The seven things that the Holy Spirit does for us at the moment of salvation

1. The doctrine of efficacious grace starts out with the gospel being presented to those who are in spiritual brain death, and therefore God the Holy Spirit makes the gospel perspicuous because spiritual brain death cannot understand any part of spiritual phenomena. The gospel is spiritual phenomena. The Holy Spirit makes the gospel perspicuous under the concept of pneumatikoj which is spiritual phenomena. Now it goes down the pipeline to the nouj where the spiritually dead person understands that Christ is the issue, not sin, not human works, but Jesus Christ. That is the point of the divine call to believe which is nothing more or less than an invitation from the Father to believe in Christ, and an invitation that is given through our understanding of the issue. Then in spiritual death we can believe in Jesus Christ. Only faith in Jesus Christ can be taken by God the Holy Spirit and made effective for eternal salvation. This is called efficacious grace, a ministry of God the Holy Spirit at salvation which cannot occur if you add anything to faith.

The positive volition of the spiritually dead person is described in two non-meritorious functions: a. The spiritually dead person can do one thing that is non-meritorious: he can listen to the gospel; b. The unbeliever believes in Christ.

Because the unbeliever has spiritual brain death, according to 1 Corinthians 2:14, he does not understand what he hears. He uses his volition to listen because listening is non-meritorious. But the problem is that when you hear what is being said with regard to the gospel you cannot understand it apart from the ministry of God the Holy Spirit who makes it understandable. The Holy Spirit acting as the human spirit makes the gospel perspicuous and this is what we call common grace.

The faith of the spiritually dead person has no power to produce the intended effect - salvation - and therefore God the Holy Spirit has to take our faith and make it effective for salvation. Common grace understands the gospel, the divine invitation or call works on the human will, not common grace. Efficacious grace is the ministry of the Holy Spirit in taking faith in Christ of the spiritually dead person and making it effective for salvation. Efficacious grace works on the faith of the spiritually dead person, not his will. The decision to believe has already been made and the Holy Spirit makes that faith effective.

The sealing ministry of the Holy Spirit is related to common and efficacious grace. When we believe we are spiritually dead. The Holy Spirit makes our faith effective and that is sealing salvation. The sealing ministry of the Holy Spirit is actually a signature guarantee that includes four principles: the guarantee of the ministry of the Spirit in efficacious grace; the guarantee of eternal life; the guarantee of eternal security; the guarantee that in eternity past God the Father provided for each one of us our very own portfolio of invisible assets. The sealing ministry of the Holy Spirit covers eternity past, time, and the eternal future in these four guarantees.

2. Regeneration - Titus 3:5; 1 Peter 1:23. Defined as the ministry of the Holy Spirit at salvation in creating a human spirit which causes the believer to become instantly trichotomous.

The origin of the body is conception — biological life. There is the old sin nature in the biological life but it is not active in the womb because there is no human being, there is no volition, there is not temptation in the womb. But when biological life emerges from the womb (and simultaneously the OSN) God creates soul life and imputes it to biological life, and now you have a human being. In physical life we become dichotomous: a body, biological life, and soul life created by God imputed to it — a human being and a spiritually dead one.

So we need salvation, the wages of sin is death but the gift of God is eternal life. How? Because at the moment we believed in Christ God the Holy Spirit created the human spirit. This is the second birth, this is what it means to be born again. God the Father imputed eternal life to the human spirit. We had soul life prior to salvation, now we have soul life and eternal life.

3. The baptism of the Holy Spirit.

God the Holy Spirit takes each one of us at the moment of faith in Christ and enters us into union with the person of Christ. We are in that circle and we can never get out. That is positional sanctification. The baptism of the Spirit is the basis for the new spiritual species and the royal family of God. (The baptism of the Spirit is the only case in all of history where everyone is on an equal basis. There is absolute equality because every believer receives the same baptism of the Spirit at salvation). The baptism of the Spirit distinguishes the Church Age believer from all other dispensations. It never occurred before and it will never occur again after the Rapture.

4. The Holy Spirit indwells every believer at the moment of salvation.

This is something that never happened before. Neither the Father nor the Son nor the Spirit indwelt Old Testament saints. When the Rapture occurs and the Tribulation and Millennium there will be no indwelling by any member of the Godhead. Scripture for indwelling: 1 Corinthians 3:16; 6:19,20; 2 Corinthians 6:16. These passages are important because they also explain the purpose of the Holy Spirit.

The Holy Spirit indwells our bodies. Why? To provide a temple. In every cell of the body, with one exception, the old sin nature resides. The Holy Spirit provides a temple for the indwelling of God the Father and the person of our Lord Jesus Christ.

5. The filling of the Holy Spirit.

It occurs at the moment of salvation but it is experiential.

6. The sovereign distribution of a spiritual gift.

God the Son, who was involved in the initial distribution of spiritual gifts in the beginning of the Church Age, Ephesians 4:7,8, has now turned that over to the Holy Spirit. So at the moment of salvation, 1 Corinthians 12:11, God the Holy Spirit gives to each one of us a spiritual gift.

7. The sealing ministry of the Spirit — a signature guarantee.

(Sealing in the ancient world was a signature guarantee) It is a signature guarantee of four things: a. Efficacious grace - the Holy Spirit takes the faith of the spiritually dead person and makes it effective for salvation; b. The guarantee of eternal life; c. The guarantee of eternal security; d. The guarantee of your very own portfolio of invisible assets which God the Father prepared for each one of us in eternity past.

The sealing ministry of the Holy Spirit covers eternity past, our life in time, and our eternal future. That is the subject of Ephesians 4:30.