Person & Work of the Holy Spirit

We are in Lesson 24 of the Book of the Holy Spirit. We blew through half of Question 2 last week. I think we got through. Then this is on. Of course, in fact, there are quite a bit on page one or four lists the previous subjects covered up like that. I like to go back because we get so myopically focused on individual pieces as we go. It's nice to go back and kind of take a look at the forest through the trees there.

So we got down to, I believe. where about sanctification, we talked about sanctification and I think the last thing is when we got down to what anointing was and what sealed meant and I think the last thing is we got down to the definition and therefore to be sanctified and anointed by the Holy Spirit is to be set apart solemnly for a purpose and declared or made sacred. My question here was, can you understand that of yourselves?

That you are sanctified and anointed by the Holy Spirit. That means to be set apart solemnly for a purpose and declared or made sacred. So that's what we are, anointed and sealed in the Holy Spirit. The next one we looked at was the Holy Spirit in prayer and our walking in the Spirit. That was the next topic that we covered. looking at Romans 8, 26 through 27.

I'll read it. In the same way, the Spirit also helps our weakness. For we do not know how to pray as we should, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words. And he who searches the hearts knows what the mind of the Spirit is, because he intercedes for saints according to the will of God. I love that one. But the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words. So when you're struggling to pray for something, or you just don't think you have the right words, or you just don't know what, it doesn't matter. The Holy Spirit intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words. I find that incredibly comforting.

I think I've said this before in Brethren Church, a lot of times, the first meeting was a time of sharing and prayer and that. And I was always, when I was a young Christian, I'd hear these eloquent men who would pray these great and eloquent prayers. And I felt very, I don't know, hindered or limited because I could never meet, you know, there to be like them in these eloquent prayers. After a while I thought, that is so stupid. Who am I trying to impress, number one? Who am I talking to? I'm not talking to them. And then, as you understand the intimacy with God, I say this a bunch.

Do you go to your father's home point, if they're alive or whatever, and did you talk in great eloquent thou shalt and thee and ooh that ooh in high terms? I never went to my father like that. And so, in prayer, I just, it's like, we have that intimacy. Abba Father, Daddy, we have that intimacy with the God of the universe to speak in open, normal terms. And that helps so much between thinking of who I'm praying to. I'm not praying to people. I'm praying to the Father.

And I have that intimacy with Him. But then combine this with it. Even whatever I say is being taken by the Holy Spirit and brought before the Father. Wow! What am I worried about in prayer? I don't have to worry about the perfect words, the perfect thing. Am I saying it? Do I have the right to come and ask Him for this? I can ask him for anything. The answer may be no. The answer may be wait. The answer may be maybe. The answer may be a lot of different things. But I don't have an issue with going before the Lord.

Because he's intimately concerned with us. And then whatever I say is taken up by the Holy Spirit. The last part of that is the interesting part where we have to understand the answers. He intercedes for us saying what? According to the will of God. So when I ask for that portion, that shiny portion, that may be what I ask for, but that may not be the will of God for me. And so the answer could be no and wait or, you know, we pray for Mary and the knee or whatever, those different things. The answer may be, Wait, the answer may be she's going to use this in a way or... The answer doesn't have to be what we ask for. And that's the thing that this last part, he intercedes according to the will of God. God has a plan for us. But I also link this to the part that we can't be separated from his love. So, whatever he's doing, even if we're in a trial, it's in love.

So, I just find that very comforting, in a prayer form, that we don't have to worry about the words that we say. If you can be open, honest, you might as well be, you know your part anyhow. And just be at peace or rest in praying to the Father, because the Holy Spirit's going to take that.

The next one is, in all church truth, the Spirit gives the headship to Christ. In baptism, he puts us into the body of which Christ is head. The unity of the Spirit is to make practical the unity of the body. The gifts of the Spirit are from Christ in glory, administered down here, worshipped exclusively to the Father and the Son.

So, the next one we touched on was the unity of the body. So, what is the unity of the body? That was from Lesson 15, if you want to go back. What is unity of the body? Unity of the church? I don't know. Indirectly, because the church is the body of Christ. So what does the unity of the body mean? We're all filled with the spirit. OK. All filled with the spirit. That's kind of ancillary to So what is the unit, what is the body of Christ mean?

