New Birth

Truths of the Reformation (9) The Holy Spirit

What this means is that while accepting the Bible as God’s Word is something that we do with our minds, it is more fundamentally something that the Holy Spirit works in us. And the result of the Holy Spirit’s work is not simply an intellectual persuasion, but an inner spiritual perception of the glory of God as revealed in the Scriptures and an inner spiritual perception of the authority of God speaking in the Scriptures.
— Rev. Jerry Hamstra

Truths of the Reformation (4) By Grace Alone

On the one hand we confess that salvation is by
grace alone. It must be by grace alone because before we are saved, we
are dead in sin and trespasses. When God saves someone, he brings a
spiritual dead person to spiritual life. We are completely passive at that
point. And yet in our experience we are active. We become aware of
our need of the forgiveness and renewal and what Jesus has earned for
us. We hear the gospel and we respond to it in faith and repentance.
— Rev. Jerry Hamstra