"The Giver of Life"

We believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord, the Giver of Life. We see the Spirit’s life-giving work in Genesis 1:2: “The earth was without form and void, and darkness was over the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters. And God said …” Creation begins with the Spirit of God and the Word of God. When the earth was without form and void, the hovering Spirit of God formed and filled according to the Word of God. 

The life-giving work of the Spirit in creation is commemorated in Psalm 104:30: “When you sent forth your Spirit, they are created, and you renew the face of the ground.” The life-giving Spirit of God is the renewing Spirit. Ezekiel records a vision of the Spirit’s life-giving renewal in Ezekiel 47. The prophet sees a river flowing East from the temple, through the desert of the Araba, into the Dead Sea. Ezekiel hears the Word of the Lord: “And wherever the river goes, every living creature that swarms will live, and there will be very many fish. For this water goes there, that the waters of the sea may become fresh; so everything will live where the river goes” (Ezek 47:9). 

The river is the river from Eden, which watered the garden and separated into four rivers to water and give life to the whole world (Genesis 2:10). John sees the same river – “the river of the water of life” – in his vision of the new creation (Rev 22:1).

When our Lord alludes to Ezekiel’s vision in John 7, he makes it clear that the river, the water of life, is the Holy Spirit. The Spirit is the living water, the Giver of Life.

The Spirit is the Giver of Life to the believer. In Ezekiel 36, God promises that he will cleanse us with water, he will remove our heart of stone and give us a heart of flesh, and he will put his Spirit within us (Ezek 36:25-27). In the next chapter, the same Spirit is breathed over a valley of dry bones, which are resurrected and filled with the Spirit (Ezek 37:1-14). The Lord Jesus announced the fulfillment of Ezekiel’s prophecy when he told Nicodemus that he must be born again, that is, born of the Spirit (John 3:1-8). 

The Spirit is the giver of life in creation and redemption. He gives life to the dead. On the first day of the week, when darkness was over the face of the deep, the Spirit hovered over the face of the waters (Gen 1:2). On the first of the week, while it was still dark, Mary Magdalene found the tomb empty. The Spirit, the Giver of Life, gave life to the crucified Saviour: “If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit who dwells in you” (Rom 8:11).