Growing in Christ
John Owen
Why you need the Holy Spirit
06 months ago
In doing a little research today, I ran across a section I’d marked in On Communion with God from a previous read that I thought I’d share. I tend to like lists, especially pithy ones that pack a lot of weight into a small amount of space. What I appreciate about what Dr. Owen says bellow is that he hits home on the mundain needs of the Spirit in daily life. We never drift towards godliness, and thus never drift towards a reliance on the Spirit. Thus, daily, I’m either content in Christ or complaining, hardened against sin or wooed by it, puffed up by performance or humbled by grace, taken in by the love of money and our sex-saturated culture, or fretting about the world around me. Without the Spirit, none of those distinctions have hope in them, but with the “consolations” or help of the Spirit there is the power of Christ to walk in wisdom and holiness.
In a word, in all the concernments of this life, and in our whole expectation of another, we stand in need of the consolations of the Holy Ghost.
- Without them, we shall either despise afflictions or faint under them, and God be neglected as to his intendments in them.
- Without them, sin will either harden us to a contempt of it, or cast us down to a neglect of the remedies graciously provided against it.
- Without them, duties will either puff us up with pride, or leave us without that sweetness which is in new obedience.
- Without them, prosperity will make us carnal, sensual, and to take up our contentment in these things, and utterly weaken us for the trials of adversity.
- Without them, the comforts of our relations will separate us from God, and the loss of them make our hearts as Nabal’s.
- Without them, the calamity of the church will overwhelm us, and the prosperity of the church will not concern us.
- Without them, we shall have wisdom for no work, peace in no condition, strength for no duty, success in no trial, joy in no state, — no comfort in life, no light in death.
~John Owen, On Communion with God, Works II: 261.
Other editions:
Puritan Paperback Series: On Communion with God by John Owen (with abridgments and edits to be easier to read)
Communion with the Triune God by John Owen, edited by Justin Taylor and Kelly M. Kapic
Notes on John Owen’s “Indwelling Sin”
31 year ago
We’re in the heat of moving into our new house, so time for posting gospel thoughts has been a little lean lately. That said, I have been able to finish compiling my underlinings, notes, and thoughts from John Owen’s Indwelling Sin in Believers. So to that effect, let me give a little note here about the book and my notes.
Owen’s works are obviously hefty and dense, but oh so rich and full of help for me. Owen has had an indelible impact upon my soul, in how I understand myself, and more importantly, how I enjoy Jesus Christ. It is for this reason that I named my first son in honor of him. His work on Indwelling Sin has been massively helpful in how I understand how sin “works” in my soul; how it deceives, how it feigns and fights, how it manifests and sneaks. But more importantly, at brilliant moments when Owen is expositing the nature of sin, he ascends into displaying the glory of God’s grace to help poor and weak sinners like us.
Here’s one of the most insightful quotes from Owen’s Indwelling Sin that I found super helpful:
Fill your affections with the cross of Christ, that there may be no room for sin. The world once put him out of the house into a stable, when he came to save us; let him now turn the world out of doors, when he is come to sanctify us. (VI:251)
A note on my file
The structure and outline of these notes comes directly from Overcoming Sin and Temptation edited by Kelly M. Kapic and Justin Taylor. The quotations largely come from The Works of John Owen: Volume VI, and are cited from that edition. My personal comments will appear at the beginning of each quote in italics. Otherwise, all bulleted marks under the outline are quotations of John Owen.
So with no more ado, here is the file of my notes and quotes. All you need to do is right click and save. Enjoy!
Picture of Owen’s Works care of Tony Reinke.
No bare life in Christ
01 year ago
I’m warning you, if you keep reading, you’ll be filled with the joy of Christ, but it won’t be easy.
With that said, I wanted to share one of those glorious gems I’ve come across in reading John Owen.
