Breath Of Life
There is life and there is Life. There is animal life, (Bios, in Greek), and there is God-Life, (Zoe, in Greek). There is created life and there is uncreated life. All living creatures have the breath of life, (Gen. 1:30), in that they are alive and breathe, but there is more to life than to just exist. The contrast is best seen in comparing the first Adam to the last Adam. In his first letter to the Corinthians, Paul writes that, “The first man Adam became a living being, (soul), whereas the last Adam, (Jesus), became a life-giving spirit,” (I Cor. 15:45).
The first Adam, man, is limited to the natural. His life is defined by four dimensions. These are: width, height, depth and time. This is his world. His existence is enriched by the fact that he has a soul. The soul, (Psuche, in Greek), is the mind, emotions and will. Instead of just living according to instincts and physical drives, man can appreciate, can reason, feel joy and sorrow and make decisions. Though man bears the image of the “man of dust”, there is a yearning in his heart for more than this “life” can provide.
The last Adam came to give man His life, (Zoe). This is life from heaven. It is spiritual in nature and abundant in dimensions. It is eternal and yet was made manifest in space and time in Jesus Christ. The Scriptures say that Jesus has life in Himself. This means that He is Life. He cannot be anything but life. No one can end His life, or take it from Him, yet, He can give it to whom he desires. As man is reconciled to God through faith in Jesus, he is saved by this God-life. The Spirit of God joins Himself to man’s spirit and he becomes alive with the Life of God. This is being born of the Spirit.
After His resurrection, Jesus met with His disciples and breathed into them His Spirit, (John 20:22). They passed from being just living souls to being spiritually alive. They received the same Spirit that raised Jesus from the dead. This God-life, (Zoe), became as a spring of water, welling up in them to eternal life. A few weeks later, on the day of Pentecost, the Holy Spirit was poured out on them, as promised in the Scriptures. This well of life now became as a flowing river. The Spirit that gave them life now empowered them to go and do His works.
The breath of life comes into man to regenerate and the breath of life also comes over him to activate. This “filling of the Spirit” is like wind in a sail on a boat. The wind must “fill” the sails for the boat to go forward. Being alive with the life of God is one thing and being empowered by His life to do His works is really something. As in the vision of the dry bones, (Ez. 37), the Spirit of God breathed life into the dead bones and then stood them on their feet to be as a mighty army. “Breathe on us, Lord”
Scriptures to meditate on:
John 3:5-8; 4:14; 5:26; 7:38; 10:10; I John 1:1-4; 5:12; I Cor. 6:17-19; 15:45-49; Romans 5:10