Death of death in the death of Christ - Owen - XIII - Chapter 1 of Book 4 commenced

Required reading
Death of death in the death of Christ by John Owen (Available from Amazon or free here) - Commence Chapter 1 of Book 4 by reading up to the paragraph beginning '5. The extent, nature, and signification of those general terms which we have frequently used indefinitely in the Scripture to set out the object of the redemption by Christ, must seriously be weighed.'

My summary
Today we begin Book IV which gives answers to arguments for universal redemption.

But firstly in Chapter One Owen lays down some fundamental principles.  And today we see four of these principles:
(i) the dignity, worth, preciousness, and infinite value of the blood and death of Jesus Christ;
(ii) the economy of the new covenant in the times of the gospel;
(iii) the exact distinction between man's duty and God's purpose - there being no connection between them;
(iv) the ingrafted erroneous persuasion of the Jews restraining salvation and deliverance by the Messiah to themselves alone.

What grabbed me
An important point was made about how the Jewish thinking at the time of the New Testament encouraged the use of the words 'world' and 'all' in reference to Christ's death: 'The ingrafted erroneous persuasion of the Jews, which for a while had a strong influence upon the apostles themselves, restraining salvation and deliverance by the Messiah, or promised seed, to themselves alone, who were the offspring of Abraham according to the flesh, must be considered as the ground of many general expressions and enlargements of the objects of redemption; which yet, being so occasioned, give no colour of any unlimited universality. That the Jews were generally infected with this proud opinion, that all the promises belonged only to them and theirs, towards whom they had a universality, exclusive of all others, whom they called “dogs, uncircumcised,” and poured out curses on them, is most apparent. Hence, when they saw the multitudes of the Gentiles coming to the preaching of Paul, they were “filled with envy, contradicting, blaspheming, and raising up persecution against them,” Acts xiii. 45–50; which the apostle again relates of them, 1 Thess. ii. 15, 16. “They please not God,” saith he, “and are contrary to all men; forbidding us to speak to the Gentiles that they might be saved;” being not with any thing more enraged in the preaching of our Saviour than his prediction of letting out his vineyard to others. '

It is not surprising that the apostles used such sweeping language about the atonement when the Jews were so narrow in their understanding of the atonement.

May we not be too narrow and be Jews.  And may we not be too wide and be Arminians.  Rather let us cling to the elusive middle.

Next week's reading
Conclude Chapter 1 of Book 4.

Now it's your turn
Please post your own notes and thoughts in the comments section below.