Unity and Diversity in the Work of the Holy Spirit

The twelve articles of the Apostolic Confession are divided into three parts. The first is of God the Father and our creation; the second of God the Son and our redemption, and the third of God the Holy Ghost and our sanctification. So we see that the sanctification of the sinner is the particular task of the Holy Ghost. But let us not limit His divine work to this. For His work is multifaceted. Usually we divide His work into three parts. We speak about His general work, His special work, and finally about His soul-saving work.

His Common or General Work

God the Holy Spirit proceeds from God the Father and God the Son. He is the great Finisher of all Cod’s works. He has a great part in creating, upholding and governing the whole world. When God created heaven and earth, the Holy Spirit moved upon the face of the waters (Cen. 1:2). These words direct our attention to the life-giving function of the Holy Spirit, and specifically to the creation of man.

The Holy Ghost procreates life and finishes creational work. All kinds of life, plants, animals, and stars of heaven originated by the work of the Holy Ghost. For “by the Word of the Lord were the heavens made; and all the host of them by the breath of His mouth” (Psalm 33:6). The work of the Holy Spirit is the origin, the fountain of all life. He upholds life and he develops life. Withdrawal of the Holy Spirit means death.

Certain men received special strength from the Holy Ghost. Often we read that the Holy Spirit of the Lord came upon the judges. Think of Samson and his strength, and how the Holy Spirit had left him for some time. As the Spirit of wisdom, He sometimes grants special wisdom unto men, in a certain illuminating work. God’s Spirit qualified Aholiab and Bezaleel to devise cunning works in gold, silver, brass, in cutting of stones, and in carving of wood, yes, in all manner of workmanship (Exodus 31:3–5). King Saul and David had been endowed with the Spirit to enable them to bear His special or particular work.

His Special Work

We see the Spirit’s special work or administration in Cod’s work of redemption. When we think of the Bible, God’s Word as we have it now it is God’s thoughts in writing, and that infallibly (2 Peter 1:21). The Holy Spirit did not only move men to write the Word, but He has preserved this Word for centuries. What a tremendous work the Bible has been!

We also attribute the preparation of Christ’s human nature within Mary to the special work of the Holy Spirit. For we confess that He “was conceived by the Holy Ghost, born of the virgin Mary.”

When the Lord Jesus was baptized in the Jordan River, the Spirit of God descended upon Him like a dove. This was a clear token that the Spirit of the Lord God came upon Him, ministering to Him in His three offices as Mediator.

Finally, the Spirit grants all New Testament office-bearers ability to perform their tasks: the apostles for their office, and later on ministers, elders and deacons for their labors. This also belongs to the special work of the Holy Ghost.

His Soul-saving Work

To be saved, we need the soul-saving work of the Holy Spirit. This is most important. We may have received gifts of wisdom or power; we may have been called to an office in Cod’s instituted church and have the necessary ability for it, but if we lack the soul-saving work of the Spirit, we have no soul-saving faith, no new life that has been born of Cod. We have our natural life, and He upholds that, but still we miss the most important part, namely, the spiritual life of Cod.

Sanctification is the greatest work of the Holy Spirit. He was sent by the Father and the Son as the other Comforter. To this work of the Spirit belongs all that which is worked in God’s people. For, according to Christ’s Word, the Spirit will be in all His people. He will dwell in them as in His temple and work in them as the Spirit of grace and supplication.

The answer to question 53 of the Heidelberg Catechism confesses this: “That He is also given me, to make me by a true faith, partaker of Christ and all His benefits, that He may comfort me and abide with me forever.”

Unity in the Work of the Holy Spirit

In His last discussions before His suffering, Christ spoke to His disciples about the work of the Holy Spirit and His coming. We can find these conversations in John 14 through 16. In the Heidelberg Catechism we find a summary of what He promised them. The Holy Spirit will grant faith unto all upon whom He bestows salvation. By means of the preached gospel. He kindles true faith in their heart, and that true faith embraces Christ and all His benefits (see Belgic Confession, Article 22).

The Lord Jesus promised that the Spirit shall reprove the world of sin, righteousness, and judgment. He said, “Of sin, because they believe not on Me.” The Spirit shall glorify Christ in His people. They shall know Him as their only Mediator and Savior, for the Holy Spirit will take the things of Christ and show it unto them.

The Holy Spirit works quietly. He enlightens God’s servants, giving them freedom to speak, but He shall never speak of Himself. He keeps Himself in the background. What He loves to do is to glorify Christ in His people’s hearts. To that end He uses the preaching of the gospel. Even as God’s servants are endowed with the Spirit of God, so they are heralds of the great King—Christ.

The Holy Spirit is also the Comforter. Lord’s Day 20 of the Heidelberg Catechism says, “That He may comfort me.” How does He accomplish this? Primarily when He assures me that Christ and all His benefits are given to me, and that the Lord is reconciled with me, and that I, for Christ’s sake and by pure grace, have received the forgiveness of sins and eternal life. But this is not the one and only thing that the Spirit does. His name Comforter implies much more. It also means: Intercessor, Advocate or Solicitor. The Holy Spirit is also the Spirit of prayer. We read in Roman 8:26,27: “Likewise the Spirit also helpeth our infirmities, for we know not what we should pray for as we ought: but the Spirit itself maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered. And He that searcheth the hearts knoweth what is the mind of the Spirit, because He maketh intercession for the saints.”

The Diversity of His Works

These things the Spirit works in all of God’s children. And this is also what we all stand in need of. We must not be satisfied with anything less than becoming the greatest sinner because we have not believed on Him. We need to become the greatest sinner at His feet. We have to know Him as our Redeemer and our Savior, our sin-destroyer so that we can walk in the newness of life.

But the Spirit has various ways whereby He leads God’s people. As an example, notice the leaves on a tree. Looking at the shape of the leaves, we can recognize, say, a chestnut tree, but every one of the thousands of leaves is different; each one of them is unique. So also the conversion of the jailor was very different from that of Lydia. The nearly three thousand on Pentecost were converted in still another way, different from the disciples. And even among the eleven disciples, there was a great difference regarding their conversions. We also see many differences expressed in their characters. The aggressive Peter was a very different man from the depressed and melancholy Thomas. And yet, all of them had become sinners before God. All of them had found their Surety in the Lord Jesus. All of them had gazed up into heaven when Christ was taken up. All of them came together with one accord in one place, in an upper room in Jerusalem.

Sanctification is the seal of the Holy Spirit. This is incomplete and imperfect in this temporal life. Faith also, as well as their walk in conformity to God’s commands, is imperfect, and therefore different. However different God’s people may be, yet everyone of them has a sincere desire for the perfection which once shall be theirs! This causes the bride to pray with the Spirit: “Come, Lord Jesus, yea, come quickly.”

Rev. D. Rietdyk is pastor of the Gere-formeerde Gemeente (Netherlands Reformed Congregation) of Moerkapelle, the Netherlands.

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