Owen's heart

It's been a while since I've read any Owen, and I'm feeling the lack of weight and substance. Sinclair Ferguson made a comment somewhere that after he's read Owen he wonders why he spends time reading other theologians (or something like that). I can understand that (although I'm not sure I'd give up on the other theologians, but then again I'm sure neither would Ferguson). However, Owen's certainly got his difficulties, not least of which is he's hard to read. But he is rewarding, stimulating, and most importantly, he writes theology (and often very direct polemical theology) as a Christian man. When you read Owen you get the feeling that while his arguments are dense, complicated, and exhaustive (as well as being exhausting), his overarching purpose is to encourage you as a Christian, or to protect you from false teaching. The really important thing is not that you understand everything, but that you believe:

For my part, I had much rather my lot should be found among them who do really believe with the heart unto righteousness, though they are not able to give a tolerable definition of faith unto others, than among them who can endlessly dispute about it with seeming accuracy and skill, but are negligent in the exercise of it as their own duty.

The Doctrine of Justification by Faith – 5:63

Christologia - Chapter 3 (pt 2). The Glory of Christ

In the second half of this chapter, Owen turns to the place of faith in relation to the glory of God in Jesus. Faith, says Owen, is more excellent than any of the other powers of the soul, because it 'receives, assents unto, and rests in, things in their own nature absolutely incomprehensible', that is, the union of man and God in Jesus, and , as we shall see, that death of Jesus for us.

Owen goes so far as to say that:

...the more sublime and glorious - the more inaccessible unto sense and reason - the things are which we believe; the more are we changed into the image of God.

Owen isn't, I don't think, saying that if we believe really crazy things we'll be transformed into the image of God, but rather that things revealed, which are beyond sense and reason (a man rising from the dead, the union of God and man in one person, the substitution of the innocent for the guilty, etc.), when believed, is that which transforms us. The exercise of faith does something to the believer:

Hence we find this most glorious effect of faith, or the transformation of the mind into the likeness of God...

Even those whose 'comprehensive abilities are weak and contemptible' are able to respond to God in faith, and by doing so are transformed into the likeness of Christ. Faith in Christ is for all, regardless of academic standing or cognitive ability.

Some however, observes Owen, disagree, saying that things should only be believed if they 'be obvious and comprehensible unto our reason'. Such an approach arises from our own pride, is an 'invention to debase religion; and is designed to destroy the 'principal' mysteries of the Gospel' - the trinity and the incarnation. You can't help but get the sense that Owen is here saying that you're much better off with 'weak and contemptible' 'comprehensive abilities' if the alternative is to reject faith on the basis of 'reason'.

Yes, says Owen, things should be believed if they are reasonable - particularly in the areas of philosophy, etc. But it is a different matter for 'spiritual and heavenly mysteries'. In these areas only faith is the appropriate instrument of appropriation, and those without faith reject them - the reason people don't believe is because they don't have faith (2 Thes 3:2). By faith, says Owen, we receive these mysteries, and

...where this faith is, the greatness of the mysteries which it embraceth heightens its efficacy, in all its blessed effects, upon the soul.

Faith breeds faith. Faith strengthens faith. Faith grasps the glory of the person of Christ (2 Cor 4:6) as revealed in the gospel, and we behold his glory by faith alone.

And those whose view [of Jesus] is steadfast, who most abound in the contemplation by the exercise of faith, are thereby "changed into the same image, from glory to glory" - or are more and more renewed and transformed into the likeness of God, so represented unto them.

Ultimately, notes Owen, we will have sight (1 John 3:2) - 'faith begins what sight shall perfect hereafter'. But while faith and sight are different means, their object is the same - the glory of God in Christ - the 'will and wisdom of God'. Faith, Owen seems to be saying, is preparation (he speaks of it as an inititation) for sight - it raises and perfects the mind more than any other spiritual exercise.

Owen then appears to change tack very sharply - not a untypical things for him to do - although I think he is developing a tangent which still relates to faith. Christ, notes Owen, is the foundation and grounds of divine wisdom, and therefore is the only place 'wherein alone faith can find rest and peace.' For that is what we long for - rest and peace - Owen ties this rest and peace in with salvation in the words of the Philippian jailer. Only in Christ is there oblation and intercession for sinners, and Christ's death is the death of God himself for us. When we are reminded of our salvation, observes Owen, it is the person of Jesus that we are pointed to - 1 John 2:1-2 'If any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous: and he is the propitiation for our sins'. Owen points us to the fact that is the person of Jesus Christ who has died for us - our faith is faith in him, because he has provided the sacrifice we require.

Owen rounds out the chapter by showing his readers how faith actually does give rest and peace. Starting with the realisation that we are sinners, and by God's work in us, (is this, possibly, the beginning of faith breeding faith?) we realise that we require relief from this sin and its consequences. This relief, says Owen, is proposed in the gospel. But:

When any person comes practically to know how great a thing it is for an apostate sinner to obtain the remission of sins, and an inheritance among them that are sanctified, endless objections through the power of unbelief will arise unto his disquietment.

And it is at this point, says Owen, that faith comes into its own. For faith in Christ, in what he has done, in him as the wisdom and goodness of God in our salvation, is the only thing which can give rest and peace and comfort:

On this consideration of him, faith apprehends Christ to be - as he is indeed - the power of God, and the wisdom of God, unto the salvation of them that do believe; and therein does it find rest with peace.

