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What is the Role of the Holy Spirit? · Reformed Thinking

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Welcome back to Reform Thinking. We are jumping into a really
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significant deep dive today, looking at the source material
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you sent over. It's a systematic theological
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take, focusing right in on the Holy Spirit pneumatology, right?
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Yeah. And the doctrine of the Spirit.
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Well, seems like it generous. A lot of confusion these days,
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maybe more than others. So our aim here is to try and
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cut through some of that noise. We want to avoid, you know,
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reducing the spirit to just some vague energy on one hand and on
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the other avoid elevating purely private feelings to the level of
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like new revelation. We're sticking close to the
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spirits roles as laid out biblically and and the
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confessions. That focus is absolutely needed
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and the sources give us a great map.
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We need to answer two big questions really.
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First, who is the Spirit, his identity?
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And 2nd, what's his specific mission, his job description,
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you could say within God's plan of salvation.
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And we're doing this grounded and reformed thinking using
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those Westminster guideposts, the sufficiency of Scripture,
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God's sovereign grace, These are our anchors.
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So the path forward looks like this.
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We'll start with the Spirit's personal deity, who he is
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fundamentally, then trace out his mission, which is all about
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pointing to Christ. And finally, we'll spend a good
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chunk of time on his work today, his powerful but often, well
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ordinary work through the means of grace God has given the
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church. OK, let's start right there.
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At the most basic level, the sources are really clear.
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The Holy Spirit is true and eternal God.
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He's the third person of the Trinity, undivided.
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And that truth, well, it affects everything else we say about
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him, doesn't it? It absolutely does.
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It means he shares the same divine essence as the Father and
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the Son. He is God in the fullest sense,
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but he's also distinct as a person.
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He isn't the Father, He isn't the Son, yet he's one God with
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them. You see this clearly in core
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church practices. Think about baptism Matthew
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28.19 in the name singular of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
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Equal billing, essentially. Exactly equal divine honor.
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It shows both their unity and being and their distinction in
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personhood. The same applies to blessings
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like in 2nd Corinthians 13.14. That distinction is personhood.
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That's often where things get a bit fuzzy for people.
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I think the idea of spirit can easily become impersonal, like a
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force or a mood. How does Scripture really nail
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down that the Spirit is a living divine person?
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Well, Scripture talks about him in ways that only make sense for
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a person. He's not just an IT or a force.
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He has intelligence. He searches the deep things of
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God. Paul says he has a will.
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He gives out spiritual gifts as He wills, not automatically.
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He makes choices. Right, and he has affections.
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He can be grieved, Ephesians tells us, by our sin.
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Plus he acts personally. He speaks, he forbids actions.
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Remember, he stopped Paul from going into Asia Minor at one
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point. Ah yes, he appoints leaders.
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He intercedes for us. These aren't things an
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impersonal energy does. These are actions of a
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conscious, willing person. OK, so his personal attributes
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point to him being a person, but what about his divine nature?
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Yeah, his works seem to confirm that he's not just a person, but
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God himself. Yes, the works He performs are
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works only God can do. He shares attributes like
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omniscience knowing everything and omnipresence being
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everywhere. But even more telling are His
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divine actions. Genesis 1.2.
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The Spirit is there, hovering over the waters involved in
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creation itself. That's a divine act right from
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the beginning. And in the New Testament, He's
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the agent of the new creation. He brings regeneration, the new
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birth. That's giving spiritual life,
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something only God can do. And Romans 8.11, one even says
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the Spirit who dwells in US will give life to our mortal bodies
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at the resurrection, raising the dead.
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That's God's prerogative. And maybe the clearest statement
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comes from Peter in Acts with Ananias and Sapphira.
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That's probably the most direct equation, yes.
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When Peter confronts Ananias, he says why has Satan filled your
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heart to lie to the Holy Spirit? And just a breath later he says
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you have not lied to man but to God.
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He uses the terms interchangeably.
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Lying to the Spirit is lying to God.
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There's really no ambiguity there.
