The Saints have Communion with God
“John Bunyan is coming down from Bedford to preach early in the morning outside of London. And John Owen is going out to listen to Bunyan preach. Owen moves in exalted circles and it is said that King Charles II asked Owen, ‘Why do you go to hear that tinker prate?’ Owen is said to have replied, ‘Your Majesty, if I could preach Christ the way that tinker preaches Christ, I would willingly relinquish all my learning.’ And that, I think, shows you the heart of the man: ‘I want to exalt Christ.’ That’s what he consecrates his learning to, and the better he can do that, the more ready he is to sacrifice anything else he is and has.”
― Jeremy Walker, PURITAN: All of Life to the Glory of God
John Owen, 17th century Puritan pastor, was a popular and prolific writer. In 41 years, he completed more than 80 works, many of them becoming Christian classics. Owen also served as vice-chancellor of Oxford University, as well as a consultant to Cromwell. Owen died on August 24, 1683 and was buried in Bunhill Fields, London. Sinclair Ferguson refers to Owen as ‘one of the greatest spiritual masters, probably the greatest of the Puritan thinkers, and a man whose writings continue to be enormously relevant to the twenty-first century.’
In Communion with God, Owen writes:
“Because of sin, no man in his natural state has fellowship with God. God is light, and we are darkness. What communion has light with darkness? God is life; we are dead. God is love; we are enmity. So what agreement can there be between God and man? Men, in such a condition, do not have Christ, and so they are without hope and without God in the world (Eph. 2:12). They are ‘alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in them’ (Eph. 4:18). Two cannot walk together unless they agree with each other (Amon 3:3). Whilst there is this great distance between God and man, there can be no walking together in fellowship or communion. Our first relationship with God was so lost by sin that there was no possibility in ourselves of any return to God.
Now the only way back into fellowship with God is through faith in Jesus Christ. And while Old Testament believers had communion with God through this means, they did not have a boldness and confidence in that communion. The way to the holiest was not yet open (Heb. 9:8). Under the New Testament, this way into the holiest has been opened and believers have boldness and confidence to come into God’s presence (Eph. 3:12; Heb. 10:20; Eph. 2:13, 14, 18). Christ, then, is the foundation of all of our communion with God and by the Spirit believers now receive boldness of faith. Consider how greatly God has honored us!
Human wisdom sees such an infinite disparity between God and man that it concludes there can be no communion between them. The knowledge that God and man can live in fellowship together is hidden in Christ. It is too wonderful to sinful, corrupted human nature to discover. Human wisdom leads only to terrors and fears when it thinks of coming into God’s presence. But we have, in Christ, the way into God’s presence without fear.
Now communion is the mutual sharing of those good things which delight all those in that fellowship. This was so with David and Jonathan. Their souls were bound together in love (1 Sam. 20:17). Their love for one another was shown in various ways. But their love was nothing in comparison to the love that is between God and his people. This fellowship of love is far more wonderful. Those who enjoy this communion are gloriously united to God through Christ and share in all the glorious and excellent fruits of such communion.
Our communion with God lies in his giving himself to us and our giving ourselves and all that he requires to him. This communion with God flows from that union which is in Christ Jesus.
The communion will be perfect and complete when we enter into the full enjoyment of Christ’s glory. Then we shall totally give ourselves up to him, resting in him as the utmost fulfillment of all our desires.
This communion is now only partial because we presently only enjoy the first-fruits and dawnings of that future perfection. It is with regard to this initial communion that I intend to speak and to show that mutual giving and receiving between God and the saints as they walk together in holy and spiritual peace. This covenant of peace is brought about by the blood of Jesus who has, by the riches of his grace, brought us from a state of enmity into this glorious fellowship with himself, may give you such a taste of his sweetness and excellence in this communion as to be stirred up to a greater longing for that eternal enjoyment of him in eternal glory.”