This week, the blog is sponsored by Banner of Truth. Reflecting on our ultimate destination, Austin Walker looks at John Owen’s advice on how to ‘die comfortably’.
In 1680, John Owen preached three sermons on Paul’s statement, ‘I die daily’ (1 Corinthians 15:31). In them he is intensely personal—preparing for his own death, and aware of others recently passed—Theophilus Gale (1678), Matthew Poole (1679), Thomas Goodwin, Thomas Brooks, and Stephen Charnock (all in 1680).
Owen explains Paul’s statement as a testimony to his faith in the Lord Jesus Christ and the resurrection of the dead: a faith that carried him though all kinds of difficulties. He explains it is the duty of all believers to prepare to die cheerfully and comfortably, and observes that this faith would be seen outwardly, in the providences of God surrounding death, and inwardly—although not always so clearly seen.
Owen considers three essentials, primarily, our constant exercise of faith as we resign our souls into the sovereign will of God and enter an invisible world we only know through God’s revelation in his word. We resign ourselves to God’s sovereign grace, power, wisdom, good pleasure,
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