PTS College and Advance Studies

URC, Avenue Salitran IV, Dasmariñas Cavite

In Partial fulfillment of the requirements in

Research Methods

“The Work of the Holy Spirit in Man’s

Salvation”

Submitted by: Reydentor D. Panganiban Jr.

Student

Submitted to: Rev. Laurence Gatawa

Professor

Date: October 8, 2014

 To my:

Co-Workers and Future Ministers

Title Page………………………………………………………………………………………. i

Blank Page………………………………………………………………………………………ii

Dedication………………………………………………………………………………………iii

I. Introduction……………………………………………………………………….1-2

II. The Person of the Holy Spirit……………………………………………………...3-7

III. The Work of the Holy Spirit in Man’s Salvation………………………………….8-11

IV. Conclusion ……………………………………………………………………….12-13

V. Bibliography ………………………………………………………………………14
I. Introduction

The researcher was so fascinated to search about this topic because the researcher

believed that through this topic somehow the minds of the readers will be enlightened. The

researcher intention here why choosing this topic was to dig more deeper truth about the Holy

Spirit, the researcher wants to know more about the Third Person in the Blessed Trinity,

particularly the Person and the work of the Holy Spirit in redemptive plan and salvation of God

for the entire creation.

This study is about “The Work of the Holy Spirit in Man’s Salvation.” The researcher

talks about, first who is the Holy Spirit as recorded in the Bible; second how the Holy Spirit

works for man’s salvation. The researcher believes that the given specific questions will help

the readers to understand about the Person and how the Holy Spirit works in Man’s Salvation

according to the Scripture. Therefore, the researcher believes that it is impossible for a man to

be saved without the work of the Holy Spirit otherwise salvation is cannot be achieved. And this

proposition and statement the researcher is going to tackle in this study. This statement was

being raised as an issue for this topic, and the researcher will find an evidence to prove this

issue, through gathering some facts and ideas from different reliable resources.

In this study the researcher will use related books, articles and journals from the library as

well as resources from the internet websites, blogs and forum sites but with a carefulness and

meticulous examination of all possible facts and data to be gathered. The significance of the

study is to achieve a clear understanding about the Person of the Holy Spirit. His works, part

and functions for man’s salvation but at some point the teachings of the Third Person itself were

neglected in the inside the church as co-equal and co-substance of the Triune God.
 Which the researcher believes that many of the Bible teachers, pastors and preachers give

emphasize more on the two Persons—God the Father and God the Son but the One who applied

and make effects our salvation was being neglected. So the researcher will discusses this

important topic so that the readers will learn how to deal and appreciate who is the Holy Spirit

as a Person and how important The Third Person is in the lives of believers. The researcher

believed that through this research the reader’s mind will be open and somehow accept the facts

that often we neglected the teachings of the Third Persons of the Blessed Trinity.

The focus of this research is only on the Person of the Holy Spirit and His work in man’s

salvation throughout the entire creation. How it is being viewed in the Scripture as a proof, so

that we have evidence for those religious group who doesn’t believed in the doctrine of

pneumatology. This is what the researcher was going to tackles and gives emphasis upon

developing this research for the whole semester.

II. The Person of the Holy Spirit

Generally most of the Evangelicals, Protestants and particularly the Presbyterians

believed that the Holy Spirit is the Third Persons of the Blessed Trinity. He is part of the Triune

God, the same substance, essence and co-equal with the two Persons when it comes to divinity.

This statement does not mean that there are three God’s, but rather there are three distinct

Persons in the Triune God and they are One God, this is what they believed. There are some

religious group who bluntly denied, rejected the Third Person of the Blessed Trinity which is the

Holy Spirit; His Personification and His deity. The statements, arguments and standpoints of a

religious group particularly the Sabellians who denied and rejected the Personification and the

Deity of the Holy Spirit it only shows their disrespect by disregarding and ignoring the scriptural

evidences.

