The Son Grants Life

The Son of God gives the Spirit to men and women, without which there is no enduring life. His words are spirit, and they are life.

“The Spirit gives life. The flesh profits nothing. The declarations I have spoken to you, they are spirit, and they are life.” Christ’s statement echoes the biblical principle that life and the Spirit of God are inextricably linked – (John 6:63).

We are mortal, and so, we have no enduring life without the Holy Spirit. Our death is inevitable, the cessation of life altogether. God’s Spirit was necessary for the creation and existence of life from the beginning, and His Spirit is essential also for our bodily resurrection and everlasting life in the coming age – (Genesis 1:2, “And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters”).

[Photo by Alexandra (Poland) on Unsplash]

The gift of the Spirit is a foundational part of the New Covenant. The Spirit installs each of us in the covenant community, and the receipt of the Spirit is confirmation of our acceptance by God. Moreover, this gift is a foretaste of the resurrection life that we will inherit when Jesus returns, and this promise is guaranteed by the bodily resurrection of Christ.

The Spirit bestowed on the Church on the Day of Pentecost was in fulfillment of God’s promise. Due to his faithful obedience, Jesus could not be held by death; therefore, God raised him from the dead and seated him on the Messianic Throne, where he has reigned ever since. He now graciously pours out the gift of the Spirit upon his people:

• “IT WILL BE IN THE LAST DAYS, SAYS GOD, I WILL POUR OUT MY SPIRIT UPON ALL FLESH…” - (Acts 2:17-21, citing Joel 2:28-32, from the Septuagint).

• “David, foreseeing this, spoke of the resurrection of the Christ, that NEITHER WAS HE LEFT UNTO HADES, NOR DID HIS FLESH SEE CORRUPTION. God raised up this Jesus, of whom we are witnesses. Being therefore exalted to THE RIGHT HAND OF GOD, and having received of the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit, he has poured forth this, which you see and hear” - (Acts 2:31-32. Note the allusion to Psalm 16:10 and 110:1).

And so, the Nazarene imparts the Spirit to his Church, and his past resurrection and our possession of the Spirit assure our own bodily resurrection when Jesus returns:

• “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).

• “And grieve not the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption” – (Ephesians 4:30).

In John 6:63, the Greek verb heard on Christ’s lips or “gives life” is ‘zôopoieô’. This term combines the noun ‘zôon’ or “living being” and the verb ‘poieô’, that is, “to make.” The words of Jesus are Spirit because they are the source of everlasting life. Just as the word of his Father created life in the first place, so the words of the Son of God now impart everlasting life to us.

• “It is the spirit that gives life. The flesh profits nothing. The declarations 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 declarations of everlasting life. And we have believed and know that you are the Holy One of God” – (John 6:63, 6:67-69).

• “For as the Father raises the dead and gives them life, even so, the Son also gives life to whom he will” – (John 5:21).

• “Jesus said to her, I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes on me, though he die, yet he will live” – (John 11:25).

The Spirit of God created all things and raised Jesus from the dead, and the Spirit also makes us alive in this life. Moreover, the Holy Spirit will provide us with resurrection life in the coming New Creation. The authority to grant the gift of the Spirit and everlasting life has been given to the Son of God.

Because bodily resurrection is an act of creation – the restoration of life to the dead - the Spirit will be intimately involved in giving us new life on the Last Day, and this will be because of the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ:

• “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 who 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 the Lord the heavens were established; and all the host of them by the breath of his mouth” - (Psalm 33:6, Septuagint).

• “In the beginning God made the heaven and the earth. But the earth was unsightly and unfurnished, and darkness was over the deep. And the Spirit of God moved over the water” - (Genesis 1:1-2, Septuagint).

Jesus now speaks the words of his Father. Christ is the ‘Logos’, the “Word made flesh.” Grace and truth came to be through Jesus. He alone has seen God; therefore, he is fully qualified to interpret and express all that God is. And so, life is found only in the man from Nazareth - (John 1:1-18):

• “For I spoke not from myself, but the Father, who 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 that means a “breathing creature.” The Hebrew term stresses 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 from Genesis is cited by the Apostle Paul in his first letter to the Corinthians when describing our resurrection body:

• “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” - (1 Corinthians 15:42-45. See Genesis 2:7).

Paul contrasts the body of Adam with the resurrection bodies we will receive. The first man’s body was weak, natural, and mortal. Our resurrected body will not decay or die. We will be “raised in power,” and we will receive spiritual bodies animated and dominated by the Holy Spirit.

Our resurrection bodies will be immortal like the glorified body of Christ. We will never die again. This will occur when Jesus arrives. On that day, the “last enemy, death,” will be overthrown, and Christ will resurrect his saints, 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. Then the end, when he delivers up the kingdom to God, even the Father, when he has abolished all rule and all authority and power. For he must reign UNTIL HE HAS PUT HIS ENEMIES UNDER HIS FEET. The last enemy that will be abolished is death” – (1 Corinthians 15:22-26. Note the allusion to Psalm 110:1. Compare Hebrews 1:1-3).

Our resurrection will reverse both 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,” we will live forever more in glorified bodies – (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, 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 everlasting life and comes not into judgment, but he has passed out of death into life” - (John 5:24).

The declarations of Jesus impart everlasting life. He is the Messiah who bestows the gift of the Spirit on his followers. His judgment will determine whether we live or die, and his decision will be based on how we respond to his words. Therefore, the words of Jesus Christ are “spirit, and they are life.”

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[Citations of Old Testament passages in this article are based on the ancient Greek translation of the Hebrew Bible, the Septuagint (see the links here and here). Text printed in ALL CAPITAL LETTERS represents quotations and verbal allusions from the Old Testament. The Septuagint is represented by the Roman numeral for ‘seventy’ or LXX based on the Latin name of the translation, ‘Interpretatio septuaginta virorum’]

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SEE ALSO:

• Christ's All-Sufficiency - (Paul challenges the men from Jerusalem who were compelling Gentile Christians to conform to Jewish customs, including circumcision – Galatians 2:15-21)

• Raised from the Dead - (Paul anchors what God has done for us in the Death and Resurrection of Jesus, which also inaugurated the time of fulfillment - Galatians 1:1-5)

• The Light of the World - (Only Jesus is the Light of the World, the expression of God, and the source of truth, life, and salvation, and he alone reigns supreme)

• El Hijo Da la Vida - (El Hijo de Dios da el Espíritu a los hombres y mujeres, sin el cual no hay vida duradera. Sus palabras son espíritu, y son vida)