The Holy Spirit Works

A sermon preached at Covenant Presbyterian Church of Fort Smith, Arkansas on November 19, 2023.

For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them (Eph. 2:8–10).[1]

A hymn absent from our hymnal but once upon a time popular in the revivalist tradition begins,

I have decided to follow Jesus;

no turning back, no turning back.

From decision the hymn proceeds to devotion, “Though none go with me, I still will follow,” and from devotion to dedication, “The world behind me, the cross before me … no turning back, no turning back.”[2] With its simple, repetitive words and easy tune, it can be sung by all ages, a hymn of personal decision, devotion, and dedication.

The problem is it’s not true. No one decides to follow Jesus, because to decide implies the ability to choose, an impossibility for those dead in their sins and trespasses. Of course, the true Christian wants to declare his devotion and dedication to Christ, this is only fitting; for, Christ is the most important person in the Christian’s life.

But before Christ, “you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience—among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind” (Eph. 2:1-3).

Your decision-making ability for Jesus was nonexistent. Your devotion was not to God but the world. And your dedication was not to the cross of Christ but the desires of your flesh. No, if it is the truth we wish to tell, we would sing,

I never wanted to follow Jesus;

He rescued me; He rescued me.[3]

Because the truth is: “But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved” (Eph. 2:4-5).

Unlike obligation, the mercy of God is not owed but is the unexpected love and generosity of God shown to undeserving sinners. And grace, the unmerited favor of God upon the sinner, is also the power of God through which he saves sinners from what we deserve, salvation from his just wrath and eternal punishment. Such grace is not earned or accepted but is monergistic, meaning God acts sovereignly without our cooperation in our salvation through the work of the Holy Spirit. Specifically, the Holy Spirit works in “convincing us of our sin and misery, enlightening our minds in the knowledge of Christ, renewing our wills,” persuading and enabling us “to embrace Jesus Christ, freely offered to us in the gospel.”[4]

Convincing us of our sin and misery

In the second chapter of Romans, Paul tells us this universal truth about human beings: “They show that the work of the law is written in their hearts, as their conscience bears witness and their conflicting thoughts accuse or else defend them” (Rom. 2:15 NET). We did not evolve to collective agreement that murder is wrong. Murder is universally wrong because God’s law says that it is sin, truth written on our hearts and revealed through the conviction of our conscience. Even someone who has never heard of or read the Ten Commandments can discern right from wrong. This is not to say that the human conscience serves as a perfect moral guide; it can be distorted by sin (Tit. 1:15). Nor does the work of the law’s presence make us holy but is sufficient to condemn us as unholy.

Of the many problems we face as humans, and there are indeed many, this is the greatest. According to the glorious standard of the Lord God Almighty, “all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Rom. 3:23). And yet, despite the disparity between God and man, we are blind to our depravity. While we may gain glimpses of our sin, or clearly see someone else’s sins, we will not agree that our sin is the vile, atrocious, alienating offense to God that it is. In other words, we must be convinced, and we will not be convinced unless God acts.

According to the sovereign and perfect timing of God, the Holy Spirit convinces us of our sin and misery. To be convinced is not simply agreement on our many sins but of our sin by nature, evidenced in our sinful thoughts, words, and deeds. David rightly confesses in the fifty-first psalm, “Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me” (Ps. 51:5). We are born not children of God but wrath, condemned from birth, guilty before the sight of God. To be convinced of sin is to see ourselves as we truly are, enemies of God, and our sin for what it truly is, an offense to God.

The person who is not repulsed by his sin but would rather continue to indulge it has not been convinced of his sin. His sin does not make him miserable, rather he is happy to continue in it. But when the Holy Spirit convinces, we are undoubtedly convinced. What once seemed trivial now feels heavier upon us than the weight of the world. We now see that sin is sin, and we are miserable for it.

Enlightening our minds in the knowledge of Christ

To be convinced of our sin and misery is the work of the Holy Spirit, but to be left in it would be torment.But God, being rich in mercy, through the work of the Holy Spirit enlightens our minds in the knowledge of Christ.Rightly does John Newton teach us to sing,

I once was lost, but now am found,

was blind, but now I see.[5]

That we see is miraculous, but what we see is salvation, “the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ” (2 Cor. 4:6). It is a knowledge of the atoning sacrifice of our sinless Savior and the forgiveness and reconciliation he has secured for us.

On the road to Damascus, Saul, the passionate persecutor of the church, was confronted by the risen Christ himself and told of his future ministry to the Gentiles, “to open their eyes, so that they may turn from darkness to light and from the power of Satan to God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins and a place among those who are sanctified by faith in [Christ]” (Acts 26:18). And then, Saul, who would become Paul, was struck blind temporarily emphasizing his inclusion among those whose spiritual eyes would be opened. As Paul learned, blind men must be led to the truth and then miraculously enlightened to know him, to see him for who he truly is.

Renewing our will

Prior to the Fall, Adam’s will was untainted by sin. He enjoyed the freedom to obey God but also to disobey, which he did. And when he did, his freedom to not sin and obey God was lost. He became a slave to sin and so dead in his sins and trespasses, a bondage of the will passed on to his progeny. As a result, we who have inherited Adam’s nature are not free not to sin nor able to obey the gospel, apart from God’s grace. In his book, Bondage of the Will, Martin Luther writes, “Let all the ‘free-will’ in the world do all it can with all its strength; it will never give rise to a single instance of ability to avoid being hardened if God does not give the Spirit, or of meriting mercy if it is left to its own strength.”[6]

Apart from the grace of the Holy Spirit, our will to obey the gospel is like Lazarus in the tomb, dead and decomposing. Lazarus could not merit his way or will himself back to life. He was dead, and so is every man, woman, or child unless the Holy Spirit renews our will. But just as Jesus stood at the tomb and cried, “Lazarus, come forth!” (John 11:43 NKJV), so the Holy Spirit calls us out of death and into life in Christ, renewing our will that we may live unto Christ.

