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Christ: the Perfect Revelation of God to His Church | John Owen · Reformed Thinking

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Imagine for a second that you were born completely blind to a
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specific spectrum of light. Like let us say, just for the
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sake of the scenario, you cannot see ultraviolet light.
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Right. Which, I mean, actually, none of
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us can't. Yeah, true.
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Now suppose someone comes along and tries to explain the visual
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sensation of seeing a flower in ultraviolet.
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That sounds frustrating. It really is.
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I mean, they could bring out mathematical equations detailing
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the wavelengths. They could, you know, map out
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the physics of light reflection. They could even dissect the eye
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of a bee to show you the biological hardware.
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Because bees can actually see those patterns.
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Right. But at the end of the day, all
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that human language completely fails.
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You just cannot picture it. Yeah, the reality that color
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remains totally locked away from your sensory experience.
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Precisely. You remain in the dark, and it's
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not because the light does not exist, it's just because you
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lack the specific biological hardware to receive it.
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That makes a lot of sense. Welcome to Reformed Thinking.
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We are really thrilled you're joining us for this custom deep
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dive today. We have a great topic lined up.
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We really do. Today our mission is looking at
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a theological equivalent to that, that exact problem of
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sensory limitation. We are opening up the rigorous,
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highly rewarding work of the English Puritan theologian John
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Owen. Specifically, we are looking at
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The Glory of Christ, chapter 2. Yes, our goal for you today is
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to figure out how Christ represents God to the church and
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why understanding this specific dynamic alters everything about
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the Christian faith. It really changes everything.
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It does. Owen lays down a massive central
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thesis right out of the gate. He says the glory of Christ is
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the glory of his person, and he argues there are two distinct
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ways to consider him. First, absolutely in himself,
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and 2nd in the discharge of his office.
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OK, let's unpack this, because right away Owen is drawing a
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hard line about how we can even begin to know a limitless God.
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It is a staggering claim, honestly, and Owen does not hold
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back or soften the blow at all. No, he doesn't.
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He states in in no uncertain terms that without Christ, God
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remains forever the invisible God.
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Right. He is leaning heavily on the
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Apostle Paul's words in Second Corinthians chapter 4, verse 6.
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Yeah, where it says we see the glory of God in the face of
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Jesus Christ. Which is such a striking.
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Visual it is, and Owen makes the case that the holy properties of
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God's nature and the counsels of His will, they are completely
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hidden from us in any saving way without this specific targeted
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revelation. So we can't just figure it out
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on our own. No, not at all.
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I mean, we might have obscure imperfect notions of a higher
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being through other means. You know, we can look at a
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mountain range or a Galaxy and deduce a creator.
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Like intelligent design? Sure.
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But the illuminating knowledge that actually sanctifies the
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human heart, the knowledge that bridges the gap between creator
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and creature, that is exclusively found in the face or
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the person of Jesus Christ. Without him, the divine
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excellencies remain completely out of reach for finite human
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minds. You cannot reason your way up to
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them, and you definitely cannot feel your way up to them.
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That makes me think of a very practical physical reality,
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building on the idea of our physical limitations that we
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talked about earlier. Well, let's hear it.
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So if you go outside on a clear summer day and try to look
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directly at the sun, what happens?
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You are instantly blinded. Exactly.
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The sheer brilliance and intensity of that nuclear fusion
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are far too much for the fragile human eye to handle.
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You cannot make out any details of the Sun's surface.
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You just get this overwhelming blinding light.
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Yeah. And it physically damages your
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vision. You are trying to take in a
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source of energy that that your hardware is not built to receive
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directly. Right, it's just too much.
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But if you take a specialized solar filter like you know the
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heavy duty ones used during a total solar eclipse.
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The really dark glasses. Yeah, those if you look through
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that specific manufactured lens, suddenly everything changes.
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You can actually look right at the burning *.
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Right, you can see it's actual features, the sharp edges, maybe
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even the solar flares leaping off the surface.
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You are seeing the true objective reality of the sun,
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but it is being mediated through a lens that steps down the
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intensity. Making it comprehensible and
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safe for you to behold. Precisely.
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And Christ in Owens framework operates like that specialized
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lens for our finite minds. He is the only way our limited
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human capacity can look upon the infinite, invisible God without
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being entirely overwhelmed by darkness and incomprehension.
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We really need a mediator to step down the infinite into the
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finite. We do.
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What's fascinating here is the careful theological distinction
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Owen draws to explain how this mediation actually works.
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Oh, right, the two images, yeah. He does not just say Jesus shows
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as God. I'll leave it there.
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He distinguishes between Christ as the essential image of God
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and Christ as the representative image.
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We definitely need to define those terms because they carry a
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lot of weight in this discussion.
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They really do so in His Divine Person, absolutely considered
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prior to the Incarnation. The Son is the essential image
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of the Father. Meaning what exactly?
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Means he shares the exact same divine essence.
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He possesses all the same infinite qualities.
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As John's gospel points out, he is in the Father and the Father
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is in him. They are of the same substance.
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OK, got it. But possessing that essence does
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not automatically make God comprehensible to a human being.
