Wednesday | 19 March 2025
Importantly, the Son and the Father did not offer Themselves by Their own power, but rather by the power of the Holy Spirit. Having helped the Father and the Son to offer before, and then helped Them, in time, to accomplish the work of redemption, He has been sent by the Father and the Son to become our Helper so that this finished work can be accomplished in our lives!
How does the Holy Spirit help this work? The apostle Peter explained that, as Christians, we were born again of incorruptible Seed. This Seed is the divine nature and identity of the Son of God, called by Paul, ‘the Spirit of the Son’. Gal 4:6. Paul further said that it was the Father’s sovereign work to send forth the Spirit of the Son, from Himself, into our heart so that we could be born of the Seed of Christ.
In the first chapter of his first epistle, Peter detailed how this birth would happen. First, a preacher speaks the word of the gospel to a hearer by the power of the Holy Spirit. 1Pe 1:12. As they hear and accept the preacher’s message, the Holy Spirit then brings conviction and illumination to their understanding, enabling them to believe that God wants to be their Father and that they can be His son. This is His work as the Spirit of adoption. Rom 8:15.
Significantly, the seed was not the gospel message preached, but the seed came with the message. It came through the word of God. This seed was also the word of a hearer’s name as a son of God. The Holy Spirit then enables the conception of their new-creation name and spirit, whereupon they are placed by the Father into the body of Christ, the church. By this means, they are born of water and the Spirit and have entered the kingdom of God. Joh 3:5. Significantly, this whole transaction is the work of the Holy Spirit, sent down from heaven.
Further Study:
1 PETER 1
References:
Gal 4:6
And because you are sons, God has sent forth the Spirit of His Son into your hearts, crying out, ‘Abba, Father!’
1Pe 1:12
To them it was revealed that, not to themselves, but to us they were ministering the things which now have been reported to you through those who have preached the gospel to you by the Holy Spirit sent from heaven—things which angels desire to look into.
Rom 8:15
For you did not receive the spirit of bondage again to fear, but you received the Spirit of adoption by whom we cry out, ‘Abba, Father.’
Joh 3:5
Jesus answered, ‘Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God.’