“In the Spirit and through the Spirit Christ gives of Himself and His benefits to the church.
It is not by might or violence, therefore, that Christ rules in the kingdom given Him by the Father.
He did not do this in His humiliation, and He does not do it in His exaltation.
His entire prophetic, priestly, and kingly activity He continues to carry on in a spiritual way from His place in heaven.
He fights only with spiritual weapons.
He is a king of grace and a king of might, but in both kinds He leads His regiment out through the Holy Spirit, who, in turn, makes use of the Word as a means of grace.
By that Spirit He instructs, comforts, and leads His church, and dwells in it.
And by the same Spirit He convicts the world of sin, righteousness, and judgment (John 16:8–11).
The eventual victory which Christ will gain over all His enemies will be a triumph of the Holy Spirit.”
–Herman Bavinck, The Wonderful Works of God (trans. Henry Zylstra; Glenside, PA: Westminster Seminary Press, 1909/2019), 369.
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