Owen: Only Christ’s Righteousness For Us

In eternal vengeance will he plead with the adversaries of his beloved, Matt. 25:41–46; 2 Thess. 1:6; Jude 15. It is hence evident that Christ abounds in pity and compassion towards his beloved. Instances might be multiplied, but these things are obvious, and occur to the thoughts of all.

In answer to this, I place in the saints chastity unto Christ, in every state and condition. That this might be the state of the church of Corinth, the apostle made it his endeavour. 2 Cor. 11:2, 3, “I have espoused you to one husband, that I may present you as a chaste virgin to Christ. But I fear, lest by any means, as the serpent beguiled Eve through his subtilty, so your minds should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ” And so is it said of the followers of the Lamb, on mount Sion, Rev. 14:4, “These are they which were not defiled with women, for they are virgins.” What defilement that was they were free from, shall be afterward declared.

Now, there are three things wherein this chastity consists:—

1. The not taking any thing into their affections and esteem for those ends and purposes for which they have received Jesus Christ. Here the Galatians failed in their conjugal affection to Christ; they preserved not themselves chaste to him. They had received Christ for life, and justification, and him only; but being after a while overcome with charms, or bewitched, they took into the same place with him the righteousness of the law. How Paul deals with them hereupon is known. How sorely, how pathetically doth he admonish them, how severely reprove them, how clearly convince them of their madness and folly! This, then, is the first chaste affection believers bear in their heart to Christ:—having received him for their righteousness and salvation before God, for the fountain, spring, and well-head of all their supplies, they will not now receive any other thing into his room and in his stead. As to instance, in one particular:—We receive him for our acceptance with God. All that here can stand in competition with him for our affections, must be our own endeavours for a righteousness to commend us to God. Now, this must be either before we receive him, or after. [As] for all duties and endeavours, of what sort soever, for the pleasing of God before our receiving of Christ, you know what was the apostle’s frame, Phil. 3:8–10. All endeavours, all advantages, all privileges, he rejects with indignation, as loss,—with abomination, as dung; and winds up all his aims and desires in Christ alone and his righteousness, for those ends and purposes. But the works we do after we have received Christ are of another consideration. Indeed, they are acceptable to God; it pleaseth him that we should walk in them. But as to that end for which we receive Christ, [they are] of no other account than the former, Eph. 2:8–10. Even the works we do after believing,—those which we are created unto in Christ Jesus, those that God hath ordained that believers “should walk in them,”—as to justification and acceptance with God, (here called salvation), are excluded.
John Owen | Of Communion with God: The Father, Sonne, and Holy Ghost, Each Person Distinctly; in Love, Grace, and Consolation: Or The Saints Fellowship With the Father, Sonne, and Holy Ghost Unfolded, in The Works of John Owen (Carlisle: The Banner of Truth Trust, repr. 2009), 2:146–147..


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    Post authored by:

  • Inwoo Lee
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    Inwoo Lee (BA, UCSD) earned his MA (Historical Theology) in 2020 from Westminster Seminary California and is author of “Righteous Before God: William Perkins’ Doctrine of Justification in Elizabethan England” (MA Thesis, Westminster Seminary California, 2020). He lives in the Great Seoul area, in South Korea with his wife Holly.

    More by Inwoo Lee ›

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