Bible Readings:
John 14:14- 31; 17:20 – 26
1 John 1:1 – 2:11
Sermon Outline:
2 Corinthians 13:14 (NKJV)
14 The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Spirit be with you all. Amen.
I The Father – Original Authority
II The Son – Purchased Treasury
III The Holy Spirit – Immediate Efficacy
How We Commune with Father, Son, and Holy Spirit
This, then, drives further on the truth that lies under demonstration: there being such a distinct communication of grace from the several persons of the Deity, the saints must needs have distinct communion with them.
It remains only to intimate, in a word, wherein this distinction lies and what the ground thereof is. Now, this is that the Father does it by the way of original authority; the Son by the way of communicating from a purchased treasury; the Holy Spirit by the way of immediate efficacy.
First, the Father communicates all grace by the way of original authority: “He quickeneth whom he will” (John 5:21). “Of his own will begat he us” (James 1:18). Life-giving power is, in respect of original authority, invested in the Father by the way of eminency; therefore, in sending the quickening Spirit, Christ is said to do it from the Father, or the Father Himself to do it. “But the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send” (John 14:26). “But when the Comforter is come, whom I will send unto you from the Father” (John 15:26), though He is also said to send Him Himself, in another account (John 16:7).
Second, the Son, by the way of making out a purchased treasury: “Of his fulness have all we received, and grace for grace” (John 1:16). And whence is this fullness? “It pleased the Father that in him should all fulness dwell” (Col. 1:19). And upon what account He has the dispensation of that fullness to Him committed you may see in Philippians 2:8–11. “When thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin, he shall see his seed, he shall prolong his days, and the pleasure of the LORD shall prosper in his hand. He shall see of the travail of his soul, and shall be satisfied: by his knowledge shall my righteous servant justify many; for he shall bear their iniquities” (Isa. 53:10–11). And with this fullness He has also authority for the communication of it (John 5:25–27; Matt. 28:18).
Third, the Spirit does it by the way of immediate efficacy: “But if the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, he that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by his Spirit that dwelleth in you” (Rom. 8:11). Here are all three comprised, with their distinct concurrence to our quickening. Here is the Father’s authoritative quickening—“He raised Christ from the dead, and he shall quicken you”; and the Son’s mediatorial quickening—for it is done in “the death of Christ”; and the Spirit’s immediate efficacy—“He shall do it by the Spirit that dwelleth in you.” He that desires to see this whole matter explained further may consult what I have elsewhere written on this subject. And thus is the distinct communion whereof we treat both proved and demonstrated.
Owen, J. (2014). “The Foundation of Communion with God”: The Trinitarian Piety of John Owen. (R. M. McGraw, J. R. Beeke, & M. A. G. Haykin, Eds.) (pp. 30–31). Grand Rapids, MI: Reformation Heritage Books.