Communion with God: The Complete Work
A modern-English rewrite of John Owen's Of Communion with God the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost (1657), in three parts, based on his original text
Part One: The Father
Before We Begin
A note from the editor. John Owen published this book in 1657. It is one of the finest Puritan books on what it is like to know God personally, as Father, as Son and as Holy Spirit, and it is long. It has three parts, one for each person of the Trinity. This volume is the first part only, the part on the Father. It is the shortest of the three, and in some ways the most surprising, because its main claim is one many Christians find hard to believe: that the Father himself loves you, and wants you to know it.
Owen's own words were written for readers who knew Greek and Latin and loved long sentences. Here the sentences are shorter, the Greek and Hebrew word studies are mostly trimmed to what the argument needs, and Owen's habit of piling up Scripture references is eased by quoting the key verses in full. His order and his argument are kept. Where he quotes the Bible from the King James Version or from his own translation, we print the English Standard Version, and where his point depends on a different reading, an editor's note says so. The four chapters follow Owen's four chapters in order, and the short italic openers within them mark where his sub-points begin. Anything the editor has added, such as the notes or the full text of Hebrews 4:14–16 in the first chapter, is marked as an editor's note or printed as a quotation.
One thing to know before you start. Owen uses the word "communion" in a particular way. It does not mean a feeling, and it does not mean the Lord's Supper. It means a two-way exchange between persons who love one another: one gives, the other receives and gives something back. Owen says what that looks like in the first chapter, so you can leave the word alone until then.
Part One, Chapter 1: What Communion with God Means
The apostle John wrote to a small and struggling church, and he opened his first letter with a claim that must have sounded almost absurd.
"Our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ." (1 John 1:3, ESV)
Think about who was hearing it. These early Christians were poor and despised, and their leaders were treated as the scum of the earth. A person invited into their fellowship was being invited to share in trouble, insults and loss. So John adds a word of emphasis that the translators render as "truly." Truly our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son. It may look like nothing from the outside. But what we are invited into is honourable, glorious and desirable beyond anything the world can offer.
This gives us the thesis of everything that follows: the saints of God have communion with him. It is holy, it is spiritual, and it is real.
Where we start. By nature, no one has any communion with God at all. He is light and we are darkness, and what fellowship has light with darkness? He is life and we are dead. He is love and we are enmity. Paul says of unbelievers that they are "alienated from the life of God" (Ephesians 4:18, ESV), and that they are "having no hope and without God in the world" (Ephesians 2:12, ESV). The prophet asks, "Do two walk together, unless they have agreed to meet?" (Amos 3:3, ESV). As long as that gap stands, there is no walking together.
Worse, the gap could not be closed from our side. We had thrown away every power to return, and God had given no sign that sinners could come near him in peace. Nothing God had made, and no attribute of his that we could see, could shed the least light on how a sinner might be welcomed.
The only door is grace and pardoning mercy, and that mercy is found nowhere except in the one who purchased it, who dispenses it, and who reveals it from the Father's side. That is why this fellowship is hardly named as such in the Old Testament. The reality was there. Abraham was God's friend, Enoch walked with him, and David was a man after his own heart. But the way into the holy place had not yet been shown while the first tabernacle was still standing (Hebrews 9:8). They had communion with God, but not the boldness that we have. That boldness came when our High Priest went into the holiest place for us:
"Since then we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus, the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession. For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin. Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need." (Hebrews 4:14–16, ESV)
In Christ we have "boldness and access with confidence through our faith in him" (Ephesians 3:12, ESV). Through him alone the distance is taken away. He opened "the new and living way ... through the curtain, that is, through his flesh" (Hebrews 10:20, ESV), and "through him we both have access in one Spirit to the Father" (Ephesians 2:18, ESV). "But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. For he himself is our peace" (Ephesians 2:13–14, ESV). I will say more about this foundation as we go. For now, notice how astonishing it is that sinners should be admitted to fellowship with the infinitely holy God.
What the word means. To see how astonishing, it helps to ask what "communion" means in the first place. The word simply means sharing in something together, and people can share many different things.
They can share a nature. All human beings share one nature, and that is why Hebrews says of Christ's people that they share "flesh and blood," and that Christ "likewise partook of the same things" (Hebrews 2:14, ESV). People can share a condition, good or bad. Christ and the two thieves were under the same sentence of death, and one of them asked to share in the blessing Christ was about to enter, and received it (Luke 23:40–43). They can share actions: in good, as Christians share in the gospel and in the worship the gospel appoints (Philippians 1:5), and in evil, as Simon and Levi shared in an act of cruel revenge (Genesis 49:5).
Our communion with God is none of these. It cannot be of nature. It has to be free and by consent. It cannot be a matter of a shared condition, but of actions, and not of the same action done to a third party, but of a return from one to another, freely given and freely received, and so it is a matter of mutual giving and taking.
That is why the wisest of the ancient philosophers concluded that there could be no friendship between God and man. The distance was too great. Others said there was some kind of fellowship between God and humanity, but they meant only the general care of providence. Some reached for higher words, but they did not know what they were saying. All that sinful human nature can see of God leads to terror and fear of death. This knowledge is hidden in Christ, and it is too wonderful for fallen nature to find on its own.
So here is a simple definition. Communion is the mutual giving of good things between persons who delight in each other, resting on some union between them. It was so with David and Jonathan, whose souls were "knit to the soul of David" (1 Samuel 18:1, ESV). The union of love came first. Then everything that love gives, they gave to each other. In spiritual things this is even more true, because those who have communion with God stand on the best union of all, and what they share is the most precious thing there is.
Our communion with God, then, is this: he gives himself to us, and we give back to him what he asks and accepts, and all of it flows from the union we have with him in Christ. It comes in two stages. One is perfect and complete, in the full enjoyment of his glory and the total giving of ourselves to him, resting in him as our final end. We will have that when we see him as he is. The other is the beginning of it here and now, the first fruits and dawnings of that perfection, in grace. That second kind is what I want to talk about.
So I mean the mutual giving and receiving, in a holy and spiritual way, which passes between God and his people as they walk together in the covenant of peace sealed in the blood of Jesus. If God permits, we will go through it step by step. And in the meantime, I pray to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has brought us out of enmity into fellowship with himself, that both the writer and the readers of these words about his mercy might get such a taste of his sweetness that we long for more of him, and for the full enjoyment of him in glory.
Part One, Chapter 2: Communion with Each Person of the Trinity
We have seen that believers have communion with God, and what communion means. The next question is how it is carried on, and in particular with whom. The answer is that believers have communion with the Father, and with the Son, and with the Holy Spirit, and they have it distinctly: with the Father as Father, with the Son as Son, with the Spirit as Spirit. Each one is God, and each one is met in his own way. This chapter proves that, and the next chapters show what it means for the Father.
Three witnesses. In 1 John 5, the apostle says that God himself bears witness about his Son, and that we are to receive that witness.
"If we receive the testimony of men, the testimony of God is greater, for this is the testimony of God that he has borne concerning his Son. Whoever believes in the Son of God has the testimony in himself." (1 John 5:9–10, ESV)
The testimony is given distinctly, by the Father, by the Son and by the Spirit, and we are to receive it as it is given. When we receive their testimony we have fellowship with each of them, and much of our fellowship with God lies in this giving and receiving of testimony. (Editor's note: Owen builds this paragraph on the King James reading of 1 John 5:7, "there are three that bear record in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost." Most modern translations and the ESV do not include those words, because they are not in the earliest Greek manuscripts. The ESV reads, "For there are three that testify: the Spirit and the water and the blood; and the three agree" (1 John 5:7–8). So here we rest the point on verses 9 and 10, which say the same thing about God's testimony without that disputed text, and the rest of the chapter does not depend on it.)
Three sources of gifts. Paul distributes the gifts of the church among the three:
"Now there are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit; and there are varieties of service, but the same Lord; and there are varieties of activities, but it is the same God who empowers them all in everyone." (1 Corinthians 12:4–6, ESV)
The Spirit, the Lord, and God the Father each have their place. The gifts come from all three, and we receive them from all three.
Three ways of approach. The same pattern appears when we go the other direction, toward God:
"For through him we both have access in one Spirit to the Father." (Ephesians 2:18, ESV)
We come through Christ, in the Spirit, to the Father. Each person has his part in bringing us home.
Father and Son together. Sometimes Scripture names only the Father and the Son: "our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ" (1 John 1:3, ESV). And Jesus himself says, "If anyone loves me, he will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him" (John 14:23, ESV). The little word "and" both separates and joins. It is in this fellowship that Father and Son make their home with the soul.
Sometimes only the Son is named. "God is faithful, by whom you were called into the fellowship of his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord" (1 Corinthians 1:9, ESV), and, "Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and eat with him, and he with me" (Revelation 3:20, ESV). And sometimes only the Spirit is named: "The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all" (2 Corinthians 13:14, ESV). So the Bible plainly speaks of communion with each person.
A caution. Whatever I say in these chapters, I say with the explanations I give at the start of the next chapter. I am not dividing God into three, and I am not saying that the three act apart. I am showing the order in which God has chosen to reveal himself to us.
What our side looks like. On our side, the means of this communion are all the holy actings of the soul in the graces and duties that make up God's worship, both the worship written on the conscience and the worship that Scripture has appointed. Faith, love, trust, joy, obedience, and prayer and praise offered in the way he has laid down. The Bible shows us that each of these is directed to each person in turn.
To the Father: faith, love and obedience. He gives testimony about his Son, and we believe it:
"Whoever believes in the Son of God has the testimony in himself. Whoever does not believe God has made him a liar, because he has not believed in the testimony that God has borne concerning his Son." (1 John 5:10, ESV)
To believe in the Son on the Father's word is, at the same time, to put faith in the Father. That is why Jesus says, "Believe in God; believe also in me" (John 14:1, ESV). He does not say that to separate God and himself, but to show that there is a faith that rests on the Father as the one who speaks, and a faith that rests on the Son as the one given. (Editor's note: Owen draws a fine distinction here. God, as the first truth on whose authority all faith rests, means the whole Godhead together, and it is in that sense that all three are the object of our faith. But in this particular testimony, it is the Father's authority and the Father's word that faith leans on, and that is why Jesus can add, "Believe also in me.")*
So with love: "If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him" (1 John 2:15, ESV). The Father is set here as the object of our love, in contrast to the world. And in prayer and thanks, the Father is addressed: "I bow my knees before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named" (Ephesians 3:14–15, ESV). Bowing the knee here is a picture of prayer, the most telling bodily posture for it. "Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ" (Ephesians 1:3, ESV).
To the Son: "Believe also in me" (John 14:1, ESV). There is a believing that he is the Son of God, which means receiving the Father's testimony about him, and there is a believing on him, which means resting the weight of the soul on him. The second is pressed again and again. "For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life" (John 3:16, ESV). "Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life" (John 3:36, ESV). The foundation is laid when Jesus says that all "may honor the Son, just as they honor the Father" (John 5:23, ESV). And love for him is a mark of the saints: "Grace be with all who love our Lord Jesus Christ with love incorruptible" (Ephesians 6:24, ESV). Owen takes this to be divine love, the love of worship, and that is the only pure love for the Lord Jesus.
The worship of the Lamb in heaven makes the same point. "To him who loves us and has freed us from our sins by his blood and made us a kingdom, priests to his God and Father, to him be glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen" (Revelation 1:5–6, ESV). And "Worthy is the Lamb who was slain" (Revelation 5:12, ESV), with the song going on to include "To him who sits on the throne and to the Lamb be blessing and honor and glory and might forever and ever!" (Revelation 5:13, ESV). The Father and the Son are held out together, and yet distinctly, as the object of all worship and honour. Stephen died praying to him: "Lord Jesus, receive my spirit," and "Lord, do not hold this sin against them" (Acts 7:59–60, ESV). And Paul describes the whole body of Christians as "all those who in every place call upon the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, both their Lord and ours" (1 Corinthians 1:2, ESV). Calling on his name takes in the whole of worship. This worship is due to our Mediator, but he receives it as God and as the Son, not as Mediator.
To the Holy Spirit: he is addressed in the apostolic blessing that I quoted, for such blessings are in their nature prayers. The sin of unbelief is described as resisting the Holy Spirit (Acts 7:51), and Paul speaks of "the love of the Spirit" (Romans 15:30, ESV). Baptism is in his name too, along with the Father and the Son (Matthew 28:19).
The sum of it is that there is no grace by which our souls go out to God, no act of worship, no duty and no obedience, which is not directed to the Father, the Son and the Spirit, each in his own way. By these ways we hold communion with God, and so we hold it distinctly.
Three sources of grace. The same is true in reverse, in what we receive. Scripture presents the persons as distinct sources of the good things God gives. This is shown in two ways.
First, the same blessing is attributed to all three together, and yet distinctly. "Grace to you and peace from him who is and who was and who is to come, and from the seven spirits who are before his throne, and from Jesus Christ the faithful witness" (Revelation 1:4–5, ESV). The seven spirits before the throne are the Holy Spirit, the fountain of every perfect gift. All three are joined, and each is mentioned as distinct in giving grace and peace.
Second, the same thing is attributed to each person separately. The best example is teaching, because it holds in itself everything God works in his people. "They will all be taught by God" (John 6:45, ESV) contains the whole mystery of how grace actually reaches us.
The Father teaches. "Everyone who has heard and learned from the Father comes to me" (John 6:45, ESV). It is his drawing, and his giving new birth by his own will.
The Son teaches. From heaven the Father said, "This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased; listen to him" (Matthew 17:5, ESV). This teaching is not mere information. It is a life-giving, Spirit-breathing teaching, a light shining into darkness, a quickening of the dead, an opening of blind eyes and a changing of hard hearts. "The dead will hear the voice of the Son of God, and those who hear will live" (John 5:25, ESV).
The Spirit teaches. "The Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things" (John 14:26, ESV), and "his anointing teaches you about everything, and is true, and is no lie" (1 John 2:27, ESV).
Why do the three do it differently? The answer is short and worth keeping. The Father gives all grace by way of original authority. The Son gives it from a purchased treasury. The Spirit gives it by immediate efficacy.
The Father gives by original authority: "Of his own will he brought us forth by the word of truth" (James 1:18, ESV). (Editor's note: Owen also cites John 5:21, "the Father quickeneth whom he will." The ESV puts it, "as the Father raises the dead and gives them life, so also the Son gives life to whom he will," which is about the Son, so we leave it out here and let James 1:18 carry the point.) So when the Spirit is sent, he is sent by the Father, though the Son also sends him (John 14:26; 15:26; 16:7).
The Son gives from a treasury that he bought. "And from his fullness we have all received, grace upon grace" (John 1:16, ESV). Where does that fullness come from? "For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell" (Colossians 1:19, ESV), and he was given it because he was obedient to death (Philippians 2:8–11). He has both the fullness and the authority to hand it out (John 5:25–27; Matthew 28:18).
The Spirit gives by direct working. "If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit who dwells in you" (Romans 8:11, ESV). All three are here: the Father who raises by his authority, the Son in whose death our life was bought, and the Spirit who lives in us and does the work.
This is the proof that believers have communion with each person distinctly, and it is also the foundation for what comes next.
Part One, Chapter 3: The Father's Love
We have shown that there is a distinct communion with each person of the Trinity. Now we ask what, in particular, we have with the Father. First, four guidelines so that nothing I say is misread.
Four things to keep in mind. First, when I say that something belongs peculiarly to one person, I do not shut out the other persons. I mean that in that thing we deal principally, directly and in a special way with one person, and with the others secondarily. The works of God toward the world are common to all three. But they are distinguished by the way each person acts. Creation is attributed to the Father, redemption to the Son.
Second, the whole Godhead works in every act of communion. Take faith. It is given by the Father ("it is the gift of God," Ephesians 2:8, ESV), it is purchased by the Son ("it has been granted to you that for the sake of Christ you should not only believe in him," Philippians 1:29, ESV), and it is worked in us by the Spirit.
Third, when I name one thing in which we have communion with one person, I do not say that is the only thing. I give a clear, central example to prove the general claim. There is no grace in which we do not have communion with God.
Fourth, I do not mean to confine all communion with God within these headings. God's ways are broad. I do not want to stand in the way of the fellowship we have with the whole Godhead as we walk before him in obedience.
What we have with the Father. With that said, here it is. The thing in which we have communion with the Father, principally and distinctly, is love: free, undeserved, eternal love. The Father fixes it on his people, and we are to look for it in him, take it from him, and give back to him what he is pleased to receive.
This is the great discovery of the gospel. Apart from the gospel, the Father is known only as angry at sin, and people can have no other thought of him. Paul writes that "the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness" (Romans 1:18, ESV). But in the gospel he is shown as love, full of it toward us. "But when the goodness and loving kindness of God our Savior appeared, he saved us" (Titus 3:4–5, ESV).
Let me lay out the proof.
First, "God is love" (1 John 4:8, ESV). Here "God" means the Father, and we know that because the next verse separates him from his Son whom he sends. "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" (1 John 4:9, ESV). He is love not only in his own nature, as he proclaimed himself to Moses ("The LORD, the LORD, a God merciful and gracious," Exodus 34:6), but also as the one who gives himself to us in free love. And notice the order: "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" (1 John 4:10, ESV). His love comes before the sending of Christ and before every blessing that follows. The fruits come only through Christ, but the love itself is first.
Second, the apostolic blessing: "The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all" (2 Corinthians 13:14, ESV). Paul gives something different to each person, and to the Father he gives love.
Third, Jesus's own words to his disciples on the last night. "In that day you will ask in my name, and I do not say to you that I will ask the Father on your behalf; for the Father himself loves you ..." (John 16:26–27, ESV). (Editor's note: the verse goes on, "because you have loved me and have believed that I came from God." Owen stops where we stop, because his point is that the Father's love needs no one to win it. It comes before ours, as 1 John 4:10 says.) Earlier that night he had said that he would ask the Father to send the Spirit (John 14:16). So what does he mean? The disciples were sure of his love. They knew he would not forget them. But now their worry was about the Father: how would they be received by him? Jesus says, in effect, "Do not put that burden on me. Do not think that I must win the Father's love for you. The Father himself loves you. I will ask him for the Spirit and for the fruits of his love, but for love itself, eternal love, there is no need of any intercession, because the Father himself loves you. Settle it, and live in it, and stop worrying about it. Indeed, nothing troubles him more than your unkindness in not believing it."
Fourth, Paul says: "God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us" (Romans 5:5, ESV). God, whose love it is, is distinguished from the Spirit who pours it out, and he is distinguished from the Son too, for "God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us" (Romans 5:8, ESV). So Paul means the Father. He is called "the God of love and peace" (2 Corinthians 13:11, ESV), and whoever wants to know him, or to live in fellowship with him, must come to him as love (1 John 4:16).
Fifth, there are two kinds of divine love, a love of good pleasure and purpose, and a love of friendship and approval, and Scripture gives both to the Father. "For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son" (John 3:16, ESV) is the love of his purpose, his settled will to do good. And "If anyone loves me, he will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him" (John 14:23, ESV) is the love of friendship. Notice Jesus says "we will come," Father and Son, but "my Father will love him." In the matter of love the Father has a particular place.
Sixth, this love is to be looked on as the fountain of all that follows. Many Christians walk with troubled hearts about how the Father thinks of them. They are persuaded of Christ's goodwill, and the struggle is with the Father. "Lord, show us the Father, and it is enough for us" (John 14:8, ESV). But that is the wrong way round. The Father's love is the fountain from which every other sweetness flows. "But when the goodness and loving kindness of God our Savior appeared" (Titus 3:4, ESV): Paul is talking about the Father, for he adds that the Father "poured out on us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior" the Spirit. And that love is the hinge on which the whole change in the saints turns. "For we ourselves were once foolish, disobedient, led astray, slaves to various passions and pleasures, passing our days in malice and envy, hated by others and hating one another" (Titus 3:3, ESV). Where does our recovery come from? From the love of God. To assure us of it, there is no tender and loving thing in the world that God has not likened himself to: a father, a mother, a shepherd, a hen with her chicks (Psalm 103:13; Isaiah 66:13; Psalm 23:1; Matthew 23:37). Take away all the weakness in those pictures, and the force of love is left.
So the claim is proved: there is a love in the person of the Father which is held out peculiarly to his people, and in which he means to have fellowship with them.
Two things are needed. To complete communion with the Father in love, two things are needed from believers. First, that they receive it from him. Second, that they give suitable returns to him.
Receiving. Communion is giving and receiving. Until the Father's love is received, we have no communion with him in it. How is it received? By faith. Receiving it is believing it. God has made his love so clear that faith can take hold of it. "Believe in God," Jesus said, and what is it to believe in the Father? To believe that he is love.
It is true that faith reaches the Father only through the Son: "No one comes to the Father except through me" (John 14:6, ESV). But when through Christ we have access to the Father, we then see his glory, and we see the love he bears to us, and we put our faith in that. We look at it, believe it and receive it as it is in him, while the fruits of it come through Christ alone. Think of the sun: there is no light for us except in the beams, yet by the beams we can see the sun itself. All our refreshment lies in the stream, yet the stream leads us to the fountain. Jesus Christ, in respect of the Father's love, is the beam and the stream. All our light and refreshment come through him, but through him we are led to the fountain, the sun of eternal love itself. Believers who practise this will find it a great help in their walk with God.
I want to press this, because many dark and troubling thoughts rise up here. Few believers carry their hearts up to this height, so as to rest their souls in the Father's love. They live beneath it, in the stormy and cloudy region of hopes and fears, while all up there is calm and quiet. But how to reach it, they do not know. Yet this is God's will: that he should always be seen as kind, tender, loving and unchanging, and above all as the Father, the great fountain and spring of every gift of love. This is exactly what Christ came to reveal: God as Father (John 1:18; 17:6). And Christ himself is the way to God as Father, which is to say, to God as love (John 14:6). In doing that he gives us the rest he promised, for the Father's love is the only rest of the soul.
We do not do this at the first moment of believing. At first we believe in God through Christ, and faith looks for rest for the soul. Christ the mediator is held out to it as the only way the rest was bought. But faith does not stop there. Through Christ it goes on into the Father's love, and finds that God is love, that he has had a purpose of love, a good pleasure toward us from before the world began, a delight in us in Christ, with every cause of anger removed. The soul, brought by faith through Christ into the bosom of God, with a comforting persuasion and a spiritual sense of his love, rests there. This is the first thing the saints do in their communion with the Father.
Returning. The second is the suitable return, and the main part of that is love. God loves in order to be loved. When he commands a return of the love he has given, he says, "My son, give me your heart" (Proverbs 23:26, ESV), and "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, ESV). When the soul sees God, in his giving of love, to be love, infinitely lovely and loving, and rests and delights in him on that ground, then it has communion with him in love. Love, in general, is a longing for closeness with delight in it. As long as the Father is seen in any other light than as one acting in love toward the soul, it breeds dread and aversion, which is why sinners in the Bible flee and hide. But when he who is the Father is seen as a father who gives love, it raises love in the soul in return. This is, by faith, the ground of every acceptable act of obedience.
Paul sets the whole business out in one verse: "even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. In love he predestined us for adoption" (Ephesians 1:4–5, ESV). (Editor's note: Owen reads the words "in love" with the end of verse 4, "holy and without blame before him in love," as the older English versions did. The ESV joins them to verse 5, "In love he predestined us for adoption," so in the ESV the love is God's rather than ours. Owen's wider point, that the chain begins in God's love and ends in ours, does not rest on this verse. It rests on 1 John 4:10 and 4:19, "We love because he first loved us" (ESV).) It begins in the love of God and ends in our love to him. That is what God's eternal love aims at in us. Our obedience in general belongs to our communion with God, but with him as God, our Lord, our lawgiver and rewarder. As Father, revealed as love beyond the expectations of any natural man, we have this exchange in love. I do not mean only the love that is the life and form of obedience. I mean a special delight and rest in the Father, shown to the soul as love.
Where God's love and ours are alike. To make this clearer, I will show how God's love to us and our love to him are alike, and how they differ.
They are alike in two ways. First, each is a love of rest and delight. God's is: "The LORD your God is in your midst, a mighty one who will save; he will rejoice over you with gladness; he will quiet you by his love; he will exult over you with loud singing" (Zephaniah 3:17, ESV). Both things are there, rest and delight. (Editor's note: the Hebrew behind "he will quiet you by his love" can also be read, as Owen reads it, "he will be silent in his love," meaning he will rest in it and not complain of anything in the one he loves. The ESV footnote gives this alternative. Owen builds on it.) God's love rests: it will not be removed, and it will not look for another object. And it delights: he rejoices over his people with singing, as one fully satisfied. When Scripture wants to show the opposite, it says that God "was not pleased" with most of them (1 Corinthians 10:5, ESV), and "my soul has no pleasure in him" who shrinks back (Hebrews 10:38, ESV). And it is the same with the Son: "This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased" (Matthew 3:17, ESV).
Our love in return is also rest and delight. "Return, O my soul, to your rest; for the LORD has dealt bountifully with you" (Psalm 116:7, ESV). The soul gathers itself in from every wandering and every other love to rest in God alone. "Whom have I in heaven but you? And there is nothing on earth that I desire besides you" (Psalm 73:25, ESV). And it delights: "Because your steadfast love is better than life, my lips will praise you" (Psalm 63:3, ESV). The psalmist found more sweetness in God than in a long and comfortable life, with every pleasure thrown in. So the people in Hosea reject every other hope, and say, "Assyria shall not save us; we will not ride on horses; and we will say no more, 'Our God,' to the work of our hands. In you the orphan finds mercy" (Hosea 14:3, ESV).
Second, both run only through Christ. The Father gives no fruit of his love to us except through Christ, and we give no love back to him except through Christ. He is the treasury where the Father stores the riches of his grace, taken from the bottomless mine of eternal love, and he is the priest into whose hand we place every offering we return to the Father. That is why the Father is said to love the Son first: not only as his eternal Son, but as our mediator, the way his love reaches us. The Father chose us before the foundation of the world, but he "has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places" (Ephesians 1:3, ESV). He pours the Holy Spirit out on us "richly through Jesus Christ our Savior" (Titus 3:6, ESV). There is not a drop of this love that falls except through Christ. The holy oil was poured on the head of Aaron and ran down to the hem of his robes (Psalm 133:2). The love is poured first on Christ and from him falls like dew on the souls of the saints. So believers can see an infinite ocean of love in the Father's heart, but they should not look for one drop from him except what comes through Christ. Love in the Father is like honey in the flower, and it must be in the comb before it can be used. Christ prepares the honey for us.
And our returns go in him too, and it is well for us that they do. What lame and blind sacrifices we would otherwise bring! But he bears the guilt of our offerings, and he adds incense to our prayers. Our love is fixed on the Father, and is carried to him by the Son of his love.
Where they differ. They also differ in three ways.
First, the Father's love is a love of bounty, and ours is a love of duty. His love is a descending love, which sends him out to do great things for us. Scarcely anywhere do we find it mentioned without some free gift flowing from it. He loves us and sends his Son to die for us. He loves us and blesses us with every spiritual blessing. Loving is choosing. He loves us and disciplines us. It is a love like the heavens to the earth, which, full of rain, pour it out to make the ground fruitful, or like the sea that gives its waters to the rivers from its own fullness. The rivers return to it only what they received from it. It is the love of a spring, always giving, and from it comes everything lovely in the one loved. It does not find goodness in the person loved, it makes it.
Our love to God is a love of duty, a child's love. His comes down in bounty, ours goes up in thankfulness. He adds to us by his love, and we add nothing to him by ours. "If you are righteous, what do you give to him? Or what does he receive from your hand?" (Job 35:7, ESV). Our love is made of four things: rest, delight, reverence and obedience. That is why he calls it "honor": "If then I am a father, where is my honor?" (Malachi 1:6, ESV).
Second, the Father's love is before ours, and our love is after his. "In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us" (1 John 4:10, ESV). A father loves a child when the child neither knows nor loves him. By nature we are "haters of God" (Romans 1:30, ESV). All mutual love between God and us must begin on his side. And it goes before anything lovely in us as well: "God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us" (Romans 5:8, ESV). Sin is all the unloveliness a creature can have, and still he commends his love to us there, not because we are better than others but because he is infinitely good.
Ours, on the other hand, always follows: after his love, and after a cause of love. God must first be shown to us as lovely and desirable before we can love him. The saints do not love God for nothing, but for what he is. "I love the LORD, because he has heard my voice and my pleas for mercy" (Psalm 116:1, ESV), the psalmist says, and so may we: we love him because. If anyone asks about our love to God, we can say with David, "What have I done now? Was it not but a word?" (1 Samuel 17:29, ESV), and Owen adds that if anyone asks about our love for God, we may answer, "Is there not a cause?" (Editor's note: Owen takes David's question in his own older translation, "Is there not a cause?" The ESV reads "Was it not but a word?" and has a different sense, so we keep Owen's wording here only as his own application.)
Third, God's love is like himself: equal, constant, not able to grow or shrink. Ours is like us: unequal, rising and falling. His is like the sun, always the same in its light, though a cloud may sometimes cross it. Ours is like the moon, with its fullness and its wanings.
He loves to the end, and always the same. "For I the LORD do not change; therefore you, O children of Jacob, are not consumed" (Malachi 3:6, ESV). It cannot be raised by anything we do, and it cannot be lowered by anything in us. But in two respects things around it do change. First, in its fruits. It is a fruitful love, a love of bounty, and the fruits come in different measures. Who among the saints has not felt it? Sometimes what life, what light, what strength, and at other times how dead, how dark, how weak, as God lets out or holds back the fruits of his love. Second, in its showing. He pours his love into our hearts by the Spirit, and that sense of it comes and goes. Now he shines, and then he hides his face, perhaps for our good. Our Father will not always be angry with us, or we would be crushed. And he does not always smile, or we would grow careless. Yet in itself, his love is the same. "For a brief moment I deserted you, but with great compassion I will gather you" (Isaiah 54:7, ESV). Owen adds from the next verse that he gathers us "with everlasting kindness."
Here someone will object: "This is close to the blasphemy that God loves his people as much when they sin as when they obey. If so, who will care to serve him?"
My answer is plain. Few truths of Christ have not met an objection like this. Names are at the will of anyone who wants to apply them, but things do not change by them. The love of God in itself is the eternal purpose of his will. That is as unchangeable as God himself. If it were not, no one could be saved. "I the LORD do not change," and so we are not consumed. Does he love his people in their sinning? He loves his people. He does not love their sinning. Does he change his love toward them? He does not change the purpose of his will. He changes the way he deals with them. He rebukes them, disciplines them, hides his face, and makes them feel his displeasure. But woe to us if he should change his love. The very things that look like proof that his love has changed come as truly from love as the things that look most like its fruits. "Will it not encourage sin?" Whoever says that has never tasted the love of God. The doctrine of grace can be turned into an excuse for sin, but the thing itself cannot. Hatred of sin is entirely consistent with accepting the person and choosing him for eternal life.
Our love, by contrast, ebbs and flows, wanes and grows. We lose our first love and we grow in it again, hardly a day standing still. What poor creatures we are, and how unlike the Lord and his love! "Unstable as water, you shall not have preeminence" (Genesis 49:4, ESV). One day, "Though they all fall away because of you, I will never fall away" (Matthew 26:33, ESV), and soon after, "I do not know the man" (Matthew 26:72, ESV). On the best day, "I shall never be moved," and the next, "I said in my alarm, 'All mankind are liars'" (Psalm 30:6; 116:11, ESV). When has our love ever been the same, for even one day, toward God?
So much for how this mutual love of the Father and his people is alike and unlike. I will make some use of it in the next chapter.
Part One, Chapter 4: What This Means for You
We have seen what kind of communion believers have with the Father. Now come the exhortations, the directions and a few observations.
First: this is a duty we hardly practise. It is very clear that Christians are little exercised in this: in holding immediate fellowship with the Father in love. Not knowing our mercies is our sin as well as our trouble. We do not listen to the Spirit, who has been given "that we might understand the things freely given us by God" (1 Corinthians 2:12, ESV). It makes us go heavily when we could rejoice, and weakly when we could be strong in the Lord. How few believers know from experience what it is to be in direct fellowship with the Father in love! With what anxious, doubting thoughts they look at him. What fears, what questions about his goodwill. At best, many think there is no sweetness in him toward us at all, except what was bought at the price of Jesus's blood. It is true that that is the only way the love reaches us. But the free fountain of it all is in the Father's heart.
So here is what to do.
Look at the Father as love. Do not look at him as a father who is always frowning, but as one most kind and tender. See him by faith as one who has had thoughts of kindness toward you from eternity. It is wrong ideas about God that make people run from him, even when something in them wants him. "And those who know your name put their trust in you" (Psalm 9:10, ESV). People cannot stay with God in meditation, and he loses their company, because they do not see his love. They fix their thoughts only on his terrible majesty, his severity and his greatness, and their hearts are not drawn to him. If a soul kept before it his everlasting tenderness, his thoughts of kindness from long ago and his gracious welcome now, it could not bear an hour away from him, whereas now, perhaps, it cannot watch with him for one hour.
To lift your heart there, think about whose love it is. It is the love of one who is entirely sufficient in himself, infinitely satisfied with his own glorious perfections, who has no need to send his love out to others or to look for an object outside himself. He could rest in his own delight forever. He also had his Son, his eternal Wisdom, to delight in from all eternity (Proverbs 8:30). That alone could have filled the Father's whole delight. But he chose to love his people as well, and with a love in which he seeks not only his own satisfaction but our good. It is the love of a God, the love of a Father, whose natural movements are kindness and generosity.
And think about what kind of love it is. It is eternal. It was fixed on us before the foundation of the world. Before we existed or had done the least good, his thoughts were on us and his delight was in us, and the Son rejoiced in the thought of fulfilling his Father's delight in him. (Editor's note: Owen reads Proverbs 8:30–31 as the Son, Wisdom, delighting both in the Father and in "the children of man," that is, in the plan to redeem them. The ESV reads, "then I was beside him, like a master workman, and I was daily his delight, rejoicing before him always, rejoicing in his inhabited world and delighting in the children of man." The reading is a traditional one among Christians and Owen leans on it, but his case does not depend on it.) Just thinking of it ought to make everything within us leap for joy, like the child in Elizabeth's womb. A sense of it cannot help but lay us low in humble, holy reverence, and make us "rejoice with trembling" (Psalm 2:11, ESV).
It is free. He loves us because he will. There was nothing in us, and there is nothing now, that makes us worth loving. If we deserved his love, it would be worth less. We are seldom thankful for what is owed us. But what came before our existence must be entirely free toward our well-being. That is what gives it life, makes it what it is, and sets its value (Romans 9:11; Ephesians 1:3–4; Titus 3:5).
It is unchangeable. We change every day, but his love does not. If any provocation could have turned it away, it would have stopped long ago. This unchangeableness is what carries the Father through the infinite patience he shows us, without which we would die and perish (2 Peter 3:9).
And it is distinguishing. He has not loved everyone in this way. "Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated" (Romans 9:13, ESV). Why should he fix his love on us and pass by millions who are no different from us by nature? Why should he make us share in all its fruits, while most great and wise people are shut out? I only name the headings. Let anyone whose heart is touched go further.
Let your soul keep looking at the Father's love in these ways. They are all soul-conquering.
Receive it. Without this, everything else is in vain. We have no communion with God in any gift until we have received it by faith. So I would urge God's people to believe this love for themselves and for their own part. Believe that the Father's heart is like this toward you. Accept his witness. His love is not yours in its sweetness until it is received. So act on it continually. When the word presents him to you as love, let your mind know it and assent to it, let your will embrace it, and let all your affections be filled with it. Set your whole heart to it. Let it bind you with its cords. If the King is held captive in the galleries by your love, should you not be held in heaven by his?
Let it do its work. Let it have its proper fruit in your heart, in love to him in return. Then we will walk in the light of his face and have holy fellowship with our Father all day long. Let us not deal unkindly with him and answer his goodwill with scorn.
Two reasons to keep at this. First, it pleases God greatly that we should do this, that we should take him into our souls as one full of love, tenderness and kindness toward us. Flesh and blood tends to have very hard thoughts about him: he is always angry, he cannot be appeased, it is not for people like us to come near him, nothing would be better than never to come into his presence. "Who among us can dwell with the consuming fire? Who among us can dwell with everlasting burnings?" say the sinners in Zion (Isaiah 33:14, ESV). And the unfaithful servant in the parable says, "I knew you to be a hard man" (Matthew 25:24, ESV). Nothing is more grievous to the Lord or more useful to Satan's design on the soul than such thoughts. Satan claps his hands, if I may say so, when he can fill the soul with them, for that is all he wants. That has been his method from the beginning. The first blood the murderer shed was by this means. He led our first parents into hard thoughts of God: "Did God actually say...?" "You will not surely die" (Genesis 3:1, 4, ESV). His suggestion was that God knew very well it would go better with them. With that weapon he overthrew the whole human race in one stroke, and remembering his old victory, he is glad to use the same weapon still.
It is very grievous to the Spirit of God to be slandered like that in the hearts of those he loves. How he pleads with his people: "What wrong did your fathers find in me that they went far from me?" (Jeremiah 2:5, ESV), and "Have I been a wilderness to Israel, or a land of thick darkness?" (Jeremiah 2:31, ESV). "But Zion said, 'The LORD has forsaken me; my Lord has forgotten me.' Can a woman forget her nursing child, that she should have no compassion on the son of her womb?" (Isaiah 49:14–15, ESV). The Lord takes nothing worse from his people than such hard thoughts of him. He knows what fruit this bitter root bears: drawing back, unbelief, evasions in our walk with him. How unwilling a child is to come into the presence of an angry father! So think of it: receiving the Father as he holds out love to the soul gives him the honour he aims at, and is very acceptable to him. He often sets his love out in a notable way for just this reason. "God shows his love for us" (Romans 5:8, ESV). "See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God" (1 John 3:1, ESV).
So where does the folly come from? People are afraid to think well of God. They think it presumptuous to see him as good, gracious, tender, kind and loving. I speak of believers. But they can think him hard, severe, almost implacable and fierce (the very worst traits of the worst people, and the ones he hates most, Romans 1:31; 2 Timothy 3:3), and think they do well in it. Is this not Satan's deceit? Was it not his plan from the start to inject such thoughts about God? Be sure of this: nothing is more welcome to the Father than for us to keep our hearts fixed on him as the eternal fountain of all the rich grace that flows to sinners in the blood of Jesus.
Second, this will powerfully draw your soul to God. It will make you delight in him and make your home with him. Many believers have no greater burden in life than that their hearts do not rise to constant, full joy in God, and that there is always a reluctance in their spirits to walk close with him. What is at the bottom of it? Is it not their lack of skill in, or neglect of, this very duty of fellowship with the Father in love? We delight in God exactly as much as we see of his love, and no more. Every other discovery of God without this will only make the soul run from him. But if the heart is once taken up with the Father's love, it cannot help being overpowered and won. If the love of a father will not make a child delight in him, what will? So put it to the test. Spend your thoughts on this one thing, the eternal, free and fruitful love of the Father, and see whether your heart is not drawn to delight in him. I dare say boldly that believers will find it as profitable a course as any they ever took. Sit down a while at the fountain and you will soon find more of the sweetness of the streams. Those of you who have run from him will not be able, after a while, to stay away for a moment.
Three objections. Someone will say, "How shall I have fellowship with the Father in love? I do not know at all whether he loves me. If I venture on it and am not accepted, would I not perish for my presumption instead of finding sweetness? God seems to me only a consuming fire, and I dread to look up to him."
I answer: I do not know what is meant by "knowing" the love of God. It is carried along by spiritual sense and experience, but it is received purely by believing. Our knowing of it is our believing it, as it has been revealed. "So we have come to know and to believe the love that God has for us. God is love" (1 John 4:16, ESV). That is the assurance you may have at the very start of walking with God. He who is truth has said it, and whatever your heart says, or Satan says, unless you take it on that ground, you are trying to make him a liar (1 John 5:10).
Second: "I can believe that God is love to others, because he says he is love. But I see no ground for thinking he will be so to me. There is no reason in the world why he should turn one thought of love toward me. So I do not dare to throw myself on it."
He has spoken it to you as particularly as to anyone in the world. And as for a cause of love, he has as much to fix it on you as on any of the children of men, which is none at all except himself. So I will be quick with this objection. No one since the foundation of the world who believed this love in the Father, and gave love back to him, was ever deceived, and no one ever will be until the end of the world. In this you stand on a most sure foundation. If you believe and receive the Father as love, he will infallibly be love to you, though others may meet his severity.
Third: "I cannot find my heart making any return of love to God. If I could find my soul set on him, then I could believe that his soul delights in me."
This is the most backwards course your thoughts could take, and it is a sure way to rob God of his glory. "In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us" (1 John 4:10, ESV). You would reverse this and say, "In this is love, not that God loved me, but that I loved him first." That is to take his glory from him. He loves us for no cause in ourselves, and we have every cause in the world to love him. You would have it the other way: that there should be something in you, even your love for him, that makes God love you, and that you should love God before you know anything lovely in him, namely, whether he loves you. That is a road the flesh invented. It will never bring glory to God or peace to your soul. Put down your reasoning. Take up the Father's love by a plain act of believing, and that will open your soul to let love out to the Lord in the exchange of love.
What this says about believers. This shows the privilege of the saints. Whatever low thoughts others have of them, they have food to eat that the world knows nothing about. They have close fellowship with the Father. They deal with him in the exchange of love. People are generally valued by the company they keep. It is an honour to stand in the presence of princes, even as servants. What honour have believers, who stand in the Father's presence and enjoy his love! The queen of Sheba blessed the servants of Solomon who stood before him and heard his wisdom (1 Kings 10:8). How much more blessed are those who stand always before the God of Solomon, hearing his wisdom and enjoying his love! Others have their fellowship with Satan and their own lusts, "Their end is destruction, their god is their belly, and they glory in their shame, with minds set on earthly things" (Philippians 3:19, ESV). The saints have this sweet communion with the Father.
And what a safe and sweet retreat this is, in all the scorn, insult and slander the saints go through. When a child is mistreated by strangers in the street, he runs to his father's chest, tells him, and is comforted. In all the harsh judgements and verbal persecution that the saints meet in the streets of the world, they can run with their groans to their Father and be comforted. "As one whom his mother comforts, so I will comfort you" (Isaiah 66:13, ESV). So the soul can say, "If I am hated in the world, I will go where I am sure of love. If all others are hard to me, my Father is tender and full of compassion. I will go to him and be satisfied in him. Here I am counted vile, frowned on and rejected, but with him I have honour and love, whose kindness is better than life itself. There I will have everything at the fountain that others have only in drops."
The saints are the most misjudged people in the world. When they say, "Come and have fellowship with us," people say, "What, with you? A poor lot of troublemakers. When we want to leave the company of every decent and worthy person, then we will come to you." But how mistaken they are! The saints' fellowship is with the Father. They have a close, spiritual, heavenly refreshing in sharing love with the Father himself. How they are misjudged, Paul tells us: "as impostors, and yet are true; as unknown, and yet well known; as dying, and behold, we live; as punished, and yet not killed; as sorrowful, yet always rejoicing; as poor, yet making many rich; as having nothing, yet possessing everything" (2 Corinthians 6:8–10, ESV). In nothing are they more misjudged than in this, that they are seen as poor and low, when they are the only truly great and noble people in the world. Look at their company: the Father. Who is so glorious? Look at the goods they trade in: love. What is so precious? They are "the excellent ones in whom is all my delight" (Psalm 16:3, ESV).
What it shows about hypocrites. It also shows the main difference between the saints and empty professors. In their duties and in outward privileges, fruitless professors often walk hand in hand with the saints. But come to their secret times, and what a difference! There the saints have fellowship with God. Hypocrites, for the most part, have fellowship with the world and their own lusts. They talk with them, listen to what they say, and make provision for them, while the saints are sweetly wrapped in the bosom of their Father's love. It is often almost impossible for believers to outdo, in appearance, people whose hearts are rotten. But believers have food that others know nothing about, and refreshment in the banqueting house in which others have no share. "When the cares of my heart are many, your consolations cheer my soul" (Psalm 94:19, ESV).
And what it means for how we live. Now, to draw this to a close: if all this is so, "what sort of people ought you to be in lives of holiness and godliness" (2 Peter 3:11, ESV)? "Our God is a consuming fire" (Hebrews 12:29, ESV). What fellowship has light with darkness? Shall sin and lust live in thoughts that receive love from the Father and carry it back to him? "Holiness befits your house, O LORD, forevermore" (Psalm 93:5, ESV). An unclean spirit cannot come near him, and an unholy heart cannot make its home with him. A lewd person will not want the company of a sober man, and will a person full of vain and foolish imaginings have fellowship with the most holy God? There is no thought of this love that is not a powerful reason for holiness and does not lead to it. Ephraim says, "What have I to do with idols?" when he finds his salvation in God (Hosea 14:8). Communion with the Father is entirely incompatible with loose living. "If we say we have fellowship with him while we walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth" (1 John 1:6, ESV). "Whoever says 'I know him' but does not keep his commandments is a liar, and the truth is not in him" (1 John 2:4, ESV). The most impressive claim to know the Father, without holiness and obedience, only proves the claimants to be liars. "If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him" (1 John 2:15, ESV).
And if so, to close, how many who go by the name of Christian fall short of the truth! How little the great number of professors know of this fellowship, and its fruits! Do not many plainly have fellowship with their lusts and the world, and yet want to be thought to have a share among those who are sanctified? They have no new name and no white stone (Revelation 2:17), yet they want to be called the people of the Most High. Might it not be said of many of them rather that God is not in any of their thoughts than that they have communion with him? May the Lord open our eyes, that we may see and know that walking with God is not a matter of form but of power! So much for our special fellowship with the Father, in the matter of love, which we have dwelt on. "God is faithful, by whom you were called into the fellowship of his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord" (1 Corinthians 1:9, ESV), of which next.
Part Two: The Son
Before We Begin
A note from the editor. This is the second of the three parts of John Owen's great book on what it is like to know God personally. The first part was about the Father. This one is about the Son, and it is by far the longest, about five times the length of the part on the Father. If you want to know why the Puritans spoke about Jesus the way they did, this is where to look.
Owen's claim is that believers have a real and particular fellowship with Jesus Christ, and that this fellowship has a shape. It is not a vague warmth. Owen says it is fellowship with Christ in his grace, and he works through that grace in order. The first chapter shows from Scripture that we really do have communion with the Son. The second says that it consists in grace, and describes the grace of his person. Chapters three to five show how we hold communion with him in that grace: as husband and wife, and then in the affections of a marriage, where each side values and delights in the other. Owen's guide throughout is the Song of Songs, and he reads it as a book about Christ and his church. Chapters six to ten turn to the grace Christ purchased: his obedience, our acceptance with God, our sanctification, and the privileges of the covenant that he won for us.
The same rules hold as in Part One. Owen's order and argument are kept. His sentences are shorter, he speaks to you directly where he is urging and comforting, his word studies, repeated proofs and long runs of references are trimmed to what the argument needs, and where he quotes the Bible from the King James Version or from his own translation, we print the English Standard Version. Where his point depends on a different reading, an editor's note says so. The italic run-in headings within each chapter are the editor's. Where a Bible verse is added that Owen did not cite, it is labelled with its reference, and where Owen only alludes to a verse, the editor supplies the reference.
A word about the Song of Songs, since Owen leans on it so heavily here. He reads it as a picture of Christ and his people, in line with most Christian readers before the nineteenth century. You do not have to settle every question about how the Song should be read to profit from what he draws out of it. Take what he says about Christ's love as what Scripture says elsewhere in plainer words, and let the Song's pictures make it warm.
One last thing. Some of Owen's chapters are long, and some of his passages are demanding. If you are reading slowly, you are reading well. If you want to know where the heart of this part lies, read chapter three, which describes Christ as the husband of his people, and chapters four and five, which describe how the two love one another.
