Journal: Reformed Baptist Theological Review
Volume: RBTR 07:1 (Jan 2010)
Article: The Sum Of All Blessings: Jonathan Edwards On The Holy Spirit
Author: W. G. Crampton

RBTR 7:1 (Jan 2010) p. 53

The Sum Of All Blessings:
Jonathan Edwards On The Holy Spirit

W. G. Crampton, Th.D.

W. Gary Crampton, Th.D., is a pastor at Reformed Baptist Church, Richmond, VA, and author of From Paedobaptism to Credobaptism, available at www.rbap.net. This essay borrows from his He Shall Glorify Me: A Study of the Person and Work of the Holy Spirit (Orlando, FL: Xulon Press; Lakeland, FL: Whitefield Press, 2004), and W. Gary Crampton, Meet Jonathan Edwards (Morgan, PA: Soli Deo Gloria, 2004).

Due to his seminal work on the third person of the Trinity, the sixteenth- century Reformer John Calvin (1509-1564) has correctly been dubbed “the theologian of the Holy Spirit.”1 The Puritans of the next two centuries followed in the wake of the Genevan, further elucidating this great and often neglected subject. The eighteenth-century Puritan divine Jonathan Edwards (1703-1758) has made a large contribution to the study of Pneumatology: the study of the person and work of the Holy Spirit. He believed that the subject had been neglected in his day, and he wrote to correct this problem.2 In a sermon on Gal. 3:13-14, the Puritan sage preached that “the Holy Spirit or the third person of the Trinity in His operations and fruits is the sum of the blessings that Christ purchased for us in the work of our redemption.” He “is the vital sap which the creatures derive from the true vine.” He is “the holy oil poured on the head, that goes down to the members.”3 And in another sermon, on 1 Cor. 13:8, he preached that “the Holy Spirit is the great purchase of Christ. God the Father is the person of whom the purchase is made, God the Son is the person who makes the purchase, and the Holy Spirit is the gift purchased. The sum of all those good things in this life, and the life to come, which are purchased for the church is the Holy Spirit. And as this is the great purchase, so it is the great promise of God and Christ.”4 In these two statements we have somewhat of a précis of Edwards’ doctrine of the Holy

RBTR 7:1 (Jan 2010) p. 54

Spirit. First, as to His person, the Spirit is divine. He is the Holy Spirit, a title attested by Christ Himself (Jn. 14:16). Second, the Spirit’s work is Christocentric. He is “the sum of the blessings” purchased by Christ for His elect people. The Spirit is sent by Christ to do Christ’s will. In the words of Christ,...