110+ John Owen Quotes (Puritan, Reformed And Theology)

John Owen was an English theologian, pastor, and academic from the 17th century. He was a Calvinist and a major figure in the Particular Baptist movement. He is best known for his works on the doctrine of justification by faith alone and his defense of Puritan theology.

Top 10 John Owen Quotes

1. Satan's greatest success is in making people think they have plenty of time before they die to consider their eternal welfare.
2. Christ did not die for any upon condition, if they do believe; but He died for all God's elect, that they should believe.
3. Every time we say we believe in the Holy Spirit, we mean we believe that there is a living God able and willing to enter human personality and change it.
4. Be killing sin or it will be killing you.
5. The first and principal duty of a pastor is to feed the flock by diligent preaching of the word
6. We can have no power from Christ unless we live in a persuasion that we have none of our own.
7. We are never nearer Christ than when we find ourselves lost in a holy amazement at His unspeakable love.
8. The greatest sorrow and burden you can lay on the Father, the greatest unkindness you can do to him is not to believe that he loves you.
9. For to pretend that men may live habitually sinful lives without any attempt by the Spirit to mortify sin in them, nor with any desire for repentance, is to deny the Christian religion.
10. Nothing shall be lost that is done for God or in obedience to Him.

John Owen Short Quotes

• Christ's blood is the great sovereign remedy for sin-sick souls.
• There wanted not some beams of light to guide men in the exercise of their Stocastick faculty.
• We ought as much to pray for a blessing upon our daily rod as upon our daily bread.
• Sin is never less quiet than when it seems to be most quiet.
• All attempts, then, for mortification of any lust, without an interest in Christ, are vain.
• It is truth alone that capacitates any soul to glorify God.
• The root of an unmortified course is the digestion of sin without bitterness in the heart.
• When sin lets us alone we may let sin alone.
• Mortification is the soul's vigorous opposition to self, wherein sincerity is most evident.
• Selfishness is the making a man's self his own centre, the beginning and end of all he doeth.

John Owen Famous Quotes And Sayings

Though we are commanded to 'wash ourselves', to 'cleanse ourselves from sins', to 'purge ourselves from all our iniquities', yet to imagine that we can do these things by our own efforts is to trample on the cross and grace of Jesus Christ. Whatever God works in us by his grace, he commands us to do as our duty. God works all in us and by us. — John Owen

The person who understands the evil in his own heart is the only person who is useful, fruitful, and solid in his beliefs and obedience. Others only delude themselves and thus upset families, churches, and all other relationships. In their self-pride and judgment of others, they show great inconsistency. — John Owen

The foundation of true holiness and true Christian worship is the doctrine of the gospel, what we are to believe. So when Christian doctrine is neglected, forsaken, or corrupted, true holiness and worship will also be neglected, forsaken, and corrupted. — John Owen

Let no man think to kill sin with few, easy, or gentle strokes. He who hath once smitten a serpent, if he follow not on his blow until it be slain, may repent that ever he began the quarrel. And so he who undertakes to deal with sin, and pursues it not constantly to the death. — John Owen

To say that we are able by our own efforts to think good thoughts or give God spiritual obedience before we are spiritually regenerate is to overthrow the gospel and the faith of the universal church in all ages. — John Owen

Pardon comes not to the soul alone; or rather, Christ comes not to the soul with pardon only! It is that which He opens the door and enters by, but He comes with a Spirit of life and power. — John Owen

The growth of trees and plants takes place so slowly that it is not easily seen. Daily we notice little change. But, in course of time, we see that a great change has taken place. So it is with grace. Sanctification is a progressive, lifelong work (Prov 4:18). It is an amazing work of God's grace and it is a work to be prayed for (Rom 8:27). — John Owen

A true saving knowledge of sin is to be had only in the Lord Christ: in him may we see the desert of our iniquities. — John Owen

Temptation is like a knife, that may either cut the meat or the throat of a man; it may be his food or his poison, his exercise or his destruction. — John Owen

There is not a day but sin foils or is foiled, prevails or is prevailed upon. It will always be so while we live in this world. Sin will not spare for one day. There is no safety but in a constant warfare for those who desire deliverance from sin's perplexing rebellion. — John Owen

Did you never run for shelter in a storm, and find fruit which you expected not? Did you never go to God for safeguard, driven by outward storms, and there find unexpected fruit? — John Owen