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He is God, fully equal with the Father and Son.
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Which means we have to be careful to avoid certain
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historical errors about the Spirit.
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The sources point out a couple we need to reject firmly.
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OK, let's take the first one. Subordination ISM.
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Given that the Bible talks about the Spirit being sent by the
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Father and the Son, how do we avoid thinking He's somehow
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lesser in his being? That's the core of subordination
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ISM. The idea that the Spirit is
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ontologically inferior may be created or derived in a way that
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makes him less than fully God in his essence.
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We reject that because the roles in the plan of salvation, the
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Father sending the Son, achieving the Spirit, applying,
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those are about function, about their agreed upon work.
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It doesn't imply any difference in their eternal divine nature,
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their Osea. So different jobs, same
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essential being. Exactly, His mission to apply
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redemption doesn't make him subordinate in who he is.
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He's eternally God, just like the Father and the Son, even
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though his work points back to. Them, OK, that's clear.
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And the second area you mentioned impersonalism that
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feels maybe more common today and popular spirituality.
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It seems to be, yes. It's the tendency to reduce the
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spirit down to just a feeling, a vibe, maybe some kind of
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spiritual power source, or just general positivity.
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But if the spirit were just an impersonal force, think about
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the consequences. He couldn't have infallibly
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guided the writing of scripture. He couldn't sovereignly change a
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dead sinner's heart in regeneration.
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Right, a force can't guarantee anything.
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No, and he couldn't be relied on to keep God's people safe until
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the end. Rejecting impersonalism is
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critical for the whole structure of the gospel.
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We need a divine person to actually make salvation happen
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in US. This structure, then, one God,
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three persons, distinct roles, leads us right into the Spirit's
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specific work. You called it his Christocentric
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mission. Yes, it's beautifully
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orchestrated. The Father designs the plan of
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redemption. The Son carries it out, his
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life, death, resurrection, and the Spirit.
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His job is to apply that finished work to us, and in
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doing so, his primary aim is always to glorify the sun.
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So everything the Spirit does points back to Jesus.
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Everything from guiding biblical authors to write about Christ,
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to convicting sinners of their need for Christ, to producing
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Christ like character and believers.
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It's all designed to magnify Jesus.
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The sources had a really insightful line on this.
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The Spirit does not compete with Christ, but makes Christ ours
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and us Christ. 'S makes Christ ours.
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I like that. He's not drawing attention to
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himself. He takes what Christ did
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objectively out there on the cross and in the tomb and makes
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it subjectively real and effective in our hearts.
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He's the divine Gobatoy, the one who delivers the goods, so to
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speak. Hashtag the Spirit and Scripture
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how he speaks. OK, so if the Spirit's job is to
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glorify Christ, he needs to communicate.
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He needs to speak. But this brings us to a really
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crucial distinction, maybe one of the most practically tricky
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ones. Inspiration versus illumination.
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How do we keep those straight? We have to be really precise
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here. Inspiration refers to the
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spirits work in the past. It was his objective once for
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all act of breathing out scripture through human authors.
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The result is the written word, infallible, without error, and
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completely sufficient for what we need.
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This specific work is done. It's finished.
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The Canon is closed. The Canon is closed.
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That period of giving new authoritative public revelation
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is over. The human writers were carried
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along, as Peter says, So what they wrote was precisely God's
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Word. So for nearly two millennia now,
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the Spirit hasn't been inspiring Scripture in that same way.
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Correct. The product of inspiration.
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The Bible is fixed and complete. Now, illumination is different.
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This is the Spirit's ongoing personal work directed towards
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the reader or hearer of that inspired word.
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It's his work of opening spiritually blind eyes and
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softening hard hearts so that we can actually receive,
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understand, and properly apply the Bible that's already been
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written. So illumination doesn't give us
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new information, but it fixes our reception problem.
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It overcomes the spiritual blindness caused by sin.
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That's the key difference. Fallen people, even smart ones,
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have a spiritual inability. We can read the words, but we
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can't truly grasp their divine meaning or submit to them
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willingly without the Spirit's help.
