John Owen on reliance on Christ to help mortify our sins:

“Let your soul admit this: ‘I am a pitiful, weak creature, unstable as water. I cannot excel. This corruption is too hard for me, and it is on the verge of ruining my soul. I do not know what to do. My soul has become

like parched ground, and a habitat for dragons. I have made promises and broken them; vows and engagements have meant nothing to me. I have had many temptations over which I got the victory. I should be delivered, but I am deceived. So I can plainly see that without some

superior help, I am lost. If I continue on this path, I will be triumphed over until I completely relinquish God. But although this is my condition, let the hands that hang down be lifted up, and the weak knees be strengthened. Behold the Lord Christ, who has all the fullness

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Matthew Pearson☩🕊

@_matthewpearson

15 Aug

John Owen on God’s patience with us despite our sin:

“Consider the opportunities he might have taken over a period of time to make you ashamed and reproached in this world, and an object of His wrath forever. Think about how you dealt treacherously and falsely with him from

time to time, flattered him with your lips, but broke all your promises and obligations through the sin you now pursue. And yet he has spared you time and again, despite the brazen way you put Him to the test to see how long he would hold off punishing you. And yet, will you

still sin against him? Will you continue to weary him, and make him put up with your immorality?
Have you not often concluded that it was completely impossible for him to bear with you any longer? Have you felt that he would cut you off and be gracious no more, that all his

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Matthew Pearson☩🕊

@_matthewpearson

15 Aug

John Owen on the role of Law and Gospel in the mortification of our sin:

“But if a man is so dominated by the power of his lust that he has nothing but the law to oppose it, then that sin possesses his will. If he cannot fight against it with gospel weapons, and deals with it

entirely by hell and judgment (which are the proper arms of the law), then it is evident that sin has conquered his will and his affections, and to a very great extent. Such a person has rejected the conduct of renewing grace. He is kept from ruin only by restraining grace.

He has fallen from grace and is now back under the power of the law. This must surely provoke Christ to anger. He has thrown off Christ’s easy, gentle yoke and rule, and put on the iron yoke of the law, just to indulge a lust.”

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Matthew Pearson☩🕊

@_matthewpearson

13 Aug

🧵
A thread on the objectivity of Christ's presence in the Supper in the Reformed tradition:

To begin, it's important to note that there are three common misconceptions people make upon hearing the Reformed position on the Supper.
These three misconceptions are as follows:

1. The bread and wine during the Supper remain only bread and wine, becoming nothing more.
2. A reception of Christ in the Supper is no different than a reception of him through any other means of grace.
3. There is no objective presence of Christ in the Supper because this

would mean that unworthy partakers receive the body and blood of Christ.

In response to these statements, we will clarify the Reformed position and demonstrate where these statements go wrong in their implications for Eucharistic theology.

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Matthew Pearson☩🕊

@_matthewpearson

12 Aug

Macarius the Great’s answer to the question of the meaning behind 1 Corinthians 2:9:

“At that time, the great and the righteous men, and kings and prophets, were aware indeed that the Redeemer was coming; but that He should suffer and be crucified, and His blood poured out upon

the cross, they neither knew, nor had they heard it; neither had it entered into their heart that there should be a baptism of fire and of the Holy Ghost, and that in the church bread and wine should be offered, the symbol of His flesh and blood, and that those who partake of the

visible bread eat spiritually the flesh of the Lord, and that the apostles and Christians receive the Paraclete, and are endued with power from on high, and are filled with the Godhead, and their souls mingled with the Holy Ghost. This the prophets and kings knew not, neither

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