water of life
The Spirit of Life in Christ Jesus
By Linda Rex
I spent a large portion of my early years believing the Holy Spirit was merely God’s essence and power, and not a Person who I could come to know and have a relationship with. In fact, the idea of talking to the Spirit or having a conversation even with Jesus was considered inappropriate. All my prayers were directed to the Father in the name of Jesus Christ.
Any mention of the Holy Spirit in my prayers came about only because I felt it was necessary to occasionally ask God for more of his Spirit so I could have better behavior and stop doing stupid stuff. I understood there was God the Father and Jesus his Son, and they were a family I could be a part of if I worked hard enough and qualified to belong. I believed the Holy Spirit was something God would pour out or withhold according to how well I behaved or just according to his own preference, which could change on a whim.
When it was brought to my attention how in the Bible the Spirit is repeatedly shown to have all the attributes of personhood, and was spoken of by Jesus himself as being another Helper just like himself, a light went on in my mind and heart. Could this be true? Is the Spirit another One just like Jesus and the Father? Do they live together in a oneness in which each is distinct and equal? Is the Spirit Someone I can have a relationship with?
Coming to this place in my understanding was critical to being able to understand God’s grace and love toward me. I had been denying the personhood of the One who is instrumental in enabling each of us to awaken to faith, the One who makes possible our participation in the finished work of Christ. I had objectified the One who enables us to see the Father and the Son—the Spirit unites us to Christ, enabling us to participate in Christ’s intimate relationship with his Abba.
Over the years as I have grown in my relationship with the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, I have come to see more and more how I had traded in real love and grace for empty religion. I learned how to be very religious from an early age, and it appalls me to hear someone still tell me today I’m very religious.
I don’t like being called a religious person because I don’t want to be religious—I want to be rightly related, to God and to others. There is a difference. I don’t want to work hard at being good enough. I don’t want to be constantly striving to win my Father’s approval. What I want is to rest in God’s amazing grace, and in his unconditional love and acceptance.
I want to be actively participating in a personal, intimate relationship with the Father, Son, and Spirit in which I am trusting in the perfect work of Jesus Christ—in that which he did in his life, death, resurrection and ascension—in the work he is actively completing in each of us today by the Holy Spirit he sent from the Father. The Holy Spirit is bringing to completion in us individually what Christ accomplished for us, in our place, on our behalf in our humanity.
I realize part of this process of growing up in Christ requires my participation. Participation is a lot different than being religious, or working hard or striving to win God’s love and approval. Participation is a sharing—where Christ is in us and we are in him, and we are in the Father and the Father is in us. This is the Person of the Holy Spirit uniting us together in harmony and oneness—a beautiful perichoretic relationship—a mutual indwelling. This is life together in a beautiful give and take, an ongoing conversation, a perilous yet joyful and thrilling journey.
Today I don’t ask for more of the Spirit. I pray to him (and the Father and the Son). The Spirit is a Person, a beautiful, amazing Being, who fully indwells me. He doesn’t split himself up into thirds, fourths, or sixteenths. He just is. And he is present. I can shove him away, resist him, reject him and even try to quench him. But in the end, he is still present—for his is the Breath who sustains me and the Water of Life I need to exist, both physically and spiritually.
The Spirit woos me, invites me deeper and deeper into this perichoretic relationship God has called me into. He opens my mind to a deeper understanding of who God is, and therefore, as one made in his image, who I am. He enables me to know the depths of Abba’s heart, and the love of Jesus.
He gives me the capacity to understand and be sensitive to those to whom I am normally indifferent. He gives me the heart to love those who are cruel and insensitive—and enables me to bear up under difficulty and sorrow. Sometimes he gives me a sense of what will happen in the near future, preparing me so I can bear what is coming.
And sometimes the Spirit just gives me the pleasure of a word of affirmation or inspiration in my mind and heart which I am needing in that particular moment. He is able to do this because he knows and understands the depths of my heart and mind—he is the Spirit, and discerns things about my spirit, my heart, and my mind I don’t even recognize. He is the Spirit of Jesus Christ, the One who took on my humanity and lived the life I was meant to live, and who died my death. The Spirit is one with Jesus who lives in me.
