The glories of these doctrines, for regenerate Christians, is that God always gives us His very best–whether this is Christ in His incarnation and atonement; or the Holy Spirit, as the purchased possession secured through the finished work of the Mediator.  And, in and through this Third Person of the Holy Trinity, the Holy Spirit Himself, all God’s love and grace (and every other good thing He gives us) is found, disseminated, and poured out on us.

Dedicated to all those who love the Holy Spirit through their faith in Christ

We Reformed people like to remind the world–especially the religious world–that John Calvin was the “Theologian of the Holy Spirit.”  And though this statement is manifestly true, is it possible that the great Jonathan Edwards took Calvin’s brilliance on this sublime subject to yet greater heights?  I personally think it is definitely possible.

 I would like to focus on just a few sentences from Edwards respecting the Holy Spirit; and I believe that they will (in themselves) help us grasp his (Edwards’) essential doctrine of the Third Person of the Holy Trinity.

The quotes come from a work posthumously entitled, “A Treatise On Grace”–(though I think I have seen these same Edwardsian comments made in other places).  Here is the first one, ” . . . The Father  approves and provides the Redeemer, and Himself accepts the price of the good purchased, and bestows that good. The Son is the Redeemer, and the price that is offered for the purchased good. And the Holy Ghost is the good purchased, for the sacred Scriptures seem to intimate that the Holy Spirit is the sum of all that Christ purchased for man, (Galatians 3:13-14),” [italics mine].

I wonder how many of us think of the Holy Spirit as being the redeemed church’s purchased possession?  If our minds tend to go to blessings such as grace, mercy, forgiveness, salvation, adoption, justification, heaven, etc.–we are aided by another comment Edwards makes about the Holy Spirit.

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