Boy, we're going to have to go back to the identification truths class really fast. What is the body of the head? What is the body of the head? Christ is the head. That sounds like a horror movie. The being of one body means that since we're baptized into Christ, death, burial, resurrection, ascension and so on, that we're unified under him, so Christ is the head.

Where are we placed positionally now? In heaven. Where? In Christ. In Christ, yeah. So, that's what I'm saying, getting back to the identification truth, the unity of the body is based on where we're placed right now. Where positionally are all of us who are believers? We are placed in Christ. Right?

So, we've been co-crucified in Romans 6.6, positionally separated from our Adamic legs, and placed, baptized in Romans 6.3 into Christ. So we are part of one unity body, the body of Christ. So then why would the Holy Spirit be working on that if that's where we already are? Because the next So, positionally, we are there.

So, once in the body, can we ever get out of the body of Christ? No. So, what is the unity of the Spirit? That's an answer to your question. So, what is the unity of the Spirit? Positionally, we can't get out of the body of Christ. No way. Once placed in, we're there. Positionally, that's how God sees us forever now, in Christ. So, now we have the unity of the spirit. What is that? Is that then conforming us to the image of Christ while we're here?

Partly. Unity of the spirit. We're all one in the spirit. We're one in the spirit. I'm trying to see how that, I mean that's more positional, that's our body, our position in the body of Christ. Is is the unity of the spirit positional? OK, well, we're going to have this democratically. We're going to see the chickens and those who actually. So is that is the unity of the spirit positional?

Yes, we're all well. Oh, no, I said this should be through faith. So the Holy Spirit had something to do with that though. So are you always in the Spirit? Walking in the Spirit? What do you mean by that? Are you always walking in the Spirit? Yes. I've got something to say.

You are always walking in the Spirit? No. When you're replaced into Christ as part of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost, you're still operating within the Spirit. And once you've been baptized into Christ, you're in that same company that they are. So every second of the day you're walking in the Spirit. So you've never sinned again, you've never...

Positionally. That's positionally. Positionally we're in Christ. Unity in the Spirit is a different thing. Conditionally. I have to say I've got something here. Unity is conditional fellowship. It's conditional. The unity in the Spirit is conditional. We'll go over some verses on this. That's why I said we've got to separate between the unity of the body and the unity of the spirit. Unity of the body is positional.

We have been placed in the Christ. Can't ever be changed. We have been separated. The cross co-crucified and placed in the Christ. But do we always walk in fellowship with the spirit? So is the unity of spirit positional? Positional means never to change. Right? Position means never to change. It's conditional.

And we'll go into some of that. The unity of the spirit is conditional. That means our walk is not always in unity with the spirit. From the Ephesians 4 passage, Paul says that he implores you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling which you have been called. That is a conditional statement. That means as opposed to the unity of the body, positional, unchangeable, the unity of the spirit is conditional or changeable. So the main difference between the unity of the body and the unity of the spirit is one is positional and one is conditional.

We all okay with that? Okay. That's a key thing about, especially identification, the unity of the body is we can never get out of that. We've been co-crucified at the cross positionally. placed into Christ, never to be changed. But there's lots of instances where Paul says, I implore you to walk. If you implore, that means you sometimes do not walk. So that is a conditional statement. And there's a bunch of things we can look at about where it says, walking the spirit, walking the flesh. So unity of the spirit is a conditional. Everybody good with that? Yeah. All right. I also might repeat the same and what occupied us next, which is the spirit of power. Paul calls it the power of Christ.

And it connects it as we saw with the risen and ascended Lord. And we've just noted the connection in the last lesson before these about the connection between the scripture and him who is called the word. So that was the last one. We looked at the scriptures and how they were in accordance with the Spirit. They are divinely inspired. Remember all that and how we liked all that. So I think Rydad has a statement at the end.

So it is no exaggeration to say that the one work of the Spirit in every connection is to present Christ before us, to magnify Him in our eyes, in order that our lives may be conformed to him and the praise of heaven be anticipated." So that was his kind of summary statement at the end of all that. When we look back at all the things that the Spirit is doing, a lot of it, remember the other, I think I went through that verse, about what is the purpose of the helper? What was the purpose of the Holy Spirit? Kind of a summary statement.

To glorify Christ. So when you do that, that encompasses everything. All of his work, everything. Everything he does is to glorify Christ. So that's, I think, right as a summary statement, but I think that's according to scripture that's what the Holy Spirit is here to do to glorify him, to glorify Christ.