This indeed is the mystery of godliness—Christ in us, the hope of glory. Today I live and walk in Christ because I live and walk in the Spirit. The Father, Jesus, and the Spirit are one, so I live and walk each moment of my life within the embrace of the Triune God. I cannot escape this—for Christ has united his being with our humanity. And the Spirit is drawing me into the fullness of Christ’s glory. What a wonderful present and future I have in this relationship!
My faith was so empty in comparison with this. I am extremely grateful to God for awakening me to this life in Christ Jesus. I still struggle, for it is much easier to slide back into religious doing than it is to rest, trusting fully in Jesus to finish his perfect work in me by his Spirit. I still fall asleep on occasion, and have to be reawakened to the reality of what God has done for me in Christ and what he is doing in me by his Holy Spirit. But I can and do rest in the completed work of Christ and trust in Abba’s faithfulness, for he will not quit until I fully reflect the perfected humanity I was meant to bear.
Dear Holy Spirit, thank you for continuing to point us to the Father and the Son, and for making them and yourself real to us day by day. Please finish the work you have begun in us so that we might fully reflect the glory of the Lord we were meant to bear. Thank you, Abba, you will never quit until we are all what you meant for us to be in your creation and your redemption, through Jesus our Lord, and by your Spirit. Amen.
“But when He, the Spirit of truth, comes, He will guide you into all the 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 to come. He will glorify Me, for He will take of Mine and will disclose it to you. All things that the Father has are Mine; therefore I said that He takes of Mine and will disclose it to you.” John 16:13–15 NASB
“The one who keeps His commandments abides in Him, and He in him. We know by this that He abides in us, by the Spirit whom He has given us.” 1 John 3:24 NASB
“… the mystery which has been hidden from the past ages and generations, but has now been manifested to His saints, to whom God willed to make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory. We proclaim Him, admonishing every man and teaching every man with all wisdom, so that we may present every man complete in Christ.” Colossians 1:26–28 NASB
“Without the distinct and inseparable gracious ministry of the Holy Spirit, we could not and we would not participate—we would and could not share in Christ’s own (vicarious) responses of repentance, faith, hope and love for God and receive his grace given to us. Our salvation requires the ministry of all three Persons of the Trinity and all three moments of God’s saving action towards us, each contributing to the one whole will, purpose and accomplishment of our salvation.” Dr. Gary Deddo, “Clarifying our Theological Vision”, Pt. 3.
The Chemistry of Life
by Linda Rex
As part of her homeschool program I have been studying chemistry with my daughter. To tell the truth, I’ve figured out for sure I still do not care very much for chemistry—physics and astronomy are the types of sciences I’m more comfortable with. But I am finding there are interesting parallels between the sciences and theology. And I believe God meant it to be this way.
I was first introduced to the idea of science and theology being interrelated by John McKenna during my studies with Grace Communion Seminary. This was when I was first introduced to the works of Thomas F. Torrance, who wrote specifically on this topic in a number of ways. I especially appreciated works such as “Space, Time and Resurrection”, “Divine and Contingent Order”, and “Theological and Natural Science”, as well as his book on theological science. They were heavy reading at first, but once I got my head around what Torrance was trying to say, I was amazed.
Dr. McKenna too helped me to see how over the centuries science impacted theology and theology impacted science. The deeper I went into these studies, the more I could see how God has slowly but surely directed humanity into a deeper understanding of who he is and how we live in relationship with him and one another. I have no doubt this working out of God’s purposes has taken place due to the efforts of Jesus Christ through his Spirit.
And it has taken place in spite of us, for humanity has, over the centuries, shown itself to be much more inclined to destruction, slavery and inhumanity than it has been toward coming to a deeper knowing and loving of God and human beings. And yet there is this spark of life which still permeates our existence. There is a slow working out here and there of an understanding of the value of human beings and their infinite diversity, the reality we do not live just for ourselves, and an appreciation of the beautiful world we have been given to live in.