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So in his incarnation, when the eternal Word takes on human
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flesh, he becomes the representative image of God to
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the Church. He steps into a mediatorial.
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Office. Yes, exactly.
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I want to pause and clarify that term Mediatorial Office for a
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listener who might not be sitting in a seminary classroom
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right now. That is a good idea.
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When we use the word office here, we are not talking about a
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room with a desk and a swivel chair, right?
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We are talking about an official role, like a commissioned
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position. Think of an ambassador or a
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specialized legal proxy. Well, that's a great way to put.
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It thanks if two nations are completely estranged, speaking
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different languages with entirely different cultures and
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no diplomatic ties, you need a mediator.
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You need someone who is uniquely qualified to stand between the
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two parties. Yeah, someone who understands
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both sides perfectly and who has the official authority to
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represent the sovereign of 1 nation to the citizens of the
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other. Jesus taking on flesh is him
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accepting that specific Commission.
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He is acting as the authorized ambassador.
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Right. Translating the incomprehensible
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nature of God into a human life that we can actually look at,
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listen to, and touch. That is a highly accurate way to
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frame it. He takes the invisible essential
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glory of the divine nature and translates it.
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He represents it to angels and to man.
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He becomes the bridge. He does, and Owen insists that
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without this incarnation and this specific representation, a
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perpetual comparative darkness would have blanketed the entire
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creation, especially here on Earth.
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It would just be void. Yeah, the infinite gap between
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the Creator and the creature would remain an uncrossable
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void. Humanity would be left guessing,
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projecting our own ideas up into the sky, but we would never
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actually know the reality of who God is.
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And we really need to establish the gravity of this for the
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listeners. Daily Faith.
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It's massive. It is.
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Owen calls this dynamic the very rock whereon the church is
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built. This is not some secondary
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theological issue. It's not just an obscure debate
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for academics to argue about in dusty library.
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Now this is the ground of all hopes for salvation, life, and
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immortality. All of it resolves into this
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single, highly focused point the representation of the nature and
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will of God in the person and office of Christ.
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The whole thing hinges on it. Yeah, if this representation
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fails us, if Jesus is not an accurate and perfect reflection
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of the Father, then our religion fails and we are completely
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lost. There's no backup plan.
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There is no alternative road to the divine.
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But on the flip side, if this rock stands firm, if Christ
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truly is the perfect representative image, then the
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Church is totally safe here in this life and shall be
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triumphant hereafter. That is the dividing line.
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Your entire spiritual reality hinges on the reliability of
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this one mediator. And Owen pushes that line even
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further, making it a matter of basic definition.
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Well, he states that those who cannot behold this specific
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glory, namely seeing Christ as the divine ordinance, point to
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represent God to us. They simply do not know Him at
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all. Wow, that is a hard statement.
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It is if someone attempts to worship God without this
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understanding, Owen argues, they are not worshipping the true
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God. They are worshipping an idol, an
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image of their own devising. So when a person says I believe
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in God, but I don't need Jesus to understand him.
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Yeah, that person is essentially attempting to look at the sun
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without the filter. They are creating a mental
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projection of a deity based on their own preferences, or maybe
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their cultural background or their own human reasoning.
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It is a really sobering realization.
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We have to look at what inevitably happens when humanity
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tries to figure God out on its own terms, you know, using its
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own flawed resources, entirely apart from the Incarnate Christ.
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Which brings us right into the tragedy of human reason and the
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absolute limits of philosophy. Right.
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To understand why human reason fails so spectacularly at this
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task, Owen goes all the way back to the fall in the Garden of
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Eden to explain our current baseline condition.
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They're a root of the problem. Exactly.
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He points out that a primary punishment of the fall, a huge
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part of humanity's ongoing misery, is an inherent,
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ingrained ignorance of God's nature.
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We usually think of the fall primarily in terms of moral
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corruption, people doing bad things.
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Yeah, behavioral stuff, but reformed theology highlights the
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noetic effects of sin. Noetic.
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Yeah, noetic comes from the Greek word for mind.
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It means our actual cognitive faculties, our ability to reason
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and perceive spiritual truth, were broken in the fall.
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So we are fundamentally flawed in how we process information
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about God. Exactly because of this,
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humanity naturally does not know God and has not seen Him.
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We are born spiritually blind. That inherited ignorance really
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sets the stage for the massive failure of the ancient
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philosophers. Owen goes after them pretty
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hard. He does.
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He looks directly at the greatest thinkers of the
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classical world, men who made extensive, lifelong inquiries
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into the divine being and its existence.
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These were the big names. Right individuals who boasted of
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their wisdom. They developed complex logical
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systems. They adorn their philosophical
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notions with elegant speech and rhetoric to draw in admirers.
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They consider themselves the only wise men in the world.
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Oh totally. They were the intellectual elite
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looking down on the uneducated masses.
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Yet Owen points to the Apostle Paul's assessment in the letters
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to the Romans, in the Corinthians, and.
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What does Paul conclude? He concludes that the world by
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its wisdom knew not God. In fact, Paul calls the authors
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of these elegant notions without God in the world.
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Which is a huge indictment. It is.