Isn't the Holy Spirit also the comforter? Oh yeah, and that's again on our side. And for Christ too actually, comforting him I'm sure during all of his trials and going through that. He's a comforter too, he was in dwelling. So yeah, the verses talk about the helper, the comforter. We'll touch on that a little bit later, that it was actually better for Christ to leave. Why? Because we get the Comforter, the Holy Spirit. Okay, question three. Before Christ's incarnation, did he speak to man through the Spirit? Yes. And he knows? Okay.

We can look at 1 Peter 3, 18 and 20. 1 Peter 3.18-20 For Christ also died for sin once for all, for the just and the unjust, so that he might bring us to God, having been put to death in the flesh, but made alive in the spirit, in which he also went and made proclamation to the spirits now in prison, who once were disobedient, when the patience of God kept waiting in the days of Noah, during the construction of the ark, in which a few, that is, eight persons, were brought safely through the water." He went and made proclamation.

This is in Noah's time. In Noah's day there were scoffers, but Christ went in that day and preached by the Spirit, the same Spirit in or through whom he was quickened. He is present with us now just as he was present in Noah's day by the Holy Spirit who represents him. So again, in Noah's time he spoke through the Spirit at that point for all the people who were telling him what he had built a big boat for. So he was talking to the scoffers through the spirit at that point. And then right up later says, Christ went in the spirit in the days of Noah and preached to the man whose spirits are now in prison.

The spirit was his representative and executor. So again, that's where... Executor? executor, excuse me, executor of his purpose, I thought. He executed the plan. His spirit is representing an executor. Sorry about that. Even in the Old Testament, the prophets would come and they would be filled by the spirit and speak out because the prophets would speak. This is actually Christ being represented through the Spirit. Actually, they're spelled the same I think.

Executioner. Executioner. Executioner. Executioner. Executioner. Executioner. Executioner. Executioner. Executioner. effort, you know, and all I could think of was execution. It was really bad. They didn't see it, they were all engineers. Exactly. Exactly. All right, question four.

In Psalm 42, 16, 40, and 69, and a bunch of others, who is speaking? So I'll read a couple of these verses. Psalm 22, 1. My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Psalm 22, 16. For dogs have surrounded me, a band of evildoers have encompassed me. They pierced my hands and my feet. Psalm 16, 10. For you will not abandon my soul to Sheol, nor will you allow your Holy One to undergo decay.

So, who is speaking in this? All right. Holy pre-incarnate Christ, pre-incarnate Christ. Yeah. Through the spirit is is. I mean, when you read these, I think it's unmistakable who who is being referenced here. You know, my hands and my feet. They pierce my hands and my feet. You will not allow your holy one to undergo decay. I mean, that's three days, you know, all these different things.

So Psalm 21, I go back on that one. Psalm 21 evidently refers to what Peter has called the sufferings of Christ and the glories that should follow. But he noted it is Christ himself who is speaking all through the psalm and not merely the spirit. So he goes on also to say, I might go on quoting one psalm after another in this write up, to show not mere inspiration, but if I may speak, impersonation. It is a wonderful subject to trace Christ speaking throughout the psalms by the spirit.

You'll find this manifestly in such Psalms as the 40th, 69th, and 109th. So, if you look in the 40th, we see him as the burnt offering raised up from the dead. In the 69th, as the trespass offering, suffering for wrong, not his own. And in the 109th, he's suffering at man's hands. So, all these ones you can look at, and it's a clear representation of Christ. You can also look at Psalms 17 and 18 to see Christ is the suffering one.

So throughout the Psalms, Christ is speaking basically through the Spirit, through the psalmist, and giving exactly what's going to happen, what's going to transpire. There's no question that Christ is speaking through the psalmist to represent what's going to happen, a foretelling of what's going to happen. I always wonder about that too. When it got to the actual crucifixion, when actually, I answered my own question, it's the Holy Spirit. Remember, he says he'll bring all things to remembrance, that he will bring all things. And I think once Christ was crucified, because they couldn't understand what was going on. They all split. They went left, right, and high.

But I think afterwards, the Holy Spirit, through the indwelling after Pentecost, it revealed these things. The psalmist was talking about Christ. And I think it made it alive to them, all the Psalms that were now coming, I think the Spirit revealing that to them, that oh yeah, my hands and my feet were pierced. They knew the Psalms, they knew all these things. But I don't think they ever made the connection until after with the Holy Spirit. That brought that to their remembrance.

