Life through the Spirit

 Ezekiel 37:1-14; Romans 8: 6-11

 

I love this Ezekiel passage when all hope is dried up like dried out bones. The Lord shows Ezekiel that Israel like these bones will come alive again. The breath of the Lord – many see as the Holy Spirit – breathes upon the slain so they might live. The bones begin to come together, and sinews form then skin covers them making a vast multitude stand. Then God puts breath in them so they will live.

God describes these bones as the whole house of Israel. These are those who after their captivity say their bones are dried up along with their hopes of ever returning to Israel.

Who is the active member of the Godhead here? It is God’s spirit – the Holy Spirit. This is the same spirit – the spirit of the Lord – that brought Ezekiel to this valley full of bones and ends up breathing on these bones.

God tells the hopeless captives that God will put God’s spirit within them and they will live, and God will bring them back to the land of Israel.

Hundreds of years later Paul writes to the Romans and he tells that the mind set on the flesh is death, but setting the mind on the Spirit – note the capital S here – brings life and peace. The promised Spirit has come to them and if you belong to Christ, the Spirit dwells in you. Even though your body has been dead because of sin, the Spirit brings new life. Due to Christ’s work on the cross we have been made righteous. If the Spirit of God who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, God will give life to your mortal bodies – like God did to the dry bones in Ezekiel. But again, we have the Holy Spirit and it is through the Holy Spirit who dwells in you that life is given.

The third part of the Godhead, Jesus Christ, became flesh and bone so he would die a death to bring salvation to all who believe. Resurrected by God, those who believe in him can be filled with life through the Spirit. Amen

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