Uniting in LoveExemplo

Union and Communion

God is love. God is eternally love. God did not become love. God doesn’t become anything. God simply is. God did not have to create people to give Him something to love. God doesn’t depend on anything. This helps us to affirm and understand some of the truth of the Trinity. We cannot understand how to unite in love with the church until we are first in union and communion with God.

God is one being with one essence and one will. God is also three persons, equal in substance, majesty, and power. And the persons of the Godhead eternally love. The love between the Father, Son, and Spirit is perfect love, self-existent and self-sufficient. But, by his grace, he sets his love on his people.

We only see the eternal distinction of the persons in light of unbreakable unity. We worship one God, but we approach the one God through the persons. When we commune with a divine person, we commune with God. We are not communing with just a part of God because God is simple and not made up of parts. When we worship the Father, when we worship the Son, when we worship the Spirit, we worship the triune God.

John Owen, a Puritan pastor, helps us understand how to commune with God with a trinitarian approach, looking at each person of the one God distinctly. These next few devotions rely on Owen’s ideas.

Believers are united to God by God. The Father unites us with the Son by the Spirit. We are receivers of God’s love in our union with Christ. But all those in union with God are called to commune with him. Communion consists of mutual relations. We must respond to God’s uniting love to commune with him. While our union with God does not change because it is God’s work, our communion can cause us to feel closer or further from God based on our response to God.

Communion needs fellowship & communication. We delight in God as we respond to him. We share affections and find satisfaction in him. Active communion is giving and receiving.

We can have fellowship with the triune God. We do this through the ordinary means of God’s grace. Spiritual practices cannot make God love us more, for God’s love doesn’t change, but fosters the beautiful joy of communion. The Father does not turn from us though we may feel that way. We often run from Him as sin affects our intimacy. While sin threatens our communion, our union is secure in Christ, and God’s love for us does not grow or diminish.

The primary ways God provides for us to actively participate in our union and grow in our communion with Him are sitting under the preaching of the Word with the gathered saints, prayer, fellowship, and participating in the ordinances of baptism and the Lord’s Supper.

Reflection Questions

How is it comforting to know that our union with Christ depends on God?

What is the difference between union and communion?

How is your communion with God currently? Do you feel near or far from Him?

How can you know God better and grow in love for Him?