John Owen is one of the very best Christian writers on my bookshelf.
Of his many works, the gold medal goes to “Sin and Temptation.” That book has beat me down and built me up over and over again.
The silver medal goes to “The Glory of Christ.” It is from that book that today’s thought comes:
We can now lay down a great foundational truth: One of the greatest privileges the believer has, both in this world and for eternity, is to behold the glory of Christ.It is by beholding the glory of Christ that believers are first gradually transformed into his image, and then brought into the eternal enjoyment of it, because they shall for ‘be ever like him’, for they ‘shall see him as he is’ (2 Cor. 3:18; 1 John 3:1-2). On this depend our present comforts and future blessedness. This is the life and reward of our soul (John 14:9; 2 Cor. 4:6).Scripture shows us two ways by which we may behold the glory of Christ. We may behold it by faith in this world, faith being ‘the evidence of things not seen’, and we may behold it by sight in the next (2 Cor. 5:7-8, 1 Cor. 13:12) … No man shall ever behold the glory of Christ by sight in heaven who does not, in some measure, behold it by faith in this world.Christ is a sanctuary, a sure refuge to all that put their trust in him. and what would a troubled man fleeing to a safe place be looking for? He would look for all his needs to be met, to be delivered from all his fears, to be protected from all dangers. Such is the Lord Christ to all sin-distressed souls.Christ is a refuge to us in all our spiritual sorrows and troubles (Heb. 6:18). Are you burdened with a sense of sin? Are you weighed down under the oppression of any spiritual enemy? Do we, as a result of any of these things, ‘walk in darkness and have no light’? One look at the glory of Christ will strengthen and comfort us.