Here is that Owen essay we've all been waiting for...

Review Essay on John Owen’s Christologia: The Glorious Mystery of the Person of Christ in Works I


Introduction

John Owen’s Christologia was published in 1679 and stemmed from his perception that England was descending into Arianism, “events ensued which justified these apprehensions of Owen.”[1] Arianism was a heresy from the early Church, but in Owen’s day these heresies were: “lifting up themselves again, though under new vizards and pretences.”[2] Owen wanted to tackle these heresies by enthroning “Christ anew on the hearts and consciences of men.”[3] To my mind this is what he has done in Christologia and I will begin by summarising the book and explaining how his structure meets this aim of enthroning Christ.[4] We will go on to discuss the theological and pastoral issues associated with the main point in the book which will take up the majority of this work.

Summary of Christologia

The book’s twenty chapters divide into seven main sections: 1. Jesus is divine: the truth on which the church stands and against which hell rages (chapters 1 and 2). 2. Jesus is divine: in him we behold all that God has decreed, is, and requires of us (chapters 3 to 6). 3. Jesus is divine: as divine prophet, king and priest he can be the saviour of the Church (chapters 7 and 8). 4. Jesus is divine: the respect we have to him is the respect we have to God - namely to honour, obey, and conform to him, and to receive from him all gospel privileges (chapters 9 to 15). 5. Jesus is divine: the wisdom of God is manifested in the divine Jesus’ redemption of the world (chapters 16 to 17). 6. Jesus is divine: the union of his divine and human natures (chapter 18). 7. Jesus is divine: he is worshipped as God in heaven, and lives there for our salvation (chapters 19 and 20). This is the structure we will use to grasp a summary of the book.

Firstly then[5] Owen teaches us that Peter’s confession of the Christ in Matthew 16:16 “compriseth eminently the whole truth concerning the person and office of Christ.”[6] This confession is that Jesus “was the Son of Man…yet he was not only so, but [also] the eternal Son of the living God.”[7] Owen is quick to point out, as Christ does in Matthew 16:18b, that the “power and policy of hell will be always engaged in opposition unto the relation of the church unto this foundation [viz. Peter’s confession].”[8]

Owen proceeds in the second chapter to outline the ways in which the Devil attacks the church built on Peter’s confession. The Devil does so by two agents: 1. “The unbelieving world”[9]; 2. “heretics.”[10] Under heresies of the Christian faith Owen lists Gnosticism, Socinianism, Nestorianism, and Mohammedianism (Islam). All of which, either implicitly or explicitly, deny the deity of Jesus Christ the man.

But such heresies as those in the Devil’s second agent, which deny the divine and human natures of Christ, can come in many more subtle forms such as an individual growing “weary of any concernment [in Christ’s divine person, and holding to] a natural religion, or non at all.”[11] Or can come as one professes Christ outwardly who yet neglects gospel duties, Owen wishes: “that such persons would publicly renounce the profession of [Jesus’] name, rather than practically manifest their inward disregard of him.”[12] All this means that the truths which Owen expounds in Christologia are not only to be grasped and defended by theologians but also private believers who were not “unable from this duty or exempt from it.”[13]

In the second section[14] Owen explains that Christ is to be the centre of our worship as, “of all the effects of the divine excellencies, the constitution of the person of Christ...was the most ineffable and glorious.”[15] One of the reasons for this is because everything which God was going to do “concerning his own eternal glory, in the sanctification and salvation of the church here below [was] all to be effected in Christ.”[16] This does not mean Jesus was the cause of God’s eternal decrees but was “the only foundation of the execution of all the counsels of God concerning our sanctification and salvation.”[17] However Jesus was not only God’s instrument for our salvation but for our creation also: “God the Father did nothing in the first creation but by him.”[18] This means Jesus is both creator and redeemer, it would be denying our maker to not defend Christ’s divinity.

Owen’s second argument in this section for Christ’s divinity stems from the proposition that our end in religion is to know God, this of course: “is done perfectly only in the person of Christ, all other means of it being subordinate thereunto.”[19] One example Owen uses to support this claim is that the Pharisees did not know God,[20] but the disciples did, because the disciples knew Christ.[21] Owen concludes three things are necessary for this assertion: Firstly, the Father and the Son must have the same nature. Secondly, the Father and the Son must be distinct. Thirdly, the Son needs to be incarnate. Just as in his Oxford days, people have rejected these truths in various forms throughout history, making idols to represent who they thought God was. This happened with the Pharisees, and with the first humans: “by common consent they framed representations of God unto themselves.”[22] Owen’s argument for Jesus’ divinity has always met with hostility.

