Holy Spirit

"So the Lord Christ would have us know this great truth, that the presence of the Holy Spirit with believers as Comforter and helper, sent by him as promised, is better and more profitable to believers than his bodily presence can ever be, now that he has made the one sacrifice for sin which he came into the world to offer."

-John Owen, Communion With God, Pg. 169

Possessions

"Unbelievers may have a civil right to many things of earth. But they do not have a spiritual, sanctified right to a place in the house of God or to any of the privileges of that house. Unbelievers do not use anything they have for the glory of God and have kept them from the children of God for whose sakes they (that is, unbelievers) are kept from destruction.  What judgement awaits them! God will say, 'I have allowed you to enjoy many things in this world. What have you laid out for the spread of the gospel? What have you given to the poor, especially the poor saints? Have you been willing to lay down all for my sake?"

-John Owen, Communion With God, Pg. 166

Subordination

"The right that believers have is not the same right that Christ has. Christ has the sovereign supreme right to do what he will with his own. The right that believers have is subordinate to Christ. They are accountable for the use of those things to which they have a right and title. The right of Christ is the right of the Lord of the house. The right of the saints is the right of servants of the house."

-John Owen, Communion With God, Pg. 165

Inheritance

"Consider the privileges of that house. These privileges will not suit any others but the children of God. Is food given to a dead man? Will he grow strong by it? Will he thrive on it? The things of the family and house of God are food for living souls, and only God's children are alive. All others are dead in trespasses and sins. "

-John Owen , Communion With God, Pg. 162-163

Preaching

"It is true that the Word is preached to all the world, to gather in God's elect, who are scattered about the world, and to leave the rest without excuse. But the chief reason the Lord Christ had in setting up a preaching ministry is to gather in those heirs of salvation to the enjoyment of that feast of fat things which he has prepared for them in his house."

-John Owen, Communion With God, Pg. 162

Inheritence

"The whole aim of the Lord Jesus' ministry is 'for the perfecting of the saints for the work of ministry'. All is for them. All is for the family."

-John Owen, Communion With God, Pg. 161

Obedience

"When a person obeys out of love, then fear is cast out. Fear arises when our obedience is to be judged and may be condemned. So where there is life and love, there is freedom and a willing obedience."

-John Owen, Communion With God, Pg. 160

Obedience

"Slaves find freedom when released from their duties. Children find their freedom in doing their duty."

-John Owen, Communion With God, Pg. 160

Inheritance

"It is declared to Satan as the one who has been judged and condemned. When the Lord Christ delivers a soul from the power of that strong, armed one, he binds him, so that he can no longer exercise that power and dominion over the soul. So by this means, Satan knows that such a person has been set free from his family and that all his future attempts to try and get that soul back are doomed to failure, for that soul is now the possession and inheritance of the Lord Christ."

-John Owen, Communion With Christ, Pg. 156

Adoption

"Adoption is the authoritative transfer of a believer, by Jesus Christ, from the family of the world and Satan into the family of God with his being admitted into all the privileges and advantages of that family."

-John Owen, Communion With God, Pg. 153

Holiness

"One moment's communion with Christ by faith in this matter of cleansing is more effective to the purging of the soul and growing in grace that the utmost efforts made by self."

-John Owen, Communion With God, Pg. 150

Guilt

"A sense of guilt follows every conviction. But an awareness of sin's defilement only comes from an insight into the purity and holiness of God."

-John Owen, Communion With God, Pg. 150

Regeneration & The Holy Spirit

"In the work of communicating the Spirit to our souls, raising them from death to life, we have no kind of fellowship with Christ, but only what lies in a passive reception of that life-giving, quickening Spirit and power. We were but dead bones on which the wind blew and made them live (Ezek. 37) We were like Lazarus in the grave. Christ called and we came out because his call was accompanied with life and power."

-John Owen, Communion With God, Pg. 149 

The Spirit

"The Spirit is the fruit of the Father's love."

-John Owen, Communion With God, 147

Repentance & Obedience

"Communion with Christ produces repentance. When a person really sees the vileness of sin and what it cost Christ to bear it away, will he still want to continue in sin?

