JESUS, THE LIFE-GIVING SPIRIT

And so it is written, “The first man Adam became a living being. The last Adam became a life-giving spirit. (1 Corinthians 15:45 NKJV)

 Are you, my friend, in the first Adam or the second? It is a vital question, and it would well repay you to put aside all else in order to give a considered answer to this question. You ask for the fundamental difference between the first Adam and the second. The Apostle states it clearly in this chapter from which our text is taken. The contrast between the two is the soul-life of the first and the Spirit-life of the second. This is the distinction which Jesus made at the beginning of His ministry, and it pervades the New Testament. The sphere of Christianity is the realm of the spirit. Its object is to lift man from the soul-level to the spirit-level.

The soul is the center of our personality. It is you, or I, or any other person! From it we look on two worlds. To the material world we are related by the organs of touch, sight, smell, taste and hearing. To the eternal world we are related by the organs of the spirit, which are probably identical with the lower. We have the option of descending by the spiral staircase downward to materialism, or of ascending upward to fellowship with God. Unfortunately, we too often descend to the lure of the savory pottage, instead of climbing the ladder which reaches to Heaven.

It is clear that we must die to the self-life, to the promptings, suggestions and solicitations of the ego, which is entrenched in the soul. Self is the root of our alienation from the life of God. All the evils of fallen angels and man have their birth in the pride of self. On the other hand, all the blessedness of the heavenly life is within our reach, when the self-life is nailed to the cross of Jesus.

How is this self-life to be brought to death? Only by our identification with the cross on which Jesus died. We were nailed there in the purpose of God, and we must accept that position and extract its help by a living faith. It was by the Eternal Spirit that Jesus offered Himself unto God, and it is by that same Spirit that we, too, may say: "I have been crucified with Christ; nevertheless I live, yet not I, but Christ lives in me." There must be an exchange of lives, from the self-life to the life of the crucified and ascended Savior, communicated by the Holy Spirit.

PRAYER

Father God, I am Your servant, prepared for all things; for I desire not to live unto myself, but unto You; that I could do it worthily and perfectly! In Jesus' name I pray this, AMEN.

God's Daily Promise

Promise #319:
I will comfort you with My everlasting encouragement.

2 Thessalonians 2:16-17 (WEB)
16 Now our Lord Jesus Christ himself, and God our Father,
who loved us and gave us eternal comfort and good hope through grace,
17 comfort your hearts and establish you in every good work and word.