Assurance: Overcoming the Difficulty of Knowing Forgiveness

“We are impatient with the laws or principles that govern the spiritual life. It is here that Owen teaches us to slow down, think, understand, and apply. Owen thus provides us with an extended exposition of the wonder of forgiveness, where and how we can discover it, and how it is revealed to us in Christ. He then takes us through a series of eleven ‘rules’ which serve to guide us safely in this area of experience. We live in an antinomian age which honors the rules of the sports more than the rules of God’s word. Perhaps it is as well, therefore, to point out that these are not an expression of a legalism that will lead us into bondage, but an exposition of the basic principles of God’s word and gospel grace which will deliver us from bondage into spiritual liberty.”