Part Two, Chapter 1: Fellowship with the Son
We have looked at the fellowship we have with the Father. Now we come to the fellowship we have with his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord. This is fellowship with the second person as Mediator, in the office he took on for our sake, when he was "born of woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons" (Galatians 4:4–5, ESV). I want to do two things. First, show that this fellowship is real. Second, show you what it consists of. This chapter takes the first.
In the Scriptures. A few places will be enough, because the thing is plain.
"God is faithful, by whom you were called into the fellowship of his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord" (1 Corinthians 1:9, ESV). Every saint is called to this, and by God's faithfulness every saint will be kept in it. Notice the order. The Father calls us out of his love, and he calls us into fellowship with the Son, as your Lord.
Here is another: "Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and eat with him, and he with me" (Revelation 3:20, ESV). If that is not fellowship, I do not know what is. Christ eats with believers. He feeds on the graces his own Spirit has put in them, and he is delighted to taste the sweet fruit of the Spirit in his people. That is why the bride in the Song of Solomon prays that she may have something ready for him when he comes: "Awake, O north wind, and come, O south wind! Blow upon my garden, let its spices flow. Let my beloved come to his garden, and eat its choicest fruits" (Song of Solomon 4:16, ESV).
The soul of every believer is the garden of Jesus Christ. It is a garden for his delight, for he is "delighting in the children of man" (Proverbs 8:31, ESV), and he "will rejoice over you with gladness" (Zephaniah 3:17, ESV). It is also a garden for fruit, and pleasant fruit: "A garden locked is my sister, my bride, a spring locked, a fountain sealed. Your shoots are an orchard of pomegranates with all choicest fruits, henna with nard, nard and saffron, calamus and cinnamon, with all trees of frankincense, myrrh and aloes, with all chief spices" (Song of Solomon 4:12–14, ESV). Whatever is sweet, whatever is fragrant, whatever heals, is in that garden.
So the bride longs for these things to grow in her, so that her Beloved may eat with her as he has promised. "O that the breathing and workings of the Spirit of all grace would stir up all his gifts and graces in me, so that the Lord Jesus may have a welcome from me that he can accept!" God complains when his vineyard yields no fruit (Isaiah 5:2; Hosea 10:1), and the bride dreads the same thing: that when Christ comes there will be nothing on the table. A barren heart is no place for him to stay.
And his delight in the fruit is beyond words. He says so himself: "I came to my garden, my sister, my bride, I gathered my myrrh with my spice, I ate my honeycomb with my honey, I drank my wine with my milk" (Song of Solomon 5:1, ESV). I have eaten, I am refreshed.
The meal goes both ways. As Christ eats with his saints, so he has promised that they will eat with him, and that completes the fellowship. He provides richly: "She has slaughtered her beasts; she has mixed her wine; she has also set her table" (Proverbs 9:2, ESV). He calls what he has for them a feast, a wedding, a banquet of rich food. The fatted calf is killed for them. That is how Christ and his people entertain one another.
A passage to open. I want to open one passage of the Song of Solomon, because it shows this fellowship so fully.
"I am a rose of Sharon, a lily of the valleys. As a lily among brambles, so is my love among the young women. As an apple tree among the trees of the forest, so is my beloved among the young men. With great delight I sat in his shadow, and his fruit was sweet to my taste" (Song of Solomon 2:1–3, ESV).
In the first verse Christ tells us what he is to his bride, and in the second he tells us what she is to him. Scripture compares Christ to everything excellent in creation. In the heavens he is the sun and the bright morning star. Among the beasts he is the lion of the tribe of Judah. Among the flowers he is the rose and the lily. A flower has two excellences, fragrance and colour, and he shares them out: the rose for fragrance and the lily for beauty, so that "even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these" (Matthew 6:29, ESV). Sharon was a fruitful plain, and it is promised to the church that "the majesty of Carmel and Sharon" will be given to her (Isaiah 35:2, ESV). The finest roses must have grown there. Christ is that rose. By the fragrance of his love and his righteousness he draws his saints to him. As God smelled a sweet aroma from the sacrifice of his blood, so the saints are refreshed and cherished by the sweetness of the graces with which he was anointed for them. And he is the lily of the valleys, the loveliest of all flowers, fairer than the children of men. More of that later.
So he is their refreshment, their ornament, their delight and their glory. Now hear what they are to him: "As a lily among brambles, so is my love among the young women." Christ and his church are called by the same name, the lily. That is because of their union with him, since the same Spirit lives in them both, and because of the likeness he is making in them. The church is a lily to him, in two ways. In excellence: as the lily surpasses the thorns, so the saints surpass everyone else in his eyes. And in trial: the rest of the world is a thicket of briers and thorns to the people of God (Ezekiel 28:24), and the best of them is a brier, and the most upright worse than a thorn hedge (Micah 7:4). There is no higher comparison than that. So Christ is to them what verse 1 says, and they are to him what verse 2 says. How he looks in your eyes comes next.
"As an apple tree among the trees of the forest, so is my beloved among the young men. With great delight I sat in his shadow, and his fruit was sweet to my taste." The bride begins to speak her thoughts of him. He compared her to a lily among thorns, and she compares him to an apple tree among the trees of the wood. Her reason is that he has two things other trees do not have: fruit to eat and shade to rest in. Of the one she eats, and under the other she rests, and both with great delight.
Every other son is a barren tree beside him. I mean the angels, who are sons of God by creation (Job 1:6; 38:7), and the sons of Adam, the best of the old creation. To a hungry, weary soul, and only such a soul goes looking for fruit and shade, they are leafless trees that give neither food nor rest.
"But in Christ," she says, "there is fruit, and it is sweet. 'My flesh is true food, and my blood is true drink' (John 6:55, ESV). He has brought in an everlasting righteousness that fully satisfies the hungry soul that has gone from one barren tree to another and found nothing. And he is rich in graces, of which I may eat, and he himself calls me to eat plenty." Christ is the tree of life. In him is the righteousness we hunger for. In him is the water of life, and whoever drinks it will never thirst again. How sweet the fruits of his mediation are to the faith of his saints! Whoever can find no comfort in mercy, pardon, grace, acceptance with God and holiness is a stranger to the good things prepared for believers.
He also has shade, for shelter and for rest: shelter from the wrath outside us, and rest from the weariness inside us. The first use of shade is to keep off the sun's heat, as Jonah's gourd did for him. When the heat of wrath is ready to scorch the soul, Christ steps in and takes all of it on himself. We sit under the shadow of his wings, quietly and safely, trusting him, and with great delight. Who can say what joy there is in a soul sheltered from wrath under the righteousness of the Lord Jesus? Then there is rest from weariness. "Each will be like a hiding place from the wind, a shelter from the storm, like streams of water in a dry place, like the shade of a great rock in a weary land" (Isaiah 32:2, ESV). From the power of our corruptions, the trouble of temptations and the distress of persecution, there is quiet and rest in him. "Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest" (Matthew 11:28, ESV).
Four things in the fellowship. Now that bride and bridegroom have described one another, the following verses set out their fellowship. I will point to four things in it: its sweetness, its delight, its safety and its comfort.
First, sweetness: "He brought me to the banqueting house" (Song of Solomon 2:4, ESV). Everything here speaks of the richest refreshment. Great people at great feasts are taken to the banqueting house, and that is how he treats his saints. These are the provisions of grace and mercy, the love and kindness revealed in the gospel, declared when the saints meet, and given by the Spirit. "Your love is better than wine" (Song of Solomon 1:2, ESV), and "the kingdom of God is not a matter of eating and drinking but of righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit" (Romans 14:17, ESV). Whether the banqueting house means the Scriptures, the gospel, the ordinances, or some rare showing of his love (a banquet is not an everyday meal), it comes to the same thing. The grace Christ gives is refreshing, strengthening and comforting. It is a sad thing when full souls turn up their noses at this honeycomb.
Second, delight. The bride is overwhelmed by the sweetness of this welcome, and she cries out: "Sustain me with raisins; refresh me with apples, for I am sick with love" (Song of Solomon 2:5, ESV). She is not fainting because she lacks a sense of his love, or fears wrath. She is overpowered by the force of her own love, now that she has tasted Christ. It is as if she says: "I have seen a glimpse of the King in his beauty. My soul melts with longing for him. Hold up my spirit with his presence in his ordinances, or I shall sink and faint! What have you done, blessed Jesus? Give me something from you to hold me up, or I die."
When someone faints, two things must be done: hold him up so that he does not fall, and revive him with comforts. The soul asks for both. It wants strengthening grace to keep to its duty, and the consolations of the Holy Spirit to revive it, until it comes to the full enjoyment of Christ. That is how sweetly, and with what delight, this fellowship goes on.
Third, safety. "His banner over me was love" (Song of Solomon 2:4, ESV). A banner shows that an army is present, and the soldiers camp under it in security. So the tribes of Israel camped in the wilderness, each under its own standard. A banner is also a sign of victory (Psalm 20:5). Christ's banner over his saints is love. All their protection comes from his love, and they will have all the protection his love can give. It guards them against hell, death and every enemy. Whatever presses in on them has to pass through the banner of Christ's love first.
Fourth, support and comfort. "His left hand is under my head, and his right hand embraces me!" (Song of Solomon 2:6, ESV). Christ takes the posture of the most tender friend toward someone sick and sad. The soul faints with longing for his presence, and he comes with his embrace. He "nourishes and cherishes" his church (Ephesians 5:29, ESV). The hand under the head is support in pressures and trials. The hand that embraces is joy and consolation. In both, Christ rejoices over his people as "the bridegroom rejoices over the bride" (Isaiah 62:5, ESV). To lie like this in the arms of his love, held up and refreshed without a break, is certainly fellowship with him. And so in verse 7 the bride is anxious that it should go on, and she charges everyone to behave so that her Beloved is not provoked to leave.
The whole book is taken up with describing this fellowship between Christ and his saints, so I need not pull out more examples.
One more place. I will add only Proverbs 9:1–5. "Wisdom has built her house; she has hewn her seven pillars. She has slaughtered her beasts; she has mixed her wine; she has also set her table. She has sent out her young women to call from the highest places in the town, 'Whoever is simple, let him turn in here!' To him who lacks sense she says, 'Come, eat of my bread and drink of the wine I have mixed'" (Proverbs 9:1–5, ESV).
Christ is the eternal Wisdom of the Father, the one "whom God made our wisdom and our righteousness and sanctification and redemption" (1 Corinthians 1:30, ESV). The house is his church, built on a perfect number of pillars so that it stands firm. The slaughtered beasts and mixed wine are the rich things of the gospel, prepared for those who come at his invitation. To eat this bread and drink this wine is to have fellowship with him. Where could we find nearer fellowship than a meal at the same table?
I could press this further by looking at all the relationships Christ and his saints stand in, which necessarily involve fellowship if both sides are faithful. But that is often written about, and I will say something about one important example later.
Editor's note on the banqueting house. Owen's English Bible read "He brought me to the banqueting house" in the text and "house of wine" in the margin, and read "Stay me with flagons." The ESV has "banqueting house" and "Sustain me with raisins," where the older translations had "flagons" (large drinking vessels of wine). The picture is a feast either way, and Owen's point about sweetness and delight stands.
Part Two, Chapter 2: The Grace of Christ
You have seen that the saints have a particular fellowship with the Lord Jesus. Now I show what it is they share with him.
It is in grace. Scripture gives grace to Christ again and again as his own. "The Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth" (John 1:14, ESV). That is grace in its truth and substance; everything before him was a picture and a shadow. "Grace and truth came through Jesus Christ" (John 1:17, ESV). "And from his fullness we have all received, grace upon grace" (John 1:16, ESV). So we have fellowship with him in grace. We receive every kind of grace from him, and in that we share with him.
Look at the blessing at the end of Paul's second letter to the Corinthians, where the gifts of the persons are so carefully shared out. It is grace that belongs to the Lord Jesus Christ: "The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all" (2 Corinthians 13:14, ESV). Paul loved this so much that he made it his signature: "This is the sign of genuineness in every letter of mine; it is the way I write. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all" (2 Thessalonians 3:17–18, ESV). He treats "Grace be with you" and "The Lord Jesus be with you" as the same thing, using one, the other or both. So this is what we are to look for in the Lord Jesus, and receive from him: the grace of the gospel. He is the top stone of the temple of God, and to him the cry goes up, "Grace, grace to it!" (Zechariah 4:7, ESV).
Three meanings of the word. "Grace" has three main uses.
First, the grace of a person's presence and beauty, as we speak of a graceful and handsome person. In Christ this is the subject of nearly half the Song of Solomon. It is also in Psalm 45: "You are the most handsome of the sons of men; grace is poured upon your lips" (Psalm 45:2, ESV). Under this head I also place the unimaginable gifts and fruits of the Spirit given to him and brought forth in him. They all add to his personal excellence.
Second, the grace of free favour and acceptance. "For by grace you have been saved through faith" (Ephesians 2:8, ESV) speaks of God's free favour in Christ. So God "gives grace to the humble" (James 4:6, ESV), which means that he gives them favour.
Third, the fruits of the Spirit, renewing our nature, helping us do good and keeping us from evil. When the Lord told Paul, "My grace is sufficient for you" (2 Corinthians 12:9, ESV), he meant the help he gave Paul against temptation.
The last two, as they come to you from Christ, I call purchased grace, because he bought them for us. Our fellowship with him in them is called "that I may know him and the power of his resurrection, and may share his sufferings" (Philippians 3:10, ESV).
The grace of his person. I begin with the first, which I call personal grace. I will show what it is, and then, in the next chapter, how you hold immediate fellowship with him in it.
First, a necessary caution. I am speaking of Christ as Mediator. So by the grace of his person I do not mean the glory of his deity considered by itself, apart from the office he took on for us. And I do not mean the outward appearance of his human nature, either as it was when he lived here and bore our weaknesses ("his appearance was so marred, beyond human semblance," Isaiah 52:14, ESV), or as it is now in glory. A vain imagination of his glorified body leads many to a false and corrupted respect for Christ, built on fleshly ideas about the exaltation of his human nature. That is to know Christ "according to the flesh" (2 Corinthians 5:16, ESV). Foolish images only make the mischief worse.
What I mean is the graces of Christ's person as he is clothed with the office of Mediator: his spiritual excellence and beauty, as the one the Father appointed and anointed to bring all his elect home to his heart.
In this respect Scripture describes him as lovely and desirable beyond comparison with anything created. "You are the most handsome of the sons of men; grace is poured upon your lips" (Psalm 45:2, ESV). The Hebrew word for "handsome" is doubled to lift its subject above all comparison. The ancient Aramaic paraphrase reads: "Your beauty, O king Messiah, is greater than that of the sons of men." His inward beauty is described by outward form, because that mattered so much in rulers. And the prophet says that "the branch of the LORD shall be beautiful and glorious" (Isaiah 4:2, ESV), "for in him the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily" (Colossians 2:9, ESV).
In the Song of Solomon the daughters of Jerusalem ask the bride about this very thing: "What is your beloved more than another beloved, O most beautiful among women?" (Song of Solomon 5:9, ESV). Her answer is, "My beloved is radiant and ruddy, distinguished among ten thousand" (Song of Solomon 5:10, ESV). She goes on, down to the end of the chapter, to describe him feature by feature, and concludes that "he is altogether desirable" (Song of Solomon 5:16, ESV). I will return to that at length. Here I note that she calls him white and ruddy, and a good mixture of those two colours makes the most beautiful complexion.
Editor's note on "white and ruddy." Owen's English Bible read "white and ruddy" in Song of Solomon 5:10, and his whole treatment of the verse rests on the word "white." The ESV renders that word "radiant." He also quotes Genesis 49:12 as "his teeth are white with milk, and his eyes are red with wine"; the ESV there has "His eyes are darker than wine, and his teeth whiter than milk." And his remark that the Nazarites were "whiter than milk" (Lamentations 4:7) is applied in the ESV to the princes. I have kept his three readings of white and red in his own words, and I have not printed the ESV in these three places, because it would break the point he is making, which still stands on the other texts he cites alongside.
First, he is white in the glory of his deity and ruddy in the preciousness of his humanity. Whiteness is the colour of glory. When the Ancient of Days appeared, "his clothing was white as snow, and the hair of his head like pure wool" (Daniel 7:9, ESV). When Christ was transfigured and the glory of his deity shone through, "his face shone like the sun, and his clothes became white as light" (Matthew 17:2, ESV), or in another Gospel, "intensely white, as no one on earth could bleach them" (Mark 9:3, ESV). That is why the angels and glorified saints who always see him are described as wearing white. His whiteness is his deity, and Jacob's blessing of Judah in the older English Bible has his teeth white with milk and his eyes red with wine (Genesis 49:12), both natures in one picture. The ancient Aramaic paraphrase applies this whole passage to God: "I will serve the God who is clothed in a garment white as snow, the splendour of whose face is like fire." He is also ruddy in the beauty of his humanity. Man is called Adam from the red earth he was made of, and the word points to Christ as the second Adam, who shared in flesh and blood because the children do (Hebrews 2:14). How fitting the union of both natures in one person is, I will show later.
Second, he is white in the beauty of his innocence and holiness, and ruddy in the blood of his offering. White is the badge of innocence, as in the Nazarites, who in the older English Bible were whiter than milk (Lamentations 4:7), and red and crimson are the colours of sin and guilt (Isaiah 1:18). Our Beloved was "like that of a lamb without blemish or spot" (1 Peter 1:19, ESV). "He committed no sin, neither was deceit found in his mouth" (1 Peter 2:22, ESV). He was "holy, innocent, unstained, separated from sinners" (Hebrews 7:26, ESV). And yet he who was so white in his innocence was made ruddy in his own blood, in two ways. Literally: in the agony of his soul, when "his sweat became like great drops of blood falling down to the ground" (Luke 22:44, ESV), and when the whips, thorns, nails and spear poured it out. "At once there came out blood and water" (John 19:34, ESV). And morally: by the imputation of sin, whose colour is red. "For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God" (2 Corinthians 5:21, ESV). He who was white became ruddy for our sake. By his whiteness he fulfilled the law, and by his redness he satisfied justice. "This is my beloved and this is my friend, O daughters of Jerusalem" (Song of Solomon 5:16, ESV).
Third, the same two colours show the beauty of his rule. He is white in love and mercy toward his own, and red with justice toward his enemies (Isaiah 63:2–3; Revelation 19:13).
Three parts of his personal grace. His personal excellence consists of three things: his fitness to save, from the grace of union; his fullness to save, from the grace of communion, which flows freely from the union; and his power to win our hearts, from his perfect suitability to every need of our souls.
First, his fitness to save. He is a fit Saviour because God and man are united in his one person. He lays his hand on God by sharing God's nature (Zechariah 13:7), and he lays his hand on us by sharing ours (Hebrews 2:14, 16). So he stands between the two and fills the whole distance sin made. We who were far off are made near in him. That is why he had room enough in his heart to take in, and strength enough in his spirit to bear, all the wrath that was prepared for us. Sin was infinite because of the one it was committed against, and punishment was infinite because of the one who bore it. That is what union gives.
Three things follow from the union. The human nature has its being in the person of the Son of God and no separate being of its own (Luke 1:35; 1 Timothy 3:16). What is true of either nature may be said of the person under either name, God or man (Acts 20:28). And he carries out his office as Mediator in his one person, in both natures: the one who acts is Christ himself, God and man, and each nature works in its own way toward one result.
Editor's note. Owen set out the last two of these points in scholastic Greek and Latin terms, which are put into plain words here. The substance is his.
Second, his fullness to save. It is all the equipment he received from the Father by the anointing of the Spirit for the work of our salvation. "He is able to save to the uttermost those who draw near to God through him" (Hebrews 7:25, ESV), because all fullness was given to him for that purpose: "For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell" (Colossians 1:19, ESV), and "he gives the Spirit without measure" (John 3:34, ESV). From that fullness he supplies each of his own: "grace upon grace" (John 1:16, ESV). If it had been given to him by measure, we would have used it up.
Third, his power to win your heart, from his complete suitability to every need of the soul. Whatever anyone lacks in the things of God, Christ will be it to him, if he is one of those given to Christ by the Father. Are you dead? Christ is life. Are you weak? Christ is "the power of God and the wisdom of God" (1 Corinthians 1:24, ESV). Do you feel the weight of guilt? Christ is complete righteousness: "The LORD is our righteousness" (Jeremiah 23:6, ESV). Many poor creatures know what they lack and do not know where the remedy lies. But whether it is life or light, power or joy, it is all stored up in him.
That is enough for now. He is fit to save, because he has both pity and power. He is full to save, with redemption and sanctification, righteousness and the Spirit. And he suits the needs of every soul. That is what makes him so desirable, indeed "altogether desirable." In this the saints first have fellowship with him, and the next chapter shows how.
What this should do to you. Seeing something of him with whom the saints have fellowship, we should be moved to seek him, and to see how empty everything else is that people give their desires to. The daughters of Jerusalem were ordinary professors, yet when they heard the bride describe her Beloved they were stirred straight away: "Where has your beloved turned, that we may seek him with you?" (Song of Solomon 6:1, ESV). Of those who crucified him, and of all who reject him, Paul says: "None of the rulers of this age understood this, for if they had, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory" (1 Corinthians 2:8, ESV). If people knew him even a little, they would not turn him away. Wisdom herself calls those who despise her invitation "simple ones," "scoffers" and "fools" (Proverbs 1:22, ESV). Nobody despises Christ but those who do not know him, whose eyes "the god of this world has blinded" (2 Corinthians 4:4, ESV).
By nature we look for something to rest on, something to satisfy and delight us. There are two ways people go about it. Some set a definite goal, perhaps pleasure, or profit, or even, in religion, being accepted by God. Others seek without any certainty, pleasing themselves now with one path and now with another, like those in Isaiah 57:10 who find a little life in their hands and so do not give up, though they are weary. Whichever you are, whether greedily chasing a definite end, worldly or religious, or wandering in your own imaginations, set what you are after beside what you have just heard of Jesus Christ. If anything you aim at is like him, if anything you desire is equal to him, then reject him as one who has "no form or majesty that we should look at him, and no beauty that we should desire him" (Isaiah 53:2, ESV). But if all your ways are vanity beside him, why do you "spend your money for that which is not bread, and your labor for that which does not satisfy" (Isaiah 55:2, ESV)?
First, a word to you who are in the flower of your days, full of health and strength, and throw all your energy into one thing or another. What are all your beloveds, compared to this Beloved? What have they given you? Show me the peace, the quiet, the assurance of everlasting blessedness they have brought. Their paths are crooked paths, and whoever goes in them will not know peace. Here is an object worthy of your best affections, one in whom you may find rest for your souls, one in whom there is nothing to grieve you for ever. He stands at the door of your soul and knocks. Do not turn him away, in case you seek him later and cannot find him. Study him a little. You do not love him because you do not know him. Why do you waste your days in idleness and folly, perhaps in debauchery? Why do you keep company with people who sneer at religion and the things of God? Simply because you do not know our dear Lord Jesus. Oh, when he shows himself to you and tells you he is the Jesus you slighted and refused, how it will break your heart, and make you mourn like a dove that you neglected him! And if you never come to know him, it would have been better for you never to have been born. "Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts" (Hebrews 3:15, ESV).
Second, a word to you who are earnestly seeking a righteousness of your own, and are religious people. Ask yourselves: does Christ have his rightful place in your hearts? Is he your all? Does he live in your thoughts? Do you know him in his excellence? Do you truly "count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord" (Philippians 3:8, ESV)? Or do you put almost anything in the world before him? There will be more of this later.
Part Two, Chapter 3: Communion with Christ as Husband
Now let us look at how the saints have communion with the Lord Christ in who he is, in the excellence of his own person. Scripture shows us that this communion is carried on as a marriage. He is married to us and we are married to him, and that bond brings with it the affections of a marriage. This is how we come to share in his personal excellencies.
The bride says it in one line: "My beloved is mine, and I am his" (Song of Solomon 2:16, ESV). He is mine: I have a claim on him as my head and my husband. And I am his: owned by him, given up to him, in the closest bond there is.
Isaiah says it too, and gives it as the reason the church need never be ashamed in her troubles: "For your Maker is your husband, the LORD of hosts is his name; and the Holy One of Israel is your Redeemer, the God of the whole earth he is called" (Isaiah 54:5, ESV). Her Maker is her husband. Her Redeemer is her husband. Later the same prophet shows the two walking together in joy: "as a bridegroom decks himself like a priest with a beautiful headdress, and as a bride adorns herself with her jewels" (Isaiah 61:10, ESV). Their life looks like that because their relationship is that. And again: "as the bridegroom rejoices over the bride, so shall your God rejoice over you" (Isaiah 62:5, ESV). Think of a couple on their wedding day, glad in heart. That is how it is with Christ and his people, and he sees to it that things go well with them in the state he has brought them into.
He has given his own promise on this. "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" (Hosea 2:19–20, ESV). The whole aim of gospel preaching is to win people to give themselves to Christ as he shows his kindness in this promise. That is why Paul told the Corinthians, "I betrothed you to one husband, to present you as a pure virgin to Christ" (2 Corinthians 11:2, ESV).
What this does to Christ. This is a relationship in which the Lord Jesus delights, and he calls others to come and look at him in it. "Go out, O daughters of Zion, and look upon King Solomon, with the crown with which his mother crowned him on the day of his wedding, on the day of the gladness of his heart" (Song of Solomon 3:11, ESV). He calls all sorts of religious people to look at him on the day he takes his church to himself. And he says they will see two things in him that day.
The first is honour. It is his coronation day, and his bride is his crown. Christ is a crown of glory and a diadem of beauty to Zion (Isaiah 28:5), and Zion is a crown to him: "You shall be a crown of beauty in the hand of the LORD, and a royal diadem in the hand of your God" (Isaiah 62:3, ESV). He counts his people his glory. The second is delight. The day he takes poor sinners to his heart is the day of the gladness of his heart. John was only the friend of the bridegroom, who "stands and hears him, rejoices greatly at the bridegroom's voice" (John 3:29, ESV). If the friend rejoiced like that, what must the bridegroom feel? "He will rejoice over you with gladness; he will quiet you by his love; he will exult over you with loud singing" (Zephaniah 3:17, ESV).
It is the joy of Christ's soul to take poor sinners into this bond. He looked ahead to it with joy from eternity. He was always willing to do the hard thing it needed: "Behold, I have come to do your will, O God" (Hebrews 10:7, ESV). He was in anguish until it was finished: "I have a baptism to be baptized with, and how great is my distress until it is accomplished!" (Luke 12:50, ESV). Because he loved the church, he "gave himself up for her" (Ephesians 5:25, ESV), "despising the shame" (Hebrews 12:2, ESV) of the cross, so that his people might be his and not another's (Hosea 3:3). And who is the mother who crowns him? Believers are. "Whoever does the will of my Father in heaven is my brother and sister and mother" (Matthew 12:50, ESV). They crown him on his wedding day when they give themselves to him and become his glory.
He uses this picture again and again for his whole fellowship with his church. The day he takes her to himself is his wedding day. She is his bride. "The marriage of the Lamb has come, and his Bride has made herself ready" (Revelation 19:7, ESV). The welcome he gives is a wedding feast. Her graces are the jewels of his queen. And the fellowship he has with her is that of a husband and wife who love each other. That is why Paul, in Ephesians 5, slips from husbands and wives to Christ and the church without warning, and ends the passage by turning it on Christ.
Two things held together. So how do we have communion with the person of Christ in this relationship? Some things belong to him and to us together, and others to each of us apart, as a marriage requires. I can gather it all under two headings: a mutual giving of themselves to each other, and the marriage affections that follow from that giving.
The first giving: persons made over to each other. This is the first act of communion in Christ's personal grace. Christ makes himself over to the soul, with all the love, care and tenderness of a husband. The soul gives itself wholly to Christ, with all the loving, tender obedience that belongs to that. This is the heart of the engagement. Hosea acts it out in a parable of himself and an unfaithful wife: "You must dwell as mine for many days. You shall not play the whore, or belong to another man; so will I also be to you" (Hosea 3:3, ESV). I hear the Lord Christ saying to each of his people, "Poor unfaithful soul, I have bought you for myself with the price of my own blood. Here is what we agree to: I will be for you, and you will be for me, and for no one else."
Christ's part. He gives himself to the soul, with all his excellencies, his righteousness, his graces and his glory, to be its Saviour, its head and its husband for ever. He looks at the souls of his people and likes what he sees. He counts them beautiful, because he has made them so. "Behold, you are beautiful, my love; behold, you are beautiful; your eyes are doves" (Song of Solomon 1:15, ESV). Let others think what they like. He says it twice over, and says their beauty is "perfect through the splendor that I had bestowed on you" (Ezekiel 16:14, ESV). He means especially their spiritual sight, which he praises as a dove's eye: tender, clear and bright.
Then he adds a longing that is hard to read without being moved. "O my dove, in the clefts of the rock, in the crannies of the cliff, let me see your face, let me hear your voice, for your voice is sweet, and your face is lovely" (Song of Solomon 2:14, ESV). Do not hide, he says to the weak soul, like someone running into the cracks of the rocks. Do not be cast down because your prayers are weak. Let me hear your sighs and groans and the half-words you breathe toward me. They are sweet to me, and your face turned toward heaven is lovely in my eyes.
He does not leave her there. He urges her closer. "Come with me from Lebanon, my bride; come with me from Lebanon. Depart from the peak of Amana, from the peak of Senir and Hermon, from the dens of lions, from the mountains of leopards" (Song of Solomon 4:8, ESV). She is wandering among lions and leopards, he says, among sins and troubles. Come away to me, and I will give you rest: "Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest" (Matthew 11:28, ESV). The bride answers with confidence that his desire is toward her: "I am my beloved's, and his desire is for me" (Song of Solomon 7:10, ESV). He does love her, and he does mean to take her into this fellowship.
So, in carrying out this union, Christ freely gives himself to the soul. As precious and as great as he is, he becomes ours, and with him all his graces. "My beloved is mine," says the bride, and she means all that he is. Because he is righteousness, he is called "The LORD is our righteousness" (Jeremiah 23:6, ESV). Because he is the wisdom and power of God, he is the one "whom God made our wisdom and our righteousness and sanctification and redemption" (1 Corinthians 1:30, ESV). This is his side: the free giving of himself to be our Christ and our Beloved, for every purpose of love, mercy, grace and glory that he was appointed to in his mediation, in a marriage covenant that can never be broken.
Let me sum it up. The Lord Jesus is fitted for this by the glory of his person as mediator and by the great purchase of grace and glory he has made. He offers himself in the promises of the gospel in all his desirableness. He convinces sinners of his goodwill and of his ability to supply every need. And when they consent to take him, which is all he asks, he binds himself in a marriage covenant to be theirs for ever.
Our part. On our side, it is our free and willing consent to receive Christ, to embrace him and submit to him as husband, Lord and Saviour; to stay with him and be ruled by him for ever. This consent has two forms. There is the first solemn consent when a soul enters into union with him. And there are the renewed acts of consent all our days. I mean mainly the second, because that is what belongs to communion. Two things complete this giving of ourselves.
The first is that we like him. We like him for his excellence, his grace and his suitability, far above all other loves, and we rank him above all the rest in our judgement. The bride is pressed by those around her to say what makes her beloved better than the others, and she answers plainly: he is "distinguished among ten thousand" and "altogether desirable" (Song of Solomon 5:10, 16, ESV), beyond comparison with the best created thing we can name. The soul looks at all the world has to offer, "the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and pride in possessions" (1 John 2:16, ESV), and sees it all as vanity, passing away. None of these lovers can stand beside him. It looks at its own righteousness, its blamelessness before others, its upright life and the duties it has done under conviction, and says what Paul says: "I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord" (Philippians 3:8, ESV). The church does the same in Hosea. She sends away every help that looks promising, as grand as Assyria and as hopeful as the idols, so that God alone may be preferred (Hosea 14:3). This is how believers enter marriage communion with Christ in his personal grace: they keep putting him above everyone who wants their hearts, and count everything else loss and rubbish next to him. Peace, family, learning, righteousness and duties are all loss beside Christ, however dear they are.
The second is that the will receives Christ as its only husband, Lord and Saviour. This is what the Bible calls "receiving" him: "to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God" (John 1:12, ESV). That word does not only mean the moment of first closing with him. It means the settled posture of a soul that stays with him and owns him as its own. It takes Christ on his terms and lets him save in his way. It says, "Lord, I wanted to have you and salvation my way. I wanted it to be partly by my own effort, partly by the works of the law. Now I am willing to receive you and be saved your way, by grace alone. I wanted to walk by my own mind, but now I give myself up to be ruled by your Spirit. In you I have righteousness and strength. In you I am justified, and in you I boast." When a soul talks like that, it is carrying on communion with Christ in the grace of his person.
So I urge you, believer: exercise your heart on this a great deal. This is choice communion with the Son. Receive him in all his excellencies, as he gives himself to you. Be often in thoughts of faith, setting him beside your other loves, whether sin, the world or your own righteousness, and putting him before them all. Be persuaded of how sincerely and willingly he gives himself to you. And give your heart up to him. Tell him you will be for him and for no one else. Let him hear it from you, because he loves to hear it. He says, "Your voice is sweet and your face is lovely." And you will not fail to find sweet refreshment in him.
(Editor's note: Owen's wording for Hosea 3:3, "Thou shalt abide for me ... and I will be for thee," is quoted from the older English Bibles. The ESV puts it a little differently, "so will I also be to you," and the sense is the same. The "clefts of the rock" in Song of Solomon 2:14 are, in Owen's version, "the secret places of the stairs." He reads both as the hiding places of a discouraged soul. The ESV's "crannies of the cliff" fits his meaning.)
A pause to look at who he is. To strengthen our hearts in giving ourselves to Christ as our husband, and to prepare the way for the marriage affections I will speak of later, let me turn aside and look at some of the personal excellencies of the Lord Christ. He is called "The LORD is our righteousness" (Jeremiah 23:6, ESV). Take these things one at a time, because each is meant to draw the whole heart to him.
First, he is excellent and desirable in his Deity. When Zion rejoices at his coming, this is the ground of it: "Behold your God!" (Isaiah 40:9, ESV). "We have seen his glory," says the apostle, and what glory was that? "Glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth" (John 1:14, ESV). The holiest saints have been afraid and amazed at the beauty of a single angel. Yet those same angels, at the height of their dignity, cover their faces before our Beloved, knowing they cannot bear the rays of his glory. He is the one who stands next to the LORD of hosts (Zechariah 13:7). Though he once took the form of a servant, he was "in the form of God" and "did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped" (Philippians 2:6, ESV). "Can you find out the deep things of God? Can you find out the limit of the Almighty? It is higher than heaven, what can you do? Deeper than Sheol, what can you know? Its measure is longer than the earth and broader than the sea" (Job 11:7–9, ESV).
(Editor's note: in Zechariah 13:7 Owen's English calls the shepherd "the fellow of the LORD of hosts," which he takes as a plain statement of Christ's Deity. The ESV says "the man who stands next to me," and we have used that wording. The point is the same: the one struck is the Lord's equal.)
Perhaps you will ask, as the daughters of Jerusalem do, "What is your beloved more than another beloved?" (Song of Solomon 5:9, ESV). What is he more than others, that he should be worth the whole heart? I ask in return: what is a king more than a beggar? Much, in every way. And yet that is nothing, because they were born alike and will die alike, and after that comes judgement. What is an angel more than a worm? A worm is a creature and an angel is no more. But what are all the nothings of the world next to the God who is blessed for ever? Will you put the dust on the scales against him? He is the one before whom the sinners in Zion cry, "Who among us can dwell with the consuming fire? Who among us can dwell with everlasting burnings?" (Isaiah 33:14, ESV).
I could show a glimpse of his excellence in many of his attributes. But a person who walks into a garden full of flowers does not pick them all. He picks one here and one there. So I will open one door, and leave the reader to gather more. Consider the endless, bottomless grace and compassion in the one who is our husband, as the God of Zion.
The grace of a creature would not be enough for us. Not even all the grace that could ever dwell in a created nature at once would do. We are too needy for that. There was a fullness of grace in the human nature of Christ, because he received the Spirit without measure (John 3:34). It was like the fullness of light in the sun. But it was a created fullness, and so a limited one. Cut it off from his Deity, and so many thirsty and guilty souls drink from it every day that they would drain him dry. But now the channel of his humanity is joined for ever to the infinite and inexhaustible spring of the Godhead. If there is grace enough for sinners in an all-sufficient God, then it is in Christ, and in no one else can there be enough.
The Lord gives this very reason for the peace and boldness of sinners. "Fear not, for you will not be ashamed; be not confounded, for you will not be disgraced" (Isaiah 54:4, ESV). But how can that be, with so much sin and so much guilt? "For your Maker is your husband, the LORD of hosts is his name; and the Holy One of Israel is your Redeemer, the God of the whole earth he is called" (Isaiah 54:5, ESV). This is the foundation of all peace and comfort: the grace of our Maker, the God of the whole earth. Kindness and power are joined in him. "Turn to me and be saved, all the ends of the earth! For I am God, and there is no other" (Isaiah 45:22, ESV). And the reply: "Only in the LORD ... are righteousness and strength" (Isaiah 45:24, ESV).
Here is how large that is. Suppose all the world drew without stopping from one single promise, with an angel standing by and crying, "Drink deeply. Take all the grace and pardon that would be more than enough for the world of sin in each of you." They would not lower that promise by the breadth of a hair. There is enough for millions of worlds, because it flows from a bottomless fountain. "Fear not, you worm Jacob" (Isaiah 41:14, ESV) is God speaking, and "I am God and not a man" (Hosea 11:9, ESV) is why it is true. This is the head that the bride calls "the finest gold" (Song of Solomon 5:11, ESV). The infinity of this grace answers every objection that keeps a sinner from drawing near. What is his finite guilt next to it? Show me the sinner who can spread out his sins to the width of this grace. There is mercy here for the greatest, the oldest, the most stubborn rebel: "Why will you die, O house of Israel?" (Ezekiel 33:11, ESV). And beware of anyone who would rob you of the Deity of Christ. If there were no more grace for me than can be stored in a mere man, I would be glad to be buried under the rocks and mountains.
Think next of his eternal, free and unchangeable love. If Christ's love for us were only a man's love, however excellent, it would have a beginning and an end, and it might be fruitless. His love in his human nature is great, tender and full of compassion, sharpened by feeling our wants and knowing our temptations. Even so, as a man's love it could not be infinite or eternal. Yet he says, "As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you" (John 15:9, ESV). His love can be set beside the Father's in the qualities that are the chief anchors for a soul resting on him. And it has all three.
It is eternal. "Draw near to me, hear this: from the beginning I have not spoken in secret, from the time it came to be I have been there. And now the Lord GOD has sent me, and his Spirit" (Isaiah 48:16, ESV). He is "the same yesterday and today and forever" (Hebrews 13:8, ESV), and so is his love, because it is the love of the one who says, "I am the Alpha and the Omega ... who is and who was and who is to come" (Revelation 1:8, ESV).
It is unchangeable. Our love is like us. We love someone one day and hate him the next. This day he is our right hand and our right eye, and the next day it is, cut him off, pluck him out. Jesus Christ is always the same, and so is his love. "You, Lord, laid the foundation of the earth in the beginning, and the heavens are the work of your hands; they will perish, but you remain; they will all wear out like a garment, like a robe you will roll them up, like a garment they will be changed. But you are the same, and your years will have no end" (Hebrews 1:10–12, ESV). Those he loves, he loves to the end.
It is fruitful. A man may love another as his own soul and still be unable to help him. He may pity him in prison but not set him free. We cannot love grace into a child or mercy into a friend, and we cannot love anyone into heaven, though we long to. It was love that made Abraham cry, "Oh that Ishmael might live before you!" (Genesis 17:18, ESV), but it could not be. The love of Christ is the love of God, and so it produces every good thing he wills for his own. He loves life, grace and holiness into them. He loves them into the covenant. He loves them into heaven. To love, in him, is to will good, and whatever good he wills, that willing produces.
How many millions of sins in every one of his chosen has this love overcome, each one enough to condemn them all? Look at the life of any one believer, at the stains and weaknesses that mark his days, and tell me whether the love that puts up with all this is not to be wondered at. And it is the same toward thousands every day. This is our Beloved, O daughters of Jerusalem.
Second, he is desirable in his humanity. I will note two things: his freedom from sin and his fullness of grace.
He was free from sin. He was the Lamb of God without spot or blemish. "It was indeed fitting that we should have such a high priest, holy, innocent, unstained, separated from sinners, and exalted above the heavens" (Hebrews 7:26, ESV). When Christ looks at believers who have been washed in some measure, he thinks them very fair: "You are altogether beautiful, my love; there is no flaw in you" (Song of Solomon 4:7, ESV). How fair, then, is the one who never had the least stain!
Adam was made spotless, and so were the angels. But they came straight from the hand of God. Jesus Christ is "like a root out of dry ground" (Isaiah 53:2, ESV), a bud from the loins of sinful man, born of a sinner after four thousand years in which there had been no innocent flesh in the world. It is no great wonder for a rare flower to grow untouched in a garden God planted himself. But to find a spotless bud in the wilderness of corrupted nature is something angels long to look into. This nature was not only defiled but guilty of Adam's sin. That the human nature of Christ should come out of it free from guilt and pollution is something to adore.
An objection. Someone may say, "Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean? If Levi paid tithes in the loins of Abraham, how is it that Christ did not sin in the loins of Adam?"
The answer. There are two things in original sin. The first is the guilt of the first sin, counted against us. We all sinned in him. "Death spread to all men because all sinned" (Romans 5:12, ESV). He was not only our natural head but our covenant head. We were in covenant with him, and his breaking of it is reckoned as ours. The second is the passing on of a polluted nature: what is born of the flesh is flesh, and a polluted spring has polluted streams. From both of these Christ was free.
First, he was never in Adam as his covenant head, and so Adam's sin was not counted against him on that account. Sin was counted against him when he was made sin, and by that he took away the sin of the world (John 1:29). But that was in the covenant of the Mediator, by his own voluntary taking of it, not by a legal reckoning from Adam. If it had been counted against him as Adam's descendant, he would not have been a fit high priest, because he would not have been "separated from sinners" (Hebrews 7:26, ESV). He was in Adam in the natural sense because of God's purpose (Luke 3:23, 38), but not in the sense of the law until after the fall. That is why he served God all the days of his flesh under a covenant of works, and was accepted in it. This takes nothing away from his perfection.
Second, the pollution was prevented in him from the moment of conception. "The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; therefore the child to be born will be called holy, the Son of God" (Luke 1:35, ESV). He was "born of woman" (Galatians 4:4, ESV), but what was made of her was made holy by the Holy Spirit. Add that "he committed no sin, neither was deceit found in his mouth" (1 Peter 2:22, ESV), that he fulfilled "all righteousness" (Matthew 3:15, ESV), and that his Father was always "well pleased" with him (Matthew 3:17, ESV). Such was he. And yet for our sake he was content to be counted a transgressor by the vilest of men, and to take from God the punishment due the vilest sinners. More on that later.
The fullness of grace in his human nature also shows how desirable he is. Jesus "increased in wisdom and in stature and in favor with God and man" (Luke 2:52, ESV), and all of it was completed in glory. All grace was in him as to its kinds, and all degrees of grace as to its perfection. This is created grace, so I speak of its degrees. He did not receive the Spirit by measure (John 3:34), and "in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell" (Colossians 1:19, ESV), so that in everything he might be preeminent (Colossians 1:18, ESV).
(Editor's note: John 3:34 in the ESV, "for he gives the Spirit without measure," does not say in so many words who receives the Spirit. Owen's older version has "God giveth not the Spirit by measure unto him," and he takes it as Christ receiving the Spirit without measure. The next verse in John, and Colossians 1:19, support that reading.)
This is the Beloved of our souls, "holy, innocent, unstained" (Hebrews 7:26, ESV), and "full of grace and truth" (John 1:14, ESV). Full, as an example of obedience to men and angels. Full, with a certainty of unbroken communion with God. Full, ready to supply others and to meet every need of human souls. Full, for complete victory over every temptation. Full, to the full pleasure and delight of his Father's soul. That is the second thing that should draw our souls to our Beloved.
Third, he is all of this in one person. I am not speaking of two, a God and a man, but of one who is God and man. The Word who was with God and was God became flesh (John 1:1, 14). He did not turn himself into flesh, and he did not just look like flesh. He took the holy thing born of the virgin into a personal union with himself. So "Mighty God" is a "child ... born" to us (Isaiah 9:6, ESV). Here lies the grace, the peace, the life and the safety of every believer, and four things show it.
One. It made him fit to suffer and able to bear all that was due to us, when "the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many" (Matthew 20:28, ESV). God bought the church "with his own blood" (Acts 20:28, ESV), and in that, as John says, "we know love, that he laid down his life for us" (1 John 3:16, ESV). He was so willing to take on the work because he knew he could finish it: "Behold, I have come to do your will, O God" (Hebrews 10:7, ESV). Had he not been man, he could not have suffered. Had he not been God, his suffering could not have helped himself or us, because the suffering of a mere man could never match what was infinite. Suppose God laid every sin of every one of his chosen on a holy creature. It would have crushed him and buried him for ever out of the sight of God's love. That is why the apostle begins with that glorious description before he speaks of the purging of our sins: "He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature, and he upholds the universe by the word of his power. After making purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high" (Hebrews 1:3, ESV). The Son and heir of all things, the one through whom the world was made, purged our sins. He alone was able to. The sword was awakened against the man next to the LORD of hosts (Zechariah 13:7), and "by his wounds you have been healed" (1 Peter 2:24, ESV).
(Editor's note: Owen quotes 1 Timothy 3:16 as "God was manifested in the flesh," and 1 John 3:16 as "the love of God seen, that he gave his life for us." The ESV reads "He was manifested in the flesh" in 1 Timothy 3:16, and "he laid down his life for us" in 1 John 3:16. We have left out the first. The second we quote as it stands, because Acts 20:28 and John 1:14 carry Owen's point by themselves: the one who gave his life is God.)
Two. It makes him an endless fountain of grace to all who believe. The fullness the Father committed to Christ does not lie in his human nature considered by itself. It lies in the person of the mediator, God and man. The foundation is his satisfaction, his merit and his purchase. These win every grace the saints receive from him. All the promises of the new covenant are his by agreement, to be given out as he sees fit. They are not stored up in his human nature and shared out from there. As John says, "from his fullness we have all received, grace upon grace" (John 1:16, ESV). The real passing on of grace is by Christ sending the Holy Spirit to make us new and to supply our hearts day by day. That is why the Alpha and Omega of the church, the one who begins and finishes our faith, is so desirable. What is most precious to us is whatever meets us where we lack: bread for the hungry, water for the thirsty, mercy for the perishing. All our relief is in our Beloved.
Three. It fits him to be a mediator, an umpire between God and us, because he is one with God and one with us in one person. In this he is "Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God" (1 Corinthians 1:24, ESV). What soul that knows anything of this does not fall down in reverence and astonishment? Let us dwell on it. What poor, passing things we fill our minds with! Even if we had nothing to gain from this plan, its glory and depths would deserve the best of our thinking. But when our life, our peace, our joy and our eternity lie in it, should it not always live in our hearts?
Four. He is glorious in that he is now raised up and clothed with all authority. When Jacob heard that Joseph was exalted in Egypt, his spirit failed and then revived in the flood of joy. Is our Beloved lost, who for our sake was poor, persecuted and killed? No. "I died, and behold I am alive forevermore, and I have the keys of Death and Hades" (Revelation 1:18, ESV). "God has made him both Lord and Christ" (Acts 2:36, ESV). He has "authority over all flesh" (John 17:2, ESV), and he uses it to give eternal life to his chosen. For his enemies, "your arrows are sharp in the heart of the king's enemies" (Psalm 45:5, ESV). In this world he awes and convicts them until they give him a feigned obedience, and at the last he will gather them and cast them into the lake of fire. He is lifted "far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, and above every name that is named" (Ephesians 1:21, ESV). He is glorious in his throne, "the right hand of the Majesty on high" (Hebrews 1:3, ESV), in his name, "King of kings and Lord of lords" (Revelation 19:16, ESV), in his sceptre, "a scepter of uprightness" (Psalm 45:6, ESV), and in his attendants: "The chariots of God are twice ten thousand, thousands upon thousands; the Lord is among them" (Psalm 68:17, ESV). He is glorious in the way he rules, full of sweetness and grace toward his chosen and of terror toward the rebellious, and glorious in the end, when every knee bows and all stand before his judgement seat. And how small a part of his glory we have pointed to! This is the Beloved of the church, her head and her husband, the one with whom we have communion.
