That which we have seen and heard declare we unto you, that ye also may have fellowship with us: and truly our fellowship is with the Father, and with his Son Jesus Christ.
— 1 John 1:3
At that day ye shall know that I am in my Father, and ye in me, and I in you. He that hath my commandments, and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me: and he that loveth me shall be loved of my Father, and I will love him, and will manifest myself to him. Judas saith unto him, not Iscariot, Lord, how is it that thou wilt manifest thyself unto us, and not unto the world? Jesus answered and said unto him, If a man love me, he will keep my words: and my Father will love him, and we will come unto him, and make our abode with him.
— John 14:20-23
And now I am no more in the world, but these are in the world, and I come to thee. Holy Father, keep through thine own name those whom thou hast given me, that they may be one, as we are.
— John 17:11
God is faithful, by whom ye were called unto the fellowship of his Son Jesus Christ our Lord.
— 1 Corinthians 1:9
The Distinct Communion Which the Saints Have With the Father, by John Owen. The following contains Chapter Three from his work, “Of Communion with God.”
These few observations being made, I will now declare what it is, specifically and eminently, in which the saints have communion with the Father. It is love: free, undeserved, and eternal love. The Father specifically fixes this love on the saints. They are to see this immediately in him, to receive it from him, and to return it to him in any way that delights him. This is the great discovery of the gospel. The Father, as the fountain of the Deity, is only known as full of wrath, anger, and indignation against sin. Nor can the sons of men have any other thoughts of him Rom. 1:18; Isa. 33:13-14; Hab. 1:13; Ps. 5:4-6; Eph. 2:3. Yet here in the gospel he is now revealed specifically as love, and as full of love towards us. The manifestation of this truth is the unique work of the gospel, Tit. 3:4-7.2
1. In 1 John 4:8 we read,“God is love.” It is evident from verse 9 that the name of God is taken personally here. It refers to the person of the Father, and not just his essence. He is distinguished from his only begotten Son whom he sends into the world. He says,“The Father is love.” That is, he not only has an infinitely gracious, tender, compassionate, and loving nature, as he proclaimed in Exod. 34:6, 7.3He is also the one who eminently and specifically gives himself to us in free love. The apostle presents this fact in subsequent verses. “This is love,” he says. “This is what I would have you take notice of in him, that he shows you love in ‘sending his only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through him,’” 1 John 4:9. The same idea is found in 1 John 4:10,“He loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.” The Holy Spirit plainly declares that this love is specifically seen in him. It is displayed prior to sending Christ, and prior to all the mercies and benefits that we receive through him. This love precedes the purchase of Christ, although its entire fruit is revealed in that alone, Eph. 1:4-6.
2. The apostle makes such a distribution of graces in his solemn benediction, 2 Cor. 13:14,“The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit, be with you all.” In ascribing a number of things to the distinct persons, it is love that he specifically assigns to the Father. The fellowship of the Spirit is mentioned with the grace of Christ and the love of God, because it is by the Spirit alone that we have fellowship with Christ in grace, and fellowship with the Father in love. We also have also unique fellowship with the Spirit, as will be declared later.
3. In John 16:26, 27, our Savior says,“I do not say to you, that I will pray the Father for you; for the Father himself loves you.” Why does he say,“I do not say that I will pray the Father for you,” when he said plainly in chap. 14:16,“I will pray the Father for you?” The disciples were fully convinced of Christ’s dear and tender affections towards them, and of his continued care and kindness. With all the gracious words, the comforting and faithful promises of their Master, and the opening of his heart to them, they knew that he would not forget them when he was gone from them bodily. But now all their thoughts concerned the Father. How would they be accepted by him, and what regard did he have towards them? Our Savior says in essence,“Do not worry about that. You do not need to have me procure the Father’s love for you. Instead, know that this is his unique regard for you and what you are in him: ‘He himself loves you.’ It is true, indeed as I told you, that I will pray that the Father sends you the Spirit, the Comforter, and with him all the gracious fruits of his love. But as to this love itself, his free and eternal love for you, there is no need to intercede for that. For the Father himself eminently loves you. Be resolved in that, so that you may hold communion with him in that love, and not be troubled about it any more. In fact, if you are troubled about the Father’s love, understand that you can no more trouble and burden him than by your unkindness in not believing it.” This must be so when sincere love is questioned.
4. The apostle teaches the same thing in Rom. 5:5. “The love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit, which is given to us.” God, whose love this is, is plainly distinguished from the Holy Spirit, who sheds that love abroad. And in verse 8, he is also distinguished from the Son, because it is from his love that the Son is sent. Therefore, it is the Father of whom the apostle speaks. And what is it that he ascribes to him? Love, which he also commends to us in verse 8. To carry this to its climax, not only is there frequent and specific mention of the love of God the Father, but he is also called “The God of love” in 2 Cor. 13:11. And he is said to be “love,” so that whoever wants to know him, 1 John 4:8, or dwell in him by fellowship or communion, 1 John 4:16, must do it because he is love.”
5. There is a twofold divine love. There is beneplaciti, a love of good pleasure and purpose, and amicitiae, a love of friendship and approval. They are both specifically and eminently assigned to the Father:
1. John 3:16,“God so loved the world, that he gave…” This is the love of his purpose and good pleasure. It is his determinate will to do good. This is distinctly ascribed to him, and 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.
2. In John 14:23, there is mention of that other kind of love. “If a man loves me,” says Christ,“he will keep my words: and my Father will love him, and we will come to him, and make our abode with him.” The love of friendship and approval is eminently ascribed to him here. Christ says,“We will come,” both Father and Son,“to such a one, and dwell with him” by the Spirit. Yet he has us notice that, as to love, the Father has a unique prerogative: “My Father will love him.”
