Archives for December 24, 2022

Exciting news! Crossway has just published their first volume of a projected forty-volume set of the complete works of John Owen, including some treatises that have never been published before! Their worthy goal is to “present the entirety of his published works in a carefully edited, modern format to reach a new generation of Bible readers and scholars and inspire them to deeper faith.” The volumes are being edited by able friends: Lee Gatiss and Shawn Wright. The beautiful inaugural volume (“The Holy Spirit—The Helper,” vol. 7, which contains two treatises on the Holy Spirit’s role in illumination and biblical interpretation) sets a high standard for the set, replete with an excellent 70-page introduction by another friend, Andrew Ballitch, who also did a great job of editing the volume itself. Nearly all the volumes of this premier printing of Owen are being edited by friends that I hold in high esteem. (I have been privileged to do the projected 14th volume with the assistance of Ian Turner on Owen’s “Apostasy from the Gospel.” Hopefully, it will be available in a year or two.)

You can order volume 7 now at a great price from RHB here: https://heritagebooks.org/…/the-holy-spirit-the-helper…
Enjoy the spiritual feast that this volume contains—one can’t do much better for edifying reading than drinking from the well of John Owen on the Holy Spirit!

Yesterday, Michigan’s constitution formally began enacting Proposal 3 which was voted through on November 8 and allows for abortion until birth, together with numerous other evils. The tragedy is unspeakable, but the gospel is also unspeakable! Tomorrow we commemorate the birth of the King-child who gave His life to save sinners. The irony is stark. As someone has said, “The gift of new life is simultaneously being celebrated and destroyed.”

What clearer proof is there that human beings are created in the image of God than the miracle of the incarnation of Christ? Samuel Rutherford said, “My salvation is my Lord’s second greatest miracle; the first is His incarnation.”

May God have mercy upon our nation (and our souls), so that we would not altogether self-destruct. Pray that He would send a greater awakening to the church and the nation—and to our own families and souls, than the original Great Awakening of the 18^th century. Every blessing in Christ Jesus to you and your family as we commemorate the Incarnation tomorrow. May we experience the wonder of such truths as these:

The Word of God became flesh;
The Son of God became Man;
The Lord of all became a servant;
The Righteous One who knew no sin was made sin;
The Creator came into the world;
The Eternal One tasted death;
The Risen One now lives in redeemed people;
The Seated One is coming again!