Part 1, Chapter 3: The Things of Our Communion with the Holy Spirit
Of the peculiar and distinct communion which the saints have with the Father. Observations for the clearing of the whole premised. Our peculiar communion with the Father is in love. 1 John 4:7-8, 2 Corinthians 13:13, John 16:26-27, Romans 5:5, John 3:16, John 14:23, Titus 3:4, opened to this purpose. What is required of believers to hold communion with the Father in love. His love received by faith. Returns of love to him. God's love to us and ours to him — wherein they agree and wherein they differ.
Having proved that there is such a distinct communion in respect of Father, Son, and Spirit as of which we speak, it remains that it be further cleared up by an induction of instances to manifest what and wherein the saints peculiarly hold this communion with the several persons respectively. This I shall do after premising some observations necessary to be previously considered for the clearing of what has been spoken.
First observation: when I assign anything as peculiar wherein we distinctly hold communion with any person, I do not exclude the other persons from communion with the soul in the very same thing. Only this I say: principally, immediately, and by the way of eminency we have in such a thing or in such a way communion with some one person, and therein with the others secondarily and by the way of consequence on that foundation. For the person as the person of any one of them is not the prime object of divine worship, but as it is identified with the nature or essence of God. Now the works that outwardly are of God — called the Trinity's outward works — which are commonly said to be common and undivided, are either wholly so, or else being common in respect of their acts they are distinguished in respect of that principle or next and immediate rise in the manner of operation. So creation is appropriated to the Father, redemption to the Son — in which sense we speak of these things.
Second observation: there is a concurrence of the actings and operations of the whole Deity in that dispensation wherein each person concurs to the work of our salvation, to every act of our communion with each singular person. By whatever act we hold communion with any person, there is an influence from every person to the putting forth of that act. As suppose it to be the act of faith. It is bestowed on us by the Father — it is not of ourselves, it is the gift of God, Ephesians 2:8. It is the Father who reveals the gospel and Christ therein, Matthew 11:25. It is purchased for us by the Son — it is given to you for Christ's sake to believe on him, Philippians 1:29. In him we are blessed with spiritual blessings, Ephesians 1:3. And it is wrought in us by the Spirit, Ephesians 1:19-20 and Romans 8:11.
Third observation: when I assign any particular thing wherein we hold communion with any person, I do not do it exclusively of other mediums of communion, but only by way of inducing a special and eminent instance for the proof and manifestation of the former general assertion. Otherwise there is no grace or duty wherein we have not communion with God in the way described. In every thing wherein we are made partakers of the divine nature there is a communication and receiving between God and us. So near are we to him in Christ.
Fourth observation: by asserting this distinct communion — which merely respects that order in the dispensation of grace which God is pleased to hold out in the gospel — I intend not in the least to shut up all communion with God under these precincts, his ways being exceeding broad and containing a perfection of which there is no end. Nor do I intend to prejudice that holy fellowship we have with the whole Deity in our walking before him in covenant obedience, which also I shall handle hereafter.
These few observations being premised, I come now to declare what it is wherein peculiarly and eminently the saints have communion with the Father. And this is love — free, undeserved, and eternal love. This the Father peculiarly fixes upon the saints; this they are immediately to eye in him, to receive of him, and to make such returns thereof as he is delighted with. This is the great discovery of the gospel. For whereas the Father as the fountain of the Deity is not known any other way but as full of wrath, anger, and indignation against sin — nor can the sons of men have any other thoughts of him, Romans 1:18, Isaiah 33:15-16, Habakkuk 1:13 — here he is now revealed peculiarly as love, as full of it toward us, the manifestation of which is the peculiar work of the gospel, Titus 3:4.
1 John 4:8: God is love. That the name of God is here taken personally and for the person of the Father, not essentially, is evident from verse 9, where he is distinguished from his only begotten Son whom he sends into the world. Now says the apostle, the Father is love — that is, not only of an infinitely gracious, tender, compassionate, and loving nature as he has proclaimed himself, Exodus 34:6-7, but also one who eminently and peculiarly dispenses himself to us in free love. So the apostle sets it forth in the following verses: this is love, verse 9 — this is what I would have you take notice of in him, that he makes out love to you in sending his only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through him. So also verse 10: he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins. And that this is peculiarly to be eyed in him, the Holy Spirit plainly declares in making it antecedent to the sending of Christ and all mercies and benefits whatever received by him. This love in itself is antecedent to the purchase of Christ, although the whole fruit thereof is made out alone thereby, Ephesians 1:4-6.
Second, in that distribution made by the apostle in his solemn parting benediction, 2 Corinthians 13:13: the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you. Ascribing sundry things to the distinct persons, it is love that he peculiarly assigns to the Father. And the fellowship of the Spirit is mentioned with the grace of Christ and the love of God, because it is by the Spirit alone that we have fellowship with Christ in grace and with the Father in love — although we have also peculiar fellowship with the Spirit, as shall be declared.
Third, John 16:26-27: our Savior says, I say not to you that I will pray the Father for you, for the Father himself loves you. But how is this — that our Savior says 'I say not that I will pray the Father for you,' when he says plainly in chapter 14:16, 'I will pray the Father for you'? The disciples, with all the gracious words, comfortable and faithful promises of their Master, and most heavenly discoveries of his heart to them, were fully convinced of his dear and tender affections toward them, as also of his continued care and kindness that he would not forget them when bodily he was gone from them. But now all their thoughts were concerning the Father — how they should be accepted with him, what respect he had toward them. Says our Savior: take no care of that; impose not that upon me, of procuring the Father's love for you, but know that this is his peculiar respect toward you — he himself loves you. It is true that I will pray the Father to send you the Spirit the Comforter, and with him all the gracious fruits of his love; but yet in the point of love itself, free love, eternal love, there is no need of any intercession — eminently the Father himself loves you. Resolve of that, that you may hold communion with him in it and be no more troubled about it. As your great trouble is about the Father's love, so you can in no way more trouble or burden him than by your unkindness in not believing of it. So it must needs be where sincere love is questioned.