Neither does this living head communicate only a bare life unto believers, that they should merely live and no more, a poor, weak, dying life, as it were; but he gives out sufficiently to afford them a strong, vigorous, thriving, flourishing life (John 10:10). He comes not only that his sheep “may have life,” but that “they may have it more abundantly,” that is, in a plentiful manner, so as that they may flourish, be fat and fruitful. Thus is it with the whole body of Christ, and every member thereof, whereby it “[is] to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ, from whom the whole body, joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped, when each part is working properly, makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love” (Eph. 4:15-16 – changed to ESV). The end of all communications of grace and supplies of life from this living and blessed head [Jesus Christ] is the increase of the whole body and every member of it, and the edifying of itself in love. His treasures of grace are unsearchable; his stores inexhaustible; his life, the fountain of ours, full and eternal; his heart bounteous and large; his hand open and liberal: so that there is no doubt but that he communicates supplies of grace for their increase in holiness abundantly unto all his saints.
Wow, ok, take a knee. We need a breather. Dr. Owen is saying that Christ did not save us to be dull Christians, who plod along. Jesus did not save us to have a “bare life”, but a life full of joy in him. I don’t know about you, but this is a continual struggle for me. I don’t experience the joy of Christ very much. I’m probably not what you would call a regularly happy Christian.
However, it is not through introspection that this spiritual demeanor changes. Change comes actually through seeing this grand reality that Owen holds forth. Growth comes through love; love for Christ and what he offers that makes us happy – Himself. Being united with Christ through faith means that we enter into enjoying the joy and love of God. Christ has paid what our sins deserve, that we might receive what he deserved: unending, ever increasing joy in God. And it is through Christ himself that we receive this life that is more than bare life. It is a life with God. It is a life of joy.
But yet, maybe you’re asking with me, “Yes, I know this is true, and have tasted it from time to time, but why do I feel that my faith is stale and weak, and that my joy in Christ is minimal at best?” Owen, in being a thoughtful pastor, got on to help us at this point.
Oftentimes Christ gives very much grace where not many of its effects do appear. It spends its strength and power in withstanding the continual assaultsof violent corruptions and lusts, so that it cannot put forth its proper virtue toward further fruitfulness…It is forced oftentimes to put forth its virtue to oppose and contend against, and in any measure subdue, prevailing lusts and corruptions. That the soul receives not that strengthening unto duties and fruitfulness which otherwise it might receive by it isfrom hence. How sound, healthy, and flourishing, how fruitful and exemplary in holiness, might many a soul be by and with that grace which is continually communicated to it from Christ, which now, by reason of the power ofindwelling sin, is not only dead, but weak, withering, and useless!
Owen’s point is this. Often, the people of Christ bemoan their own weakness, minimal growth in grace, and lack of joy in Christ, all the while Christ is at work! They forget to see that the grace that would be working fruitfulness in their lives is actually working to prevent them from growing worse in sin. Owen gasps with us at how healthy many Christian souls would be, how happy they would be in Christ, if the grace they would be enjoying weren’t attacking their primary enemy: sin!
This Christ that we love is so full of grace towards us that he is working in us even in (especially in) those moments when we least feel it. Christ is killing and holding back our sinful nature that he has conquered, even when we don’t think to ask him to do it. (And then I go and moan to God about not feeling his presence… all the while he’s preventing me from becoming a worse wretch than I would naturally be.)
When we see the “life abundantly” that God has for us in Christ, the moments of weakness are filled with the confidence that Jesus is with us, even when we don’t know the joy of his presence, so that we can find even more joy and happiness in him. He is our fountain of life.
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My quotes come from Overcoming Sin and Temptation by John Owen, edited by Kelly Kepic and Justin Taylor. You can pick it up at Westminster Books for a bare $13.67. I highly recommend it! It will have a profound impact on your walk with Christ and your joy in the Holy Spirit.
The stable and the cross of Christ
01 year ago
When someone sets his affections upon the cross and the love of Christ, he crucifies the world as a dead and undesirable thing. The baits of sin lose their attraction and disappear. Fill your affections with the cross of Christ, that there may be no room for sin. The world once put him out of the house into a stable, when he came to save us; let him now turn the world out of doors, when he is come into sanctify us.
~ John Owen
Credits
This quote is from Works VI:251
Or in a helpfully edited edition from Crossway, Overcoming Sin and Temptation, p. 332.
The Name: Owen Scott
31 year ago
Naming your children seems to be somewhat of an undefined art. Names come from all sorts of places (I once knew a girl whose mom named her after a soap opera character). Our son is no different. We’ve had names picked out for a while, so I wanted to share where we got Owen Scott from.
