John Owen's Communion With God- Part 3

John Owen’s Communion With God- Part 3

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 begins by making it clear that anytime he attributes anything to a particular person of the Godhead, that it should be understood that the others share in it as well, but it is simply that the attribute is found principally in one of the three and secondarily in the others.

These few observations being premised, I come now to declare what it is wherein peculiarly and eminently the saints have communion with the Father; and this is LOVE,- free, undeserved, and eternal love. This the Father peculiarly fixes upon the saints; this they are immediately to eye in him, to receive of him, and to make such returns thereof as he is delighted withal. This is the great discovery of the gospel: for whereas the Father, as the fountain of Deity, is not known any other way but as full of wrath, anger and indignation against sin, nor can the sons of maen have any other thoughts of him,- here he is now revealed peculiarly as love, as full of it unto us; the manifestation whereof is the peculiar work of the gospel.

1) 1 John 4:8 “God is love.” In this verse, “God” is referring to the Father which we can tell because He is distinguished from the Son in verse 9.

“The Father is love;” that is, not only of an infinitely gracious, tender and compassionate, and loving nature, according as he hath proclaimed himself (Exod. 34:6-7), but also one that eminently and peculiarly dispenseth himself unto us in free love.

Verses 9-10 tell us that “In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him. In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.”

2) 2 Corinthians 13:14- “The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, THE LOVE OF GOD, and the fellowship of the Holy Ghost, be with you all.”

Ascribing sundry things unto the distinct persons, it is love that he peculiarly assigns to the Father.

3) John 16:26,27

Saith our Saviour, “Take no care of that, nay, impose that not upon me, of procuring the Father’s love for you; but know that this is his peculiar respect towards you, and which you are in him: ‘He himself loves you.’ It is true, indeed, (and as I told you), that I will pray the Father to send you the Spirit, the Comforter, and with him all the gracious fruits of his love; but yet in the point of love itself, free love, eternal love, there is no need of any intercession for that: for eminently the Father himself loves you. Resolve of that, that you may hold communion with him in it, and be no more troubled about it. Yea, as your great trouble is about the Father’s love, so you can no way more trouble or burden him, than by your unkindness in not believing of it.”

4) Romans 5:5 “The love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost, which is given unto us.” God is here distinguished from the Holy Spirit and is distinguished from the Son in verse 8. See also 2 Cor. 13:11 and 1 John 4:8.

5) Two types of love are ascribed to the Father. A love of “good pleasure and destination,” and a love of “friendship and approbation.”

a. John 3:16 With the love of His good purpose and good pleasure, he determinate will of doing good. This is distinctly ascribed to him, being laid down as the cause of sending his Son. See also Rom. 9:11, 12; Eph. 1:4,5; 2 Thess. 2:13,14; 1 John 4:8,9

b. John 14:23 The love of friendship and approbation. “If anyone loves me, he will keep my words and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our abode with him.”

6) Yea, and as this love is peculiarly to be eyed in him, so it is to be looked on as the fountain of all following gracious dispensations. Christians walk oftentimes with exceedingly troubled hearts, concerning the thoughts of the Father toward them. They are well persuaded of the Lord Christ and his good-will; the difficulty lies in their acceptance with the Father,- what is his heart towards them? “Show us the Father, and it sufficeth us,” John 14:8. Now, this ought to be so far away, that his love ought to be looked on as the fountain from whence all other sweetnesses flow. Thus the apostle sets out, Titus 3;4, ‘After that the kindness and love of God our Savior toward man appeared.’ It is of the Father of whom he speaks; for, verse 6, he tells us that ‘he makes out unto us,’ or ‘sheds that love upon us abundantly, through Jesus Christ our Savior.; And this love he makes hinge upon which the great alteration and translation of the saints doth trun; for saith he, verse 3, ‘we ourselves also were sometimes foolish, disobedient, deceived, serving divers lusts and pleasures, living in malice and envy, hateful and hating one another.’ All naught, all out of order, and vile. When, then, is our recovery? The whole rise of it is from this love of God, flowing out by the ways here described.

Now for our communion with the Father in love to be complete, two things are required of believers: That they receive it from Him; and that they make a suitable returns to Him.

1) Receive it. Communion consists of giving and receiving. Until someone receives love from the Father, they do not have communion with Him. How do you receive it? By faith. And what are we to believe in concerning Him? His love.

It is true that there is no way to have faith in the Father, but through the Son (John 14:6). It is through Jesus as our merciful high priest that we have access to the Father. But when we, through Christ, have access to the Father, we then see His glory and we see the love of the Father towards us and we then respond in faith. We are to see love, to believe in love, to receive love, in and from the Father, it coming to us through Christ alone.

Though there be no light for us but in the beams, yet we may be beams see the sun, which is the fountain of it. Though all of our refreshment actually lie in the streams, yet by them we are led up unto the fountain. Jesus Christ, in respect of the love of the Father, is but the beam, the stream; wherein though actually all our light, our refreshment lies, yet by him we are led to the fountain, the sun of eternal love itself. Would believers exercise themselves herein, they would find it a matter of no small spiritual improvement in their walking with God.