God Dwelling In Us By Love – Thomas Goodwin

God the Father is said to dwell in us by love. God the Father doth more eminently dwell in us by our apprehensions of him in love; both in his love to us, and our loving of him: so you will find it in 1 John iv. 16, ‘And we have known and have believed the love that God hath to us. God is love; and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God, and God in him.’ Brethren, a man that hath great apprehensions, or any true apprrehensions of the love of God to him, and his heart is kept dwelling and abiding on them, he doth thereby dwell with God the Father. If you look to the whole Scripture, the eminent property that is ascribed to the Father is love: ‘The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God the Father.’ Though Christ loves us too, yet it is the Father’s love is the original of all. The more you apprehend the love of the Father, whether you do it in assurance, or whether you do it in adoring that love, and cleaving to that love, and following after that love you apprehend in the Father; the more you do this, the more doth God the Father dwell in you: therefore the Apostle prayeth, ‘That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith, that ye being rooted and ground in love:’ but it is in the love of God the Father.

From the sermon, “Christ dwelling in our hearts by faith”, from Ephesians 3:17

A Conditional, Restrictive Father Means a Conditional, Restrictive Salvation – Sinclair B. Ferguson

“A misshapen understanding of the gospel impacts the spirit of a minister and affects the style and atmosphere of his preaching and of all his pastoral ministry. What the Marrow Controversy actually unveiled was the possibility of acknowledging the truth of each discrete chapter of the Confession of Faith without those truths being animated by a grasp of the grace of God in the gospel. The metallic spirit this inevitably produced would then in turn run through one’s preaching and pastoral ministry. There is a kind of orthodoxy in which the several loci of systematic theology, or stages of redemptive history, are all in place, but that lacks the life of the whole, just as arms, legs, torso, head, feet, eyes, ears, nose, and mouth may all be present—while the body as a whole lacks energy and perhaps life itself. The form of godliness is not the same as its power.

Confessional orthodoxy coupled with a view of a heavenly Father whose love is conditioned on his Son’s suffering, and further conditioned by our repentance, leads inevitably to a restriction in the preaching of the gospel. Why? Because it leads to a restriction in the heart of the preacher that matches the restriction he sees in the heart of God! Such a heart may have undergone the process that Alexander Whyte described as “sanctification by vinegar.” If so, it tends to be unyielding and sharp edged. A ministry rooted in conditional grace has that effect; it produces orthodoxy without love for sinners and a conditional and conditioned love for the righteous.”

“The Whole Christ” by Sinclair Ferguson. 2016, Ch. 4, Crossway Publishing.

As this post is part of a wider goal to educate on the nature of God and how we relate to Him, I post this under what is called Fair Use.

Believers Cripple Themselves by Doubting the Father’s Love – John Owen

1. First, then, this is a duty wherein it is most evident that Christians are but little exercised, —

namely, in holding immediate communion with the Father in love. Unacquaintedness with our mercies, our privileges, is our sin as well as our trouble. We hearken not to the voice of the Spirit which is given unto us, “that we may know the things that are freely bestowed on us of God.” This makes us go heavily, when we might rejoice; and to be weak, where we might be strong in the Lord. How few of the saints are experimentally acquainted with this privilege of holding immediate communion with the Father in love! With what anxious, doubtful thoughts do they look upon him! What fears, what questioning are there, of his good-will and kindness! At the best, many think there is no sweetness at all in him towards us, but what is purchased at the high price of the blood of Jesus. It is true, that alone is the way of communication; but the free fountain and spring of all is in the bosom of the Father. “Eternal life was with the Father, and is manifested unto us.” Let us, then, —

(1.) Eye the Father as love; look not on him as an always lowering father, but as one most kind and tender. Let us look on him by faith, as one that has had thoughts of kindness towards us from everlasting. It is misapprehension of God that makes any run from him, who have the least breathing wrought in them after him. “They that know thee will put their trust in thee.” Men cannot abide with God in spiritual meditations. He loseth soul’s company by their want of this insight into his love. They fix their thoughts only on his terrible majesty, severity, and greatness; and so their spirits are not endeared. Would a soul continually eye his everlasting tenderness and compassion, his thoughts of kindness that have been from of old, his present gracious acceptance, it could not bear an hour’s absence from him; whereas now, perhaps, it cannot watch with him one hour. Let, then, this be the saints’ first notion of the Father, — as one full of eternal, free love towards them: let their hearts and thoughts be filled with breaking through all discouragements that lie in the way.

John Owen

Communion with God, Ch. 4

The Works of the Trinity in the Deliverance from Egypt

Personal notes, though I don’t ascribe to myself full originality. Rather, I stand on the shoulders of giants.

How was the Triune God working when He delivered Israel from Egypt?

* The Father showed His power to bless His people by causing them to grow from a small handful to millions within 400 years.

* The Son demonstrated His power in delivering on promises sealed by circumcision, of which He was minister.

* The Spirit demonstrated His power in giving to the families the strength, energy, and stamina needed to manage such high growth in such an oppressive position.

* The Spirit augmented this display of power by causing them to multiply all the more as they were oppressed.

* The Father displayed His sovereignty in allowing Pharaoh to become an increasingly monstrous tyrant.

* The Son displayed His care for the church in keeping their faith alive even through the oppression (small as it was, but still there).

* The Spirit caused such as Aaron, Miriam, and many other faithful Israelites to continue to pray and believe.

* The Father showed His mastery of providence in causing a defenseless infant to float into the arms of the palace of enemy and live.

* The Son showed His power in caring for even the smallest of His people.

* The Spirit showed His power in causing the beasts to leave the child alone.

* The Father displayed His sovereignty in decreeing that Pharaoh should nurse the deliverer of his own slaves.

* Christ displayed his sovereignty in overruling the serpent and his Vice-King pharaoh for the good of his church.

* The Spirit softened the hearts of the household of Pharaoh to permit this Hebrew boy to live with them, as one of them.

* The Father predetermined the exit, exile, and return of Moses.

* Christ showed His power in reducing Moses an Egyptian noblemen down to a shepherd, thus making him an abomination, and then raising him up again to prophesy to Pharaoh.

* Christ showed Himself to be the true Prince of Egypt by commanding Pharaoh and then punishing His disobedience.

* Christ displayed His great magnificent patience with people who at first rejoiced in a coming deliverer but then chafed when there were not immediate fruits.

* Christ displayed His patience in not having already wiped out Israel for their idolatry (need to find verse)

* Christ displayed His magnificent power and caused a nation to tremble.

* The Father displayed sovereignty in causing the Egyptians to voluntarily hand over gold and silver.

* Christ showed His power in causing some Egyptians to leave Egypt and cleave unto God’s people.