Communion With God

Fellowship with the Father, Son and Holy Spirit

John Owen

• Publisher: Christian Focus Publication
• Year: 2012
• ISBN:
  9781781911778

Part I
Communion with God the Father

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1

The Saints Have
Communion with God

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In 1 John 1:3, the apostle assures them to whom he wrote that the fellowship of believers ‘is with the Father, and with his Son Jesus Christ.’ This he does with such an unusual kind of expression as bears the force of an asseveration; whence we have rendered it, ‘Truly our fellowship is with the Father, and with his Son Jesus Christ.’

asseveration:
emphatic declaration

The outward appearance and condition of the saints in those days being very mean and contemptible—their leaders being accounted as the filth of this world, and as the offscouring of all things—the inviting others to fellowship with them, and a participation of the precious things which they did enjoy, seems to be exposed to many contrary reasonings and objections: ‘What benefit is there in communion with them? Is it anything else but to be sharers in troubles, reproaches, scorns, and all manner of evils?’ To prevent or remove these and the like exceptions, the apostle gives them to whom he wrote to know (and that with some earnestness of expression), that notwithstanding all the disadvantages their fellowship lay under, to a carnal view, yet in truth it was, and would be found to be (in reference to some with whom they held it), very honourable, glorious, and desirable. For ‘truly,’ says he, ‘our fellowship is with the Father, and with his Son Jesus Christ.’

This being so earnestly and directly asserted by the apostle, we may boldly follow him with our affirmation—namely, ‘That the saints of God have communion with him.’ And a holy and spiritual communion it is, as shall be declared. How this is spoken distinctly in reference to the Father and the Son, must afterward be fully opened and carried on.

Once Alienated from the Life of God

By nature, since the entrance of sin, no man has any communion with God. He is light, we darkness; and what communion has light with darkness? He is life, we are dead—he is love, and we are enmity; and what agreement can there be between us? Men in such a condition have neither Christ, nor hope, nor God in the world (Eph. 2:12); ‘being alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in them’ (Eph. 4:18). Now, two cannot walk together, unless they be agreed (Amos 3:3). Whilst there is this distance between God and man, there is no walking together for them in any fellowship or communion. Our first interest in God was so lost by sin, as that there was left to us (in ourselves) no possibility of a recovery. As we had deprived ourselves of all power for a return, so God had not revealed any way of access to himself; or that he could, under any consideration, be approached by sinners in peace. Not any work that God had made, not any attribute that he had revealed, could give the least light into such a dispensation.

Brought Near by Christ

The manifestation of grace and pardoning mercy, which is the only door of entrance into any such communion, is not committed to any but to him alone in whom it is, by whom that grace and mercy was purchased, through whom it is dispensed, who reveals it from the bosom of the Father. Hence this communion and fellowship with God is not in express terms mentioned in the Old Testament. The thing itself is found there; but the clear light of it, and the boldness of faith in it, is discovered in the gospel, and by the Spirit administered therein. By that Spirit we have this liberty (2 Cor. 3:17–18). Abraham was the friend of God (Isa. 41:8); David, a man after his own heart; Enoch walked with him (Gen. 5:22)—all enjoying this communion and fellowship for the substance of it. But the way into the holiest was not yet made manifest whilst the first tabernacle was standing (Heb. 9:8). Though they had communion with God, yet they had not παρρησίαν—a boldness and confidence in that communion. This follows the entrance of our High Priest into the most holy place (Heb. 4:16; 10:19). The veil also was upon them, that they had not ἐλευθερίαν, freedom and liberty in their access to God (2 Cor. 3:15–16). But now in Christ we have boldness and access with confidence to God (Eph. 3:12). This boldness and access with confidence the saints of old were not acquainted with. By Jesus Christ alone, then, on all considerations as to being and full manifestation, is this distance taken away. He has consecrated for us a new and living way (the old being quite shut up), ‘through the veil, that is to say, his flesh’ (Heb. 10:20); and ‘through him we have access by one Spirit to the Father’ (Eph. 2:18). ‘You who sometimes were far off, are made near by the blood of Christ, for he is our peace’ (Eph. 2:13–14). Of this foundation of all our communion with God, more afterward, and at large. Upon this new bottom and foundation, by this new and living way, are sinners admitted into communion with God, and have fellowship with him. And truly, for sinners to have fellowship with God, the infinitely holy God, is an astonishing dispensation.

What Is Communion?

