GOSPEL EVIDENCES OF SAVING FAITH
By John Owen
Reformation Heritage Books. 105 pages. £7.38
ISBN 978 1 601 784 612
This short paperback is an edited version of John Owen’s original work Gospel grounds and evidences of the faith of God’s elect published 12 years after his death in 1695.
The subject matter regards understanding the essential nature of saving faith, having the skills to discern the evidence of that faith in our own lives and knowing how to exercise our faith so we thrive spiritually. The editor claims in his preface that Owen manages to help us do that while keeping our eyes fixed on Christ.
That excited me, as it is incredibly difficult to assess whether our faith is dead or living without either excusing our fruitlessness with ‘faith’, or losing sight of true faith in legalistic endeavour to be fruitful.
Owen’s four evidences
1. Choosing, embracing, and approving God’s way of saving sinners through the work of Christ alone.
2. Habitually approving of the holiness and obedience God requires in Scripture.
3. Consistently endeavouring to keep all grace in exercise in all ordinances of divine worship.
4. Bringing the soul into a special state of repentance.
The editor Brian Hedges acknowledges that ‘Owen is notoriously difficult to read’ and has therefore endeavoured to not only replace many archaic terms with more familiar words and simplify the syntax but also make the overall structure more transparent to the reader.
Despite his best efforts, I found the book enormously difficult to read with benefit and felt I could really do with a Mike Reeves session to distill its contents into a form I could manage and benefit from. I can’t think of anyone in the church family I can pass it on to.
