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Time and again when the health reports of the different cities of the United States are issued, it has been found that the five healthiest cities in the United States were five cities located on the great lakes.
Many have been surprised at this report when they have visited some of these cities and found that they were far from being the cleanest cities, or most sanitary in their general arrangement, and yet year after year this report has been returned. The explanation is simply this, it is the wind blowing from the lakes that has brought life and health to the cities. Just so when the Spirit ceases to blow in any heart or any church or any community, death ensues, but when the Spirit blows steadily upon the individual or the church or the community, there is abounding spiritual life and health.
(5) Closely related to the foregoing thought, like the wind the Holy Spirit is _life giving_. This thought comes out again and again in the Scriptures. For example, we read in John vi. 63, A. R. V., "It is the Spirit that giveth life," and in 2 Cor. iii. 6, we read, "The letter killeth, but the Spirit giveth life." Perhaps the most suggestive pa.s.sage on this point is Ezek. x.x.xvii. 8, 9, 10, "And when I beheld, lo, the sinews and the flesh came up upon them, and the skin covered them above: but there was _no breath_ in them. Then said He unto me, Prophesy unto _the wind_, prophesy, son of man, and say to _the wind_, Thus saith the Lord G.o.d; Come from the four winds, O breath, and breathe upon these slain, that they may live. So I prophesied as He commanded me, and _the breath came into them, and they lived_, and stood upon their feet, an exceeding great army" (cf. John iii. 5). Israel, in the prophet's vision, was only bones, very many and very dry (vs. 2, 11), until the prophet proclaimed unto them the word of G.o.d; then there was a noise and a shaking and the bones came together, bone to his bone, and the sinews and the flesh came upon the bones, but still there was no life, but when the wind blew, the breath of G.o.d's Spirit, then "they stood up upon their feet an exceeding great army." All life in the individual believer, in the teacher, the preacher, and the church is the Holy Spirit's work. You will sometimes make the acquaintance of a man, and as you hear him talk and observe his conduct, you are repelled and disgusted. Everything about him declares that he is a dead man, a moral corpse and not only dead but rapidly putrefying. You get away from him as quickly as you can. Months afterwards you meet him again. You hesitate to speak to him; you want to get out of his very presence, but you do speak to him, and he has not uttered many sentences before you notice a marvellous change. His conversation is sweet and wholesome and uplifting; everything about his manner is attractive and delightful. You soon discover that the man's whole conduct and life has been transformed. He is no longer a putrefying corpse but a living child of G.o.d. What has happened? The Wind of G.o.d has blown upon him; he has received the Holy Spirit, the Holy Wind. Some quiet Sabbath day you visit a church. Everything about the outward appointments of the church are all that could be desired. There is an attractive meeting-house, an expensive organ, a gifted choir, a scholarly preacher.
The service is well arranged but you have not been long at the gathering before you are forced to see that there is no life, that it is all form, and that there is nothing really being accomplished for G.o.d or for man.
You go away with a heavy heart. Months afterwards you have occasion to visit the church again; the outward appointments of the church are much as they were before but the service has not proceeded far before you note a great difference. There is a new power in the singing, a new spirit in the prayer, a new grip in the preaching, everything about the church is teeming with the life of G.o.d. What has happened? The Wind of G.o.d has blown upon that church; the Holy Spirit, the Holy Wind, has come. You go some day to hear a preacher of whose abilities you have heard great reports. As he stands up to preach you soon learn that nothing too much has been said in praise of his abilities from the merely intellectual and rhetorical standpoint. His diction is faultless, his style beautiful, his logic unimpeachable, his orthodoxy beyond criticism. It is an intellectual treat to listen to him, and yet after all as he preaches you cannot avoid a feeling of sadness, for there is no real grip, no real power, indeed no reality of any kind, in the man's preaching. You go away with a heavy heart at the thought of this waste of magnificent abilities. Months, perhaps years, pa.s.s by and you again find yourself listening to this celebrated preacher, but what a change! The same faultless diction, the same beautiful style, the same unimpeachable logic, the same skillful elocution, the same sound orthodoxy, but now there is something more, there is reality, life, grip, power in the preaching. Men and women sit breathless as he speaks, sinners bowed with tears of contrition, p.r.i.c.ked to their hearts with conviction of sin; men and women and boys and girls renounce their selfishness, and their sin and their worldliness and accept Jesus Christ and surrender their lives to Him. What has happened? The Wind of G.o.d has blown upon that man. He has been filled with the Holy Wind.