Owen concludes this section in chapter 6 by claiming that divine truth is either found in God himself, or the counsel of his will, and that the only way to grasp either of these is to look to Christ who is “the essential image of the Father … [and] the sacred repository and treasury [of God’s counsels] … hence it is, that those who reject the divine person of Christ … do constantly reject or corrupt all other spiritual truths of divine revelation.”[23] Not only is Owen defending Christ’s divinity he is also making the case that we lose all other truth if we lose this one.

In the third section[24] of Christologia the argument for Christ’s divine nature rests on his saving of the church as her prophet, priest and king. Owen masterfully argues that a prophet, priest or king in the Old Testament, even Moses, could not be the saviour of the church because this role did not rest on whether one has these titles or not but: “on the person of him who was given unto us.”[25] Christ must be divine in his role as prophet as he is a prophet to every nation through every age, not just the nation of Israel in 30 A.D. And he must be able comprehend the mind of God fully that he might declare God’s will to us fully. Furthermore, he must have the fullness of God by the Spirit dwelling in him so that he could enlighten our eyes. Christ also must be divine for his role as king as Jesus is king “in heaven and on earth.”[26] But Jesus is also king over each believer internally such that he has to know them on the inside, and must be able to direct their hearts. Christ’s divinity is also vital in his priestly office, in that it was “God [who] was to purchase his church ‘with his own blood,’ Acts 20:28.”[27] In chapter 8 Owen points out (to show that things were going the same way in his day) that although Israel had expected Christ to come, “this faith, which wrought effectually in the Church of Israel, degenerated into a lifeless opinion, that proved the ruin of it.”[28]

Section four[29] is the biggest section of Christologia[30] and concerns the respect each believer has towards Christ, Owen is constantly at pains to show us it is the same respect we have towards God. The first respect we have towards Christ is to honour him. This honour is not diminished at Jesus’ incarnation and is the same as that ascribed to the Father: “to honour the Son as we ought to honour the Father, is that which makes us Christians, and which nothing else will so do.”[31] The beginning of all this honour is faith in Jesus, which is faith in his person as he shares the divine nature of the Trinity. The second respect we have towards Christ is obedience of which love is: “the especial principle.”[32] We are called to love Christ as the Bible presents him to us, and as we love Christ we will find the image of God form in our lives because: “the Father loves, and cannot but love, his own nature and essential image in [Jesus]”[33] – as we love Jesus we will be doing what God does, loving God.

The third respect we have to Christ is our conformity unto him “which is required of us.”[34] This is achieved as we behold his glory and are made like him, we do this by modeling his internal holiness which he has by nature, and by modeling his acquired holiness which he has by obedience to his Father (manifested in his love for us and readiness for the cross). Being like Christ is what was required of Israel in respect to God.[35] The forth and final respect we have to Christ is to receive the gospel benefits he has achieved for us, and which we work for in this life by faith and obedience – this may not sound like an argument for Christ’s divinity but Owen next moves on to show how all Christ has achieved for us is only possible because he shares in the divine nature.

Section five[36] of Christologia deals with the manifestation of God’s wisdom in sending the divine Christ to save us. In order that we might truly grasp this wisdom Owen believes we must understand the sin which God has saved us from. Owen also explains here that it is conducive to God’s nature to save a people out of the fallen race because of his “love, grace and mercy.”[37] In our rescue there were three things required; firstly, there needed to be obedience offered to God which brought him more honour than the dishonor which the fall brought him, secondly, there needed to be the infliction of punishment, and thirdly a rescuing of people from under Satan’s rule. All three of these are fulfilled by Christ’s divinity who, according to that nature, was obedient and could pay for the sins of many as he did not need to pay for his own, whose blood was infinitely valuable, and who (being divine) has brought us back under God’s rule by bringing us under his own.[38]

Owen ends this section in chapter 17 by explaining how God’s wisdom is manifested in each step of the work of redemption through Christ. Contemplation on these things will leave Christians with a stronger faith, with a soul made like Christ’s as we behold him in this work, with our minds taken off of earthly things, and will prepare us for glory - which is in itself the contemplation of the wisdom of God in the salvation of the church.[39]

The penultimate section[40] of the book is a chapter of which Owen “only mentioned, because they are commonly handled by others in their didactical and polemical discourses concerning the person of Christ.”[41] These discourses are concerning the hypostatic union in the person Jesus Christ, and this chapter presents an argument for Christ having both a human and divine nature, yet existing as one person.

