“The gospel began its course already in Paradise. God first revealed it there, then had it proclaimed by the patriarchs and the prophets and had it represented by the sacrifices and other ceremonies of the law, and finally fulfilled it through his only-begotten Son.
Nor was that all. He also had the word of the gospel recorded scripturally in the books of the Old and New Testaments, and further entrusted it for preservation, proclamation, interpretation, defense, and dissemination to the church, so that it would become known to all creatures.
On the same day on which the church of Christ received this task and began carrying it out, the outpouring of the Holy Spirit took place.
And, conversely, at the same moment in which the Holy Spirit made the church His dwelling place, the church as an independent community of believers, and as the bearer of the word of the gospel, and as the pillar and firmness of the truth, had its beginning.
Although in a preparatory way they were united earlier, Word and Spirit on the day of Pentecost were fully and definitively united.
They work together in the service of Christ who is the King of the church and the Lord of the Spirit, and who is depicted for us in the Word, and is given us as our portion through the Spirit.
Truth and grace go together because Christ is full of both (John 1:14).”
–Herman Bavinck, The Wonderful Works of God (trans. Henry Zylstra; Glenside, PA: Westminster Seminary Press, 1909/2019), 393-394.
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