That all these things were referencing and pointing to Christ. So there are lots of, you can look in a lot of the Psalms and it's definitely references with Christ. my hands and my feet. You know, it amazes me today that even the Jews who know the Bible, you know, they've studied and studied and studied the Old Testament, don't connect that with Christ.

Their eyes are truly blinded, aren't they? Oh, yeah. You know, well, I mean, I always, you know, we get judgmental about the Jews. I look in the mirror. How long did I deny things? You know, I mean, I have the Scripture, I have the history, I have all that. How long did I deny? So I can throw stones all day at the Jews and they can look at it, but I looked at it too.

I was raised in an Episcopal church and there was nothing about a personal relationship. I looked at the scriptures, I quoted a lot of these scriptures going through confirmation. And yet there was nothing about a personal relationship and having to know Christ. And so I had all the scripture.

But that again goes to our topic of the Holy Spirit. Who is convicting and convincing? It's the Holy Spirit working on us. It may take 18 or 19 before I knew the Lord. Some have been 60 years, 80 years before the Lord has convicted and convinced them of the truths of the Bible.

So we can look at all this. Yeah, it's a living word. That's what I always liked about you, Ed. We've said this many times. It's a really good word. You've read a passage 59 times on the 60th time. It's like, wow! Well, the Holy Spirit got us to that point where we can now understand and accept that truth. All right, question five.

What is suggested by the expression, the Spirit of Christ? The Holy Spirit is spoken of in prophecy. In much of the Old Testament prophecy the speaking is spoken of as messianic. Referring to the Messiah or Christ. The Holy Spirit is spoken in the prophets and he spoke for and in many cases as of Christ. Good. Other thoughts? I said the Holy Spirit was to exhibit Christ. Exhibit and glorify? Any other thoughts? I put prophesying Christ's death and his life, death and resurrection. Okay, good. These are all part of it. So the Spirit of Christ. So what is that expression? You've kind of touched on it a little bit.

What does it mean to be the spirit of Christ? The spirit exalts Christ and Christ is speaking by the spirit. That's what he said. There is no right or wrong answer. I look at it as the spirit of Christ. Spirit modifies Christ. I look at it as the spirit and Christ glorify All these terms that you've said, that's what the Spirit of Christ is. It's the expression, the glorification, all these different things you've talked about. The Spirit of Christ is that.

I also, the previous questions have noted the unity between Christ and the Holy Spirit. The pre-incarnate Christ spoke through the Spirit. Also when the Holy Spirit was given at Pentecost, remember what Christ spoke about the Holy Spirit. So he would come and all the different things, the Spirit of Christ. I also look at John 16, 13-15. And this is the one I was referencing earlier. John 16, 13-15.

When He, the Spirit of Truth, comes, He will guide you into all truth. He will not speak on His own initiative, but whatever He hears, He will speak. And He will disclose to you what is to come. He will glorify Me, for He will take of Mine and disclose it of you.

The Spirit, well it's almost your verse, your verse, 2 Corinthians 3.18. It's a mirror. And the Spirit is a mirror of Christ, taking from Him. He will take of mine and will disclose it. And He's not taking anything else. He doesn't, He takes of what is the Father and what is the Christ, and that's what He discloses.

But they're not two different entities. Yeah, they're three. Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit. I know that, I know that. But they're all on. Yeah. It's the infamous question of the triune God and trying to explain that. But there's so many ways to try to get that analogy. Three distinct individuals. Right. One Godhead. Right. The only way I in my own limited brain have figured this out.

I'm a water guy. So, of course, I've got to figure what it's like. My real estate analogies, I'm water. How does water exist? Vapor, fluid, and ice. It's all the same. It's water. But it exists as ice, it exists as a fluid, and it exists as a vapor. It's all water. But it's three different manifestations of the same. So that's my best analogy of the Trinium God.

The unity of life is manifested by the Spirit through Christ and through the Father both. So water, no matter what form it shows up in, is essentially the same compound. The Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are different persons, but they are the same life. And the Holy Spirit is the one who manifests that life.

It is very hard to try and talk about a triune God. That's my engineering analysis of it. Like I said, it's all water, same compound, same everything, but it exists in three different forms. And that's my best analogy of how the Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit are same, but manifest in three different ways. I don't know if I can say this, but I'm going to try.