(6) Like the wind, the Holy Spirit is _irresistible_. We read in Acts i.
8, "But _ye shall receive power_, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you: and ye shall be witnesses unto Me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost parts of the earth." When this promise of our Lord was fulfilled in Stephen, we read, "And they were _not able to resist_ the wisdom _and the Spirit_ by which he spake." A man filled with the Holy Spirit is transformed into a cyclone. What can stand before the wind? When St. Cloud, Minn., was visited with a cyclone years ago, the wind picked up loaded freight cars and carried them away off the track. It wrenched an iron bridge from its foundations, twisted it together and hurled it away. When a cyclone later visited St. Louis, Mo., it cut off telegraph poles a foot in diameter as if they had been pipe stems. It cut off enormous trees close to the root, it cut off the corner of brick buildings where it pa.s.sed as though they had been cut by a knife; nothing could stand before it; and so, nothing can stand before a Spirit-filled preacher of the Word. None can resist the wisdom and the Spirit by which he speaks. The Wind of G.o.d took possession of Charles G.
Finney, an obscure country lawyer, and sent him through New York State, then through New England, then through England, mowing down strong men by his resistless, Spirit-given logic. One night in Rochester, scores of lawyers, led by the justice of the Court of Appeals, filed out of the pews and bowed in the aisles and yielded their lives to G.o.d. The Wind of G.o.d took possession of D. L. Moody, an uneducated young business man in Chicago, and in the power of this resistless Wind, men and women and young people were mowed down before his words and brought in humble confession and renunciation of sin to the feet of Jesus Christ, and filled with the life of G.o.d they have been the pillars in the churches of Great Britain and throughout the world ever since. The great need to-day in individuals, in churches and in preachers is that the Wind of G.o.d blow upon us.
Much of the difficulty that many find with John iii. 5, "Jesus answered, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of G.o.d," would disappear if we would only bear in mind that "Spirit" means "Wind" and translate the verse literally all through, "Except a man be born of water and Wind (there is no 'the' in the original), he cannot enter the kingdom of G.o.d." The thought would then seem to be, "Except a man be born of the cleansing and quickening power of the Spirit (or else of the cleansing Word-cf. John xv.
3; Eph. v. 26; Jas. i. 18; 1 Pet. i. 23-and the quickening power of the Holy Spirit)."
II. _The Spirit of G.o.d._
The Holy Spirit is frequently spoken of in the Bible as the Spirit of G.o.d.
For example we read in 1 Cor. iii. 16, "Know ye not that ye are the temple of G.o.d, and that the Spirit of G.o.d dwelleth in you." In this name we have the same essential thought as in the former name, but with this addition, that His Divine origin, nature and power are emphasized. He is not merely "The Wind" as seen above, but "The Wind _of G.o.d_."
III. _The Spirit of Jehovah._
This name is used of the Holy Spirit in Isa. xi. 2, A. R. V., "And the Spirit of Jehovah shall rest upon him." The thought of the name is, of course, essentially the same as the preceding with the exception that G.o.d is here thought of as the Covenant G.o.d of Israel. He is thus spoken of in the connection in which the name is found; and, of course, the Bible, following that unerring accuracy that it always exhibits in its use of the different names for G.o.d, in this connection speaks of the Spirit as the Spirit of Jehovah and not merely as the Spirit of G.o.d.
IV. _The Spirit of the Lord Jehovah._
The Holy Spirit is called the Spirit of the Lord Jehovah in Isa. lxi. 1-3, A. R. V., "The Spirit of the Lord Jehovah is upon Me; because Jehovah hath anointed Me to preach good tidings to the meek; He hath sent Me to bind up the broken-hearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, etc." The Holy Spirit is here spoken of, not merely as the Spirit of Jehovah, but the Spirit of the Lord Jehovah because of the relation in which G.o.d Himself is spoken of in this connection, as not merely Jehovah, the covenant G.o.d of Israel, but as Jehovah Israel's Lord as well as their covenant-keeping G.o.d. This name of the Spirit is even more expressive than the name "The Spirit of G.o.d."
