TbT@ITT: John Owen on Unregenerate Man - West London Alliance Church

Originally posted March 13, 2009:

I am a couple of chapters into Sinclair B. Ferguson's book entitled John Owen On The Christian Life. Ferguson is sharing an overview of John Owen's theology on a wide range of issues.

John Owen sums up the unregenerate man with a succinct picture in '3-D'; darkness, depravity, and death. Owen believes that unregenerate man has:

darkness in the mind
depravity in the will
death in the soul

Thus, we are in desperate need of Deliverance; REGENERATION. Because, to Owen, "... the magnitude of regeneration is measured by the fact that grace delivers, renews and alleviates man from all he has known by way of bondage, darkness, death and corruption under the dominion of sin." (41) To Owen, regeneration:

grants understanding and renewal to the mind
gives vilification to the will
implants a new love in the affections