As a tender and loving friend is grieved at the unkindness of his friend... so is it with this tender and loving Spirit, who hath chosen our hearts for a habitation to dwell in. — John Owen

It is one thing to fear God as threatening, with a holy reverence, and another to be afraid of the evil threatened. — John Owen

There is only one way to be revived and healed from our backslidings so that we may become fruitful even in old age. We must take a steady look at the glory of Christ in His special character, in His grace and work, as shown to us in the Scripture. — John Owen

Sin also carries on its war by entangling the affections and drawing them into an alliance against the mind. Grace may be enthroned in the mind, but if sin controls the affections, it has seized a fort from which it will continually assault the soul. Hence, as we shall see, mortification is chiefly directed to take place upon the affections. — John Owen

All that may be known of God for our salvation, especially his wisdom, love, goodness, grace and mercy on which the life of our souls depends, are represented to us in all their splendour in and through Christ. No wonder then that Christ is glorious in the eyes of believers! — John Owen

The good Lord send out a spirit of mortification to cure our distempers, or we are in a sad condition! — John Owen

A man may be carried on in a constant course of mortification all his days; and yet perhaps never enjoy a good day of peace and consolation. — John Owen

Never was sin seen to be more abominably sinful and full of provocation than when the burden of it was upon the shoulders of the Son of God...Would you, then, see the true demerit of sin?-take the measure of it from the mediation of Christ, especially his cross. — John Owen

When someone sets his affections upon the cross and the love of Christ, he crucifies the world as a dead and undesirable thing. The baits of sin lose their attraction and disappear. Fill your affections with the cross of Christ and you will find no room for sin. — John Owen

Mortification from a self-strength, carried on by ways of self-invention, unto the end of a self-righteousness, is the soul and substance of all false religion in the world. — John Owen

Set faith at work on Christ for the killing of thy sin. His blood is the great sovereign remedy for sin-sick souls. Live in this, and thou wilt die a conqueror; yea, thou wilt, through the good providence of God, live to see thy lust dead at thy feet. — John Owen

He that is more frequent in his pulpit to his people than he is in his closet for his people, is but a sorry watchman. — John Owen

Steadfastness in believing doth not exclude all temptations from without. When we say a tree is firmly rooted, we do not say the wind never blows upon it. — John Owen

As rivers, the nearer they come to the ocean whither they tend, the more they increase their waters, and speed their streams; so will grace flow more fully and freely in its near approaches to the ocean of glory. — John Owen

See in the meantime that your faith brings forth obedience, and God in due time will cause it to bring forth peace. — John Owen

So great an advantage is given to sin and Satan by your temper and disposition, that without extraordinary watchfulness, care, and diligence, they will prevail against your soul. — John Owen

Whatever vices and corruptions men see in the lives of their ministers will not be attributed to the depravity of their old nature which still abides in them, but to the gospel. — John Owen

Christ is the meat, the bread, the food of our souls. Nothing is in him of a higher spiritual nourishment than his love, which we should always desire. — John Owen

What then is holiness? Holiness is nothing but the implanting, writing and living out of the gospel in our souls (Eph 4:24). — John Owen

As among all the doctrines of the gospel, there is none opposed with more violence and subtlety than that concerning our regeneration by the immediate, powerful, effectual operation of the Holy Spirit of grace. — John Owen

...but let it suffice us to know that it became God, who is the supreme Ruler, Governor and Judge of all that sin should be punished with death in the sinner or his surety; and therefore if God would bring many sons to glory, the Captain of their salvation must undergo sufferings and death, to make satisfaction for them. — John Owen

He works in us and with us, not against us or without us; so that his assistance is an encouragement to the facilitating of the work, and no occasion of neglect as to the work itself. — John Owen

Without absolutes revealed from without by God Himself, we are left rudderless in a sea of conflicting ideas about manners, justice and right and wrong, issuing from a multitude of self-opinionated thinkers. — John Owen

Spiritual wisdom consists in finding out the subtleties, policies, and depths of any indwelling sin... to trace this serpent in all its turnings and windings; be able to say, at its most secret actings, 'This is your old way and course; I know what you aim at.' — John Owen

The mortification of indwelling sin remaining in our mortal bodies, that it may not have life and power to bring forth the works or deeds of the flesh is the constant duty of believers. — John Owen

All spiritual acts well-pleasing unto God, as faith, repentance, obedience, are supernatural; flesh and blood revealeth not these things. — John Owen