Owen’s final section[42] begins by a consideration of the glory of Christ as distinct from that of glorified saints. Owen is not here arguing for Christ’s glory as his deity, rather he reads Christ’s “glory” in John 17:24 as “not the essential glory of his divine person…which is absolutely the same with that of the Father; but…a glory that is peculiarly his own.”[43] Owen secondly explains how Christ’s ascension to heaven was his enthronement as king and ascension to the temple as high priest – both roles he enacts now in heaven.

After Owen has established Jesus as high priest, he next endeavors to explain how this affects the church militant. It does so by enabling us to join the praise of heaven, shielding us from God’s wrath, defending us from Satan’s accusations, attaining all the covenant blessings.[44] Furthermore, Jesus as high priest makes our worship of God perfect despite our indwelling sin, and weakness and unworthiness.[45] And all that Christ is doing for the church on earth, he is doing with a “sovereign authority and almighty power in himself to execute and accomplish.”[46] When this work for the church is accomplished Christ will deliver “the kingdom to God the Father after destroying every rule and authority and power.”[47] But Owen is adamant, even when this happens in heaven, one thing will stay the same: “The person of Christ, and therein his human nature, shall be the eternal object of divine glory, praise, and worship.”[48]

The Main Point

The main point of this work has been evident throughout our summary, and is clear in the full title of Owen’s book: “The Person of Christ – God and Man.”[49] This work was published just four years before Owen’s death and it has been said that “Owen’s mind during the last few years of life were [sic.] much taken up with meditation upon the Person of Christ, and of heaven.”[50] That is precisely what we find in Christologia and will form the kernel of this essay as we discuss theological and pastoral issues associated with this theme.

Theological and Pastoral Issues

We will explore the theological and pastoral issues in Christologia by taking each section at a time. As we look at the seven sections we will discuss how the theology Owen raises in that section is dependant upon the main point of the book, and discuss the pastoral issues which they promote in turn.

In section one Owen has to prove that when Jesus says: “And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church”[51] he means by “this rock” the faith of Peter and the confession he makes in verse 16 about Jesus’ divine and human natures.[52] Establishing this would mean “it is…the person of Christ whom Peter confessed, that is the rock on which the church is built.”[53] If Owen fails to show this is true Christologia could not exist in the form it does, because the person of Christ (God and man) would not be integral to the existence of the Church.

However, Owen proves it is true by four arguments. Firstly, he argues that if Christ had intended the person of Peter to be the one on whom the church was built he could have said it far simpler using these words: “Thou art a rock, and on thee will I build.”[54] Secondly, if Peter was the foundation, when he died the church would collapse for: “no building can possibly abide when its foundation is removed and taken away.”[55] With this he argues against the Catholic doctrine of the apostolic succession pointing out that “the church cannot be consummated or perfected, unless it rest in and on him who lives forever,”[56] whereas the Catholics are seeking to rest the church on mortal men. Thirdly, the Scriptures are universally clear that the Church has only one rock, that of Jesus Christ.[57] And finally Owen shows that the context in Matthew 16 argues that Jesus will suffer and die to be the foundation of the Church,[58] a claim which intriguingly Peter refutes.[59]

The pastoral implications of Owen showing that the human and divine Christ is the foundation of the existence of the Church enable the Church to survive the ensuing persecution towards this truth. The gates of hell will use any means they can to attack this foundation from other religions right the way down to the wayward thoughts of the professing member of the church congregation. Hence this truth about the person of Christ[60] must be proclaimed and defended in our evangelism, from the pulpit, and in our pastoral conversations. The assurance is of course that “the gates of hell shall not prevail.”[61]

