Rev J R Tallach
2. The Believer’s Fellowship with God the Father
We read in 1 John 1:3: “Truly our fellowship is with the Father and with His Son Jesus Christ”. Believers in those days were despised and rejected by the world at large. Why should anyone wish to be connected with them or join them? This question was answered blessedly: “Truly our fellowship is with the Father and with His Son Jesus Christ”.
The saints of God then have fellowship with Him – a holy and spiritual communion. Owen makes the point that by nature, as fallen creatures, we are alienated from the life of God “through . . . ignorance” (Eph 4:18). Through the Fall we are far off from God, “having no hope, and without God in the world” (Eph 2:12). “Can two walk together, except they be agreed?” (Amos 3:3). What fellowship has light with darkness? (see 2 Cor 6:14).
The union between the Father and believers was not made fully evident until Christ came. Yet the Old Testament figures and types were striking and clear in themselves. Consider the promise to Israel in their High Priest, as he drew near to God in the holy of holies to present the sacrificial blood and the incense: “There I will meet with thee, and I will commune with thee from above the mercy seat” (Ex 25:22).
It is also true that the Old Testament saints had spiritual communion with God. Enoch (Gen 5:24) and Noah (Gen 6:9) walked with God. Abraham was a friend of God (Is 41:8) and David was a man after God’s own heart (1 Sam 13:14). But, with all their light and privilege, the way into the holiest was not yet made manifest. Only the coming of the High Priest that “became us”, the Lord Jesus Christ, and His entrance into the holy of holies above through the rent veil of His flesh, would make evident the new and living way to God (Heb 10:20). “Through Him we . . . have access by one Spirit unto the Father” (Eph 2:18). This is the foundation for our fellowship with God and with one another within the Church of God.
Fellowship may be experienced at other levels and in other contexts. A common humanity is a basis for fellowship in the world. “For what man knoweth the things of man, save the spirit of man which is in him?” (1 Cor 2:11). We are of the one “flesh and blood” (Heb 2:14). Christ Himself came into that same communion by taking to Himself a true body and a reasonable soul. Bad actions also bring us into fellowship with the ungodly, the way of the sinner and the seat of the scornful (as in Psalm 1). Good actions, on the other hand, arise from the fellowship of the way on which all God’s children are walking. “The Lord knoweth the way of the righteous (Ps 1:6). Paul was on his journey to persecute those in Damascus who were in fellowship together on this way.
Owen writes, “Our communion with God consists in His communication of Himself unto us, with our returnal unto Him of that which He requires and accepts, flowing from that union which in Christ we have in full”.2 Owen notes that in heaven this fellowship will be perfect, while on earth the fellowship is initial and imperfect.
This fellowship is held distinctly with the Father and distinctly with the Son and distinctly with the Holy Spirit. This is demonstrated in 1 John 5:7: “There are three that bear record in heaven, the Father, the Word and the Holy Ghost”. They individually bear witness to the Sonship of Christ and salvation by Him to all believers. Thus testimony is given to believers, and they give back these truths as light and salt in the world.
To the same effect 1 Corinthians 12:4-6 states, “Now there are diversities of gifts, but the same Spirit [that is, the Holy Ghost]. And there are differences of administrations, but the same Lord [the same Lord Jesus]. And there are diversities of operations, but it is the same God which worketh all in all [even the Father].” Thus gifts and grace are given and received. All our approaches to God are thus characterised: “For through [Christ] we both have access by one Spirit unto the Father” (Eph 2:18). Each Person has His distinct engagement with the believer. Owen gives an example of how the three Persons of the Godhead are distinctly, yet together, involved in conveying grace to the believer. He takes as his example the matter of each believer being taught:
By the Father.
“It is written in the prophets,” said Christ, “And they shall be all taught of God. Every man therefore that hath heard, and hath learned of the Father, cometh unto Me” (Jn 6:45). The teaching whereby we gain a saving interest in Christ is from the Father. He gives new life to the soul. The Father teaches by original authority.
By the Son.