This day was yesterday to-morrow nam'd: To-morrow shall be yesterday proclaimed: To-morrow not yet come, not far away, What shall to-morrow then be call'd? To-day. — John Owen

It is not the glorious battlements, the painted windows, the crouching gargoyles that support a building, but the stones that lie unseen in or upon the earth. It is often those who are despised and trampled on that bear up the weight of a whole nation. — John Owen

Labour to grow better under all your afflictions, lest your afflictions grow worse, lest God mingle them with more darkness, bitterness and terror. — John Owen

The choicest believers, who are assuredly freed from the condemning power of sin, ought yet to make it their business all their days to mortify the indwelling power of sin. — John Owen

He can make the dry parched ground of my soul to become a pool and my thirsty barren heart as springs of water. Yes he can make this habitation of dragons this heart which is so full of abominable lusts and fiery temptations to be a place of bounty and fruitfulness unto Himself — John Owen

You have your season, and you have but your season; neither can you lie down in peace, until you have some persuasion that your work as well as your life is at an end. — John Owen

What do we want? What would we be at? What do our souls desire? Is it not that we might have a more full, clear, stable comprehension of the wisdom, love, grace, goodness, holiness, righteousness, and power of God, as declared and exalted in Christ unto our redemption and eternal salvation? — John Owen

Christ is our best friend, and ere long will be our only friend. I pray God with all my heart that I may be weary of everything else but converse and communion with Him. — John Owen

A man may easier see without eyes, speak without a tongue, than truly mortify one sin without the Spirit. — John Owen

It is not the distance of the earth from the sun, nor the sun's withdrawing itself, that makes a dark and gloomy day; but the interposition of clouds and vaporous exhalations. Neither is thy soul beyond the reach of the promise, nor does God withdraw Himself; but the vapours of thy carnal, unbelieving heart do cloud thee. — John Owen

Longing, breathing, and panting after deliverance is a grace in itself, that has a mighty power to conform the soul into the likeness of the thing longed after...unless you long for deliverance you shall not have it. — John Owen

In or towards whomsoever the Holy Spirit puts forth His power, or acts his grace for their regeneration, he removes all obstacles, overcomes all oppositions, and infallibly produces the intended effect. — John Owen

When the Holy Spirit sanctifies believers, he does a complete work in them. He puts into their minds, wills and hearts a gracious, supernatural principle which fills them with a holy desire to live to God. The whole life and being of holiness lies in this. This is the new creation. — John Owen

The love of God is like himself – equal, constant, not capable of augmentation or diminution; our love is like ourselves – unequal, increasing, waning, growing, declining. His, like the sun, always the same in its light, though a cloud may sometimes interpose; ours, as the moon, has its enlargements and straightenings. — John Owen

When we have communion with God in the doctrine we contend for-then shall we be garrisoned by the grace of God against all the assaults of men. — John Owen

Temptation gains power where we see it prevail in others we know and we express neither shock or hatred of them and their ways nor pity and prayer for their deliverance. — John Owen

To the sick man the physician when he enters seems to have three faces, those of a man, a devil, a god. When the physician first comes and announces the safety of the patient, then the sick man says: "Behold a God or a guardian angel! — John Owen

When the heart is once won to rest in God, to repose himself on him, he will assuredly satisfy it. He will never be as water that fails; nor hath he said at any time to the seed of Jacob, "Seek ye my face in vain." If Christ be chosen for the foundation of our supply, he will not fail us. — John Owen

Now nothing can prevent this but mortification; that withers the root and strikes at the head of sin every hour, so that whatever it aims at it is crossed in. — John Owen

The stronghold of the contemplation of Christ's glory affords the soul rest, for it will be made evident that our troubles grow on the root of an over-valuation of temporal things. The mind is its own greatest troubler. — John Owen

When sin lets us alone we may let sin alone; but as sin is never less quiet than when it seems to be most quiet, and its waters are for the most part deep when they are still, so ought our contrivances against it to be vigorous at all times and in all conditions, even where there is least suspicion. — John Owen

By faith ponder on this, that though thou art no way able in or by thyself to get the conquest over thy distemper, though thou art even weary of contending, and art utterly ready to faint, yet that there is enough in Jesus Christ to yield thee relief. — John Owen

It must be observed, that the best of men, the most holy and spiritually minded, may have, nay, ought to have, their thoughts of spiritual things excited, multiplied, and confirmed, by the preaching of the word. — John Owen

