Glory of Christ by John Owen (Available from Amazon or free here) - Read Chapter 5 (The glory of Christ in his love) and Chapter 6 (The glory of Christ in the discharge of his mediatory office).
(i) the susception of this office;
(ii) the discharge of this office;
(iii) the event and consequence thereof, or what ensued thereon.
Then last week we dealt with the susception of this office in regard to Christ's condescension. Now this week in Chapter V we see the susception of Jesus' office also manifests love. We observe:
(i) the love of the Father in the susception of the office of mediator;
(ii) the love of the Son in the susception of the office of mediator.
Then we are given exhortations to contemplate the love of God:
(i) labour that your minds may continually be fitted and prepared for such heavenly contemplations;
(ii) be not satisfied with general notions concerning the love of Christ (consider whose love it is; and its ways and means, freedom and efficacy).
Then we read Chapter VI which looks at Owen's second main point about the glory of Christ in the discharge of his mediatory office.
Firstly we note what Jesus did. His obedience was:
(i) to the law of God;
(ii) for us;
(iii) absolutely universal and absolutely perfect;
(iv) against all difficulties and oppositions;
(v) glorious principally from the consideration of the person of Jesus.
Secondly Owen teaches us about the glory of Christ in what he suffered in the discharge of the office of mediator.
Wonderful to mediate about the obedience of Christ to the law: 'What he did, what obedience he yielded unto the law of God in the discharge of his office (with respect whereunto he said, “Lo, I come to do thy will, O God; yea, thy law is in my heart”), it was all on his own free choice or election, and was resolved thereinto alone. It is our duty to endeavour after freedom, willingness, and cheerfulness in all our obedience. Obedience has its formal nature from our wills. So much as there is of our wills in what we do towards God, so much there is of obedience, and no more. Howbeit we are, antecedently unto all acts of our own wills, obliged unto all that is called obedience. From the very constitution of our natures we are necessarily subject unto the law of God. All that is left unto us is a voluntary compliance with unavoidable commands; with him it was not so. An act of his own will and choice preceded all obligation as unto obedience. He obeyed because he would, before because he ought. He said, “Lo, I come to do thy will, O God,” before he was obliged to do that will. By his own choice, and that in an act of infinite condescension and love, as we have showed, he was “made of a woman,” and thereby “made under the law.” In his divine person he was Lord of the law, — above it, — no more obnoxious unto its commands than its curse. Neither was he afterwards in himself, on his own account, unobnoxious unto its curse merely because he was innocent, but also because he was every way above the law itself, and all its force.'
His obedience is nothing like ours!
Next week's reading
Read Chapters 7 (The glory of Christ in his exaltation) and 8 (Representations of the Glory of Christ under the Old Testament).
Please post your own notes and thoughts in the comments section below.
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