He is declared by the Father from heaven to be the great teacher: “This is My beloved Son. Hear Him”. As the divine Prophet, His teaching is so powerful that the spiritually dead hear His voice and live (Jn 5:26). His teaching gives light and life as He pours out His Spirit upon dead hearts. The Son communicates from a purchased treasury.
By the Holy Spirit.
In John 14:26 we read: “The Comforter . . . shall teach you all things”. The Spirit is given to us “that we might know the things that are freely given to us of God” (1 Cor 2:12). The Spirit teaches by way of immediate efficacy.
Although the works of God outwardly, towards all His children, are common and undivided – there is a concurrence in the operation of the whole Godhead, yet the saints specially have communion with the Father by free, undeserved and eternal love. Thus John declares that “God is love” (1 Jn 4:8). His gracious and loving nature is declared in Exodus 34:6,7: “The Lord, The Lord God, merciful and gracious, longsuffering and abundant in goodness and truth”, while John goes on to say, “Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us, and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins” (1 Jn 4:10). This love came before the sending of Christ and all the benefits He received. This love is identified in the Apostolic benediction: “The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Ghost, be with you all” (2 Cor 13:14).
In John 16:26,27 the Lord says, “I say not unto you, that I will pray the Father for you: for the Father Himself loveth you”. The Saviour assured the disciples, by His words and deeds, that He loved them; but they may have wondered about the Father’s love to them. The Saviour answers that love towards them was already in the heart of the Father, and they were to rest in it. Paul writes, “The love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost, which is given unto us” (Rom 5:5). Paul ascribes love to the Father, speaking of Him distinctly and separately from the Spirit and the Son. Thus all who dwell in fellowship with God must know that “God is love”.
As what was said above is true, believers are required (1) to receive this love from Him, (2) to make proper returns of this love to Him.
(1) To receive this love from Him
As communion consists in giving and receiving, the Father’s love must be received before any fellowship takes place. There is no coming to the Father but by the Son. “I am the way, the truth and the life; no man cometh unto the Father but by Me” (Jn 14:6). As the rays of the sun demonstrate the presence of the sun, and the rivulets from the fountain speak of the existence of the fountain, so Jesus leads us to the love of the Father. By Christ, the design, love and good pleasure of the Father toward His people are made known and by faith the soul rests in that love.
(2) To make proper returns of this love to Him.
The return required consists also of love. “My son, give Me thine heart” (Prov 23:26). “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy strength, and with all thy mind” (Lk 10:27). This faith working by love is the ground for all acceptable service (Deut 5:10, Ex 20:6). This is the reason for choosing His people. “According as He hath chosen us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love” (Eph 1:4).
Owen identifies differences and similarities between the love of the Father to His people and their love to Him. They are alike in that each is a love of rest. God’s love to His people is so: “The Lord thy God in the midst of thee is mighty . . . He will rest in His love, He will joy over thee with singing” (Zep 3:17). He is fully satisfied and sees every reason to rest in His people and rejoice in them. The believer sings his praise to God, but here God sings of His resting in the believer.
The return that the believer makes to this love is of the same character. “Return unto thy rest, O my soul” (Ps 116:7). God is her rest. “Whom have I in heaven but Thee? And there is none upon earth that I desire beside Thee” (Ps 73: 25). “In Thee the fatherless findeth mercy” (Hos 14:3).
This mutual love of God and the believer agrees also in this: the way of communication of this fellowship is only by Christ, who is the Priest and the Mediator in the house of God. “It pleased the Father that in Him should all fullness dwell” (Col 1:19). So also all the believer’s response to the love of the Father is in and by Christ. As He bears their iniquities – and their iniquities were a mountain between them and God – He is the only way for them to go to God in faith and repentance.
On the other hand, the love of the Father comes first, and the love of the believer arises as a result of the Father’s love. The Father’s love is bountiful, as the rain falling on the earth or the fountain gushing forth water, but the love of the believer is a duty and a matter of thankfulness. “If then I be a father, where is My honour?” (Mal 1:6).
1The first part of this Theological Conference appeared last month. It dealt with fellowship within the Godhead.
2Works, vol 2, p 8.