the LORD God breathed v. Jesus breathed

[hammondjones]

When I look at these passages, I assume that they are related, but I'm wondering in what way.

then the Lord God formed the man of dust from the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living creature. (Genesis 2:7, ESV)

Jesus said to them again, “Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, even so I am sending you.” And when he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit. (John 20:21-22, ESV)

Did Adam and the disciples recieve the same thing? That is, did Adam, in his communion with God in the garden, have the Holy Spirit. Did he enjoy fellowship with God by being united to the Son through the Spirit?

OR

Did did Adam recieve only a soul, while the disciples recieved the Holy Spirit, whom Adam would have recieved upon sucessful completion of probation?

OR

Something else?



If you would say that the breath in Genesis was only natural life, then on what basis did Adam have a relationship with God?

 

[hammondjones]

(bump)

 

[MW]

That is, did Adam, in his communion with God in the garden, have the Holy Spirit. Did he enjoy fellowship with God by being united to the Son through the Spirit?

The usual answer is that Adam enjoyed the Holy Spirit but not as the eschatological Spirit of Jesus Christ, the Mediator.

Thomas Goodwin: "Learn, therefore, to value and prize this great gift of the Holy Ghost. If he dwell in you, and hath begun to work grace in your hearts, which is an argument his person is given to your persons for ever, he will never leave you. The Spirit doth not dwell in us as he did in Adam, so long as we shall be holy; but he dwelleth in us to work holiness, he cometh down to us therefore when we are unholy."

 

[Peairtach]

Some see Christ's breathing the Holy Spirit on the disciples as an anticipation of His greater breathing of the Holy Spirit on them at Pentecost with power and New Testament revelation.

See Acts 2:2.

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[psycheives]

Fantastic question! So per Thomas Goodwin, is he saying that Adam, Abraham OT guys received HS by grace but ONLY if they obeyed God, did the HS stay? I totally don't get why the HS "came upon" Saul but then left Saul. Was he saved and then unsaved? Did having the HS mean you were regenerated or no? I guess I'm confused about the difference between getting the HS in the OT and salvation and the NC and salvation.

Coming from a MacArthurite church, the Baptists have explained to me that in the OT and NT, there were two different methods of salvation, which I don't think could be true. Please help! Thanks!

 

[Peairtach]

In the case of Saul and one or two others in the OT the Holy Spirit was gifting them for their divine tasks as. prophets, priests, kings, etc. It wasn't' necessarily anything to do with salvation. Even certain unbelievers had these gifts.

Otherwise, OT believers were saved in the same way we are. The Holy Spirit never left believers, salvificaly-speaking, except there may not have been the fulness of the Holy Spirit we have, because the Spirit had less of the Word of God to make use of.

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[a mere housewife]

"Learn, therefore, to value and prize this great gift of the Holy Ghost. If he dwell in you, and hath begun to work grace in your hearts, which is an argument his person is given to your persons for ever, he will never leave you. The Spirit doth not dwell in us as he did in Adam, so long as we shall be holy; but he dwelleth in us to work holiness, he cometh down to us therefore when we are unholy."

What a wonderful truth.

 

[psycheives]

Thank you for clarifying, Richard So what is meant by "The Spirit doth not dwell in us as he did in Adam, so long as we shall be holy;"

Didn't Adam/Abraham receive it and it stayed in them by grace and not by "as long as we shall be holy"?

 

[Jack K]

It seems sensible to see those two passages as related. Clearly, they aren't related in every way. What Adam received is not exactly what the disciples received. But by breathing on his disciples, the Son of God seems to be reenacting that life-granting moment from ages past, referring back to it and perhaps even fulfilling it; taking it to the next level.

 

[py3ak]

Goodwin is not talking about Abraham, or even Adam himself after the Fall. Adam is being discussed in terms of the covenant of works. There was a reception of the Holy Spirit, but not in a way of salvation and sanctification. Thus Adam could lose the Holy Spirit by sin; the Spirit was with him as long as he was holy, but only so long. Under the covenant of grace, the Spirit comes to us, not while we are holy, but in order to make us holy. Goodwin is not contrasting the OT with the NT, but the covenants of works and grace.

 

[Peairtach]

Thank you for clarifying, Richard So what is meant by "The Spirit doth not dwell in us as he did in Adam, so long as we shall be holy;"

Didn't Adam/Abraham receive it and it stayed in them by grace and not by "as long as we shall be holy"?

Adam was in a completely different position to us, not having yet forfeited the Holy Spirit's abiding by sin. When he did sin, Man wasn't left without the restraining grace of the Holy Spirit, but only those who exercised faith in God as Saviour showed evidence of the saving grace of the Holy Spirit.

The Spirit is a Person, as are the Father and the Son, and shouldn't't be referred to impersonally as "it".

Dispensationalism naively divides the truth of Scripture, in an impossible theological manner, here, as with much else.

The saving indwelling of the Spirit was permanent in the OT as in the NT. David's fear that he would lose the Holy Spirit in Psalm 51, was an understandable and palpable fear in the light of gross and presumptuous sin, but it is clear that the Lord did not utterly forsake him.

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