John Owen on Indwelling of the Holy Spirit
At regeneration, which precedes and causes faith
The Spirit of God works internally, immediately, efficiently, in and upon the minds of men in their regeneration... no man is born again but it is by the inward efficiency of the Spirit. [p. 317] Indeed, there is nothing mentioned in the Scriptures concerning the communicating of power, remote or next unto the mind of man, to enable him to believe antecedently unto actual believing. [p. 320]
THE POSITION
The Spirit's saving work begins at regeneration and regeneration precedes faith. Owen argues from Ephesians 1 that the power at work in the believer is of the same kind as the power that raised Christ — "a real physical efficiency of divine power" — and then denies, in as many words, that Scripture anywhere speaks of a bestowed ability to believe standing prior to actual believing. The Spirit therefore does not wait on the act of faith; the act of faith is his effect.
18 I ask that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened, so that you may know the hope of His calling, the riches of His glorious inheritance in the saints, 19 and the surpassing greatness of His power to us who believe. These are in accordance with the working of His mighty strength, 20 which He exerted in Christ when He raised Him from the dead and seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly realms,
9 OTHERS HOLD THIS
ABOUT THIS FIGURE
The most formidable English Puritan theologian: Dean of Christ Church and Vice-Chancellor of Oxford under Cromwell, later a nonconformist pastor in London. This entry rests on The Death of Death in the Death of Christ (1647), The Doctrine of Justification by Faith (1677), Pneumatologia and the Discourse of Spiritual Gifts (1674), and the Two Short Catechisms (1645), read in the Goold edition of the Works.
Cite this page
"John Owen on Indwelling of the Holy Spirit", Examined Doctrine, July 2026 edition, https://examineddoctrine.com/position/owen/indwelling (archived at https://examineddoctrine.com/editions/2026-07/position/owen/indwelling).