The Good Portion: The Holy Spirit

Delighting in the Doctrine of the Holy Spirit by Keri Folmar

Anyone who wants to know God—the one true Christian God who exists as Trinity—needs to know something about the Holy Spirit, the third person of the Godhead. If you recite the Nicene Creed (and I hope you do) you affirm your belief in the Holy Spirit, but how much do you know about him? Who is he? What is he? What does he do? 

These are some of the questions Keri Folmar answers in her new book, The Good Portion: The Holy Spirit, the most recent addition to the Good Portion series of theology books written by women for women, a series that also includes my own book, The Good Portion: God. Keri’s aim in this theologically deep but easy-to-understand book is to help women know God better by leavning about the Holy Spirit.

The beginning section of The Good Portion: The Holy Spirit is a discussion of the person of the Holy Spirit. First, Keri traces the appearances of the Spirit through the historical covenants of scripture. The Holy Spirit was at creation, for instance, breathing life into the first man Adam. He is the one who circumcises the hearts of the spiritual offspring of Abraham in fulfillment of the Abrahamic covenant. He empowered the prophets, giving them words of warning about God’s approaching judgment, but also words of hope for a Deliverer to come. The Spirit was poured out in the New Covenant, giving God’s people confidence to proclaim the saving work of the Christ. There’s more, but let me  just say that this first chapter walking us through the Bible to show us where we see the Spirit was my favorite section of the book because I had never before seen it all put together the way Keri has done it.

Part one concludes with a discussion of who the Spirit is. He is of the same nature as the Father and the Son—the third person of the Trinity—so all the attributes of God belong to him. He, too, is all-knowing, all-powerful, holy, and loving. He is personal in the same way the Father and Son are, and those who think of him as an impersonal force have him all wrong. 

The bulk of The Good Portion: The Holy Spirit—the whole second section—examines the work of the Holy Spirit. He is creation’s life-giver, breathing life into all living things. Jesus was conceived and then resurrected by the Spirit’s life-giving power, and all those who believe in Jesus are likewise raised to new life by the Spirit. In God’s plan of salvation, he is the one who applies Christ’s finished work to those who believe. Christians are united to Christ through the Spirit’s work. It is through him that God dwells with his people, both individually and as a church body. We have God’s written word because the Spirit moved the authors of Scripture to write down what he wanted them to say, and we can understand and apply Scripture because he opens our minds and hearts to know what the words mean and how they pertain to our own lives. What’s more, the Spirit empowers believers to spread the gospel in their communities and around the world, and gives them gifts to use to serve their local churches. And last, the Spirit sanctifies those who believe, developing the fruit of the Spirit within them, and making them more like Christ. 

In other words, I breathe because of the Spirit. My garden grows through the Spirit’s life-giving work. I am born again by the Holy Spirit. The words on the pages of my Bible become alive to me by a work of the Spirit. I am becoming conformed to the image of Christ because of the work of the Spirit within me, work that is sometimes painful, but ultimately gives me true hope. 

Some people call the Spirit the “shy” person of the Trinity because his work is quiet and points away from himself to the Son and the Father, but it’s a blessing to focus on him for a while and rejoice in his extraordinary work. I am so pleased to have this latest book in The Good Portion series—one that celebrates the Holy Spirit and his work. I  hope you will pick it up and read it, too.

Sunday Hymn: I Sing the Mighty Power of God

We sing the mighty power of God 
that made the mountains rise, 
that spread the flowing seas abroad 
and built the lofty skies. 
We sing the wisdom that ordained 
the sun to rule the day; 
the moon shines full at his command, 
and all the stars obey. 

We sing the goodness of the Lord 
that filled the earth with food; 
he formed the creatures with his word 
and then pronounced them good. 
Lord, how your wonders are displayed, 
where’er we turn our eyes, 
if we survey the ground we tread 
or gaze upon the skies. 

There’s not a plant or flower below 
but makes your glories known, 
and clouds arise and tempests blow 
by order from your throne; 
while all that borrows life from you 
is ever in your care, 
and everywhere that we can be, 
you, God, are present there.

—Isaac Watts

Theological Term of the Week: Original Sin

original sin
The sinful state and condition in which all human beings are born, which includes both imputed guilt (the guilt of Adam’s sin counted as their own) and inherited corruption (a disposition toward sin); “that hereditary depravity and corruption that makes us guilty before God and yields in us sinful thoughts, desires, and actions.”1

• From scripture:

And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience— among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind. (Ephesians 2:1-3 ESV)

Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned … (Romans 12:1 ESV).

• From The Westminster Shorter Catechism, Question 18:

Q. 18. Wherein consists the sinfulness of that estate whereinto man fell?
A. The sinfulness of that estate whereinto man fell, consists in the guilt of Adam’s first sin, the want of original righteousness, and the corruption of his whole nature, which is commonly called original sin; together with all actual transgressions which proceed from it.

• From Systematic Theology by Louis Berkhof, pages 244:

This sin is called “original sin,” (1) because it is derived from the original root of the human race; (2) because it is present in the life of every individual from the time of his birth, and therefore cannot be regarded as the result of imitation; and (3) because it is the inward root of all the actual sins that defile the life of man. We should guard against the mistake of thinking that the term in any way implies that the sin designated by it belongs to the original constitution of human nature, which would imply that God created man as a sinner.

Learn more:

1. Simply Put: Original Sin
2. R. C. Sproul: Original Sin
3. Richard Phillips: Original Sin
4. Louis Berkhof: Original Sin and Actual Sin
5. Augustus Toplady: A Short Essay on Original Sin
6. R. C. Sproul: Adam’s Fall and Mine

Related terms:

• concupiscence
• fall of humanity
• federal headship
• inability
• total depravity 

1Daily Doctrine by Kevin DeYoung, pages 117-118.

Filed under Anthropology

---

Do you have a a theological term you’d like to see featured as a Theological Term of the Week? Email your suggestion using the contact button in the navigation bar above. 

Clicking on the Theological Terms button above the header will take you to an alphabetical list of all the theological terms.