Communion relates to things and persons. A joint participation in anything whatever, good or evil, duty or enjoyment, nature or actions, gives this denomination to them so partaking of it. A common interest in the same nature gives all men a fellowship or communion in it. Of the elect it is said, Τὰ παιδία κεκοινώνηκε σαρκὸς καὶ αἵματος (Heb. 2:14), ‘Those children partook of [or had fellowship in, with the rest of the world] flesh and blood’—the same common nature with the rest of mankind; and, therefore, Christ also came into the same fellowship: Καὶ αὐτὸς παραπλησίως μετέσχε τῶν αὐτῶν.

There is also a communion as to state and condition, whether it be good or evil; and this, either in things internal and spiritual—such as is the communion of saints among themselves; or in respect of outward things. So was it with Christ and the two thieves, as to one condition, and to one of them in respect of another. They were ἐν τῷ αὐτῷ κρίματι—under the same sentence to the cross (Luke 23:40), ‘ejusdem dolores socii.’ They had communion as to that evil condition to which they were adjudged; and one of them requested (which he also obtained) a participation in that blessed condition which our Saviour was immediately to enter.

There is also a communion or fellowship in actions, whether good or evil. In good, is that communion and fellowship in the gospel, or in the performance and celebration of that worship of God which in the gospel is instituted; which the saints do enjoy (Phil. 1:5); which, as to the general kind of it, David so rejoices in (Ps. 42:4). In evil, was that in which Simeon and Levi were brethren (Gen. 49:5). They had communion in that cruel act of revenge and murder.

Our communion with God is not comprised in any one of these kinds; of some of them it is exclusive. It cannot be natural; it must be voluntary and by consent. It cannot be of state and conditions; but in actions. It cannot be in the same actions upon a third party; but in a return from one to another. The infinite disparity that is between God and man, made the great philosopher conclude that there could be no friendship between them. Some distance in the persons holding friendship he could allow, nor could exactly determine the bounds and extent thereof; but that between God and man, in his apprehension, left no place for it. Another says, indeed, that there is ‘communitas homini cum Deo’—a certain fellowship between God and man; but the general intercourse of providence is all he apprehended. Some arose to higher expressions; but they understood nothing of which they spoke. This knowledge is hid in Christ; as will afterward be made to appear. It is too wonderful for nature, as sinful and corrupted. Terror and apprehensions of death at the presence of God is all that it guides to. But we have, as was said, a new foundation, and a new discovery of this privilege.

Now, communion is the mutual communication of such good things as wherein the persons holding that communion are delighted, bottomed upon some union between them. So it was with Jonathan and David; their souls cleaved to one another (1 Sam. 20:17) in love. There was the union of love between them; and then they really communicated all issues of love mutually. In spiritual things this is more eminent: those who enjoy this communion have the most excellent union for the foundation of it; and the issues of that union, which they mutually communicate, are the most precious and eminent.

Of the union which is the foundation of all that communion we have with God, I have spoken largely elsewhere, and have nothing farther to add to that.

Our communion, then, with God consists in his comm-unication of himself to us, with our return to him of that which he requires and accepts, flowing from that union which in Jesus Christ we have with him. And it is twofold:

1. Perfect and complete, in the full fruition of his glory and total giving up of ourselves to him, resting in him as our utmost end; which we shall enjoy when we see him as he is.
2. Initial and incomplete, in the first-fruits and dawnings of that perfection which we have here in grace; which only I shall handle.

It is, then, I say, of that mutual communication in giving and receiving, after a most holy and spiritual manner, which is between God and the saints while they walk together in a covenant of peace, ratified in the blood of Jesus, of which we are to treat. And this we shall do, if God permit; in the meantime praying the God and Father of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, who has, of the riches of his grace, recovered us from a state of enmity into a condition of communion and fellowship with himself, that both he that writes, and they that read the words of his mercy, may have such a taste of his sweetness and excellencies in that, as to be stirred up to a farther longing after the fulness of his salvation, and the eternal fruition of him in glory.

2

Communion with the
Three Persons of the Godhead

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That the saints have communion with God, and what communion in general is, was declared in the first chapter. The manner how this communion is carried on, and the matter of which it consists, comes next under consideration. For the first, in respect of the distinct persons of the Godhead with whom they have this fellowship, it is either distinct and peculiar, or else obtained and exercised jointly and in common.

several:
separate; different

That the saints have distinct communion with the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit (that is, distinctly with the Father, and distinctly with the Son, and distinctly with the Holy Spirit), and in what the peculiar appropriation of this distinct communion to the several persons consists, must, in the first place, be made manifest.

