Glory of Christ

John Owen completed this treatise on his deathbed in 1683, published posthumously the following year as his final theological testament. Writing as Puritan England faced political upheaval and religious uncertainty, Owen sought to anchor believers' hope in the person of Christ himself, offering what he called "fixed contemplation" of Christ's glory as both divine Son and incarnate mediator. The work emerged from Owen's conviction that many Christians, while orthodox in doctrine, remained spiritually weak because they had never learned to behold Christ's excellence with sustained attention.

Owen systematically unfolds the manifold glories of Christ across two states: his pre-incarnate glory as eternal Son sharing fully in the divine nature, and his mediatorial glory as the God-man who accomplished redemption. He demonstrates how Christ's glory appears in the union of divine and human natures in one person, in his roles as prophet, priest, and king, and in his work of salvation from incarnation through eternal intercession. Throughout, Owen insists that intellectual knowledge of these truths remains sterile unless accompanied by spiritual sight—the Holy Spirit's illumination that enables believers to perceive and savor Christ's beauty. He argues that such contemplation transforms the soul, weaning affections from earthly things and preparing believers for the beatific vision.

The work endures as Owen's most accessible writing on Christology and spiritual formation, prized for its combination of theological precision with devotional warmth. Later evangelical traditions have drawn extensively on Owen's framework for understanding both Christ's person and the believer's progressive sanctification through beholding him. Who should read this: Christians seeking deeper appreciation for Christ's person and work, particularly those in Reformed traditions, though Owen's dense prose and lengthy periods require patient readers willing to work slowly through sustained theological argument.