COMMUNION WITH GOD

God draws near to us to relate personally and intimately with us. He delights in us as a Father does his children. The thought of him being with us simply as a spectator is inconceivable. He wants, as Arthur Pink puts it, to have “plain, practical, personal dealings” with us, and us with him (Spiritual Union and Communion, p. 103).

This is what the Puritans spoke of as communion with God. One of them, John Owen, describes such fellowship in this way: “Our communion with God,” he writes, “consisteth of his communication of himself unto us, and our returnal unto him of that which he requireth and accepteth, flowing from that union which in Jesus Christ we have with him… a mutual communication in giving and receiving, after a most holy an spiritual manner, which is between God and the saints, while they walk together in a covenant of peace, ratified by the blood of Jesus” (Quoted in J.I. Packer, A Quest for Godliness, p. 203).

According to Owen, something actually happens when we have communion with God – something spiritual, yet very real. God communicates himself to us, and we in turn respond to him.

In reality, God comes near to us to be all that he is as God to us. He comes to be our Guide, our Comforter, our Helper, our Father, our Strength our Defender and so on. In Christ he becomes all of these things to us and in us. We live in communion with him when we actively receive of his fullness and respond with our worship, love, devotion and obedience.

It’s worth a second look at what J.I. Packer says on this in his book Keep in Step With the Spirit. He speaks of God coming to us in Christ as one “personally approaching and addressing” us (p. 55). That implies that one way God gives of himself to us is by speaking to us.

But in addition, Packer says God is active in Christ “powerfully enlightening, animating, and transforming me along with others as he stirs our sluggishness, sharpens our insight, soothes our guilty consciences, sweetens our tempers, supports us under pressure, and strengthens us for righteousness” (Ibid., pp. 55-6). Here he suggests that God, through the Holy Spirit, exerts his power in gracious ways to enlighten, calm, and strengthen. This is another aspect of what communion with God involves – the experience of his power in our lives through the Holy Spirit.

Such a God, Packer adds, merits “all the worship, adoration, love, and loyalty of which we are capable” (Ibid., p. 56). That’s our part – or at least part of our part – in this role of mutual giving and receiving. We thank God and worship and serve him gladly.

But more than that, because he has drawn near to us and walks with us “in a covenant of peace ratified by the blood of Christ,” we have freedom to approach him as well (Hebrews 4:14-16). We are able to go to him in the midst of life’s trials and circumstances with our requests, burdens and praises – that’s part of having communion with him too.

If all of this is true – that it is possible for us to have such personal, practical intimate communication with God in Christ – then there is nothing to compare with it in the world, and nothing that should have a higher priority in our lives. We have to agree with Arthur Pink when he writes, “Our daily aim should be a more full and free acquaintance with the Lover of our souls” (Spiritual Union and Communion, p. 103).