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They were essentially atheists in the truest spiritual sense
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because they're sophisticated knowledge lacked saving truth.
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They had massive intellects but zero spiritual sight.
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Owen gives a very specific historical reference here that
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we should dissect a bit. He brings up Cicero.
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Famous Roman statesman. Yeah, the orator, the
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philosopher. Specifically, he points to
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Cicero's book De Natre Diorum. Which translates to On the
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nature of the Gods. Right.
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Cicero wrote this massive dialogue right around 44 BC,
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which was a time of immense political turmoil in Rome.
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Caesar was. Assassinated right around them.
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Exactly. And Cicero was examining all the
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different Greek and Roman ideas about the divine.
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He was breaking down the arguments of the Epicureans and
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the Stoics. Analyzing all their positions.
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Yeah, and despite Cicero's undeniable genius, despite his
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ability to see the logical ridiculousness of the old Pagan
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myths with their petty warring gods, he and his peers could not
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arrive at the truth. They could not escape idolatrous
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principles. No, they were entirely locked
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out of true knowledge because they lacked infallible divine
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revelation. They had all the brain power in
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the world, but they were missing the data set that only God can
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provide. Owen notes they had no certain
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guide, no infallible rule or light to evaluate their own
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conclusions. Just bouncing ideas off each
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other. Exactly.
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All they possessed were their own reasonings and imaginations,
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bouncing off each other in an echo Chamber of human intellect.
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The great disputers. Yeah, they became the great
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disputers of the world, writing volumes of philosophy.
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But in their endless disputing, their foolish hearts were
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darkened further. They were left, as the book of
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Acts vividly describes, trying to feel after God.
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That's a great image. Imagine a group of highly
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intelligent people locked in a pitch black room.
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They're walking around, waving their arms, hoping their hands
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brush against something real. Stumbling over chairs.
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Right. They might map out the
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dimensions of the room. They might even identify a piece
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of furniture by touch. But they cannot tell you what
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color the walls are, and they certainly cannot find the door
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out. That is such a stark picture.
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That is human reason, trying to locate the divine nature without
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the light of Christ. Hold on, I'm stuck on something
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here. I really want to challenge this
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assessment because it sounds incredibly dismissive.
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OK, what are you thinking? If the Greeks and the Romans
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were just stumbling around in the dark, how did they build the
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foundations of Western civilization?
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That is a fair question. I mean, we still study
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Aristotle's logic today. We use Euclidean geometry.
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We marvel at their architecture, their aqueducts, their political
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systems. They had a tremendous amount of
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natural light and reason. They absolutely did.
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So to say they were completely ignorant feels like a massive
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overstatement. Why does Owen dismiss their
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philosophical inquiries into the divine so thoroughly when they
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were clearly brilliant in almost every other field?
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It is a vital distinction to make and I'm glad you brought it
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up. Owen is not denying their
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horizontal brilliance. Horizontal meaning earthly
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things. Exactly.
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Human intellect is more than capable of building aqueducts,
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organizing empires, diagnosing diseases and plotting
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mathematical theorems. That is the realm of natural
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reason, operating on natural things.
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OK, that makes sense. But human reason alone, entirely
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devoid of divine revelation, cannot Pierce The Veil of the
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divine nature. It is a categorical limit.
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So it's a different category of knowledge entirely.
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Precisely. Reason can look at a sunset or
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the intricate design of a human eye and deduce that a creator
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must exist. It can get you to a generic,
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unapproachable deity, but reason cannot reveal that creators
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disposition towards sinners. It cannot tell you if that God
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is merciful, or if he demands sacrifice, or how he plans to
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deal with human rebellion. Owen uses an absolutely
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brilliant analogy here, comparing those who rely solely
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on human reason and reject supernatural revelation to bats
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and owls. And nocturnal creatures.
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Precisely because bats and owls cannot handle the brilliant,
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piercing light of the midday sun, they retreat to the
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twilight. They hide from the light.
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Yeah, their eyes are not built for daylight.
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They're built for the shadows. They prefer the dawnings of
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light mixed with darkness. They operate best when things
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are murky and undefined. So how does that apply to human
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reason? When modern individuals forgo
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supernatural revelation when they say I don't need a Bible, I
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don't need Jesus, I will just follow a religion dictated by my
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own reason and the light of nature.
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What you hear all the time. Constantly, Owen argues, they
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are acting just like those bats and owls.
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They are retreating from the blinding clarity of Christ into
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the murky twilight of their own subjective thoughts.
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Where they feel more comfortable and in control.
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Exactly. They want just enough light to
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feel spiritual, but not enough light to expose their own
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corruption That. Imagery of bats and owls
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retreating into the twilight is incredibly vivid, and it maps
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perfectly onto how so many people operate today.
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Oh, without a doubt. You hear it constantly.
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People say I'm spiritual but not religious.
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The classic line. Right.
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What that usually translates to is a desire for a twilight
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spirituality, A vague sense of the divine that demands nothing,
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corrects nothing, and offends nothing.
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It is very safe. Very safe.
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It perfectly sets up the contrast Owen jaws next between
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the reign of shadows and the arrival of the Sun of
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Righteousness. Owen takes this concept of human
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ignorance and scales it up to a terrifying level.
