John Owen And New Covenant Theology: -- By: Richard C. Barcellos

Journal: Reformed Baptist Theological Review
Volume: RBTR 01:2 (Jul 2004)
Article: John Owen And New Covenant Theology:
Author: Richard C. Barcellos


John Owen And New Covenant Theology:

Owen on the Old and New Covenants and the Functions of the Decalogue in Redemptive History in Historical and Contemporary Perspective

Richard C. Barcellos*

* Richard C. Barcellos is one of the pastors of Palmdale Reformed Baptist Church, Palmdale, CA, author of In Defense of the Decalogue: A Critique of New Covenant Theology, and currently enrolled in Whitefield Theological Seminary’s post-graduate degree program pursuing a Ph.D. in historical theology.

John Owen was a giant in the theological world of seventeenth-century England. He is possibly the greatest English theologian ever. His learning was deep and his writings thorough and profound. He has left the Christian Church a legacy few have equaled in volume, fewer yet in content. In saying this, however, we must also recognize that some things Owen said are difficult to understand. Some statements may even appear contradictory if he is not followed carefully and understood in light of his comprehensive thought and the Reformation and Post-Reformation Protestant Scholastic world in which he wrote.

If we read some of the difficult sections of Owen’s writings without understanding his comprehensive thought and the theological world in which he wrote, or in a superficial manner, some statements may seem to mean things they do not. When this is done, authors are misunderstood and sometimes, subsequent theological movements are aligned with them without substantial and objective warrant. Two instances of this involve John Owen and New Covenant Theology (NCT).

John Reisinger claims that Owen viewed the Old Covenant1 as “a legal/works covenant.”2 He says:

This covenant was conditional because it was a legal/works covenant that promised life and threatened death. Israel failed to earn the blessings promised in the covenant. But under the New Covenant, the Church becomes the Israel of God and all her members are kings and

priests (a kingdom of priests). Christ, as our Surety (Heb. 7:22), has kept the Old Covenant for us and earned every blessing it promised.3

The reader of Owen’s treatise on the Old and New Covenants (in his Hebrews commentary) will quickly realize that Reisinger does not give the full picture of Owen’s position. Owen did not view the Old Covenant as a covenant of works in itself. He viewed it as containing a renewal of the original covenant of works impo...

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