The WESTMINSTER LARGER Catechism

WLC 58. How do we come to be made partakers of the benefits which Christ hath procured?

A. We are made partakers of the benefits which Christ hath procured, by the application of them unto us,1 which is the work especially of God the Holy Ghost.2

Proofs

1Jn 1:11–12; 2Tit 3:5–6

Comments

Our salvation or enjoyment of the benefits of the Covenant of Grace is a work of the Triune God. God the Father decreed our salvation from before the foundation of the world. God the Son, in the fullness of time procured the benefits of the covenant for us through His perfect life of obedience and through His vicarious death on the cross as our covenant representative. But it remains for God the Spirit to apply the benefits purchased into the hearts of individual believers. In short, the Father decreed our redemption; the Lord Jesus Christ procured redemption for us; and the Holy Spirit applies redemption to us.

Were it not for the work of the Holy Spirit, we will never enjoy the benefits procured by Christ because we are by nature dead in sin and trespasses. True, God has ordained that the benefits must be received by faith alone, but we are, by nature, unable even to exercise the faith necessary to receive Christ and the benefits He has purchased, for as the Lord says:

"Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.…Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God" (Jn 3:3,5)

Only when the Holy Spirit has worked a work of regeneration or effectual calling (see WLC 67), will we be able to see and enter the kingdom of God by faith or to enjoy the benefits purchased by Christ.

Indeed, the Holy Spirit does not only regenerate us, but He continues to sanctify us by working grace in us and by the means which are divinely appointed for our growth in grace. Thus the apostle Paul urges us:

"Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure" (Phil 2:12-13).

Notice how Paul is essentially saying that while we have the responsibility to work out our salvation by using the means, it is God, or particularly, the Holy Spirit who works in us and does good to our souls according to His good pleasure. This, then, is the Reformed doctrine contra Romish doctrine in regards to the means. Rome teaches that the sacraments are effectual in themselves (ex opere operato). The Reformed church, on the other hand, teaches that it is the Holy Spirit who applies grace in the heart of those who use the means by faith.