For Sabellianism they denied that there is such as Second or Third Persons in the Blessed

Trinity, for them God is a single Person; there is neither second Person called the Son, nor a

Third Person called the Spirit. According to the arguments and beliefs of Sabellianism, when

God is active in creating the universe and controlling it, He is there and He should called Father;

when He is active in redemption, He is there and He should called Son; and when He is active in

sanctification He is still there and He should be called Spirit. It means that the three names

signify three different activities of the same Person.1 This is what Sabellianism believed, yes

they recognized the Holy Spirit, but for them this is only a name, because for them God is a

single Person, and he used the Second and Third Persons defending on God’s activity.

The point of view of Sabellianism cannot simply ignore, because it influence a lot to

Christian believers, and it creates confusion that leads to a debate for other believers even until
1
Gordon H. Clark, The Trinity, (The Trinity Foundation: Jefferson, Maryland, 1985), 9
now in our modern day, and this doctrine becomes a hotspot of debates and disagreement among

the Christians community that leads Christians to divisions and dissensions even to the worst

destruction and to lost their soul if they believed in erroneous doctrine. Therefore, “the man who

tries to understand the Trinity will lose his mind but the man who denies the Trinity will lose his

soul.” Because we who are finite cannot comprehend God, who is infinite,2 some people make

this doctrine complicated, they think that Holy Spirit is not a Person and also not a God and not

part of the Triune God; this fact is an abstract for them so that they don’t believe in the Holy

Spirit.

Sabellian and Arian heresies agitated the Church in early times; they reciprocally evoked

each other, and are ever ready to captivate minds which miss the safe middle way. The former is

the negation of the Spirit’s personality, and then the latter the denial of His Deity. All who

deviate in our day from the Church doctrine are led by a strong Sabellians’ biases to consider the

Holy Spirit as a mere influence or divine energy without personality, this theory called the

indwelling scheme by some, but this is only a form of Unitarianism.3 If we are aware nowadays

on the teachings and doctrine of other churches regarding the Third Persons of the Blessed

Trinity, we will notice that somehow they are following this doctrine obviously. There are lots

of religious group who are following this doctrine particularly the Iglesia Ni Cristo (INC).

INC believed in the absolute oneness of God the Father who is the Creator and is the only

true God. The INC rejects the traditional Christian belief of the trinity of God as heresy.

This non- Trinitarian belief is called Unitarianism. They believe that this position is attested by

Jesus Christ and the Apostles. For them, Christ and the Apostles are united in teachings how

2
Bill Bright, The Holy Spirit: The Key to Spiritual Living, (Campus Crusade For Christ International: San Bernardino,
California 92414, 1980), 13
3
George Smeaton, The Doctrine of the Holy Spirit, (The Banner of Truth Trust, 1882), 101
many and who is the real God. Similar to other true Christians, according to Apostle Paul, there

is only one God, the Father, not the Son and more so not the Holy Spirit. The Apostles also did

not teach that there is one God who has three persons who are also Gods. It is not found in the

Holy Scriptures or the Bible, and even if priests ever use the Bible to prove this teaching of

theirs, all are based only on presuppositions and presumptions.4 If we would notice the doctrine

of the INC is more likely the Arians who are follower of the Arius in the Church History, they

are the same doctrine regarding the Holy Spirit and they simply deny His Personification and

His Deity.

Going back to the doctrine of Sabellian, if the Father is simply the functions, as Son and

Spirit are also functions, what are these functions functioning of? On the Sabellian

interpretation there is nothing in the verse which mention of any divine Person. So for Sabellian

baptism would require something like this, “I baptize thee in the name of creation, redemption,

and glorification.” Obviously this is not the Christian formula, and the latter can in no way fit

into Sabellianism.5 This is really a strange doctrine; it is really different from the point of view

of Trinitarian who really believed; not only strange but a departure from the teaching of the

Holy Scripture.