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He really escalates it. He does.
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This ignorance is not just a neutral lack of data.
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It is not just an unfortunate gap in our collective knowledge.
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He argues that Satan actually erected his entire Kingdom and
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thrown on this specific foundation of human ignorance
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regarding God's true nature. It shifts the entire paradigm of
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how we view spiritual warfare. It really does.
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Satan succeeded in his design to the point where the apostle Paul
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literally calls him the God of this world.
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How did he get that title? He exalted himself by virtue of
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this specific darkness. By keeping people blind.
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Yes. By keeping humanity blind to the
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true nature of God, Satan positioned himself as the object
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of religious worship. People have an innate driving
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need to worship something. They are hardwired for it.
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We are. So if you blind them to the true
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God, they will worship whatever they can find in the dark.
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Owen cite several scriptures, including passages from First
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Corinthians, showing that the sacrifices the Gentiles made,
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you know, the massive temples, the rituals, the offering.
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All of that religious effort. All of it.
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They were actually offered to devils, not to God.
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This territory of darkness, this average ignorance of the divine
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nature, is the very soil where Satan maintains his dominion
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over the minds of the children of disobedience.
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Even right now. Even to this day, across many
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nations and cultures. He does not need to make people
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atheists, he just needs to keep them ignorant of Christ.
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And Owen does not just speak in theological abstracts here.
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He points to brutal, verifiable historical realities as evidence
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of what this darkness produces when it is left unchecked.
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The fruits of the darkness, yeah.
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He lists the flood of abominations in the Old world
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that led to the deluge in Genesis.
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He points to the grievous, unnatural sins of Sodom and
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Gomorrah. He even gets uncomfortably close
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to home for his initial Raiders. Talking about Britain, yeah.
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He points out that the forefathers of his own nation,
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the Pagan gentiles of ancient Britain and Europe, were given
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up to an utterly brutish service of the devil.
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Human sacrifice, things like that.
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Exactly. Think of the druidic human
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sacrifices, the relentless tribal warfare, the terror of
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the unseen world, all the rage, the blood, the confusion, the
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cruelties and the oppressions that flood human history.
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It's a dark picture. It is, and they arise directly
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from this corrupt fountain of ignorance concerning who God
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actually is. When you do not know the true
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God, human life loses its sacred value.
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If we connect this to the bigger picture, we see how this
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darkness operated even in the Old Testament era, even among
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God's chosen people. Now that is interesting.
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This is where it gets incredibly nuanced.
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Israel had the revelation of God's word.
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They had the institution of his worship.
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The psalmist declares that God showed his statues to Israel and
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had not dealt so with any other nation.
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They had the prophets, They had the law.
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Yet even with all of that specific advantage, Owen points
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out that God still dwelt in thick darkness.
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Like, physically? Yes, if you look at the book of
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Exodus, when God descends on Mount Sinai, or First Kings when
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the Temple is dedicated, the physical manifestations of God's
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presence were always enveloped in dark clouds, thick smoke, and
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terrifying fire. So they couldn't clearly see
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him. Right.
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The people had a genuine apprehension of him.
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They knew he was there and they knew he was holy, but they could
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not have clear unveiled views of his face.
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The physical barrier of the thick smoke represented a
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spiritual reality. But why would God do that?
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If the entire goal of Revelation is to make himself known, why
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use thick darkness for Israel? Why not just reveal himself
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clearly from the start? It does seem strange at first
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glance. Yeah, it seems counterintuitive
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to the idea of a God who wants to be in relationship with his
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creation. It comes down to divine
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pedagogy, how God chooses to teach and prepare a people.
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Owen explains that God represented himself in darkness
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to instruct them regarding their imperfect state.
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They weren't ready. Exactly.
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The time had not yet come for the full unveiling.
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The old Covenant system with his animal sacrifice, it's complex
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purity laws, the physical veil, and the Tabernacle separated the
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Holyoke. While the heavy regulations.
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Yeah, all of these were types and shadows.
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They were designed for a people who could not yet comprehend the
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full blazing glory that would afterward be revealed in the
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Incarnation. Like trying to teach calculus to
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a baby. Exactly.
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You do not teach advanced calculus to a toddler.
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You start with basic numbers. It was a twilight period for the
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church. The day had not dawned.
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The shadows had not fled away. So they had Twilight.
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Twilight, which was a massive blessing while the rest of the
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world sat in gross, impenetrable midnight darkness.
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But it was still twilight. It was still a religion heavily
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mediated by physical barriers and fear.
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Then comes the dawn. Owen contrasts that thick
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darkness of the Old Testament in the terrifying, gross darkness
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of the Pagan world with the arrival of what the prophet
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Malachi calls the Sun of Righteousness.
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The sunrise, yeah. When the Son of God appeared in
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the flesh, stepping into the discharge of his office as the
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Mediator, all those old heavy shadows fled away.
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The veil in the temple is literally torn into.
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The barrier is gone. God Himself, in His being and
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the glorious properties of His nature, was illustriously
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manifested in human life. Now, as the Apostle John writes
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with such clarity, He is light, and in Him there is no darkness
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at all. The twilight of the Old Covenant
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is over. Yes, the midnight of Pagan
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ignorance is shattered. The sun is up.
