For Owen, the essence of sanctification consists in the restoration of the broken image of God. It is a work of re-creation, and it is by the image being restored that we discover what that image originally was. The restoration “consists in the communication of the effects and likeness of the same image unto us which was essentially in Himself.” Thus, we discover what man lost in the fall by learning what is restored to him in sanctification…
The purpose of God’s communicating the image to man was threefold: (i) to represent His holiness and righteousness to His creatures; (ii) as a means of rendering glory to His person, in that man, alone of all creatures, could apprehend and appreciate the glory of God in such a way as to offer intelligent worship, and (iii) to bring man to an eternal enjoyment of God through his knowledge of Him.
From: John Owen on the Christian Life by Sinclair B. Ferguson (Edinburgh: The Banner of Truth Trust, 1987), pp. 65, 66.