Owen
Apparently, Owen is a rather popular first name these days. I had no idea, but I can understand since I guess there’s some pop-culture guys these days with Owen for a first name making a good face for it’s use. For us, the name has nothing to do with actors or musicians. We get Owen’s name from a dead guy.
While in college, I started a 
friendship with a man named John Owen. He’s long since left the land of the living to be with his Lord Christ, but his influence and guidance upon my life has continued to be incalculable. In his writings, I began to see the glory of Christ portrayed in the Bible in such deeply compelling and beautiful ways that I’d never imagined before. He opened up for me the delight and beauty of Paul’s statement, “For God, who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,” has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ” (2 Cor. 4:6) in profoundly life changing ways. John Owen’s grasp of the human heart and how sin corrupts us so deeply while upholding the work and call of grace from Jesus Christ changed my entire understanding of the Christian life.
So we picked the name “Owen” in honor of John Owen, the Puritan. But there was another helper along the way.
Just a few weeks after Michelle and I got married, her Grandad passed away. He’d lived in London most of his life (her mum’s family is from the U.K.), but had originated from Wales. One day when Michelle was telling her Granny what we were going to name Owen, she told us that Grandad would love the name because it’s very Welsh. Come to find out, “wen” (or “wyn”) is distinctive to Wales. Granddad was the type of godly Christian man that I want to be like. He passionately loved his family and his Lord, while living a quiet life that honored Jesus. This, of course, made us even more excited about the name Owen because not only did we love it, but it honored Michelle’s Granddad.
Scott
Scott is a little less involved, and a little more… standard. My middle name is Scott, my Dad’s middle name is Scott, and part of my Grandmother’s name is Scott. My Grandmother got the name from her mother’s sister’s married name. My grandmother’s aunt was “very proud all her life to have been married to John F. Scott, the wealthiest man in Love County, Oklahoma, and one that was a good neighbor to his fellow citizens,” says my Grandmother. “They were both known for their good works in the community, she as a health provider for pregnant mothers and accident victims as well as sick livestock, and he as an emergency source for some work or a little money to get you out of a jam. He once let an outlaw from a prominent family in the area hide out in the tangles of trees and brush down in the Red River bottoms until he was eventually found or he left.”
Young
This, of course, goes without explanation. Young is synonymous with awesome, and everything that goes with that (Burnett being incorporated here, of course). He is a Young, and the second most beautiful Young I know – Michelle being the first.
So there you have it. Owen (Puritan/Welsh) Scott (Good’ol Oklahoman) Young (pure awesome). Our beautiful boy!
The Duty of the Mind
01 year ago
I’ve been thinking a lot recently about Christian duty and obedience, and how to think of this in terms of killing my indwelling sin. So in my reading, I came across this section in John Owen’s work on indwelling sin this morning that I found particularly helpful:
There are two things which belong unto the duty of the mind in that special office which it has in and about the obedience which God requires:
(1) To keep itself and the whole soul in such a frame and posture as may renderit ready unto all duties of obedience, and watchful against all enticements unto the conception of sin;
(2) In particular, carefully to attend unto all particular actions, that they be performed as God requires, for matter, manner,time and season, agreeably unto his will; as also for the obviating [of] all particular tenders of sin in things forbidden.
In these two things consists the whole duty of the mind of a believer; and from both of them does indwelling sin endeavor to divert it and draw it off.
Of course, Owen’s language is a tad stilted at times (obviation means “render unnecessary”), but his point is helpful. The whole duty of the mind is discipline and defense, readiness and action in obeying God.
Personally, I find the whole issue of keeping my mind set on the things of God rather hard, so to even think in terms of a constant readiness of my mind to evaluate things in terms of God is difficult to imagine. But on the other hand, I’ve trained my mind pretty well to be satisfied with me and my desires and “commands” from birth. I’m render obedience pretty easily to Jacob’s Universe and Law – I kinda like what he’s got going and what he has in mind.
