The Theology of Thomas Watson Series: Part 1

The Puritans should be required reading for every serious Christian. Men like John Owen, Jonathan Edwards, Stephen Charnock, Richard Sibbes, John Bunyan, and Jeremiah Burroughs have a way of cutting through spiritual fog and forcing us to deal honestly with God, sin, and eternity. They were not writing to entertain or impress, but to shepherd souls. Out of all of the Puritans, Thomas Watson has become my personal favorite, and over time, I have found myself returning to his works again and again. That is why I want to spend some time writing about him.

Who Was Thomas Watson and Why Should Modern Christians Read Him?

There is a reason the Puritans keep finding their way back into serious Christian conversations. Not because they were perfect men, or because they lived in some imagined golden age, but because they took God and His Word seriously. Few did this with more clarity, warmth, and piercing honesty than Thomas Watson.

Thomas Watson was a 17th-century English Puritan pastor and preacher. He served faithfully in London, was ejected from his pulpit during the Great Ejection of 1662 for refusing to conform to the state-imposed theology, and continued to minister quietly despite persecution. He was not a celebrity in his own time. He did not chase innovation. He simply preached the Word of God with precision, affection, and gravity.

And somehow, centuries later, his words still land with force.

A Pastor Before a Theologian

One of the first things modern readers notice about Watson is how readable he is. He was deeply theological, yet never cold. He wrote like a pastor speaking to real people with real sins, real fears, and real distractions. He was not interested in winning arguments as much as winning hearts to Christ.

Watson had a gift for illustration. He could take a doctrine like repentance, holiness, or the fear of God and press it directly into daily life. His writing feels less like a lecture and more like a shepherd grabbing you by the shoulders and saying, “Pay attention. This matters.”

That pastoral tone is rare today. Much of modern Christian writing swings between shallow encouragement and academic abstraction. Watson refuses both. He writes with weight, but also with warmth.

Thomas Watson’s pastoral instincts were shaped by a lifetime of ministry, not by retreating into an ivory tower. He served as a preacher at St. Stephen’s, Walbrook, in London, where he labored among ordinary people facing poverty, illness, political upheaval, and spiritual confusion. His sermons were not theoretical exercises. They were delivered to men and women who needed truth to survive another week.

Watson lived during one of the most turbulent periods in English history. Civil war, shifting governments, religious persecution, and deep national instability marked his lifetime. These pressures did not push him toward novelty or compromise. They pressed him deeper into Scripture and sharpened his concern for the spiritual condition of his people.

In 1662, Watson was removed from his pulpit during the Great Ejection when over two thousand Puritan ministers were expelled from the Church of England for refusing to conform. Losing his position did not soften his convictions or silence his ministry. He continued preaching in private settings, often at personal risk. His faithfulness came at real cost, and that cost gave his writing a seriousness that cannot be manufactured.

Watson knew what it meant to shepherd under pressure. He knew the weight of conscience, the pain of loss, and the temptation to grow bitter or fearful. Instead, his writing reflects steadiness, patience, and confidence in God’s providence. He did not write as a man detached from suffering, but as one who had learned to trust God through it.

This is why Watson’s work still feels alive. He was not writing for future academics. He was caring for souls. His theology was forged in sermons, trials, and pastoral concern, then refined into books meant to be read slowly, prayerfully, and honestly.

Watson reminds us that the best theology is always pastoral, and the best pastors are always theologians who love God and love people enough to tell them the truth.

Why Watson Feels “Uncomfortable” Today

Thomas Watson does not fit comfortably into cushy, modern Christianity, and that is precisely why he is needed.

Watson assumes God is holy.
He assumes sin is deadly.
He assumes eternity is real.
He assumes Scripture has authority.

Those assumptions alone place him at odds with much of today’s casual, therapeutic, consumer-driven faith. Watson does not flatter the reader. He diagnoses, he probes, and he presses.

When Watson talks about repentance, he does not mean feeling bad for a moment and moving on. He means a deep, Spirit-worked turning of the heart away from sin and toward God. When he speaks of grace, he does not mean permission to coast. He means power to change. When he speaks of faith, he means something that endures trial, resists temptation, and produces obedience.

This makes him uncomfortable for anyone who wants Christianity without cost.

A High View of God Changes Everything

Much of Watson’s writing, especially in A Body of Divinity, is centered on the character of God. He believed that most spiritual weakness begins with small thoughts about God. A low view of God always produces a low view of sin, a low view of obedience, and a low view of worship.

Watson does not “allow” God to be reduced to a helper, a life coach, or a supporting character in our story. God is central. God is sovereign. God is worthy of fear, love, obedience, and trust.

That vision reorders everything. When God is seen rightly, repentance makes sense. Holiness becomes desirable. Suffering becomes meaningful. Eternity becomes urgent.

Watson and the Modern Christian Man

I think Thomas Watson is especially valuable for men today.

Men are drowning in noise, distraction, and surface-level thinking. Many are restless, spiritually undisciplined, and unsure why their faith feels thin. Watson does not offer hacks or shortcuts. He calls men to think, to examine themselves, to fear God, and to walk carefully.

He speaks directly to the man who wants strength without softness, conviction without cruelty, and discipline without pride. Watson understood that true spiritual strength is forged through humility, repentance, and steady obedience over time.

He would have little patience for performative Christianity. He would call men back to private prayer, serious meditation, honest self-examination, and obedience when no one is watching.

Why Read Watson Now?

We live in an age of spiritual shallowness dressed up as freedom. Churches are full, content is endless, and yet many believers are fragile, easily offended, easily discouraged, and easily distracted. Watson addresses the root of this problem.

He reminds us that Christianity is not casual.
That grace is costly.
That sin is deceitful.
That God is far more glorious and holy than we can ever imagine.

Reading Watson slows you down. It exposes sloppy thinking. It deepens worship. It sharpens repentance. It strengthens faith.

Most of all, it lifts your eyes off yourself and fixes them on God.

What This Series Will Do

This series is not about idolizing a Puritan in Thomas Watson. He was a flawed person, just like me or you.

This series is about letting a faithful pastor from another age confront our spiritual blind spots. We will walk through Watson’s teaching on God, repentance, holiness, prayer, sin, eternity, and spiritual discipline. We will wrestle honestly with where modern Christianity has grown thin, casual, or confused.

My hope is simple. That through Thomas Watson, we would recover a heavier view of God, a truer view of ourselves, and a deeper love for Jesus Christ.

Because Christianity that cannot survive pressure, suffering, or temptation is not Christianity worth passing on.

Next week, we will begin where Watson always begins. With God Himself. Stay tuned!