Thursday, March 06, 2008

Packer on Owen

In working on a forthcoming presentation I have to give on John Owen, I was reminded of a number of PDF'd essays by J. I. Packer on John Owen that we uploaded to the JohnOwen.org site:

Introduction to Hebrews

Introduction to The Death of Death in the Death of Christ

Outline of The Death of Death in the Death of Christ

John Owen on Communication from God

John Owen on Spiritual Gifts

The Spirituality of John Owen

Here's a quote by Packer on the effect that Owen has had in his life:

Owen did more than anyone else to make me as much of a moral, spiritual, and theological realist as I have so far become.


He showed me that there is far more than I had known both to indwelling sin in believers and to God’s gracious work of sanctification.


He searched me to the root of my being, bringing God awesomely close in the way that speakers and writers with unction are able to do.


He taught me what it means to mortify sin and how to go about it.


He made clear to me the real nature of the Holy Spirit’s ministry in and to the believer, and of spiritual growth and progress, and of faith’s victory.


He told me how to understand myself as a Christian and live before God in a morally and spiritually honest way, without pretending either to be what I am not or not to be what I am.


It is not too much at all to say that God used him to save my sanity.


(Introduction to Sin and Temptation, ed. James Houston, p. xxix.)