John Owen
Owen (1616-1683) was described by Rev D Beaton as the prince of the Puritan theologians. Volume 8 of his Works contains a series of five sermons on the expression, “And to walk humbly with thy God” (Micah 6:8). In the third of these sermons Owen deals with humbling ourselves to the law of His grace in our walking with God. The first part of that section is printed here and the second part will follow next month, DV.
In all our walking with God, we are to humble ourselves in bowing to the law and rule of His grace; which is the way that He hath revealed wherein He will walk with sinners. The apostle tells us of the Jews in sundry places, that they had a mind to walk with God; they had “a zeal for God”. So he had himself in his Pharisaism (Phil 3:6). He “was zealous towards God” (Acts 22:3); and so were the Jews (Rom 10:2), “I bear them record, they have a zeal of God”. And they followed after righteousness, “the law of righteousness” (Rom 9:31); they took pains to “establish their righteousness” (Rom 10:3). What can be more required to walking with God than a zeal for Him — or His laws and ways, and a diligent endeavour to attain a righteousness before Him? How few do we see attain thus much! What repute have they in the world that do so? But yet, saith the apostle, they did not attain to walk with God, nor the righteousness they sought after (Rom 9:31). But what is the reason of it? Why, in their attempt to walk with God,
they did not bow themselves to the law of His grace. So (Rom 10:3) they went about to establish their own righteousness, and did not submit themselves to the righteousness of God. What righteousness is that? Why, “the righteousness of faith”, according to the law of grace (Rom 1:17). “They sought it not by faith, but as it were by the works of the law” (Rom 9:32). And the ground of all this is discovered (verse 33). Behold, here are two effects of Christ towards several persons: some stumble at Him, and so are not able to walk on with God. Who are they? He tells you, verse 32. Some are not ashamed. Who are they? They that believe, and so submit to the law of God’s grace. It is evident, then, that men may labour to walk with God, and yet stumble and fall, for want of this humbling themselves to the law of His grace.
Let us see, then, how that may be done, and what is required thereunto. It is, then, required:
[1.] That the bottom of all a man’s obedience lie in this — that in himself he is a lost, undone creature, an object of wrath, and that whatever he have of God in any kind, he must have it in a way of mere mercy and grace. To this apprehension of himself must proud man, that would fain have something of his own, humble himself. God abhors every one that He sees coming towards Him on any other account. Our Saviour Christ lets men know what they are, and what they must be, if they will come to God by Him. “I came,” saith He, “to save that which was lost” (Matt 18:11). “I came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance” (Matt 9:13). Verse 12, “The whole have no need of a physician, but they that are sick”. “I came into the world,” says He, “that they that are blind may see, and that they which see might be made blind” (John 9:39). This is the sum: “If you intend to have any thing to do with God by Me, know yourselves to be lost sinners, blind, sick, dead; so that whatever you have, you must have it in a way of mere grace”.
And how was this direction followed by Paul? Will you see the foundation of his obedience? You have it (1 Tim. 1:13-15), “I was thus and thus: I am the chief of sinners; but I obtained mercy’. It is mere mercy and grace upon the account whereof I have any thing from God” — which principle he improves to the height (Phil 3:7-9), “All loss, all dung; Christ is all in all”. This the proud Pharisees could not submit unto. It is the subject of much of their disputes with our Saviour. To be lost, blind, nothing, they could not endure to hear. Were they not children of Abraham? Did they not do so and so? To tell them that they are lost and nothing, is but to speak out of envy. And on this rock do thousands split themselves, in the days wherein we live. When they are overpowered by any conviction to an
apprehension of a necessity of walking with God (as more or less, at one time or other, by one means or other, most men are) they then set themselves on the performance of the duties they have neglected, and of the obedience which they think acceptable, abiding in that course whilst their conviction abides; but never humbling themselves to this part of the law of God’s grace — to be vile, miserable, lost, cursed, hopeless in themselves — never making thorough work of it. They lay the foundation of their obedience in a quagmire, whose bottom should have been digged into; and stumble at the stumbling-stone, in their first attempt to walk with God. Now, there are two evils attending the mere performance of this duty, which utterly disappoint all men’s attempts for walking with God:
First. That men without it will go forth, somewhat, at least, in their own strength, to walk with God. “Why,” say the Pharisees, “can we do nothing?
