The Doctrine of Christ

LESSON THIRTY-THREE The Spirit of God in the Old and New Creation

1. The Spirit of God acted a part in the original creation. Genesis 1:2; Job 33:4; 26:13; Psalm 33:6; Isaiah 40:12, 13. TDOC 85.1

2. A creative and life-giving power is manifested through the Spirit of God. Psalm 104:29, 30; Job 27:3; 32:8; Ezekiel 37:9, ARV, margin; Genesis 2:7; John 6:63, first clause, ARV; 2 Corinthians 3:6, last clause, ARV; Romans 8:2; John 3:5. TDOC 85.2

3. The same one who breathed the breath of life in the original creation, breathes the Holy Spirit in the new creation. John 20:22. TDOC 85.3

4. As mediator in his ministry in the heavenly sanctuary, Christ imparts the Holy Spirit as the recreating agent. Hebrews 8:1, 2; Acts 2:32, 33; John 15:26. TDOC 85.4

NOTES: Life In the Spirit

“The impartation of the Spirit is the impartation of the life of Christ.” Gospel Workers, 285. TDOC 85.5

“In his intimate union with his Son, the Holy Spirit is the unique organ by which God wills to communicate to man His own life, the supernatural life, the divine life.” TDOC 85.6

The recreating Spirit

“The Spirit recreates.”-Id., 287. TDOC 85.7

“As God in creation breathed into man the breath of life and he became a living soul, so the Lord Jesus, by the word of his mouth, which is the breath of life, recreates man and makes him alive unto God. And not life only, but likeness as well, is thus imparted.” TDOC 85.8

“The special work of the Spirit in creation is in harmony with his work in grace. This principle is distinctly recognized by the apostle Paul, when he says to the Corinthians, God who commanded the light to shine out of darkness bath shined in our hearts, to give the light of the j knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. In the old creation he did so, as we have seen, by the Spirit, and in the new creation it is the same. The parallel between the two works of the Spirit holds extensively. He perfected the creation, and he perfects redemption.” TDOC 85.9

The God of nature

“Many theories would lead minds to suppose that nature was a self-sustaining agency apart from the Deity, having its own inherent power with which to work. In this men do not know what they are talking about. Do they suppose that nature has a self-existing power without the continual agency of Jehovah! The Lord does not work through his laws to supersede the laws of nature. He does his work through the laws and properties of his instruments, and nature obeys a Thus said the Lord.” TDOC 86.1

“The God of nature is perpetually at work. His infinite power works unseen, but manifestations appear in the effects which the word produces.”-Testimonies for the Church 6:186. TDOC 86.2

The crowning blessing

“His enthronement as King in the kingdom of God must precede the full restoration of the great gift of the Holy Spirit of God, man’s true, man’s highest life. For that great result, that crowning blessing, was to be at once the fruit of the all-prevailing intercession of the great High Priest in the true, the heavenly sanctuary.” TDOC 86.3