Thank God for the Covenant of Grace

John Owen wrote the following on God's patience, forbearance and long suffering revealed in Christ:

In him the very nature of God is discovered to be love and kindness; and that he will exercise the same to sinners, he hath promised, sworn, and solemnly engaged himself by covenant.

And that we may not hesitate about the aim which he hath herein, there is a stable...foundation of acting suitably to those gracious properties of his nature held forth,--namely, the reconciliation and atonement that is made in the blood of Christ.

Communion with God, p. 85-6

This surely is the route to dealing with an unhealthy subjectivism. Owen would anchor our thoughts in God's objective revelation in Christ, in the objective terms of the covenant, and in the objective death of Christ for our sins.

And so we are called away from speculation, presumption, and confusion and to faith in the finished work of Christ for us, explained by God's Word, and refracted through the lens of the covenant. Hugh Martin was right to say that the voice of the gospel calls to sinners out of the covenant of grace.