Tonkawa,
After 3 weeks of looking at the Spirit in the past and present, we now look to the Spirit and the future. Back to the beginning, the Spirit is both Life Giver and Life Sustainer.
John Harrigan writes, “As God created the Heavens and the earth by His Spirit through His word, so He will also renew and re-create them in the age to come.”
We’re fresh into Easter and rightly have resurrection on the mind; the good news about the Holy Spirit, the good news of Him proceeding from the Father and Son, is just that; it’s news of resurrection. Romans 8:11 makes this clear: “If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead (literally, physically, bodily) dwells in you, he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies (literally, physically, bodily) through his Spirit who dwells in you”
On the Day of the Lord, at His coming, our fallen, mortal, susceptible, aching, bodies, will be raised to literal, physical, new life! The Spirit of God is the Spirit of Resurrection!
Jurgen Moltman writes:
“The Spirit of God is the Spirit of Christ, and is as such the Spirit of the resurrection of the dead. The Spirit of the Father and the Son is the divine quickening power of the new creation of all things, the power empowering the rebirth of everything that lives….the Spirit does not draw the soul away from the body, nor does it make the soul hasten toward heaven, leaving this earth behind. It places the whole earthly and bodily person in the daybreak colors of the new earth.”
This is the ultimate work of God’s Spirit; and Easter was a taste, a teaser, of things to come.
Colossians 1 and Revelation 5 tell us that Jesus was the “firstborn” in this way. He, God’s beloved Son, was the first to taste this fruit of resurrection to a body that will never die. As the Spirit of God gave life to Adam in the beginning, so also will the Spirit of God give life to His righteous descendants in the end! And so as believers, Romans 8:29 tells us we’re promised to, by the Spirit’s power, be conformed to the image of His Son; promised to taste the same fruits of resurrection that Jesus tasted on that third day. So what do you want? At the Day of the Lord,“the dead will hear ...
