By Neil Earle
Did you catch it?
Time magazine’s cover for March 23 lists “The New Calvinism” as one of the 10 Ideas Changing Our World Right Now.
People often feel the need for a tougher faith for sterner days, what Time called the “demanding God of their country’s infancy.”
Most of us have some concept of the Puritans, even from Thanksgiving. They were the Presbyterians, Congregationalists, Independents, etc who felt the Church of England had not reformed itself enough after the Protestant Reformation. They were not called “puritan” because of their own concept of themselves but of what they wanted the English Church to become. That’s why many Anglicans were also of the Puritan persuasion.
In the 1600s, Puritans who did not leave England for America suffered much harassment. One of them was the Congregationalist minister John Owen (1616-1683). An Oxford man, Owen was first ejected from his pulpit in 1637 by traditionalist Anglicans. In 1654 he rose high – he was made Oliver Cromwell’s chaplain for his well-known tolerance and moderation towards all parties. In 1662, when Cromwell was out and the King was back in, Owen was finally ejected by the Anglican Restoration and lived in London as one of its foremost “divines.” Owen arranged the first printing of Bunyan’s Pilgrim’s Progress. He and his wife had 11 children – only one of whom lived to adulthood. His 9-volume Commentary on Hebrews occupied 16 years (1668-1684). Here are excerpts on Sanctification (Holy Living) drawn mostly from his “Discourse on The Holy Spirit.”
“Sanctification is the purpose for our lives if we are Christ’s (1 Thess. 4:3; 1 Peter 1:15). Sanctification is the universal renovation of our natures by the Holy Spirit unto the image of God, through Jesus Christ (2 Corinthians 3:18). It differs from that of Regeneration…Regeneration is instantaneous, consisting in one single creating act (the conversion experience or baptism) …But this work of Sanctification is progressive, and admits of degrees.”
That’s good to hear. Owen knew we could not be perfect at one fell swoop. Or ever. But we could walk down that road. “Sanctification is [a] work of the Spirit of God on the souls of believers, purifying and cleansing of their natures from the pollution and uncleanness of sin, renewing in them the image of God, and thereby enabling them to yield obedience to God (Philippians 2:12-13). ...It consists in a holy obedience unto God, by Jesus Christ, according to the terms of the covenant of grace (Titus 2:14)…the actual aid, assistance and internal operation of the Spirit of God is necessary…in every duty whatsoever (Zechariah 4:6).”
With such respect for the Holy Spirit it is not surprising that Owen excels in answering, What does the Holy Spirit do? This is an important question in our fellowship right now as we move from being a Trinity-denying sect to an exponent of Trinitarian Theology. The Holy Spirit, says Owen, was “the great legacy which our Lord Jesus Christ, departing out of this world, bequeathed unto his sorrowful disciples…” (John 16:7-12):
It has to be said that few writers excelled the Puritan divines in dealing with the nuts and bolts of Christian Living. The idea that Sanctification was a progressive activity, that Christians could and would sin (1 John 1:8-10) even under what they called “the covenant of grace” but could find their way back to God through steadfastness in “the means of grace” – prayer, the Lord’s Supper, counsel, fastings and watchings and never-ceasing prayer – this was a major contribution to Christian practical theology. It also assuaged the fear of many devout souls who feared they had committed the Unpardonable Sin.
Owen and his associates may not have had everything right, but these subjects they mastered. They deserve making Time’s cover.