The Holy Spirit Makes Us Partakers Of Jesus Christ By Faith Alone
FAITH & JUSTIFICATION
We believe in the Holy Spirit; He is the essential Power of the Rather and the Son (Gen. 1:2). He dwells in Them and is co-eternal and consubstantial with Them; He proceeds from Them (John 14:16, 26; 16:7-15). He is one God with Them (Rom. 8:9-11; Acts 5:3-4; 1 Cor. 12:4-8; 3:16) and is always a Person distinct from the One and the Other (Matt. 28:19).
This is what the Church has well settled, by the Word of God, against Macedonius[1] and other similar heretics. His infinite might and power are demonstrated in the creation and preservation of all creatures, since the beginning of the world (Gen. 1:2; Ps. 104:29, 30).
But, in this treatise, we shall especially consider the effects which He produces in the children of God; how, along with faith, He brings to them the graces of God to make them sensible of the efficacy and power of them
(Rom. 8:12-17; 1 Cor. 2:11, 12; 1 John 4:13); in brief, how He brings them more and more to the end and goal to. which they have been predestinated before the foundation of the world (Eph. 1:3-4).
The Holy Spirit makes us partakers of Jesus Christ by Faith Alone The Holy Spirit is therefore the One through whom the Rather places and maintains His elect in possession of Jesus Christ, His Son; and, consequently, of all the graces which are necessary to their salvation.
But it is necessary, in the first place, that the Holy Spirit makes us suitable and ready to receive Jesus Christ. This is what He does in creating in us, by His pure goodness and Divine mercy, that which we call 'faith' (Eph. 1: 17;
Phil. 1: 29; 2 Thess. 3:2), the sole instrument by which we take hold of Jesus Christ when He is offered to us, the sole vessel to receive Him (John 3:1-13,
33-36).
The means which the Holy Spirit uses to create and preserve faith in us In order to create in us this instrument of faith, and also to feed and strengthen it more and more, the Holy Spirit uses two ordinary means
(without however communicating to them His power, but working by them): the preaching of the Word of God, and His Sacraments (Matt. 29:19-20; Acts