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.