Forgotten God?

A Review of "The Holy Spirit" by Sinclair Ferguson

It has been claimed for many years, with book titles like Forgotten God, that the Holy Spirit is the “forgotten” or ignored member of the Holy Trinity. While one might understand why many claim this and how this conclusion is reached, Sinclair Ferguson in his volume, The Holy Spirit (Contours of Christian Theology), seeks to leave an indelible impression that may just reorient the thoughts of many who feel this way.

Sinclair Ferguson is a Scottish theologian currently serving as the Chancellor’s Professor of Systematic Theology at Reformed Theological Seminary and the vice-chairman at Ligonier Ministries. He pastored two churches in Scotland and has authored numerous books through Crossway and Banner of Truth Trust including The Whole Christ and Devoted to God’s Church. Ferguson’s treatment of Pneumatology is to be commended for its central focus on union with Christ by which the believer receives every saving benefit. Because this is key to understanding the doctrine of the Holy Spirit as it relates to salvation, this will be the central focus of this evaluation.

Summary

Ferguson’s treatment has a logical progression that begins with the character of the Spirit and ends with the new creation enacted by the Spirit. Chapter one begins with identifying who the Holy Spirit is. He sets up the topic and writes, “After all, what is ‘Spirit’? Yet, perhaps the older ‘Holy Ghost’, with its connotations of vagueness, mystery and insubstantiality, did in fact express what many Christians experience: the Holy Spirit is seen to be distant and impersonal by comparison with the Father and the Son” (15). He then asks, “Who or what is the Holy Spirit?”

He begins with the Spirit as Creator and the third Person of the Trinity. He starts by surveying the Old Testament and the Hebrew word ruach and shows the usage of this word throughout the Old Testament. He concludes, “In the light of this tradition of exegesis within the Old Testament itself, ruach in Genesis 1:2 is best understood as a reference to the activity of the divine Spirit, not the impersonal activity of the wind” (20). He then progresses from this to show the work of the Holy Spirit in authoring the written scriptures. The Bible is the inspired Word of God and this wasn’t an invention by the Apostle Paul or any other New Testament writer. He points out that this doctrine is epitomized by prophetic Old Testament writers such as David when he says, “The Spirit of the LORD spoke through me; his word was on my tongue” (2 Sam. 23:2). He saves the bigger challenge for last as he seeks to speak of the Holy Spirit in hypostatic terms, following the tradition of trinitarian orthodoxy.

With words like ruah or even the phrase, “The Spirit of God”, one may be tempted to think that the Holy Spirit is simply the immanent force of God’s power seen in history in contradistinction to His transcendent power and essence. This would make sense of the phrase, “The arm of the Lord.” Many heretics throughout history would make this mistake and either attribute deity to the Father and the Son only or to the Father alone– the modern heresy of the Jahovah’s Witnesses comes to mind. Perhaps with this in view, Ferguson seeks to make solid scriptural arguments from not only Greek grammar but by putting the whole of scripture in view to deduce the doctrine of the hypostatic Spirit. The Holy Spirit is God and no book detailing the contours of Pneumatology could move forward without establishing this point.

In chapter two Ferguson begins a somewhat long progression showcasing the Holy Spirit’s ministry in magnifying the person of God the Son, Jesus Christ. It could be natural to conclude that the Holy Spirit is the “forgotten God” but that could be because the Holy Spirit’s sole work is to make much of Christ and His ministry, taking the attention off of Himself. But it’s in this that the Christian properly exalts and glorifies the Holy Spirit. Far from forgetting the Holy Spirit, a high view of Him is established when studying the person of Christ who reveals and gives us the gift of the Spirit. That is the next chapter in Ferguson’s treatment (Chapter Three) where he surveys Luke and John’s summary of the teachings of Jesus about the gift of the Spirit. In Chapter Four, Ferguson carefully surveys the book of Acts which details the mission that Christ completes from heaven through the Ministry of the Holy Spirit in the Apostles. It is this chapter that ties up so many loose ends that the ex-charismatic is left with upon leaving continuationism and the water of revivalism that most evangelicals swim in.

The climactic portion of the book appears to be Chapter Five because he launches his central discourse on union with Christ. All other chapters have been building to it, and chapters 6–8 flow from it, culminating in the consummation of the believers’ salvation in the New Creation. Chapter Nine deals with the Spirit in the church and the way the body of Christ functions by His power. It’s in the latter portion of Chapter Nine into Chapter Ten that one finds the peripheral topics such as the real presence of Christ in the Lord’s Supper, the case for cessationism, and how the Spirit empowers preachers.

Critical Evaluation

Three areas are to be highlighted regarding Ferguson’s central focus on union with Jesus Christ found in Chapter Five. First, the light that is shed on the ordo salutis, second, his explanation of the doctrine, and third, his skilled exegesis which gives rise to the doctrine. Ferguson’s foundational conviction is that “The central role of the Spirit is to reveal Christ and to unite us to him and to all those who participate in his body” (100).