Owen's work is always hard going, but in the space of four pages, he takes us on a wonderful journey as to the efficacy and aptness of faith in Christ. Faith transforms us into the image of Christ (although I hope Owen will go on to explore more how this is the case). Faith is the right response to revelation; it prepares us for the sight we will have when we are with God in glory, for the object of faith and sight are the same. And faith is the only thing suited to our greatest concern - how might we be saved - how might we find rest and peace before God. For faith fixes our eyes upon Jesus, the wisdom and goodness and power of God for the salvation of all who believe. I hope you saw, too, the way in which Owen moved from theology to pastoral care. His concern is not just to say that Jesus is great, or that faith is important, but to show his readers how these truths affect them in their walk with Christ. Faith in Christ is glorious because it is faith in Christ. Because Christ is glorious, because what he has done for us and for our salvation is glorious.

Maybe we should change the gospel...

In The Genius of Luther's Theology by Kolb and Arand, the authors suggest that we should primarily understand 'gospel' in terms of promise:

'While "good news" provides an etymological translation of euangelion (gospel), it runs the risk of being viewed primarily as information about yesterday's events. Like a newspaper, it deals with past events, in this case, the past events of Jesus's earthly life. But when that happens, faith can be seen as little more than a form of intellectual activity, what the reformers criticized as historical faith. Such faith cannot by itself save since even the devils believe that Jesus died and rose. By itself, the biography of Jesus is not yet gospel. It becomes gospel when it grasps the sinner with the promise that Christ lived, died and rose "for you!" and "for me!" and "for us!"' (p.42).

I am not sure about the idea that the NT is only gospel once it 'grabs' someone - I think in itself it is a promise from God. However, I do think this emphasis on promise is helpful. Later on the authors note that:

'A promise without faith accomplishes nothing, But faith without a promise has nothing to which it can cling. For Luther and Melanchthon, the promise of new life in Christ and faith in that same promise were corollaries. A promise by its very nature seeks a response. [...] At the same time, Luther stressed that trusting the promise is not an accomplishment that we can claim for ourselves. On the contrary, faith is the work and gift of God, who justifies a person by giving faith to that one. To that end the promise of the gospel itself creates and sustains that which it seeks: faith.' (p.45)

I like this idea of relating the gospel and faith as promise and response. It helps tie faith to the gospel, rather than have it as a free-floating virtue. Modern culture loves the idea of 'faith' - one (obscure) example that springs to mind is the Prince of Egypt cartoon that (more or less) faithfully renders the story of Moses and the Exodus. However, the big lesson is that you have to have faith - but faith's object is never proclaimed. However, if we think of faith as response, to say 'you just have to respond' immediately begs the question 'to what?!'

A Reason for Unbelief

Some thoughts from Owen on Peter's confession of faith (Matt16:16) which are apt both for Easter and the state of the church worldwide.

The danger of men's souls lieth not in a disability to attain a comprehension of longer or more subtile confessions of faith [than Peter's], but in embracing things contrary unto, or inconsistent with, this foundation thereof. Whatever it be whereby men cease to hold the Head, how small soever it seem, that alone is pernicious.

Taylor on Reinker on Ferguson on Owen on Saving Faith

Once you trace it all back, Sinclair Ferguson has made a number of comments on Owen's view of saving faith. Read them here.

Even better, read Owen himself here.

Defining Faith

One of the great but difficult things about study is the way in which preconceived ideas get knocked over so easily! Consider one aspect of John Owen’s thinking about faith.

Some scholarly opinion would suggest that Owen, becuase he is what is known as a 'reformed scholastic', would first want to define faith. This is so that he could then break it down into its different parts and examine it, much like engineer taking a machine apart so that he might find out exactly how it works.

Owen, however, takes the opposite position, preferring descriptions over definitions:

…receiving on Christ, leaning on him, rolling ourselves or our burden on him, tasting how gracious the Lord is, and the like, […] convey a better understanding of the nature, work, and object of justifying faith, […] than the most accurate definitions that many pretend unto; some whereof are destructive and exclusive of them all. (John Owen, The Doctrine of Justification by Faith, 107).

He said this in a sermon which he preached on Romans 4:20:

And whereas the general way, in treating of faith, is, for the most part, to use strictness of expression, that so it may be delivered in a philosophical exactness; the constant way of the Holy Ghost is, by metaphorical expressions, accommodations of it to things of sense and daily usage in the meanest, to give a relish and perception of it to all that are interested in it. (John Owen, Sermon: The Strength of Faith, 20-21)

Owen wants to first define faith for, I think, two reasons. First, Owen recognises that in the Bible the Holy Spirit has chosen to give us ‘metaphorical expressions’ of things rather than exact definitions. Owen doesn’t want to, in his words, ‘…embrace such senses of things [faith] as are inconsistent with them [the metaphorical expressions], and opposite unto them.’ Owen’s primary concern is to be faithful to the biblical articulation of faith.

Second, Owen first defines faith because at its heart faith is active. To draw a somewhat arbitrary distinction, what faith does is of more significance than what faith is. Because faith is what the believer does towards God, and is therefore experiential, it is better described than defined. This is because, at its very core, faith is relational. Faith for Owen is always in the person of God, specifically in the person of Christ, ‘the first and principal object of faith’.

Here is a great lesson for us who are of a more conservative evangelical bent, especially those who are involved in the academic study of theology. While we rightly want to understand our faith and to be able to describe how it works, Owen reminds us that this is of secondary importance. The wonder of faith is not what it is, but what it does - it unites us to Christ, draws us into Communion with God, and brings to us all the blessings of God in Christ.