John Owen on Original sin & the human will
Will in bondage; needs sovereign grace to be freed
The Scripture says not that God gives us ability or power to believe only, — namely, such a power as we may make use of if we will, or do otherwise; but faith, repentance, and conversion themselves are said to be the work and effect of God.
THE POSITION
The will is in bondage and no bestowed ability short of regeneration frees it. Owen distinguishes a remote power — the bare faculties of mind and will, which remain — from a next power, an actual ability to believe, and denies that Scripture speaks of the latter being given before believing itself. Faith, repentance and conversion are named as God's work and effect, not as acts God merely enables. The catechism puts the same thing pastorally: fallen man is "able neither to know, nor will, nor do any thing that is spiritually good."
1 And you were dead in your trespasses and sins, 2 in which you used to walk when you conformed to the ways of this world and of the ruler of the power of the air, the spirit who is now at work in the sons of disobedience. 3 All of us also lived among them at one time, fulfilling the cravings of our flesh and indulging its desires and thoughts. Like the rest, we were by nature children of wrath. 4 But because of His great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, 5 made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in our trespasses. It is by grace you have been saved!
17 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 Original sin & the human will", Examined Doctrine, July 2026 edition, https://examineddoctrine.com/position/owen/original-sin (archived at https://examineddoctrine.com/editions/2026-07/position/owen/original-sin).