2.3 - How the Spirit Operates

How the Spirit Operates

We now come to the question, "How does this Holy Spirit beget life in the sinner?" Does He use means, or does He act directly upon the spirit of man without any instrumentality? That the Spirit begets life by means of the Gospel is placed beyond doubt by such passages as the following: "For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth: to the Jew first and also to the Greek" (Romans 1:16). "For though you have ten thousand instructors in Christ, yet have ye not many fathers; for in Christ Jesus I have begotten you through the gospel" (1 Corinthians 4:15). "Having been begotten again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, through the word of God, which liveth and abideth" (1 Peter 1:23, R.V.). If the Gospel is the power of God unto salvation, if life is begotten by the Gospel, or, in other words, by the incorruptible seed of the Word of God, who can deny that the Spirit uses instrumentality in bringing about this great change? The circumstances in which an over-ruling Providence places us have often much to do in causing us to give the Gospel an earnest, candid hearing; but, in our day, as far as it is known to me, the light that leads to life must come from Holy Writ.