In section two Owen has to prove that Jesus existing as both God and man “is that singular expression of divine wisdom, goodness, and power, wherein God will be admired unto all eternity.”[62] A truth which although “the Scripture doth sometimes draw a veil over,”[63] yet is there in it a cause to marvel at God: “That the mighty God should be a child born, and the everlasting Father a Son given unto us, may well entitle him unto the name of Wonderful.”[64] I do not want to deny Owen’s theology here at all, he is right to say this truth “is the glory of the Christian religion.”[65] But I do reject his reading of Isaiah 6, it is overly analogical. Owen writes that in the vision of God’s throne in Isaiah 6 we see: “The Son of God…who was so represented, and that as he was to fill the temple of his human nature with divine glory…And herein the seraphim…not being able to behold or look into the glorious mystery of his incarnation.”[66]

Despite this overly analogical reading, the truth remains that Christ’s divinity is “the glory of the Christian religion,”[67] which means Owen can claim any other divine truth rests on this key truth. We saw in section one that this truth must have pride of place in our pastoral ministry, but it must not only be taught separately to the cross, the creation, the Church and so on but must permeate all of our teaching and thinking on divine truths. Owen will go on in Christologia to show the dependence of other doctrines on the truth that Jesus Christ is both God and man.

Section three in Christologia shows Christ’s divinity working out in his roles as prophet, king and priest. There may not be numerous explicit references uniting Christ’s divinity and his prophetic, kingly, and priestly roles in the Bible, but here are some crucial biblical truths which Christians could not hold to if Christ the prophet, king and priest were not divine. Firstly, if Jesus the prophet were not God he would not know the mind of God[68] and could not fully declare to us God’s will for our lives. Secondly, if Jesus the king were not God he could not direct our lives[69] and we could not say the Lord is our shepherd.[70] And thirdly, if Jesus the high priest were not God his blood would not be valuable to atone for all the sin of all the elect, and in fact he could not atone for any of them because he would have to atone for himself as only God is good.[71]

These things being denied (because Jesus has both human and divine natures) the Christian is filled with assurance as he looks to Christ and finds what God requires of him (prophetic); finds Jesus can control his life (kingly); and finds the cross is sufficient for his salvation (priestly). This last point is even more vital to Owen now than when he wrote his 1647 work The Death if Death, because when Christologia was published he no longer believed: “God may, by virtue of his supreme dominion, omit punishment without any wrong or prejudice to his justice.”[72] God was gracious to Owen in enabling him to change his view on God’s justice, but as chapter 8 of Christologia proves people are sometimes hardened regarding divine truths (as was the case with much of Israel’s faith). To enable a Christian’s assurance with regard to Jesus’ prophetic, kingly, and priestly roles this work of proclaiming Christ’s divinity never ends.

In the fourth section of Owen’s work we discover that any claim such as “the person of Christ is of no use at all … [is] a vain imagination.”[73] And Owen works through the four respects we do have to Christ.

Firstly, honour, which is due to the Son as it is to the Father. This honour is to be given in two forms both which support the main point of Owen’s work. Firstly adoration of Jesus, which is: “humbly to bow our souls unto God.”[74] And secondly, invocation of Jesus which comes in two forms: to ascribe to Jesus all the divine properties which belong to God. And to represent our will to Jesus as we call on him “with an expectation of being heard…by virtue of his infinitely divine excellencies.”[75] Pastorally Owen writes that to ascribe all the divine properties to Jesus Christ is “essential unto prayer, which without it is but vain babbling.”[76] True prayer to the divine Jesus is vital and needed writes Owen, in times of spiritual trouble, discovery of something excellent about Christ, persecution, a need of the increase of grace, death.

The second respect we have to Christ is obedience “both internal and external.”[77] The cause of our obedience to Christ is because he himself is God, and his Father has given all power to him that he might command obedience: “The name of God the Father is so in him-that is, he is so partaker of the same nature with him-that his voice is the voice of the Father.”[78] The “especial principle”[79] of this internal and external obedience is love, such that “the placing of our love on anything before God, or above him, is a formal expression of our apostasy from him.”[80] The reason we are able to love Jesus is because in him rest all the divine excellencies, if they did not we could not love him absolutely. Owen is clear that obedient love for Jesus is what sets someone apart as a Christian: “Let men pretend what they will, there needs no greater, no other evidence, to prove that any one doth not really believe the things that are reported in the Gospel ... that his heart is not engaged by them unto the most ardent love towards [Jesus'] person.” So the fundamental way we are to challenge our congregation is enquiring into their love for Jesus.