Are we blind also?” Acting in the power of self will cleave to such a one, so as not to be separated; it will steal upon him in every duty he goes about. Now, nothing is more universally opposite to the whole nature of gospel obedience than this, that a man should perform the least of it in his own strength, without an actual influence of life and power from God in Christ. “Without Me,” says Christ, “ye can do nothing” (John 15:5). All that is done without strength from Him, is nothing. God works in us “to will and to do of His good pleasure” (Phil 2:13). Whatever a man doth, which God works not in him, which he receives not strength for from Christ, is all lost, all perishing. Now, our fetching in of strength from Christ for every duty, is founded wholly in that subjection to the law of grace whereof we speak. Second. His obedience will build him up in that state wherein he is, or edify him towards hell and destruction of which more afterward.
[2.] The second thing that we are to humble ourselves unto in the law of grace is, a firm persuasion, exerting itself effectually in all our obedience, that there is not a righteousness to be obtained before God by the performance of any duties or obedience of ours whatever. That this lies in the law of the grace of God, the apostle disputes at large (Rom 4:13-15), “If,” saith he, “righteousness be by the law” that is, by our obedience to God according to the law “then faith and the promise serve to no purpose;” there is an inconsistency between the law of grace (that is, of faith and the promise) and the obtaining of a righteousness before God by our obedience. So Gal 2:21, “If righteousness were by the law, then Christ is dead in vain.” “You would walk with God according to His mind; you would please Him in Jesus Christ. What do you do? You strive to perform the duties required at your hand, that on their account you may be accepted as righteous with God. I tell you,” saith the apostle, “if this be the state of
things, Christ is dead in vain’: if this be a righteousness before God to be obtained by any thing you can do, the gospel is to no purpose.”
And this, also, is the proud heart of man to humble himself to, if he will walk with God — he must obey, he must perform duties, he must be holy, he must abstain from every sin; and that, all, under a quick, living, energetical persuasion, that by these things a righteousness before God is not to be obtained. This is to influence all your duties, to steer you in your whole course of obedience, and to accompany you in every act of it. How few are influenced with this persuasion in their walking with God! Do not most men proceed on other practical principles? Is not their great reserve for their appearance before God hewed out of their own obedience? God knows they walk not with Him.
[3.] In the midst of all our obedience which is our own, we must believe and accept of a righteousness which is not our own, nor at all wrought or procured by us; of which we have no assurance that there is any such thing, but by the faith we have in the promise of God: and thereupon, renouncing all that is in or of ourselves, we must merely and solely rest on that for righteousness and acceptance with God. This the apostle affirms his heart to be humbled unto (Phil 3:7-9), the place before mentioned. He reckons up all his own duties, is encompassed with them, sees them lying in great abundance on every hand; every one of them offering its assistance, perhaps painting its face, and crying that it is “gain”; but saith the apostle, “You are all loss and dung; I look for another righteousness than any you can give me”.
