The Work of the Holy Spirit

And what does the Scripture teach us concerning the creation of man? This: that the
dust of the ground out of which Adam was formed was so wrought upon that it became a
living soul, which indicates the human being. The result was not merely a moving, creeping,
eating, drinking, and sleeping creature, but a living soulthat came into existence at the mo-
ment when the breath of life was breathed into the dust. It was not first the dust, and then
human life within the dust, and after that the soul with all its higher faculties in that human
life; nay, as soon as life went forth into Adam, he was a man, and all his precious gifts were
naturalendowments.
Sinful man being born from above receives gifts that are above nature. For this reason

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the Holy Spirit merely dwells in the quickened sinner. But in heaven this will not be so; for
in death the human nature is so completely changed that the impulse to sin disappears en-
tirely; wherefore in heaven the Holy Spirit will work in the human nature itselffor ever and
ever. In the present state of humiliation the nature of the regenerate is still the Adam-nature.
The great mystery of the work of the Holy Spirit in him is this: that inand bythat broken
and corrupt nature, He works the holy works of God. It is as light shining through our win-
dow-panes, but in no wise identical with the glass.
In Paradise, however, man’s nature was whole, intact; everything about him was holy.
We must avoid the dangerous error that the newly created man had an inferiordegree of
holiness. God made man upright, with nothing crooked in or about him. All his inclinations
and powers with all their workings were pure and holy. God delighted in Adam, saw that
he was good; surely nothing more can be desired. In this respect Adam differed from the
child of God by grace in not having eternal life; he was to attain this as the reward for holy
works. On the other hand, Abraham, the father of the faithful, begins with eternal life, from
which holy works were to proceed.
Hence a perfect contrast. Adam must attain eternal life by works. Abraham has eternal
life through which he obtains holy works. Hence for Adam there can be no indwelling of
the Holy Spirit. There was no antagonism between him and the Spirit. So the Spirit could
pervade him, not merely dwellin him. The nature of sinful man repels the Holy Spirit, but
Adam’s nature attracted Him, freely received Him, and let Him inspire his being.
Our faculties and inclinations are impaired, our powers are enervated, the passions of
our hearts corrupt; hence the Holy Spirit must come to us from without. But since Adam’s
faculties were all intact, and the whole expression of his inward life undisturbed, therefore
could the Holy Spirit work through the commonpowers and operations of his nature. To
Adam spiritual things were not a supernatural, but a natural good—except eternal life, which
he must earn by fulfilling the law. Scripture expresses this unity between Adam’s natural
life and spiritual powers by identifying the two expressions—“To breathe into the breath
of life,” and “to become a living soul.” (Gen. ii. 7)

VII. The Creaturely Man