"By the indwelling of the Holy

Spirit all believers beingvitallyunited

to Christ, who is the Head, are thus
united one to another in the church,
which is His body. He calls and
anoints ministers for their holy office,
qualifies all other officers in the
church for their special work, and
imparts various gifts and graces to its
members. He gives efficacy to the
Word and to the ordinances of the
gospel. By Him the church will be
preserved, increased,
purified, and at last made
perfectly holy in, the
presence of God." (WCF
34:4)
resurrection, and glory. And being
united to one another in love, they
have communion in each other's gifts
and graces; and are obliged to the
performance of such duties, publick
and private, as do conduce to their
mutual good, both in the inward and
outward man ... Saints by profession,
are bound to maintain an holy
fellowship and communion in the
worship of God, and in perfonning
such other spiritual services as. tend
A SWDY OF THE PERSON AND WORK
OF THE HOLYSPIRIT
This being the case, there is a
covenantal unity that exists between
the saints. Thus, they have an
obligation to worship God together,
and to serve one another as they
worship and serve their Head, Jesus
Christ.
John Calvin, and Calvinists in
general, have always maintained that
outside of the visible church there is
"no ordinary possibility of salvation."
The Westminster Confession of Faith
XXV,2; see also the 1561
Belgic Confession of Faith,
Article XXVIII.
In section four, the
Westminster Confession
develops the doctrine of the
Holy Spirit in the church,.
Some parts are merely
restatements of materjal
found in
(XXV-XXIX), which are., ..
BASED ON THE WESTMINSTER STANDARDS
This is true only so long
as salvation is taken in its
full orbed sense: to indude
the process of universal
santification. In this sense,
the church is the "mother"
of believers. John Calvin,
Institutes IV:1:4-6;
Augustine, Confessions
1.11.
here more fully relegated to
the work of the Spirit. Yet', there is
addition!!l teaching found in this
section as well. "On the whole, then,
this section may fairly be accounted
a contribution towatd the
augmentation of the Confession With
new doctrine. The doctrine of the
work of the Holy Spirit in the church
is stated in it coihprehensively ... The
doctrine of the shurch implicated is
the comnion Reformed docirine.
"Benjamin B .. Warfield, Selected
Shorter Writings, Vol. II, pp. 387,388.
. The Communion of Saints
In the COJ?fession we read that:
"The catholic or universal church,
which is invisible, consists of the
whole number of the elect. .. under
Christ...All saints that are united to
Jesus Christ their Head by His Spirit,
and by faith, have fellowship With
Him in His graces, sufferings, death,
to their mutual edification." The
WestminsterConfessionojFaith XXV,l;
XXVI,li
We have already seen that each
individual believer is in union With
Jesus Christ, due to the work of the
Holy Spirit (1 Cor. 6:17; i3:12):
Each Christian is a temple of the'
Spirit (1 Cor. 6:19). But it is equally
true that the church, which consists
of individual ChristianS, in union
With 'one another because' of their
union with Christ, is the Spirit's
. temple (1 Cor.3:16): Inotherwords,'
"the Spirit creates not only personal
union but corporate communion
between us and Christ and through
Christ With the Holy Trinity, so that
it is the Holy Spirit who creates and
sustains the being and lik of the
church, uniting the church to Christ
as His one body." Thomas F.
Torrance, The Trinitarian Faith, P' 9.
28 THE COUNSEL of Chalcedon September, 1993
, As. already stated, all
believers are in union With Christ
and one another. As a body, the
church is beirig rooted and built up
in their covenant relationship With
JeSlls Christ ,(Col. 2:6,7). .
Within the visible church, i.e.,
those who, "profess the true religion,
and their children," The Westminster
Larger CatechiSm, Q 62. there are
some who are not elect. They are not
! members of the invisible church, i.e"
"the whole number of the elect." The
Westminster Larger. Catechism, Q
64.
Nevertheless, they are part of the
covenant community which has
existed from the time of the
establishement of the Covenant of
Grace in GenesiS 3:15 .. The Holy
Spirit has effectively ministered to
the church in both the Old and New
Testa:ment eras.
As the church is a corporate
community, each member therein,
as gifted by the Spirit, has certain
responsibilities to serve in the body
for the edification of the whole (1
Cor. 12:7). The chief duty of the
church is the worship of the Triune
God. In chapter three we studied the
Holy Spirit's function in worship
(both private and public); He is the
author thereof On. 4:23,24; Rom.
8:26,27; Eph. 6:18; Phil. 3:3; Jude
20).
Says the Confession
(XXI,3,S), true worship is
to include: "Prayer, with
thanksgiving ... The
reading of the Scriptures
with godly fear; the sound
preaching, and conscion-
able hearing of the
Word ... singing of Psalms
with grace in the heart; as
also the due adminis-
tration and worthy
receiving of the sacra-
ments instituted by
Christ." The Spirit is the
chief agent of all of these
means of godly worship.
Gifts of the Holy Spirit
Within the corporate community
of the saints, the Spirit gifts certain
men for ministry. Some of these
extraordinary gifts, as we have seen
(e.g., aposdes, prophets, miracles),
have ceased. But others, such as the
pastor and teacher, exhortation,
mercy, etc., remain. This view, as so
properly espoused by the
Westminster divines, was the overall
teaching of Puritanism in general.
The Holy Spirit "imparts various gifts
and graces to [all of] its [thechurch'sJ
members, The Westminster Confession
of Faith XXXN,4. in order that the
whole body may be built up in the
Lord (Eph. 4:11,12).
It is necessary to distinguish
between the "gift" (singular) of the
Spirit, which is received at the time of
salvation (Rom. 8:9; 1 Cor. 12: 13),
and the "gifts" (plural) of the Spilit,
which are provisional. The former is
salvifk in import; the latter are for
the purpose of Christian service.
