The Holy Spirit's Work In Salvation # 3

The Holy Spirit's Work In Salvation # 3

Fitness for heaven is by the Spirit

Our title to the glory lies solely in the righteousness of Christ; our personal fitness for it lies in the Holy Spirit's regenerating of us. All our fitness for the heavenly state was wrought in us in regeneration. Writing to the regenerated Colossians the apostle said, "Giving thanks unto the Father, which has made us fit to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints of light." And then he shows wherein this "fitness" consists: "Who has delivered us from the power of darkness, and has translated us into the kingdom of His dear Son." (v. 13). Their title is outside of them; their "fitness" is within them. The Holy Spirit has created in them a nature which is capacitated to know and enjoy the Triune God.

In our unregenerate state, we were completely under the power of darkness, that is, of sin and satan, and we were less able to deliver ourselves from this bondage - than Jonah was able to escape from the belly of the whale. We "sat in darkness" and "in the region and shadow of death." (Matt. 4:16). We were "captives", bound and in prison" (Isaiah 61:1). We were those "having no hope, and without God in the world." (Eph. 2:12). From this dreadful state, every renewed soul has been delivered by the gracious sovereign and invincible power of the Holy Spirit, and has been translated into the kingdom of God's dear Son. Then let each renewed reader give equal homage, adoration and worship - to the Holy Spirit as to the Father and to the Son.

Justification and sanctification are by the Spirit

"And such were some of you; but you are washed - but you are sanctified - but you are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God" (1 Cor. 6:11). This is a remarkable scripture, and little pondered. It would lead us too far away from our theme were we to attempt a full exposition of it. Two things here would we barely point out: the three saving blessings enumerated in this verse are referred, first, to the "name" or merits of Christ as His own procuring cause; and then to the Holy Spirit who makes the elect partakers of them by His own effectual application. He it is who enlightens their minds and opens their hearts to take in and be assured that they are "washed, sanctified and justified."

FAITH is from the SPIRIT

A deeply taught servant of God once wrote to a young preacher, "Never represent faith as being an act so "simple" that the work of the Spirit is not needed to produce it." Yet this is what has been commonly done! A great many of the evangelists of the past hundred years have displayed a zeal which was not according to knowledge (Romans 10:2), and manifested a far great concern to see souls saved than to preach the truth of God in its purity. In their efforts to show the simplicity of the way of salvation they have lost sight of the difficulties of salvation (Luke 18:24; 1 Pet. 4:18): in their pressing of the responsibility of man to believe, they have ignored the fact that none can believe until the Spirit imparts faith! To present Christ to the sinner and then throw him back on his own will, is to mock him in his helplessness; the work of the Spirit in the heart is as real and urgent a need - as was the work of Christ on the Cross. For the heart to truly believe in and trust God is a spiritual act, a "good fruit", and if fallen man possesses inherent power to do good, then to present the atonement to him is altogether needless.

There is no middle ground between life and death; no intermediate stage between conversion and non-conversion. The bestowal of eternal life is instantaneous; we are created in Christ Jesus" (Eph. 2:10). It is a most serious error to suppose that after the Spirit of God has done His work in the sinner, it still remains for him to say whether he shall be regenerated or not, whether he shall believe or not. All who are recipients of His supernatural operations are regenerated, effectually converted, and actually believe. It is not that the Spirit imparts the capacity to believe and then waits for the individual to exercise his will to believe: no, He works in the elect both to will and to do. (Phil. 2:13). I may tell a man that in the next room there is a lighted lamp, and he may not believe me - but let me bring it into the room where he is, so, that he sees the light for himself, and he is irresistibly persuaded. So a servant of God may tell a man that Christ is sufficient for the chief of sinners, and he believes not; but when Christ is "revealed in him" (Gal. 1:16) he cannot but trust Him (2 Cor. 5:4:6).

~A. W. Pink~

(continued with # 4)