The bride describes him. Now let me look at the description the bride gives of him in the Song of Songs, which was written for exactly this purpose.
"My beloved is radiant and ruddy, distinguished among ten thousand. His head is the finest gold; his locks are wavy, black as a raven. His eyes are like doves beside streams of water, bathed in milk, sitting beside a full pool. His cheeks are like beds of spices, mounds of sweet-smelling herbs. His lips are lilies, dripping liquid myrrh. His arms are rods of gold, set with jewels. His body is polished ivory, bedecked with sapphires. His legs are alabaster columns, set on bases of gold. His appearance is like Lebanon, choice as the cedars. His mouth is most sweet, and he is altogether desirable. This is my beloved and this is my friend, O daughters of Jerusalem." (Song of Solomon 5:10–16, ESV)
(Editor's note: this is the passage where the older English Bible Owen quotes differs most from the ESV. Where he reads "bushy" locks, "fitly set" eyes, "towers of perfumes," hands like "gold rings set with the beryl," and a "belly" for the inward parts, the ESV has "wavy" locks, eyes "sitting beside a full pool," "mounds of sweet-smelling herbs," "arms ... rods of gold, set with jewels," and a "body." Each picture still stands for the same thing in Owen's reading. Where the difference touches what he says, we tell you.)
His head. Two things stand out in gold, its splendour and how long it lasts. His head is his government and kingdom. "You set a crown of fine gold upon his head" (Psalm 21:3, ESV), just as the empire in Daniel most notable for glory and length was called a head of gold (Daniel 2:38). It is a glorious kingdom, heavenly, spiritual, universal and unshaken: "In your majesty ride out victoriously for the cause of truth and meekness and righteousness" (Psalm 45:4, ESV). And it is lasting: "Your throne, O God, is forever and ever" (Psalm 45:6, ESV). It is "a kingdom that shall never be destroyed" (Daniel 2:44, ESV), for he must reign until all his enemies are put down.
(Editor's note: Owen also cites Daniel 7:27 here as "his kingdom is an everlasting kingdom." The ESV reads "their kingdom," meaning the kingdom of the saints of the Most High, so it does not fit his point as printed. Daniel 7:14, "his dominion is an everlasting dominion," makes the same point about Christ and is the one to look at.)
His locks. They are "wavy," black as a raven. They stand for his thoughts and counsels in running his kingdom. They look tangled and dark to a worldly eye, because they are deep and past finding out. But they are woven together in perfect order by his infinite wisdom, a terror to his enemies and full of beauty to his people.
His eyes. Doves are gentle birds, with bright, sharp eyes and a love of streams of water. Eyes are for seeing and knowing, so what is meant is the understanding and discerning Spirit of Christ. Four things are ascribed to them: tenderness, purity, discernment and glory.
(Editor's note: "fitly set" is Owen's rendering of a word the ESV translates "sitting beside a full pool." He takes it as a jewel sitting well in its setting, and builds on that. We keep his sense, because the point about the proportion and brilliance of the eyes does not depend on the word.)
Tenderness. He looks on his people with the eyes of a dove, with careful compassion and no thought of revenge. "A land that the LORD your God cares for. The eyes of the LORD your God are always upon it" (Deuteronomy 11:12, ESV). So the eyes of Christ are on the church: the eyes of one who cares for her tenderly and lays out all his wisdom in love for her. He is the foundation stone on which there are "seven eyes" (Zechariah 3:9, ESV).
Purity. "You who are of purer eyes than to see evil and cannot look at wrong" (Habakkuk 1:13, ESV). If the righteous soul of Lot was tormented by the foul deeds of the wicked (2 Peter 2:8), how much more do the pure eyes of Jesus hate all the filth of sinners! But look how great his love is: he takes care to remove our filth so that he may delight in us, and he does it with his own blood. "Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her, that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, so that he might present the church to himself in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish" (Ephesians 5:25–27, ESV). He does not leave his bride until he can say, "You are altogether beautiful, my love; there is no flaw in you" (Song of Solomon 4:7, ESV). He takes away our spots and stains partly by the renewing of the Holy Spirit, and he covers us entirely with his own righteousness. He does it because of the purity of his own eyes, so that he may present us to himself holy.
Discernment. He sees as doves see: quickly, clearly, to the bottom of what he looks at. "His eyes were like a flame of fire" (Revelation 1:14, ESV), so that the churches would know he is the one "who searches mind and heart" (Revelation 2:23, ESV). "Jesus ... did not entrust himself to them, because he knew all people and needed no one to bear witness about man, for he himself knew what was in man" (John 2:24–25, ESV). His eyes see through the covering of every hypocrite. And no humble, broken soul will lose one sigh or groan after him. No throb of love or desire is hidden from him, because he sees in secret.
Beauty and glory. He is most glorious in his sight and wisdom. What spots and stains there are in all our knowledge! Even when it is perfect it will still be finite. His is without a spot of darkness.
His cheeks and lips. "His cheeks are like beds of spices, mounds of sweet-smelling herbs." Here are the sweet smell of spices, beauty and order, and eminence. As God smells a pleasing aroma from the obedience of his servants (Genesis 8:21), so the saints smell a sweet savour from his grace laid up in Christ: "your anointing oils are fragrant" (Song of Solomon 1:3, ESV). In the gospel his graces are set out in order, like spices in a bed, so that a needy soul can see what it needs and take it. There is light in him, and life, and power, and all comfort. Nobody who comes to him goes away unrefreshed. That is why the covenant is said to be "ordered in all things" (2 Samuel 23:5, ESV). And "his lips are lilies, dripping liquid myrrh." The lilies have a beauty of colour, and the myrrh a sweetness of smell. It is said of Christ that "grace is poured upon your lips" (Psalm 45:2, ESV), and people marvelled at "the gracious words that were coming from his mouth" (Luke 4:22, ESV). So the lips stand for his word. It is sweet and precious to believers in his commands, his promises and even his bitterest warnings.
His hands, his body and the rest. "His arms are rods of gold, set with jewels. His body is polished ivory, bedecked with sapphires." Gold set with bright stones is valuable and beautiful. So are all his works, for they are fruits of wisdom, love and generosity. The inward parts (Owen's Bible says "belly") are the bowels, which in Scripture stand for the affections. The tender love and kindness of Christ for his people is as beautiful as polished ivory set with sapphires. In verse 15, the strength of his kingdom, the faithfulness of his promises and the sweetness of communion with him are set out in his legs, his appearance and his mouth.
Altogether desirable. When the bride has gone this far, she wraps it up: "he is altogether desirable" (Song of Solomon 5:16, ESV). It is as if she said, I have listed the best things I know in creation and set my Beloved's excellencies beside them. I can take the picture no further, and all of it falls short of him.
He is lovely in his person: the glorious all-sufficiency of his Deity, the pure holiness of his humanity, his authority and majesty, his love and power. Lovely in his birth, when he was rich and for our sake became poor, "born of woman, born under the law" (Galatians 4:4, ESV). Lovely in his life, in the holiness and obedience he showed in poverty and persecution, doing good and receiving evil, blessing and being cursed. Lovely in his death, and never more glorious to sinners than when he came down from the cross broken and dead. Then he had carried all our sins into a land of forgetfulness, made peace for us and won life and immortality for us. Lovely in his work, as the mediator who brings us to enjoy the God we were put so far from by sin. Lovely in the glory with which he is crowned, and in every supply of grace and comfort. Lovely in his care in guarding his people among all the opposition they face. Lovely in his ordinances, by which we draw near and have communion with him and his Father. Lovely and glorious in the vengeance he will take on the stubborn enemies of himself and his people. Lovely in the pardon he has bought, in the reconciliation he has made, in the peace and joy he gives, and in his sure keeping of the saints to glory.
What more can I say? There is no end to his excellencies. "He is altogether desirable. This is my beloved and this is my friend, O daughters of Jerusalem" (Song of Solomon 5:16, ESV).
A second reason to love him: all wisdom is in Christ. Here is another excellence of Christ, to bind our hearts to him. It comes from something that, wrongly understood, is the great idol of the world, and rightly understood is the great aim of the saints: wisdom and knowledge. Even people who have turned away from a life of open pleasure still want one thing above all, to be wise. So let me show that all true wisdom is stored up in the Lord Jesus, and can be had from him alone.
The Holy Spirit tells us, "Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God" (1 Corinthians 1:24, ESV). He does not mean the eternal Wisdom of the Proverbs. He means Christ as crucified. All the wisdom God lays out to make himself known and to save sinners, the wisdom that makes the world's wisdom foolish, is in Christ crucified, and can be had only from him. In him we see the glory of God (2 Corinthians 3:18). He is also our wisdom, as Paul says: "whom God made our wisdom and our righteousness and sanctification and redemption" (1 Corinthians 1:30, ESV). He is made so by appointment. He teaches wisdom as the great prophet, and by knowing him we come to know the wisdom of God. The whole claim is stated outright: "in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge" (Colossians 2:3, ESV).
Two things might seem to have some claim here: civil wisdom for running affairs, and skill in learning. God rejects both as no use for true wisdom. "I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and the discernment of the discerning I will thwart" (1 Corinthians 1:19, ESV). And if there is no wisdom without the knowledge of God ("Behold, they have rejected the word of the LORD, so what wisdom is in them?" Jeremiah 8:9, ESV), then it is all shut up in Christ. "No one has ever seen God; the only God, who is at the Father's side, he has made him known" (John 1:18, ESV). God is not known on any other footing than the Son's revealing. And so he is "the true light, which enlightens everyone" (John 1:9, ESV). Nobody has light except from him. Whoever does not come to him is in darkness.
(Editor's note: in John 1:18 Owen reads "the only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father." The ESV text has "the only God, who is at the Father's side," with the older reading in its footnote. Either way the verse says what Owen needs: the one who is closest to the Father is the one who has made him known.)
All true wisdom comes under three heads. First, the knowledge of God, his nature and his properties. Second, the knowledge of ourselves in relation to what God wills for us. Third, the skill to walk in communion with God. All three are wrapped up in Christ, and none can be had to any purpose outside him. I take the first now.
By creation God showed himself to his creatures in many of his properties. "What can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made" (Romans 1:19–20, ESV). His power, goodness, wisdom and all-sufficiency are known that way. But there are properties creation could not show at all, such as his patience and forbearance. When everything was made good, there was no place for them to be used. Yet they are outstanding properties of his nature, as he himself proclaims: "The LORD, the LORD, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, keeping steadfast love for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, but who will by no means clear the guilty" (Exodus 34:6–7, ESV).
So the Lord goes further. By his providence he has cursed the earth and filled the world with signs of his anger, so that "the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men" (Romans 1:18, ESV). Yet by not destroying everything at once he has shown his patience. "In past generations he allowed all the nations to walk in their own ways. Yet he did not leave himself without witness, for he did good by giving you rains from heaven and fruitful seasons, satisfying your hearts with food and gladness" (Acts 14:16–17, ESV). But all this gives the world only a dim glimpse of God. They do not see even his back parts. Moses did not see that until he was put in the rock, and that rock was Christ. The most glorious of God's properties cannot be glimpsed at all outside Christ. Of others we have only a little light apart from him. And of the rest we have no true light but through him.
Properties we cannot guess at apart from Christ: love and pardoning mercy. First, love toward sinners. Without it man is the most miserable of creatures, and there is not the smallest glimpse of it anywhere but in Christ. "God is love" (1 John 4:8, ESV). That means he has had purposes of love for us from of old, and will carry them out. But how do we come to know it? "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" (1 John 4:9, ESV). This is the only showing God has made of any such love toward sinners. Where now is the wise? Wisdom that cannot teach me that God is love will always be called folly. Let people go to the sun, the moon and the stars, to the rain and the fruitful seasons, and answer honestly what they learn there about this.
Then there is pardoning mercy. Without it even his love would bear no fruit. Look at the father of us all. When he had sinned, he had no reserve of mercy to turn to. He hid himself: "the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the LORD God among the trees of the garden" (Genesis 3:8, ESV). "The law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ" (John 1:17, ESV). I do not mean a general mercy, a bare wish that sinners be accepted, which some people rest their hopes on. To give God that kind of weak feeling is the greatest dishonour that can be done him. Pardoning mercy is God's free acceptance of a sinner on the ground that satisfaction has been made to his justice in the blood of Jesus. It is a mercy of unthinkable condescension, balanced by exact justice. God "put forward" Christ "as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith. This was to show God's righteousness" (Romans 3:25, ESV). God's righteousness is shown in that he passed over former sins in his forbearance. As I read it, that forbearance rests on the price paid in Christ. That is why forgiveness is said everywhere to be wholly in him. This was the chief purpose of all the types and ceremonies of the old covenant: to show that forgiveness is wrapped up in Christ, and that outside him there is not the least crumb of it to be tasted. "When the goodness and loving kindness of God our Savior appeared, he saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy" (Titus 3:4–5, ESV).
Whoever does not know God by these properties does not know him at all. He knows an idol, and not the only true God. "No one who denies the Son has the Father" (1 John 2:23, ESV), and he is known as a Father only as he is love, and full of pardoning mercy in Christ. How do we get this knowledge? "The Son of God has come and has given us understanding, so that we may know him who is true" (1 John 5:20, ESV). Christ shows these properties in his teaching as the great prophet. But the life of this knowledge lies in knowing his person, in whom the rays of his Father's glory shine out (Hebrews 1:3).
Properties we see clearly only in Christ. There is a second sort. They can be known in other ways, but they shine so clearly and so savingly only in Jesus Christ. They are, first, his vindictive justice in punishing sin; second, his patience and long-suffering toward sinners; third, his wisdom in managing things for his own glory; and fourth, his all-sufficiency in himself and to others.
Take his vindictive justice first. God has shown his anger against sin in many ways, so that people cannot help knowing "God's decree that those who practice such things deserve to die" (Romans 1:32, ESV). Think how the angels were thrown out of heaven for sin, and how Sodom and Gomorrah were turned to ashes, "making them an example of what is going to happen to the ungodly" (2 Peter 2:6, ESV). But it shines far more clearly in the Lord Christ, in two ways.
First, in him God has shown how natural this justice is to him. It was impossible for it to be turned away from sinners without a propitiation. There are those who base the need for satisfaction merely on a free decision of God's will. To my mind they leave no solid foundation for the death of Christ, because they rest it on something that could have been otherwise. But God did not spare his only Son. He made his soul an offering for sin, and he would take no atonement except in his blood. That is a rich proof that his holiness and righteousness require him to give out wrath for sin. To know that is the only true and useful knowledge of this justice. To look on it as something God may use or hold back makes it not a property of his nature but a free act of his will. And a will to punish, where one could do otherwise without injustice, is ill will more than justice.
Second, in the penalty laid on Christ this justice is shown far more gloriously than anywhere else. To see a world made good and beautiful wrapped in curses and clothed with thorns, to think of legions of angels thrown down into hell for one sin, to look at the ocean of the blood of souls shed for ever: this gives some insight into it. But what is all that next to what we see in the Lord Christ? To see the one who is the wisdom of God and the power of God, always loved by the Father, fear, and tremble, and bow, and sweat, and pray, and die; to see him lifted up on the cross, the earth shaking under him as if it could not bear his weight, and the heavens dark above him as if shut against his cry, and himself hanging between the two as though refused by both, and all because our sins met on him: this, above all things, most richly shows the severity of God's vindictive justice. Here, or nowhere, you learn it.
His patience. The second thing we learn in Christ is the patience of God, his forbearance and long-suffering toward sinners. We can catch glimpses of it in how God runs the world. But what we see there is faint beside what we see in Christ, and it differs in three ways: how it is shown, what it is like, and what it is for.
First, how it is shown. Anyone can see that God does not usually punish people the moment they offend him. He still sends sun and rain, and fills their hearts with food and gladness. So people reason that there must be great goodness in him. But that is only reasoning from what we observe, and it sits in darkness. Worse, God's patience has proved a snare to almost everyone who has received it. It has hardened them, and it has tempted those who looked on (Ecclesiastes 8:11; Job 21:7; Psalm 73:2–4; Jeremiah 12:1; Habakkuk 1:13). In Christ it is another thing altogether. There the very nature of God is shown to be love and kindness. He has promised, sworn and bound himself by covenant to use that kindness on sinners. And there is a firm foundation under the promise: the peace made by the blood of Christ.
You need that foundation. Suppose God showed you patience and said nothing of justice. You could draw little comfort from it. If at the same moment "the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men" (Romans 1:18, ESV), we could only shake and wonder how it would end. That is the best anyone can have outside Christ. The law says nothing of patience. For those who break it, it has only sword and fire. But in Christ we see forbearance and, in the same place, justice satisfied, so we need not fear his wrath cutting across his patience. That is why Paul says "in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself" (2 Corinthians 5:19, ESV). God has nothing left to do for the display of his perfections except to forbear, reconcile and pardon sin in Christ.
Second, what it is like. Outside Christ, forbearance means only that God does not punish at once and keeps giving temporal mercies. People abuse those mercies and can perish with their arms full of them. But what is hidden in Christ is full of love, tenderness and grace. It is the Lord waiting to be gracious: "Therefore the LORD waits to be gracious to you, and therefore he exalts himself to show mercy to you" (Isaiah 30:18, ESV). He waits for a chance to show his people love and draw them to himself.
Nothing in God is sweeter to a believer. When a believer sees by experience that God has passed over countless sins, he is amazed. He marvels that God never used his provocations as a reason to throw him out. With infinite wisdom and long patience God has ordered everything toward him, to rescue him from the devil, to rebuke him for sin, and to bind him to himself. That is why Paul says God passed over former sins "in his divine forbearance" (Romans 3:25, ESV), and so made the way for full forgiveness. (Editor's note: Owen reads the older English "through the forbearance of God" as the means of that forgiveness. The ESV words it as the reason God passed over former sins. The sense he draws, that God's patience is what opened the way, is kept.)
Third, what it is for. Why does God show patience to people outside Christ? Paul says: "What if God, desiring to show his wrath and to make known his power, has endured with much patience vessels of wrath prepared for destruction" (Romans 9:22, ESV). It leaves them without excuse, so that his power and wrath against sin are seen in their ruin. He "allowed all the nations to walk in their own ways" (Acts 14:16, ESV), and that is a dreadful judgment because of where it leads: "So I gave them over to their stubborn hearts, to follow their own counsels" (Psalm 81:12, ESV). Paul says "the times of ignorance God overlooked, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent" (Acts 17:30, ESV). Then he asks, "Or do you presume on the riches of his kindness and forbearance and patience, not knowing that God's kindness is meant to lead you to repentance?" (Romans 2:4, ESV). In plain reason, people ought to use these things better than they do.
So God's patience to those outside Christ turns out, through their own stubbornness, like the river Phasis, sweet on top and bitter underneath. They float for a while on the sweet things of this life, like the rich man in the parable (Luke 16:19–25). When they are full, they sink to the bottom.
But the patience God shows in Christ has a plain purpose: to bring home those it is shown to. Peter says God is "patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance" (2 Peter 3:9, ESV). My point is that the "you" and the "all" are the same people. And Isaiah gives its nature and end in one picture: "This is like the days of Noah to me: as I swore that the waters of Noah should no more go over the earth, so I have sworn that I will not be angry with you" (Isaiah 54:9, ESV). God takes a course, in his wisdom and goodness, so that we shall not be destroyed in spite of our sins. (Editor's note: Owen also quotes Romans 15:5, "the God of patience and consolation," to show that his patience is a matter of the greatest comfort. The ESV reads "the God of endurance and encouragement," the same idea in modern words, so we leave the quotation out and keep his point.) The treasures of this perfection are hidden in Christ, and nobody gains anything spiritual from it who has not learned it in him.
His wisdom. Third comes his wisdom, his infinite wisdom in ordering all things for his glory and the good of those he loves. He showed boundless wisdom in making the world: "In wisdom have you made them all" (Psalm 104:24, ESV). He shows it in guiding all things to their ends, and in the law (Deuteronomy 4:6–8).
But there is a wisdom that made Paul cry, "Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God!" (Romans 11:33, ESV). That wisdom is hidden in Christ and revealed only through him. It is "a secret and hidden wisdom of God, which God decreed before the ages for our glory. None of the rulers of this age understood this" (1 Corinthians 2:7–8, ESV). It is "the manifold wisdom of God" (Ephesians 3:10, ESV), so deep that even the angels knew nothing of it until God gathered a church of sinners. They are "things into which angels long to look" (1 Peter 1:12, ESV).
Think of a fine building. It takes wisdom to make one. But suppose someone defaces it, and another person raises it again, more beautiful than before. That is wisdom indeed. God made everything good and beautiful, and most of all man, made for his glory. Sin defaced it all. Creation was wrapped in darkness, wrath and curses, and the praise due to God was buried in the rubble. Man was lost and fell short of his glory (Romans 3:23). Here the depth of the riches of God's wisdom opens up.
A design in Christ shines out from the Father's bosom, laid there from eternity. It was to set things right to far greater glory, and to put sinners in a far better condition than before sin came in. God now appears glorious, a God who pardons, and he lifts up the riches of his grace, which was his purpose all along (Ephesians 1:6). He has also made his justice shine before men, angels and devils, by setting forth his Son as a propitiation. And it is for our good. We are more firmly settled in his favor and carried on to a greater weight of glory than was ever shown before. One of the ancient teachers cried, "O happy fault, that deserved such a Redeemer!" Paul says, "Great indeed, we confess, is the mystery of godliness" (1 Timothy 3:16, ESV). We receive "grace upon grace" (John 1:16, ESV), better grace in Christ for the grace lost in Adam. And of Christ's love for his church and union with it, Paul says, "This mystery is profound" (Ephesians 5:32, ESV).
So here is another thing hidden in Christ: the riches of God's wisdom in pardoning sin, saving sinners, satisfying justice, fulfilling the law, repairing his honor, and preparing for us a greater weight of glory. It came out of a state in which no angel or man could imagine how God's glory could ever be repaired, or one sinner rescued. That is why on the last day God will "be glorified in his saints, and ... be marveled at among all who have believed" (2 Thessalonians 1:10, ESV). To save sinners through believing will prove a more wonderful work than to make the world from nothing.
His all-sufficiency. The last I will name is his all-sufficiency. In himself God is perfect. Nothing is lacking in him, and nothing can be added or taken away. But there is also an all-sufficiency in him for others: his power to give himself so as to fill and satisfy them to the full stretch of what they can hold. He showed the first kind in creation, when he made everything good. But the second kind, giving himself as an all-sufficient God to be enjoyed by his creatures, is shown only in Christ. In Christ he is a Father, a God in covenant, who has promised to lay himself out for us and to give himself to us to enjoy forever as our reward: "your reward shall be very great" (Genesis 15:1, ESV).
That is the second kind of God's perfections. We catch a dim glimpse of them elsewhere, but clear knowledge of them is found only in Christ.
No saving knowledge outside Christ. What remains is to say that no perfection of God can be known in a way that saves and comforts, except in Christ. So all the wisdom of the knowledge of God is hidden in him.
Some people look hard at God's justice and know "that those who practice such things deserve to die" (Romans 1:32, ESV). It only makes them cry, "Who among us can dwell with the consuming fire?" (Isaiah 33:14, ESV). Others fix on his patience, and it does not lead them to repentance. They "presume on the riches of his kindness," and "because of your hard and impenitent heart you are storing up wrath for yourself on the day of wrath" (Romans 2:4–5, ESV). Others come through creation to know "his eternal power and divine nature," and yet "they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened" (Romans 1:20–21, ESV). Whatever truth they have outside Christ, they suppress. Jude says the same: what they understand by instinct, like animals, destroys them (Jude 10).
Three things are needed if we are to know God's perfections in a way that saves and comforts. First, God has shown the glory of all of them in a way of doing us good. Second, he will still lay them out to the utmost for us. Third, so shown and used, they are able to bring us to the everlasting enjoyment of himself. All three lie hidden in Christ.
Shown for our good. What good would it do you to know that God is infinitely just, holy and true, if you did not know how he could keep the glory of his justice and truth except by your ruin? If all you could say is that it is right for him to repay you for your sins? What did Adam gain from this in the garden? What sweetness is there in knowing God is patient, if his patience is shown by enduring vessels of wrath fitted for destruction? What good does it do to hear him proclaim himself "The LORD, the LORD, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness," when you also hear that he "will by no means clear the guilty" (Exodus 34:6–7, ESV)? None at all. Taken bare, justice makes men run and hide (Genesis 3:8; Isaiah 2:21). Patience makes them hard (Ecclesiastes 8:11). Holiness frightens them off: "You are not able to serve the LORD, for he is a holy God" (Joshua 24:19, ESV). What relief is it to you to think of his presence everywhere, if all you can do is plan how to run from him (Psalm 139:7–12)?
What brings salvation is seeing that God has glorified all his perfections in a way that does us good. In Jesus Christ he has. He made his justice glorious by making all our iniquities meet on Christ, who bore them like the scapegoat in the wilderness. He did not spare him but gave him up for us all, so lifting up his anger against sin in a way that frees us from its condemnation (Romans 3:25; 8:33–34). He made his truth glorious by keeping every threat and promise exactly. The first threat, "in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die" (Genesis 2:17, ESV), and the curse, "Cursed be anyone who does not confirm the words of this law by doing them" (Deuteronomy 27:26, ESV), are both met in him. "By the grace of God he might taste death for everyone" (Hebrews 2:9, ESV), and he redeemed us "by becoming a curse for us" (Galatians 3:13, ESV). So even in his threatening God's truth is glorious in a way that is good for us. As for his promises, "all the promises of God find their Yes in him. That is why it is through him that we utter our Amen to God for his glory" (2 Corinthians 1:20, ESV). As for his mercy, God put Christ forward to show his righteousness for the forgiveness of sins (Romans 3:25), and in him made a way forever to exalt his pardoning mercy. The great purpose of the gospel is to show this, as Paul sets it out in Ephesians 1:5–8. That is where our souls must come to know these perfections, or live in darkness forever.
It is saving knowledge, full of comfort, when we can see all God's perfections exalted in a way that does us good. When Christ asked his Father to glorify his name, to make his nature, perfections and will glorious in redemption, he was answered from heaven: "I have glorified it, and I will glorify it again" (John 12:28, ESV).
Laid out for you. The second thing is that God will still use all his perfections to the full on our behalf. Having made them glorious in a way that could be for our good does not mean they must be used for our good. We see people perishing forever, though God has shown himself in Christ. So there is more. God has committed all his perfections into the hand of Christ, if I may say so, to be managed for us. Christ is "the power of God and the wisdom of God" (1 Corinthians 1:24, ESV). He is called "The LORD is our righteousness" (Jeremiah 23:6, ESV). He is the one "whom God made our wisdom and our righteousness and sanctification and redemption" (1 Corinthians 1:30, ESV). The exercise of those perfections is committed to him, so that he can be "the founder of their salvation" (Hebrews 2:10, ESV) to all who believe. If there is anything in God's righteousness, goodness, love, mercy or all-sufficiency that will do us good, the Lord Jesus is fully entrusted with handing it out. That is why Paul says "in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself" (2 Corinthians 5:19, ESV). Everything he has, he lays out for reconciliation in and by Christ.
Able to bring you to himself. The third thing is that these perfections, shown and used like this, are able to bring us to the everlasting enjoyment of God. The Lord wraps up the whole covenant of grace in one promise, spoken to us as "I will be your God": "I will be their God, and they shall be my people" (Jeremiah 31:33, ESV). In the covenant God becomes our God, and so all his perfections become ours. And in case we doubt, once we see how enormous the difficulty is, whether all this is enough to save us, he has wrapped that up too. In Genesis 17:1 he says, "I am God Almighty." (Editor's note: Owen reads this name as "God all-sufficient," from the Hebrew El Shaddai, and the point is as good in the ESV as in the older versions. Owen hears God saying, "I am able to do everything I have promised, and to be your exceedingly great reward.") He can remove every difficulty, answer every objection, pardon every sin, overcome every opposition.
You know in whom this covenant is made firm and sealed in blood: in the Lord Christ alone. In him alone is God an all-sufficient God to anyone. So Christ is able to "save to the uttermost those who draw near to God through him" (Hebrews 7:25, ESV). All three are hidden in Christ, and from him alone they can be had.
That is the first part of my first proof. All true wisdom is laid up in the Lord Christ. Our wisdom consists largely in knowing God, his nature and his perfections, and that lies wholly hidden in Christ.
Knowing ourselves. The second part of our wisdom is to know ourselves. It has three parts, the three our Savior sends his Spirit to convict the world of: "concerning sin and righteousness and judgment" (John 16:8, ESV). They concern the supernatural and immortal end for which we were made, and none can be reached except in Christ.
Sin. Everyone has a sense of sin left in the conscience. To tell them what is right and wrong, and to approve or condemn what they do, they need look no further than themselves (Romans 2:14–15). But it is dim, and it mostly concerns the bigger sins. Paul sums it up: "Though they know God's decree that those who practice such things deserve to die" (Romans 1:32, ESV). If no nation is so wild that it has no sense of a God, then no nation is without a sense of sin and of God's displeasure over it. That is why sacrifices and cleansings were so widespread. But it was dark.
The law gives a fuller knowledge. It was "added because of transgressions" (Galatians 3:19, ESV). It is a mirror, and whoever looks into it spiritually sees sin in all its ugliness. Look at its purity and perfection, at how it was given with thunder, earthquake and fire, at its penalty of death, curse and wrath, and it shows sin up on every side. Yet even this does not give us a true conviction of sin. The mirror is clear. We have no eyes to look into it. The ruler is straight, but we cannot lay it against ourselves. So Christ sends his Spirit to convict, and the Spirit's work of conviction, the only useful knowledge of sin, is his own work. In that sense even the knowledge of sin is by Christ.
There are two further ways it is hid in him. First, some close connections of sin are shown more clearly in the cross, where he was made sin for us, than anywhere else. Second, there is no knowledge of sin that we can turn to spiritual use except in him. Four things about sin shine out in the cross: its desert, your powerlessness because of it, its death, and the new end it was given.
The desert of sin. It shines out first in the person who suffered for it. "For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son" (John 3:16, ESV). "He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all" (Romans 8:32, ESV). When we see a slave beaten, you know a fault was committed, but perhaps not a great one. A son who is corrected suggests great provocation, and an only son the greatest imaginable. Sin was never seen to be more abominable than when its burden lay on the Son of God.
God made his Son sin for us, to show his anger against it and how impossible it is for him to let the least sin go unpunished. He laid his hand on him and did not spare him. Christ took it on himself of his own will (he said to his Father, "Behold, I have come to do your will"), and all our iniquities met on him. Is it not as clear as it can be, from the blood of his cross, that sin so deserves punishment that God cannot pass over even the least of it? If he would have done it for anyone, he would have done it for his only Son. But he did not spare him.
And God took no pleasure in the blood, tears and torments of the Son of his love. He does not delight in anyone's anguish. As Lamentations says, "he does not willingly afflict or grieve the children of men" (Lamentations 3:33, ESV), and much less the Son of his bosom. He only required that his law be fulfilled, his justice satisfied, his wrath for sin atoned for. If the debt could have been settled for less, it would never have been paid at the price of Christ's blood. So here, my soul, look at what sin deserves. You may say, "I did think that sin on a poor worm like me deserved death. But that it should have this effect if it were charged to the Son of God, that I never imagined."
Now consider what he suffered. Perhaps it was only a slight affliction, you may think, given his strength. Whatever it was, it made "the man who stands next to me" (Zechariah 13:7, ESV), the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the wisdom and power of God, tremble, sweat, cry and wrestle with strong supplications. Some devotional writers in the Roman church say one drop of Christ's blood would have been plenty to redeem the whole world. They are wrong. They do not know what sin deserves or how severe God's justice is. If one drop less, or one pang less, would have done it, those other drops would not have been shed. God did not torment the beloved of his soul for nothing.
And there is more. "Yet it was the will of the LORD to crush him; he has put him to grief; when his soul makes an offering for sin" (Isaiah 53:10, ESV). He hid himself from him until he cried, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" (Matthew 27:46, ESV). He made him sin and a curse for us, and brought him into an agony in which he sweat thick drops of blood. The one who was the power and wisdom of God went staggering under the load, until the whole frame of nature seemed stunned by it.
Do you want to see what sin really deserves? Take its measure from the cross. It brought the Son of God, God blessed forever, into the form of a servant with nowhere to lay his head. It chased him all his life with troubles, and at last brought him under the rod of God, where it bruised him and killed the Lord of life. Here is the source of deep humility for sin, when you look on the one you have pierced.
Our powerlessness. The second thing wrapped up in Christ is understanding our powerlessness. I mean two things: we cannot make atonement with God for sin, and we cannot meet his mind and will in the obedience he asks.
On the first, only Christ shows it. People have searched hard for an atonement. Micah asks: "Shall I come before him with burnt offerings, with calves a year old? Will the LORD be pleased with thousands of rams, with ten thousands of rivers of oil? Shall I give my firstborn for my transgression?" (Micah 6:6–7, ESV). David settles it: "Truly no man can ransom another, or give to God the price of his life, for the ransom of their life is costly and can never suffice" (Psalm 49:7–8, ESV). Yet people keep trying. The Jews, to this day, think bulls and goats atone for sin. The Socinians accept no atonement but men's repentance and new obedience. In the cross of Christ every mouth is stopped.
First, God has shown there that no sacrifice, even one he appointed, could "perfect the conscience of the worshiper" (Hebrews 9:9, ESV). Those sacrifices could never take away sin (Hebrews 10:11). So Christ says in their place, "Behold, I have come to do your will" (Hebrews 10:7–9, ESV), and "by him everyone who believes is freed from everything from which you could not be freed by the law of Moses" (Acts 13:38–39, ESV). In Christ, God condemned every sacrifice as wholly insufficient.
Second, God wrote "vanity" over every other effort. When he put forward his Son "as a propitiation by his blood" (Romans 3:25, ESV), he left no doubt that we could make no atonement ourselves. For "if justification were through the law, then Christ died for no purpose" (Galatians 2:21, ESV). Why make him a propitiation, if we were not weak and without strength? "While we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly" (Romans 5:6, ESV). By other lights we may see far enough to be filled with dread, like those in Isaiah 33:14. But a sight that leads a soul to any comfortable rest is found only in this treasury of heaven, the Lord Jesus.
On the second kind of powerlessness, Christ alone shows it. Many do not want to hear it even today. To teach a man that he cannot do what he ought to do, and condemns himself for not doing, is no easy task. He rises with all his strength to argue he has none. Think of how many who want to be called Christians creep, step by step, toward believing they have power to fulfill the law! Nature will not teach us this. It is proud, and part of its pride is not knowing it. The law will not teach it. It shows what we have done wrong, but not that we could not have done better. By demanding exact obedience it takes for granted that we have the power.
So it lies hidden in Jesus. "For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death. For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do. By sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh, in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us" (Romans 8:2–4, ESV). Two things are done in Christ. Sin is condemned as to its guilt, and we are set free, and the law's righteousness is fulfilled in us by his obedience. And the obedience required of us is worked in us by his Spirit. His perfect obedience is reckoned to us, and our sincerity is given by his Spirit. This is the clearest mirror of our powerlessness. Why do you need his obedience made yours, but that you have none? Why do you need his Spirit to quicken you, but that you are "dead in the trespasses and sins" (Ephesians 2:1, ESV)?
The death of sin. The third thing is the death of sin, sin dying in us now, to some degree, while we live. Sin can die in two ways: in its working in the body, and at its root in the soul. The first can be learned in part outside Christ. People with no Christ can have sin dying in its outward working. Their bodies may become unfit for their lusts, or the practice may stop paying. And sin is never more alive than when it is dying like that.
But the daily wearing away of its root, its strength and life, is had only in Christ. Sin does not tend to die of itself. It tends to gain ground and strength in the one it lives in. Stop every outbreak, and its hatred of God will still grow. In believers it is always dying until it is done away.
Paul opens this in Romans 6:3–6: "Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life. For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his. We know that our old self was crucified with him in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing, so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin." Paul shows both where mortification begins, in Christ's death, and how sin lives on and dies in us, by how Christ died for sin. He was crucified for us, so sin is crucified in us. He was raised so death would not rule him, and we are raised so sin will not rule us.
This wisdom is hid in Christ only. Moses on the day he died still had all his strength. So do sin and the law in all who are outside Jesus: on their dying day sin has not faded at all. Next to receiving the righteousness prepared for us, to know this is the chief part of wisdom. To feel power flowing from the cross to that end, to find sin crucified in us as Christ was crucified for us, is wisdom indeed.
The end sin was given. The fourth is a glorious end appointed for sin, shown in Christ. In its own nature sin only dishonors God and ruins the creature. The law's threats show one other end of it, the display of God's justice. There the law stops, and with it every other light. But in the Lord Jesus there is a more glorious end: the praise of God's grace in pardoning it. In Christ God has seen to it that the very thing meant only to dishonor him is turned to his infinite glory. What he most wants lifted up is that he should be known and believed in as a God who forgives "iniquity and transgression and sin" (Exodus 34:7, ESV).
So to gather this up. Much of our wisdom lies in knowing ourselves, and nothing concerns us more than sin. "Fools make a mock of sin," says Solomon (Proverbs 14:9). (Editor's note: Owen quotes the verse as the King James has it. The ESV reads "Fools mock at the guilt offering," so we keep his wording here and tell you; the point is Owen's.) A true, saving knowledge of sin is had only in Christ. In him we see what our iniquities deserve, which could not be borne except by his blood. In his cross we see our complete powerlessness. The death of sin is won by his death, and so is the display of God's grace in pardoning it. To know this by experience is worth more than all the wisdom of the world.
Righteousness. The second thing the Spirit convicts the world of is righteousness. Everyone is persuaded God is righteous. Abraham insisted on it: "Shall not the Judge of all the earth do what is just?" (Genesis 18:25, ESV). They "know God's decree that those who practice such things deserve to die" (Romans 1:32, ESV). "God considers it just to repay with affliction those who afflict you" (2 Thessalonians 1:6, ESV). "The wicked will not stand in the judgment" (Psalm 1:5, ESV). So the great question for anyone who feels this is what righteousness they can stand in before this righteous God. "Through fear of death were subject to lifelong slavery" (Hebrews 2:15, ESV), they worry about it all their days.
The way of the law. To people on this search, the first thing that offers itself is the law. It makes fair arguments. God gave it for this purpose. It holds all the obedience he asks. It has life attached: "if you would enter life, keep the commandments" (Matthew 19:17, ESV). And it must be wholly fulfilled if you mean to stand before God with boldness. So nobody who seeks righteousness fails, at one time or another, to try its way. Many do it every day and will not admit it. They mend their ways and do their duties, sometimes hoping, more often fearing, sometimes ready to quit, sometimes vowing to go on. Their consciences are not satisfied. At last they come with fear and disappointment to Paul's conclusion: "By works of the law no one will be justified" (Galatians 2:16, ESV).
Paul says this is how it ends: "Israel who pursued a law that would lead to righteousness did not succeed in reaching that law. Why? Because they did not pursue it by faith, but as if it were based on works" (Romans 9:31–32, ESV). They did not fail for lack of effort. They failed because of the nature of the thing. "For if it is the adherents of the law who are to be the heirs, faith is null and the promise is void. For the law brings wrath" (Romans 4:14–15, ESV). "For if a law had been given that could give life, then righteousness would indeed be by the law" (Galatians 3:21, ESV). The law has not one word for sinners except death. So God himself found fault with this way (Hebrews 8:7–8).
Two things show how hopeless it is. First, you have already sinned. "For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God" (Romans 3:23, ESV). Even if we could keep the whole law from now on, there is a score against us already. Ask the law how to be eased of the past account, and it says: get ready to die. Second, even if all the old debts were wiped out, we could not keep the law in the future. We could as easily move the earth with a finger.
The patched-up way. Disappointed by the law, people go off to some other way. They settle on some atonement of their own and make up the rest with hopes of mercy. I will not go into the cleansings of the Gentiles or the inventions of the Roman church, the works that make up for sin, indulgences, and purgatory to finish it off. What is common to all awakened persons is seeking righteousness partly by making up for the past and partly by hoping in general mercy. Paul calls it seeking it "as if it were based on works" (Romans 9:32, ESV): making up one thing with another.
He tells us how it ends. "For, being ignorant of the righteousness that comes from God, and seeking to establish their own, they did not submit to God's righteousness" (Romans 10:3, ESV). If they had known how exactly he requires them to conform to his will, they would never have started such a fruitless business. Yet many stay on this road a long time. They buy off old faults with new obedience, and it quiets their conscience for a season. But when the Spirit convicts them of righteousness, it does not hold.
Where it ends. The matter comes to this. We are sinners, under the law's curse, and unless that is satisfied it is vain to think of appearing before God. And we are creatures made for an eternal end, bound to give the whole obedience he asks. Both are beyond our own efforts. So our wisdom is to find a righteousness that answers both to the full. Both are had only in Christ.
First, he makes up for our earlier iniquities. We "are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith. This was to show God's righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins" (Romans 3:24–25, ESV). "In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses" (Ephesians 1:7, ESV). This is the first part of our righteousness, the removal of all the guilt of sin. So no one will lay anything to our charge, "there is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus" (Romans 8:1, ESV). We are cleansed so that we no longer have "any consciousness of sin" (Hebrews 10:2, ESV), that is, no troubled conscience. Give me the wisdom that settles every account about sin, and let the world keep the rest.
Second, something more is needed. It is not enough that we are not guilty. We must also be actually righteous. When guilt is taken away, we are like innocent persons. But I know nothing that teaches me an innocent person goes to heaven, if he is no more than that. Adam was innocent when created, but he had to keep the commandments before he entered into life. So the whole law must be fulfilled. That too is answered only in Christ: "For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life" (Romans 5:10, ESV). His death reconciled us, and now we are saved by his life. His obedience to the whole law is the righteousness by which we are saved, if we are found in him, "not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith" (Philippians 3:9, ESV). I will say more on this later.
It is not hard to persuade people convinced of judgment to come that their main wisdom is to find a righteousness that will go with them forever and stand God's own test. All the wisdom of the world is folly here. The most it can do is find out vexing ways of perishing forever. All the treasures of this wisdom are hid in Christ, whom God made "our wisdom and our righteousness and sanctification and redemption" (1 Corinthians 1:30, ESV).
Judgment. The last thing, and I will only touch on it, is judgment, the judgment still to come. The wisdom of it is hidden in Jesus in two respects: its truth and its manner.
Its truth he confirms in two ways. By his death: God punished sin in the flesh of his own Son before men, angels and devils, and so gave abundant proof that a righteous judgment is coming. Why else would he lay such a load on him, unless he will reckon one day with all? The death of Christ is a solemn picture of the last judgment. Whoever owns him as the Son of God will not deny a judgment to come. And by his resurrection: "he has fixed a day on which he will judge the world in righteousness by a man whom he has appointed; and of this he has given assurance to all by raising him from the dead" (Acts 17:31, ESV).
As for its manner, the judgment will be by the one who loved us and gave himself for us, who is himself the righteousness he requires of us. On the other side, it will be by the one the world has reviled, despised and condemned in his person, ways, worship and servants. That holds out unspeakable comfort to one side and terror to the other.
That is the second part of my first proof. To know ourselves in relation to our supernatural end is no small part of wisdom, and the wisdom of sin, righteousness and judgment is hid in the Lord Jesus alone.
Walking with God. The third part of wisdom is to walk with God. For one person to walk with another, six things are needed: agreement, acquaintance, a way, strength, boldness, and the same end in view. All of them are hid in the Lord Jesus.
Agreement. The prophet says two cannot walk together unless they have agreed to (Amos 3:3). By nature God and man are at the greatest enmity. We are "children of wrath" (Ephesians 2:3, ESV), and while we stay so, "the wrath of God remains on" us (John 3:36, ESV). And we are no less his enemies. We began it and have kept it up longest. Our very minds are enmity against God: "the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God, for it does not submit to God's law; indeed, it cannot" (Romans 8:7, ESV). Whatever we do that seems otherwise is hypocrisy or flattery. He is light, and "in him is no darkness at all" (1 John 1:5, ESV); we are darkness. He is life; we are "dead in the trespasses and sins" (Ephesians 2:1, ESV). He is holiness; we are defiled. He is love; we are full of hatred. This is no foundation for walking together.
So the foundation is laid in Christ. "For he himself is our peace" (Ephesians 2:14, ESV). He did four things.
First, he took away the cause of the enmity, sin and the curse. He made atonement for iniquity (Daniel 9:24), wiped out the record that stood against us (Colossians 2:14), and redeemed us from the curse "by becoming a curse for us" (Galatians 3:13, ESV).
Second, he destroyed the one who would widen the gap. "Through death he might destroy the one who has the power of death, that is, the devil" (Hebrews 2:14, ESV), and he "disarmed the rulers and authorities" (Colossians 2:15, ESV).
Third, he made atonement for the sins of the people (Hebrews 2:17). By his blood he turned away the wrath due to us. That is why Paul says "in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself" (2 Corinthians 5:19, ESV). Having been reconciled himself, God lays down the enmity on his side and goes on to kill it on ours.
Fourth, Christ does that too. "Through our Lord Jesus Christ ... we have now received reconciliation" (Romans 5:11, ESV). We accept the peace offered, lay down our hostility, and so an agreement is confirmed in his blood. "Through him we both have access in one Spirit to the Father" (Ephesians 2:18, ESV).
Outside him God is a consuming fire, and we are dry stubble lining up against that fire. If we are brought together, we are burned up. Let none of us suppose we have taken one step on God's paths, or that any duty is accepted, if we have not done it on this account.
Acquaintance. Two people may meet on the same road with no quarrel, but if they are strangers they will pass without the least fellowship. It is not enough that the enmity is taken away. We must be given acquaintance with him. Not knowing him is a great part of our enmity. Our understanding is "darkened" and we are "alienated from the life of God" (Ephesians 4:18, ESV). God has given other means, his word and works, so that "they should seek God, in the hope that they might feel their way toward him and find him" (Acts 17:27, ESV). But what we know by his works is weak. And what we know by the letter of the word does not save us, because we are blind. The Scripture is light like the sun, but if you have no eyes, what good is it?
This too comes from Christ. "We know that the Son of God has come and has given us understanding, so that we may know him who is true" (1 John 5:20, ESV). He is "The true light, which enlightens everyone" (John 1:9, ESV). He opens our minds to understand the Scriptures (Luke 24:45). "No one has ever seen God; the only God, who is at the Father's side, he has made him known" (John 1:18, ESV). That is why he told the Pharisees, for all their knowledge, that they had never heard God's voice or seen his form (John 5:37). There is no acquaintance with God as love, patience, grace and pardoning mercy, the only knowledge that lets you walk with him, except in Christ.
A way. There must also be a way. God first gave us a path, innocence and exact holiness in a covenant of works. Because of sin that path is choked with thorns and blocked with curses, and no one can take a step on it. A new way must be found. And it is hid in Christ. The Holy Spirit tells us he opened "the new and living way" into the holiest place (Hebrews 10:20, ESV). It is new, because the old was useless, and living, because the other is dead. "Let us draw near" (Hebrews 10:22, ESV). And this way is none other than himself: "I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me" (John 14:6, ESV). In him we meet. In him we walk. Every influence of love and mercy from God to us comes through him, and every return of love, faith and obedience from us to God goes through him. It is "a highway ... called the Way of Holiness" (Isaiah 35:8, ESV). All other paths go down to the chambers of death.