The hope to change into practicing what Owen lays out here is within us, it’s in the Spirit’s power through the Bible. God tells us:
Do not be conformed to this world (i.e. Jacob’s Universe and Law), but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect. (Romans 12:2)
It is through the power of God’s word that we are transformed to have a mind ready to action, constantly defending the soul from temptations assaults and allurements. We look at God’s mind, his ways, his wisdom, and see our own foolishness. But in this vision, we see a God who is eager to give wisdom and change our minds to love his law. He gives wisdom to those who bank on who God tells us he is (gracious, kind, good, loving, etc.) and ask him on the basis of that reality for more grace, more wisdom, more love. It’s a continual, every progressing, day after day, frustration after frustration, break-through after break-through type of transformation.
The picture of changing into the type of person that Owen holds out – the type who’s eager with his mind to discern the ways of the Lord so that his soul may enjoy God – is done through continually looking at the work and person of Jesus Christ. That’s the whole purpose of the Scriptures. Again, God tells us:
And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit. (1 Corinthians 3:18)
May God make it so in me, in you. May God send his Spirit upon my mind to make me a man who loves the duty of loving God’s law, loves obedience so much to defend my soul with my mind as God made me to do.
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If you’re interested in reading more of Owen, you can get this work in a great edition from Crossway, edited Kelly M. Kapic and Justin Taylor, entitled Overcoming Sin and Temptation. You can see a preview of this volume and the page this was taken from at google books here. If you’re a purist, you can read the original from Owen in Volume 6 of his Works without edits. Happy reading!
Six Reasons to Kill Indwelling Sin
02 years ago
From chapter 2 of John Owen’s The Mortification of Sin, he talks about six reasons why Christians should diligently seek to kill their indwelling sin:
- Indwelling sin always abides while we are in this world; therefore it is always to be mortified.
- Sin does not only abide in us, but is still acting, still laboring to bring forth the deeds of the flesh.
- Sin will not only be striving, acting, rebelling, troubling, disquieting, but if let along, if not continually mortified, it will bring forth great, cursed, scandalous, soul-destroying sins.
- This is one main reasons why the Spirit and the new nature is given to us – that we may have a principle within whereby we may oppose sin.
- Negligence in this duty casts the soul into a perfectly opposite condition to that which the apostle affirms was his – 2 Corinthians 4:16, “Though our outward man perish, yet the inward man is renewed day by day.”
- It is our duty to be “perfecting holiness in the fear of God” (2 Cor. 7:1); to be “growing in grace” every day (1 Peter 2:2, 2 Peter 3:18); to be “renewing out inward man day by day” (2 Cor. 4:16).
A few memorable quotes:
Let not that man think he makes any progress in holiness who walks not over the bellies of his lusts. He who doth not kill sin in this way takes no steps towards his journey’s end. He who finds not opposition from it, and who sets not himself in every particular to its mortification, is at peace with it, not dying to it. (6:14)
Be killing sin or it will be killing you. (6:9)
(I know I should have a Sunday Gurnall in here, but that will wait until tomorrow. This comes from some Owen I’m rereading in the mornings to focus my mind on mortifying the sin in my heart – which is multifarious!)
Jesus Christ: The Definition of “God is Love”
03 years ago
In reading through Meditations on the Glory of Christ by John Owen the other day I came across a section that helped shed light on this question I’ve wrestled with lately: “How do we determine why people are not Christians who claim to believe in Jesus Christ?” In chapter two, Owen is discussing the glory of Christ as the representative of God. He gets into saying that we behold the glory of Christ in this way: that he is the declaration and evidence that God is love, and thereby he is pre-eminent above all things. That is, Jesus Christ is himself the means by which God declares and defines his love, and all other means of declaring and defining his love are subordinate to how he does in Jesus Christ. Therefore Owen says:
Herein we may see how excellent, how beautiful, how glorious and desirable he is, seeing in him alone we have a due representation of God as he is love; which is the most joyful sight of God that any creature can obtain. He who beholds not the glory of Christ herein is utterly ignorant of those heavenly mysteries; — he knoweth neither God nor Christ, — he has neither the Father nor the Son. He knows not God, because he knows not the holy properties of his nature in the principal way designed by infinite wisdom for their manifestation; he knows not Christ, because he sees not the glory of God in him. Wherefore, whatever notions men may have from the light of nature, or from the works of Providence, that there is love in God, — however they may adorn them in elegant, affecting expressions, — yet from them no man can know that “God is love.” In the revelation hereof Christ has the pre-eminence; nor can any man comprehend anything of it aright but in him. It is that which the whole light of the creation cannot discover; for it is the spring and centre of the mystery of godliness. ~ John Owen, Works 1:301-302
What Owen is emphasizing here is that those who do not see Jesus Christ in his propitiation of God’s eternal wrath for sinners as the definition and declaration of what “God is love” means do not know God or know the true Jesus Christ. This was a chasm being alight for me. We do not hold some Christianity ID card and from that stance discuss different perspectives on how to understand the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. We start with a true understanding of what the death of Jesus Christ did and accomplished, and from that stance are Christians, people who know the true God.