Man sees and knows his own duty, his own righteousness and walking with God; he seeth what it costs and stands him in; he knows what pains he hath taken about it; what waiting, fasting, labouring, praying it hath cost him; how he hath cut himself short of his natural desires, and mortified his flesh in abstinence from sin. These are the things of a man, wrought in him, performed by him; and the spirit of a man knows them; and they will promise fair to the heart of a man that hath been sincere in them, for any end and purpose that he shall use them. But now, for the righteousness of Christ — that is without him; he seeth it not, experiences it not; the spirit that is within him knows nothing of it; he hath no acquaintance with it, but merely as it is revealed and proposed in the promises, wherein yet it is nowhere said to him, in particular, that it is his, and was provided for him, but only that it is so, to and for believers. Now, for a man to cast away that which he hath seen, for that which he hath not seen; to refuse that which promises to give him a fair entertainment and supportment in the presence of God, and which he is sure is his own, and cannot be taken from him, for
that which he must venture on upon the word of promise, against ten thousand doubts, and fears, and temptations that it belongs not to him — this requires humbling of the soul before God; and this the heart of a man is not easily brought unto. Every man must make a venture for his future state and condition. The question only is, upon what he shall venture it? Our own obedience is at hand, and promises fairly to give assistance and help: for a man, therefore, wholly to cast it aside upon the naked promise of God to receive him in Christ, is a thing that the heart of man must be humbled unto. There is nothing in a man that will not dispute against this captivity of itself: innumerable proud reasonings and imaginations are set up against it; and when the mind and discursive, notional part of the soul is overpowered with the truth, yet the practical principle of the will and the affections will exceedingly tumultuate against it. But this is the law of God’s grace, which must be submitted unto, if we will walk with Him — the most holy, wise, and zealous, who have yielded the most constant obedience unto God, whose good works and godly conversation have shone as lights in the world, must cast down all these crowns at the foot of Jesus, renounce all for Him, and the righteousness that He hath wrought out for us. All must be sold for the pearl — all parted with for Christ. In the strictest course of exactest obedience in us, we are to look for a righteousness wholly without us.
[4.] We must humble ourselves to place our obedience on a new foot of account, and yet to pursue it with no less diligence than if it stood upon the old. Eph 2:8-10, “By grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: not of works, lest any man should boast. For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them.” “If not of works, then what need of works any more? The first end appointed to our obedience was, that we might be saved. This end, it seems, is taken away: our works and duties are excluded from any efficiency in compassing of that end; for if it be of works, then grace is no more grace’ (Gal 2:21). Then let us lay all works and obedience aside, and sin, that grace may abound.” That many did, that many do, make this use of the grace of God, is most evident; so turning it into lasciviousness. “But,” saith the apostle, “there is more to be said about works than so. Their legal end is changed, and the old foundation they stood upon is taken away. But there is a new constitution making them necessary — a new obligation, requiring them no less exactly of us than the former did, before it was disannulled.” So Eph 2:10, “We are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works’. God saving us by grace, hath, on that account, appointed that we should
walk in obedience. There is this difference: before, I was to perform good works because I was to be saved by them; now, because I am saved without them.” God saving us in Christ, by grace, hath appointed that we shall perform that in a way of acknowledgment of our free salvation, which before we were to do to be saved. Though works left no room at all for grace, yet grace leaves room for works, though not the same they had before grace came. This, then, are we to humble ourselves to — to be as diligent in good works, and all duties of obedience, because we are saved without them, as we could be to be saved by them. He that walks with God must humble his soul to place all his obedience on this foot of account. He hath saved us freely; only let our conversation be as beseemeth the gospel. How this principle is effectual in believers, as to the crucifying of all sin, Paul declares (Rom. 6:14), “Sin shall not have dominion over you: for ye are not under the law, but under grace”. The argument to carnal reason would lie quite contrary. “If we are not under the law — that is, the condemning power of the law — then let sin have its dominion, power, sway. Did not the law forbid sin, under pain of damnation? — Cursed is every one that continueth not . . . .” Did not the law command obedience with the promise of salvation? — The man that doth the things of it shall live therein’. If, then, the law be taken away from having power over us to these ends and purposes, as to forbid sin with terror of damnation, and command obedience for righteousness and salvation, what need we perform the one or avoid the other?” “Why, upon this account,” saith the apostle, “that we are under grace; which, with new ends, and on new motives and considerations, requires the one and forbids the other.”
Have we now, or do we constantly humble ourselves to this part of the law of God’s grace — that we build up and establish our obedience on grace, and not on the law; on motives of love, not fear; from what God hath done for us in Christ, rather than from what we expect because “eternal life is the gift of God, through Jesus Christ our Lord”?
We cannot be safe, much less happy, but in proportion as we are weaned from our own wills, and made simply desirous of being directed by His guidance. This truth is sufficiently familiar to the judgement; but we seldom learn to reduce it into practice without being trained awhile in the school of disappointment.
John Newton
A religion of blood is God’s appointed religion for a sinner, for the wages of sin is death.
John Duncan
There is no holiness save through the knowledge and faith of Christ; and such knowledge and faith infallibly lead to holiness.
William Tait