Strength. Suppose agreement, acquaintance and a way. If you have no strength to walk, what good is it? In ourselves we are without strength (Romans 5:6), poor weaklings who cannot go a step in God's ways. Either we throw ourselves down or temptation does. Christ says plainly, "apart from me you can do nothing" (John 15:5, ESV). No creature in heaven or earth can help us.
All strength to walk with God comes from him. "I can do all things through him who strengthens me" (Philippians 4:13, ESV), says Paul, who denies we are sufficient of ourselves for anything (2 Corinthians 3:5). We who can do nothing in ourselves can do all things in Christ, like giants. In him we are "more than conquerors" (Romans 8:37, ESV), because "from his fullness we have all received, grace upon grace" (John 1:16, ESV). Any step taken in a strength not directly from Christ is one step toward hell. He takes us by the arm and teaches us to walk, and leads us on to perfection.
Boldness. But where would you get the confidence to walk with God, "a consuming fire" (Hebrews 12:29, ESV)? His people of old took it for granted they could not survive seeing him. At Sinai even Moses said, "I tremble with fear" (Hebrews 12:21, ESV), and all the people said, "do not let God speak to us, lest we die" (Exodus 20:19, ESV). Even his choicest saints trembled at a showing of his glory (Habakkuk 3:16; Isaiah 6:5; Job 42:5–6).
So where do you get boldness? Hebrews tells us (10:19): "by the blood of Jesus." And again: "in whom we have boldness and access with confidence through our faith in him" (Ephesians 3:12, ESV). Dread of God came in with sin. Adam had no thought of hiding until he sinned. When guilt is on the conscience, and we know God is a righteous avenger of sin, the thought of his presence fills us with horror. Christ, by his sacrifice, has taken away that conscience of sin. He has removed the law's slaying sword and shows God to us no longer as an avenging Judge but as a tender, merciful, reconciled Father. We all have by nature a spirit of bondage. He takes it away and gives "the Spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry, 'Abba! Father!'" (Romans 8:15, ESV). "Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom" (2 Corinthians 3:17, ESV). There is no sin God punishes more severely than any boldness taken with him outside Christ. And there is no grace more welcome to him than the boldness he gives in the blood of Jesus.
The same end. One thing more. Two cannot walk together unless they aim at the same end. God's end is the lifting up of his own glory, and nobody can aim at that except in the Lord Jesus.
The sum is that the whole wisdom of walking with God is hid in Christ. That closes my first proof. I have shown that all true wisdom is laid up in, and laid out by, the Lord Jesus, by going through the chief heads in which our wisdom consists. I have one more thing to add, and I will be brief.
The emptiness of any other wisdom. The second proof is the emptiness of anything else that claims to be wisdom. Two things in the world go by that name. One is learning: skill in the arts, sciences and languages, and knowledge of the past. The other is prudence, skill in managing ourselves with others in civil affairs, the fairest flower in nature's garden. I will show that neither can reach its own particular end, and that together, at their best, they cannot reach the true general end of wisdom. Both points set the crown on the head of Jesus Christ.
Learning. Learning, even if it were all in one man, cannot reach its own end. Over its forehead is written "vanity and vexation."
What is that end? Not many see it, because their eyes are fixed on false ends. The end of learning is to remove some part of the curse that came on us through sin. When Adam was created, he had all the knowledge needed for the highest end of man. There was no narrowness or darkness in his mind. You can see his knowledge of nature in the fitting names he gave the creatures. Plato noticed that whoever first gave things their names was the wisest, with more than human wisdom. Let the wisest men alive try to name every living creature according to its nature, and they would soon see what they have lost.
Adam was made perfect for ruling the creatures and living to God. All this was lost by sin, and a multiplication of languages was added as a curse for a later rebellion. So the whole purpose of learning is to untangle the soul from the consequences of sin: ignorance and blindness of mind, lost acquaintance with God's works, strangeness of speech, storms of passion and prejudice. And anyone who has another aim in it is chasing the wrong target, as an old line has it. It cannot reach its end by itself, and has "vanity" written on its forehead in letters that cannot be rubbed out.
Notice two things. First, the knowledge we are trying to recover was given to man to walk with God. His knowledge was spiritual, in its source and aim. Second, its loss is part of the curse laid on us for sin. So learning cannot reach its end.
For first, the light it discovers (and the Lord knows it is little, weak, uncertain, and mostly helps men to quarrel, to the shame of reason) is not spiritualized by it at all. It is not brought into that order of living to God. Paul says the outcome of human inquiry is darkness: "claiming to be wise, they became fools" (Romans 1:22, ESV). You know the deep inquiries of Socrates, Plato and Aristotle. What did they gain, for the purpose in hand? In the Greek, emoranthesan, "they became fools." The one who wears the crown for wisdom among them died like a fool, sacrificing a cock to Aesculapius. Christ alone is "The true light, which enlightens everyone" (John 1:9, ESV). After all their learning, men with nothing else are natural men and cannot see the things of God. Their light is still darkness, and how great that darkness is!
I know how people of such attainments say, "Are we also blind?" and look down on everyone else. But God has blasted their pride. "Where is the one who is wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the debater of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world?" (1 Corinthians 1:20, ESV). I will not add what Paul says about philosophy taking souls captive, or what Tertullian and others said against it. I am sure it was the abuse of philosophy, not its true use, that they opposed.
Second, the darkness learning tries to remove came on us as a curse, and learning cannot remove it as a curse in the least. A person at the greatest height of learning who does not have Christ lies as much under the curse of blindness and dullness as the simplest soul. The curse is removed only by the one made a curse for us. In fact, the more gifts the mind has, the more it strengthens itself to act out its enmity. All it receives only helps it to build "every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God" (2 Corinthians 10:5, ESV). I hope I do not need to clear myself of failing to respect learning. My only purpose is to lay it at the feet of Jesus Christ and set the crown on his head.
Prudence. The second kind of choice wisdom is prudence in civil affairs. Nothing perishing is more glorious or more useful for the common good. Its end is to keep the world within bounds and order, so that people do not step over their limits to one another's ruin. The aim of all wisdom here below is to make everything move in its own sphere, with no more clashing than among the heavenly bodies. But civil prudence cannot reach this end. The state of the world, now and in former ages, shows it. I will show it in three observations.
First, by the righteous judgment of God cutting off the top blossoms of men's pride, those with the greatest abilities of this kind often use them against their natural aim. Where do most upheavals come from, the breaking of bounds, the setting of the world on fire? Is it not from such men? Were men not so wise, the world might be quieter. It seems a curse on the world's wisdom that it is used against its proper end.
Second, God has made it a constant path to his own glory to mix the counsels of the wisest men with folly. In the depth of their policy, they advise things as unsuited as anything a fool could say. "I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and the discernment of the discerning I will thwart" (1 Corinthians 1:19, ESV). Isaiah describes it at length (Isaiah 19:11–14): the Lord has mingled within them a spirit of confusion. So also Job 5:12–14: "They meet with darkness in the daytime and grope at noonday as in the night." God undertakes their disappointment: "Take counsel together, but it will come to nothing" (Isaiah 8:10, ESV). When men are deep in their plots, "He who sits in the heavens laughs; the Lord holds them in derision" (Psalm 2:4, ESV). This was never clearer than in the troubled years when I write. Hardly any wise men have been brought to ruin, but it was evidently through their own folly.
Third, this wisdom, which should bring universal quiet, has almost always brought unrest on those in whom it was most eminent. "In much wisdom is much vexation" (Ecclesiastes 1:18, ESV). Some did away with themselves, like Ahithophel, and most were violently killed by others. The great men of the world carry off the reputation for it, but it is really found in few of them. Common events, to which they contribute not the least bit, are credited to their care and foresight. Where this wisdom has been most eminent, it has lived so close to atheism, and been so attended by falseness and injustice, that it has made its owners wicked and infamous. It is far from solid wisdom. On its forehead you can read the word "Disappointment."
The general end of wisdom. Second, the two together, at their utmost, cannot reach the true general end of wisdom. This is easy to show, but Solomon, who had the largest share of both of any man, did it so thoroughly in Ecclesiastes that I will not press it.
To draw to a close. If solid wisdom is not found in these, if the pearl is not hid in this field, it is pointless to look for it in anything else below them. So with one voice, let us set the crown of wisdom on the head of the Lord Jesus.
Where this has been heading. Let me tell you where this whole digression has been going. Its aim is to draw your heart to welcome the Lord Jesus more gladly and delight in him. If all wisdom is laid up in him and can be had only through a share in him, and if everything else that claims to be wisdom, beside him and without him, is folly and vanity, then let those who want to be wise learn where to rest their souls.
Part Two, Chapter 4: Christ Delights in His People, and They in Him
The fellowship I have described between Christ and the soul does not stop where it starts. Once a marriage is made, the affections that belong to a marriage follow. Christ has given himself to the soul, so he loves the soul. The soul has given itself to Christ, so it loves him in return. Scripture says that having loved his own, he "loved them to the end" (John 13:1, ESV). And it says that the saints "love our Lord Jesus Christ with love incorruptible" (Ephesians 6:24, ESV).
Four on each side. His love for his people shows itself in four things: delight, valuing, pity and bounty. Their love for him shows itself in four as well: delight, valuing, chastity and duty. Two of these are the same on both sides, and two are different. That is what we would expect in a marriage where the partners are not equals.
In this chapter I take only the first, delight. The others wait for the next.
Christ's delight. Delight is love and joy flowing out together. It is the mind resting in a good thing that suits it, now that the good thing is its own. And Christ delights in his people beyond measure. "As the bridegroom rejoices over the bride, so shall your God rejoice over you" (Isaiah 62:5, ESV). He calls the day of his wedding "the day of the gladness of his heart" (Song of Solomon 3:11, ESV).
Think what that means for you who believe. Of all the joys people are given on their pilgrimage, the bridegroom's joy on his wedding day is the purest and the highest. That is the picture Christ picks for his delight in his saints. His heart is glad in them, and no sorrow is mixed with it. Every day you live is his wedding day, if you are his.
Listen to how the prophet piles it up: "The LORD your God is in your midst, a mighty one who will save; he will rejoice over you with gladness; he will quiet you by his love; he will exult over you with loud singing" (Zephaniah 3:17, ESV). (Editor's note: the older English versions, which Owen used, read "he will rest in his love." The ESV reads "he will quiet you by his love," so the quieting is something Christ does to his people. Owen's argument only needs every part of delight to be there, and the verse gives joy, exulting, quiet and singing.) Do you hear it? Nothing that belongs to delight is missing.
It was in his heart from eternity. This delight is not new. Christ, speaking as Wisdom, says that he was "daily his delight, rejoicing before him always, rejoicing in his inhabited world and delighting in the children of man" (Proverbs 8:30–31, ESV). (Editor's note: Owen reads the Hebrew word in verse 30 as "one brought up with him," a child in his father's care, and draws from it that Christ took his people into his care before the world began. The ESV prints "master workman." The verse that follows, with its delight in the children of man, carries Owen's point either way.) Long before we existed, the thought of fellowship with his people was the joy of his heart. In the agreement between the Father and himself, he was to have a people as his portion and a remnant for his inheritance. His soul was glad at the thought of the pleasure he would take in them when he finally brought them into fellowship with himself.
So he took us into his care then, and he rejoiced to think of carrying out his trust. Of his people he says, "Here I will dwell, for I have desired it" (Psalm 132:14, ESV). He has chosen them as his temple and his dwelling, because he delights in them. That is why he draws them so close in every relationship. As God, he makes them his temple. As King, he makes them his subjects. As Head, he makes them his body. As the firstborn, he makes them his brothers, and "he is not ashamed to call them brothers" (Hebrews 2:11, ESV).
One proof out of a thousand. I could give you hundreds of evidences of his delight. I choose one, and I ask you to weigh it: Christ opens his mind to his people, and he lets them open their hearts to him.
We open our hearts only to a bosom friend. Even Samson, in his fleshly love for Delilah, told her the thing that mattered most to him, though it cost him his life. There is no clearer sign of close fellowship than telling someone what is in us instead of what everyone already knows. Ask yourself who has been told your heart.
What he tells us. He tells his people his mind, and he tells it to his own alone. I mean the counsel of his love, the purposes he has for our eternal good, the ways of his grace and the obedience of his gospel. All spiritual light comes through him. He is "the true light, which enlightens everyone" (John 1:9, ESV), and no light reaches anyone except from him. "The friendship of the LORD is for those who fear him, and he makes known to them his covenant" (Psalm 25:14, ESV).
Jesus spells it out himself: "No longer do I call you servants, for the servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all that I have heard from my Father I have made known to you" (John 15:15, ESV). He treats his people as bosom friends, and he does not hide from them what the Father gave him to make known. Paul tells us how it happens: "these things God has revealed to us through the Spirit" (1 Corinthians 2:10, ESV), and so "we have the mind of Christ" (1 Corinthians 2:16, ESV). Whatever in his heart concerns his friends, he tells them. Do you want to be told more? Then stay near him.
This is said in contrast to unbelievers, with whom he has no such fellowship. "The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God" (1 Corinthians 2:14, ESV). There is a wide difference between understanding the teaching of Scripture as it stands on the page and truly knowing the mind of Christ. The second comes by a special anointing: "you have been anointed by the Holy One, and you all have knowledge" (1 John 2:20, ESV).
Himself and his kingdom. What he reveals falls under two heads. The first is himself. The second is his kingdom.
Himself first. "Whoever has my commandments and keeps them, he it is who loves me. And he who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him and manifest myself to him" (John 14:21, ESV). That means he will show his people his grace, his loveliness, how desirable he is. They will know him as he is: a Saviour, a Redeemer, "distinguished among ten thousand" (Song of Solomon 5:10, ESV). They will learn what the pearl of great price is really worth. The world looks at him and sees "no form or majesty that we should look at him" (Isaiah 53:2, ESV). But to those he delights in he shows his excellencies, and they see him altogether lovely. He veils himself from the world. But we who are his, "with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another" (2 Corinthians 3:18, ESV).
Then his kingdom. The saints learn the rule of his Spirit in their hearts, and they learn how he governs by his word and among his churches.
He lets us tell him. The second proof is the other side of the first. He enables his people to open their minds and souls to him, so that they can walk together as close friends.
Christ already knows every mind. "He himself knew what was in man" (John 2:25, ESV), and he is the one "who searches mind and heart" (Revelation 2:23, ESV). But most people do not know how to tell him what is in them. It does you no good that Christ knows your mind. He knows everyone's, whether they like it or not. The comfort is that we can make our hearts known to him. That is why the prayers of his people rise like incense, while the "prayers" of others are like breaking a dog's neck or offering pig's blood (Isaiah 66:3). (Editor's note: the ESV reads, "he who sacrifices a lamb, like one who breaks a dog's neck; he who presents a grain offering, like one who offers pig's blood" (Isaiah 66:3, ESV). It speaks of those who choose their own ways. Owen uses it for the same point, that worship without the heart is an abomination.)
Three things are needed if we are to pour out our hearts to Christ, and he has given his people all three. We need help for the work, a way to come, and boldness to come.
First, help. We cannot do it by ourselves. But we have the Spirit of Jesus: "Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness. For we do not know what to pray for as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words. And he who searches hearts knows what is the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God" (Romans 8:26–27, ESV). If you try without his work in your heart, every attempt at fellowship with God is worth nothing. And Christ delights in this opening of the heart, which is why he calls us to it: "O my dove, in the clefts of the rock, in the crannies of the cliff, let me see your face, let me hear your voice, for your voice is sweet, and your face is lovely" (Song of Solomon 2:14, ESV). Even when you are driven to hide, he calls you to speak to him, and he gives us the Spirit's help to do it.
Second, a way. We have it in Christ: "Thomas said to him, 'Lord, we do not know where you are going. How can we know the way?' Jesus said to him, 'I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me'" (John 14:5–6, ESV). The way we had at creation is shut by sin, and the sword of the law turns every direction to block the road. But Christ has opened "the new and living way ... through the curtain, that is, through his flesh" (Hebrews 10:20, ESV), and he has opened it for believers and for no one else. Others may pretend to come to God with their prayers, but they are not on the road. "Through him we both have access in one Spirit to the Father" (Ephesians 2:18, ESV).
Third, boldness. Sinners who have felt the terror of the Lord cry, "Who among us can dwell with the consuming fire? Who among us can dwell with everlasting burnings?" (Isaiah 33:14, ESV). And no wonder. Shame and trembling are the proper fruit of sin. But believers have a different kind of boldness: "we have confidence to enter the holy places by the blood of Jesus, by the new and living way that he opened for us through the curtain, that is, through his flesh, and since we have a great priest over the house of God, let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith" (Hebrews 10:19–22, ESV). If we saw his holiness clearly, we would conclude that we could never serve him. Remember this when you come to pray: only in Christ, and only because of his offering and intercession, do we have any boldness to approach. He has given his people help, a way and boldness, so that they can tell him their hearts. And he gave them because he delights in them.
Why Spirit-led prayer is different. This matters so much that I will stop on the first of the three, the Spirit's help. I want you to see the difference between telling Christ our mind as he welcomes it, and the praying people do when they are only under conviction.
First, the Spirit shows us our own needs, so that we can show them to Christ. "We do not know what to pray for as we ought" (Romans 8:26, ESV). To know our own weakness is a heavenly discovery. A person who has this help has done more than half their praying before they begin. They carry their burden on their shoulders and unload it on Christ. They find out, not by a tormenting conviction but by a holy sense and weariness of sin, where they are dead, where they are cold, where they are unbelieving, where they are tempted beyond their strength, where the light of God's face is missing. Without that sense, prayer is not prayer. Voices may be heard, but they do not speak from the heart. A sense of need is the spring of desire, and without the sense the Holy Spirit gives, there is neither desire nor prayer.
Second, the words of such a person fall short of what their heart is working at. So in and after their prayers, "the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words" (Romans 8:26, ESV). Some people's words go far beyond their hearts. But a person with the Spirit's help cannot find words wide enough for the desires of their heart. At the end of their best prayers they feel a double dissatisfaction. Their prayers are not a righteousness to lean on, and would not stand if God marked what is wrong in them. And their heart has not been poured out in proportion to the longing in it, though they may be greatly refreshed in Christ. The more they say, the more they find they have left unsaid.
Third, their prayers are according to the mind of God. The Spirit guides them to ask for what God knows is good for them. There are many ways to tell, and I mention one: when we pray according to the promise. David does this: "Remember your word to your servant, in which you have made me hope" (Psalm 119:49, ESV). He prays, and he lets the promise he has trusted shape his desire.
Praying for what is promised, as it is promised. But we can ask for what is promised and still not ask as it is promised. James says some "ask and do not receive, because you ask wrongly, to spend it on your passions" (James 4:3, ESV). Two things are needed.
First, we must look on the promises as promised, and promised in Christ. All the reason we have for hoping to receive what we ask lies in the mediation and purchase of Christ, in whom all the promises are "Yes" (2 Corinthians 1:20, ESV). That is what it means to ask the Father in Christ's name. The Father is the fountain, and Christ is the one who obtained the blessing for us.
Second, we must ask for them to the end the promise has in view, and not to spend them on our desires. If you ask for pardon with a secret plan in your heart to go on sinning, you are asking for the choicest mercy of the covenant so that you can spend it on your lusts. The apostle tells us the end of the promise: "Since we have these promises, beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from every defilement of body and spirit, bringing holiness to completion in the fear of God" (2 Corinthians 7:1, ESV). When we ask for what is in the promise, as it is in the promise, and to the end of the promise, our prayer is according to the will of God.
That is the first marriage affection Christ shows toward his people. He delights in them.
Their delight in him. Now look at the other side. On their part, the saints delight in Christ. He is the joy, the crown, the rejoicing of his people, their life, food, health, strength, desire, righteousness, salvation and blessedness. Without him they have nothing, and in him everything. "Far be it from me to boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ" (Galatians 6:14, ESV).
He has been the hope of believers from the foundation of the world. The promise of him was all God gave Adam in his distress (Genesis 3:15), and it was enough. Eve perhaps thought the promised Seed had come in her firstborn when she said, "I have gotten a man with the help of the LORD" (Genesis 4:1, ESV). (Editor's note: Owen points out that the little Hebrew word before "the LORD" is the sign of the object, and he takes Eve to be hoping that she had borne the promised Seed. The ESV reads "with the help of," the more common modern rendering. We keep the ESV and Owen's point that her joy rested on the promise.) When Lamech named his son Noah, a type of Christ and of salvation through him, he cried, "Out of the ground that the LORD has cursed, this one shall bring us relief from our work and from the painful toil of our hands" (Genesis 5:29, ESV). He was rejoicing in the one who would take away the curse by being made a curse for us.
When Abraham was at the height of his glory, back from defeating the kings, God appeared to him with a great promise: "Fear not, Abram, I am your shield; your reward shall be very great" (Genesis 15:1, ESV). Yet he cried, "O Lord GOD, what will you give me, for I continue childless?" (Genesis 15:2, ESV). In other words: you promised that in my seed all the earth would be blessed, and if I have no seed, what good is anything else? That is why Jesus says that Abraham "rejoiced that he would see my day. He saw it and was glad" (John 8:56, ESV). The thought of Christ's coming, seen from two thousand years away, was the joy of his heart.
Jacob, blessing his sons, saw the one to come from Judah, and turned to him for relief: "I wait for your salvation, O LORD" (Genesis 49:18, ESV). Old Simeon sums up the whole: Christ is God's "salvation ... a light for revelation to the Gentiles, and for glory to your people Israel" (Luke 2:30–32, ESV). Whatever was called the glory of old was either Christ himself or a type of him.
What people count as their glory is what they delight in, and that is why the older English version calls him "the Desire of all nations" (Haggai 2:7, KJV). (Editor's note: the ESV reads, "the treasures of all nations shall come in" (Haggai 2:7, ESV). Owen takes the phrase as a title of Christ, as the older version does. The next verse he cites does not depend on it.) The delight of his people has even become a way of describing him: "the Lord whom you seek will suddenly come to his temple; and the messenger of the covenant in whom you delight, behold, he is coming" (Malachi 3:1, ESV).
The Song of Solomon. The Song of Solomon gives us the pattern. The bride says she sat down in his shadow "with great delight" (Song of Solomon 2:3, ESV). Her delight shows in three ways, and we should look for the same three in our own hearts.
She guards his company. "I adjure you, O daughters of Jerusalem, by the gazelles or the does of the field, that you not stir up or awaken love until it pleases" (Song of Solomon 2:7, ESV). (Editor's note: Owen's older translation reads "stir not up my love," and he takes the beloved to be Christ, so that she is begging that nothing disturb him. The ESV has "love" without "my," and the Hebrew is the abstract noun, as Owen himself points out. We keep the ESV and the sense Owen draws, that nothing should drive the Beloved away.) She has just enjoyed sweet fellowship with him, as the verses before describe, and now she shows her delight and her longing that it should last. She wants nothing to happen, no sin and no provocation, that would make Christ leave her or withdraw from the rest he seemed to take in her.
When a believer has once come to real fellowship with Christ, they watch against every temptation that might disturb it. Temptation most often comes as a pleasant distraction, so they long that the people around them would not lead them into a frame of mind where Christ can neither delight nor rest.
A believer who has Christ in their arms is like someone who has found a pearl of great price. They look round in every direction and fear anything that might take it from them. Riches make people watchful. The closest fellowship is also the most careful. When someone claims to enjoy Christ and is careless about it, that is a clear sign of a false heart.
She cannot bear his absence. The second way the bride shows her delight is that she is impatient when he is away, and longs for closer fellowship. "Set me as a seal upon your heart, as a seal upon your arm, for love is strong as death, jealousy is fierce as the grave. Its flashes are flashes of fire, the very flame of the LORD" (Song of Solomon 8:6, ESV).
The picture comes from the high priest, who wore the names of Israel's children engraved on his breastplate over his heart and on his shoulders (Exodus 28:9–12, 29). That pointed to Christ, who carries the names of all his people before the Father.
A seal on the heart means near, inward and tender love. "Fix me always in your tender love," she says. "Let there be an impression there that can never be rubbed out." The soul is never satisfied with its thoughts of Christ's love. "Oh, that it were more!" is its cry. It knows his love cannot be increased, but it wants to feel it. So she adds, "as a seal upon your arm." The heart is the source, but hidden and close. The arm is power and display. She is asking for two things. One is Christ's constant mindfulness of her, with her condition always before him: "I have engraved you on the palms of my hands" (Isaiah 49:16, ESV). The other is that the hidden love of his heart should be made visible in what his arm does. Without that there is no rest.
The reason she gives is the strongest proof of her delight: "Love is strong as death, jealousy is fierce as the grave." In plain words: "I cannot bear the workings of my love for you unless I can always be with you. Nothing else will satisfy it. Death is not satisfied without its prey, and no ransom will turn it aside. My love is like that. If I do not have you wholly, I have nothing. And I cannot bear my jealous thoughts. I am afraid you do not love me, because I know I do not deserve to be loved. Those thoughts are as hard as the grave. If I do not find myself on your heart and on your arm, I am lying on a bed of coals." This is a holy greediness of delight.
She is troubled when he withdraws. The third way is her trouble and perplexity when he seems to go. People grieve over the loss of what they delight in. We bear very easily the absence of what we do not enjoy. Here is the bride in that state:
"On my bed by night I sought him whom my soul loves; I sought him, but found him not. 'I will rise now and go about the city, in the streets and in the squares; I will seek him whom my soul loves.' I sought him, but found him not. The watchmen found me as they went about in the city. 'Have you seen him whom my soul loves?'" (Song of Solomon 3:1–3, ESV).
It is night now for the soul, a time of darkness and trouble. Whenever Christ is away, it is night for a believer. He is the sun, and if he goes down on us, if his beams are eclipsed and we cannot see his light, then all is dark. The text does not say whether some trouble made her notice that Christ was missing, or whether his absence made it night. I think the latter, for take away his absence and all seems well with her.
Is she content? She is on her bed, a place of ease. (The bed sometimes means suffering, as in Revelation 2:22, but in the Song it means rest.) Yet a believer finds no rest, even in the greatest ease, when Christ is away.
She sought him. Seeking Christ by night, on the bed, which means alone, in direct inquiry, in the dark, has two parts. First, searching our own souls for the cause of his absence. Second, searching the promises for his presence.
First, the soul does not find Christ present in his usual way. He is not warming it with love or filling its thoughts with himself. Other thoughts crowd in, and he is not near when it asks for him. So it asks what has caused this. It thinks of how he delights to stay with his saints, so that his leaving was not without cause. "Where have I been wandering after other lovers?" it asks. And when the fault is found, it is fierce in its anger against it.
Second, once the soul has worked that through to some end, it turns to the promises of the covenant, where Christ is most graciously held out. It ponders one promise after another, looking for a taste of him. But if, as often happens, it finds nothing but the bare letter, if it comes to the promise as to the tomb of Christ and must say, "He is not here," then it is dismayed. It is like laying a costly jewel aside in a safe place, and then, in a crisis, not finding it where it was left. The soul sold everything for the pearl of the gospel and enjoyed it for a time. To find it missing in the hour of need must trouble it deeply. So it was with the bride. "I sought him," she says, "but found him not." It is not rare for us to be in this place in our fellowship with Christ.
Rise up. But what does she do? Does she give up? No. "I will rise now," she says. I must have Christ or die. I will get up and go about this.
She decides on a more vigorous search than private prayer, meditation, self-examination and searching the promises, which she had already tried. Her decision holds resolution and diligence. Resolution casts off the state in which she lost her love: "I will not rest in this frame. I am ruined if I do." This is how God sometimes calls his church to "shake yourself from the dust and arise" (Isaiah 52:2, ESV). Diligence says, "I will leave no way untried by which I might recover fellowship with my Beloved." If you are dull in prayer, wandering in meditation and seldom thinking of him, say it: "I will not put up with this. Whatever way God has appointed, I will, in his strength, pursue it until this state is changed."
The streets of the city. Then she goes about the city. I will not press the picture too far. The city is the church, and the streets are the ordinances God has given. When believers cannot find Christ in private, they go with energy to public worship, to prayer, to preaching, to the sacraments. The great question of believers in every ordinance is, Where is Christ? They find just as much sweetness as they find of him, and no more. When he is away, they listen to every word for any sign of him. "Oh, that Christ would meet me in this sermon, and give my poor heart some taste of his kindness!" The doubling of the words, "I sought him, I sought him," packs in a passion that cannot be told.
But look at the result even of this: "I sought him, but found him not." It does sometimes happen that nothing works. "With their flocks and herds they shall go to seek the LORD, but they will not find him" (Hosea 5:6, ESV). If you have any of Christ's presence, take care. If you provoke him to leave, it may cost you many bitter searches before you find him again. To pray, search and attend every ordinance, all for one glimpse of his face, and all in vain, is a sad condition.
The watchmen. What follows? "The watchmen found me" (Song of Solomon 3:3, ESV). These are the officers of the church. In Song of Solomon 5:7 they turn into persecutors. It was Luther's saying that religion is never in danger except among the most reverend. Here they are gentler, and they seem to notice her condition.
It is the duty of faithful watchmen to notice troubled and deserted souls and be willing to help. And a soul truly pressed by Christ's absence cannot hide its love. It has to ask, "Have you seen him whom my soul loves? I enjoyed my blessed Jesus, and now he has withdrawn from me. How did he show himself to you?" All these efforts show how much the soul delights in his presence.
She finds him. "Scarcely had I passed them when I found him whom my soul loves. I held him, and would not let him go until I had brought him into my mother's house, and into the chamber of her who conceived me" (Song of Solomon 3:4, ESV).
First, she tells us how she came to him. The text does not say by what means. It often happens so. When private and public means have failed, and nothing is left but to wait quietly and walk humbly, Christ appears, so that it is plain it was by grace. Do not give up. When neither bed nor watchmen can help, wait a little, and you will see the salvation of God. He sometimes shows himself directly, apart from ordinances, to those who wait for him in them. I do not know that he will do it for those who despise them. Wait as he has appointed, and let him appear as he pleases.
How she treats him when she finds him is told beautifully: "I held him, and would not let him go." Having come once more to sweet fellowship, the soul grips him by faith (to "hold" is an act of faith), will not part with him again, and tries to keep him in the ordinances, in its mother's house, the church.
I could follow every instance in the Song, but that would mean expounding most of the book. Let your own heart have the last word. What do you long for and rejoice in? What gives you rest in every condition? What do you fear to lose, and whose absence can you not bear? Is it not your Beloved, and he alone?
His people and his ordinances. The saints show their delight in him in one more way. They delight in everything that belongs especially to Christ in this world. When we love someone, we love what is theirs. Christ's great concern in this world is his people and his ordinances, his household and their provision, and in both his saints delight for his sake. David gives an example of each.
First, the people. "As for the saints in the land, they are the excellent ones, in whom is all my delight" (Psalm 16:3, ESV). Christ says of his church that she is Hephzibah, "My delight is in her" (Isaiah 62:4, ESV). David says the same of the saints: Hephzibah, "my delight is in them." As Christ delights in his saints, so they delight in one another on his account. This is why Scripture says "we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers" (1 John 3:16, ESV).
Second, the ordinances. Take the same man, and ask whether you love them as he did. Psalms 42, 84 and 48 are such full witnesses from beginning to end that we need look no further.
Where we have come. This is the first mutual affection of the marriage between Christ and believers. He delights in them, and they delight in him. He delights in their prosperity and takes pleasure in it. They delight in his honour and glory and in his presence with them. For his sake they delight in his servants, though the world condemns them, as the most excellent people on earth. And they delight in his ordinances as the wisdom of God, though to the world they are foolishness.
Part Two, Chapter 5: Prized, Pitied and Provided For
We have seen the first thing that passes between Christ and his people in this marriage of love: he delights in them, and they delight in him. Now I want to show you three more. Christ prizes his people, and they prize him. Christ pities them, and they stay faithful to him. Christ is generous to them, and they answer with a life of obedience. Take them one at a time.
How much he values his people. I do not need to labour this. Heaven and earth are full of the proof. But look at it two ways, first by itself and then against everyone else, and you will see what price Christ puts on them.
Everything he ever did, everything he went through, everything he is doing now as Mediator, he did for them. It was so great and so painful that he would never have taken it on if he had not valued them beyond words. Here are four examples.
First, he became flesh for them. "Since therefore the children share in flesh and blood, he himself likewise partook of the same things" (Hebrews 2:14, ESV). Then the apostle presses the point: "For surely it is not angels that he helps, but he helps the offspring of Abraham" (Hebrews 2:16, ESV). Read that as "he took hold of our nature, not theirs," or as "he came to help us, not them." Either way the point is the same. He chose the offspring of Abraham, which means believers, over the angels. His heart is set on his people.
Second, he emptied himself for them. He did not only take flesh. He took it in such a way that his glory was veiled and he became poor. "You know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor, so that you by his poverty might become rich" (2 Corinthians 8:9, ESV). The same person who was rich became poor. And the riches can only be the riches of God, because the poverty was his poverty as a man. Paul says it more fully:
"who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross." (Philippians 2:6–8, ESV)
(Editor's note: Owen reads the Greek as "he emptied himself," which is why he speaks of an "emptying" of the Son. The ESV's "made himself nothing" says the same in different words, and his argument stands on it. He also spends a long passage proving that "the form of God" means the very being of God, since it is set against "the form of a servant" and only God is equal to God. I have kept his conclusion and left out the Greek.)
"The form of God" here means the very being of God. He was equal to God, and nothing but God is equal to God. So the one who was emptied was God. Now mark what that means, and what it does not. The divine nature was not made smaller. Nothing could take anything from the essential glory of God. But the person of the Son appeared as a man and a servant, and so his glory was veiled in how it showed itself. That is why he prays, "glorify me in your own presence with the glory that I had with you before the world existed" (John 17:5, ESV). The divine nature was not lowered. The person was.
Third, he became a servant for them. To the world he was a man of no account, and in truth he was a real servant of the Father. All he did and suffered in his life comes under three heads. He fulfilled all righteousness. He bore every kind of hardship. And he did every kind of good to others. It was a life of "prayers and supplications, with loud cries and tears" (Hebrews 5:7, ESV), a life of obedience and suffering. And he did it gladly. He called it his food and drink. Think of it. He is the one who will answer the least opposition to himself, and he was content to go through everything for them.
Fourth, to crown it all, he became obedient to death. "And for their sake I consecrate myself" (John 17:19, ESV). He set himself apart as an offering, to be slain. Everything before led to this. He was born and he lived in order to die. He valued them above his life.
If we could stop and think what was in that death, we would see the price he put on us. The curse of the law was in it. The wrath of God was in it. The loss of God's presence was in it. It was a terrible cup, and he drank it so that we would never have to taste it. He tells us himself: "Greater love has no one than this, that someone lays down his life for his friends" (John 15:13, ESV). And Paul says something heavier still: "God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us" (Romans 5:8, ESV). We were enemies he could justly have destroyed. To die for such people, under such a curse, shows as high a value on us as his own heart could hold.
To give up glory, ease, life, even the enjoyment of the Father's love, and to take shame, wrath, curse and death in place of another: that is the mark of a very dear price. He "for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame" (Hebrews 12:2, ESV). I take that joy to be the joy of bringing his people home to glory. He loved the church and gave himself up for her, "that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word" (Ephesians 5:25–26, ESV). Rather than lose them, he gave up everything he had.
I could go on without end: what he does in every deliverance, every affliction, every kind of sinning and suffering, what he is doing now in his intercession. It all says one thing. His people are the apple of his eye, his jewel, his crown.
Above everyone else. Now set you beside the rest of the world. The whole world is nothing to him compared with his people. They are his garden and the rest is wilderness: "A garden locked is my sister, my bride, a spring locked, a fountain sealed" (Song of Solomon 4:12, ESV). They are his inheritance. Hear what he says to them: "For I am the LORD your God, the Holy One of Israel, your Savior. I give Egypt as your ransom, Cush and Seba in exchange for you. Because you are precious in my eyes, and honored, and I love you, I give men in return for you, peoples in exchange for your life" (Isaiah 43:3–4, ESV). That is why he gives up everything else for his church. He loves her. She is precious and honoured in his sight.
He arranges the affairs of the nations with his people in view. In all the sifting of the nations his eye is on the house of Israel, and "no pebble shall fall to the earth" (Amos 9:9, ESV). The angels are "ministering spirits sent out to serve for the sake of those who are to inherit salvation" (Hebrews 1:14, ESV). Nations are blessed for their sake or destroyed on their account, and they will be judged by how they treated these despised ones. The pillars of the earth are held up for them.
There is not the poorest, weakest believer on earth whom Christ does not prize above the whole world. If your heart were full of that, what comfort it would bring you.
How much they value him. Now the other side. Believers value Jesus Christ above the world and everything in it. We have seen something of this already, in how they delight in him and look for him. They say in their hearts what David said: "Whom have I in heaven but you? And there is nothing on earth that I desire besides you" (Psalm 73:25, ESV). Neither heaven nor earth can give them anything to compare with him.
First, they value him above all other things and people. A man of old said, "I would rather fall with Christ than reign with Caesar. The earth is beautiful and the heavens are beautiful, but the Lord Jesus is the most beautiful of all." Christ in a dungeon, Christ on a cross, is sweeter to them than a crown without him. So it was with Moses, who "considered the reproach of Christ greater wealth than the treasures of Egypt" (Hebrews 11:26, ESV). The reproach of Christ is the worst the world or Satan can bring on his followers. The treasures of Egypt were the greatest in the world then. Moses gave up the best the world could offer for the worst of Christ's cross. Christ himself said that anyone who loves father or mother more than him is not worthy of him (Matthew 10:37). Letting everything go for Christ is the first lesson of the gospel. If we do not have that mind, we are none of his.
Second, they value him above their own lives. "I do not account my life of any value nor as precious to myself, if only I may finish my course and the ministry that I received from the Lord Jesus" (Acts 20:24, ESV). Let life go, says Paul, so long as I can serve him and, when all is done, enjoy him. When Ignatius was led off to be martyred he said, "Let whatever will come upon me, only let me gain Jesus Christ." That is why the first believers rejoiced when they were whipped and shamed for his name (Acts 5:41). The life they have to live and the death they have to die seem light beside the one who holds up their lives. The thought of enjoying him makes them long, like Paul, "to depart and be with Christ, for that is far better" (Philippians 1:23, ESV). The martyrs, women and children among them, who laughed at torture while his name made it all sweet, have made this plain to men and angels.
Third, they value him above every spiritual excellence and every other righteousness. Hear Paul: "But whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ. Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ" (Philippians 3:7–8, ESV). (Editor's note: Owen's word is "dung," from the old English translation. The ESV's "rubbish" is milder, but the Greek word is a coarse, strong one.)
Paul had just listed what he once relied on: all the religious privileges of his Judaism. He had been a zealot for the law, serving God day and night, living in good conscience from his youth. And now he throws all of it away. He calls it loss and rubbish.
Think what that means. Many who have laboured for years to keep a clear conscience, who have prayed, listened to sermons, done good and denied themselves, would sooner give up the world than what they have built. You know how we hate to part with anything we have sweated over, and more when it is as good as our duty to God and our hope of heaven. But when Christ appears to the soul, all this, without him, has the paint washed off. Its beauty fades. The soul puts it away like something unclean and cries, "In the Lord Jesus alone I have righteousness and glory."
Proverbs says as much, among a thousand other places: "Blessed is the one who finds wisdom, and the one who gets understanding, for the gain from her is better than gain from silver and her profit better than gold. She is more precious than jewels, and nothing you desire can compare with her" (Proverbs 3:13–15, ESV). This Wisdom is Christ, the eternal Wisdom of the Father, as the description in Proverbs 8 makes clear. He is better than silver and gold and every desirable thing, as in the gospel he is the pearl of great price, for which the merchant sells everything (Matthew 13:46). Everything goes for Christ: every righteousness without him, every way of religion, all of it for that one pearl. The glory of his deity, the excellence of his person, his all-conquering loveliness, his unspeakable love, his wonderful undertaking, his humbling, his mediation, his perfect righteousness: all this fills their eyes, takes their hearts and possesses their souls.
That is the second thing that passes between Christ and his people. On Christ's side it comes to two things.
First, everything he gave up, did and suffered as Mediator, and everything he does now, he does out of love for believers. He gave up the greatest glory, went through the greatest misery, and does the greatest works there have ever been, because he loves his bride. We have hardly begun to measure it. Having undertaken from eternity to bring his people to God, he rejoices in the thought of it, and he pursues his plan through heaven and hell, life and death, and does not stop until it is finished.
Second, he values his people so much that he will not lose one of them for ever, though the whole world joins together to take them from his hand. In the days of his flesh he saw what opposition and what dangers they would meet. He prayed, "Holy Father, keep them in your name" (John 17:11, ESV). And he tells us plainly, "no one will snatch them out of my hand" (John 10:28, ESV). If you are his, hear that as said to you. He was then in the form of a servant, and we might think he could not hold them. So he adds that the Father, who is "greater than I" (John 14:28, ESV) in the work of mediation, has also given them to him, and "no one is able to snatch them out of the Father's hand" (John 10:29, ESV).
But think about it. Enemies from outside may be beaten, and still there is no safety if sin within, helped by Satan, can ruin them. He has covered that too. His holy soul hates every sin, and every sin is a fresh wound to him. And his poor bride is sinful. Yet he hides it, covers it and bears with it rather than lose her, and he keeps her from those sins for which the covenant of grace has no remedy. Oh, the world of foolish sins our dear Lord puts up with! Infinite patience, infinite love, infinite mercy are all put to work to match the price he puts on them.
On the side of the saints it comes to two things as well.
First, when he is shown to their souls, they are glad to give up everything they delighted in or trusted in, for his sake, so that they may have him. Sin and lust, pleasure and profit, righteousness and duty can all go, so long as they have Christ.
Second, once they have him, they are ready to give up anything rather than him. Losing peace, health, freedom, wife or children is hard even for the best of the saints. But their souls cannot bear the thought of losing Jesus Christ. The worst they imagine about hell is that they will not enjoy him. If they can enjoy him now, and be like him hereafter, they can give up everything else cheerfully.
His pity. The third thing that comes from Christ's love is pity. "No one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, just as Christ does the church" (Ephesians 5:29, ESV). Christ feels with his saints in all their troubles, as a man feels with his own body. This part of his love has to do with the many trials and pressures we meet here below.
He does not treat us the way the Samaritans treated the Jews, who flattered them in good times and despised them in bad. He is like a tender father, who loves all his children but takes the most pains with the one who is sick and weak, even if the sickness makes that child hard to bear. And Christ does more than any father can. He himself suffers with us.
Our sufferings in this world fall into two sorts: temptations and afflictions.
Take temptations first. Under that heading I include the sin that temptation leads to. What is the heart of Christ toward us there? "For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin" (Hebrews 4:15, ESV). The double negative insists that we have a high priest who can be touched, and is. "Sympathize" falls short of the Greek, which means to suffer together. So whatever our weaknesses are, so far as they are our temptations, he suffers with us under them.
There are two ways to share another person's suffering. One is a friendly grieving. The other is a gracious help. Christ is full of both.
He grieves with us. When the angel of the LORD says, "O LORD of hosts, how long will you have no mercy on Jerusalem?" (Zechariah 1:12, ESV), he speaks like someone deeply moved by the state of poor Jerusalem. That is why he has told the world that what is done to his people is done to him, and that whoever touches them "touches the apple of his eye" (Zechariah 2:8, ESV).
In the second, the help, he overflows. "He will tend his flock like a shepherd; he will gather the lambs in his arms; he will carry them in his bosom, and gently lead those that are with young" (Isaiah 40:11, ESV). Here we have tenderness and help together. His people are shown weak: lambs, ewes with young, none of them strong or handsome. If he sees a weak lamb, he does not push it on. He takes it into his bosom. When he sees a poor soul limping, ready to sink, he gives it some gracious promise and carries it when it cannot go one step further. That is why he has such a quarrel with the shepherds who do otherwise: "The weak you have not strengthened, the sick you have not healed, the injured you have not bound up, the strayed you have not brought back, the lost you have not sought" (Ezekiel 34:4, ESV).
Notice what comes right after the verse about his sympathy. "Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need" (Hebrews 4:16, ESV). The Greek speaks of grace that arrives at the right moment. To weep over our troubles and not help would be pointless. Like the Samaritan, Christ gives timely help, and a pardon when a criminal is about to be executed is sweet. Take this as a sure rule: if you are his, you will not be without relief while you need it, and when you can bear no more, relief will come. "God is faithful, and he will not let you be tempted beyond your ability, but with the temptation he will also provide the way of escape, that you may be able to endure it" (1 Corinthians 10:13, ESV).
And again: "For because he himself has suffered when tempted, he is able to help those who are being tempted" (Hebrews 2:18, ESV). There is something in every temptation of ours that was not in his: something in us takes the tempter's side. But that does not lessen his compassion. It increases it. The harder the temptation, the readier he is to help.
Here are the ways he gives timely help in temptation.
First, he keeps the heart firmly set against the very sin it is most open to. Think of Joseph. Christ knew that Joseph's great trial would be his master's wife pressing him into adultery, so he kept Joseph's heart steady against that sin, and Joseph answered without a moment's thought: "How then can I do this great wickedness and sin against God?" (Genesis 39:9, ESV). In other matters his heart was not so well guarded, as his swearing by the life of Pharaoh shows. In the same way, Christ is wonderfully tender in fortifying the hearts of his people against the sin they are most likely to meet, even when in other things they are weak.
Second, sometimes he pulls his people back from the very edge of sin by a sudden push of grace. So it was with David, when he nearly killed Saul in the cave (1 Samuel 24:4–6). His feet had almost slipped, and a powerful impulse of grace brought him back. To show his saints how weak they are, he sometimes lets them go to the very brow of the hill, and then makes them hear a word behind them, telling them this is the right way, to walk in it.
Third, he takes the temptation away when it has grown so strong that the poor soul does not know what to do. This is what Peter means by delivering the godly out of temptation, the way a man is pulled out of a trap and the trap left behind. (Editor's note: here and below the ESV says "trials" where Owen's older translation says "temptations," in 2 Peter 2:9, James 1:2 and 1 Peter 1:6. The Greek word can mean either, and Owen reads it as temptation to sin, which is why I keep his word in my own sentences.) I have known many people worn out in confusing temptations, who had tried every means of help, and suddenly the Lord Christ rebuked Satan, and they never heard another word from him. Christ comes into the storm and stills it.
Fourth, he gives new supplies of grace as the temptation grows. That was Paul's case. His temptation, whatever it was, grew great. He begged for it to be taken away. The only answer was: "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness" (2 Corinthians 12:9, ESV). The sufficiency of God's grace was to hold him up however much the temptation grew.
Fifth, he gives wisdom to use every temptation in a holy way. James says, "Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds" (James 1:2, ESV). That could not be done if there were no holy use to make of them. Not the least is that by temptation we come to know ourselves. Hezekiah was left to be tried so that he would know what was in his heart. Hidden corruption is often brought to light. We would never have believed there were such lusts in us as our temptations have shown. Some tempted to pride or love of the world have been startled, and led to see how many duties they had neglected. Without Christ's help nobody could make good use of a temptation. With it, a temptation that might be a deadly wound to someone else becomes the lancing of an infected sore. "In this you rejoice, though now for a little while, as was necessary, you have been grieved by various trials" (1 Peter 1:6, ESV).
Sixth, when we are overcome, more or less, by temptation, Christ in his tenderness relieves us with mercy and pardon, so that we do not sink under the weight. "My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin. But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. He is the propitiation for our sins" (1 John 2:1–2, ESV).
By one or more or all of these ways the Lord Jesus shows his tenderness to his people in their temptations.
