The Quickening Spirit

Jesus grants the Life-Giving Spirit to men and women without which there is no enduring life. His words are spirit, and they are life.

“The Spirit makes alive. The flesh profits nothing. The words which I have spoken to you, they are spirit, and they are life.” Christ’s declaration echoes the biblical principle that life and the Spirit of God are inextricably linked. The flesh has no lasting life apart from the Holy Spirit as was demonstrated in the original creation. The Spirit is essential for the bodily resurrection of believers and life in the coming age – (John 6:63).

The Gift of the Spirit is linked to the New Covenant, everlasting life, and our bodily resurrection. The Spirit places men in the covenant community, and the Gift is a foretaste of the resurrection life that we will inherit. This promise is founded on the Death of Jesus and guaranteed by his Resurrection and our possession of the Gift of the Holy Spirit.

[Life - Photo by Олег Мороз on Unsplash]

The Spirit was poured out on the Church in fulfillment of God’s promise. Due to his obedience, Jesus could not be held by the “throes of death,” therefore, God raised him from the dead and seated him on the Messianic Throne where he has reigned ever since - (“It will be in the last days, says God, I will pour forth of my Spirit upon all flesh…” - Joel 2:28, Acts 2:17-30).

The Nazarene now imparts the Gift of the Spirit, and his past resurrection and our possession of the Spirit guarantee our own resurrection when Jesus returns at the end of the present age:

• “For the earnest expectation of the creation is waiting for the revealing of the sons of God. For the creation was subjected to vanity, not of its own will, but by reason of him who subjected it, <…> For we know that the whole creation is groaning and travailing in pain together until now. And not only so, but ourselves also, who have the first fruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for our adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body” - (Romans 8:19-23).

• “In whom (Christ) you also, having heard the word of the truth, the gospel of your salvation, in whom, having also believed, you were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise, which is a downpayment of our inheritance, for the redemption of God's own possession” – (Ephesians 1:13-14).

In John 6:63, the Greek word heard on Christ’s lips or “makes alive” is ‘zôopoieô’, a combination of the noun ‘zôon’, a “living being,” and the verb ‘poieô’, “to make.” His “words” are “Spirit” because they are the source of “everlasting life.” Just as the word of his Father created life in Genesis, so the words of the Son of God impart life to us.

• “It is the spirit that gives life. The flesh profits nothing. The words that I have spoken to you are spirit, and they are life <…>  Jesus said therefore to the twelve, Would you also go away? Simon Peter answered him, Lord, to whom will we go? You have the words of everlasting life. And we have believed and know that you are the Holy One of God” – (John 6:63, 6:67-69).

Likewise, not only did God’s Spirit create all things and raise Jesus from the dead, but the Spirit will “quicken” believers and provide them with everlasting life when Jesus arrives “on the clouds of Heaven.”

Because bodily resurrection is an act of creation – the restoration of life to the dead - the Spirit will be intimately involved in “quickening our mortal bodies” on the Last Day:

• “And if Christ is in you, the body is dead because of sin; but the spirit is life because of righteousness. But if the Spirit of him that raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised up Christ Jesus from the dead will give life also to your mortal bodies through his Spirit that dwells in you” – (Romans 8:10-11).

The Spirit of God is His creative and life-sustaining power in action. This idea is not unique to the New Testament - “By the word of Yahweh, the heavens were made, and by the spirit of his mouth, all their host.” Jesus now speaks the words of his Father; he is the ‘Logos’ or the “Word made flesh” - (Psalm 33:6, John 1:1):

• “For I spoke not from myself; but the Father that sent me has given me a commandment, what I should say, and what I should speak. And I know that his commandment is everlasting life. The things therefore which I speak, even as the Father has said to me, so I speak” - (John 12:49-50).

THE LAST ADAM

In the Book of Genesis, the Spirit of God “breathed” life into Adam, making him a “living soul.” This translates the Hebrew word which means a “breathing creature.” The stress is on the act of breathing. As Job wrote, “The Spirit of God has made me, and the breath of the Almighty gives me life” – (Genesis 1:1-3, 2:7, Job 33:4),

The same passage is cited by the Apostle Paul in his first letter to the Corinthians when explaining the resurrection body:

• (1 Corinthians 15:42-45) – “So also is the resurrection of the dead. It is sown in corruption; it is raised in incorruptible. It is sown in dishonour; it is raised in glory. It is sown in weakness; it is raised in power. It is sown a natural body; it is raised a spiritual body. If there is a natural body, there is also a spiritual body. So also it is written, The first man Adam became a living soul; the last Adam, a life-giving spirit.”

Paul contrasts the body of Adam with the resurrection bodies believers will receive. The first man’s body was weak, natural, and mortal, but our resurrected body will neither decay nor die. It will be “raised in power.” It will be a “spiritual body” animated and dominated by the Holy Spirit.

Our resurrection body will also be immortal like the glorified body of Christ. It will be deathless, the literal meaning of the Greek noun translated as “immortal.” We will never die again. This will occur when Jesus “arrives” at his ‘Parousia’. On that day, the “Last Enemy, Death,” will be overthrown, and Christ will resurrect his saints, all those who are indwelt by the same Spirit that raised Jesus from the dead:

• “For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ will all be made alive [‘zôopoieô’]. But each in his own order: Christ the first fruits, then they that are Christ's at his arrival [‘Parousia’]. Then the end, when he will deliver up the kingdom to God, even the Father; when he will have abolished all rule and all authority and power. For he must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet. The last enemy that will be abolished is death” – (1 Corinthians 15:22-26).

The resurrection will reverse the sentence and the reality of death; therefore, immortality will replace mortality, and death will be “swallowed up in victory.” Just like the “Lord of Glory,” the followers of Jesus will live in resurrected glorified bodies, all those who have responded with faith to his “words of life” – (1 Corinthians 15:51-57).

Jesus is the “Last Adam,” the forerunner of all resurrected saints, differing in one key aspect. Because of his Resurrection, he is now the “Life-Giving Spirit.” He alone has the authority to impart life by bestowing the Spirit of God on us now, and by raising us from the dead and granting us immortality when he returns.

• “He that believes in him is not judged. He that believes not has been judged already, because he has not believed on the name of the only born Son of God” - (John 3:18).

• “Truly, I say to you, He that hears my word, and believes him that sent me, has eternal life and comes not into judgment, but has passed out of death into life” - (John 5:24).

The words of Jesus impart everlasting life to us, and he is the one who grants us the Gift of the Spirit. His judgment will determine whether we live or die, and his decision will be based on how we respond to his words. Therefore, his “words are spirit, and they are life.”

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SEE ALSO:

• The Spirit of Life - (The Spirit of God imparts life, especially the everlasting life of which the Gift of the Spirit is the foretaste and guarantee)

• The Final Harvest - (The outpouring of the Spirit on the Day of Pentecost fulfilled what the feast symbolized and marked the start of the Final Harvest)

• The Covenant Promises - (The Gift of the Spirit is part of the New Covenant, and the first fruits of the New Creation and the gathering of the nations)

• Death, the Last Enemy - (The arrival of Jesus at the end of the age will mean the resurrection and the end of the Last Enemy, namely, Death - 1 Corinthians 15:24-28)