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The specialized filter has been provided.
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And having firmly established that Christ brings this
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brilliant, dispelling light, we need to transition into looking
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at what we actually see through the lens.
21:59
What are the details we can actually perceive?
22:02
Right. What specific attributes of God
22:04
does that light actually reveal to us?
22:06
Owen focuses heavily on 2 massive attributes that
22:09
completely redefine our understanding of the divine,
22:12
God's infinite wisdom and God's divine love.
22:15
Let us tackle infinite wisdom first.
22:17
Owen describes wisdom as the property that directs all the
22:20
external works of God. Basically everything God does
22:23
outside of himself. Right.
22:24
Every action in the universe is guided by this infinite wisdom.
22:28
Now Owen concedes that the works of creation and Providence do
22:31
declare divine wisdom. Looking at the stars, the
22:33
oceans. Yeah, looking at the sheer scale
22:36
of the cosmos, the delicate balance of the solar system,
22:39
where the microscopic, intricate design of a single human cell is
22:43
sufficient to detect the folly of atheism.
22:46
It proves a designer. It condemns idolatry.
22:49
It proves there is a master architect, but he argues the
22:53
most excellent contrivance of infinite wisdom, the absolute
22:56
masterpiece, is not the physical universe.
22:59
What is it then? It is the great work of the
23:01
salvation of the Church through Christ.
23:03
It is the ultimate display of problem solving if we can use
23:06
human terms. Explain that.
23:07
Well, the physical universe shows us a fraction of divine
23:10
wisdom compared to what is manifested in the person of
23:13
Jesus Christ. How does a holy God perfectly
23:17
execute justice against sin while simultaneously displaying
23:21
infinite mercy to the Sinner? That is a massive paradox.
23:24
It is a paradox that human reason cannot solve.
23:27
If God is just, the Sinner must die.
23:29
If God is merciful, the Sinner goes free, but justice is
23:32
compromised. You can't have both naturally.
23:34
Right. The Incarnation, the life, the
23:37
substitutionary death, and the resurrection of Christ solve
23:40
this impossible equation. The Father chose and sealed
23:44
Christ to represent this specific manifold wisdom to us.
23:49
All the treasures of this wisdom are laid up in Him.
23:52
Here's where it gets really interesting though, because the
23:56
way different people react to this exact same wisdom is
23:59
completely polarizing. Oh for sure.
24:01
It acts as a sorting mechanism for humanity.
24:04
Owen leans heavily on the Apostle Paul's argument in First
24:07
Corinthians chapter 1 to show that unbelievers look at this
24:10
masterpiece and totally miss it. You don't see the genius in it
24:13
all. No, they look at the cross, the
24:16
idea that the creator of the universe would become a Jewish
24:18
Carpenter, suffer humiliation and be executed on a Roman
24:22
torture device to save rebels, and they see utter foolishness.
24:25
It does not compute with human reason.
24:26
Not at all. It looks weak, It looks absurd.
24:29
But believers looking through the lens of faith look at that
24:32
exact same historical event and see Christ as the very wisdom of
24:36
God. They see the hidden victory.
24:38
Yes, they see the genius of God defeating Satan, sin, and death,
24:43
using the very instrument of death itself.
24:45
To see this wisdom clearly is, as Owen says, our own true
24:48
wisdom, filling the human soul with joy unspeakable.
24:52
It shifts your entire worldview from despair to awe.
24:55
And that massive shift leads directly into the second
24:58
attribute Owen emphasizes, which is just as critical Divine love.
25:03
OK, let's unpack that. He quotes the famous assertion
25:05
from first John chapter 4, verse 8.
25:08
God is love, Owen insists. This is not just an effect.
25:12
It is not merely a mood God is in.
25:14
It is his core. It is God's very nature and
25:16
essence. This revelation that God is
25:18
intrinsically love casts out envy, hatred, malice and
25:22
revenge. It exiles all those bitter,
25:24
destructive fruits straight into Satan's territory.
25:26
They do not belong to God's nature in any capacity.
25:29
I have to interject here because this specific phrase, God is
25:32
love, requires some serious clarification for our modern
25:35
context. It definitely gets misused
25:37
today. All the time.
25:38
When people today hear God is love, they often interpret it to
25:41
mean God is a facile, easygoing pushover.
25:43
Like a cosmic Butler. Right.
25:45
They imagine a deity who acts like a permissive grandfather.
25:48
He just winks at sin, He is endlessly pliable, and he exists
25:53
simply to affirm whatever choices we make and make us feel
25:56
good about ourselves. Just spreading good vibes.
25:58
Yeah, they think they can take endless liberties with him
26:01
because, after all, he's love. It strips the holiness right out
26:05
of the equation. Owen completely anticipates that
26:08
exact misconception, even in the 17th century.
26:11
Human nature does not change does.
26:13
It No, it doesn't. He states that most natural,
26:15
unguided notions of divine love are corrupt, weak, or highly
26:20
imperfect. True divine love is not a vague,
26:23
pliable emotion. It is not sentimentalism.
