In the virginal conception God is fulfilling His promise to redeem His people by a work of divine restoration. What is in view is not "creation ex nihilo" but a new creation which is in the context of the old creation. The flesh by Mary weakened by the fall in which the Spirit operates in a way so mysterious that Scripture sheds no light on it whatsoever. Out of that humanity weakened by the fall, joining it to the persons of the Son of God the Holy Spirit sanctifies that human nature at the moment of His conception so that, that which is conceived in her is called holy, the Son of God. What then we have in the gospel testimony to the virginal conception is the notion that the Son of God enters into the closest possible union with humanity in its falleness in such a way that by the Spirit in the moment of conception that humanity is, by union with the Son of God, through the Spirit, sanctified in order that there may be in him the beginning of a new and holy creation. And the Spirit of God is however mysteriously active in this right from the very beginning of the human life of our Lord Jesus Christ. The Holy Spirit is present and active from the very inauguration of the life of Jesus so there is no point of Jesus existence as the Son of God incarnate in which the Holy Spirit is not already both present and active. This is one of the great mysteries of the Christian faith.
Sinclair Ferguson
| Title |
Notes |
The Ministry of the Spirit in Discerning the Will of God  |
J.I. Packer |
Luke's Presentation of the Spirit in Acts  |
F.F. Bruce (pdf) |
The Mind of God in Scripture  |
John Owen |
Pentecost: Before and After Historia Salutis and Ordo Salutis  |
Richard B. Gaffin, Jr. |
The Spirit and Community: A Historical Perspective  |
Gerald Bray , M.Litt., D.Litt. |
The Holy Spirit  |
Charles Hodge |
The Diety of the Holy Spirit  |
George Smeaton |
The Holy Spirit  |
Edwin Palmer |
The Holy Spirit and Faith in the Theology of John Calvin  |
Victor Shepherd |
"Life-giving spirit": Probing the center of Paul's Pneumatology  |
Richard B. Gaffin, Jr. |
Were Old Covenant Believers Indwelt by the Holy Spirit? (.pdf)  |
James Hamilton |
The Work of Conversion  |
John Owen |
The Nature of Sanctification and Gospel Holiness  |
John Owen |
THE HOLY SPIRIT, An Experimental and Practical View  |
Octavius Winslow |
The Holy Spirit  |
A.W. Pink (Book) |
The Holy Spirit: His Person and Work  |
Conrad Mbewe (.pdf) |
The Holy Spirit: His Person and Work Part II  |
Conrad Mbewe (.pdf) |
Compilation of Calvin's Institutes, on the Work of the Holy Spirit  |
- Charles R. Biggs |
The Holy Spirit in Pauline Theology  |
Professor Barry D. Smith |
The Divinity of the Holy Spirit and of the Son  |
R.L Dabney |
The Holy Spirit: He is God!  |
John Piper |
Be Filled with the Spirit  |
John Piper |
That Which Is Born of the Spirit Is Spirit  |
John Piper |
Christ Conceived by the Holy Spirit  |
John Piper |
How Believers Experienced the Spirit before Pentecost  |
John Piper |
The Spirit Helps Us in Our Weakness  |
John Piper |
More Sermons and Essays on the Holy Spirit...  |
John Piper |
Creation, Fall, Redemption and the Holy Spirit  |
John Piper |
New Life in the Spirit  |
Andrew M. Fountain |
How are we made partakers of the redemption purchased by Christ?  |
Fisher |
The Person and Work of the Holy Ghost  |
from Luther's Small Catechism |
Question and Answers About the Holy Spirit  |
from a Lutheran Perspective |
The Holy Spirit and the One Church - Jude 1:19  |
C.H. Spurgeon |
Pentecost, Part 1--Old Testament Background, New Testament Expectation  |
Brian Schwertley |
Pentecost, Part 2--The Events of Pentecost and the Baptism of the Holy Spirit  |
Brian Schwertley |
Pentecost, Part 3--The Filling of the Holy Spirit  |
Brian Schwertley |
Pentecost, Part 4--The Change to the New Covenant Administration  |
Brian Schwertley |
Pentecost, Part 5--Speaking in Tongues  |
Brian Schwertley |
Pentecost, Part 6--Excursus on the Charismatic Movement  |
Brian Schwertley |
Calvinism and the Holy Spirit  |
Rev. Prof. Francis Nigel Lee. (online book) |
The Holy Spirit & Eschatology  |
Richard Gaffin |
Baptism in the Spirit  |
Donald Macleod |
Lead by the Spirit  |
Donald Macleod |
Why there are no Apostles in the Church Today  |
Dave Merck |
Richard Sibbes on Entertaining the Holy Spirit  |
Rev. Joel R. Beeke |
"Drink My Water and You'll Never Thirst Again"  |
Dr. Dennis J. Ireland |
John Murray- "The Guidance of the Holy Spirit"  |
Rev. Charles R. Biggs (doc)1 |
The Eschatological Aspect of the Pauline Conception of the Spirit  |
Geerhardus Vos |
John Owen on the Holy Spirit  |
John Owen |
The Holy Spirit  |
Horatius Bonar |
The Holy Spirit Convincing the World of Sin, Righteousness, and Judgment (.pdf)  |
George Whitefield |
What Does it Mean to be Filled With the Spirit? A Biblical Investigation (.pdf)  |
Andreas Köstenberger |
Having the Spirit  |
J.C. Ryle on Jude 19 |
Meditations on the Person, Work, and Covenant Offices of God the Holy Spirit  |
J. C. Philpot |
The Personality and the Procession of the Holy Spirit  |
George Smeaton |
The Authority of the Holy Spirit  |
D.M. Lloyd-Jones |
The Holy Spirit’s Ministry in the Fourth Gospel  |
Walt Russell - Grace Theological Journal 8.2 (1987) |
The Holy Spirit  |
J.C. Ryle |
An Examination of the Dispensational View of the Baptism in the Holy Spirit  |
Alan Nairne |
The Sovereignty of God the Holy Spirit in Salvation (.pdf)  |
A.W. Pink |
In Search of the Spirit  |
Daniel R. Hyde |
Discovering why the Spirit is Grieved  |
Samuel Pike |
The Holy Spirit  |
Geoff Thomas |
Led By the Spirit (.pdf)  |
Jim Elliff, Reformation & Revival 3:2 (Spring 1994): 33-48. |
The Church’s Greatest Need (.pdf)  |
Ernest Reisinger |
God with men in the Torah (.pdf)  |
James Hamilton, Were Old Covenant saints indwelt by the Holy Spirit? |
God with Men in the Prophets and Writings: An Examination of the Nature of God's Presence (.psd)  |
James Hamilton - The thesis of this study is that God’s presence with, not in, his people is the OT’s way of describing how believers were kept by the Spirit. |
The Gospel of the Holy Spirit’s Love (.pdf)  |
Horatius Bonar |
The Spirit in Us  |
Horatius Bonar |
The Holy Spirit in the Heidelberg Catechism (.pdf)  |
Daniel Hyde |