The Holy Spirit

We may observe that the doctrine of the Spirit of God is the second great article of those gospel truths in which the glory of God and the good of souls are most eminently concerned, without the knowledge of which in its truth, and the improvement of it in its power, the first will be altogether useless. For when God designed the great and glorious work of recovering fallen man, and of saving sinners to the praise of the glory of His grace, He appointed in His infinite wisdom two great means thereof. The one was the giving of His Son for them; and the other was the giving of His Spirit to them. And hereby a way was opened for the manifestation of the glory of the whole blessed Trinity, which is the utmost end of all the works of God. Hereby were the love, grace, and wisdom of the Father in the design and projection of the whole; the love, grace, and condescension of the Son in the execution of the plan of salvation; with the love, grace, and power of the Spirit in the application of all to the souls of men, made gloriously conspicuous.

Hence, from the first entrance of sin, there were two general heads of the promises of God concerning salvation. The one respected the sending His Son to take our nature and to suffer for us therein; the other related to the giving His Spirit to make the effects and fruits of the incarnation, obedience, and suffering of His Son effectual to us. The great promise of the Old Testament, the principal object of the faith and hope of believers, was that of the coming of the Son of God in the flesh. But when that was accomplished, the principal remaining promise of the New Testament respects the coming of the Holy Spirit. Hence the doctrine of His person, work, and grace is the peculiar subject of the New Testament and a most eminent object of the Christian’s faith. And this must be insisted upon, as we do with some, who will scarcely allow Him to be of any consideration in these matters.

1. It is of great moment, and sufficient of itself to maintain the cause as proposed, that when our Lord Jesus Christ was about to leave the world, He promised to send His Holy Spirit to His disciples to supply His absence. Of what use the presence of Christ was to them we may in some measure conceive, for their hearts were filled with sorrow on the mention of His departure (John 16:5-6). Designing to relieve them in this great distress, He makes them this promise, assuring them thereby of greater advantage than the continuance of His bodily presence among them.

Consider what He says to this purpose in His last discourse. “I will pray the Father, and He shall give you another Comforter, that He may abide with you for ever; even the Spirit of truth; whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth Him not, neither knoweth Him: but ye know Him; for He dwelleth with you, and shall be in you. I will not leave you comfortless: I will come to you,” that is, by His Spirit. “These things have I spoken unto you, being yet present with you. But the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in My Name, He shall teach you all things.” “Now I go My way...and sorrow hath filled your heart. Nevertheless...it is expedient for you that I go away; for if I go not away, the Comforter will not come....When He is come, He will reprove the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment....He will guide you into all truth....He will shew you things to come. He shall glorify Me: for He shall receive of Mine, and shall shew it unto you” (John 14, 15, and 16).

That was the great legacy which Jesus bequeathed to His sorrowful disciples; and because of its importance, He frequently repeats it, enlarging on the benefits they should thereby receive. After His resurrection they would have been again embracing and rejoicing in His human nature, but as He said to Mary, “Touch Me not,” to wean her from any carnal consideration of Him, so He instructs them now to look for Him only in the promise of the Holy Ghost. They were no longer to know Him after the flesh (2 Corinthians 5:16), for though it was a great privilege so to know Him, yet it was much greater to enjoy Him in the dispensation of the Spirit.

It is in vain pretended that only the apostles or primitive Christians were concerned in this promise; for though it was made to them in a peculiar manner, yet it belongs to believers universally and to the end of time. As far as it respects His gracious operations, what Christ prayed for, and so promised to, His apostles, He prayed not for them alone, but for them also which should believe on Him through their word (John 17:20). And His promise is to be with His, always, even to the end of the world (Matthew 28:20). Also that wherever two or three are gathered together in His Name, there He would be in the midst of them (Matthew 18:20), which He is in no wise other than by His Spirit.

And this one consideration is sufficient to evince the importance of the doctrine. For is it possible that any Christian should be so supinely negligent, so careless about the things on which his present comfort and future happiness depend, as not to inquire, with the utmost diligence, into what Christ has left us to supply His absence, and at length to bring us to Himself? He who despises these things has neither part nor lot in Christ Himself; for “if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of His” (Romans 8:9).

2. The great work of the Holy Ghost in the dispensation of the gospel is another evidence to the same purpose. Hence the gospel itself is called “the ministration of the Spirit,” in opposition to that of the law, which is called the ministration of the letter; of condemnation; and of death (2 Corinthians 3:6-8). The “ministry of the Spirit” is either that ministry which the Spirit makes effectual, or that ministry whereby the Spirit in His gifts and graces is communicated to men. And this alone gives glory and efficacy to the gospel. Take away the Spirit from the gospel, and you render it “a dead letter,” of no more use to Christians than the Old Testament is to the Jews. It is therefore a mischievous imagination, proceeding from ignorance and unbelief, that there is no more in the gospel than what is contained under any other doctrine or declaration of truth; that it is nothing but a book for men to exercise their reason upon, and to improve the things of it by the same faculty. This is to separate the Spirit from it, which is in truth to destroy it, and to reject the covenant of God, which is, that His Word and Spirit shall go together (Isaiah 59:21). The whole use and efficacy of the ministry of the gospel depend on the promised ministry of the Spirit, with which it is accompanied. If therefore we have any concern in the gospel, we have signal duty before us in the present subject.

3. There is not one spiritual good from first to last communicated to us, or that we by the grace of God partake of, but it is revealed to us and bestowed on us by the Holy Ghost. He who never experienced the special work of the Spirit upon him, never received any special mercy from God. How is it possible? For whatever God works in us is by His Spirit; he therefore who has no work of the Spirit on his heart, never received either mercy or grace from God. To renounce therefore the work of the Spirit is to renounce all interest in the mercy and grace of God.

4. There is not any thing done by us that is holy and acceptable to God, but it is an effect of the Spirit’s operation. Without Him we can do nothing (John 15:5), for without Christ we cannot; and by Him alone is the grace of Christ communicated. By Him we are regenerated; by Him we are sanctified; by Him we are cleansed; by Him we are assisted in every good work. Surely then we ought to inquire into the cause and spring of all that is good in us.

Taken from Owen’s book, The Holy Spirit, His Gifts and Power.

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