In a day when people claim that the penal substitutionary death of Christ isn’t the main way we should understand the work of Christ, or that people really aren’t bad enough to deserve eternal wrath from God, Owen steps in to help. The means by which God displayed himself in the work of Jesus Christ is how God defines his love. A love that freely comes in grace to take on the punishment deserved by his enemies that he might make them his friends by, and for, his love.
Thus, the answer to my question above is that we determine if people (or ourselves) are Christians by discussing with them what they see in the death of Christ. Do they see the awesome glory of God in the real manifestation of his wrath for sinners being poured out on an innocent, voluntary substitute and respond with humility, praise, and love? Or do they see merely an example of love? Or the oppression of government? Or a transaction with Satan? Or the price of revolution? What we say about the cross of Jesus Christ is what we say about God himself.
Scripture’s Suit
0“And whereas that truth, which originally is one in him, is of various sorts and kinds, according to the variety of the things which it respects in its communication unto us, the ways and means of that communication are suited unto the distinct nature of each truth in particular.”
John Owen, Works III:5-6
The Effects of a Depraved Mind in Believers
03 years ago
Bellow is a selection from Owen’s work on the Holy Spirit where he’s discussing the “futility” or vanity of the depraved mind (Ephesians 4:17) and how this persists in believers after they have experienced the regenerating work of the Holy Spirit.
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And there are three effects of this natural vanity of the mind in its depraved condition to be found among believers themselves:—
- An instability in holy duties, as meditation, prayer, and hearing of the word. How ready is the mind to wander in them, and to give entertainment unto vain and fond imaginations, at least unto thoughts and apprehensions of things unsuited to the duties wherein we are engaged! How difficult is it to keep it up unto an even, fixed, stable frame of acting spiritually in spiritual things! How is it ready at every breath to unbend and let down its intension! All we experience or complain of in this kind is from the uncured relics of this vanity.
- This is that which inclines and leads men towards a conformity with and unto a vain world, in its customs, habits, and ordinary converse; which are all vain and foolish… Professors, it may be, will not comply with the world in the things before mentioned, that have no other use nor end but merely to support, act, and nourish vanity; but from other things, which, being indifferent in themselves, are yet filled with vanity in their use, how ready are many for a compliance with the course of the world, which lieth in evil and passeth away!
- It acts itself in fond and foolish imaginations, whereby it secretly makes provision for the flesh and the lusts thereof; for they all generally lead unto self-exaltation and satisfaction.
And these, if not carefully checked, will proceed to such an excess as greatly to taint the whole soul. And in these things lie the principal cause and occasion of all other sins and miscarriages. We have, therefore, no more important duty incumbent on us than mightily to oppose this radical distemper. It is so, also, to attend diligently unto the remedy of it; and this consists,
- In a holy fixedness of mind, and an habitual inclination unto things spiritual; which is communicated unto us by the Holy Ghost, as shall be afterward declared, Eph. iv. 23, 24.
- In the due and constant improvement of that gracious principle, —[1.] By constant watchfulness against the mind’s acting itself in vain, foolish, unprofitable imaginations, so far at least [as] that vain thoughts may not lodge in us; [2.] By exercising it continually unto holy spiritual meditations, “minding always the things that are above,” Col. iii. 2; [3.] By a constant, conscientious humbling of our souls, for all the vain actings of our minds that we do observe; — all which might be usefully enlarged on, but that we must return.
(Works of John Owen, III: 254-55 – My formatting)