Then there are afflictions. Christ is full of compassion there too. "In all their affliction he was afflicted" (Isaiah 63:9, ESV). It seems that all our afflictions, at least the ones that are persecutions, are first of all his and only ours by sharing. That is the sense of Paul's saying that he is filling up what is lacking in Christ's afflictions (Colossians 1:24). Two things show how compassionate Christ is here.
First, he asks his Father to relieve us. See Zechariah 1:12 again. Christ intercedes for us not only about our sins but about our sufferings. There is no deliverance from trouble, no recovery of health, no ease from pain that was not given because Jesus Christ interceded. We do not understand our own state if we look at our mercies as coming through ordinary providence. That may be why we value them so little and are so little thankful. God's people are alive today only because of the intercession of the Lord Jesus. "When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and through the rivers, they shall not overwhelm you; when you walk through fire you shall not be burned, and the flame shall not consume you" (Isaiah 43:2, ESV).
Second, in the end he will take up their cause against their enemies. He avenges his chosen ones who cry to him, and he does it quickly. His messengers tell him, "We have patrolled the earth, and behold, all the earth remains at rest" (Zechariah 1:11, ESV). That is the world at such a time: at ease, feasting and sending gifts. Then Christ looks to see who will come to their aid (Isaiah 59:16). When he finds no one, he himself takes up the cause. He does it in two ways.
In this world, he does it on persons, kingdoms and nations, as he did to the old Roman world (Revelation 6:15–16). Sometimes he picks out a notable opponent and makes him an example, as he did with Pharaoh: "But for this purpose I have raised you up, to show you my power, so that my name may be proclaimed in all the earth" (Exodus 9:16, ESV). Like a lion provoked, he does not lie down without his prey. And in the bowls of wrath he will pour out in these last days on the antichristian world, he will destroy those who share in its persecution, so that everyone who hears of it will have both ears tingle.
In the world to come, he will plead with the enemies of his beloved in eternal vengeance (Matthew 25:41–46, 2 Thessalonians 1:6, Jude 15). So it is plain that Christ overflows with pity for those he loves.
Faithful to him. What is our answer on our side? I put it in the word chastity: staying faithful to Christ in every state and condition. That was Paul's aim for the church at Corinth. "I feel a divine jealousy for you, for I betrothed you to one husband, to present you as a pure virgin to Christ. But I am afraid that as the serpent deceived Eve by his cunning, your thoughts will be led astray from a sincere and pure devotion to Christ" (2 Corinthians 11:2–3, ESV). And of the followers of the Lamb on Mount Zion it is said, "It is these who have not defiled themselves with women, for they are virgins" (Revelation 14:4, ESV). I will say later what that defilement was. This faithfulness has three parts.
First, the saints do not let anything into their affection and esteem for the purposes for which they received Christ. The Galatians failed here. They did not keep themselves faithful. They had received Christ for life and for justification, and him only. But after a while they were charmed, or as Paul puts it, "bewitched" (Galatians 3:1), and they put the righteousness of the law in the same place as him. We know how sharply Paul warned them, how severely he rebuked them, how clearly he showed them their madness.
So this is the first faithful affection believers have for Christ. Having received him as their righteousness and salvation before God, as the fountain of all their supply, they will not take anything else in his place. Take one example: we receive him for our acceptance with God. The only thing that can compete with him for our hearts is our own effort to build a righteousness that will commend us to God. That effort comes either before we receive Christ or after. About everything done to please God before, we know Paul's mind. All his efforts and privileges he rejects with anger as loss and disgust as rubbish, and he sums up all his aims in Christ alone and his righteousness (Philippians 3:8–10).
But the works we do after we have received Christ are another matter. They please God, and he is glad when we walk in them. But for the purpose for which we receive Christ, they count for no more than the earlier ones:
"For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them." (Ephesians 2:8–10, ESV)
Even the works we do after believing, the very ones we were created in Christ for, are shut out when it comes to justification and acceptance with God, which Paul here calls being saved. The saints will find no peace in unfaithful thoughts of that kind. That does not make obedience less needed. One day it will be plain that Christ hates the mangling of this matter by those who want a place for their own works in how they are accepted, and I will say later how needed, how useful and how excellent gospel obedience is. It is astonishing how hard it is to keep some professing Christians faithful to Christ in this one thing. How many arguments, distinctions and evasions are used just to keep something, somewhere, to play with. Those who truly love him think otherwise.
In this, more than in anything, the saints keep their affections faithful to Jesus Christ. He has been made to them by God "our righteousness" (1 Corinthians 1:30, ESV), and they will own nothing else for that. Sometimes the soul does not even know whether it has a share in him, because he hides himself. Even then the faithful soul stays alone, in a kind of widowhood, and will not be comforted, though many suitors offer. Though it mourns ever so long, a faithful soul will have nothing to lean on but Christ. It stays in the wilderness until he comes to take it up, until it can come out "leaning on her beloved" (Song of Solomon 8:5, ESV).
This is what one who has communion with Christ does. He guards his heart. He watches that nothing creeps into his affections to give him any peace or standing before God except Christ alone. Whenever the question has to be answered, "With what shall I come before the LORD, and bow myself before God on high?" (Micah 6:6, ESV), he does not make a list: "This or that I will do," or "Here and there I will watch and improve my ways." He cries at once, "In the Lord Jesus I have righteousness. All I want is to be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own" (compare Philippians 3:9).
Second, the saints stay faithful by cherishing the Holy Spirit, the Comforter whom Christ sends to stay with us in his place (John 16:7). As Tertullian says, he gives him to do the work of a stand-in. That is why whatever is done to any of Christ's people is done to him: it is done to those in whom he lives by his Spirit. So the saints work with all their might not to grieve the Holy Spirit. Paul reminds us: "And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption" (Ephesians 4:30, ESV).
Christ sends his Spirit to believers for two main purposes, their holiness and their comfort. All the particular things the Spirit is said to do, cleansing, teaching, anointing and the rest, come under these two. So there are two ways to grieve him.
Take holiness first. He is the Spirit of holiness, holy in himself and the author of holiness in us. He works it in us (Titus 3:5). So the first way to grieve him is to run against that work, in ways of unholiness and defilement. Look at how the words connect in Ephesians 4:
"Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you, along with all malice." (Ephesians 4:31, ESV)
That comes straight after "do not grieve the Holy Spirit." And Paul bases his plea for holiness on the Spirit's dwelling in us: "Do you not know that you are God's temple and that God's Spirit dwells in you? If anyone destroys God's temple, God will destroy him. For God's temple is holy, and you are that temple" (1 Corinthians 3:16–17, ESV). What grieves a tender friend more than to be slighted just when he is busiest for our good? So believers work hard not to grieve the Spirit by loose, careless living. No anger, malice or envy is allowed in their hearts, because these are against his gentle spirit. They listen to his motions and use his gifts, and nothing weighs on them more than that they should walk worthy of this holy substitute of the Lord Jesus.
Then comfort. This is the second great purpose for which Christ sends his Spirit, and that is why he is called "the Comforter." For this he seals us, anoints us, establishes us, and gives us peace and joy. I will speak of this at length later. There are two ways he can be grieved here.
The first is by putting our comforts and joys in other things. When we make creature comforts, anything but what we receive by the Spirit of Christ, our joy and delight, we are false to Christ. So it was with Demas, who was "in love with this present world" (2 Timothy 4:10, ESV). When the ways of the Spirit are heavy to us, when we say, "When will the Sabbath be over, so that we can get back to our business?", we do not fit with Christ. Might not his Spirit say, "Why do I go on staying with these poor souls? I provide them with joys that cannot be told, and they refuse them for things that perish." Christ cannot bear this. So believers work to have their hearts crucified to the world and the world to their hearts, so that they do not have living affections for dying things. And if at times they have been tangled up with created things and lost their better joys, they cry out to Christ, "O restore to us the joys of your Spirit!" (Editor's note: this echoes David's prayer in Psalm 51:12, "Restore to me the joy of your salvation" (ESV), though Owen gives no reference.)
The second way is when, through darkness and unbelief, we will not receive the comforts he offers us, and which he is more than willing for us to have. I will say more about this later, when I speak of our communion with the Holy Spirit.
The third part of this faithfulness is to keep Christ's institutions, his worship in both matter and manner. He calls breaking this "adultery" and "whoredom" everywhere. He is a "jealous God" (Exodus 34:14, ESV), and he gives himself that title only in respect of his institutions. The church that leads the rest into false worship is called the mother of harlots. So believers who want communion with Jesus Christ keep their hearts faithful to him in his worship in two ways.
First, they will receive nothing, practise nothing, own nothing in his worship that he has not appointed. A shrewd old writer gave the sense of the second commandment well: what is forbidden is not an image as such, but the making of it. (Editor's note: Owen quotes the Latin, "Non imago, non simulachrum prohibetur; sed non facies tibi." The ESV's "You shall not make for yourself a carved image" (Exodus 20:4, ESV) is the verse he has in mind.) It is the inventing of ways of worship that he never appointed that is so strongly forbidden. Believers know what such will-worship gets: "in vain do they worship me, teaching as doctrines the commandments of men" (Matthew 15:9, ESV).
Let me say what is on my heart, and what, with the Lord's help, I will gladly try to prove against all comers. The principle that the church has power to appoint anything belonging to the worship of God, in matter or manner, beyond the orderly handling of those circumstances which go with the ordinances Christ himself instituted, lies at the bottom of all the superstition and idolatry, and all the blood, persecution and wars that have for so long spread across the Christian world. I have no doubt that God's long quarrel with this nation was over this. Against the light of the gospel that shone among us, the wills and fancies of men were forced on people in God's worship, under the names of order, decency and the authority of the church. (A fiction that nobody could define, whose power nobody could measure and whose owner nobody could name.) And all the talk of glory, beauty and uniformity was no more than what God describes in Israel in Ezekiel 16:25 and following.
Hence the Spirit in prayer was laughed at. Hence powerful preaching was despised, the Sabbath run down, and holiness hunted. And what was it all for? So that Jesus Christ might be put out of his sole right to make laws in his church. So that the true husband might be shoved aside and the adulterers of his bride welcomed. So that a showy, ceremonious worship, drawn from pagan, Jewish and antichristian customs, might come in. Of all which there is not one word, one little stroke, in the whole book of God.
So those who hold communion with Christ accept nothing in the worship of God, private or public, without his warrant. Unless it comes with "Thus says the Lord Jesus," they will not listen even to an angel from heaven (Galatians 1:8). The apostles themselves were to teach only "all that I have commanded you" (Matthew 28:20, ESV). We know how many thousands in this very nation left their homeland for a howling wilderness at the far end of the earth, to keep their souls undefiled and faithful to their Lord in this matter of his worship.
Second, they gladly take up and practise everything Christ has appointed. They search carefully to know his mind. They go to him for direction and beg him to lead them in a way they have not known. Psalm 119 is a pattern: "Lead me in the path of your commandments, for I delight in it" (Psalm 119:35, ESV). How the good, holy soul breathes after teaching in the ways and ordinances of God! They are tender in this. Whatever is of Christ, they gladly submit to and give themselves to practise constantly. Whatever comes from any other source, they refuse.
His generosity, and our duty. The fourth way Christ shows his love is by bounty, the rich provision he makes for us. "For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell" (Colossians 1:19, ESV), and the purpose is this: "from his fullness we have all received, grace upon grace" (John 1:16, ESV). I will not go through the details of that provision, the Spirit of life and grace we receive from him every day, the bread he gives us to the full. I only want you to see that Scripture says he does everything for us richly, with bounty. Whatever he gives us, his grace to help, his presence to comfort, he gives abundantly.
We have the general statement in Romans: "where sin increased, grace abounded all the more" (Romans 5:20, ESV). He is able to do "far more abundantly than all that we ask or think" (Ephesians 3:20, ESV). Is it pardon we receive? Then "he will abundantly pardon" (Isaiah 55:7, ESV). Is it the Spirit? He poured him out on us "richly through Jesus Christ our Savior" (Titus 3:6, ESV), so that rivers of living water flow out of those who receive him (John 7:38). Is it grace? We receive "the abundance of grace" (Romans 5:17, ESV), the grace "which he lavished upon us, in all wisdom and insight" (Ephesians 1:8, ESV). Hence the invitation in the Song of Songs: "Eat, friends, drink, and be drunk with love!" (Song of Solomon 5:1, ESV).
So if you are ever cramped, it is in yourself. Christ deals bountifully with us. The great sin of believers is that they do not use his bounty as they should, and do not every day take mercy from him in abundance. The oil never stops until the jars run out. The supply from Christ never fails except when our faith fails in receiving it.
Our answer is duty. Two things are needed here.
First, we follow after holiness, and practise it as obedience to Jesus Christ. Under that heading, all gospel obedience is called "all that I have commanded you" (Matthew 28:20, ESV), and he says, "You are my friends if you do what I command you" (John 15:14, ESV). We are to live to him who died for us: "he died for all, that those who live might no longer live for themselves but for him who for their sake died and was raised" (2 Corinthians 5:15, ESV). We live to him in all holy obedience, as our Lord and King.
I do not mean that Jesus Christ has a special law, by keeping which we are justified, as the Socinians imagine. The gospel asks no more than that we love the Lord our God with all our heart and soul, which the law asked too. My point is that the Lord Jesus has brought us into acceptance with God, so that our obedience pleases him, and we are to honour him as we honour the Father. As Paul says, he "gave himself for us to redeem us from all lawlessness and to purify for himself a people for his own possession who are zealous for good works" (Titus 2:14, ESV). Believers keep their eyes on Jesus Christ in four ways.
As the author of their faith and obedience. It is for his sake that it is "granted to you that for the sake of Christ you should not only believe in him but also suffer for his sake" (Philippians 1:29, ESV), and by his Spirit he works that obedience in us. So as we run the race of obedience we keep "looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith" (Hebrews 12:2, ESV). Faith here means both the grace of faith and its fruit in obedience.
As the one through whom their obedience is accepted. The saints know their duties are weak and cannot stand in God's presence. So they look to Christ as the one who bears the guilt of their holy things, adds incense to your prayers, and makes them acceptable.
As the one who has renewed God's commands to us, with powerful reasons for obedience. As Paul says, "the love of Christ controls us" (2 Corinthians 5:14, ESV), of which more later.
And as God, equal with his Father, to whom all honour and obedience are due (Revelation 5:13). I have opened these things elsewhere, in a treatise on the worship of Christ as Mediator. In all their obedience the saints have a special regard for their dear Lord Jesus. His love, his life and death for them, all his kindness, compels them to live for him.
Second, the saints work to abound in the fruits of holiness. He deals with us in a way of bounty, and gives to us abundantly, so he asks us to abound in thankful, obedient returns. So we are urged to be "always abounding in the work of the Lord" (1 Corinthians 15:58, ESV). This is what I mean: the saints are never satisfied with the measure they have reached. They are still pressing on, so as to be more dutiful and more fruitful toward Christ.
A last word. This is only a little glimpse of the communion we have with Christ. It comes from me, who have had the least experience of it of all the saints of God, and who have yet found in it something better than ten thousand worlds. I want to spend what is left of the few and evil days of my pilgrimage in chasing after it, in contemplating the excellence, the loveliness, the love and the grace of our dear Lord Jesus, and in making returns of obedience according to his will. And for my soul, in the middle of the troubles of this wretched world and the cursed rebellions of my own heart, this is the great relief: "the coming one will come and will not delay" (Hebrews 10:37, ESV). "The Spirit and the Bride say, 'Come.' And let the one who hears say, 'Come.'" (Revelation 22:17, ESV). "Amen. Come, Lord Jesus!" (Revelation 22:20, ESV).
Part Two, Chapter 6: Where Christ's Gifts Come From
Now I want to show you how we have communion with Christ in the grace he has bought for us. Paul states the aim in one verse:
"that I may know him and the power of his resurrection, and may share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death" (Philippians 3:10, ESV)
What I mean by purchased grace. By purchased grace I mean all the righteousness and grace that Christ has won for us. It includes everything he has done, everything he has suffered, and everything he still does as our Mediator. Two questions follow. What is this grace? And how do we have communion with Christ in it? In this chapter I will show you where the grace comes from. In the next I will show you what it is.
It has three sources in Christ. The first is the obedience of his life. The second is the suffering of his death. The third is his continual intercession. Everything he does as Mediator to bring grace to us fits under one of these. As for the grace itself, it comes down to three kinds. There is justification, or acceptance with God, which changes our standing. There is sanctification, or holiness before God, which changes us inwardly. And there is the grace of privilege, which mixes the two. I will come to that last one later.
Why we can speak of communion here at all. Look at how Scripture talks, and you will see it. Almost nothing Christ did to win this grace is something we are not said to have done with him. We are crucified with him (Galatians 2:20). "If we have died with him, we will also live with him" (2 Timothy 2:11, ESV). "For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God" (Colossians 3:3, ESV). We are buried with him (Romans 6:4). We are raised with him: "If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above" (Colossians 3:1, ESV). He "made us alive together with Christ ... and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus" (Ephesians 2:5–6, ESV).
How can this be said? You may well ask. Because of the agreement between the Father and Christ as Mediator. Christ acted in the place of those he came to save, so the fruit of what he did is as sure to them as if they had done it themselves. That is why they are said to have done it with him.
The first spring: the obedience of his life. I have two things to say about it. What is it? And what does it do for us?
One remark first. In the order of winning grace, his life comes before his death, so I take his life first. But in the order of applying grace to us, the benefits of his death reach us before the benefits of his life. You will see why when we come to our condition by nature.
By the obedience of Christ's life I mean this. As Mediator, he conformed himself completely to the whole will of God. He fulfilled every law of God and did everything God required in them. He could have been perfectly holy by keeping the law of creation, as the angels do. Nothing more could have been asked of him as a man walking with God. But he also put himself under every law that came in because of sin. He had no need to keep those laws on his own account. Yet it was fitting for him "to fulfill all righteousness" (Matthew 3:15, ESV). He said this about a ceremony newly introduced.
Scripture says plainly that Christ was obedient as Mediator. "Although he was a son, he learned obedience through what he suffered" (Hebrews 5:8, ESV). He was obedient in his sufferings too, and that is what gave life to his death: "he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross" (Philippians 2:8, ESV). He made his soul an offering (Isaiah 53:10), and he "poured out his soul to death" (Isaiah 53:12, ESV). He set himself apart to be the offering: "for their sake I consecrate myself" (John 17:19, ESV). Then he "offered himself without blemish to God" (Hebrews 9:14, ESV), "a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God" (Ephesians 5:2, ESV). (Editor's note: Owen's reference for the words "sanctified himself" reads John 17:10. The words are in verse 19, where the ESV has "consecrate myself.") He is called the Father's servant (Isaiah 42:1). And he came saying, "Behold, I have come to do your will, O God" (Hebrews 10:7, ESV). I do not need to prove more than this: in the work of mediation he obeyed God, and he did it willingly and gladly.
Two sides of that obedience. Look at it in two ways, and you will see the whole of it. There is the root it grew from, and there are the duties he actually performed.
The root. The habitual righteousness of Christ was the complete, exact conformity of his soul to the mind and law of God. He had it because of the union of his two natures. That is why the child born of the virgin was called "holy" (Luke 1:35, ESV). The Spirit produced it by his free working, as we see when Luke says Jesus "increased in wisdom and in stature and in favor with God and man" (Luke 2:52, ESV). Hebrews describes the high priest we needed: "holy, innocent, unstained, separated from sinners" (Hebrews 7:26, ESV). He had to be as far from sin and from sinners as it is possible to be. So he is the Lamb of God, a "lamb without blemish or spot" (1 Peter 1:19, ESV).
Think how far this holiness goes beyond the angels'. God "puts no trust" in his servants and "charges with error" his angels (Job 4:18, ESV). "The heavens are not pure in his sight" (Job 15:15, ESV). Yet he always keeps his Son in his arms and says of him, "This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased" (Matthew 3:17, ESV). Why? Because every other creature has the Spirit by measure. Christ has him without measure: "he gives the Spirit without measure" (John 3:34, ESV), because "in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell" (Colossians 1:19, ESV). His grace is not strictly infinite. But set beside any other creature's, it is like the sea beside a pond.
Here is the difference. Every other creature, however high, depends on a source outside itself. Christ's human nature stands in the person of the Son of God. The fountain of its holiness is as close to it as it could be.
The duties. His actual obedience was his willing, cheerful doing of everything God required by any law we were under. It included, besides, the law that belonged to him alone as Mediator. So it has two parts.
First, he did whatever was required of us by any law. He kept what the law of nature required of us in innocence. He kept what the positive and ceremonial laws added. He kept what the civil laws required. That is why he is "born under the law" (Galatians 4:4, ESV), subject to all its commands. I will not list the duties one by one. It is enough to say that "He committed no sin, neither was deceit found in his mouth" (1 Peter 2:22, ESV), and that he fulfilled all righteousness. So the Father was always well pleased with him.
Second, there was a law that belonged to the Mediator as Mediator. It covered the acts that are not for us to imitate. His obedience in dying belongs here: "I have authority to lay it down, and I have authority to take it up again. This charge I have received from my Father" (John 10:18, ESV). (Editor's note: Owen's wording is "commandment," and his phrase "the law of the Mediator" leans on it. The ESV's "charge" carries the same weight.)
So the one who is Mediator did some things purely as a man under the law of God. He prayed for the men who put him to death: "Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do" (Luke 23:34, ESV). And he did other things as Mediator. He prayed for his chosen people only: "I am not praying for the world but for those whom you have given me" (John 17:9, ESV). Some of those who crucified him were as bad as anyone alive. Yet as a man under the law he forgave them. When he prayed as Mediator, the Father always heard him: "Father, I thank you that you have heard me" (John 11:41, ESV).
What the obedience does for us. That is what the obedience of Christ's life is. The second question is what it does for our acceptance with God.
His holiness. There are two things to say. First, we needed a Mediator who was God and man in one person. He had to be holy. Second, the only bearing his holiness has on our grace is that it made him fit to do all he had to do for us. That is the point of Hebrews 7:26: "it was indeed fitting that we should have such a high priest" (Hebrews 7:26, ESV). There are two reasons. Without inward grace he could never have fulfilled the righteousness required of him. He himself lays down the presence of the Spirit as the foundation of his work (Isaiah 61:1). And without it he could not have been a perfect sacrifice, answering the types, which had to be without blemish.
Notice what follows. Even if he had never obeyed the law actively, his inward holiness alone would have made him a fit offering. Suppose he had died as soon after his incarnation as Adam sinned after his creation. He would still have been fit to be a sacrifice. So the long obedience that followed must have another reason.
The law of the Mediator. This obedience, so far as it does not coincide with what people call his passive obedience (I know that expression is not accurate), was needed to discharge his office. It is not counted to us as though we had done it. Its fruits are counted to us. It is more like his intercession, by which he provides the good things we need. I will say more about that later.
His active obedience, the doing of all that was required of us. Here there is some dispute, and there are three views.
The first says this obedience has no influence on our justification beyond preparing for his death. His blood-shedding is the only cause, and all the righteousness counted to us comes from that.
The second says we can look at it in two ways. As pure obedience, it does nothing more. But as completed in suffering, and joined with it as part of his humiliation, it is counted to us.
The third says this obedience, done for us, is graciously reckoned to us by God, and on the strength of it we are accepted as righteous before him.
I do not want to handle this as a controversy. I want to give you an understanding you can quickly turn into godly practice and comfort. So here are some observations.
First, the obedience Christ gave to the law in general was not only to the special law of the Mediator, though he gave it as Mediator. He was made flesh as Mediator (Hebrews 2:14, Galatians 4:4), and everything he did afterward he did as our Mediator. "As Mediator" can be taken strictly, as pointing only to the law of the Mediator. But in the sense I am using, whatever Christ did as a man under any law, he did as Mediator, because he did it as part of the duty of the one who had undertaken the office.
Second, whatever Christ did as Mediator, he did for those whose Mediator he was, in their place. The Holy Spirit says so:
"For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do. By sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh, in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us" (Romans 8:3–4, ESV)
We could not come to God, weakened as we were by sin. So God sent Christ to do and suffer whatever the law required of us, so that we might not be condemned but accepted. The law required duties of obedience, and Christ performed them for us. Add the words of Galatians 4:4, that he was sent "born under the law," bound to give all the obedience it requires. Together these two verses take in everything Christ did or suffered, and the Spirit tells us it was all for us.
Third, his active obedience cannot have been meant only to make him fit for death. By the union of his two natures and his inward grace he already answered all the types and was fit to be offered for sin. So if his obedience is not counted to us, there is no good reason why he should have lived so long in perfect obedience to all of God's laws. If he had died earlier, there would have been perfect innocence, perfect holiness, and an infinite worth from the dignity of his person. He did not give that long course of obedience without a great purpose for our salvation.
Fourth, if his obedience had not been for us, he could have been required to obey only the law of nature, the one law a man can be liable to. An innocent man under a covenant of works needs no other law. Yet even to that law his subjection was voluntary. As Mediator, God and man, he was in a way lifted above it by the union of his natures. By "voluntary" I do not mean a matter of whim. Once he had undertaken to be Mediator, it was necessary. I mean he willingly submitted to its commands. And beyond that, he kept all the laws that came upon us because of sin. The ceremonial law is one. So are the very institutions that signified the washing away of sin and repentance from it, like the baptism of John, which he had no need of himself. All this must have been for us.
Fifth, his obedience cannot be counted among his sufferings. It is clearly distinct from them. Doing is one thing and suffering is another.
What we have learned. First, you can see what the obedience of Christ's life is. It is his willing submission to every law of God that any of his people were bound by, and his perfect keeping of it. Almost every act of his obedience, from the blood of his circumcision to the blood of his cross, was accompanied by suffering. In that way his whole life could be called a death. But looking at his willingness and obedience in it, we call it his active righteousness. By it he not only committed no sin, but fulfilled all righteousness.
Second, he did this not for himself but for us, in our place. While he lived in the flesh he had to be perfectly holy. But the chief purpose of his holiness was no less for us than his death was. The apostle tells us: "God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law" (Galatians 4:4–5, ESV). (Editor's note: the ESV reads "born of woman, born under the law." Owen's King James text has "made of a woman, made under the law," and his argument uses the word "made," as describing what Christ was put into. The sense is the same.) Do not miss what Paul is doing. By joining "born of woman" and "born under the law," he does not tie Christ's birth to his death and leave out the obedience of his life. And Christ was put under the law in the same way as the people he came to redeem. We were under the law not only as answerable to its penalties, but as bound to all its duties. Paul tells us so: "Tell me, you who desire to be under the law, do you not listen to the law?" (Galatians 4:21, ESV). The people he is speaking to did not want to be under the penalty. They wanted to be under the law as an obligation to obey. Take away the end, and you destroy the means. If Christ was not put under the law for himself, then he did not obey for himself. It was all for us.
Third, this perfect obedience is counted to us. Let me show you why it has to be.
There is a truth in "in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die" (Genesis 2:17, ESV). Death is the reward of sin, so we cannot be freed from death except by the death of Christ. But there is a truth in "do this, and you will live" (Luke 10:28, ESV) as well. Life cannot be had unless all that the law requires is done. That is still true: "If you would enter life, keep the commandments" (Matthew 19:17, ESV). Then the commandments must be kept either by us or by our surety.
You may hear someone object that if Christ obeyed the law for us, we are no longer bound to obey, since by his death we are freed from the penalty. Let me ask you a question. How did Christ undergo death? Only as a penalty. So how are we delivered from death? Only as a penalty. We still die. We die as the last battle with the effects of sin, as the road to our Father. Now Christ obeyed the law perfectly, but how? Purely as the law stood in that conditional form, do this, and live. He did it in the strength of the grace he had received. He did it as a means of life, as the terms of a covenant. Are we freed from this obedience? Yes. But how far? We are freed from doing it in our own strength, and from doing it to earn everlasting life. People are wrong to say we must still work for life. That is to say we are still under the old covenant of do this and live. We are not freed from obedience as a way of walking with God. We are freed from it as a way of working our way to him. I will have more to say on this later.
Now for the proof. "So by the one man's obedience the many will be made righteous" (Romans 5:19, ESV). It is by his obedience to the law that we are made righteous. It is false to say that only the passive obedience of Christ is meant here. For one thing, it is set against the disobedience of Adam, and Adam's was active. The fault was an active breaking of the law, so the obedience set against it must be an active keeping of the law. For another thing, Christ said, "I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them" (Matthew 5:17, ESV). That was the purpose of his coming, and it was for us. He came as a child born to us (Isaiah 9:6, Luke 2:11). And strictly speaking, there is no such thing as passive obedience. To obey is to do, and suffering does not belong to doing. People use the name when others obey to the point of suffering, but it is not accurate. (Editor's note: Owen cites Romans 5:18–19 together. The ESV of 5:18 reads "so one act of righteousness leads to justification and life for all men" (Romans 5:18, ESV), and I note that an act is a doing.)
Philippians 3:9 says the same: "and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith" (Philippians 3:9, ESV). The righteousness we receive stands against our own obedience to the law. It is not a different kind of thing. It is the same kind of thing, and it shuts our obedience out from the end that Christ's obedience reaches. He himself is made our righteousness: "whom God made our wisdom and our righteousness and sanctification and redemption" (1 Corinthians 1:30, ESV). (Editor's note: where the ESV has "faith in Christ" in Philippians 3:9, Owen's King James text has "the faith of Christ." His argument, which is that this righteousness stands against our own obedience to the law, does not turn on the difference.)
Look also at Romans 5:10: "if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life" (Romans 5:10, ESV). His death brings reconciliation. That kills the enmity and puts us back in peace and friendship, where Adam was before his fall. But is nothing more to be done? Even though no wrath was due to Adam, he still had to obey if he was to enjoy eternal life. So something more has to be done for us too. Reconciled by his death, we are saved by the perfect obedience of his life.
Scripture speaks separately of reconciliation, by the non-counting of sin (Psalm 32:1, Luke 1:77, Romans 3:25, 2 Corinthians 5:19), and of justification, by the counting of righteousness (Jeremiah 23:6, Romans 4:5, 1 Corinthians 1:30). They are not the same thing. But each is spoken of in the other's terms, which shows how closely they belong together. And this second we have by the life of Christ.
The picture in Zechariah. All this is shown in Zechariah 3. Two things belong to our free acceptance there. The first is the taking away of the guilt of our sin, our filthy clothes: "Remove the filthy garments from him. ... Behold, I have taken your iniquity away from you" (Zechariah 3:4, ESV). That is done by the death of Christ. But more is needed, and that is the giving of righteousness, which gives us a right to eternal life: "I will clothe you with pure vestments" (Zechariah 3:4, ESV). Isaiah says the same thing in other words: "he has clothed me with the garments of salvation; he has covered me with the robe of righteousness" (Isaiah 61:10, ESV). This is made ours only by the obedience of Christ, as the other is by his death.
An objection. "But if that is so, then we are as righteous as Christ himself, since we are righteous with his righteousness."
The answer. First, his righteousness is in Christ and is properly his own. It is only counted to us, or freely given to us. We are made righteous with what is not ours. Second, Christ was not righteous with that righteousness for himself, but for us. So there is no comparison to be made. We are righteous with the righteousness he worked for us, and completely righteous with it.
So this is the first spring of purchased grace, the obedience of Christ. The guilt of sin, and our liability to punishment because of it, is taken away by his death, as I will show. But besides the taking away of sin, we need a complete righteousness on which we can be accepted with God. Through the free grace of God, the obedience of Christ is counted to us for that purpose.
One teaching I have no acquaintance with in my communion with the Lord Jesus. It says that only the passive righteousness of Christ is counted to us, in the non-counting of sin, and that on the condition of our faith and new obedience, so lifting them into the place of the righteousness of Christ. What can be argued on one side or the other must be considered elsewhere.
The second spring: his death. He lived for us and he died for us. He was ours in all he did and in all he suffered. I will be brief here, because I have written about it at length on another occasion.
In Scripture the death of Christ is set before us in three ways. It is a price, and its effect is redemption. It is a sacrifice, and its effect is reconciliation, or atonement. It is a penalty, and its effect is satisfaction. These are the chief parts of the grace in which we first have communion with Christ.
A price. "You were bought with a price" (1 Corinthians 6:20, ESV). We were ransomed "not with perishable things such as silver or gold, but with the precious blood of Christ" (1 Peter 1:18–19, ESV). He "came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many" (Matthew 20:28, ESV). Redemption is the setting free of a prisoner by a price paid to the one who holds him. Can you see the parts of that? Look at them.
It is a deliverance. Christ is "the Deliverer" (Romans 11:26, ESV). He gave himself "to deliver us from the present evil age" (Galatians 1:4, ESV). He is "Jesus who delivers us from the wrath to come" (1 Thessalonians 1:10, ESV).
It is a deliverance from slavery. Without him we are all prisoners. Isaiah speaks of those bound in prison, of those who sit in darkness in the prison house, and of prisoners in a pit with no water (Isaiah 61:1, 42:7, 49:9, Zechariah 9:11). Hebrews speaks of those "subject to lifelong slavery" through fear of death (Hebrews 2:15, ESV).
The one who has put us in prison is God himself. We owe him our debts (Matthew 6:12, 18:23–27). Our offences are against him (Psalm 51:4). He is the judge and lawgiver (James 4:12). He can cast both body and soul into hell (Matthew 10:28). Without him we lie under his wrath (John 3:36), by the sentence of the law, which is our prison.
The miseries of that condition are beyond counting. Slavery to Satan, to sin and to the world sums them up, and from all of them we are delivered by the death of Christ. "He has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins" (Colossians 1:13–14, ESV). He gave himself "for us to redeem us from all lawlessness and to purify for himself a people for his own possession who are zealous for good works" (Titus 2:14, ESV). So he delivers us from the guilt of our sin, and also from its power.
And all this is by a price paid into the hand of God, by whose authority we were held captive under the sentence of the law. The debt is owed to the great householder (Matthew 18:23–24). The penalty is his curse and wrath. Revelation puts it this way: "To him who loves us and has freed us from our sins by his blood" (Revelation 1:5, ESV).
The Holy Spirit returns to this again and again. We are "justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith" (Romans 3:24–25, ESV). See also 1 Timothy 2:6, Ephesians 1:7 and Galatians 3:13. That is the first way to think of his death.
A sacrifice. He had a body prepared for him: "a body have you prepared for me" (Hebrews 10:5, ESV). In it he was to do what the offerings of the law pictured. He offered that body: "we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all" (Hebrews 10:10, ESV). That means his whole human nature, for his soul too was made an offering (Isaiah 53:10). He gave himself to God as "a fragrant offering and sacrifice" (Ephesians 5:2, ESV). He did it willingly, since the law of this obedience was written in his heart: "your law is within my heart" (Psalm 40:8, ESV).
The purpose of a bloody sacrifice for sin was atonement and reconciliation. And that is what Christ's death does. Sin had broken the friendship between God and us (Isaiah 63:10). His wrath was on us (John 3:36), for we "were by nature children of wrath" (Ephesians 2:3, ESV). The death of Christ takes it away (Daniel 9:24). "While we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son" (Romans 5:10, ESV), and through him "we have now received reconciliation" (Romans 5:11, ESV). (Editor's note: Owen's King James text says "we have now received the atonement" in this verse, which is why he speaks of receiving atonement. In the ESV the word is "reconciliation," and I have used both words for the one thing.) "In Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them" (2 Corinthians 5:19, ESV). That is the second way to think of his death, and I only name it, having dealt with it at length elsewhere.
A penalty. It was also a punishment, in our place. "He was wounded for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace" (Isaiah 53:5, ESV). "The LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all" (Isaiah 53:6, ESV). I take that to mean the punishment of our iniquities, all brought together on him. "He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree" (1 Peter 2:24, ESV), and in that he who "knew no sin" was made "to be sin" for our sake (2 Corinthians 5:21, ESV).
Bearing a punishment aims straight at satisfying the one who was offended. Justice asks no more than a punishment that fits the offence. That is what was laid on our Lord Jesus, when he willingly took our place. The righteous Judge allowed him to stand there, and so satisfaction to the Judge follows.
That is the threefold way of seeing his death. You will see as we go on that the largest part of purchased grace is simply the natural outflow of these three effects. This is the second source to keep your eye on, if you want communion with Christ in it: his death, as a price, an offering and a punishment.
The third spring: his intercession. But that is not all. The Lord Christ does not leave us there. He follows the work through to the end. He was delivered up for our sins and raised for our justification (Romans 4:25). He rose to carry on the work of purchased grace by his intercession. So he is "able to save to the uttermost those who draw near to God through him, since he always lives to make intercession for them" (Hebrews 7:25, ESV).
His intercession bears on purchased grace in two ways.
First, it carries on his offering, to bring out all its fruits for us. This is his appearing "in the presence of God on our behalf" (Hebrews 9:24, ESV). Think of the high priest. When he had offered the great sacrifice, he carried its blood into the most holy place, where God's presence was shown, and so completed the atonement. In the same way the Lord Christ offered himself to God. Sprinkled with his own blood, he appears in God's presence, as if to remind him of the promise made to him: that sinners would be redeemed by his blood, and the good things it won would be made out to them. By this appearing he puts in his claim for us.
Second, he obtains the Holy Spirit for us, to give us all this purchased grace with effect. We have his promise that he would do this: "And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Helper, to be with you forever" (John 14:16, ESV).
That is purchased grace seen from its source. I will say no more for now, because I must deal with it at length in the communion we have with the Holy Spirit.
Part Two, Chapter 7: What the Purchased Grace Is
You have seen where purchased grace comes from. Now look at the grace itself. As I said, it comes under three heads: acceptance with God, sanctification from God, and privileges with and before God.
First: acceptance with God. Outside Christ we stand estranged from God. He accepts neither our person nor our services. Sin makes a separation between us and him. The first result of purchased grace is to bring us back into a state of acceptance. This is done in two ways. First, by taking away what we were refused for, the cause of the quarrel. Second, by giving us what we are accepted for.
It was not enough for the cause of quarrel to go, so that we were no longer under his displeasure. We also had to be given what makes us the object of God's delight. The lack of that was what put us at a distance from him.
Taking away what we were refused for. That is sin, in its guilt and everything that goes with it. The first result of purchased grace is to take away the guilt of sin, so that it will not hand our soul over to its wages, which is death.
I showed at the end of the last chapter how Christ does this. It is the fruit of his death for us. The guilt of sin was the only cause of our separation from God. It made us liable to wrath and punishment and to the whole of God's displeasure. Because of it we were imprisoned under the curse of the law and given up to the power of Satan. By his death Christ bore the curse, underwent the punishment due to us, and paid the ransom owed for us. So he delivered us from this condition. So far, his death is the only cause of our acceptance: it takes away every ground of quarrel. For this purpose his sufferings are counted to us. He was made to be sin for us (2 Corinthians 5:21), and he is made our righteousness (1 Corinthians 1:30).
But this will not complete our acceptance. The old quarrel may be laid aside, and still no new friendship may have begun. We may no longer be guilty, and yet not righteous enough to have a right to the kingdom of heaven. Adam did not have a right to life because he was innocent. He had to "do this," and then he would "live." It was not enough to be guilty of nothing. He had to have a positive righteousness too, and do everything required.
Giving us what we are accepted for. So a second thing is needed. We need not only the non-counting of sin, but the counting of righteousness. And we have this in the obedience of Christ's life, which I showed in the last chapter. His obedience was for us. It is counted to us, and it is our righteousness before God. "By the one man's obedience the many will be made righteous" (Romans 5:19, ESV). On what footing the obedience of faith has its place, I will explain later.
These two things complete the grace of acceptance. Sin is taken away and righteousness is given, and so we have peace with God. We are continually accepted before him. Nothing is left to charge us with. What stood against us has been taken out of the way by Christ: "canceling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands. This he set aside, nailing it to the cross" (Colossians 2:14, ESV). It is publicly and legally cancelled, so that it can never be allowed as evidence again. Think of it. What court among men would admit evidence that you had watched being cancelled and nailed up for all to see? That is how Christ has dealt with what was against us. And he does more. He puts on us what we are received into favour for. He makes us beautiful with his beauty. He gives us white clothes to stand before the Lord in.
This is the first part of the grace in which we have communion with Jesus Christ. It consists in the forgiveness of sin and the counting of righteousness. It comes from his death as a price, a sacrifice and a punishment, and from his life of obedience to the law. It is the great product of the Father's righteousness, wisdom, love and grace. It is the astonishing fruit of the Son's love and lowliness. And it is the great disclosure the Holy Spirit makes in revealing the mystery of the gospel.
Second: sanctification. Christ makes we not only accepted but acceptable. He does not only win love for us. He makes us lovely. He did not come by blood alone but by water as well, "by water and blood" (1 John 5:6, ESV). (Editor's note: the ESV puts the emphasis the other way, "not by the water only but by the water and the blood." Owen's point is that both are needed.) He does not only justify us from the guilt of sin. He sanctifies us and washes us from its filth. The first comes from his life and death as a sacrifice of atonement. This second comes from his death as a purchase, and his life as an example. The apostle shows this in Hebrews 9:14 and Ephesians 5:26–27: "that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, so that he might present the church to himself in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish" (Ephesians 5:26–27, ESV).
Two things stand out. First, the removal of defilement. Second, the giving of cleanness in actual grace.
The removal of defilement. This has three parts.
First, the cleansing of our nature. We are unclean by nature. "Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean? There is not one" (Job 14:4, ESV). "That which is born of the flesh is flesh" (John 3:6, ESV). We were born in the pollution of our own blood, as Ezekiel 16 pictures it. The grace of sanctification, bought by the blood of Christ, removes this defilement of our nature. "And such were some of you. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God" (1 Corinthians 6:11, ESV). So Paul says in Titus: "he saved us ... by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit" (Titus 3:5, ESV). How far this original pollution is removed is not for me to argue here. It is certain that our soul is made fair and beautiful in God's sight. The sin that defiles still remains, but its habitual defilement is taken away.
Second, the taking away of the pollution of all our actual sins. A defilement goes with every sin. Job says "my own clothes will abhor me" (Job 9:31, ESV). A spot, a stain, rust, a wrinkle, filth and blood go with every sin. But "the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin" (1 John 1:7, ESV). "By a single offering he has perfected for all time those who are being sanctified" (Hebrews 10:14, ESV). "After making purification for sins" (Hebrews 1:3, ESV), he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high.
Third, there is defilement in our best duties: "all our righteous deeds are like a polluted garment" (Isaiah 64:6, ESV). Self, unbelief and formality drop themselves into everything we do. We may be ashamed of our best performances. God has promised that his people's good works shall follow them. But if they were weighed in the balances of the sanctuary as they come from us, it might be well for us that they were buried for ever. The Lord Christ, first, as our high priest, bears the iniquity and guilt that in strict justice go with them (Exodus 28:38). (Editor's note: the ESV of Exodus 28:38 reads "Aaron shall bear any guilt from the holy things that the people of Israel consecrate as their holy gifts." That is Owen's picture of the priest bearing the guilt of the people's offerings.) And he does more. He washes away all their filth. He is like the refiner's fire, to purge both the sons of Levi and their offerings (Malachi 3:2–3), and he adds sweet incense to them, so that they are accepted. Whatever is of the Spirit and of grace remains. Whatever is of self, flesh and unbelief, the hay and stubble, he burns up. So our good works will meet us one day with a changed face, so that we will hardly know them. What seemed black and defiled to us will look beautiful and glorious. We will not be afraid of them. We will be glad to see them and to follow them.
All this cleansing, of our nature, our person and our duties, rests wholly on the death of Christ. That is why our washing and purifying is ascribed to his blood and to its sprinkling. It is done by the shedding of his blood as the deserving cause, and by its sprinkling as the working cause. The sprinkling comes from the giving of the Holy Spirit, whom he promises us as something bought by him for us. The Spirit is the pure water with which we are sprinkled from all our sins, that "spirit of judgment" and "spirit of burning" which washes away "the filth of the daughters of Zion" and cleanses "the bloodstains" (Isaiah 4:4, ESV). That is the first thing in the grace of sanctification, and I will say more about it later.
The giving of cleanness in actual grace. The blood of Christ does not only take away defilement. It also gives purity, and in three steps.
First, it gives the Spirit of holiness to live in us. Christ is made our sanctification (1 Corinthians 1:30) by winning for us the Spirit of sanctification. Our renewal is of the Holy Spirit, "whom he poured out on us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior" (Titus 3:6, ESV). This is what Paul chiefly insists on in Romans 8. The first and chief gift of sanctification is the Spirit's dwelling in us, and our following his guidance. But what belongs to the Spirit must wait for what I have to say about our communion with him.
Second, he gives us habitual grace, a principle of grace set against the principle of lust that is in us by nature. This grace lives in us and makes its home with us. It has different names according to the faculties of the soul it is in, but it is all one new principle of life. In the understanding it is light. In the will it is obedience. In the affections it is love. In all of them it is faith. It differs also with its operations. When it carries our soul to rest on Christ, it is faith. When it carries our soul to delight in him, it is love. But it is one and the same habit of grace.
Third, he gives us actual influence for the doing of every spiritual duty. Even when we have both of the former, Christ tells us, "apart from me you can do nothing" (John 15:5, ESV). We still depend on him for new supplies of the Spirit. We cannot live and spend on the old stock. For every new act we must have new grace. "It is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure" (Philippians 2:13, ESV). These three make up the purchased grace of sanctification, in which we have communion with Christ.
Third: privileges. This purchased grace also consists in privileges, which let we stand before God. They are of two kinds. The primary one is adoption, the Spirit of adoption. The consequent ones are all the favours of the gospel to which only his people have a right. I will speak of these when I come to the communion we have with the Holy Spirit.
Where it ends. Here is where it all leads. These are the things in which we have communion with Christ in purchased grace in this life. Drive them up to perfection and you have what we call everlasting glory. Perfect acceptance, perfect holiness, perfect adoption or inheritance of sons: that is glory.
What comes next. Our task now is what I mainly intend, the manner in which we have communion with Christ in these things. First, how we have communion with him in the obedience of his life and the merit of his death, as to acceptance with God the Father. Second, how we have communion with him in his blood, as to the Spirit of sanctification, the habits and acts of grace. Third, how we have communion with him as to the privileges we enjoy. These are the subjects of the chapters that follow.
Part Two, Chapter 8: Communion with Christ in Our Acceptance with God
The first thing to look at is our fellowship with Christ in the grace he bought for us, and the first part of that grace is our acceptance with God. It comes from the obedience of his life and the power of his death. Any fellowship has two sides. Christ must act and we must act. He gives and we receive. So I want to show what he does on his side, and then what we do on ours.
What Christ does. Only two things are needed from him. What he did, he did for us and not for himself. And what he suffered, he suffered for us and not for himself. From eternity he meant every act and every pain to serve our acceptance with God, and he still uses them for that end, and for no other. Scripture is plain on both.
He lived for us. "But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons." (Galatians 4:4–5, ESV) Why was he put under the law? He had no need of it. He was put there to redeem us, and all his obedience aimed at that. He says so himself: "And for their sake I consecrate myself, that they also may be sanctified in truth." (John 17:19, ESV) He did not come to do his own will. He came to seek and save the lost, to serve, and to give his life as a ransom. And he had us in mind long before he came. From eternity he thought of what he would do for his people, and he delighted in it. In the world, every step carried the same thought: this is for them, and this is for them, my beloved.
You can see it at his baptism. John said, "I need to be baptized by you, and do you come to me?" (Matthew 3:14, ESV) You have no need of this at all. But Christ answered, "Let it be so now, for thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness." (Matthew 3:15, ESV) He was saying, I do it for those who have no righteousness of their own and owe everything.
