Customer Reviews

The Glory of Christ (Puritan Paperbacks: Treasures of John Owen for Today's Readers)

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To meditate on the person of Christ in all His glory will be beneficial to anyone who love the Christ of the Scriptures. Any book that can help us to see something of His glory is certainly worthy of our time and attention. John Owen was undoubtably one of the great Puritan theologians, and among the greatest theologians that the Church of Christ has ever had.
Most would agree that Owens style of writing makes him much more difficult to read than some other prominent Puritans such as Thomas Watson,Jeremiah Burroughs,Richard Baxter and Thomas Manton.Since many find Owen so difficult to read hopefully the abridgements that R.J.K.Law has done will give some of John Owens more important works the wider audience which they so richly deserve. Owens 'Meditations on the Glory of Christ ' were first published a year after his death.
John Owen being near death contemplated much on the Glory of his Saviour and these meditations are the fruit of those c9ontemplations at that time in his life.
In the chapter 'Beholding the Glory of Christ by Faith and by Sight' Owen writes on p.102 " The actual sight of Christ is what all the saints of God desire in this life more than anything else-to depart to be with Christ(Phil.1:23);'to be absent from the body and present with the Lord'(2Cor.5:8).Those who do not long for this sight of Christ's glory as their highest joy are unspiritual and blind."
When we contemplate the glory of Christ our minds soar from the things of earth and we are enabled to set our hearts on the things above.If your love for the Lord Jesus Christ is waning ,this is one of those rare books(that under God's blessing)can take that spark of love and fan it into a roaring flame.

John Owen's The Glory of Christ is an indispensable volume of notations concerning our maker and redeemer. Not simply on his character, although this makes up a huge portion of his words, but more specifically how that affects his people.

This version of The Glory of Christ was republished by Banner of Truth (quickly growing to be one of my favorite publishers) and was abridged and made easy to read by R.J.K Law. If you've ever read Owen's work in its original form, what you'll find is a profound body of text that takes four or five times as long to consume as regular literature. Partly because of the period writing style, but also, Owen clearly carried an anointing from God of some sort that allowed him to expound profound and difficult spiritual truths. You'll find Owen's work more potent that almost anything you pull off a Christian bookshop today (even in its abridged form). Banner of Truth has given Law's work their stamp of approval to say that it is a very reverent treatment of Owen's original text. While I have not read Owen's original work, I do trust Banner of Truth's judgment.

Owen begins his treaties by explaining that all spiritual vigor rises out of the believers gazing upon Christ's glory; his divine attributes, his abundant mercies, his penetrating love. From this conviction, Owen teaches us about some of the different ways we can view Christ as glorious: as God's representative, in his person, in his humbling himself, in his love as a mediator, in his work as a mediator, in his exaltation, his presence in the Old Testament, his oneness with his Church, in his giving himself to the Church and in his work to restore all things to glory in him.

Owen explains the difference between viewing Christ by sight and viewing Christ by faith. We see that in this life, our hope is found in viewing Christ by faith, but in the life to come, we will view him by sight in his glory as we also will be glorified. Owen closes his argument with a stirring arrest of spiritual decay; how it is seen, identified and fought against.

This book, unlike any other I have read before stirred me to excitement over my own future glory in Christ. Heaven remains an abstract idea, however, Owen's descriptions of Christ's glorified state and our inheritance therein have stirred me to excitement and hope. For me, that has seemed providential; the truths that Owen lays out in this work provided encouragement necessary to me as I have been working through a spiritually trying period.

I recommend this book to all believers. You will find it easy to read and easy to understand. The truths and exhortations in this text are indispensable and have the potential for good fruit in any faithful believer.

I bought this book for my dad for his B-day and he anjoyed it very much and I cannot wait to read it!

Here Owen attempted to expose the excellencies of Christ from various points of view in the Scriptures including the Old Testament, a much needed reminder for Christians; both laymen and preachers, what the gospel is all about. Way too often some modern-day preachers share man-centered gospel and describe salvation through Christ as if it were simply a fire insurance policy to keep people out of hell.
However, despite the abridged version and a sincere effort by Dr. Law to make the text more readable than the original one, I still tend to like a similar text by Jonathan Edwards entitled "The Excellencies of Christ" (1736) better. Maybe I just wasn't patient enough to slowly go through it, like "a title gazer, one who comest into books as Cato into the theatre, to go out again..."