Fourth, the apostle teaches the same in Romans 5:5: the love of God is shed abroad in your hearts by the Holy Spirit. God whose love this is is plainly distinguished from the Holy Spirit who sheds abroad that love of his. And verse 8 he is also distinguished from the Son — for it is from that love of his that the Son is sent. What is it that he ascribes to the Father? Even love — which he commends to us in such a signal and eminent expression that we may take notice of it and close with him in it. Not only is there most frequent peculiar mention of the love of God where the Father is eminently intended, but he is also called the God of love, 2 Corinthians 13:11, and is said to be love — so that whoever will know him, 1 John 4:8, or dwell in him by fellowship or communion, verse 16, must do it as he is love.
Fifth, whereas there is a twofold divine love — a love of good pleasure and destination, and a love of friendship and approbation — they are both peculiarly assigned to the Father in an eminent manner.
John 3:16: God so loved the world that he gave — that is, with the love of his purpose and good pleasure, his determinate will of doing good. This is distinctly ascribed to him, being laid down as the cause of sending his Son. So Romans 9:11-12, Ephesians 1:4-5, 2 Thessalonians 2:13-14, 1 John 4:8-9.
John 14:23 mentions that other kind of love of which we speak. If any man love me, says Christ, he will keep my words, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our abode with him. The love of friendship and approbation is here eminently ascribed to the Father. Says Christ: we will come, even Father and Son, to such a one and dwell with him — that is, by the Spirit. But he would have us take notice that in the point of love the Father has a peculiar prerogative: my Father will love him.
And as this love is peculiarly to be eyed in the Father, so it is to be looked on as the fountain of all following gracious dispensations. Christians often walk with exceedingly troubled hearts concerning the thoughts of the Father toward them — they are well persuaded of the Lord Christ and his goodwill, but the difficulty lies in what their acceptance with the Father is. Show us the Father and it shall suffice us, John 14:8. His love ought to be looked on as the fountain from which all other sweetnesses flow. Thus the apostle sets it out, Titus 3:4: after that the kindness and love of God our Savior toward man appeared. It is of the Father of whom he speaks; for verse 6 tells us that he makes it out to us through Jesus Christ our Savior. And this love he makes the hinge upon which the great alteration and translation of the saints turns. Verse 3: we ourselves were sometimes foolish, disobedient, deceived, serving various lusts and pleasures, living in malice and envy, hateful and hating one another. Whence then is our recovery? The whole rise of it is from this love of God, flowing out by the ways there described. To assure us of his love, there is not anything that has a loving and tender nature in the world which God has not compared himself to — as a father, a mother, a shepherd, a hen over her chickens, Psalm 103:13, Isaiah 63:16, Matthew 6:6, Isaiah 66:13, Psalm 23:1, Isaiah 40:11, Matthew 23:37.
I shall not need to add any more proofs. This is what is demonstrated: there is love in the person of the Father peculiarly held out to the saints, wherein he will and does hold communion with them.
Now to complete communion with the Father in love, two things are required of believers.
First, that they receive it. Second, that they make suitable returns to him.
For the first — that they receive it: communion consists in giving and receiving. Until the love of the Father is received, we have no communion with him therein. How then is this love of the Father to be received so as to hold fellowship with him? By faith. The receiving of it is the believing of it. God has so fully and eminently revealed his love that it may be received by faith. You believe in God, John 14:1 — that is, the Father; and what is to be believed in him? His love; for he is love, 1 John 4:8.
It is true there is not an immediate acting of faith upon the Father but by the Son. He is the way, the truth, and the life — no man comes to the Father but by him, John 14:6. He is the merciful high priest over the house of God by whom we have access to the throne of grace. By him we believe in God, 1 Peter 1:21. But this is what I say: when by and through Christ we have access to the Father, we then behold his glory also and see his love that he peculiarly bears toward us and act faith thereon. We are then to eye it, to believe it, to receive it as in him. Though there is no light for us but in the beams, yet by the beams we may see the sun which is the fountain of it. Though all our refreshment lies in the streams, yet by them we are led up to the fountain. Jesus Christ, in respect of the love of the Father, is but the beam, the stream — in which though actually all our light and refreshment lies, yet by him we are led to the fountain, the sun of eternal love itself. Would believers exercise themselves herein, they would find it a matter of no small spiritual improvement in their walking with God.
This is what is aimed at. Many dark and disturbing thoughts are apt to arise in this thing. Few can carry up their hearts and minds to this height by faith as to rest their souls in the love of the Father — they live below it in the troublesome region of hopes and fears, storms and clouds. All here is serene and quiet. This is the will of God: that he may always be eyed as benign, kind, tender, loving, and unchangeable therein, and that peculiarly as the Father, as the great fountain and spring of all gracious communications and fruits of love. This is what Christ came to reveal — God as a Father, John 1:18. That name which he declares to those given him out of the world, John 17:6. And this is what he effectually leads us to by himself as he is the only way of going to God as a Father, John 14:5-6 — that is, as love. And by doing so, gives us the rest he promises, for the love of the Father is the only rest of the soul. Faith seeks out rest for the soul. This is presented to it by Christ the Mediator as the only procuring cause. Here it does not abide, but by Christ it has access to the Father, Ephesians 2:18, into his love, and finds that he is love — having a design and purpose of love, a good pleasure toward us from eternity, a delight and complacency and goodwill in Christ, all cause of anger and aversion being taken away. The soul being thus by faith through Christ brought into the bosom of God, into a comfortable persuasion and spiritual perception and sense of his love, there reposes and rests itself. And this is the first thing the saints do in their communion with the Father.
For the suitable return required, this in its main part consists in love. God loves, that he may be beloved. When he comes to command the return of his received love to complete communion with him, he says: my son, give me your heart, Proverbs 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 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 it communion with him in love. This is love: that God loves us first and then we love him again. Love is an affection of union and nearness with complacency therein. So long as the Father is looked on under any other apprehension but only as acting love upon the soul, it breeds in the soul dread and aversion. Hence the fleeing and hiding of sinners in the scriptures. But when he who is the Father is considered as a Father acting love on the soul, this raises it to love again. This is in faith the ground of all acceptable obedience.
Thus is this whole business stated by the apostle: Ephesians 1:4, according as he has chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love. It begins in the love of God, and ends in our love to him. That is what the eternal love of God aims at in us, and works us up unto. It is true; our universal obedience falls within the compass of our communion with God: but that is with him as God, our blessed sovereign lawgiver, and rewarder; as he is the Father, our Father in Christ, as revealed unto us to be love, above and contrary to all the expectations of the natural man, so it is in love that we have this intercourse with him. Nor do I intend only that love, which is as the life and form of all moral obedience; but a peculiar delight and acquiescing in the Father revealed effectually as love unto the soul.
