In Step with the Spirit Series

June 21, 2015

Holy Spirit is the Life-Giver

Scripture-focus for today will be on the epistle reading:

2 Corinthians 6:1-13

Introductory Background

Q: In the Nicene Creed, why do we say “We believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord and Giver of Life”?

A: Because scripture both directly teaches it, and in many places either implies or assumes that truth. One example:

2 Cor. 3:1-6The Spirit GIVES LIFE

. . . 3You show that you are a letter from Christ, the result of our ministry, written not with ink but with the Spirit of the living God,not on tablets of stonebut on tablets of human hearts.4Such confidencewe have through Christ before God. . . .6He has made us competent as ministers of a new covenant—not of the letterbut of the Spirit; for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life.

Q: Why does it matter to understand and respond to the Holy Spirit as Life-Giver?

A: Because we have a hard time “keeping in step” with Persons or patterns that we don’t recognize or don’t trust. We’re not as likely to pay attention to and open our hearts to the Holy Spirit if we don’t recognize how Life Depends Entirely on Him.

2 Cor. 4:6-5:5 provides further background to 2 Cor. 6:1-13

  • Old-Creation Existence is the context for New Covenant (4:6)
  • The Jesus-Kind of LIFE (New Covenant) shines through the Death-Pervaded existence (Old Creation) (4:10)
  • Old-Creation decay is (mostly) Visible but is passing away, while New Covenant LIFE is (mostly) Invisible and is growing day-by-day (4:16-18)
  • Though we groan while living in Old Creation, we grow in Hope of New Creation (5:4)
  • New Covenant LIFE (which is the secured-in-advance-start of New Creation LIFE—see 5:17)is given in and through Lord Holy Spirit (5:5)

There are two basic experiences of Life:

  • Existence-Life of Old Creation is now (mostly) Visible
  • Fellowship-LIFE of New Creation is now (mostly) Invisible

Fellowship-LIFE is . . .

  • …“Knowing” the Father the Son (John 17:3; Eph. 2:18-22)
  • …Why Jesus came, and what he Gives Abundantly (John 10:10; 7:37-39; 1:33)
  • …Given and Sustained by the Holy Spirit (John 6:63 and 3:5-8; Rom. 8:4-5, 10-11, 23, and 26-27; 1 John 3:24 and 4:7-14)

Holy Spirit “Gives” and sustains both Existence-life and Fellowship-LIFE

Notice how Paul describes his life/LIFE in our epistle passage:

  • Protected from circumstances and people who threatened to take his Existence-life (6:4b-5a)
  • Preserved in Existence-life (6:5b)
  • Maturing in Fellowship-LIFE (6:6)—Spirit & Love
  • Sharing the Fellowship-LIFE (6:7a)—Spirit &Truth & Power
  • Enduring to Multiply the Fellowship-LIFE(6:7b-10)

All Flows from OPENING more and more to Lord Holy Spirit’s Giving and Sustaining of life/LIFE

Paul urges his friends to OPEN their Hearts (6:11-13)

Both Existence-life and Fellowship-LIFE requiring Opening ourselves both to Give and Receive LOVE (See 1 Corinthians 13 for what Love looks like in detail)

1 John 4:7-137Dear friends, let us love one another,for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of Godand knows God.8Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love.9This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Soninto the world that we might live through him.10This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved usand sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.11Dear friends,since God so loved us,we also ought to love one another.12No one has ever seen God;but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us.13This is how we knowthat we live in him and he in us: He has given us of his Spirit.

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A Brief Outline of Different Kinds of Life.What I’ve called “Old Creation”or “Existence-Life” is experienced mostly as Physical and Relational. What I’ve called “New Covenant” or “Fellowship LIFE” is experienced mostly as Spiritual and Relational. Notice how important the Relational Life is to our experience of all three kinds of life.

KIND of Life / Key Pattern of Living / Key Process of Living / Key Proof of Life / Key Lack or Limit / How Death Happens / “Measure” that Matters
Physical (mostly visible) / Reaction
(involuntary) / Cause and Effect / Generating (reproducing) / Needs
(external dependencies) / Disconnection & Decay / Duration
(life-span)
Relational (semi-visible) / Response
(voluntary) / Call and Answer / Giving
(freely sharing) / Desires
(choose-able possibilities) / Disobedience & Domination / Quality
(life-quality)
Spiritual (mostly invisible) / Reverence
(ecstatic) / Communion and Adoration / Glorifying
(freely honoring) / Devotions
(worthy Others) / Disregard & Idolatry / Dynamism
(life-growth)

Examples of Physical Life: A Wheat Seed interacts with soil’s warmth & moisture to germinate, push up through surface, transforming sunlight and water and nutrients into stalk and new seeds. A Robin pair builds a nest, lays fertilized eggs, incubates the eggs to maturity, feeds the chicks until flight-feathers mature, then leads the young robins out to learn to feed and fly. The seed’s life-span is a year. The robins’ lifespan roughly six years.

Example of Relational Life: Two young people meet at school, play together, study together, becoming friends who help each other, share joys and pains together, and who stay in touch throughout a lifetime. They think of this friendship as something that makes (physical) life worth living—a quality experience, no matter how short or long the other friend may live.

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For humans, Old Creation Life is both Physical and Relational. It was supposed to be also Spiritual, but the Spiritual Death chosen by our first parents (Adam and Eve) has made Relational and Physical Death both real and inevitable.

For humans, New Covenant LIFE restores Spiritual Life and then begins renewing the Relational Life and Physical Life we currently have in Old Creation conditions.

The New Covenant LIFE will one day become fully NEW CREATION Life, where Physical, Relational, and Spiritual LIFE will flourish and Death in all its forms will never again be chosen because Devotion and Desire will be mature and Needs will be consistently met.

We are called to grow more mature even now in Devotion and Desire so that we can experience more deeply now what we’re being prepared for in the New Creation (See Romans 8 and 1 John 3). This growing in LIFE is entirely dependent upon keeping in step with the Holy Spirit, the Lord and Giver of Life.

Further Meditation on Lord Holy Spirit as the “Giver of Life”

From the General Thanksgiving (prayed at the close of the daily office): “We bless you for our creation, preservation, and all the blessings of this life; but above all for your immeasurable love in the redemption of the world by our Lord Jesus Christ, for the means of grace, and for the hope of glory.”

Meditate on Psalm 104:27-30 for how Lord Holy Spirit is the Life-Giver for Creation, Preservation, and Blessings of this life.

Meditate on Romans 5:1-5 for how Lord Holy Spirit is the Life-Giver for God’s Love, Redemption, Grace, Hope, and Glory.

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