The third respect we have to Christ in religion is conformity to him. In one of his most pastorally sensitive points Owen writes that:

“No soul can have a design of conformity unto Christ but his who so likes and loves the graces that were in him, as to esteem a participation of them in their power to be the greatest advantage, to be the most invaluable privilege, that can in this world be attained.”[81]

In other words, when we see qualities in Christ we are to esteem them as excellent else we will not desire to conform to his person.

The fourth respect we have to Christ is to receive the gospel benefits from him. These Owen lists here but has not room to include “an entire discourse concerning the life of faith.”[82]

In the fifth section of Christologia Owen applies his argument for Christ’s divinity to our redemption from sin and the Devil. This is another place where Owen shows us that if we lose Christ’s divinity in our theology then orthodox doctrines of salvation also cannot be maintained. Owen’s work on the fallen state of humanity is precise and alerts us to the need for a perfect plan of redemption. Owen shows us such a plan God has put in place however, alongside explaining such a plan, Owen outlines the way by which man may plan to save himself. One plan might be an attempt at obedience towards God after the disobedience in Eden, the other might be to offer a sacrifice of some sort to appease God. But Owen concludes that neither of these are sufficient because the problem of sin (from which men are trying to save themselves) is more pervasive than those engaged in these attempts would admit, so our salvation must come by Jesus the God man.

This of course starts to beg the question, if Christ was fully man[83] how could he perform the required obedience or provide a sin offering, for a man is a sinful man. What Owen argues is that Christ did take our nature “yet so as not in the least to participate of the guilt of the first sin, nor the defilement of our nature thereby.”[84] This was possible because Jesus’ “human nature was never in Adam as his representative.”[85] How it happened Owen does not enquire further than the Bible allows, he alludes to Luke 1:35 and quotes Romans 11:33.[86]

The pastoral implications of Owen’s exposition here will lead Christians to turn away from any work righteousness and will cause them to trust in Christ’s work in their place. In this small section Owen has demonstrated how Christ as fully man can offer obedience and sacrifice in the place of sinful men.

In the sixth section of Christologia Owen has to demonstrate how he can reconcile Christ’s fully divine nature with this fully human nature. He does so by presenting Nicaean orthodoxy in opposition to Nestorian heresy. Nestorius’ five allowances of union between the divine and human natures in Christ which Owen records do not demonstrate “the true union of the person of Christ.”[87] The Son of God did not cease to be divine neither did he merely dwell in Christ’s body “as a man dwells in a house.”[88] Rather, the Son of God: “continuing to be what it was, it was made to be also what it was not before.”[89]

We conclude as Owen does with the final section of Christologia. Here we find discussions of Christ in heaven. Christ ascended to heaven in two senses: “(1.) … as he was a King; (2.) … as he was a Priest.”[90] We have considered how each of these can only be effectively exercised by a divine King and Priest, with these two linked together here we see not only that Jesus is the one who deserves praise (for he is King) but he is also the one who makes that praise acceptable as he sanctifies it (for he is Priest). The pastoral implications of this concern our longing to be with our King Jesus in heaven. The way we find out what our desires are of the true heaven is by considering how much we long for the divine Jesus who has been presented to us in Christologia:

“Take an instance in one of the things before laid down. The glory of heaven consists in the full manifestation of divine wisdom, goodness, grace, holiness,-of all the properties of the nature of God in Christ … what then are our present thoughts of these things? What joy, what satisfaction have we in the sight of them, which we have by faith through divine revelation? What is our desire to come unto the perfect comprehension of them? How do we like this heaven? ... According as our desires are after them, such and no other are our desires of the true heaven.”[91]













Bibliography:

Owen, John. Christologia: The Glorious Mystery of the Person of Christ. Vol. 1 of The Works of John Owen. Edited by William H. Goold. 1850-53. Edinburgh: The Banner of Truth Trust, 1965

Owen John. The Death of Death in the Death of Christ. Vol. 10 of The Works of John Owen. Edited by William H. Goold. 1850-53. Edinburgh: The Banner of Truth Trust, 1965

Rehnman, Sebastian. Divine Discourse: The Theological Methodology of John Owen. Grand Rapids, Michigan: Baker Book House, 2002

Toon, Peter. God’s Statesman: The Life and Work of John Owen. Grand Rapids, Michigan: Zondervan Publishing House, 1973






All Bible references taken from the Holy Bible: English Standard Version. HarperCollins Publishers, 2001






