Communion With God, Part 7

John Owen, Communion with God Part 2, Chapter 3



(Sunday mornings before our worship service, our church is studying our way through Owen's book. This series consists of the notes handed out for the class).

To read John Owen is to enter a rare world. Whenever I return to one of his works I find myself asking “Why do I spend time reading lesser literature?”
—Sinclair B. Ferguson

In chapter 2, Owen made the case for our communion with Jesus and now, in chapter 3, he discusses the way that we hold communion with Christ and he says that the Scriptures present our relationship to Jesus as a marital relationship- He is married to us, and we are married to Him and this is what gives us fellowship with him.

Isaiah 54:5 tells us: “For your Maker is your husband, the LORD of hosts in his name; and the Holy One of Israel is your Redeemer, the God of the whole earth he is called.” This is why the church will not be ashamed or confounded in the midst of her troubles and trials, she is married to her Maker, and her Redeemer is her husband. Isaiah 61:10 says: “As a bridegroom decks himself like a priest with a beautiful headdress, and as a bride adorns herself with her jewels.” And Isaiah 62:5 says: “As the bridegroom rejoices over the bride, so shall your God rejoice over you.”

And just as those who are getting married are full of gladness, so it is with Jesus and His saints in this relationship with them.

To that purpose we have His engagement. He says to us in Hosea 2:19,20: “I will betroth you to me forever. I will betroth you to me in righteousness and in justice, in steadfast love and in mercy. I will betroth you to me in faithfulness.” And it is the main goal of the ministry of the gospel to press upon people to give themselves over to Jesus Christ as He reveals his kindness in this engagement. That is why Paul tells the Corinthians in 2 Cor. 11:2, that he had “I betrothed you to one husband, to present you as a pure virgin to Christ.”

And this is the relationship wherein the Lord Jesus is exceedingly delighted, and invites others to behold Him in this, His glory. He calls us to consider Him as One who is betrothing and espousing His church to Himself.

And when we look upon Him, we will find on Him two things:

1- Honor. It is the day of His coronation, and His spouse is the crown wherewith He is crowned. Just as Christ is a diadem of and crown of glory to Zion (Isaiah 28:5), so Zion also is a diadem and a crown to Him: “For as a young man marries a young woman, so shall your sons marry you, and as the bridegroom rejoices over the bride, so shall your God rejoice over you.”
2- Delight. The day that He takes poor sinful souls to Himself, is a day of gladness of His heart. Zeph. 3:17 says that “He rejoiceth with joy, He joys with singing.”

It is the gladness of the heart of Christ, the joy of His soul, to take poor sinners into this relation with Himself. He rejoiced in the thoughts of it from eternity, Prov. 8:31; and always expresseth the greatest willingness to undergo the hard task required thereunto, Psalm 40:7,8; Heb. 10:7; yea, He was pained as a woman in travail, until He had accomplished it, Luke 12:50. Because He loved his church, He gave Himself for it, Eph. 5:25, despising the shame, and enduring the cross, Heb. 12:2, that He might enjoy His bride, - that He might be for her, and she for Him, and not for another, Hosea 3:3. This is joy, when He is thus crowned by His mother. It is believers that are mother and brother of this Solomon, Matt. 12:49,50. They crown Him in the day of His espousals, giving themselves to Him, and becoming His glory, 2 Cor. 8:23.
Thus He sets out His whole communion with His church under this allusion and that most frequently. The time of His taking the church unto Himself is the day of His marriage; and the church is His bride, His wife, Rev. 19:7,8. The entertainment He makes for His saints is a wedding supper, Matt. 22:3. The graces of His church are the ornaments of His queen, Ps. 45:9-14; and the fellowship He hath with His saints is as that which those who are mutually beloved in a conjugal relation do hold, Cant. 1. Hence Paul, in describing these two, makes sudden and insensible transitions from one to the other,- Eph. 5, from verse 22 unto verse 32; concluding the whole with an application unto Christ and the church.

So how is it that we hold communion with Jesus in this type of marital relationship?

It can be reduced to two heads: 1) A mutual resignation of themselves one to the other; 2) Mutual, consequential affections.

1) There is a mutual resignation.

Christ makes Himself over to the soul, to be his, as to all the love, care, and tenderness of a husband; and the soul gives up itself wholly unto the Lord Christ, to be His, as to all loving, tender obedience. And herein is the main of Christ’s and the saints espousals. This, in the prophet, is set out under a parable of himself and a harlot, Hosea 3:3, “Thou shalt abide for me,” saith he unto her, “thou shalt not be for another, and I will be for thee.” “Poor harlot,” saith the Lord Christ, “I have bought thee unto myself with the price of mine own blood; and now, this is that which we will consent unto, - I WILL BE FOR THEE, AND THOU SHALT BE FOR ME, and not for another.

