Receiving the Father's Love by Faith
It is true, there is not an immediate acting of faith upon the Father, but by the Son. He is ‘the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by’ him (Jn 14:6).… But this is that I say: When by and through Christ, we have an access unto the Father, we then … see his love that he peculiarly bears unto us, and act faith thereon. We are then, I say, to eye it, to believe it, to receive it, as in him; the issues and fruits thereof being made out unto us through Christ alone. Though there be no light for us but in the beams, yet we may by the beams see the sun, which is the fountain of it. Though all our refreshments actually lie in the streams, yet by them we are led up to the fountain. Jesus Christ, in respect of the love of the Father, is but the beam, the stream, wherein though actually all our light, our refreshment lies, yet by him we are led to the fountain, the sun of eternal love itself. Would believers exercise themselves herein, they would find it a matter of no small spiritual improvement in their walking with God.… The soul being thus by faith through Christ … brought unto the bosom of God, into a comfortable persuasion, and spiritual perception and sense of his love, there reposes and rests itself. [John Owen]