26:26
So what is the proof of it? Owen argues that the only true
26:29
infallible evidence given to us that God is love is found in the
26:32
very next verse of first John 4. In this was manifested the love
26:36
of God towards us, because that God sent His only begotten Son
26:39
into the world, that we might live through Him.
26:41
If Christ's wisdom is a mechanism that exposes human,
26:44
how does his love actively dismantle human hostility?
26:47
That's a great question. Because wisdom alone just makes
26:50
us feel stupid or small. It's the love that actually
26:54
repairs the severed relationship.
26:56
The proof of the love is the active mission of the Sun.
26:59
Exactly right outside of Christ's mission, person, and
27:03
office, all notions of divine love remain hidden and
27:07
unprovable. How so?
27:08
Think about the mechanics of this.
27:10
Owen starkly points out that if you look at the world solely
27:13
through the lens of Providence, just looking at nature and human
27:16
history without Christ, the world is filled with massive
27:19
evidences of God's anger and displeasure against sin.
27:22
That's a heavy thought. We see tsunamis wiping out
27:24
coastal cities. We see childhood diseases, We
27:26
see endless warfare, famine, and ultimately the universal
27:30
certainty of death. Natural reason, looking honestly
27:33
at a fallen world, cannot reliably conclude that God is
27:37
love. Right, if you look at a
27:38
hurricane, Love's is not the first word that comes to mind.
27:40
A philosopher looking at a pediatric oncology ward without
27:44
the lens of the gospel might conclude God is cruel or
27:48
indifferent or incompetent. It is only in the sending of the
27:52
sun to absorb the wrath, conquer death, and save sinners, that
27:55
the divine nature as love is undeniably and gloriously
28:00
represented. That brings it all into focus.
28:02
Anyone who does not behold the glory of Christ in this specific
28:05
way remains utterly ignorant of these heavenly mysteries, no
28:09
matter how elegantly they might speak about love as a generic,
28:12
universal concept. You cannot prove God loves you
28:15
by looking at your circumstances.
28:17
You can only prove it by looking at the cross.
28:19
That sets up a massive collision regarding how we understand
28:22
belief and unbelief. We are stepping into the
28:25
absolute crux of unbelief versus saving faith.
28:27
This is where Owen really turns things upside down.
28:30
He does. Owen redefines unbelief in a way
28:32
that challenges a lot of modern assumptions.
28:34
We tend to think of unbelief as a passive state.
28:37
We think of it merely as a lack of information.
28:39
Like they just haven't read the right apologetics book.
28:41
Exactly. Someone just hasn't heard the
28:43
right arguments or they are missing some historical data
28:46
points about out 1st century Palestine.
28:49
But Owen defines the formal nature of unbelief as an active
28:53
failure or an outright refusal to discern the representation of
28:57
God's glory in the person of Christ.
29:00
It is a posture of the heart. Yes, not just a gap in the
29:03
brain. That is the defining line of
29:05
human existence. For Owen, Unbelief is not I
29:08
don't have enough evidence. Unbelief is looking at the
29:11
ultimate evidence, the Incarnate Son, and saying I don't see any
29:14
glory there. I just see a guy.
29:16
Right. If a person does not see the
29:18
wisdom, power, goodness and love of God represented in the person
29:21
and office of Christ, that person is an unbeliever.
29:25
The essence of saving faith consists in giving due
29:27
ascription of glory to God. Honoring him correctly.
29:30
It is recognizing God for who He truly is, and Owens's entire
29:33
point is that we cannot accurately give that glory
29:36
without seeing those divine excellencies manifested in
29:39
Christ. You cannot honor the Father if
29:41
you reject the authorized ambassador He sent.
29:43
This brings us back to the Devil's primary strategy.
29:47
Since seeing this specific glory is the absolute essence of
29:50
saving faith, the Devil's main goal in the early days of gospel
29:54
preaching and his main goal right now was not necessarily to
29:57
stop people from being religious.
29:59
Satan is perfectly happy with highly religious people.
30:01
Absolutely, as long as their religion is blind.
30:04
His goal is to blind men's minds with prejudices, distractions
30:08
and false philosophies so they will not see this specific
30:11
glory. He creates interference, yeah.
30:13
2nd Corinthians chapter 4 lays out the battle plan clearly.
30:17
The God of this world blinds the minds of unbelievers, lest the
30:20
light of the glorious gospel of Christ should shine unto them.
30:24
He throws up a smokescreen. This raises an important
30:27
question regarding a very prevalent theology today, even
30:30
among those who claim to respect Jesus.
30:32
What's that? Owen aggressively critiques the
30:35
view that treats Christ solely as a moral teacher.
30:38
There are millions of people who admit Jesus was a historical
30:41
figure who came from God to reveal God's will.
30:44
Sure, you hear that everywhere. They say He taught us how to
30:47
behave, gave us a Sermon on the Mount, and showed us how to love
30:50
our neighbors. But they entirely reject His
30:54
divine Person representing the holy properties of God.
30:56
They strip away the supernatural.