V. _The Spirit of the Living G.o.d._
The Holy Spirit is called "_The Spirit of the living G.o.d_" in 2 Cor. iii.
3, "Forasmuch as ye are manifestly declared to be the epistle of Christ ministered by us, written not with ink, but with _the Spirit of the living G.o.d_; not in tables of stone, but in fleshy tables of the heart." What is the significance of this name? It is made clear by the context. The Apostle Paul is drawing a contrast between the Word of G.o.d written with ink on parchment and the Word of G.o.d written on "tables that are hearts of flesh" (R. V.) by the Holy Spirit, who in this connection is called "the Spirit of the living G.o.d," because He makes G.o.d a living reality in our personal experience instead of a mere intellectual concept. There are many who believe in G.o.d, and who are perfectly orthodox in their conception of G.o.d, but after all G.o.d is to them only an intellectual theological proposition. It is the work of the Holy Spirit to make G.o.d something vastly more than a theological notion, no matter how orthodox; He is the Spirit _of the living G.o.d_, and it is His work to make G.o.d a living G.o.d to us, a Being whom we know, with whom we have personal acquaintance, a Being more real to us than the most intimate human friend we have. Have you a real G.o.d? Well, you may have. The Holy Spirit is the Spirit of the living G.o.d, and He is able and ready to give to you a living G.o.d, to make G.o.d real in your personal experience. There are many who have a G.o.d who once lived and acted and spoke, a G.o.d who lived and acted at the creation of the universe, who perhaps lived and acted in the days of Moses and Elijah and Jesus Christ and the Apostles, but who no longer lives and acts. If He exists at all, He has withdrawn Himself from any active part in nature or the history of man. He created nature and gave it its laws and powers and now leaves it to run itself. He created man and endowed him with his various faculties but has now left him to work out his own destiny. They may go further than this: they may believe in a G.o.d, who spoke to Abraham and to Moses and to David and to Isaiah and to Jesus and to the Apostles, but who speaks no longer. We may read in the Bible what He spoke to these various men but we cannot expect Him to speak to us. In contrast with these, it is the work of the Holy Spirit, the Spirit _of the living G.o.d_, to give us to know a G.o.d who lives and acts and speaks to-day, a G.o.d who is ready to come as near to us as He came to Abraham, to Moses or to Isaiah, or to the Apostles or to Jesus Himself. Not that He has any new revelations to make, for He guided the Apostles into all the truth (John xvi. 13, R. V.): but though there has been a complete revelation of G.o.d's truth made in the Bible, still G.o.d lives to-day and will speak to us as directly as He spoke to His chosen ones of old. Happy is the man who knows the Holy Spirit as the Spirit of the living G.o.d, and who, consequently, has a real G.o.d, a G.o.d who lives to-day, a G.o.d upon whom he can depend to-day to undertake for him, a G.o.d with whom he enjoys intimate personal fellows.h.i.+p, a G.o.d to whom he may raise his voice in prayer and who speaks back to him.
VI. _The Spirit of Christ._
In Rom. viii. 9, "But ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of G.o.d dwell in you. Now if any man have not _the Spirit of Christ_, he is none of His." The Holy Spirit is called _the Spirit of Christ_. The Spirit of Christ in this pa.s.sage does not mean a Christlike spirit. It means something far more than that, it means that which lies back of a Christlike spirit; it is a name of the Holy Spirit. Why is the Holy Spirit called _the Spirit of Christ_? For several reasons:
(1) _Because He is Christ's gift._ The Holy Spirit is not merely the gift of the Father, but the gift of the Son as well. We read in John xx. 22 that Jesus "breathed on them and saith unto them, Receive ye the Holy Ghost." The Holy Spirit is therefore the breath of Christ, as well as the breath of G.o.d the Father. It is Christ who breathes upon us and imparts to us the Holy Spirit. In John xiv. 15 and the following verses Jesus teaches us that it is in answer to His prayer that the Father gives to us the Holy Spirit. In Acts ii. 33 we read that Jesus "Being by the right hand of G.o.d exalted and having received of the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit,"
shed Him forth upon believers; that is, that Jesus, having been exalted to the right hand of G.o.d, in answer to His prayer, receives the Holy Spirit from the Father and sheds forth upon the Church Him whom He hath received from the Father. In Matt. iii. 11 we read that it is Jesus who baptizes with the Holy Spirit. In John vii. 37-39 Jesus bids all that are thirsty to _come unto Him_ and drink, and the context makes it clear that the water that He gives is the Holy Spirit, who becomes in those who receive Him a source of life and power flowing out to others. It is the glorified Christ who gives to the Church the Holy Spirit. In the fourth chapter of John and the tenth verse Jesus declares that He is the One who gives the living water, the Holy Spirit. In all these pa.s.sages, Christ is set forth as the One who gives the Holy Spirit, so the Holy Spirit is called "the Spirit of Christ."
