5. Objection: “But what if you fall from the grace of Christ? For you may sin and become weak, because it is a long and difficult road to heaven.” Answer: “Christ has not only merited and conferred his benefits on me but . . . Continue reading →
Holy Spirit
Office Hours: Hywel Jones On The Role Of The Holy Spirit In Sanctification
The Holy Spirit has sometimes been described as the forgotten member of the Trinity. Whether that is true it is important to recognize the Spirit’s role in progressive sanctification, that gradual, gracious renewal to the image of Christ. He is the Spirit . . . Continue reading →
The Coherence Of Word And Spirit
A problem exists in the modern church, plagued by modernity, in her inability to see the coinherence of the word and Spirit. Pietism seeks a separation of the two, but Romanism prioritizes the office over the Spirit. If the institution and office . . . Continue reading →
Invincible Ignorance
Recently I’ve received a few wrong numbers each looking for the same person. I’m reasonably sure that a couple of the calls are from the same person. He doesn’t seem to be convinced that Jaunito is not at this number. I’m not . . . Continue reading →
Heidelberg 47: We Are Not Orphans
As a boy I attended a grammar school down the street from an orphanage. I remember one of the boys saying, “I saw my mom drive by. She’ll come by to pick me up soon.” I did not fully understand why some . . . Continue reading →
Heidelberg 53: We Believe In The Holy Spirit (1)
53. What do you believe concerning the Holy Spirit ? First, that He is co-eternal God with the Father and the Son. Secondly, that He is also given to me, by true faith makes me a partaker of Christ and all His . . . Continue reading →
Heidelberg 53: We Believe In The Holy Spirit (2)
53. What do you believe concerning the Holy Spirit ? First, that He is co-eternal God with the Father and the Son. Secondly, that He is also given to me, by true faith makes me a partaker of Christ and all His . . . Continue reading →
Reformed Orthodoxy On Holiness Of The Spirit
The Spirit, further, is called “Holy” because, on the one hand, of “his unsullied purity and glorious majesty”—not, however, as if he were holier than the Father and the Son, for all are holy and “the divine holiness, being infinite, does not . . . Continue reading →
Heidelberg 53: We Believe In The Holy Spirit (3)
In part 2 we looked at what the church catholic (universal) has confessed about the Holy Spirit and how our confession of the person and work of the Spirit developed. 53. What do you believe concerning the Holy Spirit ? First, that . . . Continue reading →
Heidelberg 56: In The Church: The Forgiveness Of Sins
There are few things more difficult than forgiving when one has been wronged. First, when a wrong has been done, quite apart from its effect for us (and its affect in us), justice itself has been violated. Second, to be wronged is . . . Continue reading →
Office Hours: Bob Godfrey On The Holy Spirit In The Ecumenical Creeds
With this episode we begin season 7 of Office Hours and our theme is “The Holy Spirit: Lord and Giver of Life.” That phrase, “Lord and Giver of Life” was included in the Nicene Creed at Constantinople in 381. It is a . . . Continue reading →
Office Hours: John Fesko On The Holy Spirit In The Reformed Confessions
This is season 7 of Office Hours and our theme is “The Holy Spirit: Lord and Giver of Life.” When we think of the Reformed and Presbyterian confessions we might think first of the doctrines of grace and salvation but they reflect . . . Continue reading →
Office Hours: The Holy Spirit In The First Five Books Of Scripture
The Holy Spirit has sometimes been called the forgotten person of the Trinity. Yet he appears at the very beginning of the Biblical story. Genesis 1:2 says, “The earth was without form and void, and darkness was over the face of the . . . Continue reading →
Office Hours: Mike Horton On The Spirit’s Work In The Application Of Redemption
We know that Jesus came to save us. We know that he obeyed for us. We know that he died for us. We know that he was raised for us who believe by grace alone but how do we come into possession . . . Continue reading →
Office Hours: The Holy Spirit And Sanctification
We say the name of the Spirit so often and so quickly that perhaps we do not stop to consider what we have just said. Paul calls the Spirit, the “Spirit of Holiness,” the Spirit of separation and consecration to God, the . . . Continue reading →
Office Hours: The Holy Spirit In Paul’s Epistles
When Reformed and Presbyterian Christians think of Paul we might think first of Paul as the New Testament theologian of grace, of salvation, of unconditional election but he might just easily be called theologian of the Holy Spirit. Where we might focus . . . Continue reading →
Office Hours: The Holy Spirit In Jesus’ Ministry
Scripture teaches and therefore all Christians confess that our Lord Jesus is true God and true man. As God the Son incarnate we understand that he has been in communion with the God the Spirit from all eternity. It is one thing . . . Continue reading →
Office Hours: The Holy Spirit And Sola Scriptura
One of the dominant trends in global Christianity is the growth of the Pentecostal and the Charismatic movements. A 2011 study published by the Pew Research Center’s Forum on Religion and Public Life says that more than 500 million Christians globally identify . . . Continue reading →
Office Hours: Mike Horton On Rediscovering The Holy Spirit
We live in a time of great, even extraordinary interest in the person and work of the Holy Spirit. In some measure, this is because we live after the outbreak, in Topeka and in Los Angeles, of neo-Pentecostalism just after the turn . . . Continue reading →
Office Hours: Fesko On The Holy Spirit In 19th-Century Theology
When the Westminster Divines completed the Confession of Faith in 1647 there was no chapter dedicated to the person and work of the Holy Spirit. According to some modern critics of the Confession, that absence betrays a troubling disinterest in the third . . . Continue reading →