Summary of Book 3 - Chapter 1

Book 3 Overview entitled: On the Manner of Receiving the Grace of Christ, the Benefits Which We Derive from It, and the Effects Which Follow It.

Chapter 1 Title: What is Declared Concerning Christ Rendered Profitable to Us by the Secret Operation of the Spirit.

Highlights:

1. To communicate to us what he received from the Father, he (Jesus) must, therefore, become ours, and dwell within us (through the Holy Spirit).

2. On this count, he is called our Head and the first-born among many brethren and we, on the other hand, are said to be grafted into him and to put him on. For, as I have observed, whatever he possesses is nothing to us, till we are united to him.

3. Christ came by water and blood that the Spirit may testify concerning him.

4. The Holy Spirit is the bond by which Christ efficaciously unites us to himself.

5.  God, by the illumination of his Spirit, will make those his disciples, who before were total strangers to the heavenly doctrine. Besides, as God the Father gives us his Holy Spirit for the sake of his Son, and yet has deposited all fullness with his Son, that he might be the minister and dispenser of his own goodness - the  Holy Spirit is sometimes called the Spirit of the Father, and sometimes the Spirit of the Son.

6. Paul wishes to the faithful "the grace of Christ, and the love of God and the communion of the Spirit" and also states that "the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost, which is given unto us".

7. The Holy Spirit has many titles: "the Spirit of adoption" because we were adopted through the sacrifice of his only begotten Son, "the earnest" and "seal of our inheritance" because while we are pilgrims and strangers in the world, and as persons dead, he infuses us such life from heaven that we are certain of our salvation being secured by the Divine faithfulness and care, "life" because of righteousness, "water" because every one that thirsts may drink the water of the Holy Spirit and never thirst again, and because water also cleanses us.

8. Until our minds are fixed on the Spirit, Christ remains of no value to us. It is only by his Spirit that he unites himself with us; and by the grace and power of the same Spirit we are made his members.