Are the Father, Son and Holy Spirit each in the same way a divine ‘persons’, three

members, as it were, of a class? Or is each a ‘person’ quite distinctively, as Father, as Son, as

Spirit?6 This is simply contrary to the Unitarianism. In response to our previous discussion, the

Holy Spirit is not a vague, ethereal being or an impersonal force. According to Athanasian

Creed,

4
Taken from: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iglesia_ni_Cristo,(Accessed on September 14, 2014).
5
Clark, 10
6
Alasdair I.C. Heron, The Holy Spirit, (The Westminster Press: Philadelphia, 1983), 175
 There is a Person of the Holy Spirit which is co-equal with the Glory and co-eternal in
Majesty with the Father and the Son. The Holy Spirit is uncreated, infinite and almighty.
The Holy Spirit is of the Father and the Son, not made nor created nor begotten but
proceeding. The whole Three Persons in the Athanasians Creed are co-eternal together
and co-equal. 7

It is clearly stated in the Bible that He is really a Person. He has infinite intellect

according to 1 Corinthians 2:11, He has will in 1 Corinthians 12:11 and He has emotion

according to Romans 15:30, meaning to say the Holy Spirit possess all the divine attributes of

God. He is equal in every way with God the Father and the Son, Jesus Christ.8 The Bible teaches

that the Holy Spirit performs actions which cannot be attributed to a mere concept, a thing or an

impersonal force. Such actions must be performed by a person, which prove that the Holy Spirit

is a Person.9

If we try to look in our Bible; the Holy Spirit also speaks, in Revelation 2:7 and Acts

13:2. He also teaches us according to John 14:26; He witnesses in John 15:26 and Romans 8:16;

He guides us according to Romans 8:14 and John 16:13; He convicts in John 16:7, 8.

He commands in Acts 8:29; He helps in Romans 8:26 and He performs miracles

according to Acts 8:39.10 These are the evidences that will help us to understand that the Holy

Spirit is clearly a Person, He is not an abstract He is really true to us; this is simply means that

the Holy Spirit can perform like a person according to the Bible.

If the Holy Spirit is a Person, there is a possibility that He has a personality because in

the Scripture, He can be obeyed according to Acts 10: 19-21a; Man can also lied to Him in Acts

5:3, He can also be resisted in Acts 7:51, there are lots of evidences in the Scripture that will
7
Clark, 55-57
8
Bright, The Holy Spirit, 9
9
Bright, The Holy Spirit, 13
10
Bright, The Holy Spirit, 10
address to His personality.11 The Holy Spirit is also a Divine God, these divine, or God-like,

attributes further prove that the person of the Holy Spirit is God Himself. If we try to look in the

Scripture about His divine attributes we could see a lot of passages. He is eternal according to

Hebrews 9:14; He is omnipresent in Psalm 139:7; He is omniscient in 1 Corinthians 2:10-11

and last He is omnipotent according to Luke 1:35 and Job 33:4. We can see that the Holy Spirit

possesses God-like attributes, which is possible only because He is divine God.12 The evidences

are very clear to us that the Holy Spirit is one of the Persons in the Triune God.

III. The Work of the Holy Spirit

“‘Verily, verily, I say unto thee, except a man be born again,’ or born from above, ‘he

cannot enter into the kingdom of God.’”13 The entire creation has been corrupted because of the

fall of man in Genesis chapter 3. We are totally depraved because of sin, and lead us to

destruction because we are separated from God. And because of that we need a savior who will

restore our relationship with the Father. Despite of the sinfulness of man, God the Father made a

way to restore our relationship with Him. Because He is loving and merciful He took an

initiative to save people from their sinfulness.

11
Bright, The Holy Spirit, 11
12
Bright, The Holy Spirit, 11-12
13
James Buchanan, The office & Work of the Holy Spirit, (The Banner of Truth Trust,1843), 3
 God the Father planned the salvation of man, He send His only begotten Son to redeem

us from our trespasses and iniquities. Jesus died on the cross for the forgiveness of our sins, He

bore our sins on the cross of Calvary, and He was condemned and become a criminal for the

sake of the salvation of human being. The Holy Spirit is the one who will apply the salvation

that was being planned and executed by the Father and His Son Jesus Christ. We know that

salvation is the work of the Triune God, they have particular work, but it doesn’t mean they are

three Gods, but they are One God. This is how they work in the lives of human being and

salvation does not depend on one Person but it is the works of the Father, Son and the Holy

Spirit. But oftentimes salvation is always focused on the Two Persons—God the Father, God the

Son but the Third Person—the Holy Spirit is often neglected, particularly those who does not

believe in Him as a Third Person of the Blessed Trinity.