That this communion with the Father in love may be made the more clear and evident, I shall show two things.
1. Wherein this love of God unto us, and our love to him do agree, as to some manner of analogy and likeness. 2. Wherein they differ; which will further discover the nature of each of them.
1. They agree in two things. 1. That they are each a love of rest and complacency.
1. The love of God is so. Zephaniah 3:17, The Lord your God in the midst of you is mighty: he will save, he will rejoice over you with joy, he will rest in his love, he will joy over you with singing. Both these things are here assigned unto God in his love; rest and delight. He shall be silent because of his love. To rest with contentment is expressed by being silent; that is, without repining, without complaint. This God does upon the account of his own love, so full, so every way complete and absolute, that it will not allow him to complain of anything in them whom he loves, but is silent on the account thereof. Or rest in his love, that is, he will not remove it; he will not seek further for another object. It shall make its abode upon the soul where it is once fixed, forever. And complacency or delight: he rejoices with singing, as one that is fully satisfied in that object he has fixed his love on. Here are two words used to express the delight and joy that God has in his love. The first denotes the inward affection of the mind, joy of heart; and to set out the intenseness hereof, it is said, he shall do it in gladness, or with joy; to have joy of heart in gladness is the highest expression of delight in love: the latter word denotes not the inward affection, but the outward demonstration of it. It is to exult in outward demonstration of internal delight and joy. To leap as men overcome with some joyful surprisal. And therefore God is said to do this with a joyful sound, or singing: to rejoice with gladness of heart, to exult with singing and praise argues the greatest delight and complacency possible. When he would express the contrary of this love, he says he was not well pleased (1 Corinthians 10:5); he fixed not his delight, nor rest on them. And, if any man draw back, the Lord's soul has no pleasure in him (Hebrews 10:38; Jeremiah 22:28; Hosea 8:8; Mark 1:10). He takes pleasure in those that abide with him. He sings to his church, a vineyard of red wine. I the Lord do keep it (Isaiah 27:3; Psalm 147:11; 149:4). There is rest, and complacency in his love. There is in the Hebrew, but a metathesis of a letter between the word that signifies a love of will and desire, and that which denotes a love of rest and acquiescence, and both are applied to God. He wills good to us, that he may rest in that will. Some say to love is perfectly to acquiesce in the thing loved. And when God calls his Son, beloved (Matthew 3:17), he adds as an exposition of it, in whom I rest well pleased.
2. 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. Return to your rest, O my soul, says David (Psalm 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 besides you (Psalm 73:25). Thus the soul gathers in itself from all its wanderings, from all other beloveds to rest in God alone, to satiate and content himself in him, choosing the Father for his present, and eternal rest. And this also with delight. Your loving kindness (says the psalmist) is better than life, therefore will I praise you (Psalm 63:3). Than life, before lives. I will not deny, but life in a single consideration sometimes is so expressed: but always emphatically; so that the whole life, with all the concerns of it, which may render it considerable are thereby intended. Austin on this place reading it "super vitas," extends it to the several courses of life that men engage themselves in. Life in the whole continuance of it with all its advantages whatever, is at least intended. Supposing himself in the jaws of death, rolling into the grave through innumerable troubles, yet he found more sweetness in God, than in a long life, under its best and most noble considerations, attended with all enjoyments that make it pleasant and comfortable. From both these, is that of the church in Hosea 14:3, Assyria shall not save us, we will not ride upon horses, neither will we say any more to the work of our hands, you are our gods, for in you the fatherless find mercy. They reject the most goodly appearances of rest and contentment, to make up all in God, on whom they cast themselves as otherwise helpless orphans.
The mutual love of God and the saints agree in this: that the way of communicating the issues and fruits of these loves is only in Christ. The Father communicates no issue of his love to us but through Christ; and we make no return of love to him but through Christ. He is the treasure wherein the Father disposes all the riches of his grace taken from the bottomless mine of his eternal love; and he is the priest into whose hand we put all the offerings that we return to the Father. Thence he is said first and by way of eminency to love the Son — not only as his eternal Son, as he was the delight of his soul before the foundation of the world, Proverbs 8:30, but also as our Mediator and the means of conveying his love to us, Matthew 3:17, John 3:33, John 5:21, John 10:17, John 15:9, John 17:24. And we are said through him to believe in and to have access to God.
The Father loves us and chooses us before the foundation of the world; but in the pursuit of that love he blesses us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ, Ephesians 1:3-4. From his love he sheds or pours out the Holy Spirit richly upon us through Jesus Christ our Savior, Titus 3:6. In the pouring out of his love there is not one drop falls outside the Lord Christ. The holy anointing oil was all poured on the head of Aaron, Psalm 133:2, and thence went down to the skirts of his clothing. Love is first poured out on Christ, and from him it drops as the dew of Hermon upon the souls of his saints. The Father will have Christ to have the preeminence in all things, Colossians 1:18. It pleased him that in Christ all fullness should dwell, verse 19, that of his fullness we might receive and grace for grace, John 1:16. Though the love of the Father's purpose and good pleasure has its rise and foundation in his mere grace and will, yet the design of its accomplishment is only in Christ. All the fruits of it are first given to him, and it is in him only that they are dispensed to us. Though the saints may see an infinite ocean of love to them in the bosom of the Father, yet they are not to look for one drop from him but what comes through Christ. Love in the Father is like honey in the flower — it must be in the comb before it is for our use. Christ must extract and prepare this honey for us. He draws this water from the fountain; we by faith draw from the wells of salvation that are in him.
Our returns are all in Christ and by him also. And well is it for us that it is so — what lame and blind sacrifices should we otherwise present to God. He bears the iniquity of our offerings and adds incense to our prayers. Our love is fixed on the Father, but it is conveyed to him through the Son of his love. He is the only way for our graces as well as our persons to go to God — through him passes all our desire, our delight, our complacency, our obedience.
Now in these two things there is some resemblance between that mutual love of the Father and the saints in which they hold communion.
There are sundry things in which they differ.