First, Christ gives Himself to the soul, with all His excellencies, righteousness, preciousness, graces, and eminencies, to be its Savior, head, and husband forever to dwell with it in this marital relationship. Christ looks upon the souls of the saints and sees them as very beautiful, Ezek. 16:14: “your beauty…was perfect through the splendor that I had bestowed on you.”

Because He is righteousness, He is “The LORD our Righteousness,” Jer. 23:6. Because He is the wisdom of God, and the power of God, He is “made unto us wisdom,” etc., 1 Cor. 1:30. Thus, “the branch of the LORD is beautiful and glorious, and the fruit of the earth is excellent and comely for them that are escaped of Israel,” Isa. 4:2. This is the first thing on the part of Christ, the free donation and bestowing of Himself upon us to be our Christ, our Beloved, as to all the ends and purposes of love, mercy, grace, and glory; whereunto in His mediation He is designed, in a marriage covenant never to be broken. This is the sum of what is intended:- The Lord Jesus Christ, fitted and prepared, by the accomplishment and furniture of His person as mediator, and the large purchase of grace and glory which He hath made, to be a husband to His saints, His church, tenders Himself in the promises of the gospel to them in all His desireableness; convinces them of His good-will toward them, and His all-sufficiency for a supply of their wants; and upon their consent to accept of Him, - which is all He requires or expects at their hands- He engageth Himself in a marriage covenant to be theirs for ever.

Secondly. On the part of the saints, it is their free, willing consent to receive, embrace, and submit unto the Lord Jesus, as their husband, Lord, and Savior,- to abide with Him, subject their souls unto Him and to be ruled by Him for ever.

Communion With God Part 6

John Owen’s Communion With God- Part 6

(Sunday mornings before our worship service, our church is studying our way through Owen's book. This series consists of the notes handed out for the class).

To read John Owen is to enter a rare world. Whenever I return to one of his works I find myself asking “Why do I spend time reading lesser literature?”
—Sinclair B. Ferguson

Part 2, Chapter 1

Having discussed our communion with the Father, Owen now moves on to considering our communion with the Son. His goal in this chapter is to: 1) declare that we have fellowship with the Son of God, 2) show what that fellowship or communion consists of.

To demonstrate that we do, indeed, have fellowship with the Son, Owen takes us to:

• 1 Cor. 1:9- “God is faithful, by whom you were called into the fellowship of his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.” We are called of God the Father, as the Father, in pursuit of his love, to communion with the Son, as our Lord.

• Rev. 3:20- “Behold I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and eat with him, and him with me.” Certainly this is fellowship, or I know not what is. Christ will eat with believers: he refreshes himself with his own graces in them, by his Spirit bestowed on them.

Understanding that we do enjoy fellowship with Jesus Christ, the question posed is “in what sense do we particularly fellowship with Jesus.” In other words, Owen has made the case that we enjoy “love” peculiarly from the Father and love is what we are to return particularly to Him.

So what is it that we particularly receive from Christ? It is grace.

John 1:14, 16-17: “And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth….And from his fullness we have all received, grace upon grace. For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.”

We have communion with him in grace; we receive from him all manner of grace whatever; and therein have we fellowship with him.

2 Cor. 13:14 “The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Spirit be with you all.”

2 Thessalonians 3:17-18 “I, Paul, write this greeting with my own hand. This is the sign of genuineness in every letter of mine; it is the way I write. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all.”

Grace is a word that can be used in various ways. For the most part, it can be referred to under one of the following three heads:

1. Grace of personal presence and attractiveness. This in Christ is the matter of half the book of Song of Solomon; and it is also mentioned in Psalm 45:2 “You are the most handsome of the sons of men; grace is poured upon your lips…”

He is beyond comparison, more beautiful and gracious than any here below

2. Grace of free favor and acceptance. It is by this grace that we are saved.
3. The fruits of the Spirit. The sanctifying and renewing of our natures, enabling unto good, and preventing from evil, are so termed. Thus the Lord tells Paul that His grace was sufficient for him – that is, the assistance against temptation which was given him.

These last two graces are “purchased grace,” having been purchased by him for us; and our communion with Him in these two graces are termed “a fellowship in his sufferings, and the power of his resurrection,” Phil. 3:10.

Considering the grace of personal presence and attractiveness, the grace of Jesus consists of 3 things: 1) His fitness to save due to the uniting of the natures of God and man in Him; 2) His fullness to save, from the grace of communion; 3) His excellency to endear from his complete suitableness to all the wants of the souls of men.

