7 Things That Christ Is

Earlier this week I found myself combing through some favorite John Owen quotes. Owen is easily one of the most quotable Puritans (not to mention one of the most prolific with the pen!). Here are a few great quotes:

Let no man think to kill sin with few, easy, or gentle strokes. He who hath once smitten a serpent, if he follow not on his blow until it be slain, may repent that ever he began the quarrel. And so he who undertakes to deal with sin, and pursues it not constantly to the death.

Then, a list of seven things that Christ is:

1. He is the Way; men without him are Cains, wanderers, vagabonds:—
2. He is the Truth; men without him are liars, like the devil, who was so of old:—
3. He is the Life; without him men are dead, dead in trespasses and sins :—
4. He is the Light; without him men are in darkness, and go they know not whither:—
5. He is the Vine; those that are not grafted in him are withered branches, prepared for the fire:—
6. He is the Rock; men not built on him are carried away with a flood:—
7. He is Alpha and Omega, the first and the last, the author and the ender, the founder and the finisher of our salvation. (HT)

And a few others:

Without absolutes revealed from without by God Himself, we are left rudderless in a sea of conflicting ideas about manners, justice and right and wrong, issuing from a multitude of self-opinionated thinkers.

How can we possibly believe the promises concerning Heaven, immortality, and glory, when we do not believe the promises concerning our present life? And how can we be trusted when we say we believe these promises but make no effort to experience them ourselves? It is just here that men deceive themselves. It is not that they do not want the Gospel privileges of joy, peace and assurance, but they are not prepared to repent of their evil attitudes and careless life-styles. Some have even attempted to reconcile these things and ruined their souls. But without the diligent exercise of the grace of obedience, we shall never enjoy the graces of joy, peace and assurance.

A minister may fill his pews, his communion roll, the mouths of the public, but what that minister is on his knees in secret before God Almighty, that he is and no more.