First, the love of God is a love of bounty; our love to him is a love of duty.
The love of the Father is a love of bounty, a descending love — such a love as carries him out to do good things to us, great things for us. His love lies at the bottom of all dispensations toward us, and we scarcely anywhere find mention of it but it is held out as the cause and fountain of some free gift flowing from it. He loves us and sends his Son to die for us; he loves us and blesses us with all spiritual blessings. Loving is choosing, Romans 9:11-12. He loves us and chastises us. A love like that of the heavens to the earth — when being full of rain they pour forth showers to make it fruitful. As the sea communicates its waters to the rivers by way of bounty out of its own fullness, and they return to it only what they receive from it. It is the love of a spring, of a fountain, always communicating. A love from which proceeds everything that is lovely in its object — it infuses into and creates goodness in the persons beloved.
Our love to God is a love of duty — the love of a child. His love descends upon us in bounty and fruitfulness; our love ascends to him in duty and thankfulness. He adds to us by his love; we nothing to him by ours. Our goodness extends not to him. Though our love is fixed on him immediately, yet no fruit of our love reaches him immediately, though he requires our love, he is not benefited by it, Job 35:5-8, Romans 11:35. Our love to God is made up of four things: rest, delight, reverence, and obedience. By these do we hold communion with the Father in his love. Hence God calls that love which is due to him as a Father, honor: Malachi 1:6 — if I be a Father, where is my honor? It is a deserved act of duty.
Second, they differ in this: the love of the Father to us is an antecedent love; our love to him is a consequent love.
The love of the Father to us is an antecedent love, and that in two respects.
First, it is antecedent in respect of our love. 1 John 4:10: herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us. His love goes before ours. The Father loves the child when the child knows not the Father, much less loves him. By nature we are haters of God, Romans 1:30. He is in his own nature a lover of men. And surely all mutual love between him and us must begin on his hand.
Second, in respect of all other causes of love whatever: the Father's love goes not only before our love, but also before anything in us that is lovely. Romans 5:8: God commends his love toward us in that while we were yet sinners Christ died for us. Not only his love, but the eminent fruit thereof, is made out toward us as sinners. Sin holds out all of unlovliness and undesirableness that can be in a creature. Yet as such do we have the commendation of the Father's love — by a most signal testimony. Not only when we have done no good, but when we are in our blood does he love us. Not because we are better than others, but because he himself is infinitely good. His kindness appears when we are foolish and disobedient. Hence he is said to love the world — that is, those who have nothing but what is in and of the world, whose whole lies in evil.
Our love is consequential in both these regards. First, in respect of the love of God: never did a creature turn its affections toward God if the heart of God were not first set upon him. Second, in respect of sufficient causes of love: God must be revealed to us as lovely and desirable, as a fit and suitable object for the soul to set up its rest upon, before we can bear any love toward him. The saints in this sense do not love God for nothing, but for that excellency, loveliness, and desirableness that is in him. As the Psalmist says in one particular, Psalm 116:1, I love the Lord — because. So may we in general: we love the Lord because. If any man inquires about our love to God, we may say, what have we now done, is there not a cause?
Third, they differ in this also: the love of God is like himself — equal, constant, not capable of augmentation or diminution. Our love is like ourselves — unequal, increasing, waning, growing, declining. His love is like the sun, always the same in its light, though a cloud may sometimes interpose. Ours is like the moon, with its enlargements and straightenings.
The love of the Father is equal. Whom he loves he loves to the end, and he loves them always alike. The Strength of Israel is not a man that he should repent. On whom he fixes his love it is immutable — it does not grow to eternity, it is not diminished at any time. It is an eternal love that had no beginning, that shall have no ending, that cannot be heightened by any act of ours, that cannot be lessened by anything in us. In itself it is thus — though in two respects it may admit of change.
First, in respect of its fruits. It is a fruitful love, a love of bounty. In reference to those fruits it may sometimes be greater, sometimes less — its communications are various. Who among the saints finds it not? What life, what light, what strength sometimes — and again how dead, how dark, how weak, as God is pleased to let out or restrain the fruits of his love. All the graces of the Spirit in us, all sanctified enjoyments whatever, are fruits of his love. How variously these are dispensed, how differently at sundry seasons to the same persons, experience will abundantly testify.
Second, in respect of its discoveries and manifestations. He sheds abroad his love in our hearts by the Holy Spirit, Romans 5:5, and gives us a sense of it. Now this is various and changeable — sometimes more, sometimes less. Now he shines, anon hides his face, as it may be for our profit. Our Father will not always chide lest we be cast down; he does not always smile lest we be full and neglect him. But still his love in itself is the same. When for a little moment he hides his face, yet he gathers us with everlasting kindness.
Objection: but you will say, this comes near to that blasphemy that God loves his people in their sinning as well as in their strictest obedience — and if so, who will care to serve him more or to walk with him to well-pleasing?
Answer: the love of God in itself is the eternal purpose and act of his will, no more changeable than God himself. If it were, no flesh could be saved. But it changes not, and we are not consumed. What then — does he love his people in their sinning? Yes, his people, not their sinning. Does he alter his love toward them? Not the purpose of his will, but the dispensations of his grace. He rebukes them, chastens them, hides his face from them, smites them, fills them with a sense of indignation. But woe would it be to us should he change in his love or take away his kindness from us. Those very things which seem to be demonstrations of the change of his affections do at bottom proceed from love as clearly as those which seem to be the most genuine issues thereof. Will not this encourage to sin? He never tasted of the love of God who can seriously make this objection. The doctrine of grace may be turned into wantonness; the principle cannot. Detestation of sin in any may well consist with the acceptation of their persons and their designation to eternal life.
But now our love to God is ebbing and flowing, waning and increasing. We lose our first love and we grow again in love. Scarcely a day at a stand. What poor creatures are we — how unlike the Lord and his love? Unstable as water we cannot excel. Now it is: though all men forsake you, I will not. Anon: I know not the man. One day: I shall never be moved, my hill is so strong. The next: all men are liars, I shall perish. When ever was the time, where ever was the place, that our love was one day equal toward God?
And thus these agreements and discrepancies further describe that mutual love of the Father and the saints in which they hold communion. Other instances as to the person of the Father I shall not give, but endeavor to make some improvement of this in the next chapter.
