Distinct Communication of Grace

In John Owen’s Communion with God, he establishes that Christians can have communion with each Person of the Godhead distinctly; with the Father, with the Son, and with the Spirit.  He says in regard to God’s communication of grace to the believer,

It remains only to intimate, in a word, in what this distinction lies, and what is the ground of it.  Now, this is, that the Father does it by the way of original authority; the Son by the way of communicating from a purchased treasury; the Holy Spirit by the way of immediate efficacy.

In other words, when it comes to receiving any aspect of God’s grace, the Father is the ultimate giver.  He is the originator of it all.  From him the plan and the power springs.  He is the divine Initiator.  The Son then communicates the grace of his Father to us by purchasing it for us on the cross.  Without the wrath-satisfying sacrifice of the Son, we would deserve only damnation and punishment from the Father.  The grace we receive from the Father is due only and completely to the cross-work of Jesus: his death, resurrection, and exaltation.  The Holy Spirit, then, is the immediate actor in our lives.  He works directly in us to bring the blood-bought grace of the Father to us.  There is, of course, overlap in any full description of the work of Father, Son, and Spirit, since there is but one God; yet I think Owen is basically correct in his analysis.

I don’t have time right now, so maybe next time I’ll provide Scriptural support for the above description of the distinct work of Father, Son, and Spirit.  After all, Owen’s words are worthless if they’re not from the Word of God.