2 Thessalonians 2:13 tells us, “We are bound always to give thanks to God for you, brethren, beloved of the Lord, because God hath from the beginning chosen you to salvation through sanctification of the Spirit and belief of the truth.”
The mission of the Spirit in the earth is to apply to God’s elect, the redemption proposed by God the Father and purchased by God the Son for them.
The Holy Spirit is here to make good the souls of the heirs of glory, the fruits of the travail of Christ’s soul. This He does by means of the Gospel by the written and oral ministry of the Scripture, for the Word of God is the only instrument He employs or uses.
The Word of God is “the word of life” (Philippians 2:16), but it only becomes such in the experience of the individual soul by the immediate operation and application of the Spirit of God.
As we read in 1 Thessalonians 1:5, “For our Gospel came not unto you in word only, but also in power, and in the Holy Spirit.” This is not to deny the efficacy of the Word itself, but it is to insist that the direct agency of the Spirit on the heart is absolutely necessary in order to the reception of the Word.
The salvation of God’s elect was purposed, planned, and provided by God the Father before the foundation of the world. It was procured and secured by the incarnation, obedience, death and resurrection of God the Son. It is made known, applied to and wrought in them by God the Spirit.
Thus, as we read in Jonah 2:9, “Salvation is of the Lord,” and man has no part or hand in it at any point whatsoever.