Shorter Catechism Q. 29. How are we made partakers of the redemption purchased by Christ? A. We are made partakers of the redemption purchased by Christ, by the effectual application of it to us by his Holy Spirit.
Commentary: Redemption or salvation needs to be considered in two different but related ways: accomplished and applied. Redemption accomplished refers to Jesus’ saving work, whereby he purchased our redemption from sin to righteousness, death to life, condemnation to justification, enmity to reconciliation, Satan to God, hell to heaven.
The redemption purchased by Jesus, however, will not benefit anyone unless it is personally applied. In other words, you won’t be saved from your sins and possess the gift of eternal life until and unless you personally receive “the redemption purchased by Christ.” At the beginning of book three of his Institutes, John Calvin famously said that “so long as we are without Christ and separated from him, nothing which he suffered and did for the salvation of the human race is of the least benefit to us.”
A scientist may produce a cure for cancer in the form of a pill, but that cure won’t benefit a patient unless he receives and swallows the pill. A company may make the warmest blanket, but that blanket won’t help a person freezing to death unless he receives it and wraps himself in it. In like manner, Christ’s work of salvation won’t benefit a sinner unless he partakes of it. Redemption applied, therefore, is as necessary to our salvation as is redemption accomplished.
So, how are we make partakers of the redemption purchased by Christ? WSC 29 answers this question from God’s role, which is primary and foundational. The Holy Spirit applies it to us efficaciously. What Jesus did for us is given to us and is worked in us by the Spirit.