[1] William H. Goold, “Prefatory Note,” in Christologia: or, a Declaration of the Glorious Mystery of the Person of Christ-God and Man (vol. 1 of The Works of John Owen; ed. William H. Goold; 1850-53; repr., Edinburgh: The Banner of Truth Trust, 1965), 2.
[2] Owen, Christologia, 38.
[3] Goold, “Prefatory Note,” 2.
[4] To enthrone Christ is to know him as fully God and fully man, we will investigate the ways in which Owen enthrones him.
[5] 1. Jesus is divine: the truth on which the church stands and against which hell rages (chapters 1 and 2).
[6] Owen, Christologia, 30.
[7] Owen, Christologia, 30. My Italics.
[8] Owen, Christologia, 34.
[9] Owen, Christologia, 36.
[10] Owen, Christologia, 36.
[11] Owen, Christologia, 41.
[12] Owen, Christologia, 43.
[13] Owen, Christologia, 9.
[14] 2. Jesus is divine: in him we behold all that God has decreed, is, and requires of us (chapters 3 to 6).
[15] Owen, Christologia, 45. By “constitution” here Owen is referring to Christ’s incarnation.
[16] Owen, Christologia, 54.
[17] Owen, Christologia, 63, my italics.
[18] Owen, Christologia, 64.
[19] Owen, Christologia, 65. Rehnman writes: “Christ is exceedingly important for Owen’s view of revelation.” Sebastian Rehnman, Divine Discourse: The Theological Methodology of John Owen (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Baker Book House, 2002) 64.
[20] John 8:47.
[21] John 14:7-9.
[22] Owen, Christologia, 68. Owen argues this from Romans 1.
[23] Owen, Christologia, 79-83, author’s italics.
[24] 3. Jesus is divine: as divine prophet, king and priest he can be the saviour of the Church (chapters 7 and 8).
[25] Owen, Christologia, 86.
[26] Matthew 28:18.
[27] Owen, Christologia, 99.
[28] Owen, Christologia, 103.
[29] 4. Jesus is divine: the respect we have to him is the respect we have to God - namely to honour, obey, and conform to him, and to receive from him all gospel privileges (chapters 9 to 15).
[30] We will deal with the section most extensively in the second part of this essay.
[31] Owen, Christologia, 107.
[32] Owen, Christologia, 139.
[33] Owen, Christologia, 144. My Italics.
[34] Owen, Christologia, 169.
[35] Owen cites Leviticus 11:44; 19:2, and 20:26. Owen, Christologia, 172.
[36] 5. Jesus is divine: the wisdom of God is manifested in the divine Jesus’ redemption of the world (chapters 16 to 17).
[37] Owen, Christologia, 191.
[38] Owen adds here the idea that the saviour of the church also had to fulfil the office which God assigned to him and that no mere human could fulfil such a task. Owen, Christologia, 203.
[39] Owen, Christologia, 221-223.
[40] 6. Jesus is divine: the union of his divine and human natures (chapter 18).
[41] Owen, Christologia, 235.
[42] 7. Jesus is divine: he is worshipped as God in heaven, and lives there for our salvation (chapters 19 and 20).
[43] Owen, Christologia, 237.
[44] Owen, Christologia, 254.
[45] Owen, Christologia, 257-259.
[46] Owen, Christologia, 260. Author’s italics.
[47] 1 Corinthians 15:25.
[48] Owen, Christologia, 272. My Italics.
[49] Owen, Christologia, 1. My Italics.
[50] Peter Toon, God’s Statesman: The Life and Work of John Owen (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Zondervan Publishing House, 1973) 168.
[51] Matthew 16:18a.
[52] “[Jesus] speaks unto…the faith of Peter, who made this confession. Without this no outward confession is of any use or advantage... [and] he speaks unto the confession itself.” Owen, Christologia, 31.
[53] Owen, Christologia, 32.
[54] Owen, Christologia, 32.
[55] Owen, Christologia, 32.
[56] Owen, Christologia, 33.
[57] Interestingly it is Peter himself who proclaims Jesus Christ to be the rock of the Church: “As you come to him, a living stone rejected by men but in the sight of God chosen and precious, you yourselves like living stones are being built up as a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. For it stands in Scripture: ‘Behold, I am laying in Zion a stone, a cornerstone chosen and precious, and whoever believes in him will not be put to shame.” 1 Peter 2:4-6.
[58] Matthew 16:21.
[59] Matthew 16:22.
[60] Being both Gold and man.
[61] Matthew 16:18b.
[62] Owen, Christologia, 46.
[63] Owen, Christologia, 46. Owen also says here: “A mystery it is, and that those dimensions as no creature can comprehend.”
[64] Owen, Christologia, 47. Owen is quoting from Isaiah 9:6.
[65] Owen, Christologia, 48.
[66] Owen, Christologia, 48.
[67] Owen, Christologia, 48.
[68] 1 Corinthians 2:11.
[69] Proverbs 16:1, 9.
[70] Psalm 23:1; Exekiel 34:10c-24; John 10:11-15.
[71] Mark 10:18.
[72] John Owen, The Death of Death in the Death of Christ (vol. 1 of The Works of John Owen; ed. William H. Goold; 1850-53; repr., Edinburgh: The Banner of Truth Trust, 1965), 271, my italics.
[73] Owen, Christologia, 104.
[74] Owen, Christologia, 107.
[75] Owen, Christologia, 110 my italics.
[76] Owen, Christologia, 110.
[77] Owen, Christologia, 134.
[78] Owen, Christologia, 138.
[79] Owen, Christologia, 139.
[80] Owen, Christologia, 151, my italics.
[81] Owen, Christologia, 174, my italics.
[82] Owen, Christologia, 178.
[83] Owen argues Christ must be fully man as well as fully God else he could not die for us, God’s law required a human body to endure his wrath – in support of which Owen cites Hebrews 2:14-16.
[84] Owen, Christologia, 199.
[85] Owen, Christologia, 200.
[86] Owen, Christologia, 200.
[87] Owen, Christologia, 230.
[88] Owen, Christologia, 231.
[89] Owen, Christologia, 232. And Owen cites John 1:14 to support his claim.
[90] Owen, Christologia, 247, author’s italics.
[91] Owen, Christologia, 245, my italics.

