and the world; be is the divine revealer of Christ to the individual consciousness and the source of
all graces (χαρίσματα) through which the new life manifests itself. "Christ in us" is equivalent to
having the "Spirit of Christ." It is only by the inward revelation of the Spirit that we can call Christ
our Lord and Saviour, and God our Father; by the Spirit the love of God is shed abroad in our
hearts; the Spirit works in us faith and all virtues; it is the Spirit who transforms even the body of
the believer into a holy temple; those who are led by the Spirit are the sons of God and heirs of
salvation; it is by the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus that we are made free from the law of
sin and death and are able to walk in newness of life. Where the Spirit of God is there is true
liberty.^792
(4.) There is, then, a threefold cause of our salvation: the Father who sends his Son, the Son
who procures salvation, and the Holy Spirit who applies it to the believer. This threefold agency
is set forth in the benediction, which comprehends all divine blessings: "the grace (χάρις) of the
Lord Jesus Christ, and the (ἀγάπη) of God, and the communion (κοινωνία) of the Holy Spirit."^793
This is Paul’s practical view of the Holy Trinity as revealed in the gospel. The grace of Christ is
mentioned first because in it is exhibited to us the love of the Father in its highest aspect as a saving
power; to the Holy Spirit is ascribed the communion because he is the bond of union between the
Father and the Son, between Christ and the believer, and between the believers as members of one
brotherhood of the redeemed.
To this divine trinity corresponds, we may say, the human trinity of Christian graces: faith,
hope, love.^794
III. The Order of Salvation.—(1.) Salvation has its roots in the eternal counsel of God, his
Foreknowledge (πρόγνωσις), and his Foreordination (προορισμός, πρόθεσις); the former an act of
his omniscient intellect, the latter of his omnipotent will. Logically, foreknowledge precedes
foreordination, but in reality both coincide and are simultaneous in the divine mind, in which there
is no before nor after.^795
Paul undoubtedly teaches an eternal election by the sovereign grace of God, that is an
unconditioned and unchangeable predestination of his children to holiness and salvation in and
through his Son Jesus Christ.^796 He thus cuts off all human merit, and plants the salvation upon an
immovable rock. But he does not thereby exclude human freedom and responsibility; on the contrary,
he includes them as elements in the divine plan, and boldly puts them together.^797 Hence he exhorts(^792) The passages in which the Holy Spirit is mentioned are very numerous, especially in the Thessalonians, Romans, Corinthians,
Galatians, and Ephesians. Comp. Rom. 5:5; 7:6; 8:2, 5, 9, 11, 14, 15, 16, 26; 1 Cor. 2: 4 sqq.; 3:16; 6:11, 17, 19; 12:3-16; 2 Cor.
1:12; 2:7; Gal. 4:6; 5:16, 22, 25; Eph. 1:17; 2:2; 4:23, 30; 5:18; 1 Thess. 1:5, 6; 4:8; 5:19, 23; 2 Thess. 2:2, 8, 13; 2 Tim. 1:7,
14; Tit. 3: 5.
(^793) The concluding verse in the second Epistle to the Corinthians; comp. Eph. 2:18, 22; 4:4-6, where God the Father, the Lord
Jesus Christ, and the Holy Spirit are mentioned as distinct personalities, if we may use this unsatisfactory yet indispensable term.
(^794) 1 Cor. 13:13.
(^795) Rom. 8:29: "Whom he foreknew (οὓς προέγνω), he also foreordained (προώρισεν), to be conformed to the image of his
Son. "The verb προγινώσκω occurs in the New Test. five times (Rom. 8:29; 11:1, 2; Acts 26:5; 1 Pet. 1:20), the noun πρόγνωσις
twice (Acts 2:23; 1 Pet. 1:2), always, as in classical Greek, in the sense of previous knowledge (not election). The verb
προορίζωoccurs six times, and means always to foreordain, to determine before. The words ἐκλεγω and ἐκλέγομαι, ἐκλογή,
ἐκλεκτός occur much more frequently, mostly with reference to eternal choice or election. See note below.
(^796) Eph. 1:4: "Even as he chose us in Christ (ἐξελέξατο ἡμᾶς ἐν αὐτῷ) before the foundation of the world, that we should be
holy and without blemish before him in love: having foreordained us unto adoption as sons (προορίσας ἡμᾶς εἰς υἱοθεσίαν
)through Jesus Christ unto himself, according to the good pleasure of his will."
(^797) Phil. 2:12, 13. Comp. Romans 9 with 10.
A.D. 1-100.