He suffered for us. This is even clearer. The prophet says the Messiah would be cut off, but not for himself (Daniel 9:26). (Editor's note: Owen quotes the King James Version here, "but not for himself." The ESV reads "an anointed one shall be cut off and shall have nothing." Both are ways of translating a hard phrase, so I give Owen's sense without quoting the verse. The point does not rest on it, as the verses that follow show.) The letter to the Hebrews makes this the main difference between Christ and the Jewish high priests. They offered first for their own sins and then for the people's. Jesus offered only for others, because he had no sin of his own. He tasted death "for everyone" (Hebrews 2:9, ESV). He came "to give his life as a ransom for many" (Matthew 20:28, ESV). "The LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all." (Isaiah 53:6, ESV) "He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree." (1 Peter 2:24, ESV) Nobody argues about this. In his suffering and his offering, Christ had in mind only the good of his chosen people and their acceptance with God. "For Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God." (1 Peter 3:18, ESV)
What else Christ does. That is not the end of his part. If we are to share in this righteousness, two more things must be added to what he has done.
The first is the gospel's offer of it, and the offer comes in two forms. One is the open declaration in the conditional promises: "Whoever believes ... will be saved" (Mark 16:16, ESV), and "Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest" (Matthew 11:28, ESV), and "Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes" (Romans 10:4, ESV). These offers are precious, and there is real kindness in them. If they are refused, they become a smell of death to those who refuse them (2 Corinthians 2:16). But Christ knows that the outward word, however clearly held out, will not make any of his people able to take hold of his righteousness. The other form is that the gospel lays down a rule: whoever receives it will be accepted. But Christ knows the state his people are in. That will not do by itself. If he does not clothe them with it himself, all is lost.
So the second thing is that he sends his Holy Spirit. "It is the Spirit who gives life." (John 6:63, ESV) "Truly, truly, I say to you, an hour is coming, and is now here, when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God, and those who hear will live." (John 5:25, ESV) The Spirit works in us whatever is needed to make us share in his righteousness and be accepted with God.
That is how Christ deals with his own. He lives and dies meaning to work out a righteousness for them. Then he offers it, shows them how precious it is, and stirs them to want it. Then he gives it to them effectively and counts it as theirs, so that they are fully accepted by his Father.
What acceptance needs. Two things are needed.
First, satisfaction must be made for our disobedience. What we did to wrong the justice and honour of God must be answered, and God must be reconciled to us. That could only happen if someone took the penalty of the law, and I have shown at length that Christ did. "For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin." (2 Corinthians 5:21, ESV) "Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us." (Galatians 3:13, ESV) That is why believers are acquitted of the guilt of sin, the sentence of the law and the wrath of God. "Who is to condemn? Christ Jesus is the one who died." (Romans 8:34, ESV)
Second, the righteousness of the law must be fulfilled. That is done by the life of Christ: "so one act of righteousness leads to justification and life for all men. For as by the one man's disobedience the many were made sinners, so by the one man's obedience the many will be made righteous." (Romans 5:18–19, ESV) The two halves match. We are released from the guilt of sin by his death, because our sins were counted as his and so are not counted as ours (2 Corinthians 5:21; Isaiah 53:12). And we are counted righteous by his life, because his obedience is counted as ours. Cleared by his death and clothed by his obedience, we have friendship and peace with God. This is what I call the grace of acceptance, and it is where we have fellowship with Jesus Christ.
What is left is to show how believers hold a distinct fellowship with Christ in this grace, and how they keep a sense of it alive. Its comfort has to be renewed every day. Without it life is hell, and no peace or joy can come to us except from here. Our peace, comfort, joy and even our holiness will be exactly as large as our settled assurance that God accepts us.
Two objections. First I must clear two objections out of the way. One is aimed at the first half of our acceptance, release by Christ's death. The other is aimed at the second half, righteousness by his life.
The first: "If the elect are released and reconciled by Christ's death, why were they not all released the moment he died, or at least when they were born? Why do so many live for years under the wrath of God as unbelievers? 'Whoever does not obey the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God remains on him.' (John 3:36, ESV) Why are they not set free the moment the price is paid?"
The second: "If the obedience of Christ's life is counted as ours, why should we obey? Is all our praying, labouring, fasting and giving a waste? Who will care about being holy, humble, meek, patient, or full of good works?"
I will answer both briefly.
The answer to the first. In taking on the work of reconciliation, Christ stood as a common and public person, in the place of those he was reconciling. That is why he is "one mediator between God and men" (1 Timothy 2:5, ESV), one who undertook to God on their behalf, as the next verse shows: "who gave himself as a ransom for all" (1 Timothy 2:6, ESV). He is "the guarantor of a better covenant" (Hebrews 7:22, ESV). The older word was "surety," one who undertakes for those the covenant is made with. He is the last Adam, who stands to his spiritual seed, for every purpose of righteousness, as the first Adam stood to his natural seed for sin (1 Corinthians 15:45; Romans 5:15–19).
Think of those he undertook for, and see ten things in order.
One. He became a common person through the covenant he made with his Father. The terms are in Isaiah 53 and summed up in Psalm 40 and Hebrews 10. "Then I said, 'Behold, I have come to do your will, O God.'" (Hebrews 10:7, ESV) That is why the Father is called his God, a covenant expression, and why the Father marked him out for the work. "The counsel of peace shall be between them both" (Zechariah 6:13, ESV), between Father and Son. And the Son rejoiced from eternity in the thought of this undertaking (Proverbs 8:22–30). I have handled the command given him, the promises made to him and the help afforded him elsewhere.
Two. The Father, by his own sovereign gift, gave the elect to Christ in this covenant to be redeemed. "Yours they were, and you gave them to me." (John 17:6, ESV) They were God's by eternal choice, and he gave them to Christ. That is why, before they were called or believed, Christ could call them his sheep and say "I lay down my life for the sheep" (John 10:15, ESV). That is why they are chosen "in him before the foundation of the world" (Ephesians 1:4, ESV).
Three. Christ undertook to suffer what was due from them and to do what they owed, and to hand them back to the Father without loss, as Jacob gave an account of the flock he took from Laban (Genesis 31:39–40; John 17:2, 12; John 6:37, 39). I have written about this elsewhere, where I handled the covenant between the Father and the Son.
Four. Since they were given to him, he received on their behalf all the promises of every mercy and grace they would ever receive for his sake. That is why eternal life is said to be promised "before the ages began" (Titus 1:2, ESV). It was promised to the Son for them. And grace is said to have been given to them "in Christ Jesus before the ages began" (2 Timothy 1:9, ESV), in Christ, their appointed head.
Five. Christ was their mediator, surety and representative. So once he had undertaken the work, he was acquitted as to its power and merit. When he finished it, he was acquitted openly. As to power and merit, he was absolved the moment he proved faithful in his first engagement, and that is how the saints of the Old Testament were saved by his blood as truly as we are. As to public declaration, he was absolved when the pains of death were loosed (Acts 2:24), when he was "declared to be the Son of God in power according to the Spirit of holiness by his resurrection from the dead" (Romans 1:4, ESV), and God said to him, "You are my Son; today I have begotten you" (Psalm 2:7, ESV). He is said to have been "vindicated" in 1 Timothy 3:16. (Editor's note: Owen's word there is "justified." The ESV renders the same Greek word "vindicated by the Spirit," which gives the same sense of Christ being declared in the right.)
What do I mean by this absolution? God put him under the law for those who were under it, in their place. He made him liable to the penalty. He made him sin (2 Corinthians 5:21). And when he had borne everything required of him (Isaiah 53:12), God loosed the pains of death, accepted him and was well pleased with the work. He declared him free of every obligation and promised him all the good his soul desired. On this are founded all God's promises to Christ and all the encouragement given him to ask for the things first promised him (Psalm 2:8). He did ask, and that is John 17. Here is the sure foundation of the absolution of his people. Christ acted for them as their surety, and he has been acquitted and publicly declared to have paid the whole debt. So a general pardon is sealed for all of them, to be sued out one by one in the way God has appointed.
Six. Since Christ as a public person was absolved, it became right with God that those in whose place he stood should receive all the fruits of his death (Romans 5:8–11). Christ received the acquittal for all of them, so that each should enjoy it in turn. This is shown everywhere in the places that speak of an exchange God planned: 2 Corinthians 5:21, Galatians 3:13, 1 Peter 2:21–24. I will return to those.
Seven. They were acquitted in the covenant of the Mediator. That is why they are said to have died with him, been buried with him, risen with him and been seated with him in heavenly places (Ephesians 2:6). And since it was only right that each be acquitted in his own person too, Father, Son and Holy Spirit decided that their actual deliverance would come by a way that leads to the praise of God's glorious grace. "He predestined us for adoption through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will, to the praise of his glorious grace, with which he has blessed us in the Beloved. In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace." (Ephesians 1:5–7, ESV) The plan is adoption. The means is Jesus Christ. The particular way is the redemption in his blood. The end is the praise of his glorious grace.
Eight. Until the time God has fixed for each one's actual deliverance comes, the elect are still under the curse of the law, and so liable to wrath, from which they will certainly be delivered. But the law is not now carried out on them with its original aim. It stands as a means appointed to bring them on toward knowing Christ. Once that is done, the whole obligation ends. It was only kept on them as part of a plan of love, because without it they could not be brought to share in Christ, to the praise of the glorious grace of God.
Nine. The purpose of the whole plan of grace is to glorify the whole Trinity. The order is that they rise to the Father's love through the work of the Spirit and the blood of the Son. Divine love begins with the Father, is carried on by the Son, and is delivered by the Spirit. The Father plans, the Son purchases and the Spirit works it in them. First, so that the Spirit is glorified, he is given to make them alive, turn them to God and work faith in them (Romans 8:11; Ephesians 1:19–20), according to all the promises of the covenant (Ezekiel 36:26). Second, for the glory of the Son, they are at the same moment brought into a real interest in his blood. The Spirit's work is itself a fruit of what Christ bought, but I am speaking of our sense of these things, and there the gift of the Spirit comes first. Third, for the glory of the Father, they are accepted, justified, pardoned, and have "peace with God" (Romans 5:1, ESV). "For through him we both have access in one Spirit to the Father." (Ephesians 2:18, ESV) So all three are glorified: the Father in his free love, the Son in his full purchase, and the Spirit in his powerful working.
Ten. All of this is as fully won for them, and as freely given, for Christ's sake, as if they had been carried into heaven the moment he died. The only reason for this way is that the whole Trinity may be glorified by it. That answers the first objection. Their reconciliation is fully won by Christ's death, but they are brought to enjoy it in this order, for the praise of the glory of his grace.
The answer to the second. If Christ's obedience is counted as ours, why obey? Let me answer in a few observations.
First, getting the place of our obedience right matters very much. It must not be lifted to a position God has not given it. And no reason or motive for it should be taken away or weakened. Some make our obedience the cause of justification. Some make it the condition of Christ's righteousness being counted to us. Others deny any need for obedience at all and turn the grace of God into a licence for sin. This is not the place to argue out those differences. I only say that setting obedience in its right place matters for our walk with God.
Second, we do not give Christ's obedience that is counted to us, and the obedience we pay to God, the same place. If we did, they could not both stand. That is why everyone who says our obedience is the cause of justification also denies that Christ's obedience is counted to us. His righteousness is counted to us as the ground on which we are accepted, and we are truly righteous, though not inwardly. We are as truly righteous with Christ's obedience counted to us as Adam was, or could have been, by a perfect righteousness of his own. "So by the one man's obedience the many will be made righteous" (Romans 5:19, ESV), just as by Adam's disobedience we were truly made sinners. This is what Paul longs to be found in: "not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ" (Philippians 3:9, ESV). But our own obedience is not the righteousness on which we are accepted, though it pleases God when we abound in it.
Paul states this so plainly that nothing could be clearer. "For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them." (Ephesians 2:8–10, ESV) We are saved, or justified, by grace through faith, and faith receives Christ and his obedience. It is not a result of works. Which works does Paul mean? The works of believers, for he goes on to say that we are his workmanship. And you might ask, "Then why do we need works?" We still need them, because we were created in Christ Jesus for good works.
Paul says two things here. First, he gives a reason why we cannot be saved by works: we do not do them in our own strength. We are God's workmanship, and all our works are worked in us by undeserved grace. Second, he asserts that good works are needed even though we are not saved by them. God has ordained that we walk in them. That alone is ground enough for obedience.
Why obedience is needed. You may ask what the true gospel grounds of obedience are, so that its necessity can be seen and your soul stirred to be fruitful. They are so many, and lie so deep in the mystery of the gospel, that to handle them properly would pull me from my main aim. I will give only the main heads.
First, obedience is necessary because God has appointed it, and Father, Son and Holy Spirit all will it. "For this is the will of God, your sanctification." (1 Thessalonians 4:3, ESV) If it is the will of God, it is our duty. The Father has appointed it: "we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them" (Ephesians 2:10, ESV). The Son has appointed it as mediator: "You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit and that your fruit should abide." (John 15:16, ESV) And the Holy Spirit appoints believers to obedience and to work holiness in others, as he set men apart for preaching in Acts 13:2. When men sin, they sin against him.
Second, our holiness is a chief aim of the work of Father, Son and Spirit in our salvation. It is the aim of the Father's electing love. "He chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him." (Ephesians 1:4, ESV) (Editor's note: Owen's text carries on, "in love," as the end of the sentence, as the older translations do. The ESV joins those two words to the next sentence, so I stop the quotation before them. What I quote says plainly what Owen needs: God chose us to be holy and without blame.) He will complete this in his people. "God chose you as the first fruits to be saved, through sanctification by the Spirit and belief in the truth." (2 Thessalonians 2:13, ESV) (Editor's note: Owen's text has "from the beginning" where the ESV has "as the firstfruits"; the ESV gives "from the beginning" in its footnote.) The Father offers his love as a reason for holiness (1 John 4:8–10).
It is the aim of the Son's love too. Christ "gave himself for us to redeem us from all lawlessness and to purify for himself a people for his own possession who are zealous for good works" (Titus 2:14, ESV). And again, "Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her, that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, so that he might present the church to himself in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish" (Ephesians 5:25–27, ESV). (Editor's note: the ESV text of Ephesians 5:25 begins with "Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church." I have cut it down to Paul's words about Christ, as Owen does.)
And it is the very work of the Holy Spirit. His whole work in us is to prepare us for obedience, make us able to obey and bring out its fruit, against any righteousness of our own (Titus 3:5; Galatians 5:22–23). So obedience stands on two foundations. God has appointed and required it, and it is a chief end of the separate work of the three persons in our salvation. If we own his lordship, if his love counts for anything with us, if the whole work of the Trinity for us matters at all, then our obedience is necessary.
Third, obedience is necessary because of its end, whether we look at God, ourselves or the world.
For God, the end is his glory. "A son honors his father, and a servant his master. If then I am a father, where is my honor?" (Malachi 1:6, ESV) All that we give him is in our obedience. It glorifies the Father: "let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven" (Matthew 5:16, ESV). It glorifies the Son. God wills "that all may honor the Son, just as they honor the Father" (John 5:23, ESV), and that is done by believing in him (John 14:1) and obeying him. It glorifies the Spirit too. He is grieved by our disobedience: "And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption." (Ephesians 4:30, ESV) He lives in us as in his temple, and a temple must not be defiled. If this is not enough to prove that we must obey, then I am talking to people who care nothing for the lordship, love or glory of God. Even if our obedience were all lost and never noticed, which cannot be, for God is not so unjust as to forget our labour of love, here is a solid reason to give him more obedience than we ever have. And I am speaking only of gospel grounds, not the natural and legal ones that bind all mankind.
For ourselves, the end is threefold: honour, peace and usefulness.
Honour. By holiness we are made like God, and his image is renewed in us. That was our honour at creation. We lost it by sin and became like the beasts that perish. Only holiness raises us again. "You shall be holy, for I am holy." (1 Peter 1:16, ESV) "You therefore must be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect." (Matthew 5:48, ESV) We "put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness" (Ephesians 4:24, ESV). I could easily show how this makes people precious in the sight of God, angels and men, and how God hates those who lack it.
Peace. By holiness we have fellowship with God, and peace is found only there. "But the wicked are like the tossing sea; for it cannot be quiet... 'There is no peace,' says my God, 'for the wicked.'" (Isaiah 57:20–21, ESV) There is no rest in distance from God. He is the rest of our souls. "But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another." (1 John 1:7, ESV) And as John says in verse 3, truly our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ. Without new obedience there is nothing but darkness and confusion.
Usefulness. A man without holiness is good for nothing. The prophet calls Israel an empty vine that brings forth fruit only for itself (Hosea 10:1), and what good is such a vine? (Editor's note: Owen quotes the King James Version here, "an empty vine, that bringeth forth fruit unto himself." The ESV reads "a luxuriant vine that yields its fruit," which puts the weight differently, so I give Owen's sense without printing it as a quotation.) Another prophet says you cannot make so much as a peg from its wood. "Is wood taken from it to make anything? Do people take a peg from it to hang any vessel on it?" (Ezekiel 15:3, ESV) A barren tree is good for nothing but the fire. Some men seem useful and serve God's providence in their generation, but the world and the church could do without them. Only the holy man is a common good.
For others, the ends are many. It helps to shut the mouths of God's enemies, now and later. Now: "having a good conscience, so that, when you are slandered, those who revile your good behavior in Christ may be put to shame." (1 Peter 3:16, ESV) The holiness of the saints convinces their slanderers and shames them as a thief is shamed when he is caught. Later: the saints will judge the world, and their good works will be brought out for all to see, and the righteousness of God's judgments will be proved by them. Christ will say, "See, these are the people I own, whom you so despised and hated. See their works following them." It also helps the conversion of others. "Keep your conduct among the Gentiles honorable, so that when they speak against you as evildoers, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day of visitation." (1 Peter 2:12, ESV) And it is for the good of all. It keeps back judgments, as ten good men would have saved Sodom: "For the sake of ten I will not destroy it" (Genesis 18:32, ESV). And it passes real good to those around us, who feed on the fruits of the Spirit we are always bringing forth.
Fourth, obedience is necessary because of our state as justified persons. We have been accepted into friendship with a holy God whose eyes are too pure to look on evil. Is it not necessary that those who walk in his sight, and lie in his bosom, be holy? And we have a new creature in us: "Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation." (2 Corinthians 5:17, ESV) That creature is fed and kept alive by the fruits of holiness. Why has God given us new hearts? To smother them? To stifle in the womb the creature he put in us? To hand it to the old man to be devoured?
Fifth, obedience is necessary because of the place of holiness in the new covenant. It is the means to the end. In its origin eternal life is God's gift through Jesus Christ. But since God has made our obedience the way of reaching it, he treats it as a reward, and in giving it he is a rewarder. Obedience is not the cause or condition of our justification, yet it is the way appointed for us to walk. "And everyone who thus hopes in him purifies himself as he is pure." (1 John 3:3, ESV) None will reach that end without "the holiness without which no one will see the Lord" (Hebrews 12:14, ESV). It is also a witness and pledge of our adoption, a sign of grace. And it is the whole way we show our thanks.
Not one of these reasons could be unfolded without a far longer discourse, and there are countless others I cannot name. Whoever, on these grounds, does not think holiness and obedience are needed, unless he also raises them into the place of Christ's righteousness, can stay as filthy as he is (Revelation 22:11).
What we do. I began this chapter by saying what Christ does for our fellowship in this grace of acceptance. Now I turn to what is asked of us. It comes to two things. We approve of his righteousness, and we make an exchange with him.
First, we approve of this righteousness. The saints agree with all their hearts that this righteousness alone is perfectly complete and able to make them acceptable before God. That involves six things.
One. They are convinced that they need a righteousness to stand in before God. Many people spend their days in stubbornness, adding drunkenness to thirst, and never once ask what will become of them in eternity. Others fritter away their souls, sowing the wind of empty hopes and preparing to reap a whirlwind of wrath. But at the bottom of every saint's fellowship with Christ is a deep, settled conviction that a righteousness is absolutely necessary. The holiness of God's nature, the strictness of his law and the terror of his wrath are always before them. They have been convinced of sin and have seen themselves ready to sink under what it deserves. They have cried out, as the crowd did at Pentecost, asking what they must do to be saved, and as the prophet Micah did, asking with what they could come before God (Micah 6:6–7). They have concluded that it is no use flattering themselves with hopes of escape as they are by nature. If God is too pure to look on evil, they must have a righteousness to stand before him.
Two. They weigh their own righteousness and find it short, and they do it in two ways.
On the whole, first. When people are convinced they need a righteousness, they grab at anything that is offered. They are like people about to go under, who snatch at what is next to them, and it turns out to be a rotten stick that sinks with them. That is what the Jews did. "Israel who pursued a law that would lead to righteousness did not succeed in reaching that law. Why? Because they did not pursue it by faith, but as if it were based on works." (Romans 9:31–32, ESV) Their own righteousness kept them busy and hopeful, but kept them from submitting to the righteousness of God. Many perish there, and never get one step nearer to God. The saints give it up. They put no confidence in the flesh. Hear Paul: "Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ." (Philippians 3:8–9, ESV) They keep this before them every day: because of what they have done, can do, or ever will do, they cannot be accepted. That keeps their souls humble.
And in particular. They weigh each act every day and find it wanting. A saint says, "If I had nothing to commend me to God but this prayer, this victory over a temptation, in which I can see so many failings, could I appear before him with any boldness? Shall I patch together a garment of righteousness out of my best duties? The prophet is right: 'all our righteous deeds are like a polluted garment.' (Isaiah 64:6, ESV)" These thoughts go with them in even their best duties. "Lord, what am I at my best? Spare me, even for the best thing I ever did in my life!" Nehemiah says it too: "Remember this also in my favor, O my God, and spare me according to the greatness of your steadfast love." (Nehemiah 13:22, ESV) A person who lives on mere convictions is different. When he has had some freedom in duty, or some victory over a sin, he pats himself on the back, like Micah in the book of Judges when he had got a Levite for his priest (Judges 17:13). Now surely God will bless him. His heart is at ease. But the one who has fellowship with Christ is clearest about his own unprofitableness exactly when he is highest in holy duties. He says to his soul, "Do these things seem like something to you? You have to do with a God of perfect righteousness. He looks through all that vanity. If he dealt with you by your best works, you would perish."
Three. They value this righteousness and rejoice in it. "Only in the LORD, it shall be said of me, are righteousness and strength." (Isaiah 45:24, ESV) That is their language once it is made known to them. "Here is righteousness indeed. Here I have rest for my soul. I was like the merchant who found the pearl of great price (Matthew 13:45–46). I had been searching up and down. I spent my strength on what was not bread. Here is what makes me rich for ever!" When Christ's righteousness is first shown to a poor soul that has sought rest and found none, he is amazed and cannot contain himself. They approve of it on two grounds.
They see it as full of infinite wisdom. "Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God." (1 Corinthians 1:24, ESV) "In what darkness was my poor soul!" one of them says. "I looked inward, and there was nothing but sin, horror and trembling. I looked up, and saw nothing but wrath. I knew that God was holy and that nothing unclean could stand before him. I knew that I was vile and sinful. How to bring those two together in peace, I did not know. But in the righteousness of Christ a world of wisdom opens up. It clears away every difficulty and shows me a reconciliation of it all." "Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God!" (Romans 11:33, ESV) I have said something of this already.
They see it as full of grace. Sin had shut up the whole way of grace toward them, and God aims at nothing so much as showing his grace. Now to have a complete righteousness provided, and yet grace abounding, fills them with delight. God's dealing with their persons is all grace, and God's dealing with his righteousness is all justice. "But if it is by grace, it is no longer on the basis of works; otherwise grace would no longer be grace." (Romans 11:6, ESV) In itself it is a righteousness of works, but to us it is pure grace. Hear Paul: "But when the goodness and loving kindness of God our Savior appeared, he saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit, whom he poured out on us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior, so that being justified by his grace we might become heirs according to the hope of eternal life." (Titus 3:4–7, ESV) The source is kindness and love. The way it comes is not by works, but by the gift of the Holy Spirit, won for us by Jesus Christ. And the work itself is by grace. Paul uses almost every word there is for the rich grace, mercy and goodness of God, all coming together in this one work. And when he gave us the Spirit, he poured him out like water from a jar, without holding back, richly and in abundance. (Editor's note: Owen gave the Greek words here, one by one. They are all in the ESV's rendering of Titus 3:4–7.) So the saints rejoice that the way of their acceptance is a way of grace, that they may not boast in themselves but only in the Lord, and they cry, "How great is your goodness!"
Four. They rejoice in it as a harbour of great peace. They remember what they were like when they were trying to set up a righteousness of their own, tossed about with changing thoughts. Sometimes they had hope and sometimes fear. Sometimes they thought they were in good condition, and soon after they were at the edge of hell, their consciences racked with sin. But now, "since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ" (Romans 5:1, ESV). The storm is over, and they are in the harbour where they wanted to be. "Each will be like a hiding place from the wind, a shelter from the storm, like streams of water in a dry place, like the shade of a great rock in a weary land." (Isaiah 32:2, ESV) This is the great mystery of faith. A believer finds enough in himself to tear his heart open and fill him with fears all his days, yet through Christ he is at perfect peace with God. "You keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on you, because he trusts in you." (Isaiah 26:3, ESV) So they magnify Jesus Christ, that they can look on the face of God with boldness, call him Father, rest on his love and walk about without fear. They remember the wormwood and gall they have eaten, and the trembling of their souls like an aspen leaf. Whenever they thought of God, what schemes they had to hide and fly and escape! To be brought now to rest must move them deeply.
Five. They approve of this righteousness because it raises and honours the Lord Jesus, whom their souls love. Once they know him, their hearts want nothing more than that he be honoured to the utmost and have first place in everything. What can raise him more in our hearts than knowing that God made him "our wisdom and our righteousness" (1 Corinthians 1:30, ESV)? He is not one part of our acceptance. He is all of it. And because of this work, he is honoured in three ways.
He is honoured by his Father. "But made himself nothing, taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father." (Philippians 2:7–11, ESV) Whether that "therefore" means a cause or only a consequence, this is plain: because of his suffering, God lifted him to a height beyond words, as he had promised (Isaiah 53:11–12; Acts 2:36). "After making purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high." (Hebrews 1:3, ESV)
He is honoured by all the angels, because of this work of bringing sinners to God. "Then I looked, and I heard around the throne and the living creatures and the elders the voice of many angels, numbering myriads of myriads and thousands of thousands, saying with a loud voice, 'Worthy is the Lamb who was slain, to receive power and wealth and wisdom and might and honor and glory and blessing!' And I heard every creature in heaven and on earth and under the earth and in the sea, and all that is in them, saying, 'To him who sits on the throne and to the Lamb be blessing and honor and glory and might forever and ever!' And the four living creatures said, 'Amen!' and the elders fell down and worshiped." (Revelation 5:11–14, ESV) The reason for this hymn is that he is the Lamb who was slain. It is a great joy to the saints to know that the angels, who never sinned, rejoice continually in the Lord Jesus for bringing sinners into peace and favour with God.
He is honoured by his saints. If they do not honour him, who will? "To him who loves us and has freed us from our sins by his blood and made us a kingdom, priests to his God and Father, to him be glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen." (Revelation 1:5–6, ESV) And again, "they sang a new song, saying, 'Worthy are you to take the scroll and to open its seals, for you were slain, and by your blood you ransomed people for God from every tribe and language and people and nation, and you have made them a kingdom and priests to our God, and they shall reign on the earth.'" (Revelation 5:9–10, ESV) (Editor's note: the ESV has the song in the third person, where Owen's text says "us"; either way it is the saints' song.) The great worship of the church consists in giving this honour to the Lord Jesus. That is why believers love him and delight in him, like Paul in Philippians 3:8 and the bride in the Song of Songs (5:9–16).
Six. They approve of this righteousness because it brings glory to God as God. When they were under the guilt of sin, what troubled them most was that their safety seemed to contradict his honour. His justice, faithfulness and truth were all pledged to destroy sin, and they could not see how to escape ruin without costing him his honour. But now the righteousness of God has been shown, from faith for faith (Romans 1:17), and they see plainly that every one of God's qualities is glorified in the pardon and acceptance of poor sinners. That is the first way the saints hold daily fellowship with Christ in this grace: they consider, approve of, and rejoice in the way, the means and the thing itself.
Second, we make an exchange. The saints make a real exchange with the Lord Jesus, giving him their sins and taking his righteousness. This has several parts.
One. They keep a sense of the guilt of sin alive in their hearts, even when they are comforted that God accepts them. A sense of pardon takes away the horror and fear, but not a proper sense of how guilty sin is. It is the daily exercise of the saints to think over the great offence in their sins and in the sin of their nature, to count themselves vile, and to judge themselves continually. "For I know my transgressions, and my sin is ever before me." (Psalm 51:3, ESV) They set sin before them, not to terrify their souls, but to keep a proper sense of its evil alive.
Two. They gather up the sins they have not yet settled with God in Christ. Or they have started to settle them, but have not made a clean finish. There is nothing more dreadful than being able to swallow your convictions: to have sin look you in the face, and to put it off by distractions or delays without coming to a full trial of your state. The saints do not do this. They gather up their sins, lay them in the scales of the law, consider their weight, and then make the exchange I speak of.
Here is what it means. First, they think carefully, and by faith beat down every objection to the contrary, that Christ, by the Father's appointment, has really borne the punishment due to the sins now lying under their eyes (Isaiah 53:6; 2 Corinthians 5:21). He has answered the justice of God for them as truly as if the sinner himself were thrown into hell that very moment.
Second, they listen to Christ calling them with their burden. "Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest." (Matthew 11:28, ESV) "Come with your burdens. Come, poor soul, with your load of guilt." What for? "Because this is mine," says Christ. "This was the agreement I made with my Father: that I would take your sins and bear them away. They were my lot. Give me your burden. You do not know what to do with them. I know well enough how to dispose of them, so that God will be glorified and your soul set free."
Third, they lay their sins down at the cross, on his shoulders. This is the bold venture of faith, on the grace and truth of God. It stands by the cross and says, "Ah, this is the one of whom Isaiah wrote, 'he was wounded for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace.' (Isaiah 53:5, ESV) He was made sin for me. Here I give up my sins to him who is able to bear them. He asks it of my hands that I be content to have him undertake for them, and I heartily agree." This is every day's work. I do not see how peace with God can be kept up any other way. If we receive Christ as made sin for us, we must receive him as one who takes our sins on himself. Not that he dies again, but as the faith of the saints of old made present what had not yet come to pass (Hebrews 11:1), so faith now makes present what was finished many generations ago. This is to know Christ crucified.
Fourth, having given up their sins and seen God lay them on him, they draw near and take from him the righteousness he has worked out for them. So they fulfil all of what Paul says: "For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God." (2 Corinthians 5:21, ESV) They see him offering himself and his righteousness to be theirs before God. They take it, and complete this blessed exchange of faith. Anger, curse, wrath, death, sin so far as its guilt goes: he took it all and takes it all away. With him we leave all of that, and from him we receive love, life, righteousness and peace.
Does Christ welcome this? You may say, "Surely Christ can never be pleased with this. Shall we come to him every day with our filth and guilt? Might he not tell us to keep them, since they are ours? Shall we always be giving sins and taking righteousness?"
There is nothing Christ is more delighted with than that his saints always hold fellowship with him in this giving and receiving. I have two reasons.
First, it honours him greatly. Many cry Lord, Lord, and mention his name, but do not honour him at all. They take his work out of his hands and give it to their repentance and their duties. They do not say so, but that is what they do. The exchange they make, if any, is with themselves. But the work Christ came to do was to bear our iniquities and give his life as a ransom. The cup he drank was filled with our sins. What greater dishonour can be done to him than to give this work to anything else? Christ is truly honoured when we go to him by faith and say, "Lord, this is your work. This is what you came into the world for. You call for my burden, which is too heavy for me. Take it, blessed Redeemer. You offer your righteousness. That is my portion." Then the glory of mediation is given to him.
Second, it endears him to our souls. Who would not love him? "I have been with the Lord Jesus," the poor soul may say. "I have left my sins with him, and he has given me his righteousness, in which I go with boldness to God. I was dead, and I am alive, for he died for me. I was cursed, and I am blessed, for he was made a curse for me. I was troubled, and I have peace, for the chastisement that brought me peace was on him. If I do not love him, delight in him, obey him, live for him and die for him, I am worse than the devils in hell." The great aim of Christ in the world is to have a high place in the hearts of his people, to have there, as he has in himself, first place in everything, and not to be jostled about among other things.
But what about repentance? Someone may say, "If this is so, why repent or mend our ways? We have only to go to Christ by faith and make this exchange, and then we may sin that grace may abound."
I judge no man's person. But I do not understand how a man who raises this objection in cold blood, and not under a temptation or a passing darkness, can have any true acquaintance with Christ. And I am certain that this fellowship produces quite other effects. Take repentance first. A legal and servile repentance, full of dread, terror and self-love, I confess this fellowship casts out, with its bondage and fear. But gospel repentance consists in godly sorrow for sin and giving it up, and comes from faith, love and hatred of sin, on account of Father, Son and Spirit, both law and love. That this should be hindered by this fellowship is not possible. I told you that its foundation is a deep, daily consideration of sin: its guilt, its vileness and our own vileness on that account. A sense of this must be kept alive in everyone who will enjoy this fellowship. Without it Christ is of no value to him. Is it possible to fill the heart every day with the vileness of sin, from every side, law, love, grace, gospel, life and death, and be filled with hatred of oneself on this account, and yet be a stranger to godly sorrow? Here is the mistake. The foundation of this fellowship is laid in the very thing they suppose it overthrows.
Take obedience next. "If Christ is so glorified by taking our sins, then the more we bring to him, the more he will be glorified." You would not think anyone would raise such an objection, were it not that the Holy Spirit, who knows what is in man, has raised it for them and in their name: "What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound? By no means! How can we who died to sin still live in it?" (Romans 6:1–2, ESV) The very same teaching was delivered in Romans 5:18–20, and the same objection was made to it. For those who think it carries any weight, I refer them to the apostle's answer there, and to what I said earlier about the need for obedience, even though Christ's righteousness is counted to us.
How do we go about it? You may ask, "What path are we to walk?" Faith works at it in three ways.
In meditation. The heart goes over what I have set out above, sometimes one part at a time, sometimes the whole. At one time the soul may be most occupied with its own sinfulness, filling itself with shame and hatred of itself. At another it is filled with thoughts of the righteousness of Christ, and with joy beyond words. Above all, on great occasions, when we are grieved and weighed down by carelessness or an outbreak of corruption, we go over the whole work. We drive matters to an issue with God, and take up the peace that Christ has worked out for us.
In searching out the promises of the gospel, which hold out all these things: the excellence and fitness of the righteousness of Christ, the rejection of all false righteousness, and the exchange made in the love of God.
And in prayer. In prayer the soul goes through this work day by day. This is the fellowship all the saints have with the Lord Jesus in their acceptance with God. That was the first thing I set out to consider.
Part Two, Chapter 9: Communion with Christ in Holiness
We have seen how the saints hold communion with Christ in his righteousness. Now we must see how they hold communion with him in the grace that makes them holy and clean. I will keep to the same method. First, what Christ does. Then, what our part is. I will be brief.
What Christ does. Three things are said of him here, and they come in order.
First, he asks the Father, on the strength of his offering, to give us the Holy Spirit. I start here because everything runs back to that offering, as to a spring. Every spiritual mercy rests on it. The Spirit, as a Spirit of grace, holiness and comfort, was bought by Christ. He is the great promise of the new covenant: "And I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules" (Ezekiel 36:27, ESV). And Christ stands behind that covenant: "This makes Jesus the guarantor of a better covenant" (Hebrews 7:22, ESV).
Editor's note: Owen writes "surety," an old word for someone who gives his own pledge for another. He adds that the Greek word means "covenant," not "testament," since a testament needs no surety. The ESV's "guarantor" says the same thing in modern English.
He stands on both sides. On our side, he gives God the satisfaction. On God's side, he gives us the whole grace of the promise: "Therefore he is the mediator of a new covenant, so that those who are called may receive the promised eternal inheritance, since a death has occurred that redeems them from the transgressions committed under the first covenant" (Hebrews 9:15, ESV). He paid for sin, and he won the promise. All the love and kindness of the covenant come to us through him, so that "in everything he might be preeminent" (Colossians 1:18, ESV). That was the agreement made with him (Isaiah 53:12). It was all bought with his blood, and so was the Spirit.
Now everything his death bought is brought out from the Father by his asking. Listen to what he tells his disciples: "And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Helper, to be with you forever" (John 14:16, ESV). Notice what he does not say. He does not say he will ask the Father to love them. The Father's love is not the fruit of Christ's purchase. It is the fountain of it (compare John 16:26–27, where the Father himself loves them). But the Spirit is a fruit, and so he says, "I will ask." Whatever Christ asks the Father, as Mediator, to give us was promised to him when he undertook to do the Father's will.
So here is the first thing to see in Christ. He asks his Father that the Spirit be given to us, as the fruit of his death. Having "received from the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit," he "has poured out this that you yourselves are seeing and hearing" (Acts 2:33, ESV). Faith looks at this, and stays with it.
Second, his prayer is heard, as it always is, and so he sends his Spirit into the hearts of his people to live there in his place. Faith looks to him for this, and not only for the first giving of the Spirit but for the steady supplies that follow.
Scripture speaks carefully here. Christ says the Father will give the Helper, because the first giving is in the Father's hand and goes out on Christ's asking. But the Spirit is not handed straight to us. He is placed in Christ's hand for us, and so Christ says he himself sends him: "But when the Helper comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth, who proceeds from the Father, he will bear witness about me" (John 15:26, ESV). And again: "If I go, I will send him to you" (John 16:7, ESV). Then he shows how: "He will glorify me, for he will take what is mine and declare it to you" (John 16:14, ESV). What is his, as Mediator, is the fruit of his life and death for our holiness.
So the second thing Christ does is send his Spirit into our hearts. That Spirit is the cause of all holiness. He quickens, enlightens and cleanses. How our union with Christ, and every blessing hanging on it, flows from this gift, I have explained elsewhere.
Third, there is what we call habitual grace. I mean the fruits of the Spirit: "that which is born of the Spirit is spirit" (John 3:6, ESV). Whatever the Holy Spirit makes in a person's heart when he is born again is spirit, as opposed to the flesh, the enmity in us against God. It is faith, love, joy, hope and the other graces in their root. Two things need saying.
The first is that although the Bible names many graces, we do not have many separate habits inside us. There is one new disposition, putting itself forth in different ways according to what it meets. It is one root with many branches.
The second is what I mean by it. It is a new, gracious, spiritual life, made in the soul and given to it, which changes all its powers and affections and fits it to go out in obedience toward every divine thing set before it. The mind can now see spiritual things in a spiritual way, and that is light. The whole soul closes with Christ as he is offered in the promises, and that is faith. When it rests in God with delight and desire, that is love.
This habit is to be told apart from the Spirit himself and from actual grace, and it has a character of its own. Three things help.
It is not the Spirit dwelling in the saints. It is a created quality. The Spirit lives in us like a free person in a holy house. This grace stays in us like a quality in its subject, and it can be stronger or weaker by many degrees.
It is not actual grace, which comes and goes. Actual grace is God's help coming in to work any spiritual act in us, with no being before the act and none after it. Paul speaks of it when he says, "it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure" (Philippians 2:13, ESV). Habitual grace is always living in us, and makes the soul a fit ground for what actual grace then carries out.
Editor's note: Owen quotes this verse in the old form, "to will and to do." The sense is the same.
And it can grow or shrink. In some it is larger than in others, and in the same believer it is stronger at one time than another. That is why Scripture so often speaks of dyings, decays, recoveries, complaints and rejoicings.
What to look at in Christ. Now, what are we to fix our eyes on in him to have communion with him over this grace?
First, that it was bought. "For it has been granted to you that for the sake of Christ you should not only believe in him but also suffer for his sake" (Philippians 1:29, ESV). God gives faith, and by the same rule every grace, for Christ's sake, because Christ bought it. "Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places" (Ephesians 1:3, ESV). In Christ means through his mediation. Without his offering and intercession, not one soul would ever have had one grace.
So when you receive grace from him, remember what it cost him. Forgetting this weakens your faith. His whole intercession rests on his offering (1 John 2:1–2), and what he bought by his death, no more and no less, is what he asks to have given. He prays that his people may have this very grace: "Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth" (John 17:17, ESV). If we always saw grace as the fruit of his purchase, it would endear him to us greatly. And none of this takes anything from the free grace of the Father. It was out of that grace that the Son made his purchase. But we do not have communion with Christ, who is the treasury of grace, unless we see it as bought by him.
Second, Christ actually gives this grace: "And from his fullness we have all received, grace upon grace" (John 1:16, ESV). The Father puts him in actual possession of all the grace he bought, all that is needed to bring many sons to glory. "For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell" (Colossians 1:19, ESV). He calls it "authority over all flesh, to give eternal life to all whom you have given him" (John 17:2, ESV), and that is not only his ability but his right. He puts this at the base of his invitation to sinners: "All things have been handed over to me by my Father" (Matthew 11:27, ESV), and so, "Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest" (Matthew 11:28, ESV).
That was the Father's promise to him: "when his soul makes an offering for sin, he shall see his offspring; he shall prolong his days; the will of the LORD shall prosper in his hand" (Isaiah 53:10, ESV). The verses after make his pouring out his soul to death the ground of two things. One is justification. The other is sanctification, in destroying the works of the devil. That is how our merciful high priest came to hold all grace, so that he can give it out as he pleases. He has it as our Head, for the Father gave him the Spirit without measure (John 3:34), and that Spirit is the bond between him and us (1 Corinthians 6:17). Holding on to our Head, we are filled out of his fullness (Ephesians 1:22–23). "The last Adam became a life-giving spirit" (1 Corinthians 15:45, ESV).
Editor's note: Owen reads John 3:34 as God giving the Spirit to Christ without measure, and I have kept that sense without quoting the verse, since the ESV's wording is open and many take Christ as the giver. His point, that Christ has the Spirit in full, stands on John 1:16 and Colossians 1:19. Likewise, Owen's text of Isaiah 53:11 reads "By his knowledge he shall justify many." The ESV has "by his knowledge shall the righteous one, my servant, make many to be accounted righteous." His point, that this verse speaks of justification, stands in either wording, so I have not printed the verse, only his use of it.
Having this fullness, he appoints the Spirit to take from it and give it to us: "he will take what is mine and declare it to you" (John 16:15, ESV). Of the Spirit's almighty way of doing this I will say more later. As for actual grace, the help by which we do particular duties, what I said before holds in the same proportion, and I need say no more.
One thing more before I come to how we carry on this communion. These gifts can be looked at in two ways: as they are first given, and as they continue and increase.
At the first giving, when the Spirit raises a soul from death to life, the saints have no communion with Christ but to receive, quite passively. They are like the dry bones in the prophet: "I will cause breath to enter you, and you shall live" (Ezekiel 37:5, ESV). They are like Lazarus in the grave. Christ calls, and they come out, because the call comes with life (John 11:43). That is not what I am speaking of. I mean the second thing, the Spirit's further working and the growth of grace, by which believers become more holy, walk more strongly with God, bear more fruit and win more against temptation. In this they do hold communion with Christ. Here is how.
What the saints do. They look at the Lord Jesus as the great Joseph, who has the running of all the granaries of heaven. The Father was pleased to gather all things under him (Ephesians 1:10), so that everything might be given out to his people from him. And they look at this fullness in three ways.
First, they look at the cleansing power of his blood. It was a sacrifice of atonement when it was offered, and of purification when it was poured out: "For if the sprinkling of defiled persons with the blood of goats and bulls and with the ashes of a heifer sanctifies for the purification of the flesh, how much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without blemish to God, purify our conscience from dead works to serve the living God" (Hebrews 9:13–14, ESV). His blood answers to all the old ceremonies of outward cleansing, and so it has in itself the power to cleanse the soul. That is why it is called "a fountain opened ... to cleanse them from sin and uncleanness" (Zechariah 13:1, ESV). It is ready before anyone steps into it, because it was poured out and set apart for exactly this.
The saints know how filthy they still are. To see the stain of sin is a deeper discovery than to feel its guilt. Guilt follows every conviction, but the stain is seen only when a person is shown the purity of God. Then they cry out in shame, "Unclean, unclean" (Leviticus 13:45, ESV). Unclean in nature, unclean in person, unclean in the way they live, the heart by nature a sewer. They know that nothing unclean will enter the kingdom of God. They cannot bear to look at themselves. How can they dare to appear before him? "Though you wash yourself with lye and use much soap, the stain of your guilt is still before me, declares the Lord GOD" (Jeremiah 2:22, ESV).
So where do they look first? To the cleansing power of the blood of Christ: "the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin" (1 John 1:7, ESV). It is the spring from which all purifying power flows, and in the end it will take away every spot and make them "holy and without blemish" (Ephesians 5:27, ESV). They dwell on this and turn it over in their minds. Dwell on it yourself, and turn it over in your own. Here faith finds new life, even when the sense of vileness has almost swallowed it up. One moment of communion with Christ by faith in this does more to purge the soul and increase grace than the greatest self-effort of a thousand ages.
Second, they look at his blood as the blood of sprinkling. We have come to "Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood that speaks a better word than the blood of Abel" (Hebrews 12:24, ESV). It is not enough that blood was shed. There is the shedding of blood, without which "there is no forgiveness of sins" (Hebrews 9:22, ESV), and there is the sprinkling, without which there is no actual cleansing.
The writer describes how Moses took blood with water and scarlet wool and hyssop and sprinkled the book and the people (Hebrews 9:19–22). Earlier he compared Christ's blood with the blood of sacrifices as it was offered, in respect of what it won. Now he compares it with the same blood as sprinkled, in respect of its being applied. Hyssop was dipped in the blood and the blood dashed on the people to be cleansed, as with the Passover lamb (Exodus 12:7). That is why David prays, "Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean" (Psalm 51:7, ESV). Apart from the Passover lamb, hyssop and blood together are mentioned only for cleansing uncleanness, as in leprosy (Leviticus 14:6) and other defilements (Numbers 19:18).
Now, the bunch of hyssop in which the cleansing blood is held, ready to sprinkle on the unclean, is the free promises of Christ. The cleansing power of his blood lies in the promises, ready to pass out to those who draw near. That is why the apostle argues from the promises to holiness: "Since we have these promises, beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from every defilement of body and spirit, bringing holiness to completion in the fear of God" (2 Corinthians 7:1, ESV). So the saints look at the blood of Christ as it stands in the promise, ready to pour out on the soul. Yet at this point it is still at a distance. It was shed to cleanse, and it is held ready in the promises, but the soul may not yet have it. So they look further.
Third, they look at him as the only giver of the Spirit and of all grace of holiness. His intercession has been granted, so that he will make all the fruits of his purchase work for the sanctifying of his whole people. It is the Spirit who actually does it, by the countless promises given for this. He is to sprinkle that blood on the soul. He is to make in us the holiness we long for. He is to be in us "a spring of water welling up to eternal life" (John 4:14, ESV). Here faith fixes on Christ, expecting him to give out the Spirit. Mixing the promises with faith, the saints become partakers of this grace. This is their communion with Christ. This is the life of faith, as it concerns holiness. Blessed is the one who lives this way: "He is like a tree planted by water, that sends out its roots by the stream, and does not fear when heat comes, for its leaves remain green, and is not anxious in the year of drought, for it does not cease to bear fruit" (Jeremiah 17:8, ESV).
An old mistake. Now look at the other way. People who are convinced of their need but do not know Christ try to spin holiness out of their own insides. They begin with earnest efforts and go on with vows, resolutions and promises, sweating at it all day long. They keep it up for a while, and their hypocrisy usually ends in giving up altogether. Do not take that road with your own heart.
The saints reckon, from the very start, that they have a threefold want. They want the Spirit of holiness to live in them. They want a disposition of holiness poured into them. And they want actual help to do every work. If these are missing, with all their might they cannot do one holy act. They know "apart from me you can do nothing" (John 15:5, ESV). So they look to the one who holds the fullness of all these things for them.