It seems like God is Spirit, the Holy Spirit Spirit, but the Spirit of Christ is necessary for us as human beings. You know what I mean? Like the Spirit working through us because Christ became man, then It was kind of like a different spirit was kind of needed for our benefit. No, I mean, for us to be able to sort of understand it. I look back to the verse we just said.

The Spirit will guide you in all truth, for he will not speak on his own initiative, but whatever he hears, he will speak, and he will disclose to you what is coming. He will glorify me, for he will take a mind and disclose it to you. Remember all the things we also said, he's to convict, convince, all these things, all the things we just went in question two here, that's all of what he does here. The Holy Spirit has many different functions and many different expressions.

He's expressed through He indwelt inspired those writers. That's one aspect of Him. He's to convict and convince us. That's another aspect. He is to be the Spirit of Christ. As I was saying, I think it's like a mirror. He's to represent because He takes of Christ and presents it. He's also to glorify Him.

All those different things are aspects of the Holy Spirit. Again, the base goes back to He will glorify me. Everything is done to do that. Isn't it like for us? Not only him, he's to glorify the Father. I know, for all of us to be able to be conformed.

That's what I'm saying, one portion of all that he's doing is to convince, be the bearer. When you look at the roles of the three persons of the Godhead, the Father and the Holy Spirit are pure spirit, unknowable by us. except for the fact that the Lord Jesus is the word of God and he was the one person of the Godhead designated to be the person through which we as humans would know who God was, because without him we wouldn't. we would be able, like the Holy Spirit, you'd be able to see the effects of what he's done, but you wouldn't be able to know him personally. And so John 1 says that in the beginning was the Word, the Word is the expression of who God is, and the Spirit's job is to express Christ so that we can know him. And by knowing him we know God the Father and the Spirit because they are the same life.

Perfect. Thank you Mike. That's what I was trying to say. But I also see that from the Holy Spirit's work is in many facets. But the interesting thing about the Holy Spirit's work is that it's never self-focused. His work is Christ only. There's never a time you will find that the Spirit of God wants you to focus on Him. Never. It's always on Christ. That's why this verse. And you will speak nothing of except what he takes of mine. That's why I say he's almost a mirror. He's to reflect and only take of Christ and present that. It's nothing of... Yeah, do you ever pray to the Holy Spirit? No. Never? No. Never.

So, yeah. And again, the functions and the different expressions of the triune God, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Christ was sent to be here. Fully man, fully God. And to what? To be able to place us into him, to make that transition out of Adam and into Christ. So we could be with him forever.

This is really apropos for me because I'm going to be with my number two son. all day tomorrow and I was even praying before I came to church for the Lord to give me wisdom because he cannot understand it and he absolutely rebels he thinks Jesus is trying to supersede God and you know I know but and I think too is this wrong to say like we have one government We have the executive branch, we have the judicial branch.

Don't go there, I don't want to see that analogy. I'll unleash on that one. There's an executive branch that's going on. I'm trying to get to the physical part of it. I like your water and snow and ice. I'm not going on the executive, judicial, legislative.

One other part is that the Lord Jesus said when he was here in an answer to his disciples, he said, show us the Father. He said, if you've seen me, you've seen the Father. And again, all of it is to glorify the Father. Christ is to glorify the Father. That's why He is to glorify, the Spirit is to glorify the Father in Christ. So everything still focuses back to the Father. Everything is down here, but everything focuses to glorify the Father.

I was just wondering, early in Jesus' ministry, he'd say, you know, I'm just doing what my father has taught me to do. And he shows me what to do, he tells me what to do, and I just live that life as he directs me. But it's interesting that the Holy Spirit's going to not say anything except that it comes through Jesus. In other words, Christ is just getting his guidance to the father.

Can you help me in that? It's not it's not like Jesus was ignorant. No. And we got a fully God fully man. But when he became a man on the earth, he set his glorious side. And he's a totally dependent man. So he could easily say, I only do what I see my father doing. In other words, I have the same life as him. And as I act it out as a man, I just act out what the father is.

Yeah, it's what I say, you know, we don't have... Christ didn't wake up with a laundry list every day to do, you know, I got to do this, this, this and this. Same with us. What was it? It wasn't a to-do list. It was what? A life. It's a life. He lived because he was fully God, fully man. He knew the Father intimately. He did the Father's will because he knew him. That's who he was and he would do it. Same with us.