  Communion with Christ produces obedience. 'If Christ is so glorified and honored by taking our sins, the more we bring to him, the more he will be glorified.' A man could not suppose that this objection would be made, but that the Holy Spirit, who knows what is in man, has made it for them in their name (Rom. 6:1-3). If the gospel is properly preached, the objection 'shall we continue in sin that grace may abound?' will always be raised. But Paul says, 'God forbid!'- and then explains why not (Rom. 6)."

-John Owen, Communion With God, Pg. 145-146

Communion

"There is nothing that Jesus Christ is more delighted with than that his saints should always hold communion with him by giving him their sins and receiving his righteousness. This greatly honors him and gives him the glory that is his due. What great dishonor we do to Christ to try and get rid of our sins in any other way. "

-John Owen, Communion With God, Pg. 144-145

Worship

"The great, solemn worship of the Christian church lies in honouring and glorifying the Lord Jesus (Phil. 3:8; Song 5:9-16)."

-John Owen, Communion With God, Pg. 143

Righteousness

"To come to such a hearty approval of Christ's righteousness we need first of all to be aware that we need a righteousness with which to appear before God. If God is holy and righteous and of purer eyes than to look at iniquity, we must have a righteousness with which we are able to stand before him.
We will only approve of Christ's righteousness when we are convinced that our righteousness has been weighed in the balances and found wanting. The Jews made the mistake of trutstin gin their own righteousness (Rom. 9:31,32). And so they were rejected (Rom. 10:1-4). (See Paul's judgment of man's righteousness in Phil. 3:8-10). God declares that 'there is none righteous, no not one'. Isaiah declares that 'our righteousnesses are like filthy rags' (Isa. 64:6).
He who has fellowship with Christ approves of, values and rejoices in his righteousness by which he is accepted by God (Isa. 45:24). This is the pearl of great price (Matt. 13:45,46)."

-John Owen, Communion With God, Pg. 141

Obedience

"Obedience is also a testimony and pledge of our adoption as children of God, a sign and evidence of grace and of our acceptance of God. Obedience is the best way of showing our gratitude to God for His grace."

-John Owen, Communion With God, Pg. 140

Obedience

"We have in us a new Creature (II Cor. 5:17). This new creature is fed, cherished, nourished, kept alive by the fruits of holiness. Why has God given us enw hearts an new natures? Is it in order that we should murder them?!"

-John Owen, Communion With God, Pg. 140

Holiness

"Our holiness, that is, our obedience and works of righteousness, is one chief and special way by which God is glorified in our salvation.
It is the whole reason why the Father chose us (Eph. 1:4; Isa. 4:3, 4; II. Thess. 2:13). It is this love of the Father that is the motive to holiness (I John 4:8-10). It is why the Son loved us and gave himself to redeem us (Eph. 5:25-27; II Cor. 5:15; Rom. 6:11). It is why the Holy Spirit does his work of love in us. He prepares us for obedience (Titus 3:5; Gal. 5:22,23)."

-John Owen, Communion With God, Pg. 138-139

Righteousness

"Christ's obedience imputed to us and our obedience done to God have two different functions. Christ's obedience imputed to us is so that we might be counted righteous before God and so be justified. But our obedience is not the righteousness by which we are accepted by God and justified, but it is that for which God has created us and which we do out of love and gratitude to him for his grace (Eph. 2:8-10)."

-John Owen, Communion With God, Pg. 138

Righteousness

"Christ lived and died in order to work out a perfect righteousness for his people. He then tells them what he has done and finally he actually gives this righteousness to them and regards them as if they had worked out that righteousness themselves, so that by this righteousness they will be perfectly accepted with the Father."

-John Owen, Communion With God, Pg. 133

Redemption

"Christ paid the price for our redemption. Redemption is the deliverance of anyone from bondage or captivity and the miseries accompanying that condition by the paying of a price or ransom. The Redeemer pays the price to the one who holds authority over teh captive."

-John Owen, Communion With God, Pg. 125

Righteousness

"The righteousness we receive must be that righteousness which we would have had if we had obeyed the whole law. (Phil. 3:9). This is the obedience of Christ to the law. So he is 'made to us righteousness' (I Cor. 1:30)."


-John Owen, Communion With God, Pg. 123

Obedience

"Are we, then, freed from obedience? Yes. We are freed from obeying the law in our own strength, and we are freed from obeying it in order to obtain everlasting life. To say that we must still obey in order to obtain everlasting life is to say we are still under the terms of the old covenant. We are not freed from obedience as a way of walking with God, but we are freed fro mobedience as a means of making ourselves good enough to come to God."


