John Owen’s The Death of Death

The second way the Puritans shaped J. I. Packer’s spiritual experience was through the study of John Owen’s The Death of Death in the Death of Christ.  Owen enabled Packer to fully embrace the sovereign initiative of God in redemption.  Packer wrote of this: “Owen, under God, enabled me to see how consistent and unambiguous is the biblical witness to the sovereignty and particularity of Christ’s redeeming love.  The theological implications of ‘he loved me and gave himself for me’ (Galatians 2:20), ‘Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her’ (Ephesians 5:25), and many other passages came clear to me.  I have found since that I could have learned the same lesson from Spurgeon’s sermons; but it was Owen who taught it to me, and it has marked my Christianity ever since, as decisively as did the kindred realization, that biblical religion is God-centered, not man-centered.  To get the love of Christ in focus changes one’s whole existence.”  Packer holds all of the doctrines that collectively are known as Calvinism, and it was through the Puritans that his convictions became clear and stable.  Packer has written that Owen’s arguments are persuasive, and that no one has ever refuted them.  Until they are successfully refuted, Calvinism will never be refuted.  I can also affirm that it was Owen’s Death of Death that answered all of the lingering questions I had on this subject.