“Communion presupposes union. By nature we are strangers, yea, enemies to God; but we are reconciled, brought nigh, and become his children, by faith in Christ Jesus. We can have no true knowledge of God, desire towards him, access unto him, or gracious communications from him, but in and through the Son of his love. He is the medium of this inestimable privilege: for he is the way, the only way, of intercourse between heaven and earth; the sinner’s way to God, and God’s way of mercy to the sinner. If any pretend to know God, and to have communion with him, otherwise than by the knowledge of Jesus Christ, whom he hath sent, and by faith in his name, it is a proof that they neither know God nor themselves. God, if considered abstracted from the revelation of himself in the person of Jesus, is a consuming fire; and if he should look upon us without respect to his covenant of mercy established in the Mediator, we could expect nothing from him but indignation and wrath.”
John newton
“But when his Holy Spirit enables us to receive the record which he has given of his Son, we are delivered and secured from condemnation; we are accepted in the Beloved; we are united to him in whom all the fulness of the Godhead substantially dwells, and all the riches of divine wisdom, power, and love, are treasured up. Thus in him, as the temple wherein the glory of God is manifested, and by him, as the representative and high priest of his people, and through him, as the living head of his mystical body the church, believers maintain communion with God.”
Reflection:
It is such a privilege to know God through Jesus Christ. Jesus reveals to us who God is, both as Christ is made known in the Old and New Testaments of the Bible. But if we were to simply conceive of who God is outside of who He has revealed Himself to be in the Scriptures, it would be terrifying.
The universe itself teaches us that there is order and justice–and God’s power and divine nature are revealed in what God has made. If we were to face this God, knowing our sin and our ingratitude towards Him, we could expect nothing but terror. So it is foolish to attempt to know God outside of Jesus Christ.
Thanks be to God, He has revealed Jesus Christ to us. In Jesus, we learn who God is. God is full of power and justice, but He also sees sinners in their lowly estate. He meets us with compassion and reconciles us to Himself. No one could have ever dreamed that God was this good and this kind unless He had revealed Himself to us. Glory be to God forever and ever.
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