That is how we have communion with Christ in our holiness. From him we receive the Spirit to live in us. From him we receive the new principle of life that is the root of all our obedience. From him we have help for every duty. Help is looked for from other mountains in vain. So fix your soul here, and you will never wait until you are ashamed. This is the way, the only way, to have the heart purified, the conscience cleansed, sins put to death and graces increased. It is the way to a fruitful life and a comfortable death. Let us stay here, looking at Christ by faith, until we reach the likeness to him that is given us in this world. Then "when he appears we will be like him, because we shall see him as he is" (1 John 3:2, ESV).
Part Two, Chapter 10: Communion with Christ in Privileges
The third thing in which we have communion with Christ is the grace of privilege before God. The privileges we have through Christ are great beyond counting, and to go through them one by one would take a man's whole life. I will look only at the spring they all flow from, and that is our adoption. "Beloved, we are God's children now" (1 John 3:2, ESV). This is our great privilege.
Where does it come from? From the love of the Father: "See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God; and so we are" (1 John 3:1, ESV). But who gives us this honor directly? Christ does. "But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God" (John 1:12, ESV). He was appointed to be "the firstborn among many brothers" (Romans 8:29, ESV), and by taking us as brothers (Hebrews 2:11) he makes us children of God. God is our Father by being the Father of Christ. So let us look at the act by which we are given this standing: our adoption.
What adoption is. Adoption is the authoritative moving of a believer, by Jesus Christ, out of the family of the world and Satan and into the family of God, with all the privileges of that family. Five things are needed.
First, the person must belong, by his own right, to another family than the one he is adopted into. Second, there must be a family to which he has, in himself, no right at all. If a distant relative inherits when the nearer heirs die, he is a born son, not an adopted one. Third, he must be moved from one family to the other by authority. Private persons could not adopt as they pleased. It was done by the supreme power. Fourth, he must be freed from every obligation to the family he leaves, since he cannot serve two masters, still less two fathers. Fifth, he must be given all the rights and title to the whole inheritance of the new family, as fully as if he had been born in it.
All five are found in the adoption of believers.
First, they belonged to another family by their own right. They were "by nature children of wrath" (Ephesians 2:3, ESV), under "the domain of darkness," from which God "transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son" (Colossians 1:13, ESV). That is the family of the world and Satan. Whatever is inherited there, wrath, curse, death and hell, they had a claim to. They could not get free by themselves, because a strong man, fully armed, kept them in subjection. They were of the black family of sin and Satan.
Second, there is another family, to which they had in themselves no right or title. It is the family "in heaven and on earth" that is named after Christ (Ephesians 3:15), the great family of God.
Editor's note: The ESV, reading verse 14, has the family named "from" the Father. Owen takes it as named after Christ. His point, that the family is Christ's household, stands on Ephesians 1:10 and Hebrews 3:6.
God has a house for his children. Some he keeps on the riches of his grace, and some he entertains with the fullness of his glory. Christ is the steward of this house, since the Father was pleased "to unite all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth" (Ephesians 1:10, ESV). To this family we had no claim. We were "alienated from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world" (Ephesians 2:12, ESV). Think how God drove Adam out of the garden and shut every way back with a flaming sword. That shows that Adam, and all in him, lost every right to approach God as family. Corrupt, cursed nature has not the least claim on anything of God.
Third, they are moved by authority. It is not done in some private, underhand way. "To all who did receive him ... he gave the right to become children of God" (John 1:12, ESV). The word is right, or authority. It is a legal act, called qualifying us "to share in the inheritance of the saints in light" (Colossians 1:12, ESV). The believer is lifted into a family where God is Father, Christ is elder brother, all the saints and angels are brothers, and the inheritance is a crown that does not fade.
This moving has two parts. The first is an effective announcement that the believer is free from all obligation to the old family. It has three audiences.
The first audience is the angels. They are sons of God themselves, and it matters to them to know who has the rights of that family, so that they can do their duty by those who do. They hear it in two ways. In general, through the gospel: "so that through the church the manifold wisdom of God might now be made known to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly places" (Ephesians 3:10, ESV). What is this wisdom? It is "that the Gentiles are fellow heirs, members of the same body, and partakers of the promise in Christ Jesus through the gospel" (Ephesians 3:6, ESV). It was first made known by revelation, for it "has now been revealed to his holy apostles and prophets by the Spirit" (Ephesians 3:5, ESV). In particular, when any one soul is freed from the family of this world, it is revealed to the angels. "Just so, I tell you, there is joy before the angels of God over one sinner who repents" (Luke 15:10, ESV). They cannot know a sinner's repentance of themselves. It is done in a room for which only Christ has the key. He tells them when the care of that person is given to them. "Everyone who acknowledges me before men, the Son of Man also will acknowledge before the angels of God" (Luke 12:8, ESV). When he brings a believer into the family, among the "innumerable angels in festal gathering" (Hebrews 12:22, ESV), he tells the angels that this one is a son, so that they may do their duty (Hebrews 1:14).
The second audience is Satan, the master of the family the believer was held in. When Christ delivers a soul from that strong armed man, he binds him. Satan knows that soul is out of his family, and every attempt he makes on it afterward is an invasion of Christ's inheritance.
The third audience is the believer's own conscience. The Spirit of Christ tells the heart that it is free from the family of Satan: "For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God" (Romans 8:14, ESV). He enables us to cry, "Abba! Father!" (Galatians 4:6, ESV). Of this witness I will speak later.
The second part is the grafting of the believer into God's family and the giving of the whole right of a son. It has several acts.
A new name is given on a white stone. Those who are adopted take the name of their new family, and the new name is "child of God." "To the one who conquers I will give some of the hidden manna, and I will give him a white stone, with a new name written on the stone that no one knows except the one who receives it" (Revelation 2:17, ESV). Owen calls the white stone a "tessera," the token of admission to God's house, and a stone of acquittal. Adoption rests on acquittal in the blood of Jesus. The white stone cancels the claim of the old family, and the new name gives entrance to the other.
Editor's note: "Tessera" is the Latin word for a token or ticket of admission. Owen reads the white stone both as a token of admission and as a stone of acquittal, the way jurors in the ancient world cast white stones. Revelation does not say this, so take it as Owen's own reading of the picture.
The believer's name is also enrolled in the list of God's household, the "register of the house of Israel" (Ezekiel 13:9, ESV). Christ knows his sheep by name. When God writes up the peoples, he counts "This one was born there" (Psalm 87:6, ESV). This is an extract from the Lamb's book of life.
Editor's note: Owen's version of Psalm 87:6 reads, "this man was born in Zion." The ESV has "The LORD records as he registers the peoples, 'This one was born there.'" The Hebrew has no more than "there," and the context points to Zion.
And the Spirit tells the conscience that it is accepted, so that the believer can behave as a child (Romans 8:15; Galatians 4:5–6).
That brings us to the last two of the five things: being freed from the old family and given the rights of the new. These make up the whole outcome of adoption, and in them we have communion with Christ. I will take them under four heads: liberty, title, boldness, and correction.
Liberty. "The Spirit of the Lord GOD is upon me ... to proclaim liberty to the captives" (Isaiah 61:1, ESV). And "where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom" (2 Corinthians 3:17, ESV). That is the Spirit of Christ, given to us because we are sons. All true freedom comes from the Spirit of adoption. Whatever else is called freedom is licence: "And because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, 'Abba! Father!' So you are no longer a slave, but a son" (Galatians 4:6–7, ESV). This liberty has two sides: freedom from the old family, and freedom in the new.
Freedom from. When God's moral law and sin meet in a person, they produce two things. One is a system of ordinances that held people in bondage (Colossians 2:14). The other is the law's natural pressing on them with its harshness, its impossibility, and its penalties of curse and death. I will be brief, since all agree on these.
Believers are free from the law of ordinances, a yoke "that neither our fathers nor we have been able to bear" (Acts 15:10, ESV). Christ cancelled "the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands. This he set aside, nailing it to the cross" (Colossians 2:14, ESV).
Editor's note: Owen reads "the handwriting of ordinances" here as the ceremonial law. The ESV reads it as the record of our debt. His point, our freedom from the law of ordinances, does not rest on this verse alone but on Acts 15:10 and Galatians 5:1 as well.
"For freedom Christ has set us free; stand firm therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery" (Galatians 5:1, ESV).
As to the moral law, believers are free from three things. From its terror in commanding: "For you have not come to what may be touched, a blazing fire and darkness and gloom and a tempest" (Hebrews 12:18, ESV), but "to Mount Zion" (Hebrews 12:22, ESV). From its impossibility, since because of sin it cannot give life (Romans 8:2–3; Galatians 3:21–23). And from its penalties: "Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us" (Galatians 3:13, ESV). Also from death (Hebrews 2:15), with Satan (Hebrews 2:14), sin (Romans 6:14) and the world (Galatians 1:4). Without this freedom we could not live one day.
There is also a pretended bondage, the claim of anyone to bind the conscience with rules that do not come from God. "If with Christ you died to the elemental spirits of the world, why, as if you were still alive in the world, do you submit to regulations ... according to human precepts and teachings?" (Colossians 2:20–22, ESV).
Freedom in. There is liberty in God's family as well. Sons are free, and their obedience is free. As the Spirit of adoption he stands against the spirit of slavery: "For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the Spirit of adoption as sons" (Romans 8:15, ESV). This liberty is a largeness of heart by which the children of God go out into all obedience freely and willingly, without fear or constraint.
There are Gibeonites who attend God's family from the outside and do the work of his house as drudgery. They obey from a spirit of slavery. Their rule is the law in all its rigour. Their aim is to flee the wrath to come and to quiet conscience. So they serve their own conviction, painfully and fruitlessly, all their days.
Editor's note: The Gibeonites were the people of Gibeon who tricked Israel into a treaty by pretending to come from far away. When the trick was found out they were made "cutters of wood and drawers of water" (Joshua 9:21, ESV) for the congregation and, as verse 23 has it, for the house of God. Owen uses them for people who do the work of God's house but are not sons in it.
The sons have largeness of heart. David says, "and I shall walk in a wide place, for I have sought your precepts" (Psalm 119:45, ESV).
Editor's note: Owen quotes this verse as "I will walk at liberty." The ESV has "I shall walk in a wide place," which is closer to the Hebrew and happens to fit Owen's phrase "largeness of heart" very well.
This freedom shows itself in several ways.
It comes from life and love. Life gives power: "For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death" (Romans 8:2, ESV). "It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me" (Galatians 2:20, ESV). The fruits of a dead root are dead growths. Living acts come from a principle of life.
Here we can see the difference between the liberty slaves take and the liberty that belongs to children. Slaves take liberty from duty. Children have liberty in duty. There is no greater mistake than to think the liberty of sons means they may do their duties or leave them undone as they feel. That is a liberty stolen by slaves, not given by the Spirit to sons. The liberty of sons is the freedom of the heart going out gladly in God's ways. When they find themselves cramped in them, they wrestle with God for enlargement: "I will run in the way of your commandments when you enlarge my heart!" (Psalm 119:32, ESV). They are never content with a duty unless it is done in Christ, with a free heart. Is that how it is with you?
Love gives delight. "If you love me, you will keep my commandments" (John 14:15, ESV). Love is the bottom of every duty, and "love is the fulfilling of the law" (Romans 13:10, ESV). "Oh how I love your law! It is my meditation all the day" (Psalm 119:97, ESV). This is why Christ's commands are not burdensome to the saints (1 John 5:3). Jacob's hard service was no burden to him, because he loved Rachel. No duty is a burden to a believer, because he loves Christ. "There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear" (1 John 4:18, ESV). Where life and love meet there is freedom, a long way from the cramped and bandaged frame in which so many walk all their days who do not know the adoption of sons.
Second, the one they obey appears desirable, where to others he is terrible. The sons approach him as a Father. They call him Father, not in words only but in the spirit of sons. Others bury their coins, as people dealing with a hard master (Luke 19:20). The sons stretch out all their strength, as people drawing near to a gracious rewarder. All they do is return the strength they receive to its fountain, to the ocean.
Third, their motive is love. "For the love of Christ controls us" (2 Corinthians 5:14, ESV). Darkness, fear and hopes of earning righteousness go with others in their ways. The sons, by the Spirit of adoption, have light and love in all their walking with God. The world is a complete stranger to the frame of mind of children in their Father's house.
Fourth, the manner of their obedience is willingness. They do what Paul asks: "present yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life" (Romans 6:13, ESV). "With my whole heart I seek you," says David (Psalm 119:10, ESV). They present themselves as "a living sacrifice" (Romans 12:1, ESV), and a willing one.
Fifth, their rule is the law of liberty, stripped of its terrifying, condemning and cursing power, and made in the blood of Jesus sweet and useful. It helps them as a rule for walking in the life they have received. It is not a way of working for a life they do not have. The poor convinced Gibeonites know nothing of this. Which are you, a Gibeonite or a son?
Title. The second thing we have by adoption is title. The sons have a right to all the privileges of the family they have been moved into. Sarah argued for casting out Ishmael because he was the son of the slave woman: "Cast out this slave woman with her son, for the son of this slave woman shall not be heir with my son Isaac" (Genesis 21:10, ESV). The apostle reasons the other way: "So you are no longer a slave, but a son, and if a son, then an heir through God" (Galatians 4:7, ESV). "And if children, then heirs—heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ" (Romans 8:17, ESV). We were not born to it, for by nature we were children of wrath. We have it by adoption.
The right is double. One is direct, in spiritual things. The other follows from that, in earthly things. The first has two objects: a present place in God's house, and the future fullness of the inheritance of glory.
The saints have a share in the whole running of God's family here. The management of God's house is in Christ's hand. He appoints the ordinances and gives the Spirit to bring them to life. And his people are the chief object of all this. God "gave him as head over all things to the church, which is his body" (Ephesians 1:22–23, ESV). He does all this for the many sons he will bring to glory (Hebrews 2:10). His aim in setting up gospel ministries is "to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ" (Ephesians 4:12, ESV). All of it is for them. In this his faithfulness is at work, for he was "faithful in all God's house" (Hebrews 3:2, ESV). So Paul tells the Corinthians, "all are yours, and you are Christ's, and Christ is God's" (1 Corinthians 3:22–23, ESV). Whatever good comes to the world through the gospel comes because it is committed for the sake of the children of this family.
It is true that the word is preached to the whole world, to gather in the children of God's purpose scattered here and there, and to leave the rest without excuse. But Christ's chief end is to gather the heirs of salvation to the feast of rich food he has prepared in his house.
And they, and they only, have a right to these privileges. The church is "the household of God" (1 Timothy 3:15, ESV). Who should have a right in God's house but his children? We allow no right in our own houses to anyone but our own children. Do you think God will allow it in his? Is it right "to take the children's bread and throw it to the dogs" (Matthew 15:26, ESV)?
Consider the nature of the house. It is built of "living stones" (1 Peter 2:5, ESV), "a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession" (1 Peter 2:9, ESV), people who "shall all be righteous" (Isaiah 60:21, ESV). The way of the house is "the Way of Holiness," and "the unclean shall not pass over it" (Isaiah 35:8, ESV). They are "sons and daughters to me, says the Lord Almighty" (2 Corinthians 6:18, ESV), and all others are shut out (Revelation 21:27). Other persons do creep unnoticed into the great house, for "in a great house there are not only vessels of gold and silver but also of wood and clay" (2 Timothy 2:20, ESV). But they only creep in, as Jude says (Jude 4). They have no right to it.
And consider the privileges of the house. They would profit no one else. What is the use of giving food to a dead man? The things of God's house are food for living souls. Children alone are alive. What do outward signs profit if life is missing? Given to the world, these things would be a pearl in a swine's snout. So it is the sons who have this right, and who will deny it to them, or keep them from what Christ bought for them? In the end the Lord will give them hearts to use this title everywhere, and not to wander on the mountains and forget their resting place.
They also have a title to the future fullness of the inheritance. "If children, then heirs" (Romans 8:17, ESV). They are among the "firstborn" (Hebrews 12:23, ESV), and so heirs. "And if you are Christ's, then you are Abraham's offspring, heirs according to promise" (Galatians 3:29, ESV). Scripture names three things they are heirs of.
The promise. God desired "to show more convincingly to the heirs of the promise the unchangeable character of his purpose" (Hebrews 6:17, ESV). From the foundation of the world he made a most excellent promise in Christ, containing deliverance from all evil and every good thing. The Holy Spirit calls it "the promised eternal inheritance" (Hebrews 9:15, ESV). Whatever is in the promise God made at the beginning to fallen man, and has since confirmed with his oath, the sons are heirs of it, and their claim is accepted in the courts of heaven.
Righteousness. Noah "became an heir of the righteousness that comes by faith" (Hebrews 11:7, ESV), which Peter calls being "heirs with you of the grace of life" (1 Peter 3:7, ESV). James puts both together: "heirs of the kingdom, which he has promised to those who love him" (James 2:5, ESV). By this Paul means not only the righteousness we share here but its completion in glory: "In him we have obtained an inheritance" (Ephesians 1:11, ESV).
Salvation. They are heirs of salvation (Hebrews 1:14), "heirs according to the hope of eternal life" (Titus 3:7, ESV), with "an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading" (1 Peter 1:4, ESV). Divide the whole salvation Christ brings into its foundation, the promises, its means, righteousness and holiness, and its end, eternal glory. The sons have a right to all of it, because they are made heirs with Christ.
Editor's note: Owen quotes Hebrews 1:14 as "heirs of salvation." The ESV puts it as "those who are to inherit salvation." It is the same idea, and so I have kept his words without quotation marks.
In sum, the Lord is their portion and inheritance, and they are the Lord's inheritance. The lines have fallen for them in pleasant places (Psalm 16:6).
A right to this world. Besides this chief title, the sons have a second that follows from it, a right to the things of this world that God trusts them with. Christ is "the heir of all things" (Hebrews 1:2, ESV). All right to created things was forfeited by sin. God had made an original grant of them for man's use. Sin overturned the grant, and all things were turned loose from man's rule, which is part of their vanity and curse. Man lost his whole title and has not the least claim to any of them.
But the Lord meant to take a portion for himself out of fallen mankind, and so he did not destroy creation at once. He kept it for his people's pilgrimage. He placed the whole right in the second Adam and appointed him heir of all things. His adopted ones, being "fellow heirs with Christ" (Romans 8:17, ESV), then have a right to creation too. Five observations will make it clear.
One: their right is not like Christ's, which is supreme. Theirs is under his, and they must give an account of how they use it. Christ's right is that of the Lord of the house. Theirs is that of a servant.
Two: the whole number of God's children have a right to the whole earth, which is the Lord's, and the fullness of it (Psalm 24:1). He keeps it for their use, and all others are possessors in bad faith, invading the Lord's territory without leave. And Christ has promised to give them the rule of it, in whatever way his providence arranges.
Three: this is a spiritual right. It gives no civil interest. It only sanctifies the interest given. God has providentially arranged the boundaries of men's inheritances (Acts 17:26), and he lets the men of the world enjoy a portion here, often a full one, for his children's sake, so that the wild beasts of the forest do not break loose on the whole property.
Four: so no adopted person has a right, by his adoption, to any earthly thing to which he does not also have a civil right from God's providence.
Five: this much they do have. Whatever God gives them, they hold as it is placed again in Christ, and not as lying under the curse. They can never be called to account for taking what they had no right to, as all the sons of men will be who grab what God has set free from their rule. And their right leads them to a sanctified use of it, because these things are to them pledges of the Father's love, washed in the blood of Christ.
So I dare say of unbelievers that they have no true right to anything they possess. They have a civil right in respect of others, but not a sanctified right in respect of their own souls. They have a right that will hold in the courts of men, but not in the court of God and their own conscience. It will be a sad day for them when they must give an account. They will be reckoned with for misusing what they had, and for laying their hands on God's creatures and keeping them from those for whose sake alone they were preserved from destruction.
If you hold a large portion of this world, think how it will be when the God of glory comes home to any of them, in their consciences here or in the judgement to come: "I let you enjoy grain, wine and oil. You wallowed in wealth while the true heirs lived poor and low at your next door. Now give me your answer. What have you laid out for the gospel? What have you given to those for whom nothing was provided? What have you given to my poor saints?" And they will be forced to answer, as the truth is: "Lord, we had a large portion, but we took it to be our own and thought we might do what we liked with our own. We ate the fat and drank the sweet and left the rest to our children. We spent something on our lusts and something on our friends. But we cannot say that we made friends of this unrighteous wealth" (Luke 16:9) "or used it to advance the gospel or to minister to your poor saints. And now, look, we must die."
Then the Lord will go further and question their title: "The earth is mine, and the fullness of it. I made an original grant of these things to man, but that was lost by sin. I have restored it for my saints alone. Why have you laid your fingers of prey on what was not yours? Why have you forced my creatures to serve your lusts, when I had set them loose from your rule? Give me back my flax, my wine and my wool. I will set you naked as on the day you were born." At such a time, what will men do?
Editor's note: The speech to the rich comes from Owen's own imagination of the last judgement. It builds on Luke 16:9 and on Hosea 2:9, where the Lord takes back his grain, wine, wool and flax, but the words themselves are Owen's.
Boldness and correction. Boldness with God through Christ is another privilege of adoption. I have said a good deal about it already, when I spoke of Christ in our approach to God, and I will not take it up again.
Affliction is also a privilege of children when it comes from love, leads to spiritual advantage, makes us like Christ, and is sweetened with his presence: "For the Lord disciplines the one he loves, and chastises every son whom he receives" (Hebrews 12:6, ESV). On this I must not stay.
Where it all ends. This is the head and source of all the privileges Christ has bought for us, in which we have fellowship with him. We have fellowship with him in name: we are, as he is, sons of God. In title and right: we are heirs, fellow heirs with Christ. In likeness: we are "predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son" (Romans 8:29, ESV), the firstborn of the family. In honor: "he is not ashamed to call them brothers" (Hebrews 2:11, ESV). In sufferings: he "learned obedience through what he suffered" (Hebrews 5:8, ESV), and every son who is received is to be chastised. And in his kingdom: we shall reign with him. Of all these I must speak in another place, and so I will not draw them out further here.
Part Three: The Holy Spirit
Before We Begin
A note from the editor. John Owen published this book in 1657. It has three parts, one for each person of the Trinity, and this volume is the third: the part on the Holy Spirit. Part One, on the Father, and Part Two, on the Son, come first in the original, and this part can be read without them.
Owen's main claim here is a surprising one. Christ told his friends that it was good for them that he was going away, because the Spirit could not come until he left. Owen takes that seriously. He asks what the Spirit actually does for you, what it means to have a Comforter, and how you can live in fellowship with the Spirit himself, and not only with the Father and the Son. His answer fills eight chapters: how the Spirit comes (chapter 1), how he works and what he does in you (chapters 2 to 4), two ways people get him wrong (chapter 5), why his comfort matters so much (chapter 6), and how to live in fellowship with him, including the three ways you can grieve, quench or resist him (chapters 7 and 8).
Owen's own sentences were long, and he loved Greek and Latin terms. Here the sentences are shorter, the word studies are trimmed to what the argument needs, and he speaks to you directly, as he does in his best pages. His order and his argument are kept. Where he quotes the Bible from the King James Version or from his own translation, we print the English Standard Version. In a few places his point depends on a reading the ESV does not share, and an editor's note says so. One such case runs through the whole part: Owen calls the Spirit "the Comforter," where the ESV says "Helper." We keep "Comforter" in our own words, since comfort is Owen's whole subject, and print "Helper" whenever we quote the ESV.
The chapter headings and the short italic openers inside each chapter are the editor's, to help you find your place. Owen's own chapter openings are long summaries, and they are not printed here. His follow-up defence against a critic, which was added to the original book after the three parts, is not included.
Part Three, Chapter 1: The Spirit Is Sent to Be Your Comforter
Everything in this part of the book rests on one night and one promise. Jesus was about to leave his friends, and he knew they could not take it in. So he told them something that sounded impossible.
"Nevertheless, I tell you the truth: it is to your advantage that I go away, for if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you. But if I go, I will send him to you." (John 16:7, ESV)
Stay with this verse for a while. Everything about how you have fellowship with the Holy Spirit is built on it.
The night it was said. Jesus had been telling the disciples what lay ahead, and it was dreadful. They would be thrown out of the synagogues. People would kill them and believe they were serving God by doing it (John 16:2). And he told them why: "they have not known the Father, nor me" (John 16:3, ESV). Their enemies would be blind, and sure of themselves.
Why tell them now, when they were already low? Because "when their hour comes you may remember that I told them to you" (John 16:4, ESV). When it all came true, it would hold them up to remember that he, who is God, had known it all beforehand. And why had he not said it earlier? "I did not say these things to you from the beginning, because I was with you" (John 16:4, ESV). While he was physically with them, they had protection and direction on hand. Now that was changing.
But they were not ready. They were so stunned that they did not even ask the question that would have helped. "But now I am going to him who sent me, and none of you asks me, 'Where are you going?'" (John 16:5, ESV). If they had asked, he would have told them he was going to take up his glory and carry on the work of their salvation. Instead: "sorrow has filled your heart" (John 16:6, ESV). Grief had left no room for comfort.
Why he speaks so firmly. So he says, "Nevertheless, I tell you the truth." Hear how he begins. That little word "nevertheless" answers what they are thinking, and they are thinking that if he would only stay, all this could be avoided. He answers: I know that is how it looks to you, but this is the truth.
Every part of it carries weight. I tell you: I who love you and am about to lay down my life for you. These are my dying words, so you can trust them. I tell you the truth: you have many wrong ideas about what is good for you, but here is the thing itself, and you can settle your hearts on it. It takes a great deal to comfort people who feel sure they have lost the presence of Christ, whether they are right about that or not. Jesus knows that, and so he speaks with force.
What he says. "It is to your advantage that I go away." He means he is taking his bodily presence out of the world after his resurrection. Heaven "must receive" him "until the time for restoring all the things about which God spoke by the mouth of his holy prophets long ago" (Acts 3:21, ESV). He does not mean he leaves them in any other way. As God, in love and in care, he promises, "behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age" (Matthew 28:20, ESV). And this going, he says, is to your advantage. It is profitable. It is for your good. The very thing the disciples dreaded will turn out better for them than his staying.
Why? He gives the reason, both ways round: "if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you. But if I go, I will send him to you." I have written about Christ's going already. Here I want you to look at the one who comes.
The Comforter. The Greek word that the ESV renders "Helper" can mean several things. In the Bible it has two main meanings: an advocate and a comforter. Christ himself is called our advocate: "we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous" (1 John 2:1, ESV). So which does he mean here? It is not easy to say. Look at what comes before: the disciples are weighed down with sorrow, and that calls for a comforter. Look at what comes after: the Spirit is to plead Christ's cause against the world (John 16:8), and that calls for an advocate. I let the occasion decide. The occasion is the disciples' sorrow, so I keep the name Comforter. (Editor's note: The ESV prints "Helper" at this point and throughout John 14 to 16, which keeps both meanings open. Owen's whole treatment of the Spirit in this part turns on the word "comfort," so we keep "Comforter" when we speak for him and print "Helper" only when we quote the ESV.)
Who he is. Jesus had already said who this Comforter is: "the Spirit of truth," the Holy Spirit (John 15:26). And two things are said of him here. He will come, and Christ will send him.
He will come. The Spirit has his own will in this. "If I do not go away, the Helper will not come." He comes.
And Christ will send him. Jesus teaches his disciples this by steps, because they could not take it all at once. First: "I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Helper" (John 14:16, ESV). Then: "the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name" (John 14:26, ESV). Then: "the Helper... whom I will send to you from the Father" (John 15:26, ESV). And here, plainly, "I will send him." That Christ sends the Spirit, as well as the Father, points to a deep truth about who the Spirit is: he proceeds from the Son as well as from the Father. The disciples could not have taken that in all at once, so Jesus brought them toward it gradually.
The sum of it. Here is the heart of the promise. The presence of the Holy Spirit with you as a comforter, sent by Christ, is better and more profitable for you than any bodily presence of Christ could be, now that he has finished the one sacrifice for sin that he came to offer.
The Spirit is promised in two ways. As a Spirit of sanctification, to convert the elect and make them believers. And as a Spirit of consolation, to bring believers into the benefits of Christ's death and purchase. In this passage it is the second that Jesus has in view, and it is the second I am writing about. Six things need looking at: where this gift comes from, how he is given, how you receive him, how he stays with you, how he acts in you, and what he produces. When you see all six, you will see how you have fellowship with him.
Where it comes from. The source is stated in John 15:26: "the Spirit of truth, who proceeds from the Father." There are two kinds of proceeding. One is about who the Spirit is in himself: he is the Spirit of the Father and of the Son, and eternally proceeds from them both. That is the deepest foundation of your fellowship with him and of your worship of him. But I will not go into it here. All we can do with it is believe it, and give him what is due to him because he shares the divine nature. That is not the business of this book.
The other kind is about his work. This is the proceeding Jesus speaks of: the one who goes out from the Father when Christ sends him. It is like the Bible's saying that the Lord "is coming out from his place to punish the inhabitants of the earth" (Isaiah 26:21, ESV). That does not mean any change in God. It means a new work is about to begin. So when the Spirit is said to "proceed," it is his going out to carry on the work of grace and to bear witness to Christ.
Three things here matter for your fellowship with him.
First, the Spirit's own will is in the work. "He comes." Scripture says he is sent, given and poured out. So that you will not think he is an inferior, created spirit, a servant, as some have blasphemously said, or merely a power of God, as others have imagined, it also gives him the marks of a person: he acts freely. He comes.
Second, the Spirit stoops. He takes on this work of a Comforter in the same way the Son took on the work of a Redeemer. The Spirit takes up a place of service in the order of this work, and he does it freely.
Third, the Father is the fountain of the whole. It begins in the Father's purpose of love. Then the Son asks (John 14:16), which brings in everything he earned and purchased. Then the Spirit freely comes. This also supports the foundation of this whole book: you have fellowship with the Father in love, with the Son in grace, and with the Spirit in comfort. When faith looks at the Spirit's gracious will and his unspeakable condescension as the source of everything he does in you, your soul grows used to him. Your longings, your affections and your thanks come to rest on him.
How he is given. Scripture uses three expressions, and each one means something.
He is given. "He will give you another Helper" (John 14:16, ESV). "How much more will the heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!" (Luke 11:13, ESV). What is a gift is free. The Spirit of grace is given by grace, and this is true not only of the Spirit who converts you, but of the Spirit who comforts you. Paul asks, "Did you receive the Spirit by works of the law or by hearing with faith?" (Galatians 3:2, ESV). You received him by the gospel and not by the law, by pure grace and not by anything you earned. The different measures in which believers have him, which are great and various and beyond words, come from this: you hold him by free gift. Take that in. The Spirit is willing to come, and willing to be given, and since everything here is will and gift, grace is made great.
He is sent. "Whom the Father will send in my name," "whom I will send to you from the Father" (John 14:26; 15:26, ESV). This sending matches the order in which the persons of the Trinity stand to one another, and the order they freely took on for the work of your salvation. And here the Spirit's condescension shows most. He stoops to be sent by the authority of the Father and the Son. This does not make him less than they are in nature. It means a different office in this work. His office is to be your advocate and comforter, and in that office he is sent. There is an old saying that a difference in office does not remove equality of nature. The Son is sent by the Father, and nobody says that makes him less than God.
Three things follow, and you will find your heart ordered by them.
One is the weight of the sin against the Holy Spirit. I will not argue here what exactly it is. But I will say why it can be unforgivable. He does not come in his own name alone. He comes in the name and authority of the Father and the Son. To sin against him is to sin against all of God's authority, all of the Trinity's love, and the utmost stooping of every person to the work of your salvation. It is a sin against the whole of that love gathered up in one.
Another is how you pray. You ask the Father to give you the Spirit (Luke 11:13). Yet the Holy Spirit is God, and is to be prayed to no less than the Father and the Son. So how can you pray to the Father for him, and also pray that he himself would come, visit you and stay? Like this: when you pray to the Spirit directly, you think of him as God over all, blessed for ever. When you ask the Father and the Son for him, you think of him as sent by them in this order of working. Christians naturally pray both ways.
A third is why so much weight falls on not grieving him. "Do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption" (Ephesians 4:30, ESV). He comes to you in the name of the whole blessed Trinity, with their love, and on their stooping. To do what grieves him, coming like that and for that purpose, makes the sin far worse. He can fairly expect a warm welcome from you, for his own sake and for the work he comes to do. And when you add that the Father and the Son have sent him, loaded with their love and grace for your soul, it ought to be of unspeakable worth to you.
He is poured out. Paul speaks of the Holy Spirit "whom he poured out on us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior" (Titus 3:6, ESV). This was the main way the Old Testament spoke of his coming: "until the Spirit is poured upon us from on high, and the wilderness becomes a fruitful field" (Isaiah 32:15, ESV). "I will pour my Spirit upon your offspring, and my blessing on your descendants" (Isaiah 44:3, ESV). And the great verse we keep coming back to: "I will pour out on the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem a spirit of grace and pleas for mercy" (Zechariah 12:10, ESV). The picture is water. Probably what is chiefly meant is power and abundance.
Put the three together, given, sent and poured out, and they show three marks of the covenant of grace. It is free, for he is given. It is ordered and sure, for it all runs from the Father's love through the Son's purchase. And it is effective, for it is poured out.
How you receive him. Remember the two roles. When the Spirit comes as sanctifier, your receiving is purely passive, like a jar being filled with water. He comes as the wind came to Ezekiel's dry bones, and they lived. But when he comes as Comforter, it is different. Jesus says of him, "whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, for he dwells with you and will be in you" (John 14:17, ESV). The world cannot receive him because it does not know him. Believers can, because they do know him. So there is something you actively do in receiving the Spirit as Comforter, though there was nothing you did in receiving him for new birth. That something is faith. "Did you receive the Spirit by works of the law or by hearing with faith?" (Galatians 3:2, ESV). Believing is the condition: "the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were to receive" (John 7:39, ESV).
Faith does this in three ways.
First, faith takes him as promised. It is faith alone that makes use of what God promises: "the message they heard did not benefit them, because they were not united by faith" (Hebrews 4:2, ESV). You were "sealed with the promised Holy Spirit" (Ephesians 1:13, ESV), and you receive "the promised Spirit through faith" (Galatians 3:14, ESV). So faith looks at God's promise, and Christ's, to send the Spirit for every purpose you need him, and it waits, and holds on, and joins itself to that promise until it has him.
Second, faith asks. Asking for the Spirit of God, in Christ's name, whether directly or under the name of one of his fruits, is the chief work of faith in this world.
Third, faith welcomes him. It listens for his moves and acts on them as he wills. You do all of this by faith, looking at him as purchased by Jesus Christ and promised by the Father. You seek him at God's hand, and you receive him.
How he stays. The Bible says it two ways. In general, that he will stay with you. In particular, that he stays by dwelling in you. I have written elsewhere about his dwelling and will not repeat it. I will only say that he dwells in you chiefly, perhaps only, as a Spirit of sanctification. You can see that from what he does when he dwells: he gives life (Romans 8:11); he makes a temple holy ("your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you," 1 Corinthians 6:19, ESV); and he stays there permanently, which can only be said of sanctifying. Yet Jesus also speaks of his staying as your Comforter: "to be with you forever" (John 14:16, ESV).
Here is the difficulty. The Spirit of holiness lives in you always, so you cannot lose your holiness altogether. But if the Comforter stays with you forever, how can you ever completely lose your comfort? Five things help.
First, he is promised to stay forever, in contrast to Christ's staying. Christ in the flesh was with the disciples for a little while and was leaving. When he promises another Comforter, they might fear he would only visit and leave. But Jesus says, in effect: fear not, this is the last arrangement. When I am gone, the Comforter will do all the remaining work, and he will not leave you.
Second, he may always stay with you, though not always comfort you. He is with you for other purposes, to sanctify you and keep you holy. That was David's case: "take not your Holy Spirit from me" (Psalm 51:11, ESV). The Spirit of holiness was still with David. But he adds, "Restore to me the joy of your salvation" (Psalm 51:12, ESV). That was the comfort he had lost.
Third, the Comforter may be present as a comforter even when he is not actually comforting. As to holiness, he cannot live in you without making you holy, for the temple of God is holy. But as to comfort, when and how much is entirely in his sovereign will.
Fourth, the Spirit often works at it and offers comfort that you do not take. The well is close, and you do not see it. As a sanctifier he comes with power, to conquer an unbelieving heart. As a Comforter he comes with sweetness, to be taken in by a believing heart. He speaks, and you do not believe it is his voice. He offers comfort, and you turn it down. "In the day of my trouble I seek the Lord... my soul refuses to be comforted" (Psalm 77:2, ESV).
Fifth, I deny that the Holy Spirit ever completely leaves a believing soul without comfort. You may be dark and clouded. You may refuse comfort and find none. But underneath, you have a foundation of comfort that will in time be drawn out. When God promises to heal sinners and restore comfort to them (Isaiah 57:18), it does not mean they had none, only that they did not have as much as they needed.
So the Spirit, being sent and given, stays with the souls of believers. He does not leave them, though he shows himself in different ways in his work. And that work is where I turn next.
Part Three, Chapter 2: How the Spirit Works in You
I have said where the Holy Spirit comes from, how he is given and how you receive him. Now I come to what he actually does in you once he is given and received. First, the manner of his working. Second, the particular things he produces in your soul, in which you have fellowship with him. This chapter is the first. I will go through it briefly.
He works effectively. Paul says, "All these are empowered by one and the same Spirit" (1 Corinthians 12:11, ESV). He is speaking there of the Spirit's gifts, but the way is the same with graces and privileges. The Spirit does it by working. That shows he is a person, especially with the words that follow, "who apportions to each one individually as he wills" (1 Corinthians 12:11, ESV), because to work by one's own will belongs only to a person. And look at verse 6 of the same chapter: "God who empowers them all in everyone" (1 Corinthians 12:6, ESV). What Paul says there of God, he says of the Spirit in verse 11. So the same verse that shows the Spirit is a person shows he is God.
What do you learn from this? That whatever you have from him, you have because he works it. He does not merely set an argument before you, or persuade you only with reasons, and then leave you to do what you can with them. He himself works effectively what he gives, whether grace or comfort.
He gives as he chooses. "To each one individually as he wills." To distribute differently to different people takes choice, judgment and a free will. To one he gives one thing in a high degree, to another, another thing in a different degree. And that keeps his people always depending on him. Who should be unhappy with the portion he gives? Who has a claim on what he hands out as he pleases?
He gives freely. The disciples "began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance" (Acts 2:4, ESV). And notice something about how your salvation is arranged: no one person of the Trinity limits the freedom of another. The Father's love in sending the Son is free, and it takes nothing from the Son's freedom, who lays down his life freely too. The Son's purchase takes nothing from the freedom of the Father's grace in forgiving you. And the Father and Son's sending of the Spirit takes nothing from his freedom in his work. The reason is that the will of Father, Son and Holy Spirit is one and the same, so that when one acts, all three have counselled, and each acts freely in it.
That is the manner of his work: power, choice and freedom. It describes how he produces the effects I am going to talk about.
What I will cover, and what I will not. I will take the effects as I find them scattered through Scripture, going from the general to the particular. I do not mean to gather every one of them, only the ones that most plainly appear. And keep one thing in mind: I am speaking of the Spirit mainly as a Comforter, not as a sanctifier. His constant work in you all your days, supplying new light, power and strength, belongs to sanctification, and I leave it out. Nor will I speak of what he does toward other people, in testifying and convicting the world, where he is properly an advocate. I will speak only of what he does as a comforter in and for those to whom he is given.
Part Three, Chapter 3: What the Spirit Does for You
Everything I called an effect of the Holy Spirit in the last chapter is the very thing in which you have fellowship with him. These are the places where you meet him as your Comforter. Here they are.
First, he brings Christ's words back to you. Jesus said, "the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you" (John 14:26, ESV). That promise has two parts: teaching and reminding. I will speak of his teaching when I come to the anointing. For now, his reminding.
It can be taken two ways. First, in terms of the words themselves. Jesus promised his apostles that the Spirit would bring to their minds, with immediate power, what he had said, so that they could write and preach it for the good of the church. Peter says "men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit" (2 Peter 1:21, ESV). The apostles forgot a great deal of what Christ had said, and what they kept by ordinary memory was not enough to be a rule of faith for the church. So the Spirit did this work, and what they gave out was without error. (Editor's note: Owen also reads Luke 1:3 as saying Luke had "perfect knowledge of things from above," meaning from the Spirit. The ESV reads "having followed all things closely for some time past," so we do not lean on that verse here. Owen's point stands on 2 Peter 1:21.)
Second, in terms of the comfort of what he had said, and I think this is much of what Jesus meant. He had given them precious promises of what they would have from him, of the Father's love, of the glory being prepared for them. But he knew they were unable to use any of it for their own comfort. So he says, in effect: the Spirit will bring it all back to your minds, in full strength, for the very purpose for which I said it.
This is one reason it was to your advantage that Christ's bodily presence be replaced by the Spirit's. While Christ was with them, how little effect his heavenly promises had on their hearts! When the Spirit came, how full of joy he made everything! And it is his work to the end of the world, to bring the promises of Christ home to your mind and heart, and give you their sweetness, much beyond what the disciples found when Christ spoke them in person.
See what follows in the next verse: "Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you" (John 14:27, ESV). The Comforter is sent to bring Christ's words to mind, and the result is peace. Whatever peace, relief, joy or support you have ever received from anything Christ did or promised, all of it belongs to this work of the Comforter. It does no good to use your natural powers to remember the promises of Christ. Without him it does not work, as you find daily. But when the Comforter takes up the work, it is done.
Keep in mind how he works, here and in every effect that follows: powerfully, as he chooses, and freely.
Powerfully: that is why comfort from the words of Christ sometimes breaks through all opposition into the saddest and darkest condition. It makes people sing in a dungeon, rejoice in flames, and glory in tribulation. Where does that come from? The Spirit works effectively. He will work, and no one can stop him. Sometimes the heavens are black over you and the earth shakes under you, and you are ready to faint. Here is your relief: your comfort or your trouble does not finally depend on your outward condition, or on how your own heart feels, but on the powerful working of the Holy Spirit, to whom you give yourself up by faith.
As he chooses: he gives "to each one individually as he wills." So this comes in great variety, in the same person and in different people. You can be full of joy in a great trial, and every promise brings sweetness when the pressure is heavy. Another time, in a small trial, you go looking for comfort, search the promise, and find it a long way off. Why? Because the Spirit gives as he wills. Faith watches this above all in the business of comfort. It depends on his sovereign will, so it waits for him until his good pleasure chooses the moment.
Freely: that is why comfort is sometimes given when you do not expect it, when your heart has every reason to expect only sorrow. Sometimes it is the first thing that brings back a backsliding soul who might fairly expect to be cast off entirely.
In this first work you have fellowship with him. All the life of your comfort is stored up in the promises of Christ. They are the breasts you are fed from. But who does not know how powerless they are in the bare letter, even when you have squeezed everything out of them by thought and meditation? And who does not know how unexpectedly they can break on the soul with a conquering, endearing life? Here faith deals directly with the Holy Spirit. It looks at the promises, looks up to him, waits for him, and owns him in what he does. As soon as your soul begins to feel the life of a promise warming you, holding you up, and delivering you from fear, you can know, and ought to know, that the Holy Spirit is there. That adds to the joy, and leads you into fellowship with him.
Second, he glorifies Christ in you. "He will glorify me, for he will take what is mine and declare it to you. All that the Father has is mine; therefore I said that he will take what is mine and declare it to you" (John 16:14–15, ESV). This tells you how far off a spirit is from being the Comforter when it puts itself in Christ's place and says, "As for the one who suffered at Jerusalem, there's no need to trouble ourselves about him. The Spirit is everything now." That is not the Comforter. His work is to glorify the one who sends him, and many false spirits have gone out into the world that do not.
What does he take from Christ? "All that the Father has." Jesus is not speaking of the essence of the Father and the Son, but of the grace passed to you through them. He calls these "my things" because they are the fruit of his purchase. They are what the Father in his eternal love provided to be handed out in the blood of his Son, all the fruits of election. The Comforter receives these, which means they are put in his hands to dispose of for your good. And then, "declare it to you." He shows them, makes them known.
That is how he is a comforter. He reveals to your soul the good things of the covenant of grace, which the Father prepared and the Son bought. He shows you mercy, grace, forgiveness, righteousness, acceptance with God. He lets you know that these are the things Christ won for you, and shows them for your comfort. You know them as first prepared in the Father's eternal love, bought for you by Christ, and stored up in the covenant of grace for your use. That is when Christ is made great in your heart. That is when you know what kind of Savior he is. You never honor Christ, on seeing the eternal redemption he has bought for you, without this being the Comforter's special work. "No one can say 'Jesus is Lord' except in the Holy Spirit" (1 Corinthians 12:3, ESV).
Third, he pours God's love into your heart. "God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us" (Romans 5:5, ESV). The context is so clear that nothing can be added: this is God's love to you, not your love to God. God's love is of two kinds in Scripture: the love of his purpose to do you good, and the love of his acceptance and approval. How can either be poured out in your heart? Not in itself, but in your sense of it, in a spiritual understanding of it. The Comforter gives a sweet and plentiful assurance of God's love to you, and your soul is taken with it, delighted and satisfied.
To give a poor sinful soul a comforting persuasion, one that reaches all its faculties and feelings, that God in Jesus Christ loves it, delights in it, is well pleased with it: that is an inexpressible mercy. And you have it in a special way from the Holy Spirit. It is his own work. All his works are works of love, and this one mixes with everything else he does. In it you have fellowship with him, and through him with the Father, in that very love poured out in your heart. All you have of heaven in this world lies here.
Fourth, he bears witness with your spirit. "The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God" (Romans 8:16, ESV). You know whose children you are by nature: children of wrath. By the Spirit you are put in another position and adopted as children of God. That is why he is called "the Spirit of adoption" (Romans 8:15). But sometimes your soul, because it still has something left of the old nature, is led to question whether you are God's child or not. It is a matter of the greatest importance, so you put in your claim with all the evidence you have.
Here the Spirit comes and bears witness. The picture is a court case. The judge is seated. You state your claim, produce your evidence and plead your case. Your opponents do everything they can to undercut it. In the middle of the trial, a person of known and proven honesty walks into the court and gives full testimony on your side. That shuts the mouths of all your enemies and fills you with joy.
That is what happens here. Your conscience brings you before the law of God. There you plead that you are a child of God, and you produce everything by which faith gives you a place in him. Meanwhile Satan opposes with all his might. Sin and the law help him. Flaws are found in your evidence, and you hang in suspense about the result. In the middle of the plea, the Comforter comes, and by a word of promise or in some other way, he overpowers your heart with a comforting assurance that your plea is good and you are a child of God. So the verse says, "bears witness with our spirit." While your spirit is pleading, he gives witness on your side. And at the same time he enables you to act as a child toward the Father, in a childlike and loving obedience, and Scripture calls that "crying, 'Abba! Father!'" (Galatians 4:6, ESV).
Remember how he works: effectively, as he chooses, and freely. That is why the dispute sometimes drags on, perhaps for many years. The law seems at times to be winning, and sin and Satan to be rejoicing, and you are full of dread about your inheritance. Perhaps your own witness, from your faith, your holiness and your past experience, keeps up the plea with some life. But the work is not done until the Spirit, who works freely when and how he chooses, comes in with his testimony too. He clothes his power with a word of promise, makes everyone listen to him, and ends the dispute.
In this he gives you holy fellowship with himself. You know his voice when he speaks. There is something too great in it to be the effect of any created power. When the Lord Jesus stilled the sea and wind with a word, everyone with him knew that divine power was at hand (Matthew 8:25–27). And when the Holy Spirit stills the storms raised in your soul with one word, and gives it an immediate calm, you know his divine power, and you rejoice in his presence.
Fifth, he seals you. "In him you also... were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit" (Ephesians 1:13, ESV). "Do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption" (Ephesians 4:30, ESV). I am not certain exactly what this picture means, but I will say what I am persuaded of. A seal has two aspects: what it is, and what it is for.
