Reformation Heritage IV: John Owen, Pursuing Holiness

The writer of the book of Hebrews tells us that without holiness no one will see the Lord (Hebrews 12:14). The apostle Paul says that the church has been chosen before the foundations of the earth to be holy and blameless in the Son (Ephesians 1:3). Therefore holiness that displays the glory of God in Jesus Christ is the aim of God in the life of His church, and the aim of the church is the pursuit of that holiness in the grace of God. When we look to the reformation of God’s church in history we see God pursuing this aim in His servant John Owen, and His servant pursuing this aim in His and our God.

John Owen was not a magisterial reformer of the 16^th century but an English puritan of the 17^th century. The puritan era lasted from1560 to1660 and Owen was born into the heart of this movement in 1616, the same year Shakespeare died, and died at its end in 1683. J.I.Packer says, “Puritanism was at heart a spiritual movement, passionately concerned with God and godliness. It began in England with William Tyndale the Bible translator, Luther's contemporary, a generation before the word "Puritan" was coined, and it continued till the latter years of the seventeenth century, some decades after "Puritan" had fallen out of use ... Puritanism was essentially a movement for church reform, pastoral renewal and evangelism, and spiritual revival.” (Quest for Godliness). Owen was a puritan theologian, statesman, Oxford leader, pastor, husband and father. He was married to Mary Rooke for 31 years and fathered eleven children all of whom died before he died. Mary died in 1675 and ten of the eleven children she bore died in childhood and one died at 23 years of age. He was a chaplain to Oliver Cromwell, Dean and Vice Chancellor to Christ Church Oxford until Charles II came to power and then he spent 23 years as a fugitive pastor and leader of the independent Congregationalist in England. He wrote extensively beginning with his first work against Arminianism and continued writing many other works until a month before he died in 1683. But his afflictions and accomplishments are not what highlight his life. It is the life of holiness he pursued in the midst of those afflictions and accomplishments.

David Clakson, who spoke at John Owens funeral, said, “A great light is fallen; one of eminency for holiness, learning, parts and abilities; a pastor, a scholar, a divine of the first magnitude; holiness gave a divine lustre to his other accomplishments, it shined in his whole course, and was diffused through his whole conversation.” God’s aim in his life was holiness, and Owens aim in his life in God through Christ and by the Spirit was holiness: “I hope I may own in sincerity that my heart's desire unto God, and the chief design of my life ... are, that mortification and universal holiness may be promoted in my own and in the hearts and ways of others, to the glory of God, that so the Gospel of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ may be adorned in all things.” The aim of holiness for Owen was not his own glory which is pursued through legalism, but a grace filled life that adorns the gospel of God in Jesus Christ. He pursued holiness in communion with God in the Son and by the fellowship of the Spirit. He had not the ability or desire for holiness in himself. Therefore the luster of his life was holiness that came from God in Christ. He says, “To suppose that whatever God requireth of us [holiness] that we have the power of ourselves to do, is to make the cross and grace of Jesus Christ of none effect.” The man who dies to sin in the death of Christ is the man who lives to holiness in the life of Christ. This was the pace and aim that Owen sets for us in the certainty of who Christians are as the redeemed yet indwelt with sin, and who God is for us in Christ toward holiness. He says, “It is our duty to be “perfecting holiness in the fear of God” (2Cor.7:1); to be “growing in grace” everyday (1Pe.2:2; 2Pe.3:18); to be “renewing our inward man day by day” (2Cor.4:16). Now, this cannot be done without the daily mortifying of sin. Sin sets its strength against every act of holiness and against every degree we grow to. Let not the man think he makes any progress in holiness who walks over the belly of his lusts. He who does not kill sin in his way takes no steps toward his journey’s end…sin does so remain, so act and work in the best believers, while they live in this world, that the constant daily mortification of it is all their days incumbent on them.” He did not wait for holiness through grace, he pursued holiness through grace and he exhorts us to the same, “Do you mortify; do you make it your daily work; be always at it while you live; cease not a day from this work; be killing sin or it will be killing you.” We must hear Owen echoing out of the depths of God’s glorious promise to his church, “If you through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body you shall live.”(Romans 8:13).

John Owen lived toward holiness in communion with God by His grace. May God give His church grace for holiness through the Son and by the Spirit, and may His church live in communion with Him through the Son and by the Spirit in pursuit of God’s delights, His own glory in holiness.