The Gift of a Spirit

Mar 2, 2010 by desiringvirtue

“These considerations make us wonder if God’s spirituality should perhaps be called an incommunicable attribute. To do so would indeed be appropriate in some ways, since God’s being is so different from ours. Nevertheless, the fact remains that God has given us spirits in which we worship him…, in which we are united with the Lord’s spirit…, with which the Holy Spirit joins to bear witness to our adoption in God’s family…, and in which we pass into the Lord’s presence when we die…. Therefore there is clearly some communication from God to us of a spiritual nature that is something like his own nature, though certainly not in all respects. For this reason it also seems appropriate to think of God’s spirituality as a communicable attribute.”

-Wayne Grudem, Systematic Theology

I have been tossing this idea around in my head for the past couple of weeks trying to grasp its weightiness. God’s word tells us that he “is spirit” (John 4:24) and that spacial dimensions cannot hold him: “But will God indeed dwell on the earth? Behold, heaven and the highest heaven cannot contain you; how much less this house that I have built!” (1 Kings8:27) There is a part of his nature that is completely unlike anything our world can see, touch, or understand. Perhaps this is one of the biggest hindrances for the modern mind when presented with the idea of God. His spirituality is not something that can be tested by the scientific method or even pass the tests of reason or logic (as we define them). It is wholly incomprehensible. Our world is fashioned with matter, molecules and energy and we tend to think in these terms, reason with these terms. “Instead of these ideas of God, we must say that god is spirit. Whatever this means it is a kind of existence that is unlike anything else in creation. It is a kind of existence that is far superior to all our material existence. We might say that God is ‘pure being’ or ‘the fullness of essence of being.’” (Grudem)

We certainly are very unlike God in this way because we are limited. Our spirits were created by his spirit; they have a beginning. Our spirits are limited to one space while his is completely everywhere. Yet, these spirits of ours are mysterious, incomprehensible things themselves. In each material body the Creator placed an immortal, invisible soul… something that was like his own. Scientists debate the very existence of a soul just as they debate the existence of God himself-perhaps because they must disbelieve the validity of a soul if they disbelieve the validity of a Spiritual God. What purpose is there for a spirit if there is nothing for it to relate to beyond itself, if there is nothing like itself. But there is a Spiritual God and he chose to create men in his likeness. He chose to separate them from the rest of creation by giving them spirits that resembled his own… that resembled him.

This reminds me of the importance of the soul. Last week we looked at 1 Peter 3 and the priority that God puts on us cultivating the “inner person of the heart.” It occurs to me that our spiritual nature is all that has lasting value. These bodies are quickly fading growing more and more tired, broken, and diseased. Soon “the dust returns to the earth as it was, and the spirit returns to God who gave it.” (Eccl. 12:7) We will all, as Jesus vocally admitted on the cross, commit our spirits into the Father’s hands (Luke 23:46) when or mortal bodies fail. What kind of spirit do I want to commit to the Lord on that day?

It is a wonderful thing to realize our spirits were not made to resemble the things of this earth, but our loving God. It is ok that science cannot explain them, or that logic cannot understand them. God is beyond these arguments as well and he is the one we resemble. Just as a child is marked by a likeness to his biological parents, we as children of God are marked by our spiritual nature. It is not something that we should shy away from, but something that we should cling to and be grateful for.  Just as all creation points to the powerful, creative, and beautiful Creator, our souls point to his personal and real spiritual existence. Today I am thanking God for the gift of my spirit…. that it is like his. But, more importantly, I am asking God to make it truly like his in holiness.

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