30:58
They reject the incarnation, the substitutionary atonement, the
31:01
resurrection. They just want the moral
31:03
teachings. Owen bluntly aligns this teacher
31:07
only view with Muhammadanism, pointing out that Islam also
31:11
venerates Jesus as a great prophet and teacher, but
31:14
vehemently denies he is the essential image of God.
31:17
That is a harsh critique for modern years to hear, but if you
31:20
follow His logic, it tracks perfectly.
31:22
If you strip away the manifestation of the holy
31:25
properties of the divine nature in the constitution of His
31:27
Person, what are you actually left with?
31:30
Not much that can help you. Right.
31:32
You turn the entire gospel into a useless, frustrating fable.
31:35
Why? Because a moral teacher just
31:36
gives you an impossible standard you cannot reach.
31:39
The rules without the rescue. Yeah, the Sermon on the Mount
31:41
without the cross is just a crushing weight of condemnation.
31:45
If Jesus is just a teacher, he is not the essential image of
31:48
the Father, and therefore he cannot be the representative
31:52
image that saves our souls from the darkness.
31:54
Can't Mediac. His death has no infinite value
31:58
to pay for infinite sin. It is an anti evangelical, anti
32:02
Christian position that completely ruins the groundwork
32:06
of the religion no matter how respectfully they talk about
32:09
Jesus the man. Which means for the believer,
32:12
seeing this glory, actually beholding the divine nature in
32:15
the Incarnate Christ, is not just an academic exercise for
32:19
theologians. It's life or death.
32:21
It is the absolute core of their existence.
32:23
It is the mechanism of their salvation, and if seeing this
32:27
glory is the essence of faith, we have to transition into the
32:30
practical application. How we actually do this?
32:32
How does a believer actually go about doing this in their daily
32:35
life? Right?
32:36
How do we practice beholding? Because it is one thing to agree
32:39
with this conceptually, it is another thing to live it out on
32:41
a Tuesday afternoon. Owen calls this practice the
32:44
highest privilege we have in this life.
32:46
It is crucial to understand his framing here.
32:48
It's not a chore. Exactly.
32:50
The gospel is not a heavy yoke or a crushing burden like the
32:53
Old Testament law was. The duties of the gospel are
32:56
privileges. Beholding Christ's glory by
32:59
faith is actually the first fruits of heaven.
33:03
I love that phrase. Me.
33:03
Too, it is the initiation into eternal blessedness.
33:07
Right here and now. You are getting a foretaste of
33:09
what you will be doing for eternity.
33:11
But we frequently get this wrong in our modern application.
33:14
We substitute external action for internal beholding.
33:17
We prioritize doing, overseeing. Yes, I see this constantly in
33:21
modern Christian culture. People talk endlessly about
33:23
imitating Christ's example. The WWJD bracelet era.
33:27
Right, we had the whole What would Jesus do movement in the
33:30
90's. The focus is entirely on looking
33:32
at the actions of Jesus in the Gospels.
33:34
He fed the poor, he stood up to hypocrites, He healed the sick.
33:37
And we try to replicate those external behaviors in our own
33:41
lives through sheer human willpower.
33:43
We try to copy his homework without understanding the math.
33:47
Owen addresses that exact tendency.
33:49
He says the bare imitation of Christ's actions does absolutely
33:53
nothing without the intuition of His glory.
33:55
Just copying behaviors doesn't fix the heart you.
33:58
Cannot become like him simply by trying to copy his external
34:02
deeds through moral exertion. It fails every time because the
34:05
internal engine is broken. It is the actual act of
34:08
beholding His glory by faith that is accompanied by a divine
34:12
capacity to change the human soul into His image. 2nd
34:16
Corinthians 3.18. Exactly.
34:18
Paul says that as we behold the glory of the Lord, we are being
34:21
changed into the same image. Conformity to Christ is a
34:24
byproduct of contemplating Christ.
34:26
The mechanism of spiritual change is not trying harder, it
34:29
is living closer. But we fail at this constantly,
34:31
and Owen diagnosing why we fail is incredibly helpful.
34:34
He does not just say do better, He identifies the psychological
34:38
and spiritual barrier of. Slothfulness.
34:39
We just get lazy. We become weary.
34:42
Our minds find thoughts of Christ's glory to be too high or
34:44
too hard. We struggle to maintain our
34:47
focus on these heavenly mysteries because we are carnal
34:50
and our thoughts are accustomed to being entertained by lesser
34:53
immediate things. We want the quick fix, the easy
34:56
thought. He draws A striking, almost
34:59
uncomfortable contrast here. To prove his point about human
35:02
nature, he points out how easily and effortlessly human minds
35:06
fixate on the objects of their lusts.
35:08
And by lusts he means any strong desire.
35:11
Any strong illicit desire, whether that is sexual
35:14
immorality, greed, revenge, or ambition.
35:17
Men will continually ruminate on their desires, spinning 1000
35:20
contrivances in their heads, planning, fantasizing, until
35:24
their minds are completely framed and shaped for
35:26
destruction. They never get tired of thinking
35:28
about sin. They.
35:28
Do not get weary of contemplating their sin.
35:31
They could do it for hours, Owen argues.
35:33
We must learn a lesson from that vicious habit.