As Distinct Individuals

The apostle tells us, ‘There are three that bear record in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost’ (1 John 5:7). In heaven they are, and bear witness to us. And what is it that they bear witness to? To the sonship of Christ, and the salvation of believers in his blood. Of the carrying on of that, both by blood and water, justification and sanctification, is he there treating. Now, how do they bear witness to this? Even as three, as three distinct witnesses. When God witnesses concerning our salvation, surely it is incumbent on us to receive his testimony. And as he bears witness, so are we to receive it. Now this is done distinctly. The Father bears witness, the Son bears witness, and the Holy Spirit bears witness; for they are three distinct witnesses. So, then, are we to receive their several testimonies: and in doing so we have communion with them severally; for in this giving and receiving of testimony consists no small part of our fellowship with God. Of what their distinct witnessing consists will be afterward declared.

The apostle, speaking of the distribution of gifts and graces to the saints, ascribes them distinctly, in respect of the fountain of their communication, to the distinct persons. ‘There are diversities of gifts, but the same Spirit’ (1 Cor. 12:4), ‘that one and the self-same Spirit’ (v. 11) that is, the Holy Ghost. ‘And there are differences of administrations, but the same Lord,’ the same Lord Jesus (v. 5). ‘And there are diversities of operations, but it is the same God’ (v. 6), even the Father (Eph. 4:6). So graces and gifts are bestowed, and so are they received.

illapses:
descent, fall

And not only in the emanation of grace from God, and the illapses of the Spirit on us, but also in all our approaches to God, is the same distinction observed. ‘For through Christ we have access by one Spirit to the Father’ (Eph. 2:18). Our access to God (in which we have communion with him) is δὶα Χριστοῦ, ‘through Christ,’ ἐν Πνεύματι, ‘in the Spirit,’ and πρὸς τὸν Πατέρα, ‘to the Father’—the persons being here considered as engaged distinctly to the accomplishment of the counsel of the will of God revealed in the gospel.

Sometimes, indeed, there is express mention made only of the Father and the Son (1 John 1:3), ‘Our fellowship is with the Father, and with his Son Jesus Christ.’ The particle ‘and’ is both distinguishing and uniting. Also John 14:23, ‘If a man love me, he will keep my words: and my Father will love him, and we will come to him, and make our abode with him.’ It is in this communion that Father and Son make their abode with the soul.

Sometimes the Son only is spoken of, as to this purpose: ‘God is faithful, by whom you were called to the fellowship of his Son Jesus Christ our Lord’ (1 Cor. 1:9). And, ‘If any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me’ (Rev. 3:20)—of which place afterward.

Sometimes the Spirit alone is mentioned. ‘The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Ghost be with you all’ (2 Cor. 13:14). This distinct communion, then, of the saints with the Father, Son, and Spirit, is very plain in the Scripture; but yet it may admit of farther demonstration. Only this caution I must lay in beforehand: whatever is affirmed in the pursuit of this truth, it is done with relation to the explanation ensuing, in the beginning of the next chapter.

How the Saints Commune with God

The way and means, then, on the part of the saints, whereby in Christ they enjoy communion with God, are all the spiritual and holy actings and outgoings of their souls in those graces, and by those ways, in which both the moral and instituted worship of God consists. Faith, love, trust, and joy are the natural or moral worship of God, whereby those in whom they are have communion with him. Now, these are either immediately acted on God, and not tied to any ways or means outwardly manifesting themselves; or else they are farther drawn forth, in solemn prayer and praises, according to that way which he has appointed. That the Scripture does distinctly assign all these to the Father, Son, and Spirit—manifesting that the saints do, in all of them, both as they are purely and nakedly moral, and as farther clothed with instituted worship, respect each person respectively—is that which, to give light to the assertion in hand, I shall farther declare by particular instances.

The Father

Faith, love, and obedience are peculiarly and distinctly yielded by the saints to the Father; and he is peculiarly manifested in those ways as acting peculiarly towards them: which should draw them forth and stir them up to that.

Through Faith

He gives testimony to, and bears witness of, his Son (1 John 5:9), ‘This is the witness of God which he has testified of his Son.’ In his bearing witness he is an object of belief. When he gives testimony (which he does as the Father, because he does it of the Son) he is to be received in it by faith. And this is affirmed: ‘He that believes on the Son of God, has the witness in himself’ (1 John 5:10). To believe on the Son of God in this place, is to receive the Lord Christ as the Son, the Son given to us, for all the ends of the Father’s love, upon the credit of the Father’s testimony; and, therefore, therein is faith immediately acted on the Father. So it follows in the next words, ‘he that believes not God’ (that is, the Father, who bears witness to the Son) ‘has made him a liar.’ ‘You believe in God,’ says our Saviour (John 14:1); that is, the Father as such, for he adds, ‘Believe also in me;’ or, ‘You believe in God; believe also in me.’ God, as the prima Veritas, upon whose authority is founded, and to which all divine faith is ultimately resolved, is not to be considered ὑποστατικῶς, as peculiarly expressive of any person, but οὐδιωδῶς, comprehending the whole Deity; which undividedly is the prime object of this. But in this particular it is the testimony and authority of the Father (as such) in that, of which we speak, and upon which faith is distinctly fixed on him. If it were not so, the Son could not add, ‘Believe also in me.’