That wisdom which cannot teach me that God is love, shall ever pass for folly. — John Owen

Let not that man think he makes any progress in holiness who walks not over the bellies of his lusts. He who doth not kill sin in this way takes no steps toward his journey's end. — John Owen

Hatred of sin as sin, not only as galling or disquieting, a sense of the love of Christ in the cross, lie at the bottom of all true spiritual mortification. — John Owen

There are two things that are suited to humble the souls of men, and they are, first, a due consideration of God, and then of themselves - of God, in His greatness, glory, holiness, power, majesty, and authority; of ourselves, in our mean, abject, and sinful condition. — John Owen

Without a sincere and diligent effort in every area of obedience, there will be no sucessful mortification of any one besetting sin. — John Owen

Not to be daily mortifying sin, is to sin against the goodness, kindness, wisdom, grace, and love of God, who hath furnished us with a principle of doing it. — John Owen

We admit no faith to be justifying, which is not itself and in its own nature a spiritually vital principle of obedience and good works. — John Owen

Temptation gains power by persistent solicitations that beget thoughts that make evil less serious — John Owen

Your state is not at all to be measured by the opposition that sin makes to you, but by the opposition you make to it. — John Owen

There is a state of perfect peace with God to be attained under imperfect obedience. — John Owen

There is not a day but sin foils or is foiled, prevails or is prevailed on; and it will be so whilst we live in this world. — John Owen

Assurance encourateth us in our combat; it delivers us not from it. We may have peace with God when we have done from the assaults of Satan. — John Owen

It is a throne of grace that God in Christ is represented to us upon; but yet is is a throne still whereon majesty and glory do reside, and God is always to be considered by us as on a throne. — John Owen

Herein would I live; herein would I die; hereon would I dwell in my thoughts and affections; to the withering and consumption of all the painted beauties of this world, unto the crucifying all things here below, until they become unto me a dead and deformed thing, no way meet for affectionate embraces. — John Owen

the whole Pelagian poison of free-will ... a clear exaltation of the old idol free-will into the throne of God ... That the decaying estate of Christianity have invented. — John Owen

The least grace is a better security for heaven than the greatest gifts or privileges whatsoever. — John Owen

Only what God has commanded in His word should be regarded as binding; in all else there may be liberty of actions. — John Owen

Unless men see a beauty and delight in the worship of God, they will not do it willingly. — John Owen

If a man teach uprightly and walk crookedly, more will fall down in the night of his life than he built in the day of his doctrine. — John Owen

The vigor and power and comfort of our spiritual life depends on our mortification of deeds of the flesh. — John Owen

Do you mortify? Do you make it your daily work? Be always at it whilst you live; cease not a day from this work; be killing sin or it will be killing you. — John Owen

All thing I thought I knew; but now confess, the more I know I know, I know the less. — John Owen

A natural man hath no such thing as free-will at all, if you take it for a power of doing that which is good and well-pleasing unto God in things spiritual. — John Owen

Unless we are thoroughly convinced that without Christ we are under the eternal curse of God, as the worst of His enemies, we shall never flee to Him for refuge. — John Owen

Leanness of body and soul may go together. — John Owen

To believe that He will preserve us is, indeed, a means of preservation. God will certainly preserve us, and make a way of escape for us out of the temptation, should we fall. We are to pray for what God has already promised. Our requests are to be regulated by His promises and commands. Faith embraces the promises and so finds relief. — John Owen

Sin will be always acting, if we be not always mortifying, we are lost creatures. — John Owen

The duties God requires of us are not in proportion to the strength we possess in ourselves. Rather, they are proportional to the resources available to us in Christ. We do not have the ability in ourselves to accomplish the least of God's tasks. This is the law of grace. When we recognize it is impossible for us to perform a duty in our own strength, we will discover the secret of its accomplishment. — John Owen

The most tremendous judgment of God in this world is the hardening of the hearts of men. — John Owen

The purpose of our holy and righteous God was to save his church, but their sin could not go unpunished. It was, therefore, necessary that the punishment for that sin be transferred from those who deserved it but could not bear it, to one who did not deserve it but was able to bear it. — John Owen

Life Lessons by John Owen

1. John Owen taught that Christians should strive to live a life of holiness and purity, and to be obedient to God's will.
2. He also emphasized the importance of prayer and meditation, and the need to be watchful against temptation.
3. Owen also believed that the Bible should be studied and understood in its entirety, and that believers should be active in the service of God.