(2) But there is a deeper reason why the Holy Spirit is called "the Spirit of Christ," _i. e._, _because it is the work of the Holy Spirit to reveal Christ to us_. In John xvi. 14, R. V., we read, "He (that is the Holy Spirit) shall glorify Me: for He shall take of Mine, and shall declare it unto you." In a similar way in John xv. 26, R. V., it is written, "But when the Comforter is come, whom I will send unto you from the Father, even the Spirit of truth, which proceedeth from the Father, He shall bear witness of Me." This is the work of the Holy Spirit to bear witness of Christ and reveal Jesus Christ to men. And as the revealer of Christ, He is called "the Spirit of Christ."
(3) But there is a still deeper reason yet why the Holy Spirit is called the Spirit of Christ, and that is _because it is His work to form Christ as a living presence within us_. In Eph. iii. 16, 17, the Apostle Paul prays to the Father that He would grant to believers according to the riches of His glory to be strengthened with might by His Spirit in the inner man, that Christ may dwell in their hearts by faith. This then is the work of the Holy Spirit, to cause Christ to dwell in our hearts, to form the living Christ within us. Just as the Holy Spirit literally and physically formed Jesus Christ in the womb of the Virgin Mary (Luke i. 35) so the Holy Spirit spiritually but really forms Jesus Christ within our hearts to-day. In John xiv. 16-18, Jesus told His disciples that when the Holy Spirit came that He Himself would come, that is, the result of the coming of the Holy Spirit to dwell in their hearts would be the coming of Christ Himself. It is the privilege of every believer in Christ to have the living Christ formed by the power of the Holy Spirit in his own heart and therefore the Holy Spirit who thus forms Christ within the heart is called the Spirit of Christ. How wonderful! How glorious is the significance of this name. Let us ponder it until we understand it, as far as it is possible to understand it, and until we rejoice exceedingly in the glory of it.
VII. _The Spirit of Jesus Christ._
The Holy Spirit is called _the Spirit of Jesus Christ_ in Phil. i. 19, "For I know that this shall turn to my salvation through your prayer, and the supply of _the Spirit of Jesus Christ_." The Spirit is not merely the Spirit of the eternal Word but the Spirit of the Word incarnate. Not merely the Spirit of Christ, but the Spirit _of Jesus Christ_. It is the Man Jesus exalted to the right hand of the Father who receives and sends the Spirit. So we read in Acts ii. 32, 33, "This _Jesus_ hath G.o.d raised up, whereof we all are witnesses. Therefore being by the right hand of G.o.d exalted, and having received of the Father the promise of the Holy Ghost, He hath shed forth this, which ye now see and hear."
VIII. _The Spirit of Jesus._
The Holy Spirit is called _the Spirit of Jesus_ in Acts xvi. 6, 7, R. V., "And they went through the region of Phrygia and Galatia, having been forbidden of the Holy Ghost to speak the word in Asia; and when they were come over against Mysia, they a.s.sayed to go into Bithynia; and the _Spirit of Jesus_ suffered them not." By the using of this name, "_The Spirit of Jesus_" the thought of the relation of the Spirit to the _Man Jesus_ is still more clear than in the name preceding this, the Spirit of Jesus Christ.
