Called To Be Saints
The Work of the Spirit in Creation both old and new.
The Work of the Spirit from Creation to Consummation
Trace the person and work of the Spirit from creation to consummation. Do we tend to identify the Spirit’s work too narrowly with the individual experience of conversion and sanctification?
To the Spirit particularly is attributed the dignity of transforming created space into covenantal place: a home for communion between Creator and creatures, extending to the ends of the earth in waves of kingdom labor.
The presence of the Spirit always signals the arrival of God’s kingdom in judgment and salvation.
What is the significance of Pentecost in the history of redemption, especially in relation to the ascension of Christ? How does the Spirit communicate Christ’s heavenly ministry to us here and now?
The Spirit at Pentecost
When we refuse to collapse the resurrection, ascension, and parousia into one event, a pneumatological space appears for the time between the times. The Spirit is the mediator of, not the surrogate for, Christ’s person and work. The redeeming p 556 work of Christ lies behind us, but the perlocutionary effect of that Word is at work in “these last days.” With the Father, the Spirit gave the Son to sinners in the incarnation (cf. “conceived by the Holy Spirit” in the Apostles’ Creed), and in the Upper Room Discourse (Jn 14–16) Jesus promised that when he ascended he would give the Spirit. We are the beneficiaries of this intratrinitarian exchange of gifts.
The Spirit’s Ongoing Ministry
Explore the connection between election and effectual calling. Does God force people to come to Christ? How does Scripture describe this work of the Spirit?
The Spirit mediates Christ’s prophetic ministry by prosecuting God’s case against the world, convicting us of guilt, and giving us faith in Christ.
to bring a pers. to the point of recognizing wrongdoing, convict, convince someone of someth., point someth. out to someone
Are we regenerated (born again) because we believe or do we believe because we have been regenerated?
Within Protestantism, however, consistent Augustinianism was challenged by various groups, most notably, the Arminians. Arising from within the Dutch Reformed Church, the followers of Jacob Arminius issued their Five Points of the Remonstrants in 1610: (1) God’s election of sinners is conditional (based on foreseen faith); (2) Christ died to make salvation possible for every person; (3) all human beings are born in sin and therefore incapable of being saved apart from grace; (4) this grace is offered to all and may be resisted; (5) it is possible for regenerate believers to lose their salvation. Arminianism soon divided into two trajectories: a more liberal version that became increasingly drawn toward Pelagian/Socinian convictions, and an evangelical Arminianism represented by Arminius himself and by later figures such as Richard Baxter and John Wesley.
At the Synod of Dort (1618–1619), with the representation of various Reformed bodies throughout the Continent as well as the Church of England and the Church of Scotland, Arminianism was carefully analyzed and refuted. The Canons of Dort, to which we will return, locate unbelief in the total inability of sinners to effect their own liberation from the bondage of the will, and they locate faith in the unconditional election, redemption, and effectual calling of the triune God alone. God gives not only sufficient grace (that is, enough grace to enable sinners to respond positively to God if they choose to do so), but efficient grace (that is, regeneration as well as faith and repentance as gifts).
Accordingly, all of the elect will believe and persevere, but others who have been regenerated and justified may lose their salvation. Free will “does nothing” in preparing for, cooperating with, or completing God’s gracious work of calling sinners to himself; in fact, the Lutheran confessions regard this as the essence of works righteousness.21
However, the Reformed are distinguished by their belief that all of those for whom Christ died will be effectually called by the Spirit and preserved in faith until the end. The following summary explicates this view.
What is conversion in the New Testament and how does it differ from regeneration (or effectual calling)? Also, how would you distinguish the nature of conversion itself from its fruit?
If there is no reason to distinguish regeneration and effectual calling, there is nevertheless every reason to distinguish this event from conversion. In regeneration p 576 we are passive. We hear the gospel, and the Spirit creates faith in our hearts to embrace it.
there are actually no demands and no conditions. For God supplies what he demands. Christ has accomplished everything, and though he did not accomplish rebirth, faith, and repentance in our place, he did acquire them for us, and the Holy Spirit therefore applies them. Still, in its administration by Christ, the covenant of grace does assume this demanding, conditional form.
In conversion (unlike regeneration), we are told, “Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure” (Php 2:12–13). This does not mean that in conversion our salvation shifts from God’s sovereign grace in Christ to our activity and cooperation, but that the salvation that has been given is worked out by that same Spirit, through the same gospel, in a genuine relationship in which we become covenant partners who are now alive to God in Christ. Apart from our repentance and faith, there is no justification or union with Christ. Yet even this human response is a gift of the Spirit through the gospel.