Moreover, d1ere may be gifted men
within the visible church, who do
not possess "the gift" of etemallife
(d. Mt. 7:21-23).
found in these passages, but the lists
are not all inclusive. 1 Peter 4:10,11,
infom1S us that there are two basic
kinds of spiritual gifts: word gifts and
deed or ministry gifts. No Christian
possesses all of the gifts (1 Cor. 12:27-
31), but every Christian has at least
one gift, which is be used for the
furtherance of God's Kingdom (1 Cor.
12:7; 1 Pet 4:10).
The relationship between spiritual
gifts and natural talents should
probably be viewed as
follows. As noted in chapter
two, God, through
common or non-saving
grace, gives natural talents
to all men (by means of His
Spirit). Non-believers do
not use these for the glory
of God, but they are
nevertheless His gifts.
Christians, on the other
hand, are empowered by
the "indwelling" Spirit to
use their talents in a biblical
manner. The talents then
become "spiritual" gifts in
the full sense of the word.
In 1 Corinthians 12:4-6, we read John Owen, Worhs, Vol. VII, p. 284.
that all three members of the Godhead
are involved in the giving and use of
gifts. At the same time, the accent
with regard to spiritual gifts is on the
third person of the Trinity. This is
evident from passages such as 1
Corinthians 12:7,11, and Romans
1: 11. The word "spiritual"
(pneumatikos) emphasizes this fact.
This is especially noticeable in 1
Corinthians 12:1 and 14:1, where
pneumatikos is used synonymously
for "gifts."
A list of the various spiritual gifts
is given in 1 Corinthians 12:8-11,
28-31; Romans 12:3-8; EpheSians
4:7-12; and 1 Peter 4:10,11. There
are some nineteen or twenty gifts
Fruit of the Spirit
In Galatians 5:22,23, Paul speaks
of the fruit (singular) of the Spirit.
The Westminster Confession, as with
Puritanism in general, refers to the
"fruit" as the "graces." The point the
Puritans sought to make is that the
fruit of the Spirit is a mark of saving
grace, whereas this is not necessarily
. true of the gifts. As seen, gifts may be
possessed by those who are not
recipients of saving grace (Mt. 7:21-
23). See Sinclair B. Ferguson, John
Owen on the Christian Life, p. 202.
The singular usage of the noun
fruit (karpos) is distinguished from
the plural "gifts" of the Spirit in 1
Corinthians 12: 1. This is probably
September, 1993 ;. THE COUNSEL of Chalcedon ;. 29
indicative of the fact that every
Christian is to manifest all of the fruit
of the Spirit, whereas no Christian
possesses all of. the spiritual gifts.
Richard Gaffin points out that just
because Paul refers to one group as
"gifts" of the Spirit and another as
"fruit" of the Spirit, does not in any
sense indicate that the latter are not
gifts from God's Spirit. Richard B.
Gaffin, Jr., Perspectives on Pentecost,
p.48.
The nine qualities listed in
Galatians 5:22,23, are' not to be
considered all inclusive anymore than
are the numerous gifts mentioned
above. Rather, there is a .three-fold
triad established by Paul. The first
three qualities-love, joy, and
peace-' speak to the believer'S
relationship with God. the secolld
three-patience, kindness, and
goodness-speak to one's
relationship with his fellowman. And
the third, list of qualities- .
faithfulness, meekness, and self-
control-. . speak to the Christian's
relationship with himself. "To live in
harmony with God and .others, and
in firm control of ourselves, this is a
supernatural work of God's It
is 'the fruit of the Spirit.' lndeed, this
fruit. . .is the best available
evidence ... of the indwelling fullness
of the Holy Spirit." John R.W. SWtt,
Baptism &> Fullness, pp. 76-79. It is
the best evidence that the baptism of
the Spirit has already occurred.
Fullness of the Spirit
Being filled with tlJ.e Spirit is not
one and the same thing with being
baptized in the Spirit. We have seen
in chapter three, that the former is a
onMime affair, i.e., that which occurs
at effectual calling andlor
. Thelatter, on the other
hand, is a continual, on going process.
This is evident in Ephesians 5: 18,
where Paul commands (imperative
mood) the churchto be "continually"
(presenttense) filled with the Spirit.
Part of the apostle's command
involves the <::hristian's -willingness
to fully yield himself (the voice of the
verb is, passive) to the Spirit's workin
his life.
tile Spirit filled believet does not
grieve (Eph. 4:30) or (l Th.
5: 19) the Spirit. Rather, the fullness
of the Spirit, experienced by Christian
man, will be marked by a steady
gtowthinholiness (sanctification). It
will result in bearing the fruit of the
Spirit (Gal 5:22,23), in contrast with
the works of the flesh (vv. 19-21).
A comparison of Ephesians 5:18
with Colossians 3:16 reveals, by the
hennenuetical principle of "Scripture
interprets Scripture: that "being
continually filled with the Spirit: is
one and the same thing with "letting
the Word of Christ richly [ahd
continually; this verb is also in the
present tense] dwell within you." In
otherwords, the Spirit filled Christian
is one who studies the Word,and
then diligently seeks toapply'it in his
life.'" Gaffin, pp. 32-34.
In Ephesians 5:18-21, Paul teaches
that: (l) the Spirit filled Christian is
one who involveshimselfin corporate
(2) he is a thankful person;
and (3) he submits himself to the
biblical authority levels. In 5:22-6:9,
. the apostle expands on the latter; he
shows how the filling work of the
SPirit rnanifests itself in marriage
(5:22-33), in the . parent-child
relationship on the job
(6:5-9). n To be continued.
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