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`For the Bread of God is He Which cometh down from heaven, and giveth life unto the world' (John 6:33 and
see 10:28; and 17:2).
The Holy Spirit.
`The wind bloweth where it listeth ... so is every one that is born of the Spirit' (John 3:8).
The same is true of the resurrection of Christ (Gal. 1:1; John 10:18; 1 Pet. 3:18) as we have seen. As this life of
God is a basic need for a dead world, we are not surprised to find that it is not confined to the Gospels. Both Titus
1:1,2 and 2 Timothy 1:1 clearly teach that this unending life is a precious possession of each member of the Body of
Christ, for what is the use of speaking about blessing in heavenly places without life to enjoy it?
`Paul, a servant of God, and an apostle of Jesus Christ, according to the faith of God's elect, and the
acknowledging of the truth which is after godliness; in hope of eternal life, which God, that cannot lie, promised
before the world began (the beginning of time) ...' (Titus 1:1,2),
and in his last epistle:
`Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God, according to the promise of life which is in Christ Jesus' (2
Tim. 1:1).
At the end of the first epistle to Timothy he describes it as `the life which is life indeed' (6:19 R.V.). This future life
is the real one; the present is only a shadow. Eternal life in the epistles is a free gift and will not be revoked.
The Indwelling of the Holy Spirit
We have noticed in past studies that the Holy Spirit's presence with men was temporary, and it was not until the
gift of the Holy Spirit as the Comforter that it could be said that He would abide with the believer for ever and be in
him (John 14:16,17). The apostle Paul confirms this in Romans 8:9 and 11:
`But ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you ... `.
`But if the Spirit of Him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, He that raised up Christ from the dead
shall also quicken your mortal bodies by His Spirit that dwelleth in you' .
Not only this, but the Lord Jesus Himself indwells the believer. Later on in Ephesians Paul was to pray that
these believers might be strengthened by the Spirit in order that Christ may dwell in their hearts by faith (Eph.
3:16,17). With two such mighty indwellers we can surely accomplish all God's will for us whatever this may
involve!
Spirit or spirit?
There is great difficulty in translation to know when to render pneuma, spirit, with a capital `S' or a small `s'.
The translator can get no help either from the original Greek manuscripts or the printed editions of the Greek
Testament. One class of manuscripts is written all in capitals. These are called `Uncials'. The other class is written
all in small letters with very few capitals at the beginning of books or sections, or of large paragraphs. These are
called `Cursives'. There are no capitals for certain words as we use them today.
We get little help from the Authorized Version of 1611. Many editions have been printed and in these, great
modifications have been made from time to time. We can say that none of the existing editions of the Authorized
Version exactly represents that of 1611. The use of capitals was much more common in the seventeenth century and
words like Sabbath, Ark, Mercy-seat, Altar always had capitals. The modern tendency is to diminish their use.
As a consequence of this, the translator is compelled to fall back on the context and weigh up carefully whether a
capital `S' should be used, thus making it refer to the Holy Spirit, or a small `s', referring to His gifts or to some
psychological use. As the word pneuma, spirit occurs some 385 times in the Received Text, the problem is a
frequent one. The reader should therefore bear in mind that capitals in any translation are the opinions of the