1) His fitness to save comes from the grace of His union.

The uniting of the natures of God and man in one person made him fit to be a Savior to the uttermost. He lays His hand upon God, by partaking of His nature, Zech. 13:7; and He lays His hand upon us by partaking of our nature, Heb. 2:14, 16: and so becomes a days-man or umpire between both. By this means He fills up all the distance that was made by sin between God and us; and we who were far off are made nigh to Him. Upon this account it was that He had room enough in His breast to receive, and power enough in His spirit to bear all the wrath that was prepared for us. p. 51

2) His fullness to save, from the grace of communion or the effects of his union, which are free; and consequences of it…”He is able to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by him,” Heb. 7:25; having all fullness unto this end communicated unto Him: “for it pleased the Father that in him should all fullness dwell,” Col. 1:19; and he received not “the Spirit by measure,” John 3:34. And from this fullness He makes out a suitable supply unto all that are his “grace for grace,” John 1:16. Had it been given to Him by measure, we had exhausted it.

3) His excellency to endear, from his complete suitableness to all the wants of the souls of men. There is no man whatever, that hath any want of the souls of men. There is no man whatever, that hath any want in reference unto the things of God, but Christ be unto him that which he wants: I speak of those who are given him of his Father. Is he dead? Christ is life. Is he weak? Christ is the power of God, and the wisdom of God. Hath he the sense of guilt upon him? Christ is complete righteousness, - “The Lord our Righteousness.” Many poor creatures are sensible of their wants, but know not where their remedy lies. Indeed, whether it be life or light, power or joy, all is wrapped up in him.

This, then, for the present, may suffice in general to be spoken of the personal grace of the Lord Christ:- He hath the fitness to save, having pity and ability, tenderness and power, to carry that work to the uttermost; and a fullness to save, of redemption and sanctification of all our souls: whereby he becomes exceedingly desirable, yea, altogether lovely; as afterward will appear in particular. And as to this, in the first place, the saints have distinct fellowship with the Lord Christ.

In what condition soever you may be, compare a little what you aim at, or what you do, with what you have already heard of Jesus Christ: if any thing you design be like to him, if any thing you desire be equal to him, let him be rejected as one that hath neither form nor comeliness in him; but if, indeed, all your ways be but vanity and vexation of spirit, in comparison of him, why do you spend your “money for that which is not bread, and your labor for that which satisfieth not?”

Use 1: You that are yet in the flower of your days, full of health and strength, and, with all the vigour of your spirits, do pursue some one thing, some another, consider, I pray, what are all your beloveds to this Beloved? What have you gotten by the? Let us see the peace, quietness, assurance of everlasting blessedness that they have given you? Their paths are crooked paths, whoe’er goes in them shall not know peace. Behold here a fit object for your choicest affections, - one in whom you may find rest to your souls, - one in whom there is nothing will grieve and trouble you to eternity. Behold, he stands at the door of your souls, and knocks: O reject him not, lest you seek him and find him not. Pray study him a little; you love him not, because you know him not. Why doth one of you spend his time in idleness and folly, and wasting of precious time, - perhaps debauchedly? Why doth another associate and assemble himself with them that scoff at religion and the things of God? Merely because you know not our dear Lord Jesus. Oh, when he shall reveal himself to you, and tell you he is Jesus whom you have slighted and refused, how will it break your hearts, and make you mourn like a dove, that you have neglected him!

Use 2: You that are, perhaps, seeking earnestly after a righteousness, and are religious persons, consider a little with yourselves,- hath Christ his due place in your hearts? Is he your all? Does he dwell in your thoughts? Do you know him in his excellency and desirableness? Do you indeed account all things all things “loss and dung” for his exceeding excellency? Or rather, do you prefer almost any thing in the world before it?

Watch

Looking for relationship advice? Classic!

Bishop Thomas Weeks will be hosting a reality show where he looks for wife #3 while counseling others on their relationship woes. I'm certainly not recommending his show, I just thought that this quote was priceless:

The 30-minute Atlanta-based reality series will include Weeks sharing the spotlight with singles and broken-hearted couples on the mend. The twice-divorced Pentecostal pastor will dole out relationship advice drawing on his experience as an author, minister and a first-time felon who pleaded guilty to aggravated assault on his ex-wife, national evangelist Juanita Bynum.

Full article (not that you'd want to read it) here.

John Owen's Communion With God- Part 5

John Owen’s Communion With God- Part 5

(Sunday mornings before our worship service, our church is studying our way through Owen's book. This series consists of the notes handed out for the class).

