Top 208 Quotes & Sayings by John Owen

In the divine Scriptures, there are shallows and there are deeps; shallows where the lamb may wade, and deeps where the elephant may swim.

The most tremendous judgment of God in this world is the hardening of the hearts of men.

After hearing the evidence, I will record a verdict of natural causes.

All thing I thought I knew; but now confess, the more I know I know, I know the less.

The house built on the sand may oftentimes be built higher, have more fair parapets and battlements, windows and ornaments, than that which is built upon the rock; yet all gifts and privileges equal not one grace.

The custom of sinning takes away the sense of it, the course of the world takes away the shame of it.

Do you mortify? Do you make it your daily work? Be always at it whilst you live; cease not a day from this work; be killing sin or it will be killing you.

Temptation is like a knife, that may either cut the meat or the throat of a man; it may be his food or his poison, his exercise or his destruction.

The vigor and power and comfort of our spiritual life depends on our mortification of deeds of the flesh.

I wish thy lot, now bad, still worse, my friend, for when at worst, they say, things always mend.

Leanness of body and soul may go together.

All other ways of mortification are vain, all helps leave us helpless, it must be done by the Spirit.

Faith, if it be a living faith, will be a working faith.

Because he is; that is, because he is an infinitely glorious, good, wise, holy, powerful, righteous, self-subsisting , self-sufficient , and all-sufficient being; the fountain and author of all being and good; the first cause, last end, and sovereign Lord of all; therefore, he is to be worshipped: therefore, are we to admire, adore, and love him; to praise, to trust and to fear him.

Fill your affections with the cross of Christ that there may be no room for sin.

We must not be concerned only with that which troubles us, but with all that troubles God.

Temptations and occasions put nothing into a man, but only draw out what was in him before.

Satan's greatest success is in making people think they have plenty of time before they die to consider their eternal welfare.

He who prays as he ought will endeavor to live as he prays.

Christ did not die for any upon condition, if they do believe; but He died for all God's elect, that they should believe.

The vigour, and power, and comfort of our spiritual life depends on the mortification of the deeds of the flesh...The choicest believers, who are assuredly freed from the condemning power of sin, ought yet to make it their business all their days to mortify the indwelling power of sin...Do you mortify; do you make it your daily work; be always at it whilst you live; cease not a day from this work; be killing sin or it will be killing you.

Let no man pretend to fear sin that does not fear temptation also! These two are too closely united to be separated. He does not truly hate the fruit who delights in the root.

Christ's blood is the great sovereign remedy for sin-sick souls.

Let our hearts admit, “I am poor and weak. Satan is too subtle, too cunning, too powerful; he watches constantly for advantages over my soul. The world presses in upon me with all sorts of pressures, pleas, and pretences. My own corruption is violent, tumultuous, enticing, and entangling. As it conceives sin, it wars within me and against me. Occasions and opportunities for temptation are innumerable. No wonder I do not know how deeply involved I have been with sin. Therefore, on God alone will I rely for my keeping. I will continually look to Him.

If we would talk less and pray more about them, things would be better than they are in the world: at least, we should be better enabled to bear them.

On Christ’s glory I would fix all my thoughts and desires, and the more I see of the glory of Christ, the more the painted beauties of this world will wither in my eyes and I will be more and more crucified to this world. It will become to me like something dead and putrid, impossible for me to enjoy.

All things I thought I knew; but now confess The more I know, I know, I know the less.

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.

No heart can conceive that treasury of mercies which lies in this one privilege, in having liberty and ability to approach unto God at all times, according to his mind and will.

Every time we say we believe in the Holy Spirit, we mean we believe that there is a living God able and willing to enter human personality and change it.

Unless we are thoroughly convinced that without Christ we are under the eternal curse of God, as the worst of His enemies, we shall never flee to Him for refuge.

Be killing sin or it will be killing you.

If private revelations agree with Scripture, they are needless, and if they disagree, they are false.