What a seal is: it presses the image of the seal on the thing sealed. In this sense, the real giving of God's image to you is your sealing. The Spirit, truly giving you the image of God "in true righteousness and holiness" (Ephesians 4:24, ESV), seals you. To have this stamp of the Holy Spirit, so that it is evidence to your soul that you are accepted, is to be sealed. In this sense the Lord Jesus was sealed by God: "on him God the Father has set his seal" (John 6:27, ESV).
What a seal is for: two things. One is to confirm a grant or a testimony. That is why "whoever receives his testimony sets his seal to this, that God is true" (John 3:33, ESV). The promise is the great grant of life and salvation in Christ, and many take it this way: God gives you the Spirit to assure your heart that the promise is true and unalterable. But I do not see how this fits the very words. It says that you are sealed, not that the promise is sealed. When we seal a deed, we do not say the man is sealed, but the deed.
The other use of a seal is to mark as one's own, to keep safe. People put their seal on what they own and want to keep. The servants of God are sealed in this sense in Revelation 7:4, marked with God's mark as his own. You are sealed when you are marked out for God as an heir of the inheritance he bought, to be kept until the day of redemption. If this is the sense, it speaks not of something felt in the heart but of your safety.
If you ask me which sense is chiefly meant, I say the first, without leaving out the second. You are sealed for the day of redemption when, from the stamp and image of the Spirit on your soul, you have a fresh sense of God's love and a comforting assurance that he accepts you. As Paul says, we "are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit" (2 Corinthians 3:18, ESV). And in this he brings you into fellowship with himself. Likeness to him gives you confidence with him. You look for his work and pray for his fruits, and when any trace of Christ's image in you gives you the assurance that you have been set apart for God, you have fellowship with him in it.
Sixth, he is the earnest of your inheritance. God has "given us his Spirit in our hearts as a guarantee" (2 Corinthians 1:22, ESV); "he who has prepared us for this very thing is God, who has given us the Spirit as a guarantee" (2 Corinthians 5:5, ESV); and you are sealed with "the promised Holy Spirit, who is the guarantee of our inheritance" (Ephesians 1:13–14, ESV). (Editor's note: Where the ESV says "guarantee" in these three places, Owen's older translation says "earnest." We keep "earnest" in our own words, because Owen's argument rests on what the word meant in the marketplace: a first payment that is part of the whole, given in advance as a pledge that the rest will follow. "Down payment" says the same. The word "guarantee" can also sound like the "pledge" Owen rejects below, which is something left in keeping as security, so keep in mind that Owen means a first instalment that is part of the whole.)
It is the Spirit himself, as a person, who is the earnest. Some have asked which grace or gift of the Spirit it is. That is a pointless question. God has given you his Spirit in your heart, and in giving you the Spirit, he gives you the earnest.
And what is an earnest? Some render it "pledge," but that cannot be what is meant. A pledge is a possession left in someone's keeping to assure him you will pay him something else, like a pawn. What is meant here is a part of what is to come, and only a part, as in ordinary trade. An earnest is part of the price, given in advance to assure the person who receives it that at the appointed time he will receive all that was promised. Two things are needed. It has to be part of the whole, of the same kind and nature. And it has to confirm a promise: first the whole is promised, and then the earnest is given as a guarantee of that promise.
So the Spirit is your earnest. God gives you the promise of eternal life. To confirm it, he gives you his Spirit, who is the first part of the promise, to make you sure of the whole.
He is an earnest on God's part, who gives him, and on your part, who receive him.
On God's part, he gives him as a choice part of the inheritance itself, of the same kind as the whole. The full inheritance promised is the fullness of the Spirit in the enjoyment of God. When the Spirit given you now has perfectly taken away all sin and sorrow, and made you able to enjoy God's glory in his presence, that is the full inheritance. So the Spirit given now, to fit you in some measure for enjoying God while you are here, is the earnest of the whole. And why does God do it? To make you sure. He has given you so many securities outside you, his word, his promises, his covenant, his oath. And he is pleased to give you one inside you as well (Isaiah 59:21), so that you have all the security you can take. What more could be done? He has given you the Holy Spirit: the firstfruits of glory, the utmost pledge of his love, the earnest of everything.
On your part, the Spirit is an earnest because he gives you knowledge of two things. First, God's love. Your acceptance shows you that he is your Father and will treat you as a child, and so that the inheritance will be yours. God sends his Spirit into your heart, "crying, 'Abba! Father!'" And what do you conclude? "So you are no longer a slave, but a son, and if a son, then an heir through God" (Galatians 4:7, ESV). Paul says it again in Romans 8:17: "if children, then heirs, heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ." On the Spirit's assurance that you are a child, the conclusion is that you are an heir. That the Spirit is given for this is stated in 1 John 3:24: "And by this we know that he abides in us, by the Spirit whom he has given us." John is speaking of our union with God, which he describes just before: "Whoever keeps his commandments abides in him, and he in them" (1 John 3:24, ESV). His dwelling in you is by that Spirit, and your share in him comes from that. He gives you a sense of it when he pleases.
Second, the Spirit as earnest lets you know your inheritance, as we see in 1 Corinthians 2:9–10. An earnest, being part of the whole, gives knowledge of the whole, and so does the Spirit.
So the Spirit is an earnest in every way. As much as you have of the Spirit, so much you have of heaven in perfect enjoyment, and so much evidence of its coming fullness. You rejoice in every gracious act of his in your heart, as a drop from heaven, and you long for the ocean.
One more thing, briefly. What is the difference between you receiving the Spirit as the earnest of the whole inheritance, and hypocrites who "have tasted the goodness of the word of God and the powers of the age to come" (Hebrews 6:5, ESV)? First, I see no reason to think that "the powers of the age to come" means the joys of heaven. It is more likely the powerful ministry of the gospel's ordinances, the great effective things of the age to come. And second, suppose it does mean heaven's glory. There is still a wide difference between taking a passing taste of it yourself and receiving a lasting earnest from God. A hypocrite may have his thoughts lifted into great joy for a time, thinking of the good things of God's kingdom in themselves. But the Spirit as an earnest gives you a pledge of them as provided for you in the love of God and by the purchase of his Son.
Seventh, he anoints you. Paul writes that "it is God who establishes us with you in Christ, and has anointed us" (2 Corinthians 1:21, ESV). "His anointing teaches you about everything" (1 John 2:27, ESV). I cannot follow this picture back to its roots here, and I have done it elsewhere. Behind it lie the anointings in Israel and the offices people were consecrated to by them. Closer still is the anointing of Jesus Christ, from which he is called Messiah, the Christ. He is the one of whom it is said, "God, your God, has anointed you with the oil of gladness beyond your companions" (Hebrews 1:9, ESV), which matches "he gives the Spirit without measure" (John 3:34, ESV). You have the Spirit by measure, and you are anointed with the oil of gladness. Christ has the fullness, from which your measure is given, so he is anointed above you, "that in everything he might be preeminent" (Colossians 1:18, ESV). How you share in his offices as king, priest and prophet by the same Spirit would take a long discussion, and my plan is only to set out the things at hand.
So I fix on one place, where the gifts of the Spirit in Christ's anointing are listed. It is Isaiah 11:2–3: "And the Spirit of the LORD shall rest upon him, the Spirit of wisdom and understanding, the Spirit of counsel and might, the Spirit of knowledge and the fear of the LORD." Wisdom, counsel and understanding are chiefly pressed, and on that account all "the treasures of wisdom and knowledge" are said to be hidden in him (Colossians 2:3, ESV). Where your anointing for the same purpose is mentioned, it is said to produce just such qualities. In 1 John 2:27 the work of the anointing is to teach you. That is the great promise of the Comforter, that he would "teach you all things" (John 14:26, ESV) and "guide you into all the truth" (John 16:13, ESV). There are three kinds of teaching by the Spirit.
One is the teaching of conviction and illumination. So the Spirit teaches the world, meaning many in it, through the preaching of the word (John 16:8).
A second is the teaching of sanctification: opening blind eyes, giving a new understanding, shining in your heart "to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ" (2 Corinthians 4:6, ESV), and giving you a saving knowledge of the gospel. This is common to all believers.
The third is the teaching of consolation: making sweet and joyful to your soul the things shown to it of God's mind and will. Here the oil of the Spirit is the "oil of gladness," and the name of Christ that it reveals is a sweet ointment: "your name is oil poured out" (Song of Solomon 1:3, ESV). You see this by daily experience. Very many have little taste or sweetness for truths they truly know and believe. But when you are taught by this anointing, oh, how sweet is everything you know of God! It has to do especially with the Spirit teaching you the love of God in Christ and the shining of his face, which, as David says, puts gladness in your heart: "Lift up the light of your face upon us, O LORD! You have put more joy in my heart than they have when their grain and wine abound" (Psalm 4:6–7, ESV).
And that is the great protection that keeps the soul close to the truth. John speaks of being taught by this anointing as the way you are kept from being led astray. To know any truth in its power and sweetness is the surest protection for staying with it. Those who find no more sweetness in truth than in error will easily swap one for the other.
I must ask pardon for passing so quickly over these great things. All the privileges you enjoy, all the dignity you are given, your whole dedication to God, your share in the advantages of the church and your approaches to God in worship, your separation from the world, the name by which you are called: all flow from this one effect of the Holy Spirit. When any good truth of the gospel comes home to your soul with life and power, giving you gladness of heart and changing you into its image, the Holy Spirit is at his work, and is pouring out his oil.
Eighth, he gives you adoption. He is called "the Spirit of adoption" (Romans 8:15, ESV). That means either that he is given to adopted ones, to make them sure of it and to produce in their hearts a sense of the Father's adopting love, or else that he gives them the privilege itself, as John 1:12 suggests. There is no clash with Galatians 4:6, "because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts." God may send the Spirit of prayer into your heart because you are a son, and still adopt you by his Spirit.
Ninth, he prays in you. He is also called the Spirit of supplication, and under that name he is promised: "I will pour out on the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem a spirit of grace and pleas for mercy" (Zechariah 12:10, ESV). How he does it in you is told in Romans 8:26–27 and Galatians 4:6, and that is why you are told to "pray in the Holy Spirit" (Jude 20, ESV). You can look at your prayers in two ways. First, as a spiritual duty God requires of you, worked in you by the Spirit of sanctification. Second, as a way of keeping fellowship with God, in which you ease your heart in the Father's arms and receive refreshing tastes of his love. Your soul is never lifted higher with the love of God than when the Spirit takes it into close fellowship with him in prayer. In that sense prayer belongs to the Spirit of comfort.
Gathering it up. That is what he does in you and for you: he brings Christ's promises to mind; he glorifies Christ in your heart; he pours God's love into you; he bears witness with you about your spiritual condition; he seals you for the day of redemption, as the earnest of your inheritance; he anoints you with privileges for your comfort; he confirms your adoption; and he is present with you in your prayers. Here is the wisdom of faith: to find the Comforter and meet him in every one of these, so that you do not lose their sweetness by being in the dark about who gives them, and do not fall short in the return he asks of you.
Part Three, Chapter 4: What Follows When the Spirit Works
I have gone through the noblest and best-known things the Holy Spirit does in you. Now I name the general results those works produce in the heart of a believer. As before, I will do little more than name them.
First, comfort. "So the church throughout all Judea and Galilee and Samaria had peace and was being built up. And walking in the fear of the Lord and in the comfort of the Holy Spirit, it multiplied" (Acts 9:31, ESV). He is the Comforter, and he gives comfort. Whenever Scripture speaks of comfort given to the saints, and it does so very often, it is the direct result of what the Holy Spirit does for them.
What is comfort? In general, it is the settling of the soul into rest in the middle of its troubles, by the presence of some good that outweighs the evil it is wrestling with. Wherever the Bible speaks of comfort in this proper sense, it has trouble in view. "For as we share abundantly in Christ's sufferings, so through Christ we share abundantly in comfort too" (2 Corinthians 1:5, ESV). In the works of the Holy Spirit I have described lie all the springs of your comfort. There is no comfort except from them, and there is no trouble that you cannot find comfort in through them. Take the worst calamity that can fall on a child of God, or all the evils Paul lists in Romans 8:35 piled together. Let that person have the Holy Spirit doing those works for him, and in spite of every evil his comfort will overflow. If he has a sense of God's love poured into his heart, a clear witness inside that he is a child of God, that he is sealed as God's own, that he is an heir of all God's promises, it is impossible for that man not to triumph in all his troubles.
From this source Scripture describes comfort by its qualities.
It is lasting. "Now may our Lord Jesus Christ himself, and God our Father, who loved us and gave us eternal comfort and good hope through grace" (2 Thessalonians 2:16, ESV). It does not vanish, because it rises from everlasting things: everlasting love, eternal redemption, an everlasting inheritance.
It is strong. It is given so that "we who have fled for refuge might have strong encouragement to hold fast to the hope set before us" (Hebrews 6:18, ESV). Troubles can press against you with strong bands, and your comfort is strong too. It overflows and cannot be conquered.
It is precious. That is why Paul makes it the great motive for obedience when he urges the Philippians: "So if there is any encouragement in Christ, any comfort from love, any participation in the Spirit" (Philippians 2:1, ESV). He means: if you put any value on this precious mercy of comfort in Christ, let it show in the way you live. (Editor's note: In Hebrews 6:18 and Philippians 2:1 the ESV says "encouragement" where Owen's translation says "consolation." It is the same root as the Greek word that gives the Comforter his name, which is Owen's point, so we keep "comfort" in our own words.)
All this takes in so much of your walk with God that the Holy Spirit takes his name for the whole of what he does from this one thing: he is the Comforter. Just as you have no comfort except from him, so all he does for you has this result in you, more or less. I will go further and say that whatever you have, in any of the things I have named, that does not bring comfort with it, at least in the root if not yet in the ripe fruit, is not from the Holy Spirit. A good part of your fellowship with him lies in the comfort you receive from him. That teaches you where to turn when you are in distress, whom to pray to, and whom to wait on when you are perplexed.
Second, peace. "May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that by the power of the Holy Spirit you may abound in hope" (Romans 15:13, ESV). Jesus says he will give another Comforter, and then what? "Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you" (John 14:27, ESV). He gives his peace no other way than by giving the Comforter.
The peace of Christ is your soul's sense that God accepts you in friendship. Christ is "our peace" (Ephesians 2:14, ESV), having killed the hostility between God and us. "Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ" (Romans 5:1, ESV). It carries with it deliverance from wrath, curse and condemnation.
Suppose you are chosen in the Father's eternal love, redeemed by the Son's blood, and justified freely, so that you have a right to every promise of the gospel. Still, by no reasoning of your own heart, and by no thinking over the promises, can you be brought to settled peace, until it is produced in you as a fruit of the Holy Spirit's work. "The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace" (Galatians 5:22, ESV). "To set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace" (Romans 8:6, ESV). All you have, you have from him.
Third, joy. The Spirit is "the oil of gladness" (Hebrews 1:9, ESV). "For the kingdom of God is not a matter of eating and drinking but of righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit" (Romans 14:17, ESV). The Thessalonians "received the word in much affliction, with the joy of the Holy Spirit" (1 Thessalonians 1:6, ESV). Peter says you rejoice "with joy that is inexpressible and filled with glory" (1 Peter 1:8, ESV). To give joy to believers is the chief work of the Comforter, and the "rejoic[ing] in hope of the glory of God" in Romans 5:2, which carries you through any tribulation, rises from the Spirit's pouring out God's love in your heart, in verse 5.
There are two ways the Spirit works this joy in you.
Directly. He works it by himself, without any reasoning or conclusion of yours. In sanctification he is a well of water springing up in the soul. In comfort he directly works in your mind a joyful, spiritual frame, and fills you with gladness. This does not come from your thinking back over the love of God. It gives you the occasion for it. He made John the Baptist leap for joy in the womb when the mother of Jesus came near (Luke 1:44), and so he can fill you with gladness by a direct act, and then your soul is lifted by this very thing to think about God's love. No account can be given of this joy except that the Spirit works it when and how he chooses. He quietly pours it into your soul, overcoming fears and sorrows, and sometimes filling you with unspeakable raptures.
Through his other works. By his other works he gives you a sense of God's love, with your adoption and acceptance, and as you think of that, he enables you to receive it. You will see easily that he lays a sufficient foundation for this joy. But you cannot, by any reasoning of your own from these things, stir your heart to the joy I mean. It is left as much the Spirit's own work to do it by way of these considerations as to do it directly. You can see this in Psalm 23:5–6. "You anoint my head with oil" (Psalm 23:5, ESV), and from that comes the shout of joy: "Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life" (Psalm 23:6, ESV). Read Isaiah 35 from start to finish for more.
Fourth, hope. Hope is another result of these workings in you (Romans 15:13). If you followed these results into all the branches that shoot out from them, into exultation, assurance, boldness, confidence, expectation and glorying, you would see how far all your fellowship with God is shaped by them. I only name the heads, and hurry on.
Part Three, Chapter 5: Two Ways of Getting the Spirit Wrong
I should now show you how you have fellowship with the Holy Spirit in the things I have described. But there are mistakes in the world about his work, on both sides: some despise his real work, and others claim a work that is not his. I cannot pass them by without comment.
A note on the times. (Editor's note: Owen wrote in the 1650s, after a civil war and in the middle of fierce arguments about worship and about who has the Spirit. The earlier established church had required set forms of prayer read by the minister, and had pushed out preachers who prayed freely. New movements were now claiming direct revelations of the Spirit, apart from Scripture and ministers. Owen answers both. We keep his reasoning, which has outlasted the controversies, and shorten the points that belong only to his own day.)
First, those who despise the Spirit. Look at people who say they believe the gospel of Jesus Christ and yet condemn and despise his Spirit in all his gifts and graces. While Christ was with his disciples, he made them no greater promise than this: that he would give them the Holy Spirit. He taught them to ask the Father for him as something they needed, as children need bread (Luke 11:13). He promised him as a spring of water within them: "Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, 'Out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.' Now this he said about the Spirit" (John 7:38–39, ESV). He promised him to carry on the whole work of the ministry (John 16:8–11). And when Christ went up to heaven, the pouring out of gifts rested on this: that he "received from the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit" (Acts 2:33, ESV). That marked the greatest difference between the new covenant and the old. The Spirit calls people to the ministry: "Set apart for me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them" (Acts 13:2, ESV). He equips them with gifts (1 Corinthians 12:7–10). So the whole religion you profess, without the Spirit's work, is nothing.
Yet Satan has been so desperate, and men so wicked, that their great effort has been to shut him out of all gospel life.
His gifts were almost shut out of the public worship of the church by an elaborate form of service the minister was made to read. Reading a form is neither a special gift of the Holy Spirit nor a gift of the ministry at all. Learned men found many pleas to defend it: its age, its approval by martyrs, the beauty of uniform worship. But their main argument was the vain babbling of men who prayed "by the Spirit." Strip it all down and it comes to this: "Though the Lord Jesus Christ has promised the Holy Spirit to be with his church to the end of the world, to equip people with gifts for the worship he requires, yet the work is not done properly. The gifts he gives are not enough. So we will not only help people with our directions, we will shut them out of using their gifts." And the result was the setting apart of men for the ministry who had never "tasted... the powers of the age to come" nor received any gift of the Spirit; a showy outward worship foreign to the plainness of the gospel; and the silencing and banishing of men whose ministry came with "demonstration of the Spirit and of power" (1 Corinthians 2:4, ESV).
The contempt came down into private life too. The very name of the Spirit became an insult. To claim to pray by him made you an object of scorn from all sorts of people: "What! You are full of the Spirit! You will pray by the Spirit! You have the gift! Let's hear your nonsense." Yet these men would feel wronged not to be called Christians. May the Lord grant that nothing of this cursed leaven remains among us!
Is this the right welcome for the one our Savior promised to send to make up for his bodily absence, so that you would lose nothing by it? Is it not enough that people look no further for comfort than the moral reasoning pagans have? One infinitely holy person of the Trinity has taken on himself the office of being your Comforter, and they must oppose and despise him too! Let us be eager for the gifts of the Spirit, not envious of them.
Second, those who claim a spirit that is not his. From all this you can test the spirits that have gone out into the world. The sin of the generation now passing lay in open opposition to the Holy Spirit. Satan, who does not live wholly in any form that God's providence has thrown down, has now disguised himself as an angel of light, and he will claim the Spirit too. But there are "deceitful spirits" (1 Timothy 4:1, ESV), and you are commanded, "do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, for many false prophets have gone out into the world" (1 John 4:1, ESV). That means people who claim new teachings revealed by the Spirit. Paul hints at the same deceit when he urges the church not to be "quickly shaken in mind or alarmed, either by a spirit or a spoken word" (2 Thessalonians 2:2, ESV). The spirits of these days are so crude that anyone with half an eye can find them out, and yet the delusion is so strong that many are deceived.
Satan has run to the opposite extreme from his earlier one. Not long ago he wanted ordinances without the Spirit. Now he wants a spirit without and against ordinances. Then he wanted a ministry without the Spirit. Now he wants a Spirit without a ministry. Then reading the word was enough, with no preaching or praying by the Spirit. Now the Spirit is enough, with no reading or studying of the word at all. Then he allowed a literal embrace of what Christ did in the flesh. Now he talks of Christ in the Spirit only, and denies that he has come in the flesh, which is exactly the mark of the false spirit John warns of. The Spirit you are to listen to is the Spirit Christ promised. So test the claimants by the effects Christ promised.
Does it bring Christ's words to mind? This was his work toward the apostles, who were to write the Scriptures, and it is his work toward you. What Christ said and did was "written so that you may believe... and that by believing you may have life in his name" (John 20:31, ESV). So the Spirit Christ promised brings to your mind, and gives you understanding of, the words of Christ in Scripture. The spirit that is out in the world does the opposite. Its business is to run down what is written, to claim new revelations of its own, and to lead you away from the written word, where the whole work of God and all the promises of Christ are recorded.
Does it glorify Christ? "He will glorify me, for he will take what is mine and declare it to you" (John 16:14, ESV). The Spirit makes the Christ who suffered at Jerusalem glorious in your heart, by showing you his love, grace and purchase. The spirit that has gone out glorifies itself, and runs down the Christ who suffered for us, calling him a "Christ outside us," which it slights and despises. All being rooted in the Father's love, the Son came to glorify the Father: "I do not seek my own glory" (John 8:50, ESV). The Son having finished the work of redemption was then to be glorified, as he prayed: "Father, the hour has come; glorify your Son" (John 17:1, ESV). So the Spirit is sent, and his work is to glorify the Son. A spirit whose whole business is to glorify himself shows you where he comes from.
Does it give you freedom and rest? The Holy Spirit pours God's love into your heart and fills you with joy, peace and hope, with liberty, confidence and the boldness of a child. The spirit people boast of now is a spirit of bondage, whose chief work is to make people quake and tremble, to drive them up and down with horror, and to make their whole person wither. Nothing shows more plainly that it is not the Comforter than this: it is a spirit of bondage in those it is in, and a spirit of cruelty and reproach toward others. That is the opposite of the Spirit of adoption and comfort. (Editor's note: "Spirit of adoption" is Owen's wording for Romans 8:15. The ESV has "the Spirit of adoption as sons," in the same verse that contrasts it with "the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear.")
Does it pray? The Holy Spirit is a Spirit of prayer and supplication. The spirit we are dealing with claims to carry people above such low means of fellowship with God. It would be easy to go through every great work of the Holy Spirit in believers and show that the pretending spirit of our days contradicts each one. So Satan has passed from one extreme to another, from bitter opposition to the Spirit of Christ to a cursed pretending to have the Spirit, always to the same end.
Part Three, Chapter 6: Why You Need the Spirit's Comfort
Now I come to show how you have fellowship with the Holy Spirit in particular, as the Comforter Christ promised. The first thing I will do is lay some groundwork, by leading you to value this work of his rightly, which is why he is called your Comforter. Look at three things. First, what he comforts you against. Second, what he comforts you with. Third, the principle behind everything he does for your comfort.
First: what he comforts you against. There are three things in your whole pilgrimage in which the Holy Spirit's comforts are useful and necessary.
In your afflictions. Affliction is part of the provision God has made in his house for his children (Hebrews 12:5–6). There is a measure appointed for each of us, and to be wholly without it is a temptation. In all your afflictions you need the comforts of the Holy Spirit. It is human nature to relieve yourself by any means when you are tangled up. A person's spirit may endure sickness, or at least struggle against it, though "a crushed spirit who can bear?" (Proverbs 18:14, ESV).
There are two great evils, and one of them usually grabs hold of people in their afflictions. "My son, do not regard lightly the discipline of the Lord, nor be weary when reproved by him" (Hebrews 12:5, ESV). People either despise the Lord's correction, or sink under it.
Some despise it. They think what happens to them is ordinary. They take no notice of God in it. They look to tools and second causes, and arrange for their own defense with little regard for God's hand. They take in help for their trouble that God will not mix his grace with, and they lose all the benefit of their affliction. So does everyone who relieves himself with anything except the comforts of the Holy Spirit.
Some faint and sink under their trials, and Hebrews rebukes this too. The first group despise the Spirit's help through pride, and the second refuse it through dejection. And who is there who does not fall on one side or the other? If you had not learned to make light of the Lord's discipline, you would find your times of affliction make up a good part of your pilgrimage.
There is no right management of your soul under affliction, so that God gets the glory and you get any benefit, except by the comforts of the Holy Spirit. All our Savior promises his disciples, when he tells them of the trials ahead, is this, in effect: "I will send you the Spirit, the Comforter. He will give you peace in me, though in the world you will have trouble. He will guide you and keep you in all your trials." And so it turned out, as Paul says in 2 Corinthians 1:4–6. That is why he says, "we rejoice in our sufferings" (Romans 5:3, ESV). He had said before, "we rejoice in hope of the glory of God" (Romans 5:2, ESV). But what if all kinds of afflictions come on us? He answers that we rejoice even in these. Where does that come from? He tells us in verse 5: "God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit" (Romans 5:5, ESV). That is why believers "received the word in much affliction, with the joy of the Holy Spirit" (1 Thessalonians 1:6, ESV), and why Hebrews can say of its first readers, "you joyfully accepted the plundering of your property" (Hebrews 10:34, ESV). There is no good use of any affliction except through the comforts of the Holy Spirit. Do you want your trials not to be wasted? Then learn to value the one thing that makes them useful.
In your sin. Sin is the second burden of your life, and by far the greatest. This comfort is made especially for it. In Hebrews 6:17–18 there is an allusion to the manslayer under the law who had killed a man accidentally, and who ran for his life to the city of refuge. Your great and only refuge from the guilt of sin is the Lord Jesus Christ, and as you flee to him, the Spirit gives you comfort. A sense of sin fills your heart with unrest, but the Holy Spirit gives you peace in Christ. Sin gives you a sense of wrath, but the Holy Spirit pours God's love into your heart. Satan and the law accuse you as an object of God's hatred, but the Spirit bears witness with your spirit that you are God's child. There is no weapon sin uses against your peace but some work of the Holy Spirit is fitted to throw it down.
In your obedience. In the whole course of your obedience you need his comforts too, so that you can go through it cheerfully and patiently to the end. In a word, in all the concerns of this life and in all your hope for the next, you need the Spirit's comforts.
Without them, you will either despise afflictions or faint under them, and God's purposes in them will be neglected. Without them, sin will either harden you into contempt of it, or cast you down into neglecting the remedies God has provided. Without them, your duties will either puff you up with pride or leave you without the sweetness that is in fresh obedience. Without them, prosperity will make you worldly and weaken you utterly for adversity. Without them, the comforts of your relationships will separate you from God, and the loss of them will leave your heart like Nabal's. Without them, the calamity of the church will overwhelm you, and its prosperity will not concern you. Without them, you will have wisdom for no work, peace in no condition, strength for no duty, joy in no state: no comfort in life and no light in death.
Your afflictions, your sins and your obedience are the great concerns of your life. Through all of them runs a line of comfort from the Holy Spirit that brings you out joyfully. How sad is the condition of souls without these comforts! What poor shifts they are driven to! What giants they have to face in their own strength!
Second: what he comforts you with. This comes back to the two things I have already written about: the love of the Father and the grace of the Son. All the Holy Spirit's comforts consist in making known to you, and giving you, the Father's love and the Son's grace. So in truth you have your fellowship with the Father in his love, and with the Son in his grace, by the work of the Holy Spirit.
He gives you the Father's love. When Jesus had told his disciples the ground of the comfort they would receive from the Comforter, he shut it all up in this: "the Father himself loves you" (John 16:27, ESV). That is what the Comforter is given to make known to you: that God is Father, and that he loves you. That is why the Spirit is said so often to come from the Father: he comes in pursuit of the Father's love, to make it known to your heart so that you may be comforted. A sense of it can not only relieve you but make you rejoice in every condition with "joy that is inexpressible and filled with glory" (1 Peter 1:8, ESV). It is not by "their grain and wine abound" but by "the light of your face" (Psalm 4:6–7, ESV) that he comforts your soul. (Editor's note: John 16:27 in the ESV continues, "because you have loved me and have believed that I came from God." That part of the verse is cut here: Owen stops at "the Father himself loves you" and uses the verse only to show that the Father's love is the Comforter's message, and he does not comment on the "because." Elsewhere he holds that the Father's love is free and has no cause in us (see 1 John 4:10), so we do not read the "because" as the reason the Father loves.)
"The world hates me," a soul that has the Spirit may say, "but my Father loves me. People despise me as a hypocrite, but my Father loves me as a child. I am poor in this world, but I have a rich inheritance in my Father's love. I am short of everything, but there is bread enough in my Father's house. I mourn in secret under the power of my sin, where no eyes see me, but the Father sees me and is full of compassion. With a sense of his kindness, which is better than life, I rejoice in tribulation and triumph like a conqueror. Though I am killed all the day long, my sorrows have a bottom that can be sounded, my trials have limits that can be measured, but the breadth and length and height and depth of my Father's love, who can express it?"
He gives you the grace of Christ. He does it by making known to you all the fruits of Christ's purchase and all the desirability of his person. The Holy Spirit glorifies Christ by showing you his excellences, as the one who is "distinguished among ten thousand" and "altogether desirable" (Song of Solomon 5:10; 5:16, ESV). Then he shows you what is Christ's, his love, grace and all the fruits of his death, resurrection and intercession, and with these he holds up your heart. Whatever refreshment there is in forgiveness, in deliverance from the curse, in justification and adoption, comes in under this head.
Third: where it all comes from. It is the Holy Spirit's own great love and unlimited stooping. He willingly comes from the Father to be your Comforter. He knew what you were, and how you would deal with him. He knew you would grieve him, provoke him, quench his motions and defile his dwelling place, and still he would come to be your Comforter.
Not thinking enough about this love weakens everything that moves you to obedience. Nothing is truly valuable except what comes from love and goodwill. This is how Scripture raises your heart to value your redemption by Jesus Christ. It tells you he did it freely, out of love. "By this we know love, that he laid down his life for us" (1 John 3:16, ESV). "The Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me" (Galatians 2:20, ESV). And it adds the condition you were in: sinners, enemies, dead, alienated. Then he loved you, and died for you.
Value the Spirit's working for your comfort in the same way. He distributes as he wills and works as he pleases. And what are you, toward whom he carries on this work? Stubborn, perverse and ungrateful, grieving him, vexing him, provoking him. Yet in his love and tenderness he goes on doing you good. Look by faith at this love of the Holy Spirit. It is the head and source of all the fellowship you have with him in this life. What I have said is only to prepare your heart for the fellowship I have proposed, and it is a small part of what could be said. It is enough to show that the work in hand is one of the greatest duties and most excellent privileges of the gospel.
Part Three, Chapter 7: Three Ways to Walk with the Spirit
When I described what the Holy Spirit does in you, I began with the general manner of his working. Now, as I describe what your soul gives back to him, I will begin the same way. Scripture gives you three general rules for how you behave in this fellowship. All three are stated as warnings, but each includes a positive duty. First, do not grieve him. Second, do not quench him. Third, do not resist him.
There are three things to look at in the Holy Spirit: his person, dwelling in you; his acting by grace, or his motions in you; and his working in the ordinances of the word and the sacraments. The three warnings fit these three. Do not grieve him, in respect of his person living in you. Do not quench him, in respect of the movements of his grace. Do not resist him, in respect of Christ's ordinances and the gifts he gives for their administration.
First, do not grieve him. "And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption" (Ephesians 4:30, ESV). The warning seems taken from the complaint in Isaiah about people who "rebelled and grieved his Holy Spirit" (Isaiah 63:10, ESV). It is plain that Paul means the person of the Holy Spirit here. You can see it from the work he gives him in the next words, "sealed for the day of redemption," which is, as I have shown, the Holy Spirit's own work, and the great privilege you yourself have through him.
What does "grieve" mean? The Spirit cannot actually be made sad, since that would mean change, disappointment and weakness, which are all impossible with his infinite perfections. But you can do what is fit to grieve anyone who feels toward you as the Holy Spirit does. If he is not grieved, it is no credit to you. It is thanks to his unchangeable nature.
Two things are said in this word. The first is that the Holy Spirit feels toward you as someone loving, tender and concerned for your good. So when you go wrong, he is said to be grieved, just as a good friend is grieved when someone he cares about goes astray. That is what you should chiefly look at in this warning: the love, kindness and tenderness of the Holy Spirit toward you.
The second is that you may do what is fit to grieve him, even though he is not actually made sad, and your sin is no smaller than if he were. How is it done? Paul tells us in the setting of the passage. He urges them on to holiness and all the fruits of new birth, and warns against particular evils that go against it, and then he adds the reason for both: "And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God." That is, do not fall short of the complete holiness that your being planted in Christ requires. The positive duty is to pursue complete holiness out of regard for the love, kindness and tenderness of the Holy Spirit.
This is the basis of your fellowship with him in general. When your soul thinks about the Holy Spirit's love toward you, and all the fruits of his goodwill, and because he is so concerned in your walk, you keep away from evil and walk in every duty of holiness, that is fellowship with him. To keep before you that the Spirit, who is your Comforter, is pleased with your obedience and grieved at your evils, and to make that a constant reason for walking closely with God, is the first general way of fellowship with him.
Stay here a moment. You lose both the power and the pleasure of your obedience for lack of this thought. What an unworthy thing it is to grieve one who comes to you on purpose to comfort you! Let your soul, all through its obedience, train itself by faith to think: "The Holy Spirit, in his infinite love and kindness to me, has stooped to be my Comforter. He does it willingly, freely and powerfully. What have I received from him! In the crowd of my troubles, how he has refreshed my soul! Can I live one day without his comforts? And shall I ignore him in the very thing he cares about? Shall I grieve him by carelessness, sin and folly? Shall his love not move me to walk before him in everything that pleases him?"
Second, do not quench him. "Do not quench the Spirit" (1 Thessalonians 5:19, ESV). People have various ideas about this. Some say it means the Spirit in others, that is, their spiritual gifts, which fits with the next verse, "Do not despise prophecies" (1 Thessalonians 5:20, ESV). Others say it means the light God has set up in our hearts. But where is that ever called, without qualification, "the Spirit"? It is the Holy Spirit himself who is meant, though not directly his person, for which he is said to be grieved. Here it is his movements and operations.
The Holy Spirit was pictured by the fire always kept burning on the altar. What opposes fire is quenching. So opposing the Holy Spirit's work is called quenching him, as wet wood does when it is thrown on a fire. And the same picture is behind the instruction to "fan into flame the gift of God" (2 Timothy 1:6, ESV). The Holy Spirit is striving with you, working in you, moving in different ways for your growth in grace. "Take care," the apostle says, "that you do not, by the force of your desires and temptations, fail to attend to his workings and hold him back from his goodwill toward you." That is, as far as it lies with you.
There are many ways the Holy Spirit puts forth his power in you. Sometimes he moves on the grace you have already received and stirs it up. Sometimes he gives new supplies of grace from Jesus Christ that meet the occasion. Sometimes he raises good motions in you directly. All of it tends to your going further in obedience. You are to watch for all of these and take note of them, thinking about where they come from and where they lead. You have fellowship with the Holy Spirit when you can see him by faith as the direct author of every supply and every help you have by grace; of every good rising in your heart; of every struggle against sin. When you look at all these workings in their tendency toward your comfort, and are careful to make the most of them, as coming from one so loving and tender toward you, you have fellowship with him. From that comes reverence for his presence with you, and your soul grows used to dealing with him.
Third, do not resist him. This warning is about the Holy Spirit and his work in the word. Stephen tells the Jews, "you always resist the Holy Spirit. As your fathers did, so do you" (Acts 7:51, ESV). How did their fathers do it? "Which of the prophets did not your fathers persecute? And they killed those who announced beforehand the coming of the Righteous One" (Acts 7:52, ESV). Opposing the prophets in their preaching was resisting the Holy Spirit. The Spirit is resisted when the preaching of the word is despised, because the gift of preaching is from him: "To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good" (1 Corinthians 12:7, ESV). That is why Jesus promised his disciples "a mouth and wisdom, which none of your adversaries will be able to withstand or contradict" (Luke 21:15, ESV). And when that came true in Stephen, "they could not withstand the wisdom and the Spirit with which he was speaking" (Acts 6:10, ESV).
So the Holy Spirit sets up a ministry in the church, separates men for it, and equips them with gifts to dispense the word. Not obeying that word, opposing it, not bowing before it, is called resisting the Holy Spirit. And this contains the third rule for fellowship with him: when the gospel is preached, keep in view the authority, wisdom and goodness of the Holy Spirit in equipping men with gifts, and his presence with them, and submit to it on that account. This is the ground on which you should obey the word as it is preached: that the Holy Spirit, and he alone, equips men with gifts for it. When this thought makes you bow low before the word, you have fellowship with the Holy Spirit in that ordinance.
Part Three, Chapter 8: How to Live in Fellowship with the Spirit
Before I give particular directions for fellowship with the Holy Spirit, I have to lay down some cautions about worshipping him.
First, all worship is of the one God. The divine nature is the reason and cause of all worship, so it is impossible to worship one person of the Trinity and not worship the whole Trinity. The old teachers were right to deny that the reason for worship lies in the persons considered only as persons, by what distinguishes them from each other. It lies in the divine nature, which they all share. That is why the habit of praying to the Trinity by repeating the same request to each of the persons in turn, as in set prayers of that kind, is groundless, if not impious. It supposes that one person is worshipped and not another, when each person is worshipped as God and each person is God. It is as if you first asked one thing of the Father and were heard, then asked the same thing of the Son, and then of the Holy Spirit, expecting the same thing to be given three separate times, when all the works of the Trinity toward the outside are undivided.
The proper object of worship is the essence of God in its infinite excellence and majesty, and in its being the first sovereign cause of all things. That is common to all three persons and belongs to each of them, not as a person, but as God blessed for ever. In each act of worship all three are worshipped. Creatures worship their Creator, and you worship the one in whose image you were made, the one from whom "every good gift and every perfect gift is from above" (James 1:17, ESV).
Second, when you close your prayers in Christ's name. When you begin your prayers to God the Father and end them in the name of Jesus Christ, the Son is no less prayed to at the beginning than the Father, though he is mentioned specially as Mediator at the close. When you pray to the Father, you pray to every person, because you pray to the Father as God, and every person is God.
Third, the pattern for access. The whole matter is laid out in one verse: "For through him we both have access in one Spirit to the Father" (Ephesians 2:18, ESV). Your access is "to the Father," "through Christ," that is, through his mediation, and "in one Spirit," that is, with his help. This is a distinction of the persons in what they do, not at all a distinction in who is the object of your worship. The Son and the Holy Spirit are no less worshipped in your coming to God than the Father is. So when the distinct working of any person leads you to worship him, you are worshipping the whole Trinity, whatever name, Father, Son or Holy Spirit, you call on. When any work of the Holy Spirit that is specially assigned to him draws you to worship him (the other persons always work with him), he is not worshipped alone. The whole Godhead is worshipped.
Fourth, and having said all that, you are to worship the Holy Spirit distinctly. With faith in the Father and the Son, it is the same: "Believe in God; believe also in me" (John 14:1, ESV). This extends no less to the Holy Spirit. The distinct workings of the persons are mentioned to the same purpose: "My Father is working until now, and I am working" (John 5:17, ESV). Christ called his disciples to put faith in him as he was finishing the great work of his mediation, and the Holy Spirit, now carrying on his own work, requires the same. Now the formal reason for worshipping the Son is not his mediation but his being God, though his mediation is a powerful motive. In the same way the formal reason for worshipping the Holy Spirit is not that he is your Comforter but that he is God. Yet that he is your Comforter is a powerful motive.
This is the sum of the first direction: the grace, working and love of the Holy Spirit, as he is your Comforter, ought to stir you to love, worship, believe in and call on him. All this, being directed to him as God, is no less directed to the other persons.
So learn to put faith distinctly in the Holy Spirit as the direct cause of all the good things I have mentioned. Faith, I say, to believe in him, and in everything to believe him and obey him. Faith, not imagination. The distinction of persons in the Trinity is not to be pictured but believed. Scripture so fully and clearly attributes these things to the direct working of the Holy Spirit that faith singles him out. It worships him, serves him, waits for him, prays to him, praises him. So when he ought to be specially honored and is not, he is specially sinned against. In Acts 5:3, Ananias is said to lie to the Holy Spirit, not simply to God, which would mean the whole Trinity, but specially to the Holy Spirit. He should have honored him specially in that particular gift which he claimed to be offering.
Take notice of every one of his kindnesses. Put weight on every effect of the Holy Spirit I have listed, on this ground, that they are acts of his love and power toward you. Faith does this; it takes notice of his kindness in everything. Often he does the work of a comforter toward you in many ways, and you are not truly comforted, because you take no notice of what he does. Then he is grieved. And of those who do receive and acknowledge the comfort he offers, how few think of him as the Comforter and rejoice in him as they should! On every work of comfort you receive, let your faith settle on this: "This is from the Holy Spirit. He is the Comforter, the God of all comfort. I know there is no joy, peace, hope or comfort except what he works, gives and bestows. And so that he could give me this comfort, he willingly stooped to this office. His love was in it, and for that reason he keeps doing it. He is also sent by the Father and the Son for this very purpose. What price shall I set on his love now? How shall I value the mercy I have received?"
This applies to every effect of the Holy Spirit toward you. Does he pour out God's love in your heart? Does he witness to your adoption? Think of his presence and ponder his love, his stooping, his goodness. Be filled with reverence for him, take care not to grieve him, and work to keep his temple pure and holy.
Give him praise and thanks. Fellowship with him also makes you give him praise, honor and blessing for the mercies you receive from him, which are many. This is what you do with the Son of God for your redemption: "To him who loves us and has freed us from our sins by his blood and made us a kingdom, priests to his God and Father, to him be glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen" (Revelation 1:5–6, ESV). (Editor's note: Owen's translation says "washed us from our sins in his own blood." The ESV has "freed us," and some Greek manuscripts read "washed." The point here, that Christ is to be praised for what he did, is the same either way.) Are not the same praises due to the one by whom the work of redemption is made effective for you? With no less infinite love he undertook your comfort than the Son undertook your redemption. When you feel your heart warmed with joy, held up in peace, and made steady in obedience, give him the praise that is due, bless his name, and rejoice in him. No duty leaves a more heavenly savor in the soul than this one.
Ask him. Your fellowship with him also lies in your prayers to him to carry on the work of your comfort which he has taken up. John prays for grace and peace "from the seven spirits who are before his throne" (Revelation 1:4, ESV), meaning the Holy Spirit, whose works are perfect and complete. Think what need you have of these effects of the Holy Spirit. Weigh all the privileges you share in, and remember that he gives them as he wills and has sovereign control of them. Then you will be ready for this duty. In it no small part of the life and vigor of faith is put forth, and you fall short of that breadth of spirit in dealing with God if you do not learn to meet him with his worship in every way he is pleased to give himself to you.
Ask for him every day. Consider him as he stoops to this assignment from the Father and the Son to be your Comforter, and ask him daily of the Father in the name of Jesus Christ. This is the daily work of believers. They look by faith at the Holy Spirit as promised to be sent. They know that in this promise lies all their grace, peace, mercy, joy and hope. So ask him of the Father, as children ask their parents for daily bread. And in this asking and receiving, you have fellowship with the Father in his love, from which he is sent; with the Son in his grace, by which he is obtained for you; and with the Spirit himself, because of his willing stooping. Every request for the Holy Spirit means taking hold of all these. Oh, the riches of the grace of God!
Be humbled for how you have treated him. Humbling yourself for your failures toward him is another part of your fellowship with him. That you have grieved him in his person, quenched him in the motion of his grace, or resisted him in his ordinances, is to be mourned over. Let your soul be humbled before him on that account. This is as fitted as any other thought to move your heart to humility and to anger against sin.
What it is like without him. I will close with some thoughts on the sad condition of people who have no share in this promise of the Spirit.
First, they have no true comfort, whatever their condition. Are they in trouble? They must carry their own burden, and it is easy to know how far too weak they are for it if God puts his hand to them with more than the usual weight. People may put on great resolve to wrestle with their troubles, but when that comes only from their natural spirit, then for the most part it is only an outside. It is done for the sake of others, so they do not look cast down. Their hearts are eaten up with anxiety. They are always struggling and never conquering. And what is the best of their endurance? It is only a contending with God, who has tangled them up: the struggling of a flea under a mountain. They strive to be quiet under what God has sent for the very purpose of disturbing them. God does not afflict people without the Spirit to exercise their patience. He does it to disturb their false security.
And if they promise themselves something of God's care for them, and relieve themselves by it, as they often do when they are driven from other holds, all their relief is like the dream of a hungry man: "As when a hungry man dreams he is eating and awakes with his hunger not satisfied" (Isaiah 29:8, ESV). When they wake at the last day and see everything clearly, they will find that God was their enemy, laughing at their calamity and mocking when terror struck them (Proverbs 1:26).
Is it any better in prosperity? That is often great, and marvelously described in Scripture. But do they have any true comfort all their days? They eat, drink, sleep and make merry, but how little do these things make them differ from the beasts that perish! Solomon had the advantage of knowing the use and the very limit of these things, and what he says of them is well known: "all is vanity and a striving after wind" (Ecclesiastes 1:14, ESV). This is their comfort: "the crackling of thorns under a pot" (Ecclesiastes 7:6, ESV), a sudden flash and blaze that is already beginning to die. Adversity and prosperity both kill them. Whether they are laughing or crying, they are dying.
Second, they have no peace, no peace with God or in their own souls. I know many of them manage to keep things quiet on false foundations. But true peace is an effect of the Holy Spirit in believers, so those who are not made sharers in him have no such peace. They may cry, "Peace, peace" (Jeremiah 6:14, ESV), when sudden destruction is at hand. The foundations of their peace are darkness or ignorance, the betrayals of a conscience, self-righteousness, and vain hope. What good will they do them on the day the Lord deals with them?
Third, their joy and hope are false and perishing. Think about this, you who have satisfied yourselves with a persuasion that you have a share in the good things of the gospel, and yet have despised the Spirit of Christ. If those perish who in profession honor him, but he does not dwell in them with power, where will those appear who oppose and insult him? "Anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to him" (Romans 8:9, ESV). Without him you can have none of the glorious effects I have listed. And you are so far from asking whether he is in you or not that you are ready to laugh at those he is in.
Are there none who profess the gospel who have never once seriously asked whether they are made sharers in the Holy Spirit or not? You who almost think it ridiculous to be asked any such question, who look on everyone who talks about the Spirit as a vain pretender, may the Lord wake you to see your condition before it is too late! If the Spirit does not dwell in you, if he is not your Comforter, then God is not your Father, the Son is not your Advocate, and you have no portion in the gospel. Oh, that God would wake some poor soul to think about this before the neglect and contempt of the Holy Spirit grow into a despising of him from which there is no recovery! May the Lord lay before you all the folly of your hearts, so that you are ashamed, and do not act so presumptuously any more!