To read John Owen is to enter a rare world. Whenever I return to one of his works I find myself asking “Why do I spend time reading lesser literature?”
—Sinclair B. Ferguson


Owen concludes chapter 3 by answering a potential objection to his claim that God’s love is like Himself: “equal, constant, not capable of augmentation or diminuation.”

But you will say,’This comes nigh to that blasphemy, that God loves His people in their sinning as well as in their strictest obedience; and, if so, who will care to serve Him more, or to walk with Him unto well-pleasing”
He answers:

The love of God in itself is the eternal purpose and act of His will. This is no more changeable than God Himself: if it were, no flesh could be saved; but it changeth not, and we are not condemned. What then? Loves He His people in their sinning? Yes; His people- not their sinning. Alters He not the purpose of His will, but the dispensations of His grace. He rebukes them, He chastens them, He hides his face from them, He smites them, He fills them with a sense of His indignation; but woe, woe would it be to us, should He change in His love, or take away His kindness from us! Those very things which seem to be demonstrations of the change of His affections toward His, do as clearly proceed from love as those which seem to be the most genuine issues thereof. “But will not this encourage to sin?” he never tasted of the love of God that can seriously make this objection.
Chapter 4- pg. 31

Because the typical Christian has seen God as being a God of anger that they fear rather than a God of love, Owen now seeks to give some directions to help us to experience this communion with God.

1) Eye the Father as love; look not on Him as an always lowering Father, but as one most kind and tender. We should see the Father as having kind thoughts towards us. We cannot commune with Him otherwise. Our first thought of the Father should be “as one full of eternal, free love” towards us. If we would do this we could not bear an hour’s absence from Him; whereas now, perhaps we cannot watch with Him one hour.

To do this we must consider:

a. Whose love it is. It is the love of Him who does not need to share His love with others. He lacks nothing that He needs to share His love with us in order to receive anything in return and yet His love is so great that He seeks out our good by showing us a love of kindness and bounty.

b. What kind of love it is. It is:

i. Eternal- it was fixed upon us before the foundation of the world (Rom. 9:11,12; Acts 15:18; 2 Tim. 1:9, 2:19; Prov. 8:31; Jer. 31:3). Before we were, or had done the least good, then were His thoughts upon us,- then was His delight in us;- then did the Son rejoice in the thoughts of fulfilling His Father’s delight in Him (Prov. 8:30). It was from eternity that He designed our happiness and the very thought of that ought to make us leap for joy as John the Baptist did in Elizabeth’s womb.

ii. Free. The Father loves us because He wills to love us. There has been nothing in us and there is nothing in us for which we should be loved. If we deserved God’s love, it would not be as valuable to us- we are typically not grateful for things that are owed to us. Love which is antecedent to our being must, by definition, be free. Rom. 9:11; Eph. 1:3, 4; Titus 3:5; James 1:8.

iii. Unchangeable. Though we change every day, the Father’s love for us does not change. If there was anything that we could do to cause Him to stop loving us, He would have stopped loving us long ago. It is His love’s unchangeableness which enables Him to show us infinite patience and forbearance, without which we would die. 2 Peter 3:9

iv. Distinguishing. He has not loved the whole world in this way- “Jacob I have loved, but Esau I have hated.” Why should He put His love on us and pass by millions that we are no different from in our natures? I name but the heads of things. Let them enlarge whose hearts are touched.


2) Eye it as to receive it. Unless this be added, all is in vain as to any communion with God. We do not hold communion with Him in anything, until it be received by faith. This, then, is that which I would provoke the saints of God unto, even to believe this love of God for themselves and their own part,- believe that such is the heart of the Father towards them,- accept of His witness herein. His love is not ours in the sweetness of it until it be so received. Continually, then, act thoughts of faith on God, as love to thee, -as embracing thee with the eternal love before described. When the Lord is, by His word, presented as such unto thee, let thy mind know it, and assent that it is so; and they will embrace it, in its being so; and all thy affections be filled with it. Set thy whole heart to it; let it be bound with the cords of this love. If the King be bound in the galleries with thy love, shouldst thou not be bound in heaven with His?

3) Let it have its proper fruit and efficacy upon thy heart, in return of love to Him again. We should walk in the light of God’s love for us, holding communion with Him all day long, not dealing with Him unkindly or unthankfully.


It is important to understand that our holding communion with Him in this way is “exceeding acceptable” to Him.

