Call to Worship November 3, 2024
“(4.) There is the danger of eternal destruction.
For the due management of this consideration, observe,—
[1.] That there is such a connection between a continuance in sin and eternal destruction, that though God does resolve to deliver some from a continuance in sin that they may not be destroyed, yet he will deliver none from destruction that continue in sin; so that whilst any one lies under an abiding power of sin, the threats of destruction and everlasting separation from God are to be held out to him. So Heb. 3:12; to which add chap. 10:38. This is the rule of God’s proceeding: If any man ‘depart’ from him, ‘draw back’ through unbelief, ‘God’s soul hath no pleasure in him;’—that is, his indignation shall pursue him to destruction: so evidently, Gal. 6:8.
[2.] That he who is so entangled, as above described, under the power of any corruption, can have at that present no clear prevailing evidence of his interest in the covenant, by the efficacy whereof he may be delivered from fear of destruction; so that destruction from the Lord may justly be a terror to him, and he may, he ought to look upon it, as that which will be the end of his course and ways. ‘There is no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus,’ Rom. 8:1. True; but who shall have the comfort of this assertion? who may assume it to himself? ‘They that walk after the Spirit, and not after the flesh.’ But you will say, ‘Is not this to persuade men to unbelief?’ I answer, No. There is a twofold judgment that a man may make of himself,—first, of his person; and, secondly, of his ways. It is the judgment of his ways, not his person, that I speak of. Let a man get the best evidence for his person that he can, yet to judge that an evil way will end in destruction is his duty; not to do it is atheism. I do not say, that in such a condition a man ought to throw away the evidences of his personal interest in Christ; but I say, he cannot keep them. There is a twofold condemnation of a man’s self:—First, In respect of desert, when the soul concludes that it deserves to be cast out of the presence of God; and this is so far from a business of unbelief that it is an effect of faith. Secondly, With respect to the issue and event, when the soul concludes it shall be damned. I do not say this is the duty of any one, nor do I call them to it; but this I say, that the end of the way wherein a man is ought by him to be concluded to be death, that he may be provoked to fly from it. And this is another consideration that ought to dwell upon such a soul, if it desire to be freed from the entanglement of its lusts.”[1]
[1] John Owen, The Works of John Owen, ed. William H. Goold, vol. 6 (Edinburgh: T&T Clark, n.d.), 54–55.