It's a life. It's not a to-do list. And that's why to be conformed to the image, that's who we are and that's how we function then. It's not like I've got to do 16 things today. It is a life. I do it because that's who I am in Christ. I'm ignorant. Can you explain to me what life is? Interesting.

You know, to me it is all encompassing of our life in Christ is everything that is represented by Christ is is who we are to be manifesting. And that's why I said to know him, and as I've said many times, Mike, you read the Bible to know who he is. Because if you study and you know who he is, that's who you are, how you act, how you respond, how you function, is by knowing him. And that's, again, the life I would say is... What is physical life? Well, physical life is this stuff. And people who do not know Christ. Physical life is this body. Spiritual life is a different one. Oh, I know that. Yeah.

Okay, if death is separation, and we're separated from God at the fall in Adam, then life is to be rejoined to God through salvation by faith. But she's asking what life is. What it is, I think it's a representation of who you are and who are we. We are in Christ. It's your spirit, isn't it? Yeah, it's a spiritual life, not the physical. Although we can, like Christ, work in this body and manifest Him. But it's really the spiritual life. Because that was the thing at Adam, we were separated. The spiritual life was separated. Well, life comes from God. God breathed into man the breath of lives.

Yeah, but that's using the definition in the definition. That's where I'm trying to get it. How about this? In him was life, and the life is the light of man. Kidding there, I guess. I'm still using, you know, life is life. I know, but that's what I mean. I'm trying to get around a different definition for what life is without using life. Use the word existence. Yeah. And that's what I'm trying to say. But, you know, it's it's it's a manifestation of who you are.

It is life. And, you know, It's living. That's changing the form of the word from life to living, I guess. But then that gets confusing, because then a non-believer could say, I exist, so I'm alive. Yeah, that's a physical versus a spiritual. But she's asking the question, what is life? Life is Christ.

I watched my husband die in my arms. He was there one second, and we're talking, bingo. He was just gone. I've pondered that ever since. How quick? He was still alive though. He just wasn't alive there. I know, I know. But I mean, it was just so iconic. I mean, I still can't fathom it. The life principle left his body so his body stopped moving. It didn't mean that he didn't exist anymore. No, no. In his body, he didn't exist. And as I'm saying, it's a manifestation of that.

It's whether the soul, soul life, and that still If he's in Christ, then he's alive in Christ. But not the physical body here, but the spiritual life. And like I said, I'm getting still around of that. I'm struggling to find out what a definition of life is. To use it not in the definition. I mean, I can say spiritual life versus physical life, but I'm still not explaining what life is. I have to give that some thought to see what that represents.

God breathed into Adam and Adam became a living soul. And so there was no life principle in Adam before God breathed life into him. And so I think that's another aspect of the Holy Spirit is that he is the giver of life. Without him there is no any kind of life anywhere of any sort. But it's still using, you breathe life. What is the definition of life and breathing of life? I'm trying to come up with what that definition is. Animals have life.

But God is the only one with the authority to declare that an entity exists and has a personhood or a being. And that's what I'm trying to get at. That's what I'm saying. It's the essence of who you are. It's the life. And I think our conformity and we're placed into Christ, that's who our life is right now. And that's who we are being transformed, conformed to. And so that life is now our life. What that entails, to get a definition, I'll have to look at that and see. I'll have to think about that. Everyone we've tried, we've used life in the definition. That's not good. That never answers the question, when you lose life.

After separation, we say life is togetherness. If we're all alive, we're together here. But if we're still spiritual, we're together with him. Interesting. Death is separation, so life is unity with Christ. Interesting. If you say we have eternal life in Christ, then those that are outside of Christ would have eternal death? Separation. That always answers the question. Next week I'll get back, I'll research this and get a better definition of what life is. Yes, we have eternal what? Life.

Okay, what is that? You know, this is going to be a horrible analogy. Oh, good. But I like both of your questions. It's like I think what I'm thinking of you is like we've had lots of kitties. My wife and daughter love cats and they'll be like bouncing off the walls and running around and doing stuff.

And then they'll get sick. And all of a sudden they just like he disappeared from her arms. That little animal is just limp. And that thing that bounced off the walls, that part, that living part, it just disappeared. That's a very insightful thing to hear you say that. To see that all of a sudden there's just this limp body. Yeah, you know, and at life, That's physical life we're looking at. That's a different whole world. I have my mom, you know, in front of me, and I know that feeling. But that's physical. And so that's a completely different thing than the spiritual life. And so, you know, I'm struggling.

