Communion with the Triune God
Overview
Does it make a difference that the God Christians claim to worship has revealed himself as triune-the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit? Does this fundamental truth of biblical authority have an effect on a believer's personal fellowship with God?
Puritan theologian John Owen recognized the great need for every believer to understand the triune God. Communion with the Triune God revisits the truth presented by John Owen and challenges all believers to truly recognize and appreciate the ministry that God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit have in their lives. This work of John Owen encourages Christians to enjoy true communion with each person of the triune God.
Top Highlights
“only by the Spirit can anyone truly know God and enjoy his love and grace.” (Page 38)
“The return that the saints make unto him, to complete communion with him herein, holds some analogy with his love in this; for it is a love also of rest and delight.35 ‘Return unto your rest, my soul,’ says David (Ps. 116:7). He makes God his rest; that is, he in whom his soul does rest, without seeking further for a more suitable and desirable object. ‘Whom have I,’ says he, ‘in heaven but you and there is none upon earth that I desire beside you’ (Ps. 73:25).36 Thus the soul gathers itself from all its wanderings, from all other beloveds, to rest in God alone—to satiate and content itself in him; choosing the Father for his present and eternal rest. And this also with delight.” (Page 116)
“For that suitable return which is required, this also (in a main part of it, beyond which I shall not now extend it) consists in love (Deut. 6:4–5). God loves, that he may be beloved.24 When he comes to command the return of his received love, to complete communion with him, he says, ‘My son, give me your heart’ (Prov. 23:26)—your affections, your love. ‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your strength, and with all your mind’ (Luke 10:27); this is the return that he demands. When the soul sees God, in his dispensation of love, to be love, to be infinitely lovely and loving, rests upon and delights in him as such, then has its communion with him in love. This is love: that God loves us first, and then we love him again.” (Page 113)
- Title: Communion with the Triune God
- Authors: Kelly M. Kapic, John Owen, Justin Taylor, Kevin J. Vanhoozer
- Publisher: Crossway
- Print Publication Date: 2007
- Logos Release Date: 2011
- Language: English
- Resources: 1
- Format: Digital › Logos Research Edition
- Subject: Spirituality
- Resource ID: LLS:8546133E55030D6C10FD0B7EDDE7B5DA
- Resource Type: Monograph
- Metadata Last Updated: 2021-04-26T19:04:22Z
John Owen was born at Stadhampton, Oxfordshire in 1616. He entered Queen's College, Oxford, at the age of twelve and completed his M.A. in classics and theology in 1635 at the age of nineteen. He was ordained shortly thereafter and left the university to be a chaplain to the family of a noble lord. His first parish, in 1637, was at Fordham in Essex, to which he went while England was involved in civil war. It was here that he became convinced that the Congregational way was the scriptural form of church government. In the 1640s he became chaplain to Oliver Cromwell, the new "Protector of England," and traveled with him on his expeditions to Ireland and Scotland. Between 1651 and 1660, he played a prominent part in the religious, political, and academic life of the nation. In 1651 he was appointed dean of Christ Church and in 1652 made Vice-Chancellor of Oxford—positions which allowed him to train ministers for the Cromwellian state church. He lost his position in 1660, however, when the restoration of the monarchy began after the death of Cromwell in 1658. Owen moved to London and led the Puritans through the bitter years of religious and political persecution—experiences which shaped his theological inquiry, pastoral reflection, and preaching. He also declined invitations to the ministry in Boston in 1663, and declined an offer to become president of Harvard in 1670. He died in August, 1683.