Today scientists and mathematicians, interestingly enough, are seeing the importance of relationships and interrelatedness in almost every area of science, as they probe deeper into the mysteries of the intricate building blocks of the universe and immensity of the expanse of the cosmos. And I personally feel they should be finding this, because all God has made reflects the wonder and beauty of his being. If God, as Father, Son and Spirit, is relational, intricately intertwined in a perichoretic relationship of mutual indwelling—then it only makes sense these things should show up when we look deeply into all God has made.
I would not consider myself to be a scientist. Nor would I consider myself to be a theologian. But there are times when I am struck by the way those things God has made point us to him.
The other day I was helping again with chemistry, doing some odd experiment with my daughter, and my mind went off on one of its squirrel hunts about water, one of the basic building blocks of life on this planet. I knew water is made up of two hydrogen atoms and one oxygen atom (H2O). I’d been reading recently about how scientists have been looking for water on Mars as proof of there being life, or the possibility of life, on the planet. And they finally found some.
Well, off my mind went. Karl Barth in his “Church Dogmatics” points out certain theologians describe the Being of God in such a way that we see the Father loves the Son in the Spirit and the Son loves the Father in the Spirit. The Spirit, being the Ruach (Hebrew) or Breath of God, who proceeds from the Father through the Son (Greek Orthodox) or from the Father and the Son (Western) is the Love of God poured out on humanity, so we can share in this intimate relationship between the Father and the Son.
So, following my squirrel hunt, if the Breath of God, this Ruach, is poured out from the Father and the Son, then this is the living water, which flows from the throne of God (see Ezekiel 47 and Revelation 22)—the H2O—the Father, Son and Ruach. Scientists say without water, there cannot be life. But the reality is without the Father, Son and Spirit—there is no life.
It is God who breathes life into us, and it is God who sustains us. The Ruach or divine Oxygen is Who gives us life, and the Father and Son have made God’s Being a part of our being now, because Christ came and took on our humanity. The Life of the Father, Son, and Spirit is connected with us at the core of our existence. We have our life, both physical and spiritual, in the “breathing in and out”, in the Ruach of the Father and Son.
I watched my mother struggle for her last breaths—it was hard to watch. All the medicines in the world, even the oxygen pumped into her nostrils, could not ensure she would keep breathing. And the reason was, God had decided it was her time to die.
Those who work in the health professions, especially in emergency medicine, can tell you, if they are willing, it is impossible to keep someone alive when it is their time to die. And it is impossible for someone to die, when God has determined they are to live. Life and death are not something we have complete control over—even though we spend millions of dollars every year trying to obtain some control over whether or not we live or die.
We do our best. We create incredible medications and medical treatments in an effort to lengthen life or restore good health. This is not necessarily a bad thing in and of itself—in many ways it is a participation in God’s efforts to bring health and healing to the suffering. But we must always beware of our tendency to play God. There is only one Water of Life, and it’s not us. We are not ordained to give and take life—God is—for he is Life, he is Breath. He is our H2O.
And he has determined the end of this life is not the final end. He has determined to share eternity with us. Trust in the marvel of Living Water—God has given us himself, in his Son Jesus Christ and in his Spirit—the Breath of God Who breathes real life into us, taking us into the heart of the Father and Son relationship, where we are welcome to live forever. May we trust in Christ and his work, and receive this amazing Gift of Living Water, through Jesus, our Lord. Amen.
I thank you, Heavenly Father, for your gift of life through your Son Jesus Christ and in your Spirit. Breathe into us new life, and a new understanding of Who you are and who we are in you. Grant us the grace to trust fully in your Gift of life, and to allow you to wash us through the Water of your Word, so we may fully reflect your glory. In your Name as Father, Son and Ruach, we pray. Amen.
“You hide Your face, they are dismayed; you take away their spirit, they expire and return to their dust. You send forth Your Spirit, they are created; and You renew the face of the ground.” Psalm 104:29–30 NASB
Our Life in the Trinity 