7
Aug
2011

The Spirit’s First Word

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07 Aug 2011

William Still, in his Notes on Galatians, drew out a most interesting parallel between the coming of the Son into the world and the coming of the Spirit into our heart (Gal. 4:4-6). Just as the Son came as a babe, so the Spirit’s first word is “Abba” (Da-da). Still wrote:

“What is the effect of the Spirit of the Son in our hearts? This is most intriguing of all. He comes as Christ came to the earth, a very babe, the merest bundle of life, to cry like an infant; but it is the authentic cry of the child who knows his Parent. The Spirit of the Son in our heart does not cry there for His Father as if He was lost in that poor human heart, but as one whose spirit has been eternally fused  (not confused) with that human spirit, formerly dead in trespasses and sins; so that as the Son cries to His Father in our heart, so man’s spirit, newborn and quickened, cries also to his (new) Father…Now he awakens to the reality, and makes his first cry to the Father. And, of course, the first articulate cry of a child, irrespective of race or nation, is ‘Ab-ba.’”1

 

1. Still, William Notes on Galatians (Aberdeem: Didasko Press, reprinted 1972) pp. 56-57

About Post Author

Nick Batzig is the senior pastor of Church Creek PCA in Charleston, SC and an associate editor for Ligonier Ministries. Prior to serving at Church Creek, Nick was a pastor at Wayside PCA on Signal Mountain, TN. Formerly, Nick served as the founding pastor of New Covenant Presbyterian Church (PCA) in Richmond Hill, GA and as the editor of Reformation21 and the Christward Collective--sites of the Alliance of Confessing Evangelicals. He frequently writes for Tabletalk Magazine, Reformation 21, He Reads Truth, and the Christward Collective. Nick was also the host of East of Eden, a podcast devoted to the Biblical and Systematic Theology of Jonathan Edwards. You can friend him on Facebook here and follow him on Twitter @nick_batzig

1 Response

  1. Mike Jeshurun
    Reply

    Oh what a glorious thought is this! It is because ye are sons, God hath sent forth the Spirit of his Son into your hearts, crying, Abba, Father. [Gal 4:6]. The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God! [Rom 8:16] And though the Scripture warns us not to grieve the Spirit of God, who can lay a hand on his heart and say that he has not done so?! Yet notwithstanding all our aggravations and provokings, yet He God the Holy Spirit bears with us and continues to intercede for us with groanings which cannot be uttered! Only Heaven will reveal what a vital role the Holy Spirit played as regards to our perseverance and ultimate salvation!
    Thank you O Spirit of God! Thank you for bearing with us and constantly encouraging us by reminding us all that Christ promised us!

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