John Owen on the Consistencies of Commands and Promises

In his age, John Owen argued against the prevailing arguments against the work of the Holy Spirit in our hearts. Here Owen shows that the command and the promises are not antithetical, but complementary.

And here we may digress a little, to consider what regard we ought to have to the command on the one hand, and to the promise on the other; to our own duty and to the grace of God. Some would separate these things as inconsistent. A command, they suppose, leaves no room for a promise; and a promise, they think, takes off the influencing authority of a command. If holiness be our duty, there is no room for grace; and if it be an effect of grace there is no place for duty. But all these arguings are a fruit of the 'wisdom of the flesh'; the 'wisdom that is from above' teaches us other things. It is true, that works and grace are opposed in the matter of justification, as utterly inconsistent; 'If it be of works, it is not of grace; and it be of grace, it is not of works.' But our duty and God's grace are no where opposed in the matter of sanctification; for the one supposes the other. Neither can we perform our duty herein without the grace of God; nor does God give us his grace to any other end than that we may rightly perform our duty. He who denies either that God commands us to be holy in a way of duty, or promises to work holiness in us in a way of grace, may with as much modesty reject the whole Bible. Both these therefore we must duly regard, if we intend to be holy.

In our regard to the command, our consciences must be affected with the authority of it, as the command of God; for holiness is obedience, and obedience respects the authority of the command. We must also see and understand the reasonableness, equity, and advantage of the command. Our service is a reasonable service; the ways of God are equal; and in the keeping of his commands there is great reward. And hence we love and delight in it as holy, just and good, because the things it requires are upright, equal, easy, and pleasant to the new nature, without any respect to the false ends before exposed.

And we have due regard to the promise, when:

1. We walk in a constant sense of our own inability to comply with with the command in any one instance, form any power in ourselves, for 'our sufficiency is of God.'
2. We adore that grace which has provided help and relief for us. Seeing without the grace promised, we could never have attained the least degree of holiness, and seeing we could never deserve the least particle of that grace, how ought we to adore that infinite bounty which has freely provided this supply!
3. We act faith in prayer and expecation on the promise for supplies of grace for all holy obedience.
4. We have a special regard to it in particular temptations and particular duties; when on such occasions we do not satisfy ourselves with a respect to the promise in general, but exercise faith on it in particular for aid and assistance.

To come yet nearer to our principal design, I say it is the Holy Ghost who is the immediate peculiar sanctifier of all believers, and the author of all their holiness. (The Holy Spirit: His Gifts and Power, pp. 253-254