Owen on the Holy Spirit

I just finished reading John Owen's Communion with God. For a couple my previous posts on Communion with God, click here, here, here, and here. Oh yeah, here and here too! For a whole host of reasons it was a tremendously helpful book, but one reason sticks out particularly. In this work, Owen walks through what it looks like to commune with each of the three persons of the Godhead. What does it look like to have fellowship with the Father, fellowship with the Son, and fellowship with the Holy Spirit? Owen has a great discussion on this very topic, and I profited from it greatly.


Here's a snippet of his discussion on the Saints' fellowship with the Holy Spirit.

"'Nevertheless, I tell you the truth. It is to your advantage that I go away; for if I do not go away, the helper will not come to you; but if I depart, I will send him to you' (John 16:7). So the Lord Christ would have us know this great truth, that the presence of the Holy Spirit with believers as Comforter and helper, sent by him as promised, is better and more profitable to believers than his bodily presence can ever be, now that he has made the one sacrifice for sin which he came into the world to offer." (pg. 168-169).

Have you ever thought about this? At the present moment, having the Holy Spirit dwell in believers is better and more profitable for believers than having the resurrected Lord Jesus here in person. Meditate on that for a minute. Sometimes we struggle to believe this, and we think (wrongly), if Jesus were just here in person, "things" would be better. Certainly, "things" would be better if Jesus were here in person! (And I eagerly anticipate His bodily return in glory!) BUT at the present time, having the indwelling Holy Spirit to bring to mind the words and promises of Christ (John 14:26), to glorify Christ (John 16:4), to pour the love of God in our hearts (Rom 5:5), to bear witness with our spirits that we are children of God (Rom 8:16), and to seal us (Eph 1:13, 4:30) is exactly what we need. Amen.

[By the way, right now I'm on my way to T4G.]