35:35
If fixing our minds intensely on illicit desires literally
35:38
rewires our brains and shapes us for death, how much more should
35:42
we diligently, intentionally fix our minds in the glory of
35:45
Christ, which shapes us for eternal life?
35:47
Let's drag this right into the 21st century.
35:50
When Owen talks about the barrier of slothfulness and how
35:53
our minds gravitate toward lesser things, he is describing
35:57
the modern attention economy perfectly.
36:00
We struggle to read a single chapter of a book without
36:02
checking our phones. We doom scroll social media for
36:05
hours, feeding our minds a constant stream of outrage,
36:09
comparison and trivial entertainment.
36:11
That is the exact mental framing for destruction Owen is warning
36:15
about. We are not too tired to focus.
36:17
We are perfectly capable of hyper focusing on a screen.
36:21
We are just slothful when it comes to the mental exertion
36:24
required to meditate on spiritual realities.
36:27
We choose the dopamine hit over the divine glory.
36:29
So he provides the remedy. We need concrete directives to
36:32
break out of this spiritual sloth.
36:34
Give us the action plan. First, fervent prayer.
36:37
We must pray like Moses in Exodus 33, crying out, I beseech
36:41
thee, show me thy glory. We have to recognize we need
36:44
divine assistance just to see clearly.
36:46
We cannot conjure this vision up on our own.
36:49
And the second step. 2nd, intentional meditation.
36:52
We have to purposefully fill our minds with spiritual thoughts.
36:56
We have to carve out the time and guard our attention.
36:59
And 3rd, waking up from our lazy habits, slothful souls never
37:03
obtain a view of this glory. We have to treat it seriously.
37:06
We have to apply the same diligence, the same intense
37:09
focus to this sacred mystery that a person applies to
37:12
mastering a complex secular art or trade or building a business.
37:16
We must intentionally exercise our senses to discern these
37:19
invisible realities. Owen points out that angels
37:22
themselves desire to look into these things.
37:25
The manifold wisdom of God displayed in the Gospel is an
37:27
object of angelic diligence. They are fascinated by it.
37:30
These perfect, powerful beings are captivated by it.
37:33
How much more should we, who are the actual direct beneficiaries
37:37
of the salvation, apply ourselves to contemplating it?
37:40
So what does this all mean for the listener as they step back
37:42
into their normal routine this week?
37:44
Owens summarizes the practical take away beautifully, and it is
37:47
incredibly encouraging. He promises that if we abound in
37:51
this duty of beholding, if we actually put in the effort to
37:54
fix our minds on Christ, our daily walk before God will
37:58
become sweet and pleasant to us. It changes the whole tone of the
38:01
Christian life. The Christian life stops being a
38:04
grueling moral marathon and becomes a relationship of awe.
38:07
Our spiritual light and strength will daily increase.
38:11
We will naturally reflect more of Christ's character in our own
38:13
behavior, not through forced imitation, but through organic
38:16
transformation. And remarkably, this.
38:19
Practice makes even death itself welcome to us.
38:22
How so? Because death ceases to be the
38:23
terrifying plunge into the unknown, it becomes simply the
38:27
transition from beholding his glory by faith in a glass darkly
38:30
to be holding it by sight, face to face.
38:33
It's just the removal of the final veil.
38:35
To briefly synthesize the main arc of what we have discussed
38:38
today, human reason entirely on its own, inevitably leaves us
38:41
stumbling in the dark, worshipping our own vain
38:44
imaginations. It always fails us.
38:46
The darkness of ignorance regarding the divine nature is
38:49
Satan's greatest, most effective weapon, but Christ, as the Sun
38:53
of Righteousness, acts as the sole brilliant representative of
38:57
the invisible God. Perfectly manifesting infinite
39:00
wisdom in the Cross. And undeniable, active Divine
39:03
Love in His mission to save sinners.
39:06
And if we understand that Satan's original primary
39:09
strategy was to blind men's minds from seeing this specific
39:12
glory of Christ, it leaves us with a lingering, provocative
39:16
thought for our own day. I love this part.
39:18
Consider our modern world. We live in an era of endless
39:21
screens, constant notifications, and relentless media
39:24
consumption. We are arguably the most
39:27
distracted, overstimulated generation in human history.
39:30
Without a doubt. What if our modern struggle with
39:32
distraction is not just a biological quirk?
39:34
What if it's not just a productivity issue that needs a
39:37
better time management app? What if it's something more
39:39
sinister? Exactly what if it is the exact
39:42
same blinding strategy Satan used in the early church, just
39:45
equipped with vastly different, highly addictive tools?
39:49
If the God of this world wants to keep you from beholding the
39:51
glory of Christ, what better way than to ensure you never have a
39:55
silent, undistracted moment to look up?
39:57
Just keep them scrolling. How does your daily media diet
40:00
compete with your ability to truly behold the face of Jesus
40:03
Christ? That is something heavy to chew
40:05
on as you go about your week. Thank you so much for joining us
40:09
for this custom deep dive into John Owens, the glory of Christ.
40:13
Keep thinking critically, keep seeking the light, and we will
40:15
catch you next time on Reformed Thinking.