Of the peculiar and distinct communion which the saints have with the Father. Observations for clearing the whole are given first. Our peculiar communion with the Father is in love. 1 John 4:7-8, 2 Corinthians 13:13, John 16:26-27, Romans 5:5, John 3:16, John 14:23, Titus 3:4, opened to this purpose. What is required of believers to hold communion with the Father in love. His love received by faith. Returns of love to Him. God's love to us and ours to Him — wherein they agree and wherein they differ.
Having proved that there is a distinct communion with the Father, Son, and Spirit as described, it remains to clarify further with specific examples what it is in which the saints peculiarly hold communion with each person. I will do this after first setting out several observations that must be understood in order to clarify what has already been said.
First observation: when I say something is particular to our distinct communion with any one person, I am not excluding the other persons from communion with the soul in that same thing. What I mean is this: in a primary, immediate, and eminent sense, we hold communion with one particular person in a given thing, and through that, secondarily and by way of consequence, with the others. The person as such — the individual person of any one of the three — is not the primary object of divine worship in isolation, but only as identified with the nature or essence of God. Now the works of God that are directed outward — commonly called the Trinity's outward works — are either entirely common to all three, or they are common in their actions but distinguished in the way each person contributes. So creation is appropriated to the Father, redemption to the Son — and it is in this sense that we speak of these things.
Second observation: in every act of communion we hold with any one person, there is a concurrent working of the whole Godhead. By whatever act we hold communion with any person, every person contributes to making that act possible. Take faith as an example. It is given to us by the Father — it is not of ourselves; it is the gift of God (Ephesians 2:8). It is the Father who reveals the Gospel and Christ in it (Matthew 11:25). It is purchased for us by the Son — it is granted to you for Christ's sake to believe in Him (Philippians 1:29). In Him we are blessed with every spiritual blessing (Ephesians 1:3). And it is worked in us by the Spirit (Ephesians 1:19-20; Romans 8:11).
Third observation: when I assign a particular thing as the medium of communion with any one person, I am not saying this is the only way of communion, but only giving a clear and notable example to support and illustrate the general claim made earlier. In every grace and every duty, we have communion with God in the way described. In every way we are made partakers of the divine nature, there is communication and receiving between God and us. That is how near we are to Him in Christ.
Fourth observation: in asserting this distinct communion — which simply reflects the order of God's grace as He has been pleased to reveal it in the Gospel — I do not in the least intend to confine all communion with God within these particular categories. His ways are exceedingly broad, and there is no end to their fullness. Nor do I intend to diminish that holy fellowship we have with the whole Godhead in our walking before Him in covenant obedience, which I will also address later.
With those few observations in place, I now come to declare what it is in which the saints have peculiar and eminent communion with the Father. It is love — free, undeserved, and eternal love. This the Father fixes peculiarly upon the saints; this is what they are to look for in Him, to receive from Him, and to return to Him in ways that delight Him. This is the great discovery of the Gospel. For apart from this, the Father — as the fountain of the Godhead — is known only as full of wrath, anger, and indignation against sin. Human beings can form no other thought of Him (Romans 1:18; Isaiah 33:15-16; Habakkuk 1:13). But now He is revealed in a uniquely new way as love, as full of love toward us — and making this known is the particular work of the Gospel (Titus 3:4).
1 John 4:8: God is love. That 'God' here refers personally to the Father, not to the divine essence in general, is clear from verse 9, where He is distinguished from His only begotten Son whom He sends into the world. So the apostle says: the Father is love — meaning not only that He is of an infinitely gracious, tender, compassionate, and loving nature, as He proclaimed of Himself (Exodus 34:6-7), but also that He eminently and particularly makes Himself known to us through free love. The apostle unpacks this in the following verses. This is love (verse 9) — this is what I want you to see in Him: that He pours out love toward you by sending His only begotten Son into the world, so that we might live through Him. So also verse 10: He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins. That this is to be seen particularly in Him is plainly declared by the Holy Spirit in making it the prior cause of Christ's sending and every mercy that flows from it. This love in itself precedes the purchase made by Christ, though all its fruit is brought to us through that purchase alone (Ephesians 1:4-6).
Second, in the apostle's solemn parting benediction in 2 Corinthians 13:13 — the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you — where he assigns distinct things to the distinct persons, it is love that he peculiarly gives to the Father. The fellowship of the Spirit is mentioned alongside the grace of Christ and the love of God because it is through the Spirit alone that we have fellowship with Christ in grace and with the Father in love — though we also have distinct fellowship with the Spirit, as will be explained.
Third, in John 16:26-27 our Savior says, "I do not say to you that I will ask the Father on your behalf, for the Father Himself loves you." But how can our Savior say, "I do not say that I will ask the Father for you," when He plainly says in chapter 14:16, "I will ask the Father for you"? The disciples, after hearing all the gracious words, comforting and faithful promises of their Master, and His deeply moving revelations of His heart toward them, were fully convinced of His dear and tender affection for them. They were also sure of His continued care and kindness, knowing He would not forget them when He physically left them. But all their concern was about the Father — how they would be accepted by Him, and what regard He had for them. Our Savior responds: do not worry about that. Do not place on Me the burden of winning the Father's love for you. Instead, know that this is His own special attitude toward you — He Himself loves you. It is true that I will ask the Father to send you the Spirit, the Comforter, and with Him all the gracious fruits of His love. Yet when it comes to love itself — free love, eternal love — there is no need for any intercession. The Father Himself loves you in a supreme way. Be assured of this, so that you may hold communion with Him in it and be troubled about it no longer. Just as your greatest worry is about the Father's love, so there is no way you can trouble or burden Him more than by your lack of trust in refusing to believe it. This is always the case when sincere love is questioned.
Fourth, the apostle teaches the same thing in Romans 5:5: the love of God is poured out in your hearts by the Holy Spirit. The God whose love this is, is clearly distinguished from the Holy Spirit who pours out that love. In verse 8, He is also distinguished from the Son, since it is from this love that the Son is sent. What does Paul attribute to the Father? Love — which He displays to us in such a remarkable and outstanding way that we may recognize it and embrace Him in it. Not only is there very frequent specific mention of the love of God where the Father is clearly intended, but He is also called the God of love (2 Corinthians 13:11) and is said to be love. So whoever wants to know Him (1 John 4:8) or dwell in Him through fellowship and communion (verse 16) must do so recognizing that He is love.
