“It was for the perfection of this holiest and greatest of tasks that the only-begotten Son of God, destined from eternity and promised from the foundation of the world, was sent forth in the fullness of time.
This is notably explained by the Apostle in his letter to the Hebrews.
“God, who at sundry times and in diverse manners spake in times past unto the fathers by the prophets, hath in these last days spoken unto us by His Son, whom He hath appointed heir of all things, by whom He made the worlds” (Hebrews 1:1–2).
He is, therefore, said to be “The Apostle and High Priest of our profession,” and also “The author and perfector of our faith.” These words concern the person of Jesus Christ the God-man, God’s great intermediary, and so are somewhat out of our path here. I have explained them at length elsewhere.
My point here is that the immediate author of evangelical or gospel theology is Jesus Christ Himself, the only-begotten Son of God. We have already seen that all true theology is, in a sense, gospel theology, for, in whatever stage it existed, its object and prime mover was God the Son.
Holy men of God, moved by the Spirit of God, preached Christ (1 Peter 1:11; 2 Peter 1:21). It was He who, in times past, showed Himself in human form to the fathers, and He was that “Angel of the Lord” with the Church in the wilderness (Acts 7:38).
But, in regard to its specific administration, that only may be said to be evangelical theology which the Son of God brought in and taught in His own person when He came forth from the bosom of the Father.
He alone was the true and unique Author of this theology, and He made it what it is— the final and perfect revelation from God.”
–John Owen, Biblical Theology: The History of Theology from Adam to Christ, trans. Stephen P. Westcott (Grand Rapids, MI: Soli Deo Gloria Publications, 1994), 593.
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