6. As this love is uniquely seen in the Father, it should be understood as the fountain of all subsequent gracious dispensations. Christians are often very troubled concerning how the Father thinks of them. They are well persuaded of the good will of the Lord Christ. The difficulty lies in how well they are accepted by the Father. What is his heart towards them? “Show us the Father, and that will be enough for us,” John 14:8. Now, his love ought to be looked on as the fountain from which all other sweetness flows. This is how the apostle sets it out in Tit. 3:4. “After that, the kindness and love of God our Savior toward man appeared.” It is the Father of whom he speaks, for in verse 6, he tells us that “he sheds that love upon us abundantly, through Jesus Christ our Savior.” He makes this love the linchpin on which the great alteration and translation of the saints turns. He says in verse 3,“We too were sometimes foolish, disobedient, deceived, serving diverse lusts and pleasures, living in malice and envy, hateful, and hating one another.” Where, then, does our recovery come from? It all arises from this love of God, flowing out as described. For when the kindness and love of God appeared, then this alteration ensued. To make us secure in this, there is nothing in the world of a loving and tender nature that God has not compared himself to. If we remove all their weaknesses and imperfections, great impressions of love must remain. He is like a father, a mother, a shepherd, a hen over her chickens, and the like, Ps. 103:13; Isa. 63:16; Matt. 6:6; Isa. 66:13; Ps. 23:1; Isa. 40:11; Matt. 23:37.
I will not need to add any more proofs. I have demonstrated that there is love in the person of the Father, specifically held out to the saints, in which he holds communion with them.
Now, to complete communion with the Father in love, two things are required of believers: 1. that they receive it from him and 2. that they suitably return it to him.
1. That they receive it Communion consists in giving and receiving. Until the love of the Father is received, we have no communion with him in that love. How, then, is this love of the Father received so as to hold fellowship with him? By faith. We receive it by believing it. God has so fully, and so eminently revealed his love, that it may be received by faith. “You believe in God,” John 14:1, that is, in the Father. And what is it to believe in him? It is to believe in his love, for he is “love,” 1 John 4:8.
It is true that our faith does not act immediately upon the Father, but by the Son. “He is the way, the truth, and the life. No man comes to the Father but by him,” John 14:6. Christ is the merciful high priest over the house of God. By him we have access to the throne of grace. By him we are introduced to the Father. By him we believe in God, l Pet. 1:21. When we have access to the Father by and through Christ, then we behold the Father’s glory. We see his love that he uniquely bears towards us, and our faith acts on that love. We are to see it, believe it, and receive it, as it exists in him. The issues and fruits of this love are bestowed on us through Christ alone. Though there is no light for us to see except in the beams, yet by its beams we may see the sun, which is its source. Though all of our refreshment actually lies in the streams, yet those streams lead us up to the fountain. Jesus Christ, in respect to the love of the Father, is the beam or the stream in which all of our light and refreshment is actually found. Yet, he leads us to the fountain, the sun of eternal love itself. If believers would exercise themselves in this truth, they would discover a substantial spiritual improvement in their walk with God.
This is what is aimed at. Many dark and disturbing thoughts are apt to arise in this thing. Few believers can carry their hearts and minds to this height by faith, to rest their souls in the love of the Father. They live below this peak, in the troublesome region of hopes and fears, storms and clouds. Everything at the peak is serene and quiet, but they do not know how to reach it. It is the will of God that he may always be seen as benign, kind, tender, loving, and unchangeable in this attribute. Specifically as the Father, he is the great fountain and spring of all gracious communications and fruits of love. This is what Christ came to reveal: God as a Father, John 1:18. This is the name that Christ declares to those who are given to him out of the world, John 17:6. And this love of the Father is what he effectually leads us to by himself, because he is the only way of going to God as a Father, John 14:5, 6. By doing so, he gives us the rest of what he promises; for the love of the Father is the only rest for the soul.
It is true, as was said, that we do not formally understand this in the first instant of believing. We believe in God through Christ, 1 Pet. 1:21. Faith seeks out rest for the soul. This is presented to the soul by Christ, the mediator, as the only procuring cause. The soul does not remain here. By Christ it has access to the Father, Eph. 2:18, and access into his love. It finds out that he is love, and that he has a design, a purpose of love, and a good pleasure towards us from eternity. The soul finds delight, contentment, and good will in Christ, because all cause of anger and aversion has been taken away. The soul reposes and rests itself there. By faith through Christ and by Christ, the soul has been brought into the heart of God, into a comforting persuasion and spiritual perception and sense of his love. This is the first thing that the saints do in their communion with the Father. More will be said of how to properly improve this communion later.
2. That the saints suitably return this love to him God loves so that he may be beloved. When he commands the return of his received love to complete communion with him, he says,“My son, give me your heart,” Prov. 23:26, your affections, your love. “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your strength, and with all your mind,” Luke 10:27. This is the return that he demands. When the soul sees God in his dispensation of love, and it sees that he is love, infinitely lovely and loving, it rests upon and delights in him as such. Then has it communion with him in love. This is love: that God loves us first, and then we love him again. I will not go into a description of divine love now. Generally, love is an affection of union and nearness, with contentment in it. Whenever the Father is looked upon as acting in any other way than with love upon our soul, it breeds dread and aversion in us. Hence the fleeing and hiding of sinners in the Scriptures. But when the Father is considered as a father, acting in love on the soul, it stimulates the soul to love him again. In faith, this is the foundation of all acceptable obedience, Deut. 5:10; Exod. 20:6; Deut. 10:12, 11:1, 13, 13:3.
This is this whole of what is stated by the apostle in Eph. 1:4,“According as he has chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love.” It begins in God’s love for us, and ends in our love for him. That is what the eternal love of God aims at in us, and works us up to do.
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