IX. _The Spirit of His Son._
The Holy Spirit is called _the Spirit of His Son_ in Gal. iv. 6, "And because ye are sons, G.o.d hath sent forth _the Spirit of His Son_ into your hearts, crying, Abba, Father." We see from the context (vs. 4, 5) that this name is given to the Holy Spirit in special connection with His testifying to the sons.h.i.+p of the believer. It is "_the Spirit of His Son_"
who testifies to our sons.h.i.+p. The thought is that the Holy Spirit is a filial Spirit, a Spirit who produces a sense of sons.h.i.+p in us. If we receive the Holy Spirit, we no longer think of G.o.d as if we were serving under constraint and bondage but we are sons living in joyous liberty. We do not fear G.o.d, we trust Him and rejoice in Him. When we receive the Holy Spirit, we do not receive a Spirit of bondage again to fear but a Spirit of adoption whereby we cry, Abba, Father (Rom. viii. 15). This name of the Holy Spirit is one of the most suggestive of all. We do well to ponder it long until we realize the glad fullness of its significance. We shall take it up again when we come to study the work of the Holy Spirit.
X. _The Holy Spirit._
This name is of very frequent occurrence, and the name with which most of us are most familiar. One of the most familiar pa.s.sages in which the name is used is Luke xi. 13, "If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children: how much more shall your heavenly Father give _the Holy Spirit_ to them that ask Him?" This name emphasizes the essential moral character of the Spirit. He is _holy_ in Himself. We are so familiar with the name that we neglect to weigh its significance. Oh, if we only realized more deeply and constantly that He is the _Holy_ Spirit. We would do well if we, as the seraphim in Isaiah's vision, would bow in His presence and cry, "Holy, holy, holy." Yet how thoughtlessly oftentimes we talk about Him and pray for Him. We pray for Him to come into our churches and into our hearts but what would He find if He should come there? Would He not find much that would be painful and agonizing to Him? What would we think if vile women from the lowest den of iniquity in a great city should go to the purest woman in the city and invite her to come and live with them in their disgusting vileness with no intention of changing their evil ways. But that would not be as shocking as for you and me to ask the Holy Spirit to come and dwell in our hearts when we have no thought of giving up our impurity, or our selfishness, or our worldliness, or our sin. It would not be as shocking as it is for us to invite the Holy Spirit to come into our churches when they are full of worldliness and selfishness and contention and envy and pride, and all that is unholy. But if the denizens of the lowest and vilest den of infamy should go to the purest and most Christlike woman asking her to go and dwell with them with the intention of putting away everything that was vile and evil and giving to this holy and Christlike woman the entire control of the place, she would go. And as sinful and selfish and imperfect as we may be, the infinitely Holy Spirit is ready to come and take His dwelling in our heart if we will surrender to Him the absolute control of our lives, and allow Him to bring everything in thought and fancy and feeling and purpose and imagination and action into conformity with His will. The infinitely Holy Spirit is ready to come into our churches, however imperfect and worldly they may be now, if we are willing to put the absolute control of everything in His hands. But let us never forget that He is _the Holy_ Spirit, and when we pray for Him let us pray for Him as such.
XI. _The Holy Spirit of Promise._
The Holy Spirit is called _the Holy Spirit of promise_ in Eph. i. 13, R.
V., "In whom ye also, having heard the Word of truth, the Gospel of your salvation,-in whom, having also believed, ye were sealed with _the Holy Spirit of promise_." We have here the same name as that given above with the added thought that this Holy Spirit is the great promise of the Father and of the Son. The Holy Spirit is G.o.d's great all-inclusive promise for the present dispensation; the one thing for which Jesus bade the disciples wait after His ascension before they undertook His work was "the promise of the Father," that is the Holy Spirit (Acts i. 4, 5). The great promise of the Father until the coming of Christ was the coming atoning Saviour and King, but when Jesus came and died His atoning death upon the cross of Calvary and arose and ascended to the right hand of the Father, then the second great promise of the Father was the Holy Spirit to take the place of our absent Lord. (See also Acts ii. 33.)
XII. _The Spirit of Holiness._
The Holy Spirit is called _the Spirit of holiness_ in Rom. i. 4, "And declared to be the Son of G.o.d with power, according to _the Spirit of holiness_, by the resurrection from the dead." At the first glance it may seem as if there were no essential difference between the two names the Holy Spirit and the Spirit of holiness. But there is a marked difference.
