Most people would agree with the first half of Owen’s statement, keep your thoughts on the things above, the things of God.  The last part might confuse some, “the state of future glory,” but will be the focus of this post. 

The Christian is one who looks ahead in life to a time when the eternal plan of God will be culminated.  When things are bad in the present world, what do we long for?  We long for a time where we will have no more troubles, no more fears, or tears, a time where we can worship the Lord Christ unblemished.  To be spiritually minded is to keep one’s focus on a time when the stain of sin will no longer distort our view of God, and of ourselves. 

This is what the Book of Revelation points to, specifically in chapters 21-22.  The New Heavens and New Earth will be a place where sin does not exist and has no possibility of ever coming in.  The Abrahamic Covenant will find complete fulfillment because God will be a God to His people in a place without disease, sin or death.  The Book of Revelation is completely practical and understandably, yet contemporary Christianity tells us not to read it because it’s too hard to understand.

Next time you’re digusted with your lot in life, wondering how come such horrible and wicked things can happen, look toward the future state; the future state without sin that you will be a part of based on the redemptive work of Jesus Christ.  Every bad thing that happens to you in this life is a mere shadow of the hell God has saved you from; every good thing is a mere shadow of the joy you will experience in God’s presence in eternity.

How does one know they truly believe in Jesus Christ?  One of the primary ways is what Owen mentions here, the thought life of a person.  If you want to know how well you are being conformed to the image of Jesus Christ, evaluate your thought life.  At the end of the day sift through your thoughts for the day.  Were they fixed upon the Savior, or frivolous items that have no bearing on eternity?  Were they fixed on ways to better glorify God through Christ, or ways to better hide your heinous sins?  If I were to tell you my thoughts for the day you’d never come back to this blog because of the wicked sin I produce everyday.  The only way to fix that is to mortify the evil thoughts by replacing them with good thoughts on the Savior (vivification).

This passage is one of my favorites by Owen because it points to the beauty of the Savior and His supremacy and sovereignty over our circumstances. No matter what trouble, tribulation or sin we are experiencing the believer can always have rest by dwelling on Christ. He is beautiful, lovely and worthy of all our praise and adoration even in the darkest of times. When our minds and affections are set on Him we have peace through our dwelling on the Prince of Peace. The believer’s goal for their sanctification is to find everlasting satisfaction in the Savior, not in their circumstances, material possessions, of God forbid, their sin.

This quote by Owen tells of the travesty of many who profess Christianity; they fail at one of their greatest obligations, to study themselves to see the severity of their sin in light of the holiness of God.  How can one truly come to a right knowledge of sin if they don’t study themselves to see how far short they fall of God’s glory?  If one fails to see the glory of God through Christ, thus turning and looking inward at their own grievous sins, they will never be obedient because they don’t completely realized the evil that lies within them.

There are two applications that stem from Owen’s quote; know God and know yourself.  It seems all of Owen’s thought comes back to this time and time again.  If one properly views God as God, then they will properly view themselves as a sinner.  It is the indwelling sin of humanity that keeps them from seeing the evil in their own heart.  It is indwelling sin that keeps them at a distance from Christ.  In the words of Owen, “Men are made blind by sin, and cannot see his excellencies; obstinate and not lay hold of his righteousness; senseless and take no notice of their own eternal concernments” (Indwelling, 308).

This is such a concise, yet profound statement of Owen. He likes to write long, compound, run-on sentences most of the time, but every once in a while he’ll get something nice and short as this. Every time we sin, we are weary of God and fail to take Him at His word. God has revealed to us in the Scriptures how we are to live, “For if you live according to the flesh you will die, but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live” (Rom 8:13). We know this, yet we fail everyday. We are weary that the almighty God who spoke the universe into existence is actually telling us the truth.

This can also be tied to the providence of God in ordaining everything in history. I am often weary of the place in life that I am currently in. As one who believes in the providence of God, anytime I doubt the sovereign plan of God I sin. Quite often I wonder what life would be like I had not taken a new job back in December and I wish I were back at my old job. When doing this I sin because I am weary of God and don’t trust that His sovereign plan is better than my own preferences.

On April 20 when my first son, Reese Owen, was born, I was out of town. He came a month early and we obviously did not plan on him being born while I was gone. As I listened in the Kansas City airport to the birth of my son over a cell phone, I wondered “Why is God doing this to me? Why would He ordain that I miss the birth of my son?” In asking these questions, I finally realize that I don’t deserve to know and have no right to get the answers. God is sovereign and I am not. If I seek to continually dwell on why His sovereign plan doesn’t match up to my own preferences, I sin because I am being weary of Him.

When we fall victim to lust, greed or envy, at the heart this is being weary of how God has provided for us. We want more and hope for more than God has granted to us to the point we long for what others have. As the author to the Hebrews says about the glorious Son of God, “Consider him who endured from sinners such hostility against himself, so that you may not grow weary or fainthearted” (Heb 12:3).

This statement by Owen seems to be one of great confusion to Christian believers. If God’s grace has come to the believer through His Son Jesus Christ, and the believer is now indwelt with the Holy Spirit, why would there still be an inclining to evil? Not only is the believer inclining toward evil, as Owen says, but they are actively rebelling as well. But how can this be? Doesn’t something change at the moment of salvation?

This statement of Owen’s also has similarities to Luther’s statement, simul justus et peccator, simultaneously justified yet sinful. At salvation, the believer is still just as sinful and wicked as they were the moment before, yet now they have a new set of affections. Nothing inherently changes in the believer when they are justified by God through His Son, Jesus Christ. They have a heart of stone instead of a heart of flesh, but the remnants of sin’s reign still resides in them. Their mind is still depraved, they still lust with their flesh, and they rebel against God, but now it’s something they don’t want to do. They sin but there is also another influence, that of the Holy Spirit, moving them toward repentance and righteousness.

So, Owen would say that believers are simultaneously inclined toward evil through the outworking of indwelling sin, as well as inclined toward good through the outworking of their new set of affections given to them at the moment of salvation.

Owen keeps the biblical emphasis on sin where it should be. He sees the power sin holds on all humanity and even after regeneration, believers still have the power of sin to fight against. As Dr. John Hannah would say, “the remnants of sin’s once proud reign” still reside in the believer, even after justification. This upholds the reformation saying of simul justus et peccator. Justification gives us a right standing with God based on the sacrificial and substitutionary death of Jesus Christ, but it does not inherently change us from sinners to righteous persons. We are simultaneously justified and sinful.

Believers will fight against sin until the day they die and at any given moment in their life there will be ample evidence of their regenerate state, and at the same time of their unregenerate state. Those who profess faith in Christ have three options:

1) they can be saints where they fight against sin until the day they die.

2) they can be hypocrites where they continually give in to sin and remain unrepentant.

3) they can be apostates where they turn their back on the gospel and revel and glory in their sin.