[In Three Parts]
In this series of posts, I will identify our “three-fold” relationship with God. In this first post I will discuss “God, the Father of Spirits,” followed by Part 2 “God, Lover of the Church,” and finally Part 3 “God, Shepherd of our Bodies.”
Part One: God The Father Of Spirits
Father of Adam
Genesis 2:7: “And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul.”
Genesis 5:1-2: “This is the book of the generations of Adam. In the day that God created man, in the likeness of God made he him; Male and female created he them, and called their name Adam, in the day they were created.”
The Hebrew word for ‘Adam’ is the same word for ‘man.’ We refer to the human race, as descended from Adam, as “Mankind.”
Adam was the Son of God by Creation: Luke 3:38. We also are the Sons of God by Creation in Christ Jesus, Ephesians 2:10.
God is a Spirit. When He made Man in His image, He made him a Spirit.
‘Breath’ and ‘Spirit’ Are Synonymous In Hebrew
The word ‘Breath,’ in the Hebrew is also sometimes translated ‘Spirit.’ It was the ‘Breath/Spirit’ of God that man Adam a living soul. That Breath/Spirit is the “Spirit of life,” for that is what gave life to Adam.
Romans 8:2: “For the law of the Spirit of Life in Christ Jesus hath made us free from the law of sin and death.”
In this passage Paul has the creation story in mind. He is thinking of our creation in Christ as “the law of the Breath of Life.” He is speaking in legal terms, citing a ‘precedent.’ In law a ‘precedent’ is: “a judicial decision which serves as a rule for future decisions in similar or analogous cases.” Paul is saying that the ‘Breath of Life,” is the original Law of God in creation and takes precedence over the later Law of Moses or any other law. This “Breath of Life is what changes Mankind from a sculpture of clay to a “Living Soul.”
The Holy Spirit is the Breath of God
Romans 8:1: “There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.” In Jesus, Who has given us the gift of the Holy Spirit, the “Spirit of Life,” or the “Breath of Life,” we are again made, created, a “Living Soul.” Without that Holy Spirit/Breath, we are dead in trespasses and sin.
The rest of Romans chapter 8 describes more fully what difference this “Breath/Spirit of Life” makes. It is the difference:
- Between life and death, Verse 2, 38-39
- Between spirituality and carnality, Verse 6
- Between immortal and mortal, Verses 11, 13
- Between sonship and alienation, Verses 14, 15, 16
- Between purity and corruption, Verse 21
- Between freedom and bondage, Verse 1, 21
- Between heirs and strangers, Verse 16, 17
- Between strength and weakness, Verses 3, 26
- Between health and sickness, Verses 23, 36
- Between justification and condemnation, Verses 1, 34
- Between hope and despair, Verses 24, 25.
Hebrews 12:9: “Furthermore we have had fathers of our flesh which corrected us, and we gave them reverence: shall we not much rather be in subjection unto the Father of spirits and live?”