin. They didn't treat it as a mistake or a weakness. It is rebellion against God, it lives in the heart, and it deceives. But they were just as honest about the remedy. Christ forgives sin fully and freely, and the Spirit gives power to fight what remains. Temptation is not itself sin; Christ was tempted and did not sin. Nobody wins the fight alone. And the believer who falls can come back, because the God he offended is a Father.
There hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to man: but God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the temptation also make a way to escape.
1 Corinthians 10:13
Here are twelve of the best books in TheWay Library on sin and temptation, starting simple and going deeper.
Start here
1. Sowing and Reaping, by D. L. Moody
Moody takes Galatians 6:7 as four laws. A man sows expecting to reap. He reaps the same kind as he sows. He reaps more than he sows. And not knowing what the seed was makes no difference. Every chapter is full of stories from his meetings. The chapter on forgiveness and retribution is the one to read twice: God forgives fully, but some consequences remain.
I believe that God forgives sin fully and freely for Christ's sake; but He allows certain penalties to remain.
Sowing and Reaping, Forgiveness and Retribution
See D. L. Moody's books. Read Sowing and Reaping.
2. The Seven Deadly Sins, by James Stalker
Short, clear chapters on pride, avarice, lust, envy, gluttony, anger and sloth, the old list the church has used for centuries. Stalker starts with pride as the root of the rest and is frank about each sin. He compares knowing these sins to a soldier knowing the ground he fights on.
The essence of sin is selfishness, and pride is the inordinate assertion of self; it would annihilate others, and it disdains to be prescribed to even by God.
The Seven Deadly Sins, Pride
See James Stalker's books. Read The Seven Deadly Sins.
3. Weighed and Wanting, by D. L. Moody
Moody begins with Belshazzar's feast and the writing on the wall, then asks how we would do if God weighed us by His law. He gives a chapter to each of the Ten Commandments, then ends with Christ, who blotted out the handwriting that was against us.
Whatever comes between my soul and my Maker is not a help to me, but a hindrance.
Weighed and Wanting, Second Commandment
When you're in the fight
4. Stones Rolled Away, by Henry Drummond
Addresses to young men at Edinburgh, given by one young man to others. "The Man Who Is Down" is for the reader losing to the same temptation again and again. Drummond tells him that temptation is not sin, and that no one gets the victory alone.
The proof, of course, that temptation is no sin is that Christ was tempted in all points like as we are, yet without sin.
Stones Rolled Away, The Man Who Is Down
Let no man here to-night think or say that he can get victory over sin alone.
Stones Rolled Away, Life on the Top Floor
See Henry Drummond's books. Read Stones Rolled Away.
5. Quiet Talks on Personal Problems, by S. D. Gordon
Gordon's warm talks on the problems of sin, doubt, ambition, self-mastery, pain and guidance. Start with "The Problem of Sin," then "The Problem of Self-Mastery," on the battle inside a man and how God's touch brings control.
The greatest battlefield on which a man ever fought is within himself.
Quiet Talks on Personal Problems, The Problem of Self-Mastery
Read Quiet Talks on Personal Problems.
6. A Spiritual Clinique, by Arthur T. Pierson
Pierson met many people at Keswick who had carried the same spiritual complaint for years, so he examined the commonest cases like a doctor. The first is unsubdued sin. He calls Romans 7 the life story of every born-again believer and points past it to Romans 8, to the law of the Spirit of life, rather than a truce with sin.
The 7th chapter of Romans is a kind of universal biography.
A Spiritual Clinique, Unsubdued Sin
See Arthur T. Pierson's books. Read A Spiritual Clinique.
7. The Holy War, by John Bunyan
Bunyan's other great allegory. The town of Mansoul has five gates, Ear-gate, Eye-gate, Mouth-gate, Nose-gate and Feel-gate. Diabolus talks his way in, Emmanuel besieges the town and wins it back, and then Mansoul grows careless and falls again. It shows better than any textbook how temptation gets in, and how Christ keeps a soul that has been retaken.
Nor must thou think always to live by sense: thou must live upon my word.
The Holy War, A Relation of the Holy War
See John Bunyan's books. Read The Holy War.
When you've fallen
8. The Backslider, by Andrew Fuller
Fuller wrote this out of grief over friends who had fallen. All backsliding, he says, starts with the heart moving away from God, long before it shows. He lists the symptoms, as the priest examined leprosy, shows the danger of sin left on the conscience, and ends with the way back.
All backsliding from God originates in a departure of heart from him: herein consists the essence and the evil of it.
The Backslider, On the General Nature and Different Species of Backsliding
It is against light and love that I have offended.
The Backslider, On the Means of Recovery
Go deeper
9. Indwelling Sin in Believers, by John Owen
Owen on the sin that remains in Christians after conversion. He calls it a law, an inward pull toward evil that lives in the heart. It is enmity against God, and it deceives, drawing the mind away from prayer and tangling the affections. Slow reading, but nothing else searches the heart like it. The scan has some misread letters at chapter openings.
Grace changeth the nature of man, but nothing can change the nature of sin.
Indwelling Sin in Believers, chapter IV
He that pleads with God for sin's remission, pleads also with his own heart for its detestation.
Indwelling Sin in Believers, chapter IX
Read Indwelling Sin in Believers.
10. On Temptation and the Mortification of Sin, by John Owen
Owen's two shorter treatises, on putting sin to death by the Spirit and on entering into temptation. This is the most-recommended book on the subject, and it is already in our guides to the best books on holiness and the best Puritan books. If you only read one Owen, read this one first, then Indwelling Sin. See John Owen's books. Read On Temptation and the Mortification of Sin.
11. Satan: His Personality, Power and Overthrow, by E. M. Bounds
Bounds wrote against an age that had "voted" the devil out of existence. He shows from Scripture that Satan is a real person, how he works on the church by making it worldly, his methods of temptation, and the believer's defense. The scan has some errors.
The devil may tempt us to think too meanly of ourselves as Moses did, and too highly of ourselves as Peter did.
Satan: His Personality, Power and Overthrow, The Devil and His Methods (Continued)
See E. M. Bounds' books. Read Satan.
12. The Mischiefs of Self-Ignorance, by Richard Baxter
Sin hides best where we don't look. Baxter shows what it means to know yourself: your nature, your sin, your state before God and your duties. He lists what self-ignorance does, from false peace to pride. The text has some scanning errors.
He that is a stranger to himself, his sin, his misery, his necessity, &c. is a stranger to God, and to all that might denominate him wise or happy.
The Mischiefs of Self-Ignorance, Introduction
See Richard Baxter's books. Read The Mischiefs of Self-Ignorance.
More to explore
Jonathan Edwards' The Great Christian Doctrine of Original Sin Defended is the classic case for why all people sin, but the scan in the library is heavily damaged. G. Campbell Morgan's The Simple Things of the Christian Life has a good short chapter on Christ's temptation and ours, and F. B. Meyer's Saved and Kept has chapters on controlling the thoughts and meeting temptation. For the positive side, growing in holiness, see our guide to Christian books on sanctification. And for the forgiveness of sin, see Christian books on assurance.
Where to start
- Plain and short: Moody's Sowing and Reaping.
- Losing the same fight: Drummond, then Pierson.
- Drifted from God: Fuller's The Backslider.
- Want to know your heart: Stalker, then Owen.
- Like a story: Bunyan's Holy War.
More books are on the sin and temptation topic page.