The Spirit is Life

The Spirit of God imparts life, especially the everlasting life of which the Gift of the Spirit is the foretaste and guarantee. The Spirit of God is life-giving. “God is Spirit,” and where His Spirit is, there is life! By His Spirit God created all things, including the “hosts of the Heavens.” In contrast, sin kills men, and it does so through the “letter of the Law.” Death’s “sting” is sin, “and the power of sin is the Law.” However, God’s Spirit gives us life, and where His Spirit is, there is also “liberty” - (John 4:24, 6:63, 1 Corinthians 15:56, 2 Corinthians 3:6, 3:17).

The Gift of the Spirit is indisputable evidence that a person has been justified by God “through the faith of Jesus Christ” and made a member of his Church. In Galatia, “false brethren” were preaching “another gospel,” one that claimed Gentiles must be circumcised to “complete” their faith. Paul objected and appealed to the presence of the Spirit among uncircumcised Gentiles as proof positive of their acceptance by God.

Since Gentile believers have received the Spirit already, adding circumcision or other “works of the Law” would add nothing to their acceptance by God. “Are you so foolish? Having begun in the Spirit, will you now be made complete in the flesh?” – (Galatians 3:1-5).

[Photo by Andrey Andreyev on Unsplash]

Jesus redeemed his saints from the curse of the Law so the “Blessing of Abraham might come on the Gentiles through him, and we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith.” Paul linked the Spirit with the promised Blessing of Abraham for the nations - (Galatians 3:6-14, Genesis 12:1-3).

The Mosaic legislation was not against the promise, but its purpose was never to justify men before God. It was added after the Abrahamic Covenant to expose sin for what it is - the “transgression” of God’s commandments. The statutes and rituals of the Torah are incapable of justifying anyone since the Law “cannot make alive” or “quicken,” unlike God’s Life-Giving Spirit.

The Spirit gives life, and Paul presents “being quickened” by the Spirit as synonymous with being “justified from faith.” It is the Spirit that imparts life, and there is no everlasting life without the Holy Spirit or forgiveness of sin without being justified and acquitted of transgressions “through the faith of Jesus” - (Galatians 3:21).

This principle is attested elsewhere in the New Testament. “It is the spirit that gives life,” according to Jesus. The Spirit of the God who raised Jesus from the dead will also “quicken our mortal bodies by his Spirit that dwells in us” when Jesus returns. We must be “born from above,” born of the Spirit, to enter God’s Kingdom - (‘anôthen’, ανωθεν: “from above.” John 3:3-6, 6:63, Strong’s Concordance, #G509. Romans 8:11-23).

The letter of the Law kills, but under the New Covenant, the Spirit “gives life” and “liberty” to the people of God. Jesus was put to death “in the flesh” for us, but he was resurrected and made “alive by the Spirit.” To be fleshly-minded is death, “but to be spiritually minded is life and peace.” Life and Spirit are inseparable - (Romans 8:11, 2 Corinthians 3:6-18, 1 Peter 3:18).

The Spirit of God imparted life when He created the Universe.  The Earth was “without form and void,” but the “Spirit of God hovered upon the face of the waters.” Several of the Psalms highlight this Life-Giving power of the Spirit. For example, “By the word of Yahweh, the heavens were made, and by the spirit of his mouth, all their host” - (Genesis 1:1-3, Job 33:4. Psalm 33:6, 104:29-30).

THE LIFE-GIVING SPIRIT

The Spirit of God not only imparts life but also causes it to abound. Yahweh promised to “pour water upon him that is thirsty, and floods upon the dry ground, to pour His Spirit upon man’s seed and my blessing upon his offspring” - (Isaiah 44:3).

In the Book of Ezekiel, God promised He would “sprinkle clean water” to cleanse Israel from her uncleanness and give her children new hearts, and He would put His Spirit in them and thereby establish His “everlasting covenant” (Ezekiel 36:16-38). Paul applied this promise to the congregation of Corinth:

• “But such confidence as this we have through Christ towards God. Not that of our own selves sufficient are we, to reckon anything as of ourselves, but our sufficiency is of God, who also has made us sufficient to be ministers of a new covenant, not of letter but of spirit, for the letter kills, but the Spirit makes alive” - (2 Corinthians 3:3-6).

The Spirit or “breath of God” creates, sustains, and restores life, both individually and corporately, biological as well as spiritual, and the withdrawal of His Spirit means the cessation of life - Death.

God promised the restoration of Israel when He cleansed His people, “circumcised their hearts,” and inaugurated the New Covenant. His presence would dwell among them.  That promise was made in the Mosaic Law, but the nation’s sin prevented its fulfillment - (Leviticus 26:12 - “I will walk among you and will be your God, and you shall be my people”).

In the New Covenant, this promise becomes real and available to men and women through Christ’s Death and Resurrection. Jesus is the one who now “immerses” or “baptizes” his people in the Spirit of God, providing them with abundant life and empowering them to bear witness to the nations.

The receipt of the Spirit by believers proves their acceptance and justification by God. It shows who will inherit everlasting life and who will not. It is His Spirit that creates, sustains, and restores life. There is no true and enduring life or salvation apart from the presence and activity of the Holy Spirit, and it is the crucified, resurrected, and exalted Son of God who now bestows the Spirit on the People of God - (John 1:14, Colossians 2:9-10, Revelation 21:3, 21:22).

The Spirit of God is the antithesis of Death. Where His Spirit is, there is life and liberty. Sin and Death bring bondage and the cessation of all life. However, through Jesus Christ, we who are indwelt by this same Spirit will be raised from the dead to receive immortality and everlasting life.

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SEE ALSO:

• L'Esprit est la Vie - (L'Esprit de Dieu donne la vie, en particulier la vie éternelle dont le Don de l'Esprit est l'avant-goût et la garantie)

• The Blessing of Abraham - (The Gift of the Spirit is one of God’s covenant promises and his ways of blessing all Nations in Abraham’s Seed)

• The Life-Giving Spirit - (Jesus grants the Life-Giving Spirit without which there is no enduring life. His words are spirit, and they are life)

• The Promise of the Father - (With the outpouring of the Spirit on Pentecost, the blessing for all nations promised to Abraham has commenced)