The ministry of the Holy Spirit-proceeding from the Father and the Son and mediating to man the redemption established through the Lord Jesus -like other truths of divine revelation, is of the utmost practical importance. The Spirit of God associates Himself with every sanctified act of the child of God. Through Him we are called to be fellow citizens with the saints and of the household of God. Through Him we learn the manifold aspects of Christian life and of acceptable service to God. Through Him the hope for salvation is founded on the grace of God rather than upon the merit life or upon an inner emotional experience. Through Him we become “epistles of Christ written not with ink, but with the Spirit of the living God.” He it is who transforms Christian theory into Christian living. And so a religion of mere letter and form can be translated into one of life and power only through the ministry of the Holy Spirit. Such was the promise to His disciples immediately prior to His ascension. Such was the ful-fillment on and after Pentecost when the apostles were filled with the Holy Ghost. Such was also the experience of those among “whom this Spirit-filled apostolate carried forward its ministry (Acts 8: 18£.; 10:44; 13:52). Lorenz Wunderlich, THE HOLY SPIRIT AND THE CHRISTIAN LIFE
