Huldrych Zwingli on Indwelling of the Holy Spirit
At regeneration, which precedes and causes faith
But if we be prepared without the sacrament for the reception of sacramental grace, the Spirit is present in His goodness before the sacrament, and hence grace has been shown and is present before the sacrament is administered.
THE POSITION
Zwingli never asks when the Spirit comes to dwell, but he answers the question's substance twice over. The Spirit's illumination precedes and produces faith — the elect are drawn before they believe — and the Spirit needs no channel or vehicle, so grace is already present before any sacrament is administered. That rules out the baptismal answer explicitly and puts the Spirit's work before faith, which is the shape of indwell-regen. The stance is at contested because the term and the moment are supplied by this locus, not by him.
8 The wind blows where it wishes. You hear its sound, but you do not know where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit.”
9 OTHERS HOLD THIS
ABOUT THIS FIGURE
Reformer of Zurich and the first Reformed theologian to leave a confession — the Sixty-Seven Articles of 1523 predate Augsburg by seven years. He pushed further than Luther on the Supper, which split the early Reformation at Marburg in 1529, further than anyone on the reach of election, and further than any other Reformer on who might finally be saved. This entry rests on the Sixty-Seven Articles (1523), the Declaration Regarding Original Sin (1526), the Fidei Ratio sent to Charles V (1530) and the Exposition of the Christian Faith written weeks before he died in battle — the last of these read only in its chapter on eternal life.
Cite this page
"Huldrych Zwingli on Indwelling of the Holy Spirit", Examined Doctrine, July 2026 edition, https://examineddoctrine.com/position/zwingli/indwelling (archived at https://examineddoctrine.com/editions/2026-07/position/zwingli/indwelling).