-John Owen, Communion With God, Pg. 122-123

Christ's Obedience

"Christ's complete obedience to the law is reckoned to us. Death is the reward of sin, and so we cannot be freed from death, but by the death of Christ (Heb. 2:14-15). Man cannot be freed from the condemnation of death until he has done all the law requires (Matt. 19:17). As man cannot keep all the commandments, it must be done for him by a surety. Christ not only obeyed all the commandments on behalf of man, but he also bore the penalty of death. But though we are freed from the penalty of death, we are still bound to obey the law. Yet that obedience is not to gain acceptance with God, but rather it is an expression of gratitude to God for our deliverance from death.
Why did Christ die? He died because the law demanded the death of a sinner, and Christ was the surety for sinners."

-John Owen, Communion With God, Pg. 122

The Death Of Christ

"Christ's obedient life showed his willing submission to, and his complete fulfilling of, every law of god that any of the saints were obliged to obey. It is true that every act of Christ's obedience from the blood of his circumcision to the bood of the cross was attended with suffering so that his whole life might be seen as one long death."


-John Owen, Communion With God, Pg. 121

Righteousness

"So man's great question is, 'How can a man make himself righteousnes to stand in the presence of a righteous God?'. Unable to discover a perfect righteousness for themselves, men 'through the fear of death, were all their lifetime subject to bondage' (Heb. 2:15). They are frightened to die lest their self-righteousness will not save them from death and destruction."

-John Owen, Communion With God, Pg. 94

Sin, Original

"The whole purpose of sin and why God allowed sin into the world is revealed only in Christ. Sin was allowed entry into the world in order that God's glorious grace may be praised in the pardoning and forgiveness of sin. Outside Christ, sin in its own nature only brings dishonour to God. But in Christ, God is seen to be a God pardoning iniquity, transgression and sin."

-John Owen, Communion With God, Pg. 93

Sin

" Christ was crucified for us, therefore sin was crucified in us. Christ died for us and so the body of sin was destroyed so that we should no longer serve sin. And as Christ was raised from the dead so that death shall have no more dominion over him, so also we are raised from sin that it should have no more dominion over us. This wisdom is hidden in Christ alone."


-John Owen, Communion With God, Pg. 93

Sin

"Sin is never more alive than when it is unable to serve its lusts."

-John Owen, Communion With God, Pg. 93

Self-Righteousness

"Man is utterly unable to obey God and to live in agreement with God. This is one truth that man finds the greatest difficulty in learning. He rises up in pride and anger at this truth, denying it with all his being. From where, then, can man learn this truth? Nature does not teach it. The law does not teach it. This truth lies hidden in the Lord Jesus (Rom. 8:2-4). The law can never bring man to a perfect righteousness, for man can never perfectly obey the law. Man's fleshly nature, being corrupted by sin, has been made weak and unable to obey the law.

  Only Christ can bring man to a perfect righteousness. Christ does this by paying the punishment for our sin and setting us free from its guilt, and by imputing to us his perfect righteousness and so setting us free from having to justify ourselves by our own attempted self-righteousness."

-John Owen, Communion With God, Pg. 92

Truth

"All truth outside Christ does not lead to the knowledge of salvation. It only leads to further corruption (Rom. 2:4, 5; 1:18-23)."

-John Owen, Communion With God, Pg. 87

God, All Sufficient

"In Christ, God's all-sufficiency is wonderful revealed. God's all-sufficiency is his absolute and universal perfection by which there is nothing lacking in him, and nor is he in need of anything outside of himself. Nothing can be added to his fulness and nor can he ever be emptied of his fulness."

-John Owen, Communion With God, Pg. 87

Holy Spirit, Gift of

I well remember the days of drudgery... then a small still voice said, "there standeth one among you whom ye know not." I had not grasped the truth that the Holy Spirit is a person, alive and with the church. With lightening came the climax, How many true Christians toil on bearing burdens far too great for their natural strength, utterly forgetful that the mighty burden bearer is with them to do for them and through them what they have undertaken to accomplish alone. As Christ, the second person of the Godhead came to make atonement for sink so the Holy Spirit, the third person of the Godhead came to Earth to communicate power from on high. We as believers receive Him by faith in order to be qualified for service. Both gifts have been bestowed, but it is not what we have but what we know that we have by a conscience, appropriating faith, which determines our spiritual wealth. The true secret of service lies in yielding to the Holy Spirit to use me to do His work.

