We have covered the tree of life, the river of life, the breath of life, and the seed of life. In this chapter we come to the ultimate point, the highest point-the Spirit of life. There are three places in the New Testament that refer to the Spirit as the Spirit that gives life. John 6:63 tells us that it is the Spirit that gives life. Second Corinthians 3:6 tells us that the letter kills but the Spirit gives life. Finally, 1 Corinthians 15:45 says that the last Adam became a life-giving Spirit. There is a principle in the Bible that two is the number of testimony. To speak something a third time is a confirmation to what has been testified. What has been spoken three times has been spoken in a full way. The matter of the Spirit giving life has been spoken, testified, and confirmed in the New Testament. The Holy Spirit of God is the life-giving Spirit, the Spirit that gives life.
The term “the Spirit of life” is mentioned only once in the New Testament; Romans 8:2 refers to the “law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus.” In this verse are four items: the law, the Spirit, the life, and Christ. The law is the law of life, the Spirit is the Spirit of life, and Christ is the Christ of life. The law, the Spirit, and Christ are related one to another, and they are one in life. Christ is the life-giving Spirit, and this Spirit is the Spirit of life. Revelation 11:11 tells us that the pneuma of life, the breath of life, comes into the two witnesses, who had been killed by Antichrist. This shows us that the Spirit of life is simply the breath of life.
It is very difficult to define what life is, but thank the Lord that in the Bible we can trace something of the divine life. The divine life is with the Spirit of God. The Spirit of God today is the life-giving Spirit, the Spirit of life, and this Spirit of life is the breath of life. If we have the breath of life, we have the Spirit of life and life itself. It is easy for us to receive life because this life is with the divine breath. We just need to breathe in the divine breath by exercising our spirit, our breathing organ.
According to the revelation of the New Testament, the divine Spirit has at least four crucial aspects. First, the New Testament says clearly that God is Spirit (John 4:24). John 4:24 does not say that God is a Spirit but that God is Spirit. This is similar to saying that a table is wood. Spirit in John 4:24 refers to the divine essence just like wood can be the essence of a table.
Second, the Bible tells us a mystery which we can never understand adequately, that is, that our God is the Triune God. The word triune is not in the Bible but the fact of God’s being triune is revealed in the Bible. In Genesis 1:1 the word “God” is used for the first time. The subject “God” in Hebrew (Elohim) is plural in number, whereas the verb in this verse is singular in number. This contains the meaning that God is three-one. Matthew 28:19 tells us to disciple the nations, baptizing them into the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. This verse uses the singular “name” not “names.” There is one name for the divine Trinity. The name is the sum total of the divine Being, equivalent to His person.
The Father is in the Son, and the Son with the Father is in the Spirit. The three persons of the Godhead are not three separate beings just as man’s spirit, soul, and body are not three separate parts. A man is one complete being with three parts. God is triune and man is tripartite. With God there are three persons, but we should not think that these three persons are three separate, divine beings. Some Christians believe that the three of the Godhead are not only distinct but also separate. While the three of the Godhead are distinct, it is wrong, according to the truth of the Scriptures, to say that they are separate. The Father, the Son, and the Spirit are not three separate gods. Both in the Old Testament and the New Testament, we are always told that there is only one God (Isa. 45:5; Psa. 86:10; 1 Cor. 8:4; 1 Tim. 2:5). The Bible tells us clearly that God is uniquely one, but that He is triune with three persons-the Father, the Son, and the Spirit. God the Father is in God the Son, and God the Son is in God the Spirit. In John 14:10 the Lord said that He was in the Father and the Father in Him. Furthermore, Romans 8:2 refers to the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus.
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