.

THE SPIRIT.

28. To these two John adds a third witness, "the Spirit." The Spirit
bears witness with the water and the blood; in fact, through these
other two he operates. It is the Holy Spirit himself; not as he is
invisible up in heaven in his divine essence, but the Spirit who
publicly manifests himself through his external office and permits
himself to be heard through his Word. As John here asserts, the Spirit
bears witness on earth with both the water and the blood.

29. Neither Moses nor any other teacher in his doctrines of personal
effort and external purifications, his washings and his sprinklings of
the blood of sheep and goats--no such teacher brings and gives the
Spirit. With them is no Spirit, no divine power, no regeneration of
man. Any unbelieving, spiritless, wicked knave can exercise human
effort and practice physical cleansing. But Christ alone brings with
him the power and presence of the Holy Spirit, who sanctifies us
through the blood and water issuing from the divine side. The Spirit
makes us partakers of its cleansing influence through the external
office of preaching and through the sacraments, which are called the
office and gifts of the Holy Spirit. Through these the Spirit works in
the Christian Church just as he did at first, among the apostles on
the Day of Pentecost, and will continue to do in the whole world, unto
the last day. Without his ministration we would never obtain, nor know
anything about, the saving power of Christ's blood in baptism.

30. Such is the kingdom Christ unceasingly develops through the
Christian Church. In him we have eternal purification when to the
water is added the Spirit, who through the Word enkindles the heart
and purifies it, not with the cleansing qualities of the water alone,
but with the healing efficacy of the blood of Christ, whereby sins are
exterminated and God's wrath appeased. Although the work of our
redemption was wrought once for all in Christ's blood shed upon the
cross and is sufficient to cancel the sins of the entire world, yet
Christ so instituted it that the same efficacy should remain forever,
and be daily distributed and offered to us through the Holy Spirit.

31. This work of the Holy Spirit is neither received nor perceived
except through faith in this witness, the preached word of
Christ--when with the heart man grasps it and confidently believes it
is fulfilled in himself as the Word declares. Thus is the heart really
clea