The work of the Holy Spirit - pagina 522

SANCTIFICATION

482

" ego " in both Paul does the same thing. He "I live, yet not I, but Christ liveth in me." fell in Adam and out of Adam received the

from strength to strength. senses

says

It is

apt to confuse one; yet

is

"

and

" I "

not

I "

:

The same person who

true the use of

St.

whom for a time he was identified, is now changed, and risen with Christ out of Christ he received a new man, and with that new man he is being more and more identified. Hence he goes from strength to strength. old

man

with

translated,

;

This identification of our person with the new still very slight; while

ately after regeneration,

man is, immediwe are so thor-

oughly bound to the old man, with almost all the fibers of our it seems as tho he were still our very self. But by the operation of the Holy Spirit we gradually die to the old man, and at the same time the new man is quickened in us more and more. And, since both the dying of the old and the gradual rising of the new man are profitable to our person, the Holy Spirit testifies conbeing, that

cerning His

own work

that we, God's children, go from strength

to strength until every one of us in Zion appeareth before God.

growing

refers not only to our

into the

new man, but

to our gradual deliverance from the dying old

same working hence both ;

We

consider

first

??ian.

just as

In both

It

much

it is

the

afford us increase of strength.

the dying of the old

man

as far as

it

relates to

sanctification.

This dying has no reference to our own the office of baptism,

and the devil and

all

activity, alluded to by That we manfully fight and overcome sin his dominion"; on the contrary, it refers to "

the fruit of the cross of Christ.

The

question,

"

What

further ben-

do we receive from the sacrifice and death of Christ on the cross?" the Reformed Church answers: "That by virtue thereof efit

and buried with Him that so the corrupt may no more reign in us" (Heidelberg Catechism, q. 43). Hence the dying of the old man is not the fruit of our labor; but Christ accomplishes it in us by virtue of His cross through the Holy Spirit. In order to effect this in us the Holy Spirit diverts our personal affections, inclinations, and dispositions from the old man, to whom hitherto they have been ardently attached, so that now we begin to our old

man

is crucified,

;

inclinations of the flesh

hate him. It is

possible for friendship to die.

We may have been

intimate

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