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C.
1. Under common grace the Holy Spirit acts as a human spirit for
the comprehension of the Gospel.
2. This ministry continues into the Christian life under the
teaching ministry of the Holy Spirit.
3. In regeneration the Holy Spirit creates a human spirit for the
immediate imputation of eternal life at salvation.
4. The Bible emphasizes the difference between man's soul and
spirit. Heb 4:12, "The word of God is alive and powerful, sharper than
any two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing between the soul and
the spirit..."
4. The unbeliever is dichotomous, 1 Cor 2:14; Jude 19. The
believer is trichotomous, Mt 26:41; 1 Thes 5:23; Phile 25, Heb 4:12.
Inside of a spiritually dead person, the soul can understand certain
academic subjects or a language. But with regard to God and what He is
and what He has done for us, it is impossible for him to understand
because he is spiritually dead.
5. After salvation, the Holy Spirit teaches our human spirit, Rom
8:16. This teaching ministry of the Holy Spirit to the human spirit is
an extension of common grace in the sense that it only occurs inside
your very own palace, the operational-type divine dynasphere. The Holy
Spirit is always the teacher.
6. Therefore, it is important to be filled with the Spirit once
you have believed in Christ. You will never learn anything apart from
the ministry of the Holy Spirit. The filling of the Spirit is the
enabling power of the Spirit inside the operational-type divine
dynasphere.
7. When Bible doctrine is taught by your right pastor, only
residence in the divine dynasphere under the enabling power of the Holy
Spirit teaches that doctrine under operation Z, Jn 14:26, 16:12-16;
1
Cor 2; 1 Jn 2:27. Everything we have ever learned in Bible doctrine is
courtesy of God the Holy Spirit!
8. The ministry of the Holy Spirit in common grace to the
unbeliever continues after salvation as the teaching ministry of the
Holy Spirit to the believer. 1 Cor 2:12, "For we have not received the
world's frame of reference, but the human spirit from God, that we might
know the things [our portfolio] which have been graciously given to us
by God."
a. Now we have the whole realm of the mystery doctrine, and
we are to master it and grow in grace.
b. "By God" is HUPO + ablative of agency from THEOS, which
is most unusual. The ablative of agency means that were it not for the
Holy Spirit, we would never understand these things. It means that all
absolute truth has its source in eternal and infinite God.
F. The Exegetical Presentation of Human Volition in the Doctrine of
Common Grace, Eph 1:13.
Eph 1:13, "In Whom you also [when unbeliever], when you heard
[common grace] the message of truth, the Gospel of your salvation, in
whom also when you believed, you were sealed by the Holy Spirit..."
1. There are two acts of human volition in common grace: hearing
the Gospel and believing in Jesus Christ.
2. You have to want to hear the Gospel and concentrate on its
presentation. God the Holy Spirit will make that Gospel information
real in your soul so that you now have information on which to make a
decision.
3. God the Holy Spirit in common grace makes Gospel information
comprehensible to the spiritually dead unbeliever.
G.
Summary.
1. Common grace is the doctrine of providence demanding that the
power of God be effective in the world of the spiritually dead. The
unbeliever is spiritually dead from birth.
2. Therefore, the Holy Spirit has several ministries to the world
of unbelievers:
a. Restraint of sin, human good, and evil for the
preservation of human history.
b. The ministry of common grace.
3. Pertinent to Eph 1:13 is the ministry of God the Holy Spirit
in common grace,for it represents the sovereignty of God in evangelism.
4. While the unbeliever as a spiritually dead person can express
his positive volition by listening to the Gospel, that is a nonmeritorious function. The merit is in the work of the Holy Spirit in
making the Gospel understood, so that a further decision can be made for
or against salvation, understanding the consequences of either decision:
eternal life or eternal condemnation.
5. Common grace takes cognizance of the fact that while the
unbeliever can use his volition to listen to the Gospel, he cannot
understand in his spiritually dead brain what the Gospel implies.
6. Therefore, the Holy Spirit functions as a human spirit to make
the Gospel comprehensible. Personal sin is not the issue, but faith in
the person of Christ whose work on the cross was efficacious.
7. Two requirements for salvation are made comprehensible by the
Holy Spirit in common grace: the possession of perfect righteousness and
the possession of eternal life, which both belong to us the moment we
believe in Christ.
8. Without God's grace and divine help, i.e., without the
providence of God, none of us would have ever been saved.
Also see the doctrine of the Convicting Ministry of the Holy
Spirit, which combines the doctrines of common and efficacious grace.
(c) 1989, by R. B. Thieme, Jr.