Book Reviews

Puritan Book Reviews – The Works of John Owen, Volume 1 (The Glory of Christ)
Reviewed by Dr. C. Matthew McMahon

The Works of John Owen, Volume 1 (The Glory of Christ)
by John Owen
Banner of Truth Trust, Carlisle, PA: 1993.
494 Pages, Hardback

One of the best books I have ever read is this volume by Owen. The reason is because it is not only theological, but extremely practical and helpful for growth in piety. Here is the Lord in all his glory and excellency expounded for the Christian. It is a work which combines 2 treatises, 2 catechisms, and a biography of Owen (being the first volume of his 16 volume set of Works).

First is given the “Life of Dr. Owen, by Rev. A. Thomson, BA.” Next is expounded “A Declaration of the Glorious Mystery of the Person of Christ,” then “Meditations and Discourses on the Glory of Christ” and finally two short catechisms which cover “confessional” like substance (the Trinity, Christ, The Scriptures, Justification, etc.)

In A Declaration of the Glorious Mystery of the Person of Christ Owen works from Peter’s confession in Matthew 16:16 “Thou art the Christ…” Here he shows the person of Christ as the foundation of all theology. Jesus Christ is the foundation of all the counsels of God, a representative of God and His Will, the Great Repository of Sacred Truth, and more. He covers the Old Testament descriptions of Christ and the prophecies concerning Him, the New Testament and fulfillment of His work, and the great obedience which every person owes Him, especially in the regenerated Christian state (the only state in which a man may please God.)

In Owen’s Meditations and Discourses on the Glory of Christ he expounds the wonderful glory of the Savior. How is Jesus Christ glorious to us? He is glorious as the only representative of God to the church, in the constitution of His person, in his exaltation, in the accomplishment of his work as Mediator, in the recapitulation of all things in Him and more. He expounds how we are to see the glory of Christ in this life by faith, so that in the next we will see Him by sight. Then he takes all he has taught us and applies it to our souls. A most excellent work – one which brings the Christian closer to Christ. There is no Christian who would be able to read this volume and not come into a greater and more powerful relationship with the nature of Christ’s exceedingly excellent person and glory.

Some Quotes:
“For to know God, so as to thereby be made like unto Him, is the chief end of all men.”

“The duties whereby we ascribe and express divine honor unto Christ may be reduced into two head: 1st adoration; 2nd invocation.”

“There are, therefore, two ways or degrees of beholding the glory of Christ, which are constantly distinguished in the Scriptures. The one is by faith, in this world,-which is “the evidence of things not seen;” the other is by sight, or immediate vision into eternity, 2 Cor. 5:7, “We walk by faith and not by sight.”…No man shall ever behold the glory of Christ by sight hereafter, who doth not in some measure behold it by faith here in this world.”