“God the Father calls us ‘into the fellowship of His Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.’ (1 Cor. 1:9) Paul’s words of thanksgiving for God’s work among the Corinthians seem so simple, so commonplace, that it would be easy for us to take them for granted and gloss over them.
But for John Owen, the Apostle’s statement serves as the open door into all the treasures of grace and blessing that are ours through faith. All that God has for us in His Son Jesus is condensed in this apparently simple statement.
For to become a Christian means to have fellowship with Christ in all that He has accomplished for us. Indeed, Christ Himself invites us to ‘sit with Him and sup with Him.’ (See Rev. 3:10) This is what Paul prays will be ours in his Trinitarian benediction: ‘the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ.’ (2 Cor. 13:14)
Grace is, ultimately, personal. Grace is Jesus Christ; Jesus Christ is God’s grace. For grace is not substantial in the sense of being a quality or entity that can be abstracted from the person of the Savior.
It would be hard to overestimate the importance of these words. Owen was writing against the background of the theological categories employed in medieval theology (many of which he inherited).
The medieval understanding of salvation was dominated by sacramental grace, from its first “infusion” at baptism until its hoped-for conclusion in a faith fully formed by perfect love for God.
This fides caritate formata, as it was known, or perfect love for God, rendered the individual “justifiable” on the basis of what “grace” had now accomplished in him or her.
The net result was spiritually disastrous. Grace was viewed virtually as a commodity to be dispensed by the church through its priests and sacraments. It might be resourced in Christ, but in itself it was something impersonal, a commodity– not the loving, caring, sacrificing, keeping, gracious Savior Himself.
Thus, Owen’s great burden and emphasis in helping us to understand what it means to be a Christian is to say:
Through the work of the Spirit, the heavenly Father gives you to Jesus and gives Jesus to you. You have Him. Everything you can ever lack is found in Him; all you will ever need is given to you in Him.
“From his fullness we have all received, grace upon grace.” (John 1:16) For the Father has “blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places.” (Eph. 1:3)
It is as true for the newest, weakest Christian as for the most mature believer: from the first moment of faith, we are fully, finally, irreversibly justified in Christ.”
–Sinclair Ferguson, The Trinitarian Devotion of John Owen (Sanford, FL: Ligonier, 2014), 61-65.
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