John Owen on Communing with God in the Ordinances of Corporate Worship

John Owen (1616-1683) earned the title “Prince of Puritans” because of his influence as pastor, prolific author, theologian, academic administrator, biblical exegete, military chaplain, statesman, etc. However, his role as a pastor stands out. He demonstrates a pastoral heart and a desire to lead people into an authentic experiential relationship with God.

This authentic relationship, according to Owen, is initiated by God’s revelation, received through Christ, which then necessitates an affectionate response from believers by the Spirit. This covenantal revelation, redemptive reception, and appropriate response in worship is what Owen understood to actively enjoy communion with the triune God. This communicative relationship between God and His church is to be expressed through the ordinances of corporate worship.

There are at least three implications for the church today in the way Owen articulates how the church has communion with the triune God in and through the ordinances of corporate worship.

What is Communion with God?

Owen defines experiential communion with God as follows: “Our communion, then, with God consisteth in his communication of himself unto us, with our returnal unto him of that which he requireth and accepteth, flowing from that union which in Jesus Christ we have with him” (John Owen, The Works of John Owen, ed., William Goold, 16 vols. (Carlisle, Pa: The Banner of Truth Trust, 2009), 2:8-9). 

This communion with God consists of each person of the Godhead testifying about Himself in a special way without ever compromising the unified and inseparable activity of the Trinity. For example, the Father initiates the work of redemption from love, the Son accomplishes the work of redemption through His grace, and the Spirit applies the work of redemption by bringing comfort.

While the Father, Son, and Spirit distinctly testify about themselves, all three persons are at work in each person’s distinct revelation. The Father testifies about His love through the Son and by the Spirit. The Son testifies about His grace from the Father and by the Spirit. The Spirit testifies about His comfort from the Father and through the Son. 

This communication from the Father, through the Son, and by the Spirit is received as one has union with Christ. In fact, communion with God centers on the person of Christ. Through Christ, the church receives the affectionate love of the Father. As Owen further explains, “The communion begun... between Christ and the soul, is in the next place carried on by suitable consequential affections, – affections suiting such a relation. Christ, having given himself to the soul, loves the soul; and the soul having given itself unto Christ, loveth him also” (Owen, Works, 2:117-18).

The only appropriate response the church can have as they receive the love from God is to then love God—to reciprocate their affections to Him in worship. 

Reciprocating affections to God must be done through God. Owen understood this “returnal unto him” to be done according to, what Owen called, the “heavenly directory,” a concept he derived from Ephesians 2:18 (Owen, Works, 2:269). The heavenly directory is to worship by the Spirit, through the Son, and to the Father. It is one directional. It is how the church worships God through God.

However, as seen above, this one directional response only happens when God first reveals His love to His children from the Father, through the Son, and by the Spirit, and then this love is received through one’s union with Christ which generates affectionate love, and then this love is returned to God through the heavenly directory – by the Spirit, through the Son, to the Father.

This is how God communicates His love to the church and how the church communicates their love in response to Him.

The Ordinances of Corporate Worship

Owen understood that Scripture alone regulated proper corporate worship. Therefore, the church not only worships God through the heavenly directory, but manifests its communion with God through the biblically prescribed ordinances such as preaching, public prayer, baptism, and the Lord’s Supper. These four ordinances are the ones Owen explicitly mentions when articulating how to have communion with the Son.

Owen explains, “The soul addresses itself unto the want of Christ; when it finds him not in any private endeavours, it makes vigorous application to the ordinances of public worship; in prayer, in preaching, in administration of the seals, doth it look after Christ” (Owen, Works, 2:130).

This manifestation of communion with God occurs publicly in the ordinances as affections for God are experientially expressed through the heavenly directory. 

Implications for the Church Today

1. Owen’s theology of communion with God teaches the local church today how to worship God in a corporate gathering. 

Worshiping God is to express heartfelt affections toward God. This can only be done as one has communion with God. The church is to worship the triune God by the triune God. Worship is thus initiated, reciprocated, and consummated by God, even as the individual members of the church participate as willing human agents in a relationship of triune praise.

The affectionate praise is produced as the church actively manifests its communion with God seeing the glory of Christ by faith from the Father through the preaching of God’s Word, directed by the Holy Spirit (Owen, Works, 8:552).

The Spirit of God initiates communion with God through the Word by revealing the Father’s love received through the grace of Christ, thus allowing one to respond through the heavenly directory. 

2. Owen’s theology of communion with God teaches the local church today the purpose of preaching, public prayer, baptism, and the Lord’s Supper.

Preaching, public prayer, and the two sacraments are the means to manifest or express communion with God. This means the chief aim of all four of these ordinances are to stir the affections of the church so they can be properly expressed to God for worship. In preaching God’s revelation is proclaimed and in public prayer the gift of the Spirit is expressed (Owen explains, in his exposition of Zechariah 12:10, that the pouring out of the Holy Spirit is a gift given to the church “to express vocal prayer… in the assemblies of the people of God.” Owen, Works, 4:257).

Together, the preaching of God’s Word and the Spirit, who gives the gift of prayer, serve as the foundation on which baptism and the Lord’s Supper stand. Owen explains, “The administration of the seals of the covenant is committed unto them [the congregation]… for their [the sacraments’] principal end is the peculiar confirmation and application of the Word preached” (Owen, Works, 16:79).

Baptism and the Lord’s Supper help bring the truths of the preached Word into Christian experience by the power of the Spirit. As Owen explains above, they are a special “confirmation” and “application” of the preaching of God’s Word.

3. Owen’s theology of communion with God teaches the local church today the proper place of affections in corporate worship. 

Lastly, the church’s affectionate response to God in worship is always a response to God’s revelation of himself through God’s Word. This makes doctrine necessary for affectionate worship. The church first needs to know who God is before it can respond appropriately to him in worship.

As seen above, the only appropriate affections that are to be returned to God in worship are the “consequential affections, - affections suiting such a relation.” This means that the only affections appropriate to return to God in worship are those stimulated by the Father’s impassible affections displayed through the personal and purchased graces found in the Son (Owen, Works, 2:47-48).

These graces received through Christ perfectly satisfy the soul, allowing affections such as love, delight, and peace to be outwardly expressed and enjoyed in corporate worship (Owen, Works, 9:70).

Summary

While affections never lead worship, they are still necessary for worship. Owen explains, “Our affections are upon the matter our all… By our affections we can give away what we are and have. Hereby we give our hearts unto God, as he requireth. Wherefore, unto him we give our affections unto whom we give our all, - ourselves and all that we have; and to whom we give them not, whatever we give, upon the matter we give nothing at all” (Owen, Works, 7:396).

Without affections, corporate worship cannot happen. 

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