This conviction is first brought to bear upon the order of salvation. Ferguson seeks to establish that the third Person of the Trinity is not aloof in the economy of salvation and redemption. Just as the other two Persons of the Trinity, the Holy Spirit plays a vital role in the salvation of every individual in the body of Christ. When Jesus ascended to the Father, He poured out the Spirit as the Spirit of restoration and redemption. Redemption is accomplished through the crucifixion and resurrection but is applied after Christ’s ascension and His sending of the Spirit. How exactly does He do this? The answer is through uniting believers to Christ.

Ferguson explains the ordo salutis or “order of salvation” as the unpacking of “the inner coherence and logic of the Spirit’s application of the work of Christ” (96–97). Ferguson has a deep concern surrounding this discussion which serves as the impetus for talking about union with Christ. He points out that many in broadly reformed circles point back to Romans 8:28–30 as the key text for the order of Salvation but he contends that the explanation of a “chain” or sequence of links closed in on each other is flawed and separates the benefits of salvation from the benefactor. He contends, “When expressed in terms of the model of a chain of causes and effects, the traditional ordo salutis runs the danger of displacing Christ from the central place in soteriology…Thus, election is spoken of as the cause of regeneration, which in turn is the cause of faith… The relation of each to Christ himself is thus obscured or even minimized” (99).

One of the strongest components of his argument here is how this can mirror medieval theology by replacing sacramental causes and effects with subjective causes and effects. Thus, this displaces the Spirit of Christ from His central role in bringing us into union with Christ wherein we receive every saving benefit. Ferguson masterfully helps the reader see that “when it was loosed from the rigorous Christocentric and deeply covenantal structure…, the ordo salutis could easily slide into an unhealthy subjectivism” (100). For Ferguson, it’s not just a semantics problem that leads to a problematic experience for the believer, it is an issue of how one reads scripture and exegetically handles the order of salvation.

This point in his treatment could lead one to think that he is saying that there’s no logical sequence or relationship between all the benefits of salvation. Of course, that would be very problematic as that could lead someone to collapse the law and the gospel, confusing justification with sanctification. He corrects this notion and adds, “No-one, surely, holds that regeneration and conversion, justification and sanctification are randomly related. The question, therefore, is: On what principle or model is the order of the Spirit’s work to be construed?” (100). The answer to his question, and what Ferguson rightly contends is the central piece to the Spirit’s application of redemption, is union with Christ. Here is where we find Ferguson’s masterful explanation of this doctrine.

His explanation corrects the modern tendency to treat the benefits of salvation as individual constituent parts that are in zip-lock bags closed off from one another and separated from the benefactor. Christ is treated as a baker who gives the goods but such goods can be enjoyed apart from the giver, rather than treating Christ like a bunker– the only way the benefits of a bunker are acquired is when one is in the bunker.

Ferguson explains the doctrine as the believer having an inseparable bond and oneness with the Lord Jesus that every one of His benefits automatically becomes ours upon the moment of receiving and resting upon Him. This is what Ferguson, following Calvin and others before him, is seeking to get across. After quoting from Melanchthon who said, “To know Christ is to know his benefits”, he writes, “…to be united to Christ by the Spirit means to share in his justification, adoption, sanctification and glorification. In Christ these are ours immediately, eschatologically and simultaneously” (106). Though these categories are distinct from one another and ought to be kept distinct, they are “not to be viewed as separate events; they are aspects or facets of the one event of our union with Christ in his risen glory, effected by the power of the Spirit and worked out progressively through the Spirit’s ongoing ministry” (106). He begins landing the plane in this chapter with some exegetical insights.

Ferguson doesn’t necessarily exposit an entire chapter of the Bible to establish the doctrine but rather pulls in multiple passages using good exegesis to substantiate his point. In other words, he pulls out from the text words and phrases in their context that give rise to this doctrine confessed throughout the centuries. One example is that of Paul the Apostle. Ferguson cites Romans and 1 Corinthians, analyzing Greek grammar and summarizing Paul’s parallel teachings about union with Christ. He reaches this significant conclusion: “To be ‘in Adam’ is to be united to him in such a way that all that Adam did in his representative capacity becomes mine, and determines my existence, whether through sin leading to death, or righteousness leading to life. In an analogous way, to be ‘in Christ’ means that all he has done for me representatively becomes mine actually” (108–109).

Conclusion

It cannot be stressed enough how important Ferguson’s work is on this topic. It must be read by every pastor and Bible student. Employing exegetical and biblical theology, he unflinchingly defends the deity of the Holy Spirit, addresses all the unanswered questions of the ex-charismatic, and places union with Christ at the center of the Holy Spirit’s role in salvation. Ferguson helps the reader engage with God’s Word in such a way that one will not even begin to conceive of redemption apart from union with Christ. If the Holy Spirit is being called the “Forgotten God” in our day, perhaps they have not picked up this volume, for Ferguson’s writing will be used by God to cause His people to appreciate the ministry of the Spirit which is primarily to exalt and unite the saints to Christ. “And because of him you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, righteousness and sanctification and redemption, so that, as it is written, ‘Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord’ (1 Cor. 1:30–31).