# “Communion with Christ in the Spirit” by Sinclair Ferguson

- Link: https://tollelege.net/2026/11/06/communion-with-christ-in-the-spirit-by-sinclair-ferguson/
- Published: 2026-11-06T06:00:00-06:00
- Author: tollelege

“The union with Christ into which the Spirit brings us is the foundation for and
prelude to communion with Christ in the Spirit.

The believer who is baptized into Christ is baptized into His resurrection as well
as into His death, into newness of life as well as into His death to sin.

In putting off the ways of the old man, the ways of the new man are put on and life
in the Spirit begins.

The whole of the Christian life then, with its deep roots in the love of the Father
and its foundation in the grace of Christ, is characterized by what Paul calls the
koinōnia of the Holy Spirit (**2 Cor. 13:14; cf. Phil. 2:1**).

Paul’s genitive here (tou hagiou pneumatos) poses for us the happy problem of deciding
whether the communion is that which the Spirit creates or that in which the Spirit
is partner.

Strong arguments can be advanced for both, and it is possible that the expression
may itself be intended to cover both.

It is in communion with the Spirit that we experience the communion which the Spirit
creates in the blessings of the gospel in the context of the church of Christ. These
are ordinarily inseparable.

This communion of or with the Spirit is, as we have seen, paradigmatically expressed
in the life and ministry of Jesus, the man of the Spirit par excellence.

As such he was filled with the Spirit and walked in the Spirit; Christians are exhorted
to enter into a like communion.”

–Sinclair B. Ferguson, _**[The Holy Spirit](https://link.amazon/B0jbCWRns)**_, ed.
Gerald Bray, _**[Contours of Christian Theology](https://link.amazon/B0jbCWRns)**_(
Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1996), 175–76.

[⌊Book cover for "The Holy Spirit: Contours of Christian Theology" by Sinclair Ferguson.⌉⌊
Book cover for "The Holy Spirit: Contours of Christian Theology" by Sinclair Ferguson
.⌉[

More quotes from [Sinclair Ferguson](https://tollelege.net/category/sinclair-ferguson/)·
More on [Communion with God](https://tollelege.net/category/communion-with-god/)