Life is the God-breathed existence of who we are. That's what he did to Adam. He breathed. Right. He breathes an individual soul. It's a soul that has manifested itself now through a body. But we will all have spiritual bodies and that manifestation of who that life is will come through that body. But it's a manifestation of who we are. It's the best I can come up with. A God-breathed existence.

From Romans 5, if I will quote Paul, maybe that would be a good place to go. Romans 5, the death was separation through the transgression, but through Christ life came with justification. In Romans 5.18 it says, So then as through one transgression there resulted condemnation of all men, even so through one act of righteousness there resulted justification of life to all men. The definition is in life.

No, justification. I can see we're placed in the Christ. That's our life now. That's what that is saying. But if death is separation, just like Erica said, then we're rejoined through the propitiation of sins. Right. Our life is joined to Christ and our life is Christ now. So we're no longer separated. Right.

I'll work on this next week because everybody is using the word life in the definition. How about the power of animation? But that's not using the word to define it. To say that we are rejoined to God is not using the word to define it. The other thing about the word of God is when it equates life with God, Or it uses the word life in the Bible. It's referring to God as life.

And that's what I'm going to look at. What that definition is of life. And that's mainly what I'm going to point at. That's what I want to see. Just the definition. When we say we have justification. I mean, what I'm saying is, you say, just as in the Roman slide, life, whatever you said, but the life is still in that definition. And I understand all the pointing to it, but it's what is life?

So maybe we don't look for a definition of what our lives are. Maybe we look for a definition of what? Who? Or what life is for God? You know what I'm saying? You know, we have gone really on a rabbit trail. It's just the definition of what life is. I will research that. I will know that next week. I think it's really, you know, He's right. What was it? What was that version? Romans 518.

But the Greek, the way that the Greek uses life, it is Zoe. The state of one is possessed of vitality or is animate. And so maybe that, you know, it's animated. I see the manifestation of who you are, that that's the animation or of life. And that's a problem. So and where does that come from? And that all stands. I'm just trying to get what life is.

So it's the animation or manifestation, I think, of who you are, your existence. And God breathed existence into you. So it's all based on God, it's all that. It's just what life is, I think, is the animation or manifestation of life. It says the condition that distinguishes animals and plants, or us, from inorganic matter, including the capacity for growth, reproduction, functional activity, and continual change preceding death. But that's all, that's physical. I know, but that's, I mean, like even spiritual growth, or like spiritual life, you're still growing, and you're still, I don't know.

The old King James used the word quicken. Francis was saying quick. Yeah. We reconverted. Yeah, that's working. So I will look at that and we'll get a quick definition of what life is. We're trying to get off the rabbit trail next week. I like that because those are you know, we use these terms. I like to define all of them. Because we use them all the time. What is sanctification? What is this? What is this glory? All these different terms we use. I think we need to know what they mean when we use them.

So I think that's a great thing to figure out what life is. Because we've talked about that. What is life? It kind of became a living soul. This reminds me of something. My granddaughters were young and I wrote a story. And it was the story of the Triumph God. And everybody said, oh no. But it was just one page long. But I don't know. I wish I could remember what I said. So we'll continue that. We'll move on.

Think about that if you come up with a definition of life. that is not using the term life in it or living or whatever. That's what I'm looking for. is something that says, what's the definition, when you say life, what that means? I'll come up with it, I'll look at the, the Greek will give us some idea of it, but how does that apply to our life in Christ?

I've got to be with a whole 16 members of my family today, and I'm going to bring that group. This is where you get into the large fights and family gatherings, you get into some of these discussions. Anyway, think about that and we'll attack question six I think. Actually, I've got a little bit more on five, but we'll start at six and hopefully get through that next week.

So let's close. Father, we thank you for this time. Father, we thank you any time we can open up your word. Thank you for just giving us the desire to figure out what life is. Life in Christ. We know that is what you have given us. for all who believe we have eternal life in Christ and we thank you for that we thank you that that is eternal that is positional that is something that will never ever change and we rest in that fact and father as we go from here again just give us that peace and understanding that you do love us you have an eternal love for us and you've given us eternal life in your son the Lord Jesus in whom we pray