Adoniram Judson Gordon, They Found The Secret

Holy Spirit, Gift of

At last I realized that Jesus Christ was actually and literally within me, not a figure of speech. Even more, He constituted Himself my very life, taking me into union with Himself - my body, mind and spirit. While I still had my own identity and free will... it meant that I need never ask Him to help me as though He were one and I another; but rather simply to do His work, His will, in me and through me. Finally, there is the quiet act of faith, apart from any feeling or immediate evidence, that God does set the trusting soul wholly free from the law of sin.

Charles Trumbull, They Found The Secret

God's All-Sufficiency

In Christ, God's all sufficiency is wonderfully revealed. God's all-sufficiency is his absolute and universal perfection by which there is nothing lacking in him, and nor is he in need of anything outside of himself, Nothing can be added to his fulness and nor can he ever be emptied of his fulness.

John Owen, Communion With God, P. 87

Sin

To be given up to our own heart's lusts and to be left to walk according to our own ideas is as dreadful a condition as a creature is capable of falling into in this world.

John Owen, Communion With God, P. 84

Longsuffering & Forgiveness of God

In Christ, the patience, forbearance and longsuffering of God towards sinners is full of love, sweetness, kindness and grace. A sinner out of Christ thinks that because God does not at once punish sin, God will never call him to account. So he perishes full of faith in God's forbearance. but in Christ, God is revealed as waiting to be gracious to sinners; waiting to show them love and kindness (Isa. 30:18). When the soul sees and is convinced that God, for Christ's sake, has overlooked his many sins, he is astonished that God should do this. He is amazed that God did not cast him out of his sight. Instead, the redeemed soul finds that with infinite wisdom God has delivered his soul from the power of the devil, dealt with his sins and brought his soul into fellowship with himself. God has made a way for the complete forgiveness of our sins through his forbearance, and this was is to be found only in Christ.

John Owen, Communion With God, P. 84

Sin / Judgment

To see Christ, the wisdom and the power of God, always beloved of the Father, fear and tremble, bow and sweat, pray and die; to see him lifted up on the cross, the earth trembling beneath him as if unable to bear his weight; to see the heavens darkened over him as if shut against his cry and himself hanging between both as if refused by each; and to see that all this is because of our sins is to see clearly the holy justice and wrath of God against sin. Supremely in Christ do we learn this great truth that God hates sin and judges it with a dreadful and fearful judgment.

John Owen, Communion With God, P. 82-83

God's Justice

But God's justice shines most brightly in the Lord Christ. In Christ God has shown his righteousness. He showed that ti was impossible for his justice to be turned away from sinners without propitiation, a victim who would suffer in the place of sinners, so satisfying divine justice and so turning away God;s wrath on sinners. God did not spare his only Son, but made his soul an offering for sin, and would be satisfied with no atonement but that which he purchased by his blood, It has been abundantly shown that God;s righteousness and holiness required such an atonement to show God's wrath against sin and his determination to punish sin. To know that it was necessary for God's justice to be carried out on sin is the only true and useful knowledge of God's justice. To think that God can exercise justice as he pleases does not make justice a property of his nature, but a free act of his will. To condemn and punish where justice does not condemn nor require punishment is not justice, but an act of ill-will.

John Owen, Communion With God, P. 81-82

Mercy

Pardoning mercy comes by Christ alone. This pardoning mercy is revealed in the gospel, and in this pardoning mercy God will be glorified for ever (Eph. 1:6). Pardoning mercy is not a vague general mercy which overlooks sin. This would be dishonoring to God. Pardoning mercy is God's free, gracious acceptance of a sinner because satisfaction was made to his justice consistent with his glory. It is a mercy of inconceivable wonder, for God came down from the heights of glory to bring forgiveness to sinners, whilst at the same time exacting justice and severity on sin.