The name of the Holy Spirit, as already said, emphasizes the essential moral character of the Spirit as holy, but the name of _the Spirit of holiness_ brings out the thought that the Holy Spirit is not merely holy in Himself but He imparts holiness to others. The perfect holiness which He Himself possesses He imparts to those who receive Him (cf. 1 Pet. i.
2).
XIII. _The Spirit of Judgment._
The Holy Spirit is called _the Spirit of judgment_ in Isa. iv. 4, "When the Lord shall have washed away the filth of the daughters of Zion, and shall have purged the blood of Jerusalem from the midst thereof by _the Spirit of judgment_, and by the Spirit of burning." There are two names of the Holy Spirit in this pa.s.sage; first, _the Spirit of judgment_. The Holy Spirit is so called because it is His work to bring sin to light, to convict of sin (cf. John xvi. 7-9). When the Holy Spirit comes to us the first thing that He does is to open our eyes to see our sins as G.o.d sees them. He judges our sin. (We will go into this more at length in studying John xvi. 7-11 when considering the work of the Holy Spirit.)
XIV. _The Spirit of Burning._
This name is used in the pa.s.sage just quoted above. (See XIII.) This name emphasizes His searching, refining, dross-consuming, illuminating and energizing work. The Holy Spirit is like a fire in the heart in which He dwells; and as fire tests and refines and consumes and illuminates and warms and energizes, so does He. In the context, it is the cleansing work of the Holy Spirit which is especially emphasized (Isa. iv. 3, 4).
XV. _The Spirit of Truth._
The Holy Spirit is called _the Spirit of truth_ in John xiv. 17, "Even the Spirit of truth; whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth Him not, neither knoweth Him; but ye know Him; for He dwelleth with you, and shall be in you" (cf. John xv. 26; xvi. 13). The Holy Spirit is called the Spirit of truth because it is the work of the Holy Spirit to communicate truth, to impart truth, to those who receive Him. This comes out in the pa.s.sage given above, and, if possible, it comes out even more clearly in John xvi. 13, R. V., "Howbeit when He, _the Spirit of truth_, is come, He shall guide you into all the truth: for He shall not speak from Himself; but what things soever He shall hear, these shall He speak: and He shall declare unto you the things that are to come." All truth is from the Holy Spirit. It is only as He teaches us that we come to know the truth.
XVI. _The Spirit of Wisdom and Understanding._
The Holy Spirit is called the Spirit of wisdom and understanding in Isa.
xi. 2, "And the Spirit of the LORD shall rest upon him, _the Spirit_ of wisdom and understanding, the Spirit of counsel and might, the Spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the LORD." The significance of the name is so plain as to need no explanation. It is evident both from the words used and from the context that it is the work of the Holy Spirit to impart wisdom and understanding to those who receive Him. Those who receive the Holy Spirit receive the Spirit "of power" and "of love" and "_of a sound mind_" or sound sense (2 Tim. i. 7).
XVII. _The Spirit of Counsel and Might._
We find this name used of the Holy Spirit in the pa.s.sage given under the preceding head. The meaning of this name too is obvious, the Holy Spirit is called "the Spirit of counsel and of might" because He gives us counsel in all our plans and strength to carry them out (cf. Acts viii. 29; xvi.
6, 7; i. 8). It is our privilege to have G.o.d's own counsel in all our plans and G.o.d's strength in all the work that we undertake for Him. We receive them by receiving the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of counsel and might.
XVIII. _The Spirit of Knowledge and of the Fear of the Lord._
This name also is used in the pa.s.sage given above (Isa. xi. 2). The significance of this name is also obvious. It is the work of the Holy Spirit to impart knowledge to us and to beget in us a reverence for Jehovah, that reverence that reveals itself above all in obedience to His commandments. The one who receives the Holy Spirit finds his delight in the fear of the LORD. (See Isa. xi. 3, R. V.) The three suggestive names just given refer especially to the gracious work of the Holy Spirit in the servant of the Lord, that is Jesus Christ (Isa. xi. 1-5).
XIX. _The Spirit of Life._
The Holy Spirit is called _the Spirit of life_ in Rom. viii. 2, "For the law of _the Spirit of life_ in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death." The Holy Spirit is called the Spirit of life because it is His work to impart life (cf. John vi. 63, R. V.; Ezek. x.x.xvii. 1-10).