Flesh and blood is apt to have very hard thought of him, - to think that He is always angry….How unwilling is a child to come into the presence of an angry father! Consider, then, this in the first place,- receiving of the Father as He holds out love to the soul, gives him the honour He aims at, and is exceeding acceptable unto Him….Men are afraid to have good thoughts of God. They think it boldness to eye God as good, gracious, tender, kind , loving…Is this not soul-deceit from Satan? Was it not his design from the beginning to inject such thoughts of God? Assure thyself, then, there is nothing more acceptable unto the Father, then for us to keep up our hearts unto Him as the eternal fountain of all that rich grace which flows out to sinners in the blood of Jesus (pgs. 34-35).

To understand this will endear your heart to God and will cause you to delight in Him.

If the love of the father will not make a child delight in him, what will? Put, then, this to the venture: exercise your thoughts upon this very thing, the eternal, free, and fruitful love of the Father, and see if your hearts are not wrought upon to delight in Him. I dare boldly say, believers will find it as thriving a course as ever they pitched on in their lives. Sit down a little at the fountain, and you will quickly have a farther discovery of the sweetness of the streams. You who have run from Him, will not be able, after a while, to keep a distance for a moment.

Owen then says that some might say that they cannot get their hearts to return love to God and, if only they could, then they would be enabled to believe that He actually did delight in them.

Owen answers:

This is the most preposterous course that possibly thy thoughts can pitch upon, a most ready way to rob God of His glory. “Herein is love,” saith the Holy Ghost, “not that we loved God, but that He loved us” first, 1 John 4:10,11. Now, thou wouldst invert this order, and say, “Herein is love, not that God loved me, but that I love Him first.” This is to take the glory of God from him: that whereas He loves us without a cause that is in ourselves, and we have all cause in the world to love Him, thou wouldst have the contrary, - namely, that something should be in thee for which God should love thee, even thy love to Him; and that thou shouldst love God, before thou knowest any thing lovely in Him, -namely , whether He love thee or no. This is a course of flesh’s finding out, that will never bring glory to God, nor peace to thy own soul. Lay down, then, thy reasonings; take up the love of the Father upon a pure act of believing, and that will open thy soul to let it out unto the Lord in the communion of love. P. 37

Watching Movies for the Glory of God

Ekklesia's movie night begins in October. To get you prepared, read this helpful article from Reformation 21: "Watching Movies for the Glory of God."

Martin Luther on Harsh Language

Following up on the harsh language debate (see previous post):

I have heard some use Martin Luther as an example of, and justification for, the use of harsh and course language. For anyone who has ever read his works, you are confronted with the fact that his language was very colorful to say the least. Al Mohler, however, has noted that, in using Luther as an example, we must recognize that his culture was very rustic and the language of his that we find "colorful" would not have raised an eyebrow among his peers.

Well, Pulpit Magazine has gone further and has done us a service by pointing us to Martin Luther's sermon on Ephesians 5:3-4 and the following excerpt from this sermon shows that Luther was, in fact, conscientious about his use of language and felt that those who used "scandalous talk" should be reproved or else they would bring the congregation an "ill repute."

He said:

“Filthiness”—scandalous talk—is unchaste language suggestive of fornication, uncleanness and carnal sins. It is common in taverns and generally found as accompaniment of gluttony, drunkenness and gambling. Especially were the Greeks frivolous and adepts in this respect, as their poets and other writers attest.

What Paul refers to in particular is the lewd conversation uttered in public without fear and self-restraint. This will excite wicked thoughts and give rise to serious offenses, especially with the young. As he states elsewhere (1 Cor 15, 33), “Evil companionships [communications] corrupt good morals.”

Should there be any Christians forgetful enough to so transgress, the offense must be reproved; otherwise it will become general and give the congregation an ill repute, as if Christians taught and tolerated it the same as the heathen....

“Jesting” has reference to those conversational expedients which pander to gaiety in the form of scandal; they are called among us banter and badinage. Laughter, mirth and gaiety is their purpose, and we meet with them generally in society and high life. Among the heathen, jesting was counted a virtue, and therefore received the title “eutrapelia” by Aristotle.

But Paul calls it a vice among Christians, who certainly may find conversational expedients of a different kind, such as will inspire a cheerful and joyous spirit in Christ. True, Christians are not all so pure but that some may err in this matter; but the Christian Church does not command jesting, nor suffer any member to abandon himself to the practice. It reproves and prohibits it, particularly in religious assemblies, and in teaching and preaching. For Christ says (Mt 12, 36) that at the last day men must give account of every idle, unprofitable word they have spoken.

Christians should be a very firm, though courteous, people. Courtesy should be coupled with seriousness, and seriousness with courtesy, according to the pattern of the life of Christ supplied in the Gospel.