The work of the Holy Spirit - pagina 376

REGENERATION

336

when the Lord God begins to work when in love's hour Eternal Love con-

but in our regeneration

birth,

supernaturally in our souls;

;

Until then the mystic union was hid Mediator; but in and by regeneration the

ceives in us the child of God. in the decree

and

in the

whom

person appears with

the Lord Jesus will establish

it.

How-

and then something new, viz., union with Christ, but in the very moment of completed regeneration that union becomes an internally accomplished fact. This third stage must be carefully distinguished from 'Ca^ fourth, which begins not with the quickening, but with the first conscious ever, not regeneration first

of faith.

exercise

was implanted, when the Holy

it

for a long time

Spirit causes

conversion in us,

This union

For, altho in regeneration the faculty of faith

may is

it

remain inactive and only genuine faith and ;

to act, producing

the union with Christ established subjectively.

is not

the subsequent fruit of a higher degree of holi-

Faith which first exercise of faith. no faith, but its counterfeit. Genuine faith is wrought in us by the Holy Ghost, and all that He imparts to us He draws from Christ. Hence there may be an apparent or pretended faith without the union with Christ, but not a real faith. Wherefore it is an assured fact that the first sigh of the soul, in its first exercise of faith, is the result of the wonderful union of the

but coincides with the

ness,

does not live in Christ

is

soul with its Surety.

We

do not deny, however, that there

is

a gradual increase of

the conscious realization, of the lively feeling, and of the free en-

A child possesses its

joyment

of this union.

moment

of its existence

;

mother from the

but the sensible enjoyment of

its

first

mother's

love gradually awakens and increases with the years, until he fully

knows what a

treasure

God has given him

the consciousness and enjoyment of what

comes gradually clearer and deeper,

when we fully realize how this many are led to think that

moment.

came

This

is

rich

in his mother.

we have

until there

God has made us

And

thus

in our Savior be-

comes a moment And by

in Jesus.

that their union with Christ dates from

only apparently

so.

Altho then they beunion itself

fully conscious of their treasure in Christ, the

existed (even subjectively) from the

moment

of their first cry of

faith.

This leads to the fifth and last stage, viz., death. Rejoicing in with joy unspeakable and full of glory, altho not seeing Him, jnuch more remains to be desired. Hence our union with Him does

Him

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