Not Resigning Office

“It must be emphasized, however, in this discussion on the preached Word of God, that the word of the preacher can only become the Word of God through a sovereign and free act of the Holy Spirit, by whose power alone preaching can be effective . . . ‘God sometimes connects Himself with His servants and sometimes separates Himself from them: . . . He never resigns to them His own office'” (Wallace, Calvin’s Doctrine of the Word and Sacrament, pp.  89-90).