Fifth, there are two kinds of divine love — a love of good pleasure and purpose, and a love of friendship and approval — and both are specifically assigned to the Father in a supreme way.
John 3:16: God so loved the world that He gave — that is, with the love of His purpose and good pleasure, His determined will to do good. This is specifically attributed to Him, presented as the cause and source of sending His Son. The same is seen in Romans 9:11-12, Ephesians 1:4-5, 2 Thessalonians 2:13-14, and 1 John 4:8-9.
John 14:23 mentions the other kind of love we are discussing. "If anyone loves Me," says Christ, "he will keep My words, and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our home with him." The love of friendship and approval is here specifically attributed to the Father. Christ says: We will come, both Father and Son, to such a person and dwell with him — that is, by the Spirit. But He wants us to notice that when it comes to love, the Father holds a special priority: "My Father will love him."
Just as this love should be especially recognized in the Father, it should also be seen as the fountain of all the gracious blessings that follow. Christians often live with deeply troubled hearts about the Father's thoughts toward them. They are well convinced of the Lord Christ and His goodwill, but the difficulty lies in knowing whether the Father accepts them. "Show us the Father, and it will be enough for us" (John 14:8). His love should be viewed as the fountain from which all other blessings flow. The apostle describes it this way in Titus 3:4: "After the kindness and love of God our Savior toward mankind appeared." He is speaking of the Father, because verse 6 tells us that He pours this out on us through Jesus Christ our Savior. And this love is the turning point on which the great transformation of believers depends. Verse 3 says: we ourselves were once foolish, disobedient, deceived, enslaved to various desires and pleasures, living in malice and envy, hateful and hating one another. Where does our recovery come from, then? It all rises from this love of God, flowing out through the means described there. To assure us of His love, there is nothing in the world with a loving and tender nature that God has not compared Himself to — a father, a mother, a shepherd, a hen over her chicks (Psalm 103:13; Isaiah 63:16; Matthew 6:6; Isaiah 66:13; Psalm 23:1; Isaiah 40:11; Matthew 23:37).
I do not need to add any more evidence. This is what has been demonstrated: there is a love in the person of the Father that is specifically offered to believers, and in this love He will and does hold communion with them.
Now to have complete communion with the Father in love, two things are required of believers.
First, that they receive it. Second, that they make a fitting response to Him.
Regarding the first — that they receive it: communion consists in giving and receiving. Until the Father's love is received, we have no communion with Him in it. How then is this love of the Father to be received so that we can have fellowship with Him? By faith. Receiving it means believing it. God has so fully and clearly revealed His love that it can be received by faith. "You believe in God" (John 14:1) — that is, the Father. And what is to be believed about Him? His love, for He is love (1 John 4:8).
It is true that faith does not act directly on the Father except through the Son. He is the way, the truth, and the life — no one comes to the Father except through Him (John 14:6). He is the merciful high priest over the house of God, through whom we have access to the throne of grace. Through Him we believe in God (1 Peter 1:21). But here is what I am saying: when through Christ we gain access to the Father, we then see His glory and recognize His special love for us, and we place our faith in it. We are to focus on it, believe it, and receive it as it truly is in Him. Though there is no light for us except in the beams, yet through the beams we can see the sun, which is their source. Though all our refreshment lies in the streams, yet through them we are led back to the fountain. Jesus Christ, when it comes to the Father's love, is the beam and the stream. Though all our light and refreshment actually lies in Him, yet through Him we are led to the fountain — the sun of eternal love itself. If believers practiced this, they would find it produces no small spiritual growth in their walk with God.
This is the goal. Many dark and unsettling thoughts tend to arise here. Few can lift their hearts and minds to this height by faith so as to rest their souls in the love of the Father. Instead, they live below it in the troubled region of hopes and fears, storms and clouds. But up above, all is calm and quiet. This is the will of God: that He may always be seen as gracious, kind, tender, loving, and unchangeable in His love — specifically as the Father, as the great fountain and source of all gracious gifts and expressions of love. This is what Christ came to reveal — God as a Father (John 1:18). That is the name He declares to those the Father gave Him out of the world (John 17:6). And this is what He effectively leads us to through Himself, as He is the only way to God as a Father (John 14:5-6) — that is, as love. By doing so, He gives us the rest He promises, because the love of the Father is the only true rest for the soul. Faith searches for rest for the soul. Christ the Mediator presents Himself as the only one who can secure it. But faith does not stop there. Through Christ it gains access to the Father (Ephesians 2:18), enters into His love, and discovers that He is love — having a design and purpose of love, a good pleasure toward us from eternity, a delight and satisfaction and goodwill toward us in Christ, with every cause of anger and rejection removed. When the soul is brought by faith through Christ into the heart of God, into a confident assurance and spiritual awareness of His love, it rests there. This is the first thing believers do in their communion with the Father.
As for the fitting response required, it mainly consists in love. God loves so that He may be loved in return. When He commands the response to His love in order to complete communion with Him, He says: "My son, give Me your heart" (Proverbs 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 response He requires. When the soul sees God in His outpouring of love to be love itself — to be infinitely lovely and loving — and rests in Him and delights in Him as such, then it has communion with Him in love. This is love: God loves us first, and then we love Him in return. Love is a bond of union and closeness, with delight in that connection. As long as the Father is viewed in any other way than as someone acting in love toward the soul, it produces dread and avoidance. This explains why sinners flee and hide in the Scriptures. But when the one who is the Father is understood as a Father pouring out love on the soul, this stirs the soul to love Him back. This is the foundation, through faith, of all acceptable obedience.
The apostle lays out this whole matter in Ephesians 1:4: "He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love." It begins in the love of God and ends in our love for Him. That is what the eternal love of God aims to produce in us and works us toward. It is true that our overall obedience falls within our communion with God. But that is with Him as God — our blessed sovereign lawgiver and rewarder. As He is the Father, our Father in Christ, revealed to us as love beyond and contrary to all the expectations of the natural person, it is specifically in love that we have this relationship with Him. And I do not mean only the love that is the life and essence of all moral obedience, but a special delight and contentment in the Father, who has been effectively revealed as love to the soul.
