COV LIFE BLOG

Romans 8:1-11 – The Work of the Holy Spirit

How does all that Christ accomplished become ours? That’s a question most of have never considered.
 
John Calvin asks: How do we receive those benefits which the Father bestowed on his only-begotten Son—not for Christ’s own private use, but that he might enrich poor and needy men? First, we must understand, that as long as Christ remains outside of us, and we are separated from him, all that he has suffered and done for the salvation of the human race remains useless and of no value for us.
 
So how do we share in Christ’s benefits? Calvin’s answer: “The Holy Spirit is the bond by which Christ effectually unites us to himself.”
 
In Romans 8:9–11, Paul argues along similar lines. When the Spirit dwells in us, we have the Spirit of Christ (v. 10), and if the Spirit is in us, we will have life in Jesus Christ (v. 11). In short, when you have the Spirit, you have Christ; and when you have Christ, you have the Spirit. The Holy Spirit unites us to Christ, because the Spirit is the Spirit of Christ. He is the Spirit of adoption, making us children of God the Father by joining us to Christ our brother (Rom. 8:15; Gal. 4:6; Heb. 2:17). God, by the Spirit, has torn the “first Adam” jersey from our backs and put us on the “second Adam” team.
 
We don’t often think about this aspect of redemption, but John Murray says that union with Christ is the “central truth of the whole doctrine of salvation.”12 So crucial is our union with Christ that Paul uses this “in Christ” language about 160 times.13 Justification, reconciliation, redemption, adoption, sanctification, glorification—all these belong to us because of our union with Christ. In a mysterious, supernatural way that transcends spatial categories, Christ is in us by the Spirit that we might have communion with Christ and share in all his benefits.
 
[And] Jesus could not be any clearer: there is no Christian life without the converting work of the Spirit. He enables us to understand and spiritually discern the things of God (1 Cor. 2:12–14). He grants us repentance that leads to life (Acts 11:18). He pours out God’s love into our hearts (Rom. 5:5). He enables us to believe in the promises of God (John 1:12–13). “No one can come to me unless it is granted him by the Father,” Jesus says in John 6:65.
 
And how do the elect come to God? “It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh is no help at all. The words that I have spoken to you are spirit and life” (John 6:63). So we come to faith in the Son by the Father’s appointing and the Spirit’s imparting. Faith itself, then, is a gift, a gift that comes at conversion when we are born again by the Spirit working through the Word of God (1 Pet. 1:23–25).

Kevin De Young

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SCRIPTURES FOR THIS SUNDAY
Read Romans 8:1-11 and look for indicators of the Holy Spirit’s work in salvation. What difference does it make in your understanding of God and worship of him to better understand this doctrine?