According to research, it is impossible even to know Jesus Christ personally as Savior

and Lord, apart from the regenerating ministry of the Holy Spirit.14 Man is impossible to be

saved without the work of the Holy Spirit. Jesus is the only way to be saved, but how can a man

get to know Jesus without recognizing the Holy Spirit as Spirit of truth—a revealer of God. As

we discussed in the preceding chapter of this research, there are religious group who really

denied the work of the Holy Spirit, but they claimed that they are saved, how is it possible

without the work of the Holy Spirit?

In the Bible Jesus said to Nicodemus, “unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he

cannot enter the Kingdom of God according to John 3:5, it is clearly stated in the Bible that man

needs to be born again before he can enter the Kingdom of God, and it is only through the Lord

Jesus and the work of the Holy Spirit. Because man is spiritually dead, his soul is the subject of

14
Bright, The Holy Spirit, 7
change; it is not an external reform merely, but an internal and spiritual renovation, a change of

mind and heart.15 It talks about the inward change of human being, because we are totally

corrupted.

It is impossible for us to become Christians, to understand God’s Word, to pray, to live a

holy lives or to witness, apart from the enabling of the Holy Spirit. We can do nothing for the

Lord Jesus, and He can do nothing for us, apart from the person and ministry of the Holy

Spirit.16 The work of the Holy Spirit is really important for us as an unregenerate [dead] person.

We cannot deny the fact that man will be regenerated through the works of the Holy Spirit. We

can’t do anything for our salvation without the work of Holy Spirit. Here we can see the task of

the Holy Spirit is to regenerate; a spiritually dead man because he is the subject of change.

Nothing is of greater importance to the Christian than the Holy Spirit’s work in his heart

and life. The Bible makes it clear that no person even becomes a Christian until the Spirit of God

works within him and convicting him to repent of his sin and reveals that Christ died to secure

his reconciliation to a holy God. The Holy Spirit applies the work of Christ to the individual

soul, raising it from spiritual death to spiritual life and shedding abroad the love of God in the

believing heart.17 Man cannot earn salvation by his own; it is the Holy Spirit who is actively to

apply the work of our Lord Jesus Christ’s in man’s salvation. According to Berkhof, “as the

implanting of the new life, is a direct and immediate work of the Holy Spirit.”18 Salvation is truly

the work of the Holy Spirit, without Him man is impossible to be change or regenerates. As we

can see, the Holy Spirit is the one who implanted a new life to a person who are elected and

15
Buchanan, The Office & The Work of the Holy Spirit, 4
16
Bright, The Holy Spirit, 7
17
E.H. Andrews, The Promise of the Spirit, (Evangelical Press, 1982), 1
18
Louis Berkhof, Summary of Christian Doctrine, (William B. Eerdsmans Publishing Company: Grand Rapids,
Michigan, 1938), 127
chosen by God. Before a man is accepted in the family of God, he needs to be born again; he

needs to be alive spiritually. This is the work of the Holy Spirit and it cannot be attain by the

human efforts in order to be save and become the member of the family of God.

