The Apostles' Creed: The Holy SpiritSample

Saving Grace: John 3:5-8

Saving grace is the application of the eternal benefits of Christ’s perfect life, death, resurrection, ascension and glorious return to those who receive him as Lord and Savior. Every believer receives saving grace from the Holy Spirit. 

The blessings we receive as a result of the Holy Spirit’s administration of saving grace are already reserved for us on the basis of Jesus’ work. But we do not begin to receive their benefits until the Holy Spirit applies them to us. The most obvious of these blessings are things like regeneration, by which the Holy Spirit gives new life to our spirits, so that we are born again. We read about this in passages like John 3:5-8, Romans 8:2-11, and Titus 3:5. Repentance, forgiveness of sins and justification are also saving graces the Holy Spirit applies to us, as we see in Zechariah 2:10, 1 Corinthians 6:11, and Titus 3:5-8. The New Testament also speaks of salvation as a whole being applied to us by the Holy Spirit, as in 2 Thessalonians 2:13 and Titus 3:5.

When Christians talk about individual salvation, we tend to focus on Jesus Christ and his work. And of course this is a fine thing to do. But it’s also important to recognize the role the Holy Spirit plays. 

Understanding what the Holy Spirit does in the believer makes for the fullest possible Christian life. The Holy Spirit motivates us, and that’s a key understanding, to realize that both the desire and the power to live for Christ comes from the Holy Spirit. This is part of that rich understanding of what the Holy Spirit does for us, that he’s the one who illumines us to understand the word of God. He is the one who gives us the spiritual appetites for the things of God, that we hunger for God, for the things of God, that we love the people of God, that we want to serve God. That takes a lot of the pressure off the individual. It takes a lot of pressure off the person of thinking: “It’s all up on my shoulders, God has told me what to do, now it’s up to me to do it, it’s up to me to obey.” Well, we do have the responsibility. God doesn’t obey for us, but we acknowledge that he does give us the desire and the power, the insight. It’s all to His glory. – Dr. Donald Whitney

More than any other person of the Trinity, the Holy Spirit is active in our lives, making sure that we receive forgiveness, and joy, and goodness, and strength, and peace, and all the other blessings of salvation. So, if we want to receive these things in abundance, we should appeal to him for his saving grace. And beyond this, we need to honor the Spirit for his faithfulness and mercy. The saving grace he grants us makes him more than worthy of our thanks, our adoration, our worship, and our love.