Christ's death, our death?

Did Jesus suffer on the cross in an identical way with the suffering deserved by sinners, or was the suffering different in any respect? Here are Owen's scripture references to suport the claim that he suffered an identical punishment with regards to God's destructive wrath, but a different punishment with regards to the length of time it was endured (he was on the cross 6 hours, sinners deserve eternal hell).


1. Romans 8:32: This passage expresses the opposite of a “change of the kind of punishment” (p. 448 all this material is from here)

2. Galatians 3:13: We were under a curse (cf. v10 also) but Christ was put under that exact curse according to this passage.

3. Romans 8:3: “Where God condemneth sin, there he condemns it in that very punishment which is due unto it in the sinner, or rather to the sinner for it … The condemning of sin is the infliction of punishment due to sin.”

4. “The whole penalty of sin is death, Gen. 2:17. This Christ underwent for us: Heb. 2:9, “He tasted death.” And to die for another is to undergo that death which that other should have undergone, 2 Sam. 18:33.” The death penalty for sin has an essence (pains of hell) which Christ suffered (Psalm 116:3; 22:1; Luke 22:44) and it has attendancies (duration and the like) “which he could not undergo” (Ps. 16:8-11; Acts 2:24-28). To confirm Christ suffered our death in potentia (Heb. 2:9, 14) which because of the dignity of his person (1 Pet. 3:18, Heb 9:26, 28, Rom. 5:10) “raises the estimation of punishment” to make the deaths equivalent in their attendancies.

5. Isa. 53:6, 2 Cori. 5:21: as our sins were laid on Jesus and he was made sin for us, so “lay the very punishment of our sin, as to us threatened, upon him.”

6. Read in scripture what we are told of Christ’s sufferings: “and see if they do not plainly hold out the utmost that ever was threatened to sin.” Isa. 53:5; 2 Peter 2:24; Matt 26:37; Mark 14:33; Luke 22:44; Matt 26:38; Heb. 5:7. “Those cries out of the deep, and mighty supplications under his fear … that was upon him, do all make out that the bitterness of the death due to sin was fully upon his soul … it was no less than the weight of the wrath of God and the whole punishment due to sin that he wrestled under.” (p. 449)

this is taken from John Owen's "The Death of Christ." And supports limited atonement because if Christ suffered everything deserved by sinners (and died for ALL) there would be no hell for God's wrath would be taken away from ALL - the Bible assures us God's wrath is raging in hell though (Rev. 14:10) so Jesus must have only exhausted it for those in heaven.