Every Christian, at the moment of his spiritual rebirth, enters into an eternal relationship

with God according to 1 John 5:11-13. It is accomplished by the work of the Holy Spirit who

regenerates us according to Titus 3:5, John 3:3, it refers to a believer’s spiritual rebirth, this is

not based on our righteousness but it is because of the mercy of God through regeneration by the

Holy Spirit accordingly. The Holy Spirit also indwells in us according to 1 Corinthians 6:9,

3:16; seals us in Christ according to Ephesians 1:13, 4:30; He also guarantees our inheritance

according to 2 Corinthians 5:5, by the presence of the indwelling Holy Spirit in our lives, we are

given a preview of the inheritance which awaits us in heaven, our inheritance is real and

awaiting. He also baptizes us in Galatians 3:27, and the Holy Spirit fills the believer in

Ephesians 5:17-20. This work by the Holy Spirit results in the believer becoming a member of

the Body of Christ and a child of God forever.19

After regeneration the Holy Spirit is not yet done working in the lives of believers, He is

actively working on the process of sanctification of all the believers, because our salvation is

already but it is not yet, we are still here on earth and we will be experiencing trials, hardship

and tribulation until the time comes when our Lord Jesus Christ has come on His second

coming. There is still yet to come, we are still experiencing temptation, that’s why the Holy

Spirit is still there working in us and guiding us all the time.

19
Bright, The Holy Spirit, 14-16
IV. Summary and Conclusion

Salvation is truly the work of the Holy Spirit, without Him it is impossible for a man to

be saved. Because the soul of a sinful man is the subject of change, he needs to be regenerates,

and it is only accomplished through the work of the Holy Spirit; before a man become a born

again and belong to the family of God he needs to be change inwardly. As we found out through

this research the Holy Spirit is not an abstract to us, there’s a lot of evidences in the Bible that

the researcher found out so that we will not be doubted with the teachings that the Holy Spirit is

a real Person co-equal and the same substance and essence of the God the Father and God the

Son. It is really important for a Christians to know who really the Holy Spirit is and what is His

role in the lives of believers. The researcher developed this idea through reading books about the

Holy Spirit in the library and using the Bible the absolute source of truth to support the
arguments, for believing confidently it is the primary source. The researcher discovered many

evidences to prove that the Holy Spirit is truly a Person and actively working in the salvation of

the entire creation. He is really active in the lives of believers, to those who are elected by God

and even to those who are not yet born again.

The two questions that were being raised by the researcher hopefully help us to elaborate

and clearly understand the issues concerning the Holy Spirit. Again the first question that was

being raised was who is the Holy Spirit as recorded in the Bible? Another one is how the Holy

Spirit works for man’s salvation? Those two questioned are being answered through the help of

the Scripture, and references related to this topic in the library. The researcher wrestled with the

given argument by those people or religious group who does not believed in this doctrine. But it

was proven that the Holy Spirit is truly a Person and He has also a work for man’s salvation. It is

really important for us that He is also a God in Three Persons, co-equal with the Two Persons.

The Holy Spirit is not really an abstract concept or ideas but if we really open our hearts

and minds to believe in Him, He enable us to understand the mystery behind His divinity

because He is the revealer of truth of God. If the Holy Spirit is not true to us that He is not a

God, why His name was mentions in the Bible with the Two Persons and co-operated with

them? It is actually the people who created their own problem and confusion regarding this

doctrine, why they don’t try to open their eyes and allow God to enable them to see and

understand these things, so that they will know the truth about the Holy Spirit. The Scripture had

clearly stated all the evidences about the Holy Spirit that will prove Him that He is truly a God.
 Bibliography:

Andrews, E.H. The Promise of the Spirit. Evangelical Press, 1982.

Berkhof, Louis., Summary of Christian Doctrine. William B. Eerdsmans Publishing Company:

Grand Rapids, Michigan, 1938.

Bright, Bill., The Holy Spirit: The Key to Spiritual Living. Campus Crusade For Christ

International: San Bernardino, California 92414, 1980.

Buchanan, James., The Office and the Work of the Holy Spirit. The Banner of Truth Trust, 1843.

Gordon H. Clark, The Trinity. The Trinity Foundation: Jefferson, Maryland, 1985.

Heron, Alasdair I.C., The Holy Spirit. The Westminster Press: Philadelphia, 1983.

Smeaton, George., The Doctrine of the Holy Spirit. The Banner of Truth Trust, 1882.
Taken from: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iglesia_ni_Cristo. (Accessed on September 14, 2014).