John Owen, Communion With God, P. 80

Wisdom

There are two sorts of wisdom in the world. There is civil wisdom and prudence for the managing of daily affairs, and there is the ability to learn and produce art and literature. But god rejects both these as of no use at all in the work which true wisdom intends to accomplish (1 Cor. 1:19-20). There is no true wisdom or knowledge apart from the knowledge of God (Jer. 8:9). True wisdom and knowledge are shut up in Jesus Christ. He alone is 'the true light which gives light to every man who comes into the world' (John 1:9). He who does not come to Christ walks in darkness.

John Owen, Communion With God, P. 78-79

God, Judgment of

He fills his enemies with fear, terror and horror until they yield him pretended obedience. Sometimes with outward judgments, Christ bruises, breaks and crushes them, staining his robes with their blood, filling the earth with their corpses. And at the last, Christ will gather them all together, the beast, the false prophet and all nations and will cast them into that lake that burns with fire and brimstone (Psalm 110:6; Rev. 19:20).

John Owen, Communion With God, P.68

Atonement

Christ had not been man, he could not have suffered for men, and if he had not been God, his suffering could not have satisfied infinite justice.

John Owen, Communion With God, P. 66

Love of Christ

But the love of Christ, being the love of God, is infallibly effectual. It produces all the good things Christ desires to produce in his people. Christ loves life, grace and holiness into us. He loves us also into a covenant of love with himself. Christ loves us into heaven. Love in Christ is his will to do good to the one he loves. Whatever good Christ by his love wills to do to anyone is infallibly done to that person.

John Owen, Communion With God, P. 63

Grace

If all the world should drink free grace, mercy and pardon from Christ, the well of salvation; if they should draw strength from one single promise, they would not be able to lower the level of the water of grace in that promise one hair's breadth. There is enough grace, mercy and pardon in one of God's promises for the sins of millions of worlds, if they existed, because the promise is supplied from an infinite, bottomless reservoir. What is one finite guilt before this infinite and eternal reservoir of grace? Show me the sinner who can spread out his sins to infinite dimensions and I will show him this infinite and eternal reservoir of grace and mercy.

John Owen, Communion With God, P.62

Grace & Compassion

Consider the endless, bottomless, boundless grace and compassion that is in Christ, the God of Zion. It is not the grace of a creature, nor all the grace that can possibly be found in any created nature, which will satisfy all our needs. We are too needy to be satisfied by a mere creature. But in Christ's human nature there is fulness of grace, for he did not receive 'the Spirit by measure' (John 3:34). In Christ there is a fulness like that of light in the sun, or of water in the sea. It is a fulness imcomparably above the fulness of angels. Yet in Christ's human nature, then thirsty, guilty souls, would soon drain him dry. Christ's human nature on its own would not meet all our needs except in a moral way. But when the well of his humanity is inseparably united to the infinite, inexhaustible reservoir of his deity, who can possibly drain him dry?

John Owen, Communion With God, P. 61

Communion with God

The soul willingly accepts Christ as its only Husband, Lord and Saviour. This is called 'receiving' Christ (John 1:12). This does not mean a once-for-all act of the will, but a continual receiving of Christ in abiding with him and owning him to be our Lord for ever. This is when the soul agrees to take Christ on his terms,...

John Owen, Communion With God, P. 59

Communion with God

The soul constantly prefers Christ to all else, counting everything else that seeks to possess the heart but rubbish in comparison to him. Beloved peace; beloved human relationships; beloved wisdom and learning; beloved righteousness; beloved duties are all but rubbish compared to Christ.

John Owen,Communion With God, P. 59

Prayer

The Lord Jesus Christ, then, was set up and prepared to be a husband to his saints, his church. He undertook the work of Mediator for which he was especially filled with the Spirit. As Mediator he purchased for his people grace and glory. Now he offers himself tothem in the promises of the gospel, making himself desirable to them. He convinces them of his good will, and that he is sufficient for all their needs. And when they agree to receive him, which is all he requires or expects from them, he enters into a marriage contract to be theirs for ever.

John Owen, Communing With God, P. 58

Prayer

Do not be timid and fearful like one that hides in the secret places and is afraid to come out. Do not be cast down at the weakness of your prayers. Let me hear you sighing and groaning for me. They are sweet and delightful to my ears. Let me see your spiritual face seeking for and desiring heavenly things. A look from you brings great joy and delight to me.

John Owen, Communing With God, P. 57