To those to whom Christ is the hope of future glory, he is also the life of present grace.

The person who understands the evil in his own heart is the only person who is useful, fruitful, and solid in his beliefs and obedience. Others only delude themselves and thus upset families, churches, and all other relationships. In their self-pride and judgment of others, they show great inconsistency.

We can have no power from Christ unless we live in a persuasion that we have none of our own.

The purpose of our holy and righteous God was to save his church, but their sin could not go unpunished. It was, therefore, necessary that the punishment for that sin be transferred from those who deserved it but could not bear it, to one who did not deserve it but was able to bear it.

The growth of trees and plants takes place so slowly that it is not easily seen. Daily we notice little change. But, in course of time, we see that a great change has taken place. So it is with grace. Sanctification is a progressive, lifelong work (Prov 4:18). It is an amazing work of God's grace and it is a work to be prayed for (Rom 8:27).

The greatest sorrow and burden you can lay on the Father, the greatest unkindness you can do to him is not to believe that he loves you.

Unless men see a beauty and delight in the worship of God, they will not do it willingly.

Great winds and storms help fruit-bearing trees. So also do corruptions and temptations help the fruitfulness of grace and holiness. The storm loosens the earth round its roots so the tree is able to get its roots deeper into the earth, where it receives fresh supplies of nourishment. But only much later will it be seen to bring forth better fruit. So corruptions and temptations develop the roots of humility, self-abasement and mourning in a deeper search for that grace by which holiness grows strong. But only later will there be visible fruits of increased holiness.

The more I see of the glory of Christ, the more the painted beauties of this world will wither in my eyes.

Christ is the meat, the bread, the food of our souls. Nothing is in him of a higher spiritual nourishment than his love, which we should always desire.

The foundation of true holiness and true Christian worship is the doctrine of the gospel, what we are to believe. So when Christian doctrine is neglected, forsaken, or corrupted, true holiness and worship will also be neglected, forsaken, and corrupted.

There is no death of sin without the death of Christ.

Do you mortify; do you make it your daily work; be always at it whilst you live; cease not a day from this work; be killing sin or it will be killing you.

The first and principal duty of a pastor is to feed the flock by diligent preaching of the word

If we do not abide in prayer, we will abide in temptation.

The duties God requires of us are not in proportion to the strength we possess in ourselves. Rather, they are proportional to the resources available to us in Christ. We do not have the ability in ourselves to accomplish the least of God's tasks. This is the law of grace. When we recognize it is impossible for us to perform a duty in our own strength, we will discover the secret of its accomplishment.

I do not understand how a man can be a true believer, in whom sin is not the greatest burden, sorrow and trouble.

Though we are commanded to 'wash ourselves', to 'cleanse ourselves from sins', to 'purge ourselves from all our iniquities', yet to imagine that we can do these things by our own efforts is to trample on the cross and grace of Jesus Christ. Whatever God works in us by his grace, he commands us to do as our duty. God works all in us and by us.

For to pretend that men may live habitually sinful lives without any attempt by the Spirit to mortify sin in them, nor with any desire for repentance, is to deny the Christian religion.

When the Holy Spirit sanctifies believers, he does a complete work in them. He puts into their minds, wills and hearts a gracious, supernatural principle which fills them with a holy desire to live to God. The whole life and being of holiness lies in this. This is the new creation.

He that hath slight thoughts of sin, never had great thoughts of God.

Nothing shall be lost that is done for God or in obedience to Him.

If a man teach uprightly and walk crookedly, more will fall down in the night of his life than he built in the day of his doctrine.

We are never nearer Christ than when we find ourselves lost in a holy amazement at His unspeakable love.

If the Word does not dwell with power in us, it will not pass with power from us.

If Scripture has more than one meaning, it has no meaning at all.

We speak much of God, can talk of him, his ways, his works, his counsels, all the day long; the truth is, we know very little of him.