In Love

The like also is said of love. (1 John 2:15), ‘If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him;’ that is, the love which we bear to him, not that which we receive from him. The Father is here placed as the object of our love, in opposition to the world, which takes up our affections ἡ ἀγάπη τοῦ Πατρός. The Father denotes the matter and object, not the efficient cause, of the love inquired after. And this love of him as a Father is that which he calls his ‘honour’ (Mal. 1:6).

By Prayer and Praise

Farther, these graces as acted in prayer and praises, and as clothed with instituted worship, are peculiarly directed to him. ‘You call on the Father’ (1 Pet. 1:17). ‘For this cause I bow my knees to the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, of whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named’ (Eph. 3:14–15). Bowing the knee comprises the whole worship of God, both that which is moral, in the universal obedience he requires, and those peculiar ways of carrying it on which are by him appointed. ‘To me,’ says the Lord, ‘every knee shall bow, every tongue shall swear’ (Isa. 45:23), which he declares to consist in their acknowledging of him for righteousness and strength (v. 24–5). Yea, it seems sometimes to comprehend the orderly subjection of the whole creation to his sovereignty. In this place of the apostle it has a far more restrained acceptance, and is but a figurative expression of prayer, taken from the most expressive bodily posture to be used in that duty. This he farther manifests (Eph. 3:16–17), declaring at large what his aim was, and whereabout his thoughts were exercised, in that bowing of his knees. The workings, then, of the Spirit of grace in that duty are distinctly directed to the Father as such, as the fountain of the Deity, and of all good things in Christ—as the ‘Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.’ And therefore the same apostle, in another place, expressly conjoins, and yet as expressly distinguish, the Father and the Son in directing his supplications, ‘God himself even our Father, and our Lord Jesus Christ, direct our way to you’ (1 Thess. 3:11). The like precedent, also, have you of thanksgiving, ‘Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ’ (Eph. 1:3–4). I shall not add those very many places in which the several particulars that concur to that whole divine worship (not to be communicated to any, by nature not God, without idolatry) in which the saints hold communion with God, are distinctly directed to the person of the Father.

The Son

It is so also in reference to the Son: ‘You believe in God,’ says Christ, ‘believe also in me’ (John 14:1)—‘believe also, act faith distinctly on me; faith divine, supernatural—that faith whereby you believe in God, that is, the Father. There is a believing of Christ, namely, that he is the Son of God, the Saviour of the world. That is that whose neglect our Saviour so threatened to the Pharisees, ‘If you believe not that I am he, you shall die in your sins’ (John 8:24). In this sense, faith is not immediately fixed on the Son, being only an owning of him (that is, the Christ to be the Son), by closing with the testimony of the Father concerning him. But there is also a believing on him, called ‘Believing on the name of the Son of God’ (1 John 5:13; John 9:36); yea, the distinct affixing of faith, affiance, and confidence on the Lord Jesus Christ the Son of God, as the Son of God, is most frequently pressed. ‘God [that is, the Father] so loved the world…that whosoever believes in him [that is, the Son] should not perish’ (John 3:16). The Son, who is given of the Father, is believed on. ‘He that believes on him is not condemned’ (v. 18). ‘He that believes on the Son has everlasting life’ (v. 36). ‘This is the work of God, that you believe on him whom he has sent’ (John 6:29, 40; 1 John 5:10). The foundation of the whole is laid, ‘That all men should honour the Son, even as they honour the Father. He that honours not the Son honours not the Father which has sent him’ (John 5:23). But of this honour and worship of the Son I have treated at large elsewhere; and shall not in general insist upon it again. For love, I shall only add that solemn apostolic benediction, ‘Grace be with all them that love our Lord Jesus Christ in sincerity’ (Eph. 6:24), that is, with divine love, the love of religious worship; which is the only incorrupt love of the Lord Jesus.

Farther: that faith, hope, and love, acting themselves in all manner of obedience and appointed worship, are peculiarly due from the saints, and distinctly directed to the Son, is abundantly manifest from that solemn doxology:

To him that loved us, and washed us from our sins in his own blood, and has made us kings and priests to God and his Father; to him be glory and dominion for...