Distinct Communion: The Believer’s Relations with Father, Son, and Holy Spirit

Dan Peters explores John Owen’sCommunion with God, and examines what it means to relate specifically to each Person of the Trinity.

What is distinct communion? It is communing with each Person of the Godhead in a way that is distinct. It is experiencing a relationship with each that is distinguishable from one’s relationships with the others.

John Owen was a great advocate of this theme, especially in his work entitled Communion with God the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, Each Person Distinctly, in Love, Grace and Consolation. He was convinced that this is the pattern to which healthy Christian devotion should conform. He and other bright stars in the Puritan galaxy were able to marry the devotional vitality of the day with the best Trinitarian theology of the past - and the result was distinct communion.

In more recent days the church has slipped away from this focus, but Dan Peters, interacting with Owen’s work, argues that the Christian can find a greater love for, and joy in, each Person of the Godhead through a greater understanding of this.

Beginning with an analysis of relevant Scripture texts, before moving to some theological principles, Peters rounds off with some practical details:

Introduction

Part 1: Distinct Communion: Biblical Foundations

1. The Language and Imagery of Communion

2. Communion and the Divine Persons

3. Relating to the Three as Both They and He

Part 2: Distinct Communion: Theological Foundations

4. The Search for Three Distinct Persons

5. Gazing Through Salvation’s Window

Part 3: Distinct Communion: Practical Outworkings

6. The Joy of Tri-Personal Devotion

7. Praying to the Holy Spirit

May our churches be filled with men and women whose love extends to the three Persons of the Trinity equally, and who have a relationship with each that is distinct, and that this might increasingly be reflected in the way that we pray and sing together.

Dan Peters is the minister of Newcastle Reformed Evangelical Church in the North East of England, and Assistant Professor of Practical Theology at Westminster Seminary UK. Originally from North Yorkshire, he is married with three children.