Gospel Evidences of Saving Faith: Puritan Treasures for Today

Puritan Treasures for Today

by John Owen

Although believers have a right to every spiritual comfort in Christ, remaining sin and temptation often hinder them from enjoying these blessings. In Gospel Evidences of Saving Faith, John Owen recognizes that faith “is the root on which all genuine comforts grow,” and these comforts “are ordinarily shared by believers in proportion to the evidences of true faith in their lives.” Owen investigates the proper operations of faith that demonstrate its genuineness, encouraging us to cling fast to Christ, pursue holiness, commune with God through worship, and bring our souls into a special state of repentance. Do you wish to glorify God more and have greater enjoyment in the comforts of Christ? Find inspiration in this pastoral consideration of the evidences of saving faith.

Table of Contents:

First Evidence: Choosing, Embracing, and Approving God’s Way of Saving Sinners through the Work of Christ Alone
Second Evidence: Habitually Approving of the Holiness and Obedience God Requires as Revealed in Scripture
Third Evidence: Consistently Endeavoring to Keep All Grace in Exercise in All Ordinances of Divine Worship
Fourth Evidence: Bringing the Soul into a Special State of Repentance


Series Description

Interest in the Puritans continues to grow, but many people find reading these giants of the faith a bit unnerving. This series seeks to overcome that barrier by presenting Puritan books that are convenient in size and unintimidating in length. Each book is carefully edited with modern readers in mind, smoothing out difficult language of a bygone era while retaining the meaning of the original authors. Books for the series are thoughtfully selected to provide some of the best counsel on important subjects that people continue to wrestle with today.



Author

John Owen (1616–1683) was an English Puritan who served as vice-chancellor of Oxford University and pastor of congregations in Coggeshall and London. His works have been reprinted by Banner of Truth Trust.



Endorsement

“This little book, which distills the great themes of John Owen's long and often complex treatises on the Christian life, has been overlooked for too long. Brian Hedges's careful and sensitive revision renews the force of its arguments. There could be no easier way to engage with Owen's theology of the Christian life in his four hundredth anniversary year.” — Crawford Gribben, author of John Owen and English Puritanism: Experiences of Defeat

Genres: Christian, Theology, Nonfiction

92 pages, Kindle Edition

Published June 7, 2016

About the author

John Owen was an English theologian and "was without doubt not only the greatest theologian of the English Puritan movement but also one of the greatest European Reformed theologians of his day, and quite possibly possessed the finest theological mind that England ever produced" ("Owen, John", in Biographical Dictionary of Evangelicals, p. 494)

Reviews

[Peyton Gunter · Rating 4 out of 5]

“Whatever conflicts sin may be waging in and against our souls, whatever decays we may fall into, as long as inward holy shame and godly sorrow for sin is preserved, faith is evident in us.”

[Yibbie · Rating 1 out of 5]

I’ve been blessed by some of Owen’s other books. This one though was rough. Not that there aren’t good lessons, but if we base our security on the amount of our love, sorrow, shame, and religious devotion, we are setting ourselves up on quicksand. For who can know if the love enough, are sufficiently sorrowful over sin, or any other measure of emotion is accurate? Not that we shouldn’t strive to love and desire God’s glory above all, but the measure of that desire doesn’t give us a very sure foundation for our confidence in God’s promise of salvation. That was what I found about most of these evidences. They were all based on our assessment of our own emotions, not on faith and obedience to Scripture.
I was expecting more exposition of verses such as “If thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved”, or “if you love me, you will keep my commandments”, or “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, Meekness, temperance: against such there is no law. And they that are Christ's have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts. If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit. Let us not be desirous of vain glory, provoking one another, envying one another.” Those evidences were completely missing. It was very disappointing.

[Peter Kiss · Rating 5 out of 5]

Incredibly rich exposition of the basic of Christian living and true faith. Owen has a way of penetrating into the hearts of men, not only finding deep rooted sins but showing their conclusions and their source. I found this to be most evident on page 46, as he says "Men may imagine that if they could be excused in this or that instance regarding duties that they find dangerous and troublesome (like profession in the times of persecution), or if they could indulge in whatever sin their inclinations are very prone unto or that the world calls them to, they should be happy enough to obey other parts of the law. Many men act in this very way. They profess religion and obedience to God but withold their hearts from full obedience."

How true for those that try and cut out parts of Scripture when it comes to the nature of marital authority or the nature of marriage in general, but how true for sinners as a whole! "For whoever keeps the whole law but fails in one point has become guilty of all of it"

[Josh Olson · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is my first dive into the works of the Puritans.

John Owen’s words, brilliantly edited into today’s common parlance, is deeply relevant and spiritually powerful.

The series title is correct, these are treasures for the soul.

This book is a resource, encouragement, conviction, and refuge.

[Alex · Rating 5 out of 5]

I found this book to be very deep and thought provoking. (As all of Owen's works tend to be.)

[Isaac · Rating 3 out of 5]

Really good.

[Dutch Girl · Rating 5 out of 5]

Such a great book on saving grace.

[Mitchell Beck · Rating 5 out of 5]

Most of it has to be read very slowly and carefully. But it was very encouraging and helpful, especially in its practical advice on worshipping in faith and repenting of specific sins.

[Bess · Rating 5 out of 5]

In the first chapter of his book, John Owen, a Puritan from the 1600’s, in his book “Gospel Evidences of A Saving Faith” Explores various tenets of our Christian faith. He brings to light the fact that we are often apt to take faith for granted, ceasing to recall that without faith it is impossible to please God. (Hebrews 11:6), and that we are justified and sanctified through faith. Christianity, in its totality is rooted and grounded in faith, yet the ideology and framework is apt to change with cultural trends.
Scripture also reminds us that there exists a dead faith, that faith without works is dead.
He makes the following 2 points:
1. He Distinguishes authentic Christianity from all other facets of religion
2. He Stresses the fallacies of both antinomianism as well as a faith that is dead. l believe this would coincide with some degree of legalism. To grasp authentic faith one must be able to discern common errors that may appear on the surface to be rooted in the Scriptures yet are not. A pure desire to please God sets the stage more than anything for being able to distinguish between authentic faith and a faith that is dead.