Set Faith at Work on Christ

For we have not an high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities; but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin. HEBREWS 4:15

Everything Owen has said so far, he tells us at the start of his last chapter, has been preparation. He has cleared the ground, exposed the counterfeits, loaded the conscience, humbled the pride. Now he comes to the work itself, and his directions for it, he says, are very few. In truth there is only one. “Set faith at work on Christ for the killing of thy sin. His blood is the great sovereign remedy for sin-sick souls. Live in this, and thou wilt die a conqueror.”

After all the searching analysis, this is where the book arrives. Not at a technique, but at a Person.

The fulness that is in Him

Owen first asks the struggling believer to fill his mind, by faith, with the provision laid up in Christ. You may be utterly unable to master your sin; you may be weary of the fight and ready to faint; but there is enough in Christ to relieve you. He reminds us of the prodigal son, who was sustained in the far country by the simple thought that there was bread enough in his father’s house.

For it pleased the Father that in him should all fulness dwell. COLOSSIANS 1:19

And of his fulness have all we received, and grace for grace. JOHN 1:16

He then writes out, as he likes to do, the words such a believer might say to himself. They begin in honest despair: I am weak and unstable as water; this corruption is too hard for me; I have made promises and broken them; I see that without help I am lost. And then they turn: but the Lord Christ has all fulness of grace in His heart and all fulness of power in His hand, and He is able to slay these enemies. Owen has his reader take up the fortieth chapter of Isaiah, and it is worth hearing again in this setting.

He giveth power to the faint; and to them that have no might he increaseth strength. Even the youths shall faint and be weary, and the young men shall utterly fall: but they that wait upon the LORD shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint. ISAIAH 40:29–31

Expect relief from Him

Second, raise your heart to an expectation of relief from Christ. Owen compares it to the vision in Habakkuk, which was for an appointed time and would surely come though it tarried. Look to Christ as the eyes of a servant look to his master’s hand. Expect Him to deal with your sin, in His time and His way.

What grounds do we have for such an expectation? Owen gives two. One is Christ’s mercifulness as our High Priest. He was made like His brethren in all things, He suffered being tempted, and so He is able, and willing, to help those who are tempted.

For in that he himself hath suffered being tempted, he is able to succour them that are tempted. HEBREWS 2:18

The other is His faithfulness. He has promised, and He will do it, as surely as the morning comes to one who watches for it.

Owen then makes a claim so bold that it takes the breath away. This settled expectation of help from Christ, he says, will do more to ruin a lust than all the harshest self-punishment ever devised. And he goes further: “never any soul did or shall perish by the power of any lust, sin, or corruption, who could raise his soul by faith to an expectation of relief from Jesus Christ.”

Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need. HEBREWS 4:16

Such expectation, Owen adds, also makes the believer diligent in the means by which Christ ordinarily gives Himself: prayer, the Scriptures, the Lord’s Supper. A beggar who expects alms waits at the door.

Look to the cross

Third, and most particularly, Owen directs faith to the death of Christ. Mortification, he says, flows especially from the cross. One great purpose of Christ’s death was to free His people not only from the guilt of sin but from its power.

Who gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify unto himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works. TITUS 2:14

He turns to the sixth chapter of Romans. Those who were baptised into Christ were baptised into His death; the old man was crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be destroyed. Owen explains that we are crucified with Christ in three senses: He purchased the Spirit who mortifies sin in us; His death is the source of the power that works in us; and His death is the pattern to which we are conformed.

Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life. ROMANS 6:4

And then comes the simple, daily practice that crowns the book. “Look on him under the weight of our sins, praying, bleeding, dying; bring him in that condition into thy heart by faith; apply his blood so shed to thy corruptions: do this daily.” Nothing else Owen says is more practical, and nothing else is more neglected.

The Spirit does it all

Finally Owen gathers everything up in the work of the Holy Spirit. The whole process he has described, he says, is carried out by the Spirit’s power. The Spirit alone convinces the heart of the evil of its sin. The Spirit alone reveals the fulness of Christ for our relief. The Spirit alone establishes the heart in expectation of help from Him. The Spirit alone brings the cross into the heart with its sin-killing power. The Spirit gives fresh supplies of grace, and helps us in prayer with groanings that cannot be uttered.

Likewise the Spirit also helpeth our infirmities: for we know not what we should pray for as we ought: but the Spirit itself maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered. ROMANS 8:26

The book ends there, almost abruptly, with the Spirit helping a weak believer to pray. It is a fitting close. The man who began by telling Christians to be killing sin ends by telling them that they cannot do it, that Christ has done what makes it possible, and that the Spirit will do it in them as they look to Him.

Why this matters

Readers who come looking for a method may be disappointed that the final answer is faith in Christ. But this is the genius of the book. The earlier chapters show that no method will work on its own. The last chapter shows why: sin is too strong, too deep and too cunning for anything less than the crucified Christ, applied by the Spirit, received by faith. The fight is real, the effort is real, the watchfulness is real; but the victory is His.

FOR REFLECTION AND ACTION

1. Each day this week, take a few minutes to follow Owen’s practice literally: picture Christ under the weight of your sins, praying, bleeding, dying, and bring that sight to bear on your besetting sin.

2. Write out Isaiah 40:28–31 and keep it with you for the moments when you feel too weak to fight.

3. Ask whether you actually expect Christ to deliver you from your sin. If not, confess your unbelief and ask Him for faith.

4. Come to the Lord’s Supper next time with this particular sin in mind, looking to Christ’s death for power against it.

A PRAYER

Lord Jesus Christ, I have tried everything except looking steadily to You.

I am weak and unstable as water, and my sin is too hard for me. But all fulness dwells in You, and You are able to help those who are tempted, because You were tempted too.

Let me see You under the weight of my sins, praying, bleeding, dying, and let the sight put my sin to death.

Holy Spirit, bring the cross into my heart, help me to pray when I have no words, and give me faith to wait for the deliverance that will surely come. Amen.