To make this communion with the Father in love clearer and more evident, I will show two things.
1. How this love of God for us and our love for Him are similar, sharing a certain resemblance. 2. How they differ, which will further reveal the nature of each.
1. They agree in two things. 1. Both are a love of rest and delight.
1. God's love is this kind of love. Zephaniah 3:17 says, "The Lord Your God in the midst of You is mighty: He will save, He will rejoice over You with joy, He will rest in His love, He will exult over You with singing." Both of these qualities are attributed to God in His love: rest and delight. He will be silent because of His love. To rest with contentment is expressed as being silent — that is, without complaining or finding fault. God does this because of His own love, so full and completely sufficient that it will not allow Him to complain about anything in those He loves. Instead, He is silent on account of it. Or "rest in His love" means He will not remove it. He will not look elsewhere for another object of His affection. His love will remain on the soul where it is once placed, forever. And there is also delight: He rejoices with singing, as someone who is fully satisfied in the one He has set His love on. Two words are used here to express the delight and joy that God has in His love. The first describes the inner feeling of the mind, the joy of the heart. To show how intense this is, the text says He does it with gladness, or with joy. To have heart-deep joy combined with gladness is the highest expression of delight in love. The second word describes not the inner feeling, but its outward expression. It means to celebrate with outward demonstrations of inner delight and joy. It is like leaping, as people do when overcome by some joyful surprise. This is why God is said to do this with a joyful sound, or singing. To rejoice with gladness of heart and to celebrate with singing and praise shows the greatest possible delight and satisfaction. When He wants to express the opposite of this love, He says He was not well pleased (1 Corinthians 10:5). He did not fix His delight or rest on them. And if anyone draws back, the Lord's soul has no pleasure in him (Hebrews 10:38; Jeremiah 22:28; Hosea 8:8; Mark 1:10). He takes pleasure in those who remain with Him. He sings to His church, "A vineyard of red wine. I the Lord do keep it" (Isaiah 27:3; Psalm 147:11; Psalm 149:4). There is rest and delight in His love. In Hebrew, there is only a switching of a letter between the word for a love of will and desire and the word for a love of rest and contentment, and both are applied to God. He wills good for us so that He may rest in that will. Some say that to love is to perfectly find contentment in the thing loved. And when God calls His Son "beloved" (Matthew 3:17), He adds as an explanation, "in whom I am well pleased."
2. The response believers make to complete communion with Him in this also resembles His love, because it is likewise a love of rest and delight. "Return to your rest, O my soul," says David (Psalm 116:7). He makes God his rest — the one in whom his soul finds contentment without looking any further for a more suitable and desirable object. "Whom have I in heaven but You? And there is nothing on earth that I desire besides You" (Psalm 73:25). In this way, the soul gathers itself in from all its wandering and from all other loves, to rest in God alone, to be satisfied and content in Him, choosing the Father as its present and eternal rest. And this also comes with delight. "Your lovingkindness is better than life, therefore I will praise You" (Psalm 63:3). Better than life — better than many lives. I do not deny that life is sometimes expressed in singular terms, but always with emphasis, so that the whole of life with all its advantages is intended. Augustine, reading this passage as "above lives," extends it to the various courses of life that people pursue. At the very least, the whole span of life with all its advantages is meant. Even if he were in the jaws of death, rolling toward the grave through countless troubles, David found more sweetness in God than in a long life considered at its best and most noble, accompanied by every enjoyment that makes it pleasant and comfortable. From both of these comes what the church says in Hosea 14:3: "Assyria shall not save us, we will not ride on horses, neither will we say anymore to the work of our hands, 'You are our gods,' for in You the fatherless find mercy." They reject the most attractive appearances of rest and security in order to find everything in God, casting themselves on Him as otherwise helpless orphans.
The mutual love of God and believers agrees in this: the way of sharing the results and fruits of this love is only through Christ. The Father shares no expression of His love with us except through Christ, and we make no response of love to Him except through Christ. He is the treasury where the Father stores all the riches of His grace, drawn from the bottomless mine of His eternal love. And He is the priest into whose hands we place all the offerings that we return to the Father. For this reason, He is said first and with special emphasis to love the Son — not only as His eternal Son, who was the delight of His soul before the foundation of the world (Proverbs 8:30), but also as our Mediator and the means of conveying His love to us (Matthew 3:17; John 3:33; John 5:21; John 10:17; John 15:9; John 17:24). And we are said to believe in God and have access to Him through Christ.
The Father loves us and chose us before the foundation of the world, but in carrying out that love He blesses us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ (Ephesians 1:3-4). From His love He pours out the Holy Spirit richly on us through Jesus Christ our Savior (Titus 3:6). In the pouring out of His love, not a single drop falls outside the Lord Christ. The holy anointing oil was all poured on the head of Aaron (Psalm 133:2) and from there flowed down to the hem of his garments. Love is first poured out on Christ, and from Him it drops like the dew of Hermon on the souls of His people. The Father will have Christ hold the supreme place in all things (Colossians 1:18). It pleased Him that all fullness should dwell in Christ (verse 19), so that from His fullness we might receive grace upon grace (John 1:16). Although the love of the Father's purpose and good pleasure has its origin and foundation in His sheer grace and will, the plan for its fulfillment is only in Christ. All the fruits of it are first given to Christ, and only through Him are they distributed to us. Though believers may see an infinite ocean of love for them in the heart of the Father, they should not expect a single drop from Him except what comes through Christ. Love in the Father is like honey in the flower — it must be gathered into the comb before we can use it. Christ must extract and prepare this honey for us. He draws this water from the fountain; we by faith draw from the wells of salvation that are in Him.
Our responses of love are all in Christ and through Him as well. And it is a good thing for us that this is so — what weak and flawed offerings we would otherwise present to God! He bears the guilt of our offerings and adds incense to our prayers. Our love is fixed on the Father, but it is conveyed to Him through the Son of His love. He is the only way for our expressions of devotion, as well as for our persons, to reach God — through Him passes all our desire, our delight, our satisfaction, and our obedience.
In these two things, then, there is some resemblance between the mutual love of the Father and believers in which they hold communion.
There are several ways in which they differ.
First, the love of God is a love of generosity; our love for Him is a love of duty.
The love of the Father is a love of generosity, a descending love — a love that moves Him to do good things for us and great things on our behalf. His love lies at the foundation of all His dealings with us, and we hardly ever find it mentioned without it being presented as the cause and fountain of 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 (Romans 9:11-12). He loves us and disciplines us. It is a love like the heavens to the earth — when they are full of rain, they pour out showers to make it fruitful. Just as the sea shares its waters with the rivers by generosity from its own fullness, and the rivers return to it only what they received from it. It is the love of a spring, of a fountain, always giving. It is a love from which everything that is lovely in the ones loved comes — it pours into them and creates goodness in the persons who are loved.
Our love for God is a love of duty — the love of a child. His love descends on us in generosity and fruitfulness; our love rises to Him in duty and thankfulness. He adds to us by His love; we add nothing to Him by ours. Our goodness does not benefit Him. Though our love is fixed directly on Him, no fruit of our love reaches Him directly. Even though He requires our love, He is not enriched by it (Job 35:5-8; Romans 11:35). Our love for God is made up of four things: rest, delight, reverence, and obedience. Through these we hold communion with the Father in His love. This is why God calls the love that is due to Him as a Father "honor": "If I am a Father, where is My honor?" (Malachi 1:6). It is a rightfully owed act of duty.
Second, they differ in this: the love of the Father for us comes first; our love for Him follows.
The love of the Father for us comes first, and that in two respects.
First, it comes before our love. 1 John 4:10: "In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us." His love goes before ours. A father loves the child when the child does not yet know the father, much less love him. By nature we are haters of God (Romans 1:30). He is by His own nature a lover of people. And surely all mutual love between Him and us must begin on His side.
Second, it comes before anything in us that is lovable. The Father's love goes not only before our love, but also before any quality in us that could attract love. Romans 5:8: "God demonstrates His love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us." Not only His love, but its most outstanding fruit, is directed toward us as sinners. Sin displays everything that is unlovely and undesirable in a creature. Yet even in that condition, we receive the display of the Father's love through the most remarkable testimony. Not only when we have done nothing good, but when we are still covered in our sin, He loves us. Not because we are better than others, but because He Himself is infinitely good. His kindness appears when we are foolish and disobedient. This is why He is said to love the world — that is, those who have nothing but what belongs to and comes from the world, whose entire existence lies in evil.
Our love follows in both of these ways. First, in relation to the love of God: no creature ever turned its affections toward God unless God's heart was first set on that person. Second, in relation to reasons for loving: God must be revealed to us as lovely and desirable, as a fitting and suitable object for the soul to find its rest in, before we can have any love for Him. In this sense, believers do not love God for no reason, but because of the excellence, loveliness, and desirability that is in Him. As the Psalmist says about one specific experience, "I love the Lord — because" (Psalm 116:1). So we may say the same in general: we love the Lord because. If anyone asks about our love for God, we can say: what have we done? Is there not good reason?
Third, they also differ in this: the love of God is like Himself — constant, steady, and unable to increase or decrease. Our love is like ourselves — uneven, rising and falling, growing and declining. His love is like the sun, always the same in its light, even though a cloud may sometimes come between. Ours is like the moon, with its expanding and shrinking.
The love of the Father is constant. Whoever He loves, He loves to the end, and He loves them the same always. The Strength of Israel is not a man that He should change His mind. When He fixes His love on someone, it is unchangeable. It does not grow throughout eternity, and it is not reduced at any time. It is an eternal love that had no beginning, that will have no end, that cannot be increased by anything we do, and that cannot be diminished by anything in us. In itself this love is unchanging — though in two respects it may seem to change.
First, in terms of its fruits. It is a fruitful love, a love of generosity. With regard to those fruits, it may sometimes be greater and sometimes less — its outpourings vary. Which of the saints has not experienced this? What life, what light, what strength at some times — and then how lifeless, how dark, how weak at others, as God chooses to release or hold back the fruits of His love. All the graces of the Spirit in us and all our sanctified blessings are fruits of His love. How differently these are given out, and how varied they are at different times for the same people, experience will abundantly confirm.
Second, in terms of its revelations and expressions. He pours out His love in our hearts by the Holy Spirit (Romans 5:5) and gives us an awareness of it. Now this varies and changes — sometimes more, sometimes less. At one time He shines brightly; at another He hides His face, as it may be for our benefit. Our Father will not always correct us, in case we become discouraged. But He does not always smile on us either, in case we become self-satisfied and neglect Him. Yet His love in itself remains the same. When for a brief moment He hides His face, He still gathers us with everlasting kindness.
Objection: but you will say this comes close to the blasphemous idea that God loves His people while they are sinning just as much as when they are walking in strict obedience. And if that is so, who would bother to serve Him more or to walk with Him in a way that pleases Him?
Answer: the love of God in itself is the eternal purpose and act of His will, no more changeable than God Himself. If it were changeable, no one could be saved. But it does not change, and so we are not destroyed. What then — does He love His people while they are sinning? Yes, He loves His people, but not their sinning. Does He alter His love toward them? Not the purpose of His will, but the expressions of His grace. He rebukes them, disciplines them, hides His face from them, strikes them, and fills them with a sense of His displeasure. But it would be disastrous for us if He were to change in His love or take away His kindness from us. The very things that seem to show a change in His feelings actually, at their root, come from love just as clearly as the things that seem to be the most genuine expressions of it. Will this not encourage sin? Anyone who has truly tasted the love of God could never seriously raise this objection. The teaching of grace may be twisted into an excuse for sin, but the inner reality of grace cannot. A hatred of sin in anyone can perfectly coexist with the acceptance of their person and their appointment to eternal life.
But our love for God rises and falls, shrinks and grows. We lose our first love, and then we grow in love again. Hardly a day stays the same. What weak creatures we are — how unlike the Lord and His love! Unstable as water, we cannot rise above it. One moment it is: "Though everyone else abandons You, I will not." The next: "I do not know the man." One day: "I will never be shaken; my position is so secure." The next: "Everyone is a liar; I am going to be destroyed." When has there ever been a time, or where has there ever been a place, where our love was steady toward God for even one day?
These similarities and differences further describe the mutual love of the Father and believers in which they hold communion. I will not give additional examples regarding the person of the Father, but will instead try to make practical use of this in the next chapter.