“[E]ven when we were dead in our trespasses,” Paul says, “[God] made us alive together with Christ …” (Eph. 2:5).

For this reason, John contrasts the words “perish” and “life” in his oft-quoted verse, “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life” (John 3:16). To continue in our sins and trespasses is perishing apart from true life into eternal death, everlasting torment. But in Christ alone there is life, true life forever.

Persuading and enabling us to embrace Jesus Christ

The default human religion, though it goes by many names, is works oriented. Favor with the divine is earned by effort, favor by merit. And yet, even if our effort were directed to God, “our striving would be losing,” disqualified by nature, confirmed by sin. You can’t outwork human depravity nor outrun the judgment of God. Martyn Lloyd-Jones says, “Man’s first and greatest need is not to be improved; it is not to be given better advantages; it is not to be healed physically. Man’s primary need is to be reconciled to God.”[7] And we cannot, we will not be reconciled to God through works-based religion but the only true religion that looks exclusively to the one born of woman, born under the law (Gal. 4:4), not the progeny of Adam but the Son of God, who committed no sin (1 Pet. 2:22), but bore divine judgment for us, the wrath of God upon the cross, who died, and was buried, and then resurrected from the dead, conquering sin and death, and reconciling us to God forever through faith in him.

The apostle Peter writes to the church, “For Christ also died for sins once for all, the just for the unjust, so that he might bring us to God, having been put to death in the flesh, but made alive in the spirit” (1 Pet. 3:18). We who have been convinced of our sin and misery, our minds enlightened in the knowledge of Christ, and our wills renewed, are persuaded and enabled by the Holy Spirit to embrace Jesus Christ. His persuasion is not merely that we consider Christ an option, but that we see him as he truly is, our Savior and Lord. We are not merely enabled to make a good decision, but to hear the gospel freely offered and to believe as if we can believe nothing else. Lazarus did not reject Christ’s command to come forth from the tomb; he could not. Nor can the one persuaded and enabled to embrace Jesus Christ, the life-giving power of God’s irresistible grace.

It is therefore through the work of the Holy Spirit that we, as the Shorter Catechism puts it, “partake of justification, adoption, and sanctification, and the several benefits which in this life do either accompany or flow from them.”[8] By God’s grace through faith in Christ, we are justified, that is our sins are pardoned, and we are accepted as righteous in God’s sight, not for anything in us but for the imputed righteousness of Christ alone.[9] By God’s grace through faith in Christ, we are adopted, that is we are received into the family of God, with a right to all the privileges as his child.[10] By God’s grace through faith in Christ, we are sanctified, that is we are renewed after the image of God in which we were created and enabled more and more to die unto sin and live in righteousness.[11] By God’s grace through the work of the Holy Spirit, we have then been raised up with Christ and, as it were, seated with him in the heavenly places, “so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus” (Eph. 2:6-7).

We are then God’s “workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them” (Eph. 2:10). Out of all of God’s glorious creation, we are his workmanship. We who were originally made in his image yet fallen in sin are now redeemed to be conformed to the perfection of his Son, which we live out in good works. Yet, even our good works are according to the sovereign grace of God, that the world might see our good works and glorify our Father in heaven (Matt. 5:16). Therefore, let the testimony of our lives show and the praises of our tongues proclaim “the immeasurable riches of [God’s] grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.” I never wanted to follow Jesus, but he rescued me by his grace forever!

[1] Unless referenced otherwise, all Scripture quotations are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version (Wheaton: Crossway Bibles, 2001).

[2] https://hymnary.org/text/i_have_decided_to_follow_jesus

[3] https://redmountainmusic.bandcamp.com/album/depth-of-mercy

[4] Q. 31. What is effectual calling? A. Effectual calling is the work of God’s Spirit, whereby, convincing us of our sin and misery, enlightening our minds in the knowledge of Christ, and renewing our wills, he doth persuade and enable us to embrace Jesus Christ, freely offered to us in the gospel. “The Shorter Catechism,” The Westminster Confession of Faith and Catechisms (Lawrenceville: PCA Christian Education and Publications, 2007), 374-375.

[5] “Amazing Grace!”, Trinity Hymnal, Revised Edition (Suwanee: Great Commission Publications, 1990), 460.

[6] Martin Luther, The Bondage of the Will (Grand Rapids: Revell, 1957), 202.

[7] D.M. Lloyd-Jones, Knowing the Times: Addresses Delivered on Various Occasions 1942-1977 (Edinburgh: The Banner of Truth Trust, 2021), 292.

[8] Q. 32. What benefits do they that are effectually called partake of in this life? A. They that are effectually called do in this life partake of justification, adoption and sanctification, and the several benefits which in this life do either accompany or flow from them. “The Shorter Catechism,” The Westminster Confession of Faith and Catechisms (Lawrenceville: PCA Christian Education and Publications, 2007), 375.

[9] Q. 33. What is justification? A. Justification is an act of God’s free grace, wherein he pardoneth all our sins, and accepteth us as righteous in his sight, only for the righteousness of Christ imputed to us, and received by faith alone. Ibid., 376.

[10] Q. 34. What is adoption? A. Adoption is an act of God’s free grace, whereby we are received into the number, and have a right to all the privileges of, the sons of God. Ibid., 376.

[11] Q. 35. What is sanctification? A. Sanctification is the work of God’s free grace, whereby we are renewed in the whole man after the image of God, and are enabled more and more to die unto sin, and live unto righteousness. Ibid., 377.

Share this:

Related