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Illumination heals that condition.
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It doesn't add a 67th book. It enables A spiritually dead
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reader to recognize the divine authority and truthfulness of
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the 66 books God already gave us.
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It makes the Word come alive to us.
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So the take away is Word and Spirit always go together.
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You can't have one without the other working properly.
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Absolutely not. The same spirit who authored the
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text must be the one to enlighten the reader, which
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leads to a really important point.
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The spirits normal way of speaking to us today is by
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scripture and through scripture. If you want to hear what the
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Spirit is saying to the church, you listen attentively to the
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completed revelation. He has already provided.
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That is His voice for us now. And the practical upshot of
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that, since the work of giving new public revelation is
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finished, is that the church has to say no to other claims of
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inspiration today. What does that look like
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practically? It looks like theological
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carefulness. It means we don't accept claims
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of new prophecies that are supposed to be binding on
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everyone. It means we don't elevate
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personal feelings or words from the Lord to the same level of
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authority as the Bible. The doctrine of Scripture
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sufficiency that it contains everything we need for faith in
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life, flows directly from the finished work of inspiration.
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If God has given His final public word, then that word must
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be our only ultimate rule. OK.
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But what about that personal sense?
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People have that deep conviction that the Bible is true.
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Theologians call it the internal testimony of the Spirit, right?
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The Testimonium? How does the spear give us that
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inner assurance without giving us new private revelation?
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That's a beautiful piece of theology.
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The Spirit absolutely persuades our hearts that the Bible is
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God's Word, but He does it by shining a light on the Scripture
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itself, revealing its own inherent divine qualities.
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He doesn't whisper external facts about the Bible.
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Can you give an analogy maybe? Think of it like sunlight.
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The sun is objectively bright. The Spirit's work is like
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healing blind eyes so we can see the sun's brightness for
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ourselves. He doesn't create a new,
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different light. He enables us to perceive the
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divine light already shining from the Bible's pages.
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So the internal testimony gives us subjective certainty about
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the objective truth of Scripture.
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He convinces us from the Word, not apart from it.
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That distinction really helps guard against what the sources
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call mysticism, where people talk about following the spirits
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lead but seem to bypass scripture altogether.
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That's exactly the danger. Mysticism in this negative sense
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happens when inner feelings, impressions, or experiences are
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treated as if they are fresh revelation from God carrying
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practical authority equal to or sometimes even above Scripture.
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This often comes up when people want very specific moment by
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moment guidance for life decisions.
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But if the Spirit authored A sufficient word, then trying to
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get guidance by tuning out that word and listening for inner
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whispers, well it dishonors the spirits own work and giving us
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the Bible. So those inner promptings need
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to be tested against the written word.
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Always any feeling or supposed leading that contradicts or
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bypasses Scripture cannot be from the Holy Spirit who
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inspired Scripture. We have to reject those claims.
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Hashtag the Spirit in salvation, the ordo salutis.
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Now the Spirit's role in applying Christ's work gets
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intensely personal, and we look at the ordo salutis, the order
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of salvation. This is where the Spirit takes
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what Christ did and makes it effective in an individual's
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life. Where does that process start?
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It starts with what we call effectual calling.
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This isn't just the general gospel invitation that goes out
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to everyone. This is God's specific, powerful
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summons through the gospel message directed to His chosen
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people, the elect. It's a life giving command that
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comes with the Spirit's irresistible power.
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It overcomes our natural resistance and effectively draws
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us to Christ. This is the very first step in
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the application of salvation to a person.
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And that powerful call immediately produces something
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else, right? Regeneration.
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Yes, effectual calling results in regeneration.
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This is the new birth. It's that radical, instantaneous
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work where the Spirit takes out the heart of stone and puts in a
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heart of flesh. As Ezekiel puts it, it's the
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moment the Spirit breathes spiritual life into a previously
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dead soul, and the sources really stress the nature of this
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act. It's monarchistic.
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Monarchistic, meaning the work of 1.
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So God alone does this. What about our part?
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This seems to run counter to the idea that we have to choose
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first. It does run counter to views
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like Pelagianism. Yes, Monarchism means
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regeneration is entirely God's act.
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He does it alone, unilaterally, and crucially, it precedes our
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response of faith and repentance.
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In fact, it produces that response.
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We believe, because He has given us new life.
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The sources use strong language here.
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Like the dead do not assist their resurrection, A
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spiritually dead person can't cooperate in their own
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quickening any more than a physical corpse can help raise
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itself. So it's safeguards God's grace.
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Salvation begins with his initiative, his power.
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Completely. If even a tiny part of
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initiating our spiritual life depended on our dead will, no
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one would ever be saved. The Spirit ensures salvation
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happens by acting first decisively, giving us the very
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ability to believe. OK, so the chain starts
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effectual calling, then regeneration, that new life that
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expresses itself in conversion, which is genuine repentance and
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faith. What comes next in the Spirit's
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application? The Spirit's work continues
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right along the chain. After conversion, He brings
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about our union with Christ, incorporating us into Him.
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This leads to a justification, being declared righteous in
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God's sight, then adoption, becoming His children, and then
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the ongoing work, sanctification, our growth and
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holiness, perseverance, keeping us in faith to the end, and
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finally, glorification, our ultimate transformation in the
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resurrection. The Spirit drives this whole
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sequence. But we really need to pause on
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union with Christ for a moment. The source is called this The
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Fountainhead of every saving benefit.
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The Fountainhead, so everything else flows from it.
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Pretty much it's the Spirit's act of spiritually grafting us
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into the person of Jesus Christ. Every single blessing,
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forgiveness, righteousness, adoption, growth, hope comes to
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us because we are united to Him. It's arguably the central
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blessing the Spirit applies. If the Spirit unites us to
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Christ, how does he ensure that union sticks, that it lasts?
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He acts as the divine guarantee. Scripture speaks of the Spirit
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as our seal. Smart user, like a seal on a
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document. He marks us as belonging to God,
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his protected property. And he's also called the pledge,
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or down payment. This is like earnest money
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guaranteeing the full inheritance to come.
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So his presence in US is God's promise.
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It's God's personal, sovereign promise within us that the
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salvation He began will absolutely be brought to
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completion on the final day. His indwelling is the guarantee
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of glorification. OK, Now let's talk about the
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growth part, Sanctification. You mentioned earlier there's a
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key difference in asymmetry between how salvation starts and
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how we grow. Can you unpack that?
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Yes, this is really important for Christian living.
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Regeneration. The new birth is purely
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monarchistic. God alone acts, but
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sanctification, the lifelong process of becoming more like
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Christ, involves what we call Spirit enabled synergy.
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Synergy, meaning we work with God.
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We need to be careful here, right?
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We're not contributing anything to earn salvation.
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Absolutely careful. It's not synergy in the sense
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that we provide half the power and God provides the other half.
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Not at all. It's synergy in the sense that
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God, by His Spirit, enables our renewed will to act.
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And we do ACT. He provides 100% of the grace
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ability and we are called to exercise 100% of the effort.
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Independence on that grace. Philippians 2.1213 captures it
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perfectly. Work out your own salvation, for
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it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for His good
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pleasure. So we work out what God has
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already worked in. Precisely.
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God initiates and empowers, and we respond actively.
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The Spirit doesn't just ZAP us into holiness while we sit back.
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He energizes us to strive, to obey, to fight sin.
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He works through our active cooperation.
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So what does that act of cooperation look like in
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practice? What does the Spirit call us to
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do for sanctification? He calls us to engage in two
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ongoing efforts enabled by his strength, mortification and
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vivification. Mortification is actively
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putting sin to death. It's the hard work of
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identifying, resisting, and killing the remaining sinful
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patterns and desires in our lives, the deeds of the body, as
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Paul calls them. And vivification.
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Vivification is the positive side.
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Walking in newness of life, it's actively cultivating the new
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desires and virtues given to us in Christ.
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It's pursuing obedience, growing in Lovejoy, peace, patience, and
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so on. Both of these, killing sin and
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growing in righteousness, must be done by the Spirit.
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We rely on His power for every bit of progress, and the visible
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result of the synergistic work is the fruit of the Spirit,
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which isn't something we manufacture, but the character
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of Christ Himself being formed in us by the Spirit as we walk.
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Independence and obedience. Hashtag the spirits.
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Ordinary and common work. Building and restraining.
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We usually focus, understandably, on the spirits
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saving work in believers, but the sources also talk about his
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broader work in the world among everyone through common grace.
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What exactly is that? Common grace is the term we use
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for the Holy Spirit's kindness and operations that extend to
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all people, believers and unbelievers alike.
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It's God's general goodness showered on creation.
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It sustains the world. It restrains evil to some
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degree. It allows for human society and
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culture to exist. But, and this is key, it's non
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saving mercy. It doesn't redeem anyone's soul.
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So this explains why we see things like scientific
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discoveries, beautiful art, or even just basic societal order
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among people who don't know Christ.
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Exactly. Common grace is the ultimate
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source of all temporal blessings.
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Think every good and perfect gift in a general sense.
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Sunshine and rain on the just and the unjust.
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The ability to reason, invent, build, make music, it all flows
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from God's common grace administered by the Spirit.
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The sources even mentioned specific skills like
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craftsmanship in the Old Testament.
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Yes, the example of Bezalel in Exodus 31 is classic.
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God says he filled Bezalel with the Spirit of God, with ability
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and intelligence, with knowledge and all craftsmanship.
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This was for building the Tabernacle.
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It shows the Spirit equipping people for specific locations,
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not just really just ones, but building, artistry, governing
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medicine, teaching the things that structure society and allow
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human life to flourish in an orderly way even after the fall.
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And part of that order comes from the Spirit actively holding
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back evil. Yes, a huge function of common
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grace is restraint. The spirit actively curbs the
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full expression of human sinfulness.
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Without this restraint, the world would be unimaginably
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worse, probably collapsing into total chaos.
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He does this through means like family structures, the necessity
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of work, and especially through civil government ordained by God
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to punish wrongdoing. Even the humane conscience.
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That inner sense of right and wrong is part of the spirits
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restraining work in common grace.
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OK. And there's one more specific
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work mentioned under common grace conviction.
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How is this different from the effectual call we talked about
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earlier? Good question.
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The Spirit does work in the hearts of unbelievers to convict
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them concerning sin, righteousness, and judgment,
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just as Jesus promised in John 16.
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He presses the claims of the gospel upon their conscience,
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making them aware of their guilt before God and the reality of
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coming judgment. This conviction can be very
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powerful, leading to temporary changes or religious interest.
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But it don't save them necessarily.
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Correct. This conviction is still part of
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common grace. It prepares the way for the
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gospel, it leaves people without excuse.
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But it doesn't in itself guarantee the saving work of
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regeneration and faith. Many feel convicted, but still
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ultimately reject Christ. The effectual call goes further,
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actually creating life and drawing the person irresistibly.
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So while common grace operates universally, the Spirit has
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specific appointed ways. He ordinarily works to build up
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the church and grow believers and saving grace.
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These are the normative means of grace.
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Right. What are those primary regular
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channels the Spirit uses? The sources consistently point
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to three chief instruments that Christ gave his Church for its
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health and growth in every era. The Word read and especially
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preached the sacraments, baptism in the Lord's Supper, and
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prayer. The emphasis here is on
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ordinary. While the Spirit is sovereign
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and free, He has chosen normally to convey His grace and apply
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Christ's benefits through these regular public means.
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OK, let's take them one by one, the word How does the Spirit use
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scripture and preaching? Preaching is God's primary
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ordained method for creating faith.
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Romans 10 Faith comes by hearing.
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The Spirit takes the external word proclaimed by human
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messenger and makes it an internal life, giving word in
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the hearer's heart. That's his power.
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And through the ongoing reading and hearing of Scripture, the
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Spirit illumines our minds, convicts us, encourages us,
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corrects us, trains us in righteousness.
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He uses His own inspired word to conform us to Christ.
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Next, sacraments. What's the Spirit's role there?
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They aren't magic, right? Definitely not magic.
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The Reformed view is clear. Baptism and the Lord's Supper
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are visible signs and seals of God's promises in the gospel.
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Think of them as visible words that represent Christ and his
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benefits. But they only become effective.
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They only convey grace when the Holy Spirit works through them
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in connection with faith in the recipient.
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They don't work automatically just by performing the ritual.
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That's the ex operato arrow we reject.
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So the Spirit makes them work for believers?
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Yes, particularly in the Lord's Supper.
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We believe the Spirit lifts our hearts to heaven, so to speak,
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allowing us to feed spiritually on the Ascended Christ by faith,
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nourishing our souls and strengthening our union with Him
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and each other. And the third means prayer.
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How is the Spirit involved when we pray?
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Prayer is a vital channel. It's our conscious communion
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with God. But we're weak and often don't
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know how or what to pray for. As we ought.
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Romans 8 tells us the Spirit helps us in our weakness.
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He intercedes for us even with groanings too deep for words,
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aligning our prayers with God's will.
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Through prayer facilitated by the Spirit, we draw near to God,
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receive strength, find guidance through wisdom sought from His
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Word, and grow in our dependence.
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This focus on the ordinary means words, sacraments, prayer feels
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quite different from what some circles emphasize today, often
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looking for more spectacular, extraordinary signs or
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experiences. It is a contrast and an
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important one. The more spectacular gifts like
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prophecy that delivered new revelation or miraculous signs
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that authenticated the apostles message had a specific purpose
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during the time the New Testament message was being
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established and written down. They served to confirm the
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divine origin of that new revelation.
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They were like scaffolding for the building.
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That's a decent analogy, but now that the building of revelation,
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the Canon of Scripture, is complete, the ordinary pattern
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for the church's life and growth is through the faithful use of
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these normative means, Word, sacrament, and prayer.
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The Spirit has promised to work through these means to build His
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church until Christ returns. Seeking experiences apart from
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these often risks bypassing the very instruments God has
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appointed and promised to bless. Hashtag tag outro all.
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Right, We've covered a lot of ground today in this deep dive
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on the Holy Spirit from His identity is fully God, the third
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person, the Trinity, to His specific mission focus on
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applying Christ's work glorifying Him.
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We've seen how He gave us the sufficient Word, how He alone
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initiates salvation through regeneration, and how He
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sustains both the world through common grace and the Church
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through the ordinary means of grace.
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That's a good summary. It really boils down to this.
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The Holy Spirit is the divine person who makes Jesus Christ
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and His salvation real to us and in US.
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He speaks through the word he wrote, and he applies the
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redemption Christ. 1 He connects heaven's word to our earthly
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lives, and practically this understanding brings real
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comfort and direction. The Spirit is the helper Jesus
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promised. He meets us in our weakness.
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This should shape how we think about spiritual guidance.
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It's not primarily about waiting for mystical whispers, but about
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seeking Scripture shaped wisdom, which the Spirit illuminates,
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and applying it through prayer, seeking counsel, and discerning
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God's Providence. The Spirit guides us mainly
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through His Word. OK, let's leave our listeners
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with something to chew on this week.
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Final question for you. We talked about that amazing
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truth, the Holy Spirit dwelling in believers as the urban, the
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down payment, the pledge guaranteeing our final
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glorification. So if you know, truly know that
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the Spirit who began this good work in you will carry it on to
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completion, that your final glorification is guaranteed by
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his presence. How should that rock solid
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pledge change the way you view the daily, sometimes gritty work
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of mortification, fighting sin and vivification pursuing
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righteousness today? If the end result is certain
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because of the